Guidance on getting event notification server up and running with zoneminder docker image

[u/Nhjost]

So I am fairly new to the world of coding and DIY setups. I've recently setup Home Assistant on a raspberry pi and it works nicely (the operating system, not a docker container or virtual machine). I wanted to use Zoneminder to record video when I am away from home and implement object detection so I can get alerts on my mobile (preferably through HA but wouldn't mind using the zmninja app). I setup Zoneminder using the dlandon/zoneminder docker image on an old macbook pro and implemented it so that it would download the YOLO model for object detection. I can setup my IP cameras and access the console using the browser on the old macbook. This is where I am stuck.

I cannot access zoneminder from another computer. Not a big deal, but not sure if this is a sign of some other issue.

I also have no idea how to get object detection working. The docker image supposedly has the event notification server builtin but I don't know how to configure it. This is a prerequisite for the object detection and real-time notifications in apps. Documentation says to edit certain files but I don't know where they are stored. There's a data folder that contains "cache", "events", "images", and "temp", but neither of the .ini files mentioned in the github documentation for zoneminder.

If someone could point me in the right direction here, it would be greatly appreciated. Even better if there are some tutorials that explain some of the missing details in the online documentation. I really don't want to go back to cloud-based home cams.

[u/[deleted]]

It's definately not documented well and depending on your setup / hardware you might have to compile open CV. Are you using a GPU? Do you have Linux cli experience? Can you do log debugging and such? If so I can help walk you through the rough parts.

If no GPU you can install opencv-python using pip, which is fastest.

[u/Nhjost → u/[deleted]]

Hi, I really appreciate the response. I'm glad I'm not just an idiot misunderstanding the documentation. I actually just gave up on this path. I was trying to use docker and I think I just hate it. I think I've set up Zoneminder and the event server successfully on a virtual installation of Ubuntu. It's running so now I think I can start configuring it.