I'm planning to try to package up ZoneMinder and get it into the repositories for Debian(unstable) and Ubuntu(universe). I'm doing this as:
* They're not in there and I'd like to see them in there,
* The only other formal packaging (at http://www.spic.net/zoneminder/) for either seems to have stopped at 1.21 and attempts a couple of months ago to contact the person who did that packaging never got a response,
* I don't see anyone else planning to do this,
* I have the luxury of working with some Debian and Ubuntu maintainers.
If anyone is aware of anyone else doing this, let me know and I'll get back in my box If anyone has issues with this, let me know.
The timeframe for this should be the next few weeks.
Excellent. Thanks for putting the time in on this. If there are any mods or additional scripts that might be required to help with this just let me know and I will try and get them in.
ITP = "Intent To Package" - i.e. it's gone into the Debian bug system saying that I'll package it. If you look at http://mentors.debian.net/cgi-bin/sponsor-pkglist you'll see that it's listed; which means that it should make it into Debian unstable in the near future.
My main problem at the moment (which will hold things up) is that I can't stop the perl libraries from being installed under /usr/local/share/... and the man pages under /usr/local/man/... , instead of under /usr/share/... and /usr/man/... as I need. If I'm understanding things, they get processed in scripts/ZoneMinder/Makefile.PL - is that correct? I can't seem to influence INST_LIBDIR - either on the "make install" line or via the ./configure options.
Is there any chance of you talking me through this area? Perl, esp Perl Makefiles, is not my strength.
Im a debian user myself, and i havent looked into creating packages myself yet.
Since im a programmer i could look into this, but as i see the number of people who want this is pretty low in comparison to other distributions, ill wait.
Another reason im waiting is the previous in conjunction with the fact installing it manually is easy on debian (finding the right dependancies is a bit harsh though).
I think there should be a specific thread for this, if there's 100 people or more requesting it, i will think about requesting an official debian package for it. (Thats because its alot of work and requires me to update it periodically)
If you take a look at http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html you'll notice Zoneminder a fair way down the list I won't start the formal process for it going into Ubuntu until it's properly in Debian unstable.
Having said that, the source package is the same for both Debian and Ubuntu, so I do have an Ubuntu package, just not officially.
I'm quite comfortable manuall installing (although only by following the Wiki!) but it would still be nice to have a packaged version if only to simplify updates as per the rest of my machine.
i've read that 1.22.3 uses newer sql statements which sarge doesn't support, so 1.22.2 would probably have to be used in the meantime.
is there even a point in doing this? btw, i run my zoneminder servers on sarge (no ffmpeg), due to stability and security updates. am i too paranoid?
At this stage (with etch "just around the corner") I wouldn't plan to formally do a sarge release.
As to stability issues, the only problems I've had are with something occasionally chewing up all the memory; it hasn't happened for some time and I've never managed to catch it in the act; which means it may have nothing to do with zonemidner anyway.
If anyone has issues with this, let me know.
I won't start the formal process for it going into Ubuntu until it's properly in Debian unstable.