How to stream a webcam to a web browser in Ubuntu

readme.md

Grr this took hours to figure out. I was trying to install MJPG-streamer and running VLC command lines and all this crap but nothing worked.

First install motion:

~> sudo apt-get install motion

Then create a config file:

~> mkdir ~/.motion
~> nano ~/.motion/motion.conf

In it, the bare minimum to run a web server and view it on other computers:

webcam_port 8081
webcam_localhost off

Then run motion:

~> motion

Now you can view the webcam at http://hostname:8081 If it doesn't work, try rebooting between steps or something.

Isn't that easy? >:(

See also: How to run webcam software only when I am not home

After messing about with VLC, go2rtc, and webcamd for days, motion simply just works with MINIMAL fuss.

Here is my motion.conf file:

stream_quality 98
stream_maxrate 5
stream_port 1984
stream_localhost off
output_pictures off
framerate 30
ffmpeg_video_codec mpeg
width 640
height 480
auto_brightness off
contrast 0
saturation 0

Here is my NGINX server

server {
    server_name DOMAIN;
    root /var/www/html;

    auth_basic "Admin"; # password protected domain
    auth_basic_user_file /etc/apache2/.htpasswd;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:1984/;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Prefix /;
    }


    listen 443 ssl; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/DOMAIN/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/DOMAIN/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot
    include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot

}