Ubuntu and Plex again

ThatITGuy said:
So why do you like Kodi better?
I just downloaded Kodi last night to one of my laptops to play around with. I like PLEX for my movie library, but wanted to try out Kodi for sharing some of my other junk that I don't want to have to wade through when I am playing movies (i.e. SW:Rebels episodes and other cheesy videos or TV show episodes that I have collected over the years) . I have yet to do much beyond set it up, but I am curious to see what it has to offer.
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First of all, I have none of these issues experienced by the OP - I install the Kodi client software and it works. I have a server configured with standard NFS shares and TVHeadend for FTA DTV streaming to all my Kodi devices, and best of all - It's all free.

There's no way I'm paying for the 'privilege' of using Plex and I'm not interested in creating an account to use my media streaming software.
 
Mazzspeed said:
Isn't that exactly where you'd want the bootloader?
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That depends.

Many times I prefer to have bootloaders on the drives containing the operating systems themselves if they're on separate drives, as opposed to separate partitions of a single drive.

In the most recent instance, I was attempting to install multiple distributions to an external USB drive. I wanted the bootloader (Grub) on that drive, listing each OS on it.

This failed every time.
 
Mazzspeed said:
First of all, I have none of these issues experienced by the OP - I install the Kodi client software and it works. I have a server configured with standard NFS shares and TVHeadend for FTA DTV streaming to all my Kodi devices, and best of all - It's all free.

There's no way I'm paying for the 'privilege' of using Plex and I'm not interested in creating an account to use my media streaming software.
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Linux install issues? And Plex is free, unless you share. I'm not paying anything. Well, not physically paying, spiritually debatable.

I haven't looked into Kodi since the XBMC days. I may look at it again and see if it will suit my needs. It needs to be accessed remotely. I travel and a Roku goes with me so that I am not stuck watching QVC debating where that new synthetic bear rug will go.


Good news is, Pop OS has done well thus far. Permissions were corrected and it's drumming up the library. Other devices on the network are seeing them as well. So, the deal I made with that fella in the red spanx and cameltoed shoes may have paid off.

Now to fire up Steam, on my box with the Plex server, and play a little Borderlands 2.
 
Mah man. I love Pop OS. It completely changed my opinion of Linux. I have been running it for a while now and its been a great experience.

The scanning library thing is actually a really common permissions issue (if you can call it that, its actually a security feature). Its not Pop OS or Ubuntu related, its a linux thing. You just need to set the permissions on it. You can do this in terminal using chmod or using the GUI and just right clicking the folder. After that restart and it should scan your files. I had the same issues when I moved my plex server from windows to linux. Its the same issue going from one linux distro to a clean install of linux.
 
DogsofJune said:
Linux install issues? And Plex is free, unless you share. I'm not paying anything. Well, not physically paying, spiritually debatable.

I haven't looked into Kodi since the XBMC days. I may look at it again and see if it will suit my needs. It needs to be accessed remotely. I travel and a Roku goes with me so that I am not stuck watching QVC debating where that new synthetic bear rug will go.


Good news is, Pop OS has done well thus far. Permissions were corrected and it's drumming up the library. Other devices on the network are seeing them as well. So, the deal I made with that fella in the red spanx and cameltoed shoes may have paid off.

Now to fire up Steam, on my box with the Plex server, and play a little Borderlands 2.
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I still find Plex to be overall better experience for me and my family. My wife and 6 year old daughter use it and they love it. I haven't tried Kodi in about a year though. If I feel like disrupting the peace I might check it out again. Got over 4000 movies and about twice as many shows and probably over 150,000 different bits of music indexed in Plex just the way I like it so it'll be interesting to see how Kodi would handle that. Specifically getting all the meta data and such.

Can Kodi stream to other devices easily? Namely Android devices..
 
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Stanley Pain said:
I still find Plex to be overall better experience for me and my family. My wife and 6 year old daughter use it and they love it. I haven't tried Kodi in about a year though. If I feel like disrupting the peace I might check it out again. Got over 4000 movies and about twice as many shows and probably over 150,000 different bits of music indexed in Plex just the way I like it so it'll be interesting to see how Kodi would handle that. Specifically getting all the meta data and such.

Can Kodi stream to other devices easily? Namely Android devices..
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I have a bigger library than yourself and Kodi handles my library just fine. Yes, Kodi works perfectly with Android devices on the local network, even FTA TV streams perfectly to Android devices using TVHeadend server. Everything works perfectly with Android devices, it's iOS and it's resulting limitations in this regard that present issues from time to time. There's no way I'll open my network up to external streaming of media - I'll use a USB stick and OTG adapter for such purposes.

My wife and daughter use Kodi just fine, there's no way around the WAF in any scenario. The other good thing about Kodi is that it can be 100% controlled by the Kore app, I have tablets mounted in walls for a complete smart home multimedia setup.

DogsofJune said:
Linux install issues? And Plex is free, unless you share. I'm not paying anything. Well, not physically paying, spiritually debatable.
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In this thread, don't you mention install issues? Plex server is available as a simple .deb but you have to install using a snap - Which is most likely the cause of most of your problems.

Well...That and the fact that vanilla Ubuntu is as bad as Linux Mint in terms of reliability and polish.
 
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Mazzspeed said:
I have a bigger library than yourself and Kodi handles my library just fine. Yes, Kodi works perfectly with Android devices on the local network, even FTA TV streams perfectly to Android devices using TVHeadend server. Everything works perfectly with Android devices, it's iOS and it's resulting limitations in this regard that present issues from time to time. There's no way I'll open my network up to external streaming of media - I'll use a USB stick and OTG adapter for such purposes.

My wife and daughter use Kodi just fine, there's no way around the WAF in any scenario. The other good thing about Kodi is that it can be 100% controlled by the Kore app, I have tablets mounted in walls for a complete smart home multimedia setup.
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Can it stream outside of local network? I share my library with some family and friends.
 
Stanley Pain said:
Can it stream outside of local network? I share my library with some family and friends.
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Did you read my post? As far as I'm aware, no. I wouldn't admit to streaming your movies and TV shows to family and friends on a public forum, that's a big copyright no, no. Assuming you're going to claim 'home made family movies and TV shows'.

Not a deal breaker for me as there's no way I'm allowing my media server access to the outside world, I'll use a USB stick and an OTG adapter when I'm out and about. I don't have enough mobile data anyway.

[EDIT] Come to think of it, there's no reason whatsoever why you can't share an NFS or SMB share with the outside world via the internet assuming you forward the right ports via the firewall. So I'd have to say that, yes, Kodi can be streamed via your internet connection.
 
Mazzspeed said:
I

In this thread, don't you mention install issues? Plex server is available as a simple .deb but you have to install using a snap - Which is most likely the cause of most of your problems.

Well...That and the fact that vanilla Ubuntu is as bad as Linux Mint in terms of reliability and polish.
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Yes I did mention Linux install issues, and the lack of Plex getting it's library populated.

I have had zero luck with the repositories for Plex. It may have installed initially in the past at times, but never consistently, for me at least. I would prefer not using a snap, but you use what ya have.

Live and learn experience. As I rebuild some new boxes, I will explore better solutions, but for now, this will get me by.
 
Just for my own curiosity -- for something like Plex, what's the challenge with Snaps?

To me it seems like a more advantageous route for software installation and updates.
 
Mazzspeed said:
Did you read my post? As far as I'm aware, no. I wouldn't admit to streaming your movies and TV shows to family and friends on a public forum, that's a big copyright no, no. Assuming you're going to claim 'home made family movies and TV shows'.

Not a deal breaker for me as there's no way I'm allowing my media server access to the outside world, I'll use a USB stick and an OTG adapter when I'm out and about. I don't have enough mobile data anyway.

[EDIT] Come to think of it, there's no reason whatsoever why you can't share an NFS or SMB share with the outside world via the internet assuming you forward the right ports via the firewall. So I'd have to say that, yes, Kodi can be streamed via your internet connection.
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You said local network hence why I asked a clarify question. No need to be rude. A simple "Kodi doesn't have that functionality built in" would suffice

Should I watch out for the copyright police? Is the FBI going to come busting into my house when I don't live in the US? Probably not. ;) That's even assuming I'm sharing copyrighted material in the first place. Care to show me where I admitted to such thing?

Not sure sharing NFS/SMB shares over the Internet is a great idea.

IdiotInCharge said:
Just for my own curiosity -- for something like Plex, what's the challenge with Snaps?

To me it seems like a more advantageous route for software installation and updates.
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I don't think there is a challenge per say. Snaps or Docker images tend to be the way to go for software like this.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
Just for my own curiosity -- for something like Plex, what's the challenge with Snaps?

To me it seems like a more advantageous route for software installation and updates.
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A Snap is not the issue and Snaps are quite nice. Containment of Snaps is the issue. You need to set proper permissions for the Plex Snap (or any snap) to be able to access files outside of the Snap. It's a nice security feature. However, it's why I don't use the Plex Snap. I had an awful time getting the permissions right and I was like fuck this...it's just simpler to install the .deb package and be done rather than monkey with permissions for an added layer of security that isn't really needed on that system.
 
Vermillion said:
A Snap is not the issue and Snaps are quite nice. Containment of Snaps is the issue. You need to set proper permissions for the Plex Snap (or any snap) to be able to access files outside of the Snap. It's a nice security feature. However, it's why I don't use the Plex Snap. I had an awful time getting the permissions right and I was like fuck this...it's just simpler to install the .deb package and be done rather than monkey with permissions for an added layer of security that isn't really needed on that system.
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This. I love the containment of snaps, but I've found that in a lot of instances the snaps don't even support enabling non-contained storage. For me, I have a MSI Cubi mini-pc running Ubuntu Server 18.04 with Plex Server installed via deb for media on my NAS, and I use the HDHomerun record service for recording over the air TV. I do remember having a permissions issue, but it came down to me not having my fstab mount options set correctly for my shares. Once I fixed that everything was smooth.

Glad you got it worked out.
 
What's wrong with the .deb of Plex server?


Stanley Pain said:
You said local network hence why I asked a clarify question. No need to be rude. A simple "Kodi doesn't have that functionality built in" would suffice
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Kodi is what a media solution should be, Kodi is a client. The server is a simple share. Whether that share be a SMB share, NFS share or whatever alternate form of sharing method you care to use.

Therefore there is no limitations on what you want to achieve as you aren't bound by software.
 
Mazzspeed said:
Kodi is what a media solution should be, Kodi is a client. The server is a simple share. Whether that share be a SMB share, NFS share or whatever alternate form of sharing method you care to use.

Therefore there is no limitations on what you want to achieve as you aren't bound by software.
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That's not the question I asked, but thanks for trying to answer anyway.
 
DogsofJune said:
Desktop running Plex server. Ubuntu server never installed on this box so I went the desktop route
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Now this is a big red flag there... The server version should install much easier than the desktop. Something is seriously off there.
 
B00nie said:
Now this is a big red flag there... The server version should install much easier than the desktop. Something is seriously off there.
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I fought with it, different drives were tried. I did eventually get it installed and then battled Plex. Decided to go the desktop route instead. Maybe, when I have better experience with Linux, I'll give it a whirl again. I have a box in mind that may be a good candidate.

Really, that has been the concept behind this particular box, is to have a system that is pure linux. I get on my gaming system to play games this box doesn't do, or if it needs more horsepower to play, but mostly I'm on this system. I mess with it intentionally sometimes to tinker. I have changed kernels, swapped out gnome for KDE, and back. But, even though it's kind of a test box, I'm limited with hardware right now, so it's imperative that when I go out of town, I can watch MY movies. So Plex or Emby get utilized, plus while I am at my office, I can listen to my music.

Honestly, to get stuck in the middle of Iowa or Minnesota with all of 12 channels to watch and six of those are QVC or news on pork bellies..... It will drive you to drink and date tundra wookies, or is it Tinder wookies?
Either way, bad.
 
Stanley Pain said:
That's not the question I asked, but thanks for trying to answer anyway.
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How is that not the answer to what you asked? As stated earlier, shares can be forwarded through NAT. Therefore, if you want to share your library to a Kodi client outside of your home network it would be entirely possible.

Transcoding sucks and the need for a dedicated Plex server sucks. We already have sharing systems in place supported at OS level, so why not make use of them specifically?

I still don't understand why Plex server cannot be installed as a .deb?
 
Mazzspeed said:
I still don't understand why Plex server cannot be installed as a .deb?
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I dunno, but if it pops up an error, I find an alternative. Not all systems react the same to software. Just a quirk that I seem to be gifted with.
 
Mazzspeed said:
How is that not the answer to what you asked?
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Just as a reminder this is how the conversation went:

I asked Question, you mentioned Local Lan only so I asked a qualifying question about streaming to the Internet in which your first response was "Did you read my post". So here we are now, we've come full circle or whatever...

It's good that Kodi does what you need it to do. It can't do what I need it to do. Which is OK, because choice is great.

There, we're all caught up and on the same page now.
 
Stanley Pain said:
Just as a reminder this is how the conversation went:

I asked Question, you mentioned Local Lan only so I asked a qualifying question about streaming to the Internet in which your first response was "Did you read my post". So here we are now, we've come full circle or whatever...

It's good that Kodi does what you need it to do. It can't do what I need it to do. Which is OK, because choice is great.

There, we're all caught up and on the same page now.
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Hence the reason why I mentioned local LAN only. However, I've since come to the realization that because Kodi isn't limited by server 'software' you can do whatever you want - If you want to share your media, create the share as a normal SMB or NFS share and forward the relevant ports, that's really all Plex server is doing.
 
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DogsofJune said:
I dunno, but if it pops up an error, I find an alternative. Not all systems react the same to software. Just a quirk that I seem to be gifted with.
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Install Gdebi:

sudo apt install gdebi

Then try to install the .deb. The .deb should install fine once this is done. Vanilla Ubuntu is hopeless with third party .deb installers by default - I've experienced this issue with vanilla Ubuntu before.
 
Lol, well I inadvertently downgraded Plex, but the system saw to turn around and notify me of the updated version. I should have paid better attention to what I input. It's early yet. Haven't had my tea.

wget https://downloads.plex.tv/plex-medi...exmediaserver_1.14.1.5488-cc260c476_amd64.deb

sudo apt install ./plexmediaserver_1.14.1.5488-cc260c476_amd64.deb

Plex is on 1.18 now, and it was simple to restore it back to the version I had. We will see how it goes.
I am digging Pop OS. It was either Pop OS or Manjaro. I think I will shy away from Ubuntu for a bit.

Steam works well on Pop OS. Happy about that
 
DogsofJune said:
Lol, well I inadvertently downgraded Plex, but the system saw to turn around and notify me of the updated version. I should have paid better attention to what I input. It's early yet. Haven't had my tea.

wget https://downloads.plex.tv/plex-medi...exmediaserver_1.14.1.5488-cc260c476_amd64.deb

sudo apt install ./plexmediaserver_1.14.1.5488-cc260c476_amd64.deb

Plex is on 1.18 now, and it was simple to restore it back to the version I had. We will see how it goes.
I am digging Pop OS. It was either Pop OS or Manjaro. I think I will shy away from Ubuntu for a bit.

Steam works well on Pop OS. Happy about that
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Pop OS is Ubuntu with some cake crowning on top.
 
Mazzspeed said:
Hence the reason why I mentioned local LAN only. However, I've since come to the realization that because Kodi isn't limited by server 'software' you can do whatever you want - If you want to share your media, create the share as a normal SMB or NFS share and forward the relevant ports, that's really all Plex server is doing.
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Forwarding SMB/NFS shares onto the Internet is a bad, bad idea.

Better option would be to setup OpenVPN and then have the clients connect that way. Insanely more secure.
 
Stanley Pain said:
Forwarding SMB/NFS shares onto the Internet is a bad, bad idea.

Better option would be to setup OpenVPN and then have the clients connect that way. Insanely more secure.
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Totally agreed, I was simply trying to present the simplest option. I think I did mention it wasn't a great idea from the onset.
 
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