Debian 13 Trixie with Zoneminder 1.36.35 or Zoneminder 1.37.x
Debian 13 with Zoneminder 1.36.35 from Debian Repo
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.
Become root with the command:
sudo su
Timezone: it is recommended you set your specific timesone with:
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:
apt install apache2 mariadb-server php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql systemd-timesyncd
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
apt install zoneminder --install-recommends -y
Create Zoneminder database in Mariadb (Note: this also creates the default Zoneminder user and permissions in Mariadb)
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
chmod 740 /etc/zm/zm.conf chown root:www-data /etc/zm/zm.conf
Create a new user if you plan to use local (USB or capture card) cameras.
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-available/zoneminder.conf /etc/apache2/conf-available/zoneminder.conf.org
Edit the zoneminder.conf
nano /etc/apache2/conf-availible/zoneminder.conf
Replace the original contents with the following:
# This file is recommended by the developer to fix the Zoneminder display not working. 05SEP25
# PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS FILE IS INTENDED FOR GUIDANCE ONLY AND MAY NOT BE APPROPRIATE FOR YOUR DISTRIBUTION
#
# This is for use with debian/ubuntu based distributions
#
# Sample configuration file for running ZoneMinder as name based virtual host
# Some values may need to manually adjusted to suit your setup
#
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
DocumentRoot "/usr/share/zoneminder/www"
# Order matters. This alias must come first.
Alias /zm/cache "/var/cache/zoneminder"
# IF you aren't using /zm in the url to access ZM then uncomment the following line as well
# Alias /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>
<IfModule !mod_authz_core.c>
# Apache 2.2
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</IfModule>
</Directory>
ScriptAlias /zm/cgi-bin "/usr/lib/zoneminder/cgi-bin/"
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin "/usr/lib/zoneminder/cgi-bin/"
<Directory "/usr/lib/zoneminder/cgi-bin/">
Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
AllowOverride All
<IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
# Apache 2.4
Require all granted
</IfModule>
<IfModule !mod_authz_core.c>
# Apache 2.2
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</IfModule>
</Directory>
Alias /zm "/usr/share/zoneminder/www"
<Directory "/usr/share/zoneminder/www">
Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
<IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
# Apache 2.4
Require all granted
</IfModule>
<IfModule !mod_authz_core.c>
# Apache 2.2
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</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>
# Use the first option to have Apache logs written to the general log
# directory, or the second to have them written to the regular Apache
# directory (you may have to change the path to that used on your system)
ErrorLog /var/log/zm/apache-error.log
#ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/zm-error.log
# Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
# alert, emerg.
LogLevel warn
# Use the first option to have Apache logs written to the general log
# directory, or the second to have them written to the regular Apache
# directory (you may have to change the path to that used on your system)
CustomLog /var/log/zm/apache-access.log combined
#CustomLog /var/log/httpd/zm-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
Ctrl+o Enter to save
CTRL+x to exit
Enable and start Zoneminder
systemctl enable zoneminder.service systemctl start zoneminder
Enable Apache Modules
a2enconf zoneminder a2enmod rewrite a2enmod headers a2enmod expires a2enmod cgi
Restart Apache
service apache2 reload
Remember to set your timezone in Zoneminder - Options
Debian 13 with Zoneminder 1.37.x from zmrepo
Install Zoneminder Development Branch 1.37.x on Debian 13
You will have to install sudo and add the user to the sudoers file.
Become root with
su
Install sudo
apt install sudo
Then add the user
/sbin/adduser username sudo
I recommend rebooting at this point but a log out and back in also works.
Install Apache2, PHP and your favorite database (Mariadb recommended). A quick way to install LAMP is:
apt install apache2 mariadb-server php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql lsb-release gnupg2
Become root with sudo su before running this!
Shell script file contents:
#!/bin/sh clear read -p "This script installs ZoneMinder 1.37.x on Debian 12 with LAMP (MySQL or Mariadb) installed... This script must be run as root! Press Enter to continue or Ctrl + c to quit" nothing clear apt install -y lsb-release gnupg2 echo "deb https://zmrepo.zoneminder.com/debian/master "`lsb_release -c -s`"/" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/zoneminder.list # The key is stored in the deprecated keyring trusted.gpg. # wget -O - https://zmrepo.zoneminder.com/debian/archive-keyring.gpg | sudo apt-key add - wget -O- https://zmrepo.zoneminder.com/debian/archive-keyring.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmour -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/zmrepo.gpg read -p "Warning! Check above to insure the line says OK. If not the GPG signing key was not installed and you will need to figure out why before continuing. Press enter to continue" nothing apt update clear apt install -y zoneminder systemctl enable zoneminder service zoneminder start adduser www-data video a2enconf zoneminder a2enmod rewrite a2enmod headers a2enmod expires service apache2 reload clear read -p "Install complete. Open Zoneminder/Options and set the timezone. Press enter to continue" nothing clear
Copy the contents of the script, open a terminal and run:
nano zm-install
Paste the contents of the script into Nano
Then:
Ctrl + o Ctrl + x
Next run:
chmod 755 zm-install
Start the script by entering:
./zm-install
Follow the prompts. Things are pretty simple. The timezone is now set in Zoneminder/Options.
Good Luck!
