The Blog

Part A – installing ZoneMinder from Ubuntu repositories:

• 1. Install libavcodec with extra codecs (for x264 support)
  2. Install ZoneMinder 1.24.2 from the Ubuntu repositories
  3. Correct the Apache2 configurations necessary for ZoneMinder
  4. Fix ZoneMinder startup issue
  5. Show the current kernel.shmall and kernel.shmmax values and adjust them to 90% of the system memory
  • STREAM_METHOD = mpeg
  • MPEG_LIVE_FORMAT = asf

  ---

  #!/bin/sh
  # ZoneMinder 1.24.2 installation script
  #
  # Copyright (C) 2010 Chris “Pada” Kistner
  #
  # This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
  # modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
  # as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
  # of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

  echo “— Checking for root privileges…”
  if [ “`whoami`” != “root” ]; then
  echo Error: This script requires root access
  exit 1
  fi

  echo “— Installing extra codecs, which includes x264 support…”
  apt-get -y install libavcodec-extra-52 libavformat-extra-52 libswscale-extra-0 libavfilter-extra-1

  echo “— Installing ZoneMinder…”
  apt-get -y install zoneminder

  echo “— Adding ZoneMinder to Apache2…”
  ln -s /etc/zm/apache.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/zoneminder.conf
  a2ensite zoneminder
  service apache2 restart

  echo “— Adding alias for zoneminder service and fixing ZoneMinder startup…”
  ln -s /etc/init.d/zoneminder /etc/init.d/zm
  update-rc.d -f zoneminder remove
  update-rc.d -f zm remove
  update-rc.d zm defaults 92

  echo “— Applying ZMFix, adding www-data user to video group and restarting ZM…”
  chmod 4755 /usr/bin/zmfix
  zmfix -a
  adduser www-data video
  service zm restart

  echo “— Correcting SHM to 90% of memory…”
  apt-get -y install coreutils bc
  page_size=$(getconf PAGE_SIZE)
  mem_bytes=$(awk ‘/MemTotal:/ { printf “%0.f”,$2 * 1024}’ /proc/meminfo)
  mb=1048576
  mem_bytes_mb=$(expr $mem_bytes / $mb)
  shmmax=$(echo “$mem_bytes * 0.90” | bc | cut -f 1 -d ‘.’)
  shmmax_mb=$(expr $shmmax / $mb)
  shmall=$(expr $mem_bytes / $page_size)
  shmmax_cur=$(sysctl -n kernel.shmmax)
  shmmax_cur_mb=$(expr $shmmax_cur / $mb)
  shmall_cur=$(sysctl -n kernel.shmall)
  echo “– Total memory = $mem_bytes B = $mem_bytes_mb MB”
  echo “– Page size = $page_size B”
  echo “– Current kernel.shmmax = $shmmax_cur B = $shmmax_cur_mb MB”
  echo “– Current kernel.shmall = $shmall_cur pages”
  if [ “$shmmax” -eq “$shmmax_cur” ] && [ “$shmall” -eq “$shmall_cur” ]; then
  echo “– Recommended shm values already set”
  else
  echo “– Recommended: kernel.shmmax = $shmmax B = $shmmax_mb MB”
  echo “– Recommended: kernel.shmmall = $shmall pages”
  file=/etc/sysctl.conf
  if [ “`grep “^kernel.shmmax” $file -c`” != “0” ]; then
  echo “– Replacing: kernel.shmmax in $file”
  sed “s/^kernel.shmmax.*$/kernel.shmmax=$shmmax/g” -i $file
  else
  echo “– Adding: kernel.shmmax to $file”
  echo kernel.shmmax=$shmmax >> $file
  fi
  if [ “`grep “^kernel.shmall” /etc/sysctl.conf -c`” != “0” ]; then
  echo “– Replacing: kernel.shmall in $file”
  sed “s/^kernel.shmall.*$/kernel.shmall=$shmall/g” -i $file
  else
  echo “– Adding: kernel.shmall to $file”
  echo kernel.shmall=$shmall >> $file
  fi
  echo “– Using: new sysctl values”
  sysctl -p
  fi

  # Done
  echo “— Done.”

  ---

I have written a shell script to:Here’s the script:

Code:

You might want to make the following changes under Options > Images:
Also read through the http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.ph … peg%2C_etc.) guide, and you might want to follow the “Add the video group to the www-data user” and “Fix deprecated usage of ereg() in functions.php” steps.

I have tested this by altering FFMPEG_OUTPUT_OPTIONS and I’ve successfully managed to let ZoneMinder convert the recorded event into a x264 encoded video using ffmpeg’s x264 medium + main presets.

Just remember that if you want to test the input of x264 streams, you have to select ffmpeg as the source type AND if you’re streaming from a local file, ensure that the www-user has read permissions!

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