Software installation (includes motion)

Motion & diel-light-pi Setup on Debian (ARM64 Bookworm)

This guide walks you through setting up Motion and the diel-light-pi repository on a Debian-based ARM64 system (e.g., Raspberry Pi running Bookworm) and is recommended for Pi5 and up.

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Update the System

Update and upgrade all installed packages:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y 

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Install Motion

Install Motion Package

sudo apt install motion -y

If this does not work, follow the steps below. Otherwise, continue to the next section.

1. Download the Motion Package

Download the motion package for ARM64 Bookworm from the official or trusted source.

2. Install the Package with gdebi

sudo gdebi <motion-package>.deb

Replace <motion-package>.deb with the actual filename.

You may need to download gedbi with apt and make sure you use the correct build. For Pi5's it is usually bookworm arm64

3. Install Build Dependencies (Optional, for source builds)

sudo apt-get install autoconf automake autopoint build-essential pkgconf libtool libzip-dev libjpeg-dev git libavformat-dev libavcodec-dev libavutil-dev libswscale-dev libavdevice-dev libwebp-dev gettext libmicrohttpd-dev libcamera-tools libcamera-dev libcamera-v4l2

Double check the motion page (https://motion-project.github.io/motion_build.html)

Adjust the list based on your build requirements.

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🔍 Verify the Camera

Ensure the USB or CSI camera is connected.

rpicam-still --list-camera

• If no camera is detected, unplug and reconnect it.
• MAKE SURE TO TURN OFF THE PI BEFORE DISCONNECTING AND RECONNECTING

Test camera with rpicam

rpicam-still -t 0

• Confirm the camera feed is visible.
• To stop, go back to the terminal and press CTRL+C to quit

Take an image with a 5 second preview

rpicam-still -t 5000 -o test.jpg

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Set Up diel-light-pi

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/yashsondhi/diel-light-pi.git
cd diel-light-pi

2. Install YAML Support

sudo apt-get install python3-yaml

pip install pyyaml may not work on this platform, so use apt.

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3. Verify installation

Go back to the terminal and make sure that you're in the "diel-light-pi" folder. If not, type

cd ..

until the text before the cursor is

pi@raspberrypi:/

Then type

cd home
cd pi
cd diel-light-pi
ls

If nothing shows up underneath the command, try to redownload the library.

You're Done!

• Motion is installed and tested.
• diel-light-pi is cloned.
• YAML dependencies are in place.

You can now begin configuring and using the diel-light-pi scripts for light tracking and automation.

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🛠 Need help? Open an issue on the GitHub repository or post to the relevant community forums.