First time install works, on reboot no more image stream

[hazardlabs]

When installing RPicam using the 'sudo ./install.sh' command,RPi Cam installs and works as expected.

However as soon as I restart my Pi Zero W, I will no longer be able to view images, however the web server is still running.

Apache2 error log as follows:

[Thu Oct 19 13:22:46.592192 2017] [:error] [pid 384] [client xxx.xx.xxx.xx:16395] PHP Warning: file_get_contents(status_mjpeg.txt): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/status_mjpeg.php on line 6, referer: www.example.net

*I've removed my ip and domain name from the error log

If I re-run the installer, keeping all settings the same I can get the images back, until I then need to reboot the system again.

The only difference when rerunning the installer is this message in the terminal:

cp: not writing through dangling symlink '/var/www/status_mjpeg.txt'

Any ideas to what may be causing this behavior?

[hazardlabs]

I can get the images to reappear if I manually run the ./start.sh script in my home folder

[roberttidey]

Are you sure you have autostart set to yes during the install. It sounds like the raspimjpeg process is not starting on boot.

This would mean no status_mjpeg.txt is being created and explains the symlink error.

After a boot with autostart yes then if you do a ps -A command you should see 2 raspimjpeg processes in the list

[hazardlabs]

I can confirm that Autostart was set to yes, both on the original install and subsequent installs.

On boot up I have the following output after a ps -A command:

PID TTY TIME CMD 1 ? 00:00:03 systemd 2 ? 00:00:00 kthreadd 3 ? 00:00:00 ksoftirqd/0 4 ? 00:00:00 kworker/0:0 5 ? 00:00:00 kworker/0:0H 6 ? 00:00:00 kworker/u2:0 7 ? 00:00:00 lru-add-drain 8 ? 00:00:00 kdevtmpfs 9 ? 00:00:00 netns 10 ? 00:00:00 khungtaskd 11 ? 00:00:00 oom_reaper 12 ? 00:00:00 writeback 13 ? 00:00:00 kcompactd0 14 ? 00:00:00 crypto 15 ? 00:00:00 bioset 16 ? 00:00:00 kblockd 17 ? 00:00:00 watchdogd 18 ? 00:00:00 kworker/0:1 19 ? 00:00:00 rpciod 20 ? 00:00:00 xprtiod 21 ? 00:00:00 kswapd0 22 ? 00:00:00 nfsiod 32 ? 00:00:00 kthrotld 33 ? 00:00:00 bioset 34 ? 00:00:00 bioset 35 ? 00:00:00 bioset 36 ? 00:00:00 bioset 37 ? 00:00:00 bioset 38 ? 00:00:00 bioset 39 ? 00:00:00 bioset 40 ? 00:00:00 bioset 41 ? 00:00:00 bioset 42 ? 00:00:00 bioset 43 ? 00:00:00 bioset 44 ? 00:00:00 bioset 45 ? 00:00:00 bioset 46 ? 00:00:00 bioset 47 ? 00:00:00 bioset 48 ? 00:00:00 bioset 49 ? 00:00:00 bioset 50 ? 00:00:00 bioset 51 ? 00:00:00 bioset 52 ? 00:00:00 bioset 53 ? 00:00:00 bioset 54 ? 00:00:00 bioset 55 ? 00:00:00 bioset 56 ? 00:00:00 bioset 57 ? 00:00:00 iscsi_eh 58 ? 00:00:00 dwc_otg 59 ? 00:00:00 DWC Notificatio 60 ? 00:00:00 VCHIQ-0 61 ? 00:00:00 VCHIQr-0 62 ? 00:00:00 VCHIQs-0 63 ? 00:00:00 VCHIQka-0 64 ? 00:00:00 SMIO 65 ? 00:00:00 kworker/0:2 66 ? 00:00:00 irq/86-mmc1 67 ? 00:00:00 kworker/0:3 68 ? 00:00:00 bioset 69 ? 00:00:00 mmcqd/0 70 ? 00:00:00 ipv6_addrconf 82 ? 00:00:00 kworker/u2:1 88 ? 00:00:00 systemd-journal 107 ? 00:00:00 f2fs_gc-179:2 111 ? 00:00:00 f2fs_flush-179: 125 ? 00:00:00 systemd-udevd 144 ? 00:00:00 kworker/0:1H 160 ? 00:00:00 cfg80211 162 ? 00:00:00 brcmf_wq/mmc1:0 163 ? 00:00:00 brcmf_wdog/mmc1 182 ? 00:00:00 kworker/0:4 191 ? 00:00:00 systemd-timesyn 212 ? 00:00:00 thd 214 ? 00:00:00 cron 226 ? 00:00:00 rsyslogd 231 ? 00:00:00 systemd-logind 235 ? 00:00:00 dbus-daemon 241 ? 00:00:00 rngd 295 ? 00:00:00 sshd 340 tty1 00:00:00 agetty 372 ? 00:00:00 wpa_supplicant 374 ? 00:00:00 apache2 375 ? 00:00:00 kworker/u2:2 389 ? 00:00:00 apache2 391 ? 00:00:00 apache2 392 ? 00:00:00 apache2 395 ? 00:00:00 apache2 397 ? 00:00:00 apache2 406 ? 00:00:00 dhclient 426 ? 00:00:00 apache2 427 ? 00:00:00 apache2 474 ? 00:00:00 sshd 479 ? 00:00:00 systemd 482 ? 00:00:00 (sd-pam) 489 ? 00:00:00 sshd 492 pts/0 00:00:00 bash 501 pts/0 00:00:00 ps

As can be seen, no raspimjpeg in the list.

What is modified on the system to enable the autostart? I want to confirm that the settings are present, and if not manually add them and see the result.

Thank you for your help thus far.

[roberttidey]

When autostart is set to yes then the installer adds start up code /etc/rc.local which should be executed during boot.

This file should contain a section like `#START RASPIMJPEG SECTION

mkdir -p /dev/shm/mjpeg

chown www-data:www-data /dev/shm/mjpeg

chmod 777 /dev/shm/mjpeg

sleep 4;su -c 'raspimjpeg > /dev/null 2>&1 &' www-data

if [ -e /etc/debian_version ]; then

sleep 4;su -c 'php /var/www/schedule.php > /dev/null 2>&1 &' www-data

else

sleep 4;su -s '/bin/bash' -c 'php /var/www/schedule.php > /dev/null 2>&1 &' w$

fi

END RASPIMJPEG SECTION

`

[hazardlabs]

Doing a nano /etc/rc.local gives:

START RASPIMJPEG SECTION

mkdir -p /dev/shm/mjpeg chown www-data:www-data /dev/shm/mjpeg chmod 777 /dev/shm/mjpeg sleep 4;su -c 'raspimjpeg > /dev/null 2>&1 &' www-data if [ -e /etc/debian_version ]; then sleep 4;su -c 'php /var/www/schedule.php > /dev/null 2>&1 &' www-data else sleep 4;su -s '/bin/bash' -c 'php /var/www/schedule.php > /dev/null 2>&1 &' w$ fi

END RASPIMJPEG SECTION

exit 0

So the code has been added correctly.

My Raspbian version is Stretch, so could it be to do with the latest updates in stretch?

[roberttidey]

I did an install with the September rasbian stretch and mine starts up Ok.

Your OS set up is either not executing the rc.local for some reason or some reports are that it is run earlier in the boot cycle. I am not quite sure how that could affect things.

One could put a printf or echo command in the rc.local to see if it was getting executed. eg. echo 'ok' > /home/pi/rcok

rc.local is going out of fashion a bit now in favour of systemd so I may have to consider using that in the future.

[hazardlabs]

I think I've found the fault

I had to add #!/bin/bash to the top of the file as it is blank on a fresh install of raspbian.

So now my script looks like:

!/bin/bash

START RASPIMJPEG SECTION

mkdir -p /dev/shm/mjpeg chown www-data:www-data /dev/shm/mjpeg chmod 777 /dev/shm/mjpeg sleep 4;su -c 'raspimjpeg > /dev/null 2>&1 &' www-data if [ -e /etc/debian_version ]; then sleep 4;su -c 'php /var/www/schedule.php > /dev/null 2>&1 &' www-data else sleep 4;su -s '/bin/bash' -c 'php /var/www/schedule.php > /dev/null 2>&1 &' w$ fi

END RASPIMJPEG SECTION

exit 0

And works on reboot. I hope this helps anyone else out

[roberttidey]

OK. Thanks for that.

I'll check further as the #!/bin/bash has been there for me

[hazardlabs]

It may be because I'm using the raspberrypi-ua-netinst https://github.com/FooDeas/raspberrypi-ua-netinst for my host install as I've squeezed everything onto a 2GB SD card that I had flying around.

Whereas Raspbian lite still needed more than 2G.

Its still uses the Raspbian Repositories for the main installation so I would have assumed it would have been setup similarly.

Are you happy for me to close this issue, or wait until your findings? I'll be setting up another Rpi later today using the standard Raspbian Lite (Stretch) so can confirm the contents of the rc.local file then if you wish.

[roberttidey]

Close if your check is OK.

This could be worth a note in wiki. Or I could maybe check in install if file is OK, but is probably better to move to systemd anyway. It is just thta is a bit more complicated to set up.

[hazardlabs]

So in conclusion, a standard Raspbain(Stretch) install has a rc.local file with the following:

!/bin/sh -e

Which makes RPi cam launch sucessfully