Ubuntu Server 17.10 64-bit with Zoneminder 1.30.4 the easy way

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Ubuntu 17.10 with LAMP

This is an interim procedure to install Zoneminder 1.30.4 on Ubuntu 17.10

Note: There have been several reports of things, like the API, not working with Zoneminder and Ubuntu 17.10. You are better off to use Ubuntu 16.04!

Note - installing Zoneminder this way will not prevent it from being overwritten when you do "apt upgrade" To prevent Zoneminder from being upgraded enter "sudo apt-mark hold zoneminder"

There are some issues with the Zoneminder package provided with Ubuntu 17.10. This is an alternate install procedure that uses the install package from the iconnor PPA for Zesty (Ubuntu 17.04)

This assumes you have installed Ubuntu 17.10 with LAMP.

You will need to make a settings change to MySQL as follows:

This removes the current symbolic link

rm /etc/mysql/my.cnf  

This moves the MYSQL Configuration file

cp /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf

To change MySQL settings:

nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

In the [mysqld] section add the following

sql_mode = NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION

Note: if you are installing on an existing database server you can use the following as an alternate (Thanks to "bodom" for this alternate):

init_connect = 'SET @@sql_mode = CASE CURRENT_USER() WHEN \'zmuser@localhost\' THEN \'NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION\' ELSE @@sql_mode END;'

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart MySQL

systemctl restart mysql

Download the Zoneminder install package from the iconnor PPA. Note this is for the 64 bit version.

wget https://launchpad.net/~iconnor/+archive/ubuntu/zoneminder/+build/12557069/+files/zoneminder_1.30.4-zesty1_amd64.deb

Install Zoneminder - Note: Change (user) to the user in the home directory on your system

apt install vlc-plugin-base /home/(user)/zoneminder_1.30.4-zesty1_amd64.deb

Note - installing Zoneminder this way will not prevent it from being overwritten when you do "apt upgrade" To prevent Zoneminder from being upgraded enter "sudo apt-mark hold zoneminder"

Create a new user

adduser www-data video

Enable CGI, Zoneminder and rewrite configuration in Apache.

a2enmod cgi

a2enconf zoneminder

a2enmod rewrite

Fix Permissions

chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/

Enable and start Zoneminder

systemctl enable zoneminder

service zoneminder start

Add timezone to PHP

nano /etc/php/7.1/apache2/php.ini

Search for [Date] (Ctrl + w then type Date and press Enter) and make changes as follows for your time zone. Make sure to remove the ; from the front of date.timezone

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart Apache

service apache2 reload

IMPORTANT FINAL STEP: Open Zoneminder in a web browser (http://server-ip/zm). Click on Options - Paths and change PATH_ZMS to /zm/cgi-bin/nph-zms

Ubuntu 17.10 with LEMP (NGINX, Mariadb and PHP)

Ubuntu 17.10 Nginx Mariadb PHP Zoneminder 1.30.4

Note - installing Zoneminder this way will not prevent it from being overwritten when you do "apt upgrade" To prevent Zoneminder from being upgraded enter "sudo apt-mark hold zoneminder"

Start with an install of Ubuntu 17.10, server, desktop or bare bones basic. Do not install LAMP!

Become root

sudo su

Install Nginx and Mariadb

apt install nginx

apt install mariadb-server

Secure Mariadb

mysql_secure_installation

Remove the symbolic link for Mariadb

rm /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Copy a basic config file to replace the symbolic link

cp /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Edit the Mariadb config file

nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Locate entries like the following and replace them

character-set-server = latin1
collation-server = latin1_swedish_ci

Note: The above settings are actually the Mariadb default. Changing back to default is necessary to avoid errors when logging into Zoneminder. This was added on 01APR17 but is not an April Fool! It may be necessary to align these settings with your regional language.

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart Mariadb

systemctl restart mysql

Install PHP components

apt install php-fpm php-mysql fcgiwrap

Edit the PHP ini file

nano /etc/php/7.1/fpm/php.ini

Locate (Ctrl+w) cgi.fix_pathinfo=1 and change to

cgi.fix_pathinfo=0

Also fix date. Search for [Date] (Ctrl + w then type Date and press Enter) and make changes as follows for your time zone. Make sure to remove the ; from the front of date.timezone

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart php-fm

systemctl restart php7.1-fpm

Download the Zoneminder .deb file from the iconnor repository

wget https://launchpad.net/~iconnor/+archive/ubuntu/zoneminder/+build/12557069/+files/zoneminder_1.30.4-zesty1_amd64.deb

Install Zoneminder. Change (user) as shown below to your user name on your Ubuntu install

apt install vlc-plugin-base /home/(user)/zoneminder_1.30.4-zesty1_amd64.deb

Note - installing Zoneminder this way will not prevent it from being overwritten when you do "apt upgrade" To prevent Zoneminder from being upgraded enter "sudo apt-mark hold zoneminder"

Add a user to enable local cameras

adduser www-data video

Change permissions

chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/zoneminder/

Enable and start Zoneminder

systemctl enable zoneminder
service zoneminder start

Edit the Nginx default config file

nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

Locate the line "index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;" and add "index.php"

index index.php index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;

Ctrl+o Enter to save

Somewhere in the "server" section add

include /etc/nginx/zoneminder.conf;

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Create a Zoneminder config file

nano /etc/nginx/zoneminder.conf

Copy the following into it

location /zm/cgi-bin {
    gzip off;
    alias /usr/lib/zoneminder/cgi-bin;

    include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $request_filename;
    fastcgi_pass  unix:/var/run/fcgiwrap.socket;
}

location /zm {
#   if ($scheme ~ ^http:){
#       rewrite ^(.*)$  https://$host$1 permanent;
#   }

    gzip off;
    alias                   /usr/share/zoneminder/www;
    index                   index.php;

    location ~ \.php$ {
        if (!-f $request_filename) { return 404; }
        expires             epoch;
        include             /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param       SCRIPT_FILENAME         $request_filename;
        fastcgi_index       index.php;
        fastcgi_pass        unix:/var/run/php/php7.1-fpm.sock;
    }


    location ~ \.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico)$ {
        access_log          off;
        expires         33d;
    }

    location /zm/api/ {
        alias                   /usr/share/zoneminder/www/api;
        rewrite ^/zm/api(.+)$ /zm/api/index.php?p=$1 last;
    }
}

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Restart Nginx

service nginx restart

IMPORTANT FINAL STEP: Open Zoneminder in a web browser (http://server-ip/zm). Click on Options - Paths and change PATH_ZMS to /zm/cgi-bin/nph-zms

Note: To avoid problems with feeds from multiple cameras "fcgiwrap" should be configured to start at least as many processes as there are cameras. It can be done by adjusting DAEMON_OPTS in "/etc/default/fcgiwrap".

nano /etc/default/fcgiwrap

Enter (change the 1 to the number of cameras)

DAEMON_OPTS="-f -c 1"

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit