ZM 1.24.4 and 16port capture card problems

[wd40]

Hello,

I am setting up a new ZM server with 1.24.4 and 16port PCI-e capture card. The card is a PV-981-16 from BlueCherry. The card has 4 BT878 chips and works fine when I configure 2 channels per device. When I add the 3rd and 4th channels, all monitors on the device go black and I receive the following errors in the zmdc.log file:

06/01/2011 10:19:37.063751 zmdc[18567].INF [Starting pending process, zmc -d /dev/video0]
06/01/2011 10:19:37.068106 zmdc[18567].INF ['zmc -d /dev/video0' starting at 11/06/01 10:19:37, pid = 18642]
06/01/2011 10:19:37.518315 zmdc[18567].ERR ['zmc -d /dev/video0' exited abnormally, exit status 255]

The PC I'm running is a brand new box with an Intel E5606 quad core processor and 6GB of RAM.

I contacted BlueCherry to see if they knew anything. Here is the transcript of our chat:

9:50:26 AM Andy: Hi. I bought a couple PCI-e 16 port camera cards from you guys and I'm having problems using beyond 8 ports.
9:50:51 AM Andy: I'm using zoneminder and I know you guys don't provide support for that, but I wanted to see if you had any insights.
9:51:06 AM Andy: I've read everything I can find on your site and on zoneminder's site.
9:51:19 AM Alex: The card is pv-981, right?
9:51:24 AM Andy: Yes.
9:51:50 AM Andy: As soon as I add the 3rd channel on a device (/dev/video0), all cameras go black screen.
9:52:08 AM Andy: I have it running on a quad core server with 6gb of ram.
9:52:19 AM Andy: Brand new box. Still can't get it to work right.
9:54:45 AM Alex: What resolution/framerate do you have set up in zm? There are also a couple settings you may want to tweak in zoneminder -- one is called (I think) CAPTURES_PER_FRAME -- that will need to be set to 4 if you are planning to use all 16 channels. Another one right next to it (zm help says it does the same thing as the former but you can try either).
9:55:48 AM Andy: I'm running at 2fps, 640x480. I have adjusted the CAPTURES_PER_FRAME to 4 and set V4L_MULTI_BUFFER off.
9:56:35 AM Andy: Works great for 8 cameras. As soon as I add the 9th, what ever channel I added it to goes to all black cameras and won't start,
9:57:11 AM Andy: I get this in the zmdc.log: 06/01/2011 09:49:17.467655 zmdc[25874].ERR ['zmc -d /dev/video0' exited abnormally, exit status 255]
9:57:41 AM Andy: I haven't been able to find much, but figured since these boards come from you guys, you might have run across something.
9:58:12 AM Andy: I have 2 boards in 2 different servers. Same problem.
9:58:20 AM Alex: Do you have the shared memory adjusted for higher resolution?
9:59:47 AM Andy: [root@localhost zm]# cat /proc/sys/kernel/shmall4294967296[root@localhost zm]# cat /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax68719476736
10:00:15 AM Andy: The numbers are well beyond the zm requirements, which I figure is due to the high amount of memory in the box.
10:00:46 AM Andy: [root@localhost zm]# ipcs -l------ Shared Memory Limits --------max number of segments = 4096max seg size (kbytes) = 67108864max total shared memory (kbytes) = 17179869184min seg size (bytes) = 1------ Semaphore Limits --------max number of arrays = 128max semaphores per array = 250max semaphores system wide = 32000max ops per semop call = 32semaphore max value = 32767------ Messages: Limits --------max queues system wide = 16max size of message (bytes) = 65536default max size of queue (bytes) = 65536
10:05:52 AM Alex: I am not sure about that log entry -- that would be a question for zoneminder forums, since they will know what it means. The memory looks fine though.
10:06:16 AM Andy: Ok. I figured I'd run it by you guys and see if you had any ideas.
10:10:18 AM Alex: Sorry, this would be a question for them -- as long as a single channel works that means that the card is operating properly..
10:10:19 AM Alex: Just to make sure: you are using video0-3 channels 0-3 in the zoneminder?
10:11:02 AM Andy: Yes. The devices are there and rights set to 666 for /dev/video[0-3].
10:11:44 AM Andy: Problems arise when using Device Channel 2 and 3
10:12:55 AM Andy: Works fine if I setup 2 channels per BT878, when I get to 3 is when it fails.
10:13:40 AM Alex: A couple things to try -- reduce resolution (and/or leave fps field blank). Did you restart zm after the settings were changed?
10:14:01 AM Andy: I'll try that. Yes, I restart zm after changes.
10:16:58 AM Andy: I reduced the resolution and left fps blank. Does the same thing when I add the 3rd and 4th cameras to the device
10:19:42 AM Andy: Another thing to note: once the device starts failing on all channels, I have to delete all 4 camera monitors that are on the device and readd 2 of them before it'll work again.

Things I've done:
V4L_MULTI_BUFFER = off
CAPTURES_PER_FRAME = 4

cat /proc/sys/kernel/shmall
4294967296
cat /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax
68719476736

chmod 666 /dev/video[0-3]

Any insights would be appreciated. I'm trying to throw as much detail as I can into this post so that if someone else encounters a similar issue they can find it.

Thanks in advance for any assistance,
Andy

[DREMA]

Which version of ZM are you using? and on which distro? Is your card auto detected or you're using some config?

Try using the presents for bttv card, 320x240, no fps limit and check the four monitors have all the exact same settings. Turn on the extra debug in your options to see any more relevant errors.

[wd40]

My configuration is:

Zone Minder Version: 1.24.4
OS: CentOS 5.6

I'm currently using the card auto detected. Modprobe settings that I've tried have had no effect.

I tried setting up the cameras identical at 320x240, no fps and have the same issue.

Additional testing info.
When I setup 3 monitors on /dev/video0 under channels 0-2, The same video on /dev/video0 (1) also shows up on /dev/video0 (2). Yet, I have CAPTURES_PER_FRAME set to 4.

I enabled EXTRA_DEBUG and set EXTRA_DEBUG_LEVEL = 4. I'm not sure what I should post from the log, though.

Thanks,
Andy

[DREMA]

Mmmm weird.

The extra debug logs are located in /tmp, take a look at those, or post them here.