Linux Distro Suggestions

Mazzspeed said:
It sounds like the drives aren't mounted correctly?

ThatITGuy, are you using automount or are you trying to mount permanently using fstab (You can use the 'Disks' GUI as opposed to editing fstab BTW)? If you are trying to use automount and you reboot the machine, they won't be seen by Plex until you double click on them and effectively 'automount' the drives, once automounted they will appear on the desktop and should be visible to Plex.
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That was my issue when I encountered this with Plex.
 
Mazzspeed said:
It sounds like the drives aren't mounted correctly?

ThatITGuy, are you using automount or are you trying to mount permanently using fstab (You can use the 'Disks' GUI as opposed to editing fstab BTW)? If you are trying to use automount and you reboot the machine, they won't be seen by Plex until you double click on them and effectively 'automount' the drives, once automounted they will appear on the desktop and should be visible to Plex.
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Put it in fstab as well as mounting from command line(for initial mounting). I will reboot and see if that helps.
 
ThatITGuy said:
Put it in fstab as well as mounting from command line(for initial mounting). I will reboot and see if that helps.
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Bear in mind that you don't manually have to edit fstab anymore, you can use the Disks utility. TBH the only time I manually edit fstab anymore is on my server.

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ThatITGuy said:
seems i missed restarting after making changes. Once i restarted i could see the mount and was able to add the library. All up and running now in Plex. Now on to setting up VM.
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Glad to see you fixed it, but one thing to remember with Linux. You don't always need to restart. For the vast majority of things you don't. As an example, if you updated your fstab and wanted to test it, you can just run sudo mount -a. That will mount all items in your fstab right then. Another example, is if you've made a change to a config file for a service, say Plex, you can easily restart it by running sudo systemctl restart plexmediaserver.service assuming you're on a distro that's using systemd.
 
Lunar said:
Glad to see you fixed it, but one thing to remember with Linux. You don't always need to restart. For the vast majority of things you don't. As an example, if you updated your fstab and wanted to test it, you can just run sudo mount -a. That will mount all items in your fstab right then. Another example, is if you've made a change to a config file for a service, say Plex, you can easily restart it by running sudo systemctl restart plexmediaserver.service assuming you're on a distro that's using systemd.
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Another trick to go along with this is sometimes you can just logout and log back in
 
I will keep both in mind. Currently working on getting file sharing working. Set up folders on a storage drive to be shared. Windows can now see them, but no username is working for accessing.

Thanks for the help and insights.
 
Frobozz said:
5) NoMachine and VNC have worked ok for me in the past. If you develop your terminal game, then you can get a lot done with SSH... I'm just not sure about managing Plex.

.
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Revisiting this, is NoMachine + VNC better than this built in "Screen Sharing" in Ubuntu?
I want/need a GUI for both Plex as well as Steam (security code for remote play) when I remote in.
 
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ThatITGuy said:
Revisiting this, is NoMachine + VNC better than this built in "Screen Sharing" in Ubuntu?
I want/need a GUI for both Plex as well as Steam (security code for remote play) when I remote in.
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I intend to play with this a bit this coming week. Would like to solidify remote desktop access across machines etc.
 
So, I tried NoMachine at first (with tightvnc on the windows desktop) and had the server up and running, but could not get the windows PC to actually connect to it (I actually cannot remember what the error message was for this). Everything I read said i also need to install nomachine in windows, so i ended up removing nomachine to go try other things. I then tried the built in "Vino", which finally I got working after a bit of googling and turning off the encryption. I did not like having to turn off the encryption, plus Vino only works if you have a logged in user, which would be a problem long term if i run this headless... so I have now abandoned it.
I had also set up ssh server and that all works just fine using PuTTY on the Windows PC (even if a user is not logged in). So i can do a good amount of system admin stuff, but there are still a number of things I find myself needing the GUI for.

I have now moved to trying out x11vnc. I am currently stuck, as i am trying to learn how to set up this x display and the other settings in order to get things working and get rid of the errors I get when i invoke x11vnc from PuTTY. It is just taking more hands on time to understand the command line options, and there does not seem to be a config file (or at least it is not where the guides say it should be).
I am also thinking of trying out tightvnc, as it seemed to be recommended as well. Supposedly it has better performance than x11vnc, and may be easier from a setup aspect as well.
 
ThatITGuy said:
Revisiting this, is NoMachine + VNC better than this built in "Screen Sharing" in Ubuntu?
I want/need a GUI for both Plex as well as Steam (security code for remote play) when I remote in.
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I haven't even heard about 'nomachine' I usually just install a minimal lxde or xfce desktop (just basic components, not even panels and things) and vnc to it through an SSH pipe. That is, if I need desktop at all. VNC will pop up the desktop for you even if you run the computer headless.
 
B00nie said:
I haven't even heard about 'nomachine' I usually just install a minimal lxde or xfce desktop (just basic components, not even panels and things) and vnc to it through an SSH pipe. That is, if I need desktop at all. VNC will pop up the desktop for you even if you run the computer headless.
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I am running Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Desktop, so it comes with Gnome by default. When i get a bit more well versed with Linux, I may move to the server version (or move to a different desktop). For now it works, but I just need a way to manage Plex and Steam, both of which require a desktop/GUI in order to do the things I need. I am also not well versed enough to know how to get the ssh pipe set up in such a way as I can connect using VNC. Most of the google results say i need a vnc server to do that. I already have the ssh connectivity.
 
ThatITGuy said:
I am running Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Desktop, so it comes with Gnome by default. When i get a bit more well versed with Linux, I may move to the server version (or move to a different desktop). For now it works, but I just need a way to manage Plex and Steam, both of which require a desktop/GUI in order to do the things I need. I am also not well versed enough to know how to get the ssh pipe set up in such a way as I can connect using VNC. Most of the google results say i need a vnc server to do that. I already have the ssh connectivity.
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It's very simple. Run a vnc server (as a regular user) and set flags for localhost connection only. Then create a pipe e.g. ssh -f -N -L 5901:localhost:5901 username@yourserveraddress
This creates a port 5901 to your local computer which is piped directly to your remote host default port for vnc. So you can just do vnc localhost and you see the remote desktop.
 
So i would just go into PuTTY, and
1) type ssh -f -N -L 5901:localhost:5901 linuxuser@linuxserver1
2) start the x11vnc with the -localhost option
3)connect using the vnc client, using linuxserver1:localhost as address (and linuxuser as user name)?

The piece I am trying to still work out is getting the desktop created when i start the vnc server, i.e. "-display :0" which also seems to need a "-auth" which needs the location of the desktop environment library files (or something like that, still figuring this piece out).
would above steps make it so this is not required?
 
ThatITGuy said:
So i would just go into PuTTY, and
1) type ssh -f -N -L 5901:localhost:5901 linuxuser@linuxserver1
2) start the x11vnc with the -localhost option
3)connect using the vnc client, using linuxserver1:localhost as address (and linuxuser as user name)?

The piece I am trying to still work out is getting the desktop created when i start the vnc server, i.e. "-display :0" which also seems to need a "-auth" which needs the location of the desktop environment library files (or something like that, still figuring this piece out).
would above steps make it so this is not required?
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Why not just use TightVNC as the client under Windows?

http://www.tightvnc.com/
 
I've used it mostly this year, which is probably fairly recently, and I wouldn't touch it if it couldn't sudo.

As it stands, it works the same as anything else.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
I've used it mostly this year, which is probably fairly recently, and I wouldn't touch it if it couldn't sudo.

As it stands, it works the same as anything else.
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Microsoft's strong suite has never been documenting it's implementations.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
Well, I started using it because it was reported on- and those reports came from Microsoft's documentation.
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I'm not too sure what you want me to say? I experienced the issue in the early days and there it is! Reported by Microsoft themselves!

It's like you're trying to claim I'm making all this up, but the evidence is right there, direct from the mouth of Microsoft.
 
Mazzspeed said:
I'm not too sure what you want me to say? I experienced the issue in the early days and there it is! Reported by Microsoft themselves!

It's like you're trying to claim I'm making all this up, but the evidence is right there, direct from the mouth of Microsoft.
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You admit that your information is old, and I'm telling you that it is old- why are you repeating it instead of seeing whether something has changed?
 
We get it, you prefer Windows to the point you'll run WSL (essentially Wine for Linux) under Windows rather than run a native Linux install. Who cares?

I never stated my information wasn't old. I'm commenting on the fact that Microsoft's documentation is obviously out of date and I'm claiming that is no surprise.
 
Mazzspeed said:
Because it's still in their fucking documentation as a reported issue!
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Which could be wrong? Isn't that a common attack used on Microsoft by their detractors?

I'm telling you that it works, and has been documented and reported to work. I use it regularly. Why does that idea set you off? Why not see for yourself instead?
 
IdiotInCharge said:
Which could be wrong? Isn't that a common attack used on Microsoft by their detractors?

I'm telling you that it works, and has been documented and reported to work. I use it regularly. Why does that idea set you off? Why not see for yourself instead?
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I believe you that it works, I never claimed otherwise.

Are you simply trying to start some pointless argument? I'm not too sure just what you want?
 
Call it fair- I'm saying that it works, you're saying that it didn't, and to the best of my knowledge, we're both right :).
 
IdiotInCharge said:
Call it fair- I'm saying that it works, you're saying that it didn't, and to the best of my knowledge, we're both right :).
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To be fair, you're trying to point out that you prefer Windows over Linux. That's what the whole point of your discussion was about.
 
Mazzspeed said:
To be fair, you're trying to point out that you prefer Windows over Linux. That's what the whole point of your discussion was about.
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That does seem to be your perception; I prefer to use the right tool for the job. That's still Windows for so many jobs, but I'd also prefer to learn and use Linux as much as possible.

And I do ;)
 
IdiotInCharge said:
That does seem to be your perception; I prefer to use the right tool for the job. That's still Windows for so many jobs, but I'd also prefer to learn and use Linux as much as possible.

And I do ;)
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I actually find Windows to be the worst tool for the job, and the more I use Linux and the more time advances, the greater this concept seems to be holding true. But each to their own.

I think it's more a case of learning curve than any real benefit to Windows as an OS.
 
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