Zoneminder and mysql after power outage

[Davey]

I have an old PC, (Pentium III) running Ubuntu 8.04 and whose main
purpose is to run Zoneminder. It has worked almost flawlessly, with an
occasional need to repair the mysql databases. 'Occasional' means two
or three times in about 12 years.
Last month, there was a power cut during a storm, and since then, the
database hasn't worked. Zoneminder operates in real time, but nothing is
recorded by the database, and the usual mysql repair instructions
appear to work fine, but nothing changes. When I look at a Monitor's
event listing, it shows hundreds of event records with their date and
time stamps, but with no data, as though the index is good but there is
information available beyond. I can Force a fault, but I cannot cancel
it, and it does not appear in the events listing.
I am by no means an mysql programmer; when installing the Zoneminder,
back in 2010, I followed a script written by somebody who had done it
before. He is now dead, so I can't ask him for help. I have tried
researching mysql problems, but the responses all talk a language way
above my pay grade, and I have not found one answer that appears to
reference what I have. The nearest refer to recreating an old database.
I am not worried about recreating old data, I just want to restore the
full operation of Zoneminder. A new blank database using the existing
Monitors would be just fine. I can describe to anybody who can help
what files I have and where they are.

Any help much appreciated, at a programming level that I can follow.

[Chris Green]

Post by Davey
I have an old PC, (Pentium III) running Ubuntu 8.04 and whose main
purpose is to run Zoneminder. It has worked almost flawlessly, with an
occasional need to repair the mysql databases. 'Occasional' means two
or three times in about 12 years.
Last month, there was a power cut during a storm, and since then, the
database hasn't worked. Zoneminder operates in real time, but nothing is
recorded by the database, and the usual mysql repair instructions
appear to work fine, but nothing changes. When I look at a Monitor's
event listing, it shows hundreds of event records with their date and
time stamps, but with no data, as though the index is good but there is
information available beyond. I can Force a fault, but I cannot cancel
it, and it does not appear in the events listing.
I am by no means an mysql programmer; when installing the Zoneminder,
back in 2010, I followed a script written by somebody who had done it
before. He is now dead, so I can't ask him for help. I have tried
researching mysql problems, but the responses all talk a language way
above my pay grade, and I have not found one answer that appears to
reference what I have. The nearest refer to recreating an old database.
I am not worried about recreating old data, I just want to restore the
full operation of Zoneminder. A new blank database using the existing
Monitors would be just fine. I can describe to anybody who can help
what files I have and where they are.
Any help much appreciated, at a programming level that I can follow.

It's pretty quiet here on Usenet nowadays, most people seem to have
emigrated elsewhere.

I *might* be able to help, I'm a long-term Linux user and I can work
with simple database issues (though I mostly use sqlite rather than
mysql).

I'm happy to continue here (i.e. on the newsgroup) or you can E-Mail
me direct with more information. My E-Mail address here will work.

[Davey]

On Sun, 1 Sep 2024 10:47:47 +0100

Post by Chris Green

Post by Davey
I have an old PC, (Pentium III) running Ubuntu 8.04 and whose main
purpose is to run Zoneminder. It has worked almost flawlessly, with
an occasional need to repair the mysql databases. 'Occasional'
means two or three times in about 12 years.
Last month, there was a power cut during a storm, and since then,
the database hasn't worked. Zoneminder operates in real time, but
nothing is recorded by the database, and the usual mysql repair
instructions appear to work fine, but nothing changes. When I look
at a Monitor's event listing, it shows hundreds of event records
with their date and time stamps, but with no data, as though the
index is good but there is information available beyond. I can
Force a fault, but I cannot cancel it, and it does not appear in
the events listing. I am by no means an mysql programmer; when
installing the Zoneminder, back in 2010, I followed a script
written by somebody who had done it before. He is now dead, so I
can't ask him for help. I have tried researching mysql problems,
but the responses all talk a language way above my pay grade, and I
have not found one answer that appears to reference what I have.
The nearest refer to recreating an old database. I am not worried
about recreating old data, I just want to restore the full
operation of Zoneminder. A new blank database using the existing
Monitors would be just fine. I can describe to anybody who can
help what files I have and where they are.
Any help much appreciated, at a programming level that I can follow.

It's pretty quiet here on Usenet nowadays, most people seem to have
emigrated elsewhere.
I *might* be able to help, I'm a long-term Linux user and I can work
with simple database issues (though I mostly use sqlite rather than
mysql).
I'm happy to continue here (i.e. on the newsgroup) or you can E-Mail
me direct with more information. My E-Mail address here will work.

Thanks, Chris, much appreciated. I tried this morning, and concluded
that was getting nowhere fast, so made my plea for help. I am going out
for the afternoon, but I will try to put together a more informed
message this evening.
I agree that this ng is quiet, but hopefully that also means that the
'noise' will be reduced.
Cheers and thanks.

[Grant Taylor]

Post by Davey
Any help much appreciated, at a programming level that I can follow.

If possible I'd do a physical to virtual conversion of this system as
working in a VM will make a lot of things easier -> faster.

What error messages do you have? Where are they?

Can you chase what might be causing any given error? Can you fix it?

My experience has been that you want to chase errors backwards to the
source and fix it. Once the source is fixed, things downstream tend to
be happy. Maybe you'll have a new and different error that needs to be
fixed.

[Davey]

On Sun, 1 Sep 2024 11:54:31 -0500

Post by Grant Taylor

Post by Davey
Any help much appreciated, at a programming level that I can
follow.

If possible I'd do a physical to virtual conversion of this system as
working in a VM will make a lot of things easier -> faster.

Easy for you to say. See the second half of my sentence above.

Post by Grant Taylor
What error messages do you have? Where are they?

I would not know where to look for any mysql error messages. I do not
know mysql.
I will see if I can find any in Zoneminder, if I can find any
Zoneminder logs.

Post by Grant Taylor
Can you chase what might be causing any given error? Can you fix it?

The symptoms are: 1. The Source entry in one or more Monitor lines
in the Console screen goes yellow instead of the normal green. 2. The
listing for all Monitors has, as described earlier, no data in the
displayed data matrix.
Disabling and then re-enabling a yellow monitor, or stopping and
starting Zoneminder, turns the dead monitors green. But still no Event
data is recorded, or even availble.

[Davey]

On Sun, 1 Sep 2024 10:31:30 +0100

Post by Davey
I have an old PC, (Pentium III) running Ubuntu 8.04 and whose main
purpose is to run Zoneminder. It has worked almost flawlessly, with an
occasional need to repair the mysql databases. 'Occasional' means two
or three times in about 12 years.
Last month, there was a power cut during a storm, and since then, the
database hasn't worked. Zoneminder operates in real time, but nothing
is recorded by the database, and the usual mysql repair instructions
appear to work fine, but nothing changes. When I look at a Monitor's
event listing, it shows hundreds of event records with their date and
time stamps, but with no data, as though the index is good but there
is information available beyond. I can Force a fault, but I cannot
cancel it, and it does not appear in the events listing.
I am by no means an mysql programmer; when installing the Zoneminder,
back in 2010, I followed a script written by somebody who had done it
before. He is now dead, so I can't ask him for help. I have tried
researching mysql problems, but the responses all talk a language way
above my pay grade, and I have not found one answer that appears to
reference what I have. The nearest refer to recreating an old
database. I am not worried about recreating old data, I just want to
restore the full operation of Zoneminder. A new blank database using
the existing Monitors would be just fine. I can describe to anybody
who can help what files I have and where they are.
Any help much appreciated, at a programming level that I can follow.

Solved. The answer was to perform the mysqlcheck procedure from the
actual PC. I have no idea why, it had worked before via ssh, but maybe
this was a different level of fault. I had certainly nor seen this
behaviour before.