PanaControl

Remote control and live view for LUMIX cameras over the cam.cgi protocol: live view in the browser, autofocus, start and stop video recording, ISO, and the current aperture as a reading. Developed against a DC-GH6 (firmware 3.01) and kept platform-neutral. The container is built on linuxserver.io's Alpine image with its conventions (PUID, PGID, UMASK, TZ).

Status: usable and verified on the device. Live view at 29.9 fps, autofocus, start and stop recording.

Always stop it in order (Ctrl+C, docker stop, Unraid's Stop). Only then the app sends stopstream. A process killed hard leaves the camera's remote session occupied, and the camera then answers every command with err_busy until it is switched off and on again.

Requirements

• Camera and computer (or container) in the same subnet
• Camera in its waiting state: [Wi-Fi] -> [Wi-Fi Function] -> [Control With Smartphone], switch to the Wi-Fi connection with the DISP. button, then [Via Network]
• For the native start: Python 3.11 or newer (tomllib from the standard library)

Supported architectures and tags

Only x86-64 is built: PanaControl runs on an x86-64 server, and no ARM host is in use.

Images are built by GitHub Actions for every version tag, published to ghcr.io and signed keylessly with Sigstore. They are public: no login is needed to pull them.

Usage

docker compose

cp .env.example .env      # set the camera's address
docker compose up -d

See docker-compose.yml. It publishes the ports through Docker's NAT, which can drop live view frames; on a Linux server an own address on the LAN (macvlan/ipvlan) or network_mode: host is better, see Network.

docker run

docker run -d \
  --name panacontrol \
  --network <MACVLAN-NETWORK> --ip <STATIC-IP> \
  --stop-timeout 30 \
  --security-opt no-new-privileges \
  -e PUID=1000 -e PGID=1000 -e TZ=Europe/Berlin \
  -e LUMIX_CAMERA_IP=<CAMERA-IP> \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  ghcr.io/tom-joad/panacontrol:latest

Unraid

Install PanaControl from Community Applications; the guide is unraid/README-UNRAID.md. The template runs the container on br0 with a fixed IP.

Parameters

In the container the configuration comes from environment variables, so no config.toml has to be mounted. They take precedence over config.toml.

There are no volumes: the app keeps no state and writes no files. This deviates from the usual /config volume on purpose.

Network

The camera sends the frames by UDP to the address startstream came from, and to exactly the port it was told. A frame of about 23.5 KB is one UDP datagram in about 17 IP fragments, at 30 frames per second. Docker's NAT (bridge with port mapping) has to reassemble each of them and drops whole frames under load: the live view then has gaps of 10 to 40 seconds while the control keeps working.

So give the container its own address on the LAN (macvlan or ipvlan; on Unraid br0 with a fixed IP) or use network_mode: host. If you must use port mapping, the UDP port needs the same number on both sides.

Docker Desktop on macOS runs the host namespace in a VM: the published UDP port works there, network_mode: host doesn't. Day to day on a Mac, start it natively.

Upgrading from 1.x

2.0.0 moves from python:3.14-alpine with its own entrypoint to linuxserver.io's base image. Its init needs a writable root file system and the usual capabilities, so remove the 1.x hardening options: --read-only, --cap-drop ALL, --cap-add SETUID, --cap-add SETGID (compose: read_only, cap_drop, cap_add). Keep --stop-timeout 30 and --security-opt no-new-privileges. Settings, ports and the network stay the same. On Unraid, see Upgrading from 1.x to 2.0.0.

Native start

git clone https://github.com/Tom-Joad/PanaControl.git && cd PanaControl
python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
cp config.example.toml config.toml   # set the IP
python3 -m lumixremote.app

On Windows, run.bat does these steps.

Then open the interface at the address set in config.toml, by default http://127.0.0.1:8080. The app keeps the registration alive, polls the state every five seconds and kicks the stream when it stalls. Several browsers may watch at the same time; there is still only one connection to the camera.

The interface takes the ISO values from the camera's menu definition; they are not in the program. Set values are read back, because the camera snaps to the value allowed in the current mode.

The aperture can only be read. The DC-GH6 with firmware 3.01 offers no call to set it remotely; the reasoning and the candidates tested are in docs/protocol.md. The current value is read from the header of the live view datagram and shown.

Security

The interface has no login: whoever reaches it controls the camera and sees the live view. Keep it on a trusted network, or put a reverse proxy with authentication in front. Commands that a browser sends from another web site are refused, so a page open in the same browser can't start or stop a recording; scripts such as curl still work. Reporting vulnerabilities: SECURITY.md.

Troubleshooting

docker logs -f panacontrol

The log starts with the TomJoad Images banner and the user IDs. The app then writes one JSON object per line (ts, level, event and the details); the first one is "event":"starting" with the version and the settings that matter. The state is at http://<address>:8080/api/status. More symptoms and causes are in unraid/README-UNRAID.md.

Verify the signature:

cosign verify \
  --certificate-oidc-issuer https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com \
  --certificate-identity-regexp '^https://github.com/Tom-Joad/PanaControl/\.github/workflows/build-and-push\.yml@refs/tags/v' \
  ghcr.io/tom-joad/panacontrol:latest

Building and testing

docker build -t panacontrol:test .
tests/smoke.sh panacontrol:test

python -m pytest runs the unit tests (pip install -r requirements-dev.txt first). The smoke test needs no camera. It checks the settings, the switch to PUID:PGID, TZ, the start banner, the interface and that docker stop ends the app in order. GitHub Actions runs it on every push.

Diagnostic run

python3 -m lumixremote.probe

On the first run, the firewall asks about incoming connections for Python. If that is refused, the control works but no picture arrives. The run saves a sample frame to out/probe_frame.jpg. It answers: frame rate and resolution in practice, whether the header before the JPEG has a constant length, whether the stream holds without kicking, and whether the session survives a longer pause without commands.

Layout

config.toml is excluded on purpose. IP, device name, UDN and serial number don't belong in the repository; the client reads the UDN from the DLNA descriptor at runtime.

Changes are listed in the CHANGELOG.