If you already have Frigate installed through Docker or through a Home Assistant Add-on, you can continue to [Configuring Frigate](#configuring-frigate) below.
There are many guides on how to install Debian Server, so this will be an abbreviated guide. Connect a temporary monitor and keyboard to your device so you can install a minimal server without a desktop environment.
#### Prepare installation media
1. Download the small installation image from the [Debian website](https://www.debian.org/distrib/netinst)
At this point, you can install the device in a permanent location. The remaining steps can be performed via SSH from another device. If you don't have an SSH client, you can install one of the options listed in the [Visual Studio Code documentation](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/troubleshooting#_installing-a-supported-ssh-client).
Now you have a minimal Debian server that requires very little maintenance.
### Install Docker
1. Install Docker Engine (not Docker Desktop) using the [official docs](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/debian/)
1. Specifically, follow the steps in the [Install using the apt repository](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/debian/#install-using-the-repository) section
2. Add your user to the docker group as described in the [Linux postinstall steps](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/linux-postinstall/)
This section shows how to create a minimal directory structure for a Docker installation on Debian. If you have installed Frigate as a Home Assistant Add-on or another way, you can continue to [Configuring Frigate](#configuring-frigate).
Frigate will create a config file if one does not exist on the initial startup. The following directory structure is the bare minimum to get started. Once Frigate is running, you can use the built-in config editor which supports config validation.
If you are setting up Frigate on a Linux device via SSH, you can use [nano](https://itsfoss.com/nano-editor-guide/) to edit the following files. If you prefer to edit remote files with a full editor instead of a terminal, I recommend using [Visual Studio Code](https://code.visualstudio.com/) with the [Remote SSH extension](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/ssh-tutorial).
This `docker-compose.yml` file is just a starter for amd64 devices. You will need to customize it for your setup as detailed in the [Installation docs](/frigate/installation#docker).
Now you should be able to start Frigate by running `docker compose up -d` from within the folder containing `docker-compose.yml`. On startup, an admin user and password will be created and outputted in the logs. You can see this by running `docker logs frigate`. Frigate should now be accessible at `https://server_ip:8971` where you can login with the `admin` user and finish the configuration using the built-in configuration editor.
This section assumes that you already have an environment setup as described in [Installation](../frigate/installation.md). You should also configure your cameras according to the [camera setup guide](/frigate/camera_setup). Pay particular attention to the section on choosing a detect resolution.
If you get an error image from the camera, this means ffmpeg was not able to get the video feed from your camera. Check the logs for error messages from ffmpeg. The default ffmpeg arguments are designed to work with H264 RTSP cameras that support TCP connections.
Now that you have a working camera configuration, you want to setup hardware acceleration to minimize the CPU required to decode your video streams. See the [hardware acceleration](../configuration/hardware_acceleration.md) config reference for examples applicable to your hardware.
Here is an example configuration with hardware acceleration configured to work with most Intel processors with an integrated GPU using the [preset](../configuration/ffmpeg_presets.md):
`docker-compose.yml` (after modifying, you will need to run `docker compose up -d` to apply changes)
Restart Frigate and you should start seeing detections for `person`. If you want to track other objects, they will need to be added according to the [configuration file reference](../configuration/reference.md).
Now that you have optimized your configuration for decoding the video stream, you will want to check to see where to implement motion masks. To do this, navigate to the camera in the UI, select "Debug" at the top, and enable "Motion boxes" in the options below the video feed. Watch for areas that continuously trigger unwanted motion to be detected. Common areas to mask include camera timestamps and trees that frequently blow in the wind. The goal is to avoid wasting object detection cycles looking at these areas.
Now that you know where you need to mask, use the "Mask & Zone creator" in the options pane to generate the coordinates needed for your config file. More information about masks can be found [here](../configuration/masks.md).
Note that motion masks should not be used to mark out areas where you do not want objects to be detected or to reduce false positives. They do not alter the image sent to object detection, so you can still get tracked objects, alerts, and detections in areas with motion masks. These only prevent motion in these areas from initiating object detection.
To enable recording video, add the `record` role to a stream and enable it in the config. If record is disabled in the config, it won't be possible to enable it in the UI.
If you only define one stream in your `inputs` and do not assign a `detect` role to it, Frigate will automatically assign it the `detect` role. Frigate will always decode a stream to support motion detection, Birdseye, the API image endpoints, and other features, even if you have disabled object detection with `enabled: False` in your config's `detect` section.
If you only plan to use Frigate for recording, it is still recommended to define a `detect` role for a low resolution stream to minimize resource usage from the required stream decoding.
By default, Frigate will retain video of all tracked objects for 10 days. The full set of options for recording can be found [here](../configuration/reference.md).
