Cannot create log file /var/log/motion/motion.log: Permission denied

[yaomtc]

Did you read the guide?

Yes

What is the base version number of Motion being used?

4.3.x

What was the install method?

Installed via package tool

What is base architecture?

ARM-32bit

What is the distro being used?

Raspbian

Disto version number

11 (bullseye)

Camera type(s) being used?

v4l2 USB camera

Describe the issue/problem and steps to reproduce

It won't start due to a permissions issue.

Motion log output at log_level 8

[0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] conf_load: Processing thread 0 - config file /etc/motion/motion.conf
[0:motion] [ERR] [ALL] myfopen: Error opening file /var/log/motion/motion.log with mode a: Permission denied
[0:motion] [EMG] [ALL] motion_startup: Exit motion, cannot create log file /var/log/motion/motion.log: Permission denied

Broadcast message from systemd-journald@rpi (Thu 2023-08-03 14:33:52 CDT):

motion[5427]: [0:motion] [EMG] [ALL] motion_startup: Exit motion, cannot create log file /var/log/motion/motion.log: Permission denied


Message from syslogd@rpi at Aug  3 14:33:52 ...
 motion[5427]: [0:motion] [EMG] [ALL] motion_startup: Exit motion, cannot create log file /var/log/motion/motion.log: Permission denied

[olddog55]

systemd tends to screw up simple things

Does /var/log/motion exist?
What are the read/write permissions on /var/log/motion?
Is there a conflicting /var/log/motion/motion.log? ( 'ls -la /var/log/motion/' can provide this )

You may need to do:
sudo mkdir /var/log/motion
sudo chown motion /var/log/motion

And verify that the /etc/logrotate.d/motion file contains your appropriate log rotation config.