Tutorial for Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) desktop

Add any particular hints or tricks you have found to help with your ZoneMinder experience.
stevesmith
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jun 27, 2009 5:44 pm

Tutorial for Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) desktop

Post by stevesmith »

After much-a-do trying to get ZoneMinder working with Ubuntu I've created a tutorial on how we did it. I didn't come across any tutorials for complete beginners, so I've aimed to make it easy to follow even if you've not used Linux much before, complete with screenshots.

Please do reply to this thread if you've followed the tutorial, and let me know if it was a success or if you want anything clarified!

The tutorial is at:
http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.ph ... _interface

Steve
Inigo Montoya
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jul 15, 2009 2:51 pm

Post by Inigo Montoya »

Thank you for posting this. I found it very useful, but I did have one issue that I'd like to mention. The settings for /etc/modprobe.d/bttv.conf that you posted did not work for my card (bt878 drivers). I had to delete that entry to get my card working. Once I got that, however, it was pretty straightforward.
stevesmith
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jun 27, 2009 5:44 pm

Post by stevesmith »

I'm glad you've got it all working, Inigo.
Inigo Montoya wrote:The settings for /etc/modprobe.d/bttv.conf that you posted did not work for my card (bt878 drivers). I had to delete that entry to get my card working.
Thanks for mentioning that. Without a bttv.conf file, it is on card=0, which means autodetect card type. I'll make a note on the tutorial about this! I've only had the opportunity to try it with the card we have. Which card do you have? Is it a single-input one by any chance? It would be useful to make a list of which setings are required for which cards!
Inigo Montoya
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jul 15, 2009 2:51 pm

Post by Inigo Montoya »

The card is several years old, and I don't have the exact model (it's not listed on the box or the enclosed manual), but it's labeled "Grand X Guard" by Grandtec. It has 4 composite (yellow RCA) inputs. As I mentioned, it is based on the bt878 chipset.
stevesmith
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jun 27, 2009 5:44 pm

Post by stevesmith »

I've found a list of supported hardware on the Zoneminder wiki, so I've made sure your card is listed correctly in there. I've added a link to that page from the Ubuntu tutorial. Thanks for the info!
bai
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2009 10:05 am

tutorial for ubuntu 9.04

Post by bai »

great work
did not follow verbatim but it solved issues & frst time i had zm working tried several other dists & allways hit issues ( some my h/w ), as some ware between newbie & literate ( no time to study ) to hard to solve some issues myself
so this helped greatly now axis 2120 work ok, but still need to solve bt848 card & usb logitek cam, will keep plugging away & thanks :D
stevesmith
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jun 27, 2009 5:44 pm

Post by stevesmith »

I'm glad it's helped! Thanks for the feedback. If you want to bounce any ideas about the other card and camera off me, feel free :).
paullauze
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2009 12:16 pm

thanks, this was a huge help setting up zoneminder

Post by paullauze »

thanks, this was a huge help setting up zoneminder. i never would have got it going without this wiki.

i did have to do one more step to get ZM to show images from the camera


sudo chmod 777 /dev/video0

hope it will help someone else
paullauze
paullauze
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2009 12:16 pm

thanks, this was a huge help setting up zoneminder

Post by paullauze »

thanks, this was a huge help setting up zoneminder. i never would have got it going without this wiki.

i did have to do one more step to get ZM to show images from the camera


sudo chmod 777 /dev/video0

hope it will help someone else
paullauze
bai
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2009 10:05 am

Tutorial for Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) desktop

Post by bai »

i found out how to get the 848 card & usb cam going
seems one of the items i left out was the solution

in the first install i left off the security & the bit about controllable cameras as i wanted to get a picture first, turns out that chmod 4755 /usr/bin/zmfix fixes the issue
though remember the axis 2120 work fine all the time once i work out to set Remote Host Path to /axis-cgi/mjpg/video.cgi?camera=&showlength=1&resolution=704x576, this i got by log on from web & view source of page. if that is useful to any one else.

still have minor issue with the usb cam shifting around after a cold boot, one of below is the usb, the rest are for the 848 card that is PCI-E 8 * 848 type card from huperlab, also tried the pico2000 & rapidos dvs8500a cards, they work fine ( pci with 4 input on one 848 ) i.e it will come up as different device numbers, usualy 0 or 1 though
$ ls /dev/video*
/dev/video0 /dev/video2 /dev/video4 /dev/video6 /dev/video8
/dev/video1 /dev/video3 /dev/video5 /dev/video7

one trick to get the 8 chip card going is to add a bit more to the bttv
options bttv gbuffers=32 card=102,102,102,102,102,102,102,102 tuner=0 radio=0 coring=1 full_luma_range=1 chroma_agc=1 pll=1 combfilter=1 autoload=0 triton1=0 vsfx=0
though i do get an odd result if i check it is setting the first chip as a grandtec multi cap, but all the others as ivc-200, though i use all same number ( i think several numbers would work ), as it works it is not an issue for me at this time. i also set the pal mode "pll=1"

finally i got all that going & decided to give the old ptz camera a spin, the steps had allready also enabled access to the serial port so...

a sony evi-d31 now plugged in & set for Visca protocol, it would not do much, so i had a look at the file visca.pm which is the sample protocol provided with zoneminder, but it had a few issues

if anyone wants to use it then need to edit a bit look for " sub moveConUp " & a lot others with similar descriptions, first i spotted one missing the e at the end of move, then i notice others missing the Con after move, so i insert & save & was improved ( ie it now moved when the control buttons clicked with mouse ) but still needed to tweak the numbers in the control tab by editing the protocol to get something useful, it now steps or zooms in predictable amounts in stead of ful extremes at each click.
errors were found on moveConleft, moveConupleft, moveConupright, moveCondownleft, moveCondownright & zoomConWide these are the fixed words if any one want to use
did not bother changing others as they seem to work, though the ones with "Rel" in them seem to do nothing either way so suggest leave them as is.
there is a number of other resource for the Visca protocol, even a libvisca site, but beyond my current skills if someone else wants to try
p.s. also moved up to v1.24.1 thanks to peter howard
ftp://ftp.northern-ridge.com.au/zonemin ... ntu/jaunty but had to use your guide & tweaks ( zmfix & define the web address ) plus what i found on the ptz to make it all come together
still think it is the best written tutorial i have seen for linux stuff & i even bought a number of books which were limited in their usefulness, problem is the authors are usually too close to their subject.
writing this in a hurry so sorry about quality. thanks for the offer, hope what i have written helps you / others.
pibri
Posts: 10
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2009 12:18 pm

Post by pibri »

Hi all

As you can see I'm new here.

I am also relatively new to LINUX...been using Ubuntu for about a year now.

I have a question that is probably quite simple. I have been following the UBUNTU 904 desktop installation guide for ZoneMinder.

I have amended the file "/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default" and I have made the 2 changes required. Having rebooted I have entered the address http://localhost into FFox browser and I get a message "It works!", which is a relief! Howeever, what do I do now to get the zoneminder page up?

Also, how do I get zoneminder to appear on the machine on which it is installed?

I know nothing about Apache by the way.

All help gratefully received, thanks in advance.

BR

Brian (Pibri)
rrambo
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Oct 15, 2009 3:49 pm

the file 000-default

Post by rrambo »

double check and make sure you replaced the default Document Root with the correct one.. you don't have to reboot afterwards but you at least have to restart Apache.
pibri
Posts: 10
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2009 12:18 pm

Post by pibri »

Thanks for the reply.

Its nice to feel there is some support out there re:anything to do with LINUX...its been a struggle but very worthwhile IMO.

I have bungled through with the issues I posted last week (obvious in the end!!), however another has reared its head.

I am trying to create two monitors, one a wireless Y-cam white and another is a USB web cam. I really kike the idea of using web cams for security purposes so I am keen to get this working.

I have carried out the procedure in the set up but both cameras are in red. The path for the usb camera is dev/video0 and the y-cam has the correct IP address entered.

This may be as stuid as the last question i asked but here goes: Is a video capture card really necessary? I know this is stated at the beginning of the procedure. I ask because the computer can obviously display the web cam data under normal conditions and the wireless y-cam has been working very well for a month now via a web browser.

Any help once again gratefully received.

PIBRI (Brian)
bai
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2009 10:05 am

Post by bai »

pibri

no you do not need a capture card
not all usb cams work in all distro's have you tested it with another program ? if yes then assuming you have followed the instructions it will probably be the image size settings, try some common ones if you do not know i.e. 640,480 or 320,160 etc. type of capture , i.e rgb, cymk etc.
for the web cam you need to tell zoneminder where to get the pictures from, see what i wrote for the axis cam & see if you can figure it out for your cam ( i did it from the browes & view source , look for something similar to what i wrote but it could be much longer or shorter also check out the camera probing sticky in the 1.24.x forum, again you need to get the picture size correct but this should be easy as you can get this info through the web browser interface ( usually )
also a good idea to concentrate on only one at a time & disconnect the other while trying it out, do not forget to take notes & post back if you get the web one going, give the detail as asked for in the 1.24.x sticky so everyone benefits
Fitch
Posts: 105
Joined: Sat Oct 31, 2009 4:01 pm
Location: Hartlepool, U.K.

Post by Fitch »

I have at last successfully loaded Zoneminder 1.23 on a Jaunty system (it used to be karmic, but I dumped that!).

I use a pico2000 equivalent card (Big Brother Stealth Au4 XP - AEI technologies), with 4 Swann SW-D-DODC PAL colour cameras, 628x582 effective pixels, 380TVL.
The chip used is exactly the same as the one shown on the tutorial at:
http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.ph ... _interface

Everything works great, except for the 4 black screens...

I did everything that the tutorial tells me to do and still the black screens.

I did remove the bttv.conf file as apparently this sometimes works, but not for me, so I stuck it back again (card77)

I've done sudo chmod 777 /dev/video0, but to no avail.

This is the result of lsmod:

brafferton@Cameras:~$ lsmod
Module Size Used by
binfmt_misc 16776 1
i915 67844 2
drm 96424 3 i915
bridge 56212 0
stp 10500 1 bridge
bnep 20224 2
video 25872 0
output 11008 1 video
input_polldev 11912 0
lp 17156 0
snd_hda_intel 435252 3
snd_pcm_oss 46336 0
snd_mixer_oss 22656 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 83076 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_dummy 10756 0
snd_seq_oss 37760 0
snd_seq_midi 14336 0
snd_rawmidi 29696 1 snd_seq_midi
bttv 171924 0
videodev 41600 1 bttv
snd_seq_midi_event 15104 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 56880 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer 29704 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 14988 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
v4l1_compat 21764 1 videodev
ir_common 52228 1 bttv
compat_ioctl32 9344 1 bttv
i2c_algo_bit 14084 1 bttv
ppdev 15620 0
v4l2_common 20992 1 bttv
videobuf_dma_sg 20484 1 bttv
videobuf_core 26500 2 bttv,videobuf_dma_sg
iTCO_wdt 19108 0
iTCO_vendor_support 11652 1 iTCO_wdt
snd 62756 15 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
soundcore 15200 1 snd
parport_pc 40100 1
psmouse 61972 0
btcx_risc 13064 1 bttv
pcspkr 10496 0
snd_page_alloc 16904 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
parport 42220 3 lp,ppdev,parport_pc
serio_raw 13444 0
intel_agp 34108 1
tveeprom 20100 1 bttv
agpgart 42696 3 drm,intel_agp
e100 41740 0
mii 13312 1 e100
fbcon 46112 0
tileblit 10752 1 fbcon
font 16384 1 fbcon
bitblit 13824 1 fbcon
softcursor 9984 1 bitblit
brafferton@Cameras:~$

Looks good, but doesn't mean anything to me.

I get lovely pictures on xawtv, albeit with a couple of errors:

This is xawtv-3.95.dfsg.1, running on Linux/i686 (2.6.28-16-generic)
xinerama 0: 1280x1024+0+0
Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-ledfixed-medium-r-*--39-*-*-*-c-*-*-*" to type FontStruct
get fences failed: -1
param: 6, val: 0


Thanks.
Last edited by Fitch on Fri Nov 13, 2009 10:18 pm, edited 8 times in total.
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