I had this email from someone a couple of days ago.
A lot of the time, ZM users are asked to supply certain details of there ZM setup and system parameters. May I suggest that a nice item to be included in the forth-coming release would be to give ZM administrators the ability to generate a ZM system profile [formulated from ZM variables, Linux device PCI/USB information, modprobe settings etc.] that can be append to any problem or feedback to the ZM forums.
This way you and/or others can get the required system/ZM information you need to assist getting ZM up and running in the shortest time possible. Better still, such an embedded tool would greatly assist you in assessing any feedback on Alpha/Beta releases from users.
I think it's a good idea and will include it but other than ZM config I'm not sure what else might be useful to go in. Do you have any suggestions on things that help diagnose problems?
I had started something like this with a BASH script that I was going to put in the RPM.
Here is the list from that I had put together to grab information:
All zm logs
Tail messages log
tail apache error logs
dmesg and grep video drivers
cat interupt info
pull camrea and zone configs from database
Check for SELINUX
get shmmax
I never did finish it and will have to look for it, I just don't know what usb drive I have it on
I have started on something. It's not very far along at the moment but I figure it can be broken into a number of categories
General System Info
1) Contains of some /proc files (cpuinfo, meminfo etc)
2) Output of other system utilities (lspci, df etc)
Video Subsystem Info
3) Scan of /dev/video etc
ZM Specific Info
4) ZM Config dump
5) Partial ZM Database dump, e.g. monitor, count of events, etc
6) mysqlcheck output
Log Information
6) Tail/grep of /var/log/messages
7) Tail of zm*.log
In general I think you should be able to select which output is produced with the default being all of it. Security related things like DB username and passwords would be obfuscated by default.
It would also be nice to have a very truncated 'geek code' type of thing as well though that just sums up your system in a line or two without having to trawl through pages of it.
Keep in mind that things move from distribution to distribution. None of the cli mysql stuff ever worked for me on Ubuntu, but phpmyadmin does, for example. Feel free to shoot me some code for testing. If you want a shell on a production camera system just say the word. (Phill, Cordel, Peter... Not just anyone... )
Yes. It will have to have some degree of intelligence but will almost certainly go through several iterations before it functions equally well across distros.