zoneminder credibility

scottjge · Post by **scottjge** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 12:19 am

I must express my opinion to the authors of the this program that they call zoneminder!
I have worked on this stupid program for a week and finally got it up and running as far as Firefox getting to localhost and got the setting all set. but still had problems with the clarity of the pictures.

I took a break, drank a cup of coffee, and when I returned everything had stopped working again. I could not connect to localhost again. All my work gone down the drain after working for a week with thing. I will not go thru that again for anything.

So I have drawn the conclusion that zoneminder is the biggest piece of s**t software that I have ever had the opportunity to use. No wonder it is free ! You can't charge for software that is not ready for consumers to use. During my troubles I asked around on various forums for help and tips. No body could help because they could never get it to work either.
Is this a great software ? Only a few use it and I am not sure that they have it running either because on this forum not one person could give me any advise.

My suggestions for the programmer is to learn to program and know how to set up an installation that will work.

My suggestion to anyone wanting software of this nature is to try Motion ! It works the first time, no hassles and no chasing down things that the author has either forgotten or doesn't have a clue what is needed to make a workable install.

mitch · Post by **mitch** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 2:01 am

Sounds like you were able to write an ad for Motion, congrats. Zoneminder is most likely the largest linux cctv solution out there. Virtually every distribution carries it and it has a large number of users. Sorry you were unable to get it working, especially your 'quality issues', but they were most likely due to misconfiguration rather than an issue with ZM. ZM has no problem working with various resolutions and degradation has really not be something it causes. On top of which you 'drank a cup of coffee' and had somehow lost a week of work. It sounds like you actually have more issues with linux than ZM, you may want to try one of the ZM live cds that are already setup for newer users.

We are happy you found a solution that worked for you in Motion, however you really should learn some respect for open source software. You didn't buy anything, no one forced you to use ZM, and there is a large community of users who have no issues with ZM. Your comments are disrespectful to the developers who work on the project and you should go elsewhere.

mitch · Post by **mitch** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 2:06 am

Also looking back at your posts asking for help you nicely show your inability to follow instructions. Assuming you read http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/Documentation which for troulbeshooting points you to:
http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.ph ... leshooting

And yet you couldn't do the things it asked. Unless you made a large donation none of us are aware of where do you get off getting mad when no one helps you when you can't even follow simple instructions yourself?

scottjge · Post by **scottjge** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 2:39 am

Sorry to disturb you Mitch but I did follow the toublehooting guide to a tee ! I mean every exact instruction so you have no idea what you are even talking about. I read and followed instructions for a week with all the patients and hopes of getting it to work. After I had it up and running and it just quit and everything went down the drain. It was running, I left the room for about 5 minutes and when I got back........ nothing !

If you were looking at my post, I didn't receive any of the experienced advise that you seem to have now. Maybe you just happen to have a installation that didn't need any tweaking. There are some people that are that lucky. Funny thing how every piece of software that I have this machine for security software works and needed very little tweaking but Zonemonitor took me countless hours just to get installed. The forum was just about as helpful and the troubleshooting guide. Out of 50 people that read the post couldn't answer or give advise. Good support !

I have much better use for my time than to spend it on software that is glitchy and there is NO support out there for some of the problems that I ran across. Not even Google.

No big deal, you use what you want and I will use what I want, I am just letting the developer know that there are some major problems that don't have any documentation on the web to help anyone solve the problems with zonemonitor.

Enough said,

mitch · Post by **mitch** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 2:41 am

the guide specifically says to post details when asking for help online along with the ZMC debug log however you did not. So I am happy you followed the guide but somehow missed that part.

whatboy · Post by **whatboy** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 2:44 am

When I first try ZM, it was a pain compiling the software... but like Mitch said... It wasn't ZM problem, it was Hardware/Software problem AND my lack of ability to RTFM!!! I am like that, I go and do it... get stuck, then as a last resource, RTFM... and bingo... then I say to my self... It was that simple??? OMFG!!! for Me, ZM is a great piece of art!!! and guess what??? it is fsking FREE!!! I do have a piece of shit hardware, and it is doing way great than others have reported... guess I'm lucky!!! or maybe I, as a last resource finally RTFM!!!

And I do feel you are overreacting and blaming someone else for your problems... I do somehow feel your pain and have felt the frustation you might expirence right now, but if some one else says, they have it working, then on conclussion, you should not blame ZM... don't you think???

Hope you do well with that other software you found... bye!!!

scottjge · Post by **scottjge** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 2:56 am

OMG look at all the advise I am getting now ! I knew I could get a reply but not for the right reasons. If you are going to be part of a forum then help the ones that need help. Don't just sit back and say boy I went thru that, I feel their pain ! I guess if I was stranded on the road with a knife in my back and ask for help. you wouldn't want to get involved either;

I have no quarrel with you, but I do have a problem with software that has plenty of bugs and the guide isn't concise on troubleshooting. But there I go again. I am the only one that has ever had any of the problems that I posted ! Sorry

I will leave all of you to use your forum to chat about what you have for equipment and read the help ads.

whatboy · Post by **whatboy** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 3:05 am

You only posted ONE cry for help and didn't gave enough info to anyone, you could have search the forums...

Here's another question like yours... but this guy gave some info...

http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14968

scottjge · Post by **scottjge** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 3:36 am

I know whatboy, I read that one and all the links that it pointed to, but I am telling you nothing worked. I know you think that I just put out a call for help so I would have to do any homework. I did my homework and a lot of it. You are not listening to me, I can not find any solutions on the web for the problem that I had. Listen, I even went to other forums and read posts until I was blue in the face. I did meet up with a few people on other forum that gave me the advise to try different software because they have never been able to get it to work, but I didn't I kept trying for week. Finally I fixed it. Five minutes later all my work was worthless because it just quit working. By that time I had had enough. I still believe that there are glitches in the software. Why else would everything be fine one minute and then all of a sudden stop working ? Nobody touch a thing, it just stopped working.

Sorry I got you so worked up. But I don't buy a Chevy just because someone tell me it is a great car and they never had any problems with the one that they have. No offence, but I just don't think Zoneminder is for me. If it is that hard to get installed and then that quirky, I can't imagine what the maintenance level will be with the software.

Thanks for your pointers and advise.

whatboy · Post by **whatboy** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 3:45 am

Guess then you should check your hardware then... a bad memory, overheating cards, CPU???

and yet, you still haven't gave no clues to start debugging... like what's your HW, distro, logs...

Post by **cordel** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 9:51 am

black screen is extremely vague, there are lots of variables for a black screen and since that is all that is in your description, you obviously missed the posts at the top of the forum.
Three posts all discribing the same thing lacking additional information don't go far.

http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12385

There is the option of paid support if you are in a rush.
Otherwise we are only here when we have the time to volunteer.

scottjge · Post by **scottjge** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 1:40 pm

Get over it ! What do you guys do , read a post and then see how much you can find wrong with it and how many of your golden rule that it broke before you decide to chime in with either help or criticism ?

I see the donation icon, like I said before, why would I want to pay for something that has no support ? On wait a minute, if I would have donated, all 50 people that read my post would have replied? Gee, I wish I would have donated, I wouldn't had to spend a week reading and configuring. Darn, messed up again!

Besides, I have decided that I don't need security software. I will just use my gun instead of my camera.

Get over it ! It is over! Go back to reading post and see how much you can find wrong with them because they are not to your standards.

Many thanks to all that replied, I have enjoyed are conversation.

Post by **Flasheart** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 7:22 am

Troll or idiot, not quite sure.

"apt-get install zoneminder" on ubuntu and debian. One quick edit for shared memory and it's up and working fine. Been using it for years and it's never been easier to run, and even when it was hard to compile, I only ever blamed myself.

And why not help those in similar situations by putting that energy into improving the docs instead of slagging it off? The wiki is open and easy to use.

So on balance, I'd vote idiot. Somebody want to add a poll to this?

bristoldave · Post by **bristoldave** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 1:06 pm

scottjge wrote:It was running, I left the room for about 5 minutes and when I got back........ nothing !

Classic response: Well, if you didn't change anything, then it works the same as it did before, right?

scottjge wrote:Besides, I have decided that I don't need security software. I will just use my gun instead of my camera.

Fine, nobody's forcing you to use it. Make sure the door doesn't smack your ass on the way out.

scottjge wrote:I have enjoyed are conversation.

I haven't, reading your posts was like you've bashed out approximations of words on your keyboard with your fingers like a gorilla trying to open a shrinkwrapped bag of bananas.

curtishall · Post by **curtishall** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 1:37 pm

People that complain about free open source software always make me sigh. I guess he'll be on his Linux distro's forums next complaining about how much Linux sucks and it's nothing like Windows and he can't play Tetris.