Can't start motion service (4.3.2)

[lbr38]

Hi everyone,

I had motion running great on my server when it was on Ubuntu 18.04.

Now that I have reinstalled my server to a most recent version and kernel, I can't start motion anymore. Once started, the service status is turning on "deactivating" mode then is being killed.

System configuration:

Ubuntu-minimal 22.04
Kernel 5.4.196-406 (on an ARM board)
motion Version 4.3.2

Motion configuration:

I got the motion.conf file which is calling two additionnal camera files (camera1-dist.conf and camera2-dist.conf). This worked well on my old system, now it seems that motion tries to open a device from motion.conf, where there none.

motion.conf:
Most parameters are commented because I use additionnal configuration files.

# Rename this distribution example file to motion.conf
#
# This config file was generated by motion 4.3.2
# Documentation:  /usr/share/doc/motion/motion_guide.html
#
# This file contains only the basic configuration options to get a
# system working.  There are many more options available.  Please
# consult the documentation for the complete list of all options.
#

############################################################
# System control configuration parameters
############################################################

native_language off

# Start in daemon (background) mode and release terminal.
daemon on

# Start in Setup-Mode, daemon disabled.
setup_mode off

# File to store the process ID.
pid_file /var/run/motion/motion.pid

# File to write logs messages into.  If not defined stderr and syslog is used.
log_file /var/log/motion/motion.log

# Level of log messages [1..9] (EMG, ALR, CRT, ERR, WRN, NTC, INF, DBG, ALL).
log_level 4

# Target directory for pictures, snapshots and movies
; target_dir /var/lib/motion

# Video device (e.g. /dev/video0) to be used for capturing.
; videodevice /dev/video0

# Parameters to control video device.  See motion_guide.html
; vid_control_params value

# The full URL of the network camera stream.
; netcam_url value

# Name of mmal camera (e.g. vc.ril.camera for pi camera).
; mmalcam_name value

# Camera control parameters (see raspivid/raspistill tool documentation)
; mmalcam_control_params value

############################################################
# Image Processing configuration parameters
############################################################

# Image width in pixels.
; width 640

# Image height in pixels.
; height 480

# Maximum number of frames to be captured per second.
; framerate 15

# Text to be overlayed in the lower left corner of images
; text_left CAMERA1

# Text to be overlayed in the lower right corner of images.
; text_right %Y-%m-%d\n%T-%q

############################################################
# Motion detection configuration parameters
############################################################

# Always save pictures and movies even if there was no motion.
emulate_motion off

# Threshold for number of changed pixels that triggers motion.
; threshold 1500

# Noise threshold for the motion detection.
; noise_level 32

# Despeckle the image using (E/e)rode or (D/d)ilate or (l)abel.
despeckle_filter EedDl

# Number of images that must contain motion to trigger an event.
minimum_motion_frames 1

# Gap in seconds of no motion detected that triggers the end of an event.
; event_gap 60

# The number of pre-captured (buffered) pictures from before motion.
; pre_capture 3

# Number of frames to capture after motion is no longer detected.
; post_capture 0

############################################################
# Script execution configuration parameters
############################################################

# Command to be executed when an event starts.
; on_event_start value

# Command to be executed when an event ends.
; on_event_end value

# Command to be executed when a movie file is closed.
; on_movie_end value

############################################################
# Picture output configuration parameters
############################################################

# Output pictures when motion is detected
; picture_output off

# File name(without extension) for pictures relative to target directory
; picture_filename %Y%m%d%H%M%S-%q

############################################################
# Movie output configuration parameters
############################################################

# Create movies of motion events.
; movie_output on

# Maximum length of movie in seconds.
; movie_max_time 60

# The encoding quality of the movie. (0=use bitrate. 1=worst quality, 100=best)
; movie_quality 45

# Container/Codec to used for the movie. See motion_guide.html
; movie_codec mkv

# File name(without extension) for movies relative to target directory
; movie_filename %t-%v-%Y%m%d%H%M%S

############################################################
# Webcontrol configuration parameters
############################################################

# Port number used for the webcontrol.
webcontrol_port 8080

# Restrict webcontrol connections to the localhost.
webcontrol_localhost on

# Type of configuration options to allow via the webcontrol.
webcontrol_parms 0

############################################################
# Live stream configuration parameters
############################################################

# The port number for the live stream.
; stream_port 8081

# Restrict stream connections to the localhost.
stream_localhost on

##############################################################
# Camera config files - One for each camera.
##############################################################
camera /etc/motion/camera1-dist.conf
camera /etc/motion/camera2-dist.conf

##############################################################
# Directory to read '.conf' files for cameras.
##############################################################
; camera_dir /usr/etc/motion/conf.d

Camera conf:

###########################################################
# Configuration options specific to camera 1
############################################################
# User defined name for the camera.
camera_name room

# Numeric identifier for the camera.
camera_id 01

# The full URL of the network camera stream.
netcam_url http://192.168.0.51:8888/stream

v4l2_palette 8

netcam_keepalive on

netcam_tolerant_check on

# Image width in pixels.
; width 640

# Image height in pixels.
; height 480

framerate 25

# Text to be overlayed in the lower left corner of images
text_left Chambre

auto_brightness on

pre_capture 0

post_capture 2

event_gap 30

picture_output off

picture_quality 95

target_dir /media/disque/samba/Partage/Camera/chambre

snapshot_filename %v-%Y%m%d%H%M%S-snapshot

picture_filename %Y-%m-%d/images/%v_%Y-%m-%d_%Hh%Mm%Ss_%q

movie_filename %Y-%m-%d/%v_%Y-%m-%d_%Hh%Mm%Ss_video

Motion service status just after starting:

● motion.service - Motion detection video capture daemon
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/motion.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: deactivating (stop-sigterm) since Sun 2022-07-31 17:57:46 CEST; 1s ago
       Docs: man:motion(1)
    Process: 26215 ExecStart=/usr/bin/motion (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 26215 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
      Tasks: 5 (limit: 4452)
     Memory: 10.8M
        CPU: 402ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/motion.service
             └─26216 /usr/bin/motion

juil. 31 17:57:45 odroid systemd[1]: Started Motion detection video capture daemon.
juil. 31 17:57:46 odroid motion[26215]: [0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] conf_load: Processing thread 0 - config file /etc/motion/motion.conf
juil. 31 17:57:46 odroid motion[26215]: [0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] conf_load: Processing thread 0 - config file /etc/motion/motion.conf
juil. 31 17:57:46 odroid motion[26215]: [0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] config_camera: Processing camera config file /etc/motion/camera1-dist.conf
juil. 31 17:57:46 odroid motion[26215]: [0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] config_camera: Processing camera config file /etc/motion/camera2-dist.conf
juil. 31 17:57:46 odroid motion[26215]: [0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_startup: Logging to file (/var/log/motion/motion.log)
juil. 31 17:57:46 odroid motion[26215]: [0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] config_camera: Processing camera config file /etc/motion/camera1-dist.conf
juil. 31 17:57:46 odroid motion[26215]: [0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] config_camera: Processing camera config file /etc/motion/camera2-dist.conf
juil. 31 17:57:46 odroid motion[26215]: [0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_startup: Logging to file (/var/log/motion/motion.log)

The most odd thing is that it actually capture and write pictures on disk until it is being killed.

Final status (killed):

× motion.service - Motion detection video capture daemon
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/motion.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: failed (Result: timeout) since Sun 2022-07-31 17:59:16 CEST; 50s ago
       Docs: man:motion(1)
    Process: 26215 ExecStart=/usr/bin/motion (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 26215 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
        CPU: 1min 23.164s

juil. 31 17:57:46 odroid motion[26215]: [0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] config_camera: Processing camera config file /etc/motion/camera2-dist.conf
juil. 31 17:57:46 odroid motion[26215]: [0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_startup: Logging to file (/var/log/motion/motion.log)
juil. 31 17:57:46 odroid motion[26215]: [0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] config_camera: Processing camera config file /etc/motion/camera1-dist.conf
juil. 31 17:57:46 odroid motion[26215]: [0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] config_camera: Processing camera config file /etc/motion/camera2-dist.conf
juil. 31 17:57:46 odroid motion[26215]: [0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_startup: Logging to file (/var/log/motion/motion.log)
juil. 31 17:59:16 odroid systemd[1]: motion.service: State 'stop-sigterm' timed out. Killing.
juil. 31 17:59:16 odroid systemd[1]: motion.service: Killing process 26216 (motion) with signal SIGKILL.
juil. 31 17:59:16 odroid systemd[1]: motion.service: Killing process 26286 (ml2:chambre) with signal SIGKILL.
juil. 31 17:59:16 odroid systemd[1]: motion.service: Failed with result 'timeout'.
juil. 31 17:59:16 odroid systemd[1]: motion.service: Consumed 1min 23.164s CPU time.

I spend hours on this... anyone knows what I'm doing wrong? Thank you for your help

[lbr38]

It seems that the problem occurs only when running motion with systemd service, cause when I run motion in daemon mode with:

motion -c /etc/motion/motion.conf -b -d 3 -k ALL

Everything seems to work fine.

Any idea?

[Mr-Dave]

With the new systemctl, daemon must be specified as off for the service to work.

[lbr38]

You saved my life. Thank you.

[simmonsm]

Turning daemon off in the motion.conf solved my issue which cost me many hours!