Debian 13 Trixie with Zoneminder 1.36.35 or Zoneminder 1.37.x

Notice: These procedure are for a new install of Zoneminder 1.36.35 on Debian 13 Trixie.

Debian, unlike Ubuntu, does not install sudo with the initial setup. While you can log in as root, a user with sudo authority is recommended.

To enable sudo: In a terminal,become root with su root. Enter your root password. Install sudo with:

apt install sudo

Add the user account to the group sudo with:

/sbin/adduser username sudo 

where username is your user account. Exit root then log out and then log in with the same user.

Timezone: it is recommended you set your specific timesone with:

sudo timedatectl set-timezone America/New_York

Of course use your timezone in place of America/New_York.

Note: This is an install procedure for new installations! Upgraders are encouraged to search the Zoneminder Forum for upgrade information!

To begin, install Debian 13 Trixie along with Apache2, PHP and Mariadb (recommended). A quick way to do this is:

sudo apt install apache2 mariadb-server php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql

Add timezone to PHP

nano /etc/php/8.4/apache2/php.ini

Search for [Date] (Ctrl + w then type Date and press Enter) and make changes as follows for your time zone

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = America/New_York

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Install Zoneminder

sudo apt install zoneminder --install-recommends -y

Create Zoneminder database in Mariadb (Note: this also creates the default Zoneminder user and permissions in MySQL)

mysql -uroot -p < /usr/share/zoneminder/db/zm_create.sql

mysql -uroot -p -e "grant all on zm.* to 'zmuser'@localhost identified by 'zmpass';"

mysqladmin -uroot -p reload

Set permissions of /etc/zm/zm.conf to root:www-data 740

sudo chmod 740 /etc/zm/zm.conf

sudo chown root:www-data /etc/zm/zm.conf

Create a new user if you plan to use local (USB or capture card) cameras.

sudo adduser www-data video

Replace the zoneminder.conf file (The API functions were not included in the Trixie Distro version) Make a copy of the original file

cp /etc/apache2/conf-availible/zoneminder.conf /etc/apache2/conf-availible/zoneminder.conf.org

Edit the zoneminder.conf

sudo nano /etc/apache2/conf-availible/zoneminder.conf

Replace the original contents with the following:

# Remember to enable cgi mod (i.e. "a2enmod cgi").
ScriptAlias /zm/cgi-bin "/usr/lib/zoneminder/cgi-bin"
<Directory "/usr/lib/zoneminder/cgi-bin">
    Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
</Directory>


# Order matters. This alias must come first.
Alias /zm/cache /var/cache/zoneminder/cache
<Directory /var/cache/zoneminder/cache>
    Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
    <IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
        # Apache 2.4
        Require all granted
    </IfModule>
</Directory>

Alias /zm /usr/share/zoneminder/www
<Directory /usr/share/zoneminder/www>
  Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks
  <IfModule mod_dir.c>
    DirectoryIndex index.php
  </IfModule>
</Directory>

# For better visibility, the following directives have been migrated from the
# default .htaccess files included with the CakePHP project.
# Parameters not set here are inherited from the parent directive above.
<Directory "/usr/share/zoneminder/www/api">
   RewriteEngine on
   RewriteRule ^$ app/webroot/ [L]
   RewriteRule (.*) app/webroot/$1 [L]
   RewriteBase /zm/api
</Directory>

<Directory "/usr/share/zoneminder/www/api/app">
   RewriteEngine on
   RewriteRule ^$ webroot/ [L]
   RewriteRule (.*) webroot/$1 [L]
   RewriteBase /zm/api
</Directory>

<Directory "/usr/share/zoneminder/www/api/app/webroot">
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]
    RewriteBase /zm/api
</Directory>

Ctrl+o Enter to save

CTRL+x to exit

Enable and start Zoneminder

sudo systemctl enable zoneminder.service
sudo systemctl start zoneminder 

Enable Apache Modules

sudo a2enconf zoneminder
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo a2enmod headers
sudo a2enmod expires
sudo a2enmod cgi

Restart Apache

sudo service apache2 reload

Remember to set your timezone in Zoneminder - Options