Motion Plus on Pi5 - help please!

[micksulley]

Running bookworm on a Pi5, fully updated, with a single pi v3 camera.

I have installed MotionPlus and created /home/pi/.motionplus/motionplus.conf

Running motionplus give me this -

(.venv) pi@pi-porch:~ $ motionplus
[NTC][ALL][00:motionplus] conf_process:Processing config file /home/pi/.motionplus/motionplus.conf
[NTC][ALL][00:motionplus] log_init:Logging to syslog
[NTC][ALL][00:motionplus] log_init:MotionPlus 0.2.0-git-20240616-aaf7f72 started
[NTC][ALL][00:motionplus] log_init:Using log type (ALL) log level (NTC)
[NTC][ALL][00:motionplus] mytranslate_init:Language: English
[NTC][ALL][00:motionplus] motpls_startup:MotionPlus running in setup mode.
[NTC][STR][00:motionplus] webu_init_webcontrol:Starting webcontrol on port 8080
[NTC][STR][00:motionplus] webu_init_webcontrol:Unable to start MHD
[NTC][ENC][00:motionplus] motpls_av_init:libavcodec  version 59.37.100
[NTC][ENC][00:motionplus] motpls_av_init:libavformat version 59.27.100
[NTC][ALL][00:motionplus] main:Motionplus pid: 8547
[NTC][ALL][00:motionplus] main:No camera or sound configuration files specified.
[NTC][ALL][00:motionplus] main:Waiting for camera or sound configuration to be added via web control.
[NTC][ALL][00:motionplus] main:Motionplus devices finished
[NTC][ALL][00:motionplus] main:MotionPlus terminating

Which I believe shows that the camera is not defined. How do I define the camera? This is my current config file

; This config file was generated by motionplus 0.2.1
; Documentation:  /usr/share/doc/motionplus/motionplus_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
;*************************************************
daemon off
setup_mode on
;log_file
log_level 6
log_type ALL

;*************************************************
;*****   Camera
;*************************************************
device_name
device_id
;target_dir

;*************************************************
;*****   Source
;*************************************************
v4l2_device /dev/video0
;netcam_url

;*************************************************
;*****   Image
;*************************************************
width 640
height 480
framerate 15

;*************************************************
;*****   Overlays
;*************************************************
text_right %Y-%m-%d\n%T

;*************************************************
;*****   Method
;*************************************************
emulate_motion off
threshold 1500

;*************************************************
;*****   Masks
;*************************************************
noise_level 32
despeckle_filter EedDl

;*************************************************
;*****   Detection
;*************************************************
minimum_motion_frames 1
event_gap 60
pre_capture 3
post_capture 10

;*************************************************
;*****   Scripts
;*************************************************
on_event_start
on_event_end

;*************************************************
;*****   Picture
;*************************************************
picture_output off
picture_filename %v-%Y%m%d%H%M%S-%q

;*************************************************
;*****   Movie
;*************************************************
movie_output on
movie_max_time 120
movie_quality 45
movie_container mkv
movie_filename %v-%Y%m%d%H%M%S

;*************************************************
;*****   Web Control
;*************************************************
webcontrol_port 8080
webcontrol_localhost on
webcontrol_parms 0

;*************************************************
;*****   Web Stream
;*************************************************
stream_preview_scale 25
stream_preview_method mjpg

;*************************************************
; Device config files - One for each device.
;*************************************************
; camera /usr/etc/motionplus/camera1.conf
; camera /usr/etc/motionplus/camera2.conf
; camera /usr/etc/motionplus/camera3.conf
; sound /usr/etc/motionplus/sound1.conf

;*************************************************
; Directory to read '.conf' files for devices.
;*************************************************
; config_dir /usr/etc/motionplus/conf.d

[micksulley]

Got it running after a lot more searching :)

[kzimny]

Can you please describe how did you get it work?

[Mr-Dave]

Use AT LEAST TWO configuration files.

motionplus.conf provides the application level parameters which includes what file(s) to read to get information on the cameras.

Each camera file (as specified in the motionplus.conf) includes parameters on the camera.

The log shows

;*************************************************
; Device config files - One for each device.
;*************************************************
; camera /usr/etc/motionplus/camera1.conf
; camera /usr/etc/motionplus/camera2.conf
; camera /usr/etc/motionplus/camera3.conf
; sound /usr/etc/motionplus/sound1.conf

Which shows every one of the "sample" camera configuration files commented out (lines starting with a ';' are comments). Hence the log message saying

[NTC][ALL][00:motionplus] main:No camera or sound configuration files specified.

The solution is to uncomment one of those lines and specify the camera information in the file.