[Motion-user] MJGrab + Lighttpd Problems on Ubuntu 9.10 + Motion Starting Problem

[<mo...@re...>]

Having some problems with Motion, and MJ-Grab with Lighttpd on Ubuntu 9.10.

   1.  Problem getting mj-grab working, but mj-prox is working OK.

System is a Core 2 Dell Vostro 200.  It was running either Ubuntu server 8.04 LTS or 8.10 (can't remember, and it may have been 32-bit version) with no problems for over a year; Motion version was from the repositories.  I upgraded the system to 9.10 in steps over a couple of days.

CGI on Lighttpd is broken on 9.10, but I found a work-around for that (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8601210).  Once I got CGI working again, the mj-prox + cambozola worked fine, but mj-grab did not.  I recompiled the programs, but that didn't help.  I've checked every possible permissions problem I could think of, comparing it to an older working server side-by-side, but found nothing.

I can view the camera feeds directly in Firefox, so that's OK (makes sense, as mj-prox works).  I try to access the mj-grab program directly with http://192.168.67.4/cgi-bin/mj-grab?1 and get "500 - Internal Server Error."  Accessing mj-prox the same way works fine.

I eventually did a fresh install of 9.10 (64-bit) and reinstalled everything, only to find the same problem occurs.  The Motion version in Ubuntu 9.10 is 3.2.11, and it recently was updated, probably to include the fixes in 3.2.11.1.  I can get mj-grab to work on a similarly configured 64-bit Core i5 with Kubuntu 9.10 Desktop and a bttv camera, so the problem must not be present in all 9.10 Ubuntu 64-bit installs.

On the webpage I use to show the camera images wtih mj-grab, it *will* show a green screen on only the one bttv camera when Motion does not start properly (see problem #2 below).  The other image places show the usual broken image graphic.  Once I restart Motion to get it running properly, the bttv camera green image turns into the same broken graphic image placeholder just like the other cameras.

   2.  Motion shows green screen on BTTV cameras when first started

Motion shows a green screen for BTTV cameras (generic eBay card) when it is started by the start-up scripts on reboot.  If I issue sudo /etc/init.d/motion restart once, it will start viewing the camera properly.  This problem I observe on both the Core 2 system and the Core i5 system mention above.  Motion will also show a green screen the first time after a reboot even if Motion is started interactively, with daemon mode disabled; stopping and restarting gets it running properly.

   Maybe both of these problems are unique to Ubuntu 9.10, but I thought it made sense to ask about them here first.  Is the PPA mentioned under the bug fix section (http://www.lavrsen.dk/foswiki/bin/view/Motion/BugReport2008x07x20x094957) something I should try?  It looks like the current Ubuntu 9.10 Motion package would include any fixes mentioned there, so I would guess not.  thanks, Gordon