USB HDD for storage

[Brett K]

I am still pretty new to all this. I am using RTSP to PI3 with external HDD for storage. I am missing something. the organization of the motioneyeos is not familiar, and I am having trouble identifying the external path. I can SSH into the PI3 fine and also pull up the OS in the browser.  Thanks!

[StarbaseSSD]

ssh to pi (admin and if needed changed password)

run command

df -h

Look for lines like

/dev/sda1               252.0M     48.2M    203.9M  19% /data/media/sda1
/dev/sda1               252.0M     48.2M    203.9M  19% /home/ftp/storage/sda1
/dev/sda2                14.6G      2.6G     11.3G  19% /data/media/sda2
/dev/sda2                14.6G      2.6G     11.3G  19% /home/ftp/storage/sda2

If you don't see something similar, the USB drive is not being seen.

The USB drive partition(s) need to be linux (ext type) or fat32/exfat.

I posted in another message the paths to look for:

/data/media/<partition> and /home/ftp/storage/<partition>

If you don't see the /dev/sdaX lines in the results of

df -h

then the drive is not seen or auto mounted.

The reason it's not seen could be one of many things. Check the

df -h first.

[Brett K]

I didn't know df -h. I had tried the usb specific versions and didn't see anything. I had no sdaX nor anything the correct size. I pulled the drive, used my mac to format to Exfat. Now I can see the drive using df -h as /dev/sda1, but it says that the drive only has 196.9 available (2T drive). Do I need to expand the file system on that drive? Not sure how to do that as on Pi you usually do that through raspi-config. Maybe not needed. 

I have navigated to /data/media and added folders for each camera. If I turn on UPload Media, it gets confusing because I don't see why I would use ftp server on an attached drive. Maybe I don't turn on upload media files?

[StarbaseSSD]

When you formatted the drive as exfat on the Mac, how did you do it? What commands? You want to force partition to be the full drive. I'll fire up a Mac shortly to get you instructions...

For storage, you don't use FTP, you use Storage Device "Custom Path" and Root Directory would be

/data/media/sda1/camera_name

The Upload Files is to store on another system, like a NAS, Windows share, GDrive, etc...

[Brett K]

Dude/dudette, your responsiveness and clarity of answers are top-shelf.  Thank you!

[StarbaseSSD]

I am a minion of Felonius Gru. You may know me as "Kevin"...

I take it you resolved your issue?

[Brett K]

Nope. Ever since I tried to set the video file st I haven't been able to get video on either camera. Left is wyze 2 (rtsp is on and I can see image from app on phone) and right is amcrest 410 (also working and can see through app. Suggestions on what I might be doing wrong?

[StarbaseSSD]

Lower the resolution and frame rate. 1280x720  and 5 frames per second, and if the camera can be forced to output the lower resolution & frame rate, I would do that to match. What kind of network? WiFi or Ethernet? 

[Brett K]

I did as you suggested, and it hasn't impacted the function of the camera. Maybe I have screwed up the video device setting? Showing a few frame grabs from the Wyze mobile app froma which I based my settings. 

[StarbaseSSD]

Username & password applicable?  Case sensitive.

URL looks correct (same as iSpy database for the RTSP: Wyze V2 

[Brett K]

it isn't letting me editing the url?

[Brett K]

I deleted and re-added camera. First time I know that when I added the Wyze camera I got an image (before messing with the storage). Now when I add the camera, the connection is refused. 

[StarbaseSSD]

Something wrong with username or password. Both are case sensitive.

[Brett K]

so that was weird. I can see the user:pwd in the provided rtsp address but it wouldn't take. then I clicked in a different line and it worked. I get an image now. 

however, I am not so lucky with my amcrest ad410. In the amcrest app, you add a password for the camera. Is the username the same as the username for the amcrest account? So far, that isn't working. I have taken the rtsp directly from the amcrest website: https://support.amcrest.com/hc/en-us/articles/360059369211-Accessing-Amcrest-Smart-Home-Products-Using-RTSP, which provides this example:URL: rtsp://admin:password@IPAddress:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0&authbasic=64.

I have tried the following two version: 

rtsp://IPAddress:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0&authbasic=64

rtsp://IPAddress:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0

with the username of the account and the password for the camera, but neither work. any suggestions here?

[StarbaseSSD]

You don't want to add the user & password to the URL.

There are 2 recommended URLs on the iSpy database:

https://www.ispyconnect.com/camera/amcrest

rtsp://ip_address:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1?subtype=0

or

rtsp://ip_address/

Use the username and password boxes for the correct info.

[Brett K]

neither of those variants work, suggesting that it is a username/password issue. Again, does anyone know when provided username and password for the AD410 camera, do you use the same username for the account? One is NOT set in the camera specifically when you add the password for the camera. 

[StarbaseSSD]

Out of curiosity, did you try leaving the username box blank, and only using the password box?

[Brett K]

#$%$#&#%^&$%&#$%

so no, the blank in the username won't work, but "admin" will (with the camera password)!

friggin fraggin frankly fidget

[StarbaseSSD]

SoooOOOooooo....

Both cameras back active?

What if you reboot?

[Brett K]

immediately after reboot it was fine. But since then, I lost the Wyze camera connection but not the Amcrest. I can confirm that images were being captured by motion trigger so storage works. 

[StarbaseSSD]

MotionEye is still recording both cameras, or only the Amcrest?

[Brett K]

once the wyze went offline it was no longer recording. I feel like I would have to delete the camera and re-add it. Not sure why it stopped working. Amcrest still online and working/recording. 

[StarbaseSSD]

Start over clean. Get both cameras working without the USB drive installed. Get it working through several reboots and 1 day.

Let's get the cameras working first..

Once you confirm cameras working, then install the USB drive and we'll get it working.

[Brett K]

OK - shutdown and unplugged USB. rebooted. tried to add back Wyzecam. No joy. I can access the wyzecam from the wyzecam app. I can see what all the components of the rstp loggin are but motioneye says connection refused. I am back to where I was several days ago, when it finally snuck by the goalie when I happened to click on a different line and it logged in. do I need to reboot the wyzecam?

[StarbaseSSD]

I would start over with a clean image.

Then get the cameras working stable

Then add in the USB Drive
I don't know what you did before to get the Wyze working.

[StarbaseSSD]

Off to bed, early appts tomorrow.

[Brett K]

I flashed motionEyeOS  dev20201026 again. set up ME and added the Amcrest camera - no problem. I still cannot add the Wyze camera. I have the camera on the Wyze app so I know the settings. I have confirmed that my data entry is in the same format as from iSpy. 

[StarbaseSSD]

Other things I would check:

Is the latest firmware on the Wyze?

Does the Wyze work if you connect to it first?

Can you connect to the Wyze using HTTP instead of RTSP?

[Brett K]

I never really figured out the wyze cam. I might just need to get a different unit for this application, so I will come back to it. 

[Brett K]

so I have reformatted the drive on a raspian pi and confirmed that it could be mounted. However, when I boot into MeOS, I don't see the drive by df -h:

[root@XXXXXX media]# df -h
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root               213.0M    187.0M     11.0M  94% /
devtmpfs                341.6M         0    341.6M   0% /dev
tmpfs                   374.1M     16.0K    374.1M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs                   374.1M      1.2M    372.9M   0% /tmp
/dev/mmcblk0p1           29.9M     15.6M     14.3M  52% /boot
/dev/mmcblk0p3           28.2G     62.5M     26.7G   0% /data
/dev/mmcblk0p3           28.2G     62.5M     26.7G   0% /home/ftp/sdcard
/dev/mmcblk0p3           28.2G     62.5M     26.7G   0% /home/ftp/storage
overlay                  28.2G     62.5M     26.7G   0% /usr
overlay                  28.2G     62.5M     26.7G   0% /var/log
overlay                  28.2G     62.5M     26.7G   0% /var/lib

But I do see it by fdisk -l:

Device     Start        End    Sectors  Size Type

/dev/sda1   2048 3907028991 3907026944  1.8T Linux filesystem

I am not sure how to gain access to the full USB disk at this point. When point to the location for file storage by /dev/sda1 or /data/media/sda1, it says 0.0G available

On Monday, May 16, 2022 at 10:56:35 AM UTC-4 StarbaseSSD wrote:

ssh to pi (admin and if needed changed password)

run command

df -h

Look for lines like

/dev/sda1               252.0M     48.2M    203.9M  19% /data/media/sda1
/dev/sda1               252.0M     48.2M    203.9M  19% /home/ftp/storage/sda1
/dev/sda2                14.6G      2.6G     11.3G  19% /data/media/sda2
/dev/sda2                14.6G      2.6G     11.3G  19% /home/ftp/storage/sda2

If you don't see something similar, the USB drive is not being seen.

The USB drive partition(s) need to be linux (ext type) or fat32/exfat.

I posted in another message the paths to look for:

/data/media/<partition> and /home/ftp/storage/<partition>

If you don't see the /dev/sdaX lines in the results of

df -h

then the drive is not seen or auto mounted.

The reason it's not seen could be one of many things. Check the

df -h first.

On Monday, May 16, 2022 at 10:42:02 AM UTC-4 bkaufm...@gmail.com wrote:

I am still pretty new to all this. I am using RTSP to PI3 with external HDD for storage. I am missing something. the organization of the motioneyeos is not familiar, and I am having trouble identifying the external path. I can SSH into the PI3 fine and also pull up the OS in the browser.  Thanks!

[Brett K]

I currently only have 28.2G of my 1.8T partition available. Can anyone help me with this?

[StarbaseSSD]

If you are running motionEyeOS, ssh in and run the command

> mount /dev/sda1 /data/media/sda1

If it doesn't report an error, then run

> df -h | grep sda1

and post the results here

[Brett K]

mount: mounting /dev/sda1 on /data/media/sda1 failed: Invalid argument

[StarbaseSSD]

What did you format the USB drive as? NTFS, exfat/fat32, something else?

[Brett K]

this drive was partitioned on RPI then  used sudo mkfs.exfat /dev/sda1. It didn't show up in df -h, and mount didn't work because it wasn't in fstab on that RPI. I am not sure were to go from here. 

[Dewey3]

I might be wrong or do not have the exact sequence as I am not at home at the moment, but I believe after formatting, you have to get the drive UID and manually add that to fstab.  That's what I have to do with my drives ti get them to auto mount.

Dewey

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[StarbaseSSD]

Normally, with motionEyeOS it auto mounts on discovery at boot, and upon insertion. RPiOS needs a mount command or added to fstab...

[Brett K]

So that was what I tried to test. I am getting files saved to the indicated file, but not getting access to the whole drive. 

[StarbaseSSD]

On that Pi that you formatted it on, insert the USB drive and run

> sudo mkdir /media/test

> sudo mount /dev/sda1 /media/test

> df -h

what does it show for sda1?

I just did another USB drive.

On a Raspberry Pi OS on a Pi4-8GB I put it in.

I ran

> dmesg

it showed as /dev/sdb

I then ran the following commands:

> sudo fdisk /dev/sdb

> p

showed 3 partitions, delete the partitions

> d

> 1

> d

> 2

> d

> 3

> F

Should show drive free space

> n

> 1

> [enter]

> [enter]

> w

Partitioned. Create exfat file system

> sudo mkfs.exfat /dev/sdb1

took drive out

put into live (turned on) motioneyeOS Pi

waited 30 seconds

> df -h

shows /dev/sda1 mounted as  /data/media/sda1 and

/dev/sda1 mounted as /home/ftp/storage/sda1 as full drive size.

[Brett K]

response to first step: 

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/root        29G  1.4G   27G   5% /
devtmpfs        334M     0  334M   0% /dev
tmpfs           462M     0  462M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs           185M  764K  184M   1% /run
tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
/dev/mmcblk0p1  253M   51M  202M  20% /boot
tmpfs            93M     0   93M   0% /run/user/1000
/dev/sda1       1.9T  2.2M  1.9T   1% /media/test

dmesg 

I could not find /dev/sda1

[StarbaseSSD]

OK, /dev/sda1 is mounted as /media/test

and is 1.9TB free.

So far, so good.

Is this on the Pi doing the formatting?

[Brett K]

This is on the PI that did the formatting. Note that I couldn't find reference to /dev/sda1 in dmesg, even buy searching.

[StarbaseSSD]

Well, you wouldn't. dmesg would show sda, not sda1. looking in dmesg you are trying to find the drive, not the partition on the drive.

when I searched dmesg, I did

> dmesg | grep sd

which looks for all references to sd's (scsi drives, how linux references most hard drives (USB or otherwise)) and found sdb

You don't need to format or change anything on the USB drive if it was formatted as exfat, it is showing correctly

Unplug it using the command

> sudo umount /dev/sda1

then plug it into the Pi running motionEyeOS

give it 30 seconds and run the command

> df -h

and report the results

[StarbaseSSD]

What Pi and version of motionEyeOS are you running?

WebGUI, Settings, General (my test machine)

my df -h from the same machine:

 df -h
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on

/dev/root               213.0M    179.4M     18.6M  91% /
devtmpfs                152.4M         0    152.4M   0% /dev
tmpfs                   184.6M     16.0K    184.6M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs                   184.6M      1.1M    183.5M   1% /tmp
/dev/mmcblk0p1           29.9M     13.4M     16.5M  45% /boot
/dev/mmcblk0p3           27.4G     54.3M     25.9G   0% /data
/dev/mmcblk0p3           27.4G     54.3M     25.9G   0% /home/ftp/sdcard
/dev/mmcblk0p3           27.4G     54.3M     25.9G   0% /home/ftp/storage
overlay                  27.4G     54.3M     25.9G   0% /usr
overlay                  27.4G     54.3M     25.9G   0% /var/log
overlay                  27.4G     54.3M     25.9G   0% /var/lib
/dev/sda1                1.7T     41.3M     1.7T   0% /data/media/sda1
/dev/sda1                1.7T     41.3M     1.7T   0% /home/ftp/storage/sda1

This was doing the instructions I posted earlier today.

[Brett K]

pi3 , just installed headless RPI OS when we started trouble shooting. It is infact the same PI as motioneye, I just switch SSD and clear ssh fingerprint when I switch.

[StarbaseSSD]

OK, for RPiOS (which doesn't auto mount USB drives) you have to MANUALLY mount it every time, or, as Dewey stated, you have to add it to fstab and it will auto mount on power up if it is in place when you boot. If you plug it in after boot, you'll need to MANUALLY mount it then, too.

to manually mount it (without adding to fstab) have the drive plugged in and run

> sudo mkdir /media/sda1

> sudo mount -t exfat /dev/sda1 /media/sda1

if no error run

> df -h | grep sda1

should show you a line that starts /dev/sda1 and ends with /media/sda1

please report results

 

[Brett K]

I am confused - is this for mounting on RPIOS, if so, that isn't the ultimate desired result. What will it take to mount on MEeOS? haven't we already proved that it can be mounted on RPIos?

[StarbaseSSD]

As I stated before:

took drive out

put into live (turned on) motioneyeOS Pi

waited 30 seconds

> df -h

shows /dev/sda1 mounted as  /data/media/sda1 and

/dev/sda1 mounted as /home/ftp/storage/sda1 as full drive size.

motionEyeOS sees mine and auto-mounts it when I stick it in.

[Brett K]

I understand now. I misread your prior post. 

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ df -h | grep sda1

/dev/sda1       1.9T  2.2M  1.9T   1% /media/sda1

[StarbaseSSD]

eject or unmount the drive from the raspberrypiOS machine (you have shown it in with this) and insert it into a turned on motionEyeOS Pi.

Wait 30 seconds

run that same command

> df -h | grep sda1

You should then see

/dev/sda1       1.9T  2.2M  1.9T   1% /data/media/sda1

/dev/sda1       1.9T  2.2M  1.9T   1%  /home/ftp/storage/sda1

[Brett K]

I went directly to the df -h | grep sda1 command in MeOS

[root@KaufmanME ~]# df -h | grep sda1
[root@KaufmanME ~]#

[StarbaseSSD]

Run

> df -h | grep sd

on [root@KaufmanME ~]and report

[Brett K]

[root@KaufmanME ~]# df -h | grep sd  

/dev/mmcblk0p3           28.2G      1.4G     25.4G   5% /home/ftp/sdcard
[root@KaufmanME ~]#

[StarbaseSSD]

Are you booting to the USB Drive?

The SDCard is what is showing in that line

The system isn't detecting the USB Drive or it detects the SDCard as the 'optional' drive.

[Brett K]

I am not booting to the USB Drive. I haven't installed the OS on the USB Drive. If that was a step in the prior instructions, then I missed it. 

I am not sure what to do as the system isn't full Raspian.

[StarbaseSSD]

What do you mean "isn't full Raspbian"?

You are running on a Pi3, correct?

Are you booting with the USB drive already inserted?

[Brett K]

1) MeOS lacks a lot of the features of raspian OS.

2) Pi3

3)  To confirm, I have booted in MeOS with the USB unplugged. 

3.1) [root@KaufmanME ~]# df -h | grep sd
/dev/mmcblk0p3           28.2G      1.6G     25.2G   6% /home/ftp/sdcard
[root@KaufmanME ~]#

3.2) plug in USB and repeat:

[root@KaufmanME ~]# df -h | grep sd

/dev/mmcblk0p3           28.2G      1.6G     25.2G   6% /home/ftp/sdcard
[root@KaufmanME ~]# 

[StarbaseSSD]

On a Pi3?

Are you waiting 30 seconds before running df-h | grep sd  ???

[Brett K]

Yes, on a Pi3 running MeOS on the SD card. 

It has now been hours since I inserted the USB and still get the same result through ssh. 

It doesn't appear to be mounting automatically.

[StarbaseSSD]

Are you running it through a powered USB hub, or direct?

[StarbaseSSD]

Also, run the command:

vcgencmd get_throttled

after the USB drive has been in a few minutes and report the result, please.

[Brett K]

the USB HDD is self-powered (not through USB) and no hub is between the drive case and the Pi3. 

[root@KaufmanME ~]# vcgencmd get_throttled
throttled=0x80008
[root@KaufmanME ~]# c

[StarbaseSSD]

OK...

run command:

cat /var/log/messages | grep throttlewatch

please post results

[Brett K]

all seems ok.

[StarbaseSSD]

Nevermind. logging isn't available in RPiOS, only motionEyeOS.

The 80008 indicates it has recently throttled due to overheating (the first 8), and it is currently throttling due to overheating. (the 2nd 8)

The throttling can affect the detection of a USB device (among other things), especially actively overheating.

BTW, why do you keep calling your setup RPi3 with mEOS? it confuses the issues tremendously.

On Monday, July 4, 2022 at 4:12:50 PM UTC-4 StarbaseSSD wrote:

[Brett K]

"BTW, why do you keep calling your setup RPi3 with mEOS? it confuses the issues tremendously."

I don't know what this means. Calling it what? 

I have used two configurations on this pi, defined by the SD card that it is booted on and I try to be clear which it is. One is raspian and one MeOS, just differing by OS but same hardware. 

the last request was performed while booted in MeOS and hours after USB was plugged in.

[StarbaseSSD]

New train of thought:

run cmd

> sudo blkid

make note of PARTUUID="..."

> sudo nano /etc/fstab

add line (replacing the ... with the info from above (and it is case sensitive all numbers and lower case letters 0 = zero, not O)

keep the quotes. change exfat to whatever you ended up formatting it as, but keep it if it is exfat

UUID="..." /media/sda exfat defaults,auto,users,rw,nofail 0 0

hit <ctrl>x y to save it

run command

mkdir /media/sda

then insert the drive

then run command

> sudo mount -a

> df -h

You should see it mounted at /media/sda

if yes, then when you reboot it should be auto-mounted

if not, the "..." info is probably wrong.

[StarbaseSSD]

Ignore the last train of though, it only applies to RPiOS.

With the vcgencmd get_throttled reporting x80008, the log for messages would have had to report something like

Jan  1 23:55:45 meye-4cec78b8 user.notice throttlewatch: currently: ok, temperature: 42 C
Jan  2 00:00:45 meye-4cec78b8 user.notice throttlewatch: currently: ok, temperature: 41 C
Jan  2 00:05:45 meye-4cec78b8 user.notice throttlewatch: currently: ok, temperature: 41 C
Jan  2 00:10:45 meye-4cec78b8 user.notice throttlewatch: currently: ok, temperature: 41 C

with a different/higher temperature, of course. Probably over 60 C. (Soft throttle) Maybe over 80 C (hard throttle).

You are stating it is " all seems ok."

I'm giving up. Maybe someone else on here can help.

[Brett K]

I would appreciate it if anyone has additional ideas.