Has the Zoneminder Team considered an own distribution?

Master One · Post by **Master One** » Tue May 08, 2007 8:31 am

There are some very interesting developments in the Linux world:

Take for example the AsteriskNOW project, which is using rPath Linux with the Conary next generation software management system as base, and with that it's just a few easy steps in rBuilder Online to create several different releases, including x86 & x86_64 versions, vmware & Xen images.

Looks like it's never been that easy, to take a certain project, integrate it into a sold base Linux distribution (by just cooking zoneminder as a conary package, and adding it to a dist-group), and be able to manage new development and releases in several different forms just like that.

This is no ad for rPath, I am just a user, but their concept is the most promising out there. I am new to rPath Linux / Conary / rBuilder Online, I just installed Foresight Linux on my laptop (which is based on rPath). My intention is now to install rPath Linux as a Xen dom0 server on my dual Xeon 3.2 EM64T machine, and have zoneminder run in a Xen domU. I am not that far yet, but using rPath Linux in the domU, and cooking a zoneminder conary package seems to be the best way to go. If nobody else is willing to create a conary zoneminder package, I think I am going to try myself, although it was already offered by someone on the #conary FreeNode IRC channel (writing a recipe for creating a conary package is very easy compared to other package management systems, I had my first recipe creted as a noob in notime).

If any dev from the zoneminder team is interested to go a step ahead, I'd recomment taking a look at the great documentation in the rPath Wiki. It would make it so much easier, to install and maintain zoneminder, especially when it's about zoneminder running in a Xen domU or Vmware (which surely is something of general interest).

John Williams · Post by **John Williams** » Tue May 08, 2007 11:19 am

Why? I am doing all of that on Ubuntu 7.04 - Xen DomU running 7.04 with ZM, Samba (backup server) and email. DomU running a slave ZM with a small web site opened up to the internet (port 80), locked down tight. I have a few other DomU's that I can use for testing, plus I get the 20K packages of Ubuntu and more from Debian. I am very familiar with rpath and do not see the benefit, unless you want to completely lock it down.

http://help.ubuntu.com/community/XenVir ... untuFeisty

Master One · Post by **Master One** » Tue May 08, 2007 4:41 pm

The benefits of rPath do not have anything to do with locking the machine down completely.

I know that distros, for which zoneminder packages are available, or for which instructions for an installation from source exist, can work quite well even as a domU installation, but this is about the advantage of getting zoneminder into its own distribution, which offers the advantage of having it all out of one hand, without distracting the dev team from working solely on the zoneminder package (because rPL is taken care of by rPath, and it is a very stable and well designed distro suitable for server use as well).

I just wanted to put that question in here, this is in no way a critisism of how the zoneminder team is handling matters. In fact it looks like someone not part of the zoneminder dev team will do exactly what I was talking about here, means it may occure that a zoneminder distro based on rPL with all desired release versions will pop up on rPath Online shortly. I'll keep you updated on that matter in this thread.

John Williams · Post by **John Williams** » Tue May 08, 2007 7:26 pm

I am not trying to dissuade you, just to inform that what you desire in rpath is avail already. If you go do the rpath thing, that is good...and would likely meet a set of needs that is not met currently. Linux is about choice and more choice is good. However, I would not like to see zoneminder become a one distro implementation. That would not be good for the user community or the Linux community as a whole.

Master One · Post by **Master One** » Tue May 08, 2007 10:55 pm

No need for concerns, because as much advantages the rPath way offers, it has nothing to do with binding a certain software package to such a conary based distro, because development of the package itself is not touched in any way. If there will be an rPL based zoneminder distro, it's all about creating a recipe to have conary build the needed environment (compiling the desired package from source and satisfying all dependencies), and then easily integrate it into rPL to get a ready to use solution.

I just wanted to point out, that if the zoneminder team was looking for a way to not only have the source package and some binary packages for some selected distros available, but ready to use solutions for different platforms (installable CDROM, LiveCD, Vmware image, Xen domU image, each 32 & 64 bit), rPath should be on top of the list to look at. It's not only about creating such solutions, but also to maintain these as easy as possible without work-overload.

I think, zoneminder would be quite suitable for such an approach, because it is something which should run on a server, and most likely is not only something for a dedicated machine, but also for use in Xen or VMware environments. That purpose comes closed to the AsteriskNOW project, which also jumped on the rPath train likely for the same reason.

P.S. If not rPath Linux, I would have no idea which distro to use on the mentioned machine for a x86_64 zoneminder setup in a Xen domU, that's why it is in my interest to at least get zoneminder as a conary package, which I may have to take a look at creating the recipe myself, if nobody else, most likely more capable, is going to do it. I am just a user, and huge fan of the rPL / rBO / Conary concept.

John Williams · Post by **John Williams** » Wed May 09, 2007 11:01 am

Take a look at the Debian package. Likely all of the dependencies are listed there. On my ubuntu system, I installed it with debi and it found and installed 33 pre-req packages prior to the actual zoneminder install. Peter Howard is the author of the deb package...

Lee Sharp · Post by **Lee Sharp** » Wed May 09, 2007 9:20 pm

Everyone has a distribution they like and everyone else is Wrong!

Stay platform agnostic. A well supported .deb and a well supported .rpm covers %99 of the people out there, without having to "convert" anyone.

Post by **zoneminder** » Fri May 11, 2007 2:13 pm

I am considering doing a VM release for those people who want to give ZM a try, however it will currently only work with IP cameras as the bttv card does not get passed through on vmware.

John Williams · Post by **John Williams** » Thu May 17, 2007 11:44 am

I tried to pass BTTV in xen also, and failed. Plus it was suggested that this is not a good idea anyway. So now I am running zms to pass the stream from Dom0 to DomU and only running domU for monitor. I do the motion detect in dom0.