Hi there,
I’m considering upgrading from ubuntu 17.10 to 18.04, and just wanted to see if there are any other known issues with the upgrade?
At the moment everything is running well with 17.10, but being that I am using BTRFS I would like to update to keep up with the latest version.
Any input is always welcome.
Much appreciated
Kevin
All the major distro vendors have pulled back from BTRFS.
You’re far better off biting the bullet, making appropriate backups, and reinstalling as ext4.
When you do reinstall, I recommend:
This configuration allows you to save important configuration info (hosts, Plex Library, etc) to /home where it can be preserved during OS installs / reinstalls.
I set up a new 18.04 headless server (not an upgrade, all new) over 2 weeks ago and have been pleased with the results. PMS runs well. Plex DVR is recording everything I ask for. Hardware transcoding with built-in Intel works fine after I added an HDMI dummy plug.
I did disable auto updates and auto upgrades because I prefer to do that manually, but otherwise I’m using stock Ubuntu 18.04.
@cdcochrane said:
I set up a new 18.04 headless server (not an upgrade, all new) over 2 weeks ago and have been pleased with the results. PMS runs well. Plex DVR is recording everything I ask for. Hardware transcoding with built-in Intel works fine after I added an HDMI dummy plug.I did disable auto updates and auto upgrades because I prefer to do that manually, but otherwise I’m using stock Ubuntu 18.04.
I followed beta to beta through the hw transcode and 4K integration cycle…
But, I recently setup and converted over to the repository for public releases. Keeps my Plex up to date, but skips over minute incremental changes where bugs are more likely.
I’m not trying to pick a fight or start a flame war but with all due respect:
All the major distro vendors have pulled back from BTRFS.
This is not true. AFAIK, only Red Hat has stopped supporting btrfs. OpenSUSE uses it as the install default (or did as of six months ago) and most if not all other vendors still include btrfs support, including Fedora. Even Android is using btrfs of late.
You’re far better off biting the bullet, making appropriate backups, and reinstalling as ext4.
This is an opinion and in my view a poor one. According to the developer of EXT4, it’s a stop-gap to add a few needed features until another, more usable and better file system arrives. Even XFS is being improved this year and would likely be a better choice for data storage than the out-dated EXT file system.
For example, this advice:
When you do reinstall, I recommend:
- Root partition
- Swap partition
- Home partition
- –Free–
also has the effect of dividing your drive space requiring you to guess how much is needed for each partition and probably leaving at least some of it unused. Whereas , if you use btrfs, you need only SWAP and one additional partition that can occupy the remainder of your drive. Your installation, your home and your media (and as many others as you wish) can all reside in subvolumes on the same btrfs file system, thus sharing all free space among them. You can even add additional partitions from other drives (or even whole drives) to your existing btrfs filesystem to expand the available space without rebooting.
Additionally, the ability to make snapshots adds data security and making backups is trivial with btrfs and requires no outside backup software - btrfs can do it natively.
This configuration allows you to save important configuration info (hosts, Plex Library, etc) to
/homewhere it can be preserved during OS installs / reinstalls.
A separate home partition is a requirement of EXT4 to preserve data and settings, not a benefit. BTRFS does not require partitioning at all as I have said.
I would expect everyone to do what they feel comfortable within their experience and skill level and I would not try to convince someone to move to btrfs without first researching and learning about it. I also would never suggest anyone downgrade their system to EXT4 either.
I invite anyone and everyone who is interested in btrfs and it’s amazing features and benefits to join me at Kubuntu Forums dot Net and open a thread to discuss.
I guess we can agree to disagree?
You have your philosophy and I have mine.
LVs are nice but done incorrectly, they’re trouble. You and I both know it.
I didn’t know your technical expertise level when I first replied. Given the tech level of most I encounter here, my reply was on target as anyone with Linux mastery would already know what he wants to do (IMHO).
Of course, and good points about the general level of Linux mastery. I’ve been using Linux daily since 1998 or so but there are far far more noobs than users at our level.
BTW, I think it’s awesome that Plex has a Linux expert like yourself on staff. I appreciate the support you provide.
I did some reading after posting the above and it looks like Red Hat has been developing a new FS called Stratis that is supposed to have the best part of btrfs, zfs, and lvm. We’ll have to wait and see on that one.
When you’re ready to turn to the “Dark Side” come over to our forum! 
While I"m thinking of it, passing this on.
18.04 is missing something when it comes to vaapi & the KabyLake ASIC.
If we back down to 16.04, it works, boot to 18.04 and it doesn’t.
Not tracked it down yet.
Keep your eyes open?
Yes, regarding redhat, they are taking a ‘bold new direction’
I’m wondering when we’ll see full object storage as mainstream consumer. That’ll stand everyone on their heads
I’ve been around *nix since 83. (SunOS). Spent the vast majority in gov’t work at that level of machine and with embedded boxes with ‘nix-like’ executives.
I’ll let you know if I see anything on that. I’m running PMS on a Haswell (i3-4160T) and my personal desktop is a Skylake (i7-6700K), but I keep my ear to the ground so I’ll let you know if anything seems relevant. I’m having a couple issues of my own with 18.04 not related to PMS - thus why I didn’t want to jump to 18.04 without a fallback.
I was using Unix professionally on a Sun Sparc Station circa 1995 but went to Linux (Mandrake) from OS/2 Warp at home a few years earlier. Now I support a couple hundred CentOS servers for the FAA used in simulators, but it’s all old-as-heck EOL software. I keep having to necro-search when a new problem erupts.
I’ll keep in touch.
Now what was this about a ‘Dark Side’ ? I’ve been in some places not officially on the map >:)
Hi there,
I appreciate all the reply’s, as I said, all input is welcome 
As far as the choice of BTRFS is concerned, I did consider going with ZFS when I built my media server, but at the time Ubuntu didn’t natively support it. Looking back, I could make a lot of improvements to the server, but I do like BTRFS. Even though it does have higher overheads, I do like the logical volume system.
Going back to my original question about ‘are there any known issues with 18.04’, I am assuming that is a no then My media server is an HP Microserver, bought when they were doing the cash back system way back… I think it was about 4 years ago… so it doesn’t support the hardware decoding (boooo). I was thinking about installing an Nvidia or AMD Radeon card, to see if they would help… but at the moment it seems to do all I need anyway.
I may do the “do-release-upgrade” and sit back and await the fallout when it all goes wrong!
@cdcochrane said:
I set up a new 18.04 headless server (not an upgrade, all new) over 2 weeks ago and have been pleased with the results. PMS runs well. Plex DVR is recording everything I ask for. Hardware transcoding with built-in Intel works fine after I added an HDMI dummy plug.
Mine is a headless Ubuntu server too 
As a matter of interest… HDMI dummy plug? Do you need one of those on a headless server to get the video card to be used?
I’m working with one of the Ninjas about 18.04. He’s using the Hades Canyon (with the AMD onboard as well).
Under no circumstances can he reliably get the i915 to be picked up properly and iGPU to be ‘claimed’.
This was tried using server, workstation, and minimal configurations.
The latest updates (some 87 packages) provided no relief.
Taking it back to Ubuntu 16 and all was good again.
Summary: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. As I said earlier it’s still too new. As more and more info comes in, it’s turning out to be less and less PMS-friendly than many hoped. Give it 6 months and it will most likely be fine. Just don’t be an early adopter. This version is rough…
@Adict said:
As a matter of interest… HDMI dummy plug? Do you need one of those on a headless server to get the video card to be used?
Not here. I don’t install X or any GUI packages so video isn’t any sort of issue. I’m very comfortable with the command line - sometimes more than with a GUI - so I have no need to install X. If you want some easier tools to use that don’t require a graphical desktop, try “Webmin”. IMO having a “desktop” on a server is a waste of resources. If you really want a GUI on occasion, you can boot to tty by default and manually start X when you need it.by setting up vesa in protected mode so it doesn’t look for a monitor. See this thread: [SOLVED] Can't start Ubuntu without monitor
Mine sits is a cabinet unless I need to do something special to it - like install 18.04. For that I have a bluetooth keyboard and a long HDMI cable. I grab a spare monitor and hook it up, then boot to a USB stick to install. Once it boots well, I set up ssh and work remotely from then on.
I’m still having a couple issues unrelated to Plex and some things that still need installation for my total change-over to 18.04 from 14.04. For example my NFS shares went “stale” yesterday for no reason I could quickly discern. I had work to do so I just booted back into 14.04 so I could get on with my day. I’ll get back to it this weekend.
Usually I don’t jump to the next release until it’s 6 months old or more just to avoid the major bugs, but I had some time this week so I went ahead and installed 18.04. However, I have kept 14.04 as it was so I can boot back (as I did yesterday) when there’s any trouble. I went from 12.04 to 14.04 because there was a significant leap in the btrfs-tools and I needed to upgrade my hardware so made sense to do them both at the same time. However, I saw no reason to install 16.04. Now we’re less than a year from 12.04 reaching End-Of-Life and I figured better to work on the change-over now rather than when it’s dead.
Also Adict: I’m having no trouble with Plex and I have moved the /var/lib/plexmediaserver folder to it’s own btrfs subvolume. Now I can back it up independently and the same metadata library is used by Plex regardless if I boot to 14.04 to 18.04. A non-standard configuration for sure but it works slick!
@ChuckPA said:
Now what was this about a ‘Dark Side’ ? I’ve been in some places not officially on the map >:)
The “Kubuntu” Dark Side! B) as in Ubuntu and Plasma 5. I’m just guessing you’re a Red Hat/ Gnome-ish guy.
I’m actually using KDEneon as my daily distro. It’s a minimal Ubuntu core with the Plasma 5 (the new name for KDE5) team doing rapid development and releases. Jonathon Ridell is heading the KDEneon team. He was the former head of the Kubuntu team. KDEneon is still on a 16.04 base but they’re getting ready to move to 18.04. By all accounts, Kubuntu 18.04 is a vast improvement over previous releases. Much faster and fewer bugs out-of-the-gate than previous releases. I’ve booted 18.04 only 6-8 times and it’s definitely quick.
I’m a Redhat guy yes. Gnome is only because that’s what most use. CLI is the way to go and always has been.
I can’t wrap my head around any ‘dumto’ implementation or derivative of a derivative lol
Finding what we have been with 18.04 “LTS” (har har) and it’s current state of “readiness” begs the question (to which I’ll surely get flamed) “Can these kids write code and do they know how to test it properly?” LOL
Can’t argue with those points. I been thinking about jumping ship to Manjaro or even Arch, but I’m too busy and too old to start that learning curve right now. I’ve always been a KDE fan since early 3. I’ve used some lighter weight DEs like E17 and XFCE when the situation demanded it, but I never could stand Gnome. Of course, it’s been a decade since I last tried it so there’s that. The new Plasma 5 version is outstanding, much lighter weight than the past, and I’m deeply familiar with it, so I’m sticking with it until there’s a reason not to.
Gnome is good IF you install the extensions. You can actually turn it into a very useful environment
Just thought I would update this, as I have decided to bite the bullet and do the update recently.
I have successfully upgraded to 18.04 on my HP MicroServer, and it seems to be all running smoothly, I haven’t had any performance/compatibility issues as yet.
After upgrading I did throw some extra memory at the server, as on doing maintenance on the case (ie, removing years of built-up dust bunnies!!), I discovered that it was only running on 4Gb memory. So I upgraded to 16Gb memory.
Also, I thought I would experiment with the hardware encoding to see how much it makes a difference. I purchase an Nvidia GT710 (low profile, fanless), and installed the Nvidia drivers. My experience has been quite good… yes, transcoding is not going via HW, but what is going via HW is the encoding. Previously when someone was remote streaming and we were watching something ‘locally’ via the Roku, if both were transcoding it was stuttering terribly… now, however, there doesn’t seem to be an issue. This could be the extra memory, but the utilisation has gone from 9-10 for 2 streams to 2-3 (dual core HT processor, so 4 is 100% on all cores). To be honest, I am quite happy with this, it seems to be doing the job nicely. I am not going to go as far as to stick my neck out and recommend it for headless servers, but I can testify to the functionality of the encoding process taking a load off the CPU and offloading it to the eGPU.
Anyway, just thought I would give my experience to date… all still working nicely
PS: I have a whole bunch of dust bunnies looking for loving home… PST 
