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Use Zoneminder on reComputer

Introduction​

Zoneminder is an open-source video surveillance software that allows you to monitor and manage security cameras. It supports various types of cameras, including IP cameras, USB webcams, and analog cameras. ZoneMinder offers features like motion detection, video recording, alarm notifications, and remote viewing through a web interface. It's highly customizable, making it suitable for both personal and professional surveillance needs. Plus, being open-source, it’s free to use and can be adapted to different setups.

Prerequisites​

Hardware Requirements​

reComputer R1125reComputer AI R2130reComputer AI Industrial R2145
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Download Zoneminder​

Update system​

Run the following commands.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

Install MariaDB and do initial database configuration​

Run the following commands.

sudo apt install apache2 mariadb-server

Switch into root user and create database and database user.

sudo su
mariadb
CREATE DATABASE zm;
CREATE USER zmuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'zmpass';
GRANT ALL ON zm.* TO zmuser@localhost;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit;
exit

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By default MariaDB uses unix socket authentication, so no root user password is required (root MariaDB user access only available to local root Linux user). If you wish, you can set a root MariaDB password (and apply other security tweaks) by running mariadb-secure-installation.

Install Zoneminder​

By default Debian will install the version published in Debian (stable). However there may be newer versions by using backports. At the time of this writing, bookworm (stable) ships with v.1.36.33.

To install the version in bookworm stable, just run the following command.

sudo apt install zoneminder

If instead you prefer to install the newer version using backports, run the following commands. The first line will add this bookworm-backports repository. The backports repository is deactivated by default, so with the second line we explicitly state we want the backported version of zoneminder.

sudo bash -c "echo 'deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-backports main contrib' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
sudo apt update
sudo apt -t bookworm-backports install zoneminder

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Configure Zoneminder​

Configure database​

Run the following commands, Use zmpass as passward.

mariadb -u zmuser -p zm < /usr/share/zoneminder/db/zm_create.sql

Setup permissions for zm.conf​

To make sure zoneminder can read the configuration file, run the following command.

sudo chgrp -c www-data /etc/zm/zm.conf

Tweak Apache configuration​

sudo a2enconf zoneminder
sudo a2enmod cgi
sudo systemctl reload apache2.service
sudo systemctl restart zoneminder.service
sudo systemctl status zoneminder.service
sudo systemctl enable zoneminder.service

If the zoneminder.service show to be active and without any errors, you should be able to access zoneminder at http://yourhostname/zm

Configure Zoneminder​

Add the video source to the zoneminder.

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Result​

Once we have configured everything, we can view the live feed from the current camera, and when motion is detected, it will be recorded.

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Tech Support & Product Discussion​

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