Configuring Motion

Question

I'm a complete Linux newbie. I can follow instructions, but cannot generate a single line in terminal, do not know how to tell what version of the OS I'm running, etc.

I have motion on two computers (one with Kubuntu and one with Ubuntu.) I installed Motion on both and used to get rad output of jpeg files with an associated .swf file in a temporary folder.

At some point, the settings changed on both, causing 2 problems: 1) all images save straight into the Home folder, and 2. I'm not getting .swf files anymore.

1. Regarding location: 
I found a tutorial and tried to follow it to configure. I created a directory: 

~$ mkdir .motion
~$ sudo cp /etc/motion/motion.conf .motion/
~$ sudo chown carol:carol .motion/motion.conf
~$ mkdir motion-images

However, when I tried to point it to the new directory, the output says "command not found" (see two lines down)
quote: 

carol@acer:~$ target_dir /home/carol/motion
target_dir: command not found

end quote


2. I'm keen to get Motion generating jpegs in association with swf files again. I prefer this over .avi or other video files, and I found about 50 references to .swf in the Motion site. But the posts say things like: 
"Setting ffmpeg_video_codec to swf permits output of .swf files via ffmpe"

and 

"patch < ffmpeg_swf_v1.0.diff
Then re-build Motion and test the patch." 

I can copy-paste into terminal, but I can't follow instructions like that.  I'm asking for a few lines of instructions I can copy-paste in, if possible, to get it to do that. 

Environment

Motion version:	3.2.12
ffmpeg version:
Libraries:	ffmpeg, mysql, postgresql
Server OS:

-- CarlHart - 10 Jan 2016

Answer