GNet Solutions » Hardware Hacking » Raspberry Pi

Support #728

Updated by Daniel Curtis over 8 years ago

This is a guide on how I created a video stream using a webcam attached to a Raspberry Pi Model B running Arch Linux.  

 h2. Prepare the Environment 

 * Make sure the system is up to date: 
 <pre> 
 sudo pacman -Syu 
 </pre> 

 h2. Get Webcam Information 

 * Install the v4l2 utilities: 
 <pre> 
 sudo pacman -S v4l-utils 
 </pre> 

 * Get the current resolutions and pixel format of the webcam: 
 <pre> 
 v4l2-ctl -V 
 </pre> 
 #* *NOTE*: For more details use the following command: 
 <pre> 
 v4l2-ctl --all 
 </pre> 

 * Get a list of supported resolutions and pixel formats: 
 <pre> 
 v4l2-ctl --list-formats-ext 
 </pre> 

 * Set the resolution of the webcam to 352x288 (to make streaming a little faster): 
 <pre> 
 v4l2-ctl --set-fmt-video=width=352,height=288,pixelformat=0 
 </pre> 

 h2. Install Motion 

 * Install motion: 
 <pre> 
 sudo pacman -S motion 
 </pre> 

 * Edit the motion config file: 
 <pre> 
 nano /etc/motion/motion.conf 
 </pre> 
 #* And modify the following parameters: 
 <pre> 
 daemon on 
 v4l2_palette 2 
 width 352 1280 
 height 288 720 
 framerate 100 
 webcam_localhost off 
 control_localhost off 
 output_normal off 
 ffmpeg_cap_new off 
 ffmpeg_cap_motion off 
 webcam_motion off 
 webcam_maxrate 100 
 </pre> 

 * Test start the motion server to check that everything is running properly: 
 <pre> 
 sudo motion -n -c /etc/motion/motion.conf 
 </pre> 
 #* @Ctrl+C@ to quit the server when done testing. 

 * Make the /run/motion directory: 
 <pre> 
 mkdir /run/motion 
 </pre> 

 * Start and enable the server at boot: 
 <pre> 
 sudo systemctl enable motion 
 sudo systemctl start motion 
 </pre> 

 * Open a web browser and go to http://motion.example.com:8081 to view the video stream. 
 #* Open a web browser and go to http://motion.example.com:8080 to view configuration information. 

 h2. Install Nginx 

 * Install Nginx 
 <pre> 
 sudo pacman -S nginx 
 </pre> 

 * Start and enable nginx at boot: 
 <pre> 
 sudo systemctl enable nginx 
 sudo systemctl start nginx 
 </pre> 

 * Create a configuration directory to make managing individual server blocks easier 
 <pre> 
 sudo mkdir /etc/nginx/conf.d 
 </pre> 

 * Edit the main nginx config file: 
 <pre> 
 sudo vi /etc/nginx/nginx.conf 
 </pre> 
 #* And strip down the config file and add the include statement at the end to make it easier to handle various server blocks: 
 <pre> 
 worker_processes    1; 
 error_log    /var/log/nginx-error.log; 

 events { 
     worker_connections    1024; 
 } 

 http { 
     include         mime.types; 
     default_type    application/octet-stream; 
     sendfile          on; 
     keepalive_timeout    65; 

     # nginx may need to resolve domain names at run time 
     resolver 208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220; 

     include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf; 
 } 
 </pre> 

 * Add a *camera site server block*: 
 <pre> 
 sudo vi /etc/nginx/conf.d/camera.example.com.conf 
 </pre> 
 #* Add the following: 
 <pre> 
 server { 
     listen         80 default_server; 
     server_name    camera.example.com; 
     access_log    /var/log/camera.example.com.log; 

     location / { 
         proxy_pass http://localhost:8081/; 
     } 
 } 
 </pre> 

 


 h2. Resources 

 * http://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-webcam-server/ 
 * https://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/780055-how-to-operate-linux-spycams-with-motion

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