[EXTENSION] Plex Media Server

[nasrocks]

Hello Jose

I think the problem is the encoding. I did another fresh embeded install.
Did a complete fresh install of Plex.

Had everything working great for quite some time. Was able to run 3 video files transcoding at the same time and then it failed again with a similar error.

Before I push the system hard I tried to use another directory as per Plex for transcoding but it seemed it could not find it.
Please see the attached picture. Should have this worked?

Thanks

[raulfg3]

revise the paht I see two dots, better copy & paste to avoid type problems

[nasrocks]

Hello Raul

It is an underscore

/mnt/Xigmanas/XTENSIONS/transcoding_dir

It was a direct copy. I just tried without the leading /

Should this work?

[JoseMR]

Hello Raul

It is an underscore

/mnt/Xigmanas/XTENSIONS/transcoding_dir

It was a direct copy. I just tried without the leading /

Should this work?

Hello, I'm pretty sure that leaving that "Transcoding temporary directory" field empty on the Plex app will always default to the extension install location, however if you still want Plex to transcode there, make sure the directory does exist and that Plex has permissions to write to it, if so just run the following commands(case sensitive and spaces not recommended):

Code: Select all

mkdir -p /mnt/Xigmanas/XTENSIONS/transcoding_dir
chown plex:plex /mnt/Xigmanas/XTENSIONS/transcoding_dir

The above assumes that this directory "/mnt/Xigmanas/XTENSIONS/transcoding_dir" actually resides in a dedicated ZFS pool and/or UFS DATA/RAID disk/volume/mountpoint, otherwise it will end up filling up the Embedded system mdX.

After this if the problem still persist, you have some mis-configuration causing your Embedded platform memory disk(mdX) being filled, unfortunately I don't have the time ATM to drive you to a deep trouble shooting and proper setup, but you may get more luck by creating a new thread in the proper forum section and provide there your system full specs followed by the output for any of the following commands `df -h`, `zpool list`, `zfs list` your extensions install path and alike, pretty sure active forum users may help you track-down what is filling-up your /var and/or /tmp memory disks.

Regards

[simbeav]

I wonder if anybody can help

I've istalled using the latest flex tarball, but whenI enable and start I get the error "Plex Media Server startup failed."

In the log it shows

admin: /usr/local/etc/rc.d/plexmediaserver: WARNING: failed to start plexmediaserver
admin: /usr/local/etc/rc.d/plexmediaserver: WARNING: failed to start plexmediaserver
admin: install: unknown user plex install: unknown user plex install: unknown user plex su: unknown login: plex /usr/local/etc/rc.d/plexmediaserver: WARNING: failed to start plexmediaserver

Any ideas as to what I am doing wrong ?
thanks Simon

[JoseMR]

I wonder if anybody can help

I've istalled using the latest flex tarball, but whenI enable and start I get the error "Plex Media Server startup failed."

In the log it shows

admin: /usr/local/etc/rc.d/plexmediaserver: WARNING: failed to start plexmediaserver
admin: /usr/local/etc/rc.d/plexmediaserver: WARNING: failed to start plexmediaserver
admin: install: unknown user plex install: unknown user plex install: unknown user plex su: unknown login: plex /usr/local/etc/rc.d/plexmediaserver: WARNING: failed to start plexmediaserver

Any ideas as to what I am doing wrong ?
thanks Simon

Hello and welcome, please provide more info about your system, RAM/CPU, what XigmaNAS version/revision/platform you are running in order to test and help.

Regards

[simbeav]

Thanks for replying

I'm running 12.1.0.4 - Ingva (revision 7542) on x64-embedded on AMD Turion(tm) II Neo N40L Dual-Core Processor with 8gb of memory.

I used OneButtonInstaller to install Plex Media Server and used Plex Media Server Tarball Install using PlexMediaServer 1.19.4.2935

Install appeared to go OK, but if I enable Plex and then press the start button I get the error message above.

Do I have to create some users ? I thought that I had read somewhere that the install process would take care of that.

[JoseMR]

Thanks for replying

I'm running 12.1.0.4 - Ingva (revision 7542) on x64-embedded on AMD Turion(tm) II Neo N40L Dual-Core Processor with 8gb of memory.

I used OneButtonInstaller to install Plex Media Server and used Plex Media Server Tarball Install using PlexMediaServer 1.19.4.2935

Install appeared to go OK, but if I enable Plex and then press the start button I get the error message above.

Do I have to create some users ? I thought that I had read somewhere that the install process would take care of that.

Hello, sorry for late reply.

I had the time to test latest Plex Extension and Plex Tarball with full success here:

Tarball upload:

Screenshot from 2020-07-07 14-49-35.png

Plex Extension start:

Screenshot from 2020-07-07 14-51-23.png

I don't have encountered any issues here during the OBI/Plex extensions install nor with Plex startup at all, so this lead me to think that this is the typical permissions issue as previously seen here.

Please check the installation directory/path where Plex is installed on, Plex need at least READ and EXECUTE permissions on OTHERS(aka Public), also the extension script should create the Plex user and group automatically on startup as well, make sure the perms are at least 775 to start with.

Mountpoint/Dataset permissions example for the Extensions/Addons location:

Screenshot from 2020-07-07 15-10-29.png

Regards

[simbeav]

Thanks for that. I'm a bit further on, but still not working.

I set the permissions and retried, but didn't get anywhere, so I removed Plex and also OBI and started again.

I got the same result as you when I uploaded the Tarball.

This time the Plex user was created, but I got this error :-

root: /mnt/data/extensions/plex/plexinit: /usr/local/etc/rc.d/plexmediaserver: not found

that seems similar to what raulfg3 got in Post #31, so I tried pkg install and got

pkg: Repository FreeBSD has a wrong packagesite, need to re-create database
Fetching meta.conf: 100% 163 B 0.2kB/s 00:01
Fetching packagesite.txz: 100% 6 MiB 6.6MB/s 00:01
Processing entries: 100%
FreeBSD repository update completed. 32009 packages processed.
All repositories are up to date.
Checking integrity... done (0 conflicting)
The most recent versions of packages are already installed

and still the same error.

I got the same result as you when I uploaded the Tarball.

[JoseMR]

Thanks for that. I'm a bit further on, but still not working.

I set the permissions and retried, but didn't get anywhere, so I removed Plex and also OBI and started again.

I got the same result as you when I uploaded the Tarball.

This time the Plex user was created, but I got this error :-

root: /mnt/data/extensions/plex/plexinit: /usr/local/etc/rc.d/plexmediaserver: not found

that seems similar to what raulfg3 got in Post #31, so I tried pkg install and got

pkg: Repository FreeBSD has a wrong packagesite, need to re-create database
Fetching meta.conf: 100% 163 B 0.2kB/s 00:01
Fetching packagesite.txz: 100% 6 MiB 6.6MB/s 00:01
Processing entries: 100%
FreeBSD repository update completed. 32009 packages processed.
All repositories are up to date.
Checking integrity... done (0 conflicting)
The most recent versions of packages are already installed

and still the same error.

I got the same result as you when I uploaded the Tarball.

Hello, if you use Plex Tarball(preferred) you should not use pkg, though if you used pkg initially, you can use Tarballs later on to update a Plex package in case the FreeBSD repos are lagging with an update.

Also you need to install the extension to a permanent data location, i.e. the Data partition of an Embedded installation(except if Data is on a USB install), a GEOM RAID or a ZFS pool(preferred).

Could you please provide the output for:

Code: Select all

df -hT && ls -l /mnt/data/extensions

Regards

[simbeav]

Ah ! So this is my problem. Sorry I didn't fully understand.

I have an Embedded installation on a USB install and I was trying to install the extension on to a separate hdd.

Is it correct, then , that I would be unable to install an extension on my setup ?

This was the output, if it is still of use.

xigmanas: ~# df -hT && ls -l /mnt/data/extensions
Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Capacity Mounted on
/dev/md0 ufs 120M 106M 14M 88% /
devfs devfs 1.0K 1.0K 0B 100% /dev
/dev/md1 ufs 1.2G 995M 230M 81% /usr/local
procfs procfs 4.0K 4.0K 0B 100% /proc
/dev/ufsid/53b931568b7a06fe ufs 2.6T 2.4T 47G 98% /mnt/Media3
/dev/ufsid/558bab2d97f8c06f ufs 2.6T 2.5T -101G 104% /mnt/Radio
/dev/ufsid/51155f3903263532 ufs 226G 159G 49G 77% /mnt/data
/dev/ufsid/51155ff603d9c3fe ufs 2.6T 2.3T 168G 93% /mnt/WD1tba
/dev/ufsid/518274b8b83e443c ufs 2.6T 2.5T -116G 105% /mnt/Media2
/dev/md2 ufs 496M 4.8M 481M 1% /var
tmpfs tmpfs 256M 68K 256M 0% /var/tmp
/dev/da0p2 ufs 1.9G 318M 1.6G 17% /cf
total 8
drwxrwxr-x 5 root wheel 512 Jul 8 13:15 onebuttoninstaller
drwxrwxr-x 8 root wheel 512 Jul 8 18:09 plex

[JoseMR]

Ah ! So this is my problem. Sorry I didn't fully understand.

I have an Embedded installation on a USB install and I was trying to install the extension on to a separate hdd.

Is it correct, then , that I would be unable to install an extension on my setup ?

This was the output, if it is still of use.

xigmanas: ~# df -hT && ls -l /mnt/data/extensions
Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Capacity Mounted on
/dev/md0 ufs 120M 106M 14M 88% /
devfs devfs 1.0K 1.0K 0B 100% /dev
/dev/md1 ufs 1.2G 995M 230M 81% /usr/local
procfs procfs 4.0K 4.0K 0B 100% /proc
/dev/ufsid/53b931568b7a06fe ufs 2.6T 2.4T 47G 98% /mnt/Media3
/dev/ufsid/558bab2d97f8c06f ufs 2.6T 2.5T -101G 104% /mnt/Radio
/dev/ufsid/51155f3903263532 ufs 226G 159G 49G 77% /mnt/data
/dev/ufsid/51155ff603d9c3fe ufs 2.6T 2.3T 168G 93% /mnt/WD1tba
/dev/ufsid/518274b8b83e443c ufs 2.6T 2.5T -116G 105% /mnt/Media2
/dev/md2 ufs 496M 4.8M 481M 1% /var
tmpfs tmpfs 256M 68K 256M 0% /var/tmp
/dev/da0p2 ufs 1.9G 318M 1.6G 17% /cf
total 8
drwxrwxr-x 5 root wheel 512 Jul 8 13:15 onebuttoninstaller
drwxrwxr-x 8 root wheel 512 Jul 8 18:09 plex

Hello, you are right, you need to install the extension to a separate permanent Data location preferably an internally connected HDD/SSD, the same way as you see your Media, Radio etc.

If "/mnt/data"(ufsid/51155f3903263532) is on a separate HDD/SSD i.e. not an USB stick nor a USB connected device, then you are fine to install the extensions there.

Remove/uninstall absolutely all the extensions you've installed and delete the extension directory, then reboot the server and follow the simple instructions below:

Code: Select all

mkdir /mnt/data/extensions
chmod 0777 /mnt/data/extensions

Then re-try installing OBI and Plex extensions, assuming you installed Plex as previously described(internal Data location) then it should work, if not I'm afraid I ran already out of solutions unfortunately.

Regards

[simbeav]

I followed your instructions to the letter and it worked !

Thank you very much for your time and patience.

[JoseMR]

I followed your instructions to the letter and it worked !

Thank you very much for your time and patience.

Hi, thanks for reporting back you've managed to get Plex extension working.

Regards

[raulfg3]

Sucesfully updated to latest:

1.jpg

[raulfg3]

secesfully update to latest:

1.jpg

[knotworking]

I've been having transcoding issues forever (don't want to reformat all my media and my AMD processor always chokes a few minutes into downsizing AVCHD videos), so I've been trying to upgrade my motherboard and processor. Finally have the hardware I need, SuperMicro X11SSH-F and i3-7100 (***NOTE*** only certain X11 boards provide power to the iGPU, lesson learned). Other than having to reinstall Xigmanas because my old board used the old MBR layout, upgrading was easy. I have hardware transcoding working now, I can use FFMPEG (installed via pkg) and transcode on the fly with hardly a bump in the CPU usage, but I cannot get Plex to use HW transcoding. Everything I read tells me Plex must be added to the "video" group to access the GPU, but there is no video group. I was thinking I need to install X11 or something (maybe that adds a video group), but I was hoping someone here might be able to point me in the right direction before I spend another day going down another rabbit hole. Anybody have hw transcoding working with Plex?

[liver]

I'm have Extension version 4.3.021
Install Plex version plexmediaserver-1.20.3.3437 Plex Media Server component

Plex not started.

In log:
plexinit: script has been started successfully!

I'm try install:
PlexMediaServer-1.19.1.2630-72c16a276-FreeBSD-amd64.tar.bz2
PlexMediaServer-1.18.4.2171-ac2afe5f8-FreeBSD-amd64.tar.bz2
PlexMediaServer-1.14.1.5488-cc260c476-FreeBSD-amd64.tar.bz2
PlexMediaServer-1.12.1.4885-1046ba85f-FreeBSD-amd64.tar
PlexMediaServer-1.3.3.3148-b38628e-FreeBSD-amd64.tar.bz2
PlexMediaServer-0.9.16.6.1993-5089475-FreeBSD-amd64.tar.bz2

[JoseMR]

I'm have Extension version 4.3.021
Install Plex version plexmediaserver-1.20.3.3437 Plex Media Server component

Plex not started.

In log:
plexinit: script has been started successfully!

I'm try install:
PlexMediaServer-1.19.1.2630-72c16a276-FreeBSD-amd64.tar.bz2
PlexMediaServer-1.18.4.2171-ac2afe5f8-FreeBSD-amd64.tar.bz2
PlexMediaServer-1.14.1.5488-cc260c476-FreeBSD-amd64.tar.bz2
PlexMediaServer-1.12.1.4885-1046ba85f-FreeBSD-amd64.tar
PlexMediaServer-1.3.3.3148-b38628e-FreeBSD-amd64.tar.bz2
PlexMediaServer-0.9.16.6.1993-5089475-FreeBSD-amd64.tar.bz2

Hi, I'm really sorry that I can't provide more support here, NAS4Free/XigmasNAS 11.1 is an EOL(End of Life) product no longer supported by the XigmaNAS development team, between looks like that old version used to run the legacy Plex versions that needed the compax9x/compat/10x libraries.

I will recommend to save config.xml to a safe place, then try the latest 11.4/12.1 product on a new USB stick(if Embedded) just in case latest product can't boot properly just plugin back the existing disk, otherwise if running Full then some backups may be needed before try latest product, good luck.

Regards

[JoseMR]

I've been having transcoding issues forever (don't want to reformat all my media and my AMD processor always chokes a few minutes into downsizing AVCHD videos), so I've been trying to upgrade my motherboard and processor. Finally have the hardware I need, SuperMicro X11SSH-F and i3-7100 (***NOTE*** only certain X11 boards provide power to the iGPU, lesson learned). Other than having to reinstall Xigmanas because my old board used the old MBR layout, upgrading was easy. I have hardware transcoding working now, I can use FFMPEG (installed via pkg) and transcode on the fly with hardly a bump in the CPU usage, but I cannot get Plex to use HW transcoding. Everything I read tells me Plex must be added to the "video" group to access the GPU, but there is no video group. I was thinking I need to install X11 or something (maybe that adds a video group), but I was hoping someone here might be able to point me in the right direction before I spend another day going down another rabbit hole. Anybody have hw transcoding working with Plex?

Hello, unfortunately I don't have enough time nor the hardware to test this feature in more deep to provide a working solution and/or integration/bundle to the Plex Extension, since XigmaNAS is a striped down version of FreeBSD, it is not as simply as enabling the required modules then run Plex, it requires some manual work then a custom script with user specifics to automate the loading of said feature, and it may be more difficult for Embedded platforms due its nature but doable.

However there are few users who has been running this transcode feature already(with Intel GPU and XigmaNAS RootOnZFS), on the XigmaNAS IRC channel IIRC, however they have never been able to post here on the forum a How-To to help other users wanting this feature as well.

Here is some additional info: Enable Hardware acceleration support for BSD based Plex Servers

Hopefully there will be a How-To someday here for this Plex transcode feature.

Regards

[liver]

Hi, I'm really sorry that I can't provide more support here, NAS4Free/XigmasNAS 11.1 is an EOL(End of Life) product no longer supported by the XigmaNAS development team, between looks like that old version used to run the legacy Plex versions that needed the compax9x/compat/10x libraries.

Where i can download 10x version?
Before updating plex all work fine.

[JoseMR]

Hi, I'm really sorry that I can't provide more support here, NAS4Free/XigmasNAS 11.1 is an EOL(End of Life) product no longer supported by the XigmaNAS development team, between looks like that old version used to run the legacy Plex versions that needed the compax9x/compat/10x libraries.

Where i can download 10x version?
Before updating plex all work fine.

Here in the FreeBSD Pkg Mirrors should be the latest software for the release in question, however I'm receiving a "403 Forbidden" error when navigating to the latest/ALL, I'm sorry I could not provide more info here.

Regards

[knotworking]

Hello, unfortunately I don't have enough time nor the hardware to test this feature in more deep to provide a working solution and/or integration/bundle to the Plex Extension, since XigmaNAS is a striped down version of FreeBSD, it is not as simply as enabling the required modules then run Plex, it requires some manual work then a custom script with user specifics to automate the loading of said feature, and it may be more difficult for Embedded platforms due its nature but doable.

However there are few users who has been running this transcode feature already(with Intel GPU and XigmaNAS RootOnZFS), on the XigmaNAS IRC channel IIRC, however they have never been able to post here on the forum a How-To to help other users wanting this feature as well.

Here is some additional info: Enable Hardware acceleration support for BSD based Plex Servers

Hopefully there will be a How-To someday here for this Plex transcode feature.

Regards

Well, my NAS is still sitting right next to me....might as well give RootOnZFS a try while what I did to get hardware transcoding working is still relatively fresh in my mind. If I get Plex to use the iGPU, I'll post the steps I followed.

[knotworking]

WHOA!!! Tried to install RootOnZFS and thought I lost all my pool data! I did a config backup, stuck the LiveUSB in and installed RootOnZFS over the Full install I had on my SSD. Installed fine, restored my config and after reboot the pool was there, but all details displayed as "UNKNOWN." I tried to import the pool, which went fine (pool state was ONLINE),

Code: Select all

 zpool import -d /dev/gpt

didn't return any message, and

Code: Select all

zpool import -D

told me there were no pools available to import. File Manager showed the pool and the top directories in the pool were there, but all data in each directory was gone

That called for a long walk to calm my nerves (even though I have a data backup, my day was looking dark rebuilding my pool), decided my safest course was to revert back to the Full install via LiveUSB. Thankfully, after installing Full to the SSD, all my data was still in the pool and I'm back to normal. Is there something I need to do to convert a Full to RootOnZFS while preserving my existing pool?

[JoseMR]

WHOA!!! Tried to install RootOnZFS and thought I lost all my pool data! I did a config backup, stuck the LiveUSB in and installed RootOnZFS over the Full install I had on my SSD. Installed fine, restored my config and after reboot the pool was there, but all details displayed as "UNKNOWN." I tried to import the pool, which went fine (pool state was ONLINE),

Code: Select all

 zpool import -d /dev/gpt

didn't return any message, and

Code: Select all

zpool import -D

told me there were no pools available to import. File Manager showed the pool and the top directories in the pool were there, but all data in each directory was gone

That called for a long walk to calm my nerves (even though I have a data backup, my day was looking dark rebuilding my pool), decided my safest course was to revert back to the Full install via LiveUSB. Thankfully, after installing Full to the SSD, all my data was still in the pool and I'm back to normal. Is there something I need to do to convert a Full to RootOnZFS while preserving my existing pool?

Hi, you are missing the zpool name or the -a option to import all pools, however after you install the RootOnZFS platform and restore the config.xml, after reboot all you need is to execute:
Simple quick import:

Code: Select all

zpool import -f -a

For GPT labels import use:

Code: Select all

zpool import -f -a -d /dev/gpt

After that you need to synchronize the wanted datasets under [Disks > ZFS > Configuration > Synchronize] as expected.

Also under [Disks > Management > HDD Management] check "Clear configuration information before importing disks." and push Import might also fix wrong data there.

Regards

[liver]

Hi, I'm really sorry that I can't provide more support here, NAS4Free/XigmasNAS 11.1 is an EOL(End of Life) product no longer supported by the XigmaNAS development team, between looks like that old version used to run the legacy Plex versions that needed the compax9x/compat/10x libraries.

Where i can download 10x version?
Before updating plex all work fine.

Here in the FreeBSD Pkg Mirrors should be the latest software for the release in question, however I'm receiving a "403 Forbidden" error when navigating to the latest/ALL, I'm sorry I could not provide more info here.

Regards

I'm find PlexMediaServer-1.18 it is from FreeBSD 11
not run
where i can download extension old version?

[JoseMR]

...
I'm find PlexMediaServer-1.18 it is from FreeBSD 11
not run
where i can download extension old version?

Sorry, the Plex Extension is dynamically updated regularly on GitHub and there is no versioned package releases for this project, really sorry I could not provide nor test on EOL products.

Regards

[liver]

Sorry, the Plex Extension is dynamically updated regularly on GitHub and there is no versioned package releases for this project, really sorry I could not provide nor test on EOL products.

Regards

where can I see the reason for not launching?

[JoseMR]

Sorry, the Plex Extension is dynamically updated regularly on GitHub and there is no versioned package releases for this project, really sorry I could not provide nor test on EOL products.

Regards

where can I see the reason for not launching?

Hi, IIRC the latest Plex "plexmediaserver" component package no longer run in FreeBSD 11.0/11.1 and it was officially End-of-Life on September 30, 2018, also to backup this assumption and of course I should not had to, I've found and installed "NAS4Free-x64-LiveCD-11.1.0.4.5403" from my server bin and ran OBI and installed the latest Plex tarball(since pkg tool broken as expected) just to found that Plex does not start and nothing is displayed in the console, it can't even create the plexdata folder.

Since Plex and FreeBSD continues evolving with latest technology and features, I could say that you are just stuck with your outdated NAS unfortunately.

You basically have very few options here:
1: Upgrade your outdated XN product to at least 11.4(recommended).
2: Check in the official Plex forums if someone can give you the last working Plex package for FreeBSD 11.1.
3: If you are running ZFS + daily snapshots on the dataset where Plex Extension is installed, simply rollback before the Plex update who borked it.

I'm pretty sure the option #1 is the easiest/recommended one if your hardware allow for such upgrade(save config.xml + reinstall is required), alternatively assuming you are running daily ZFS snapshots, then rollback and never upgrade Plex/Extension again.

Regards and good luck.

[liver]

I'm update system to 12.1.0.4
All works fine
Thanks