[Techtalk] zoneminder, motion fail on ubuntu 13.10, no /dev/video0

[Carla Schroder]

I'm nearly certain that the key here is the missing /dev/video0. Does
anyone know how Ubuntu 13.10 creates it? On my older Mint system (based
on Ubuntu 12.04) it is created at boot, so it is always available. I
have no idea how 13.10 handles this, other than poorly. Is this my
welcome to the fun new ever-encroaching world of Upstart?

This is how I created it manually:

mknod /dev/video0 c 81 0

NFI why that doesn't make buntu happy.

Carla

On Sun, 2 Feb 2014 11:31:36 -0800
Carla Schroder <carla at bratgrrl.com> wrote:

> 
> hey all,
> 
> I swear the more I use computers the more I swear at them. I have a
> Foscam FI8905W wireless IP camera. 
> Just a nice outdoor cam with its own embedded Web server and wifi so I
> can spy on my driveway from any Web browser.
> 
> Theoretically.
> 
> I can log in directly to the Foscam via Web browser, see the live
> stream, and access the admin panel from any of my computers and
> smartphones. Easy peasey.
> 
> So the next step is to set up Zoneminder or Motion for recording and
> alerts. There is something batshit screwy with Ubuntu 13.10-- I have
> an old Linux Mint 13 installation, and with both Zoneminder and Motion
> it's ten minutes from installation to viewing the live stream from the
> camera in a browser. But not Ubuntu 13.10.
> 
> Motion gives the error message 'Failed to open video
> device /dev/video0: No such file or directory' So I
> created /dev/video0 with good old mknod. Same error message. So I
> deleted the dratted thing.
> 
> I can plug in a USB webcam, which creates /dev/video0, and then Motion
> picks up the webcam images. (Cheese and luvcview also display the
> webcam stream.) But still no live view, only a series of jpgs in /tmp.
> 
> Naturally the motion, Zoneminder, and Ubuntu forums are full of sad
> posts with the same problem, but no solution. I'm not even sure where
> to start troubleshooting. Bright ideas anyone? Besides going on a
> killing spree until all computers are eradicated and we can live happy
> and free in an agrarian paradise? 
> 
> Carla
> 
> 



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