FreeBSD 11.0, ZM 1.30, USB Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920

[eracc]

Greetings folks, long time, no post. I may need the assistance of ZM on FreeBSD experts on this one.

I am trying to get a USB Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 working with ZoneMinder 1.30 on my FreeBSD 11.0 workstation at work. This is not a business related task, so it won't be earth shattering if I can't make it work. I do have the camera working with webcamd (which creates /dev/video0 as expected) and pwcview, so I know the camera does work. However, I want the control that ZM would give me.

Here are the specifics:

• FreeBSD 11.0-RELEASE x86_64
  NGINX1.10.2_3,2 (installed from pkg)
  ZoneMinder h264 1.30.20161104_1 (installed from pkg)
  webcamd 4.8.0.4 (installed from pkg)

When I attempt to create a monitor in the ZM web gui using the /dev/video0 device all I get is a "broken image" icon and errors in the log. Yes, the www user is a member of the webcamd group that owns the file:

Code: Select all

$ getent group webcamd
webcamd:*:145:www

Here is a relevant section from the log of last Friday ('cause I removed the monitor not long after this and there is nothing relevant in the days since):

Code: Select all

2017-02-17 02:33:38.664580	zmdc		95250	ERR	'zmc -d /dev/video0' exited abnormally, exit status 255	zmdc.pl	
2017-02-17 02:33:38.645311	zmc_dvideo0		101541	FAT	Failed to get picture attributes: Invalid argument	zm_local_camera.cpp	941
2017-02-17 02:33:38.643617	zmc_dvideo0		101541	INF	Starting Capture version 1.30.0	zmc.cpp	250
2017-02-17 02:33:38.635208	zmc_dvideo0		101541	INF	No direct match for the selected palette and target colorspace. Format conversion is required, performance penalty expected	zm_local_camera.cpp	551
2017-02-17 02:33:38.084850	zmdc		96408	INF	'zmc -d /dev/video0' started at 17/02/16 17:33:38	zmdc.pl	
2017-02-17 02:33:38.084670	zmdc		95250	INF	'zmc -d /dev/video0' starting at 17/02/16 17:33:38, pid = 96408	zmdc.pl	
2017-02-17 02:33:38.082070	zmdc		95250	INF	Starting pending process, zmc -d /dev/video0	zmdc.pl	
2017-02-17 02:33:33.259660	zmfilter		96400	INF	Scanning for events	zmfilter.pl	

My questions:

• Should I expect ZM on FreeBSD to work with the /dev/video0 device created by webcamd?
• If not, what should I be using instead of the webcamd daemon?
• Should I expect a USB webcam to work with ZM on FreeBSD? Is that something that is supported?

If any of you have some information for me about this, awesome. If you need more information, tell me what you want to know. Thanks!

[bbunge]

Normally adding a user works
Adduser www-data video

Or something like that.

[eracc]

This is a bit confusing. How would adding the user "www-data" resolve this? By default on FreeBSD the nginx web server runs as the user "www", and that "www" user is a member of the "webcamd" group that owns /dev/video0 already.

Please clarify with more details.

Thanks for the reply!

[knight-of-ni]

ZoneMinder supports local video devices via Video 4 Linux, and I don't know what the equivalent to that is in FreeBSD.
Neither do I know what the author of the FreeBSD ZoneMinder port did to get ZoneMinder to build with support for local video devices.
The author does hang out in this forum. His user name is abi.

Here is the main FreeBSD thread:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=24460

Don't know if there is any info related to local devices in that thread, but at least you will get to see who has been involved and can ask them questions.