I’ll start by stating that I am not a linux user so I do need noob instructions. I put Raspian and Plex Media Server on a Raspberry Pi 3 that has a NTFS external USB hard drive attached to it with all my music. Initially, I was able to connect and see my music folders but couldn’t add any songs to my library. I was pretty sure it was due to permissions. After lots of googling and entering various commands I only made matters worse. Now I cannot connect to the plex server through a web browser on any devices on my network including directly on the pi. I even uninstalled and reinstalled plex but still no luck. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. I’ve been at this for hours. Thanks!
When I check status of plexmediaserver is shows as active and running. Any ideas on what my issue may be?
Numerous people have read my post but no comments. Someone must have a clue what is going on here. Is there a log file or something I can provide?
Can you help here ?
@“r.markham2@comcast.net”
The How-To’s you’ll need to help you learn linux as it pertains to Plex are here: https://forums.plex.tv/categories/linux-tips
@“r.markham2@comcast.net” said:
Numerous people have read my post but no comments. Someone must have a clue what is going on here. Is there a log file or something I can provide?
Please post the output of systemctl status plexmediaserver and journalctl -u plexmediaserver
Hi uglymagoo. Here are the requested outputs. Thanks so much for your help!
pi@raspberrypi:/ $ systemctl status plexmediaserver
● plexmediaserver.service - Plex Media Server for Linux
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Tue 2017-12-19 00:18:54 UTC; 1 day 19h ago
Main PID: 25829 (sh)
CGroup: /system.slice/plexmediaserver.service
├─25829 /bin/sh -c LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/plexmediaserver “/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Media Server”
└─25830 /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Media Server
Warning: Journal has been rotated since unit was started. Log output is incomplete or unavailable
pi@raspberrypi:/ $ journalctl -u plexmediaserver
– No entries –
@“r.markham2@comcast.net” said:
Warning: Journal has been rotated since unit was started. Log output is incomplete or unavailable
Please restart the service with sudo systemctl restart plexmediaserver, then try to access the web frontend and post the output of journalctl and the contents of /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/Plex Media Server.log.
I installed plexmediaserver_1.11.0.4633-70f9c31ed_amd64.deb and now I’m seeing the same thing. Attached is the output you requested. Thank you!
There should be no /etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service. This is a unit-level override which supersedes everything I specify in /lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service as well as any customizations in /etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service.d/override.conf
Any customizations must exist in /etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service.d/override.conf and only contain those (Environment) variables, and/or User=, Group=, and UMask= to be customized.
The use of the Plex\ Media\ Server was eliminated over 16 months ago when SELinux was updated and I changed PMS installation and operation to meet the new requirements of SELinux and its companion Bash security update.
Dec 21 09:49:02 BRIX sh[27602]: GUI: Requesting metadata for ''
Dec 21 12:15:56 BRIX systemd[1]: [/etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service:11] Invalid escape sequences in line, correcting: "/bin/sh -c 'LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/plexmediaserver /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex\ Media\ Server'"
Dec 21 12:15:56 BRIX systemd[1]: [/etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service:11] Invalid escape sequences in line, correcting: "/bin/sh -c 'LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/plexmediaserver /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex\ Media\ Server'"
Dec 21 12:15:56 BRIX systemd[1]: [/etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service:11] Invalid escape sequences in line, correcting: "/bin/sh -c 'LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/plexmediaserver /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex\ Media\ Server'"
Dec 21 12:15:56 BRIX systemd[1]: [/etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service:11] Invalid escape sequences in line, correcting: "/bin/sh -c 'LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/plexmediaserver /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex\ Media\ Server'"
Dec 21 12:15:56 BRIX systemd[1]: [/etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service:11] Invalid escape sequences in line, correcting: "/bin/sh -c 'LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/plexmediaserver /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex\ Media\ Server'"
Dec 21 12:15:56 BRIX systemd[1]: [/etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service:11] Invalid escape sequences in line, correcting: "/bin/sh -c 'LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/plexmediaserver /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex\ Media\ Server'"
Dec 21 12:15:57 BRIX systemd[1]: [/etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service:11] Invalid escape sequences in line, correcting: "/bin/sh -c 'LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/plexmediaserver /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex\ Media\ Server'"Hi @ChuckPA, I’ve followed your instructions:
- Delete /etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service
- Created /etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service.d/override.conf
Unfortunately, I’m still having trouble connecting to my PMS.
It’s saying “Indirect” although going to Settings -> Server -> Remote Access shows “Fully accessible outside your network”.
I’ve attached new outputs. Can you please take a look? Thank you very much!
@uglymagoo Here are the logs. Thanks!
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ journalctl -u plexmediaserver
– Logs begin at Wed 2017-12-20 06:21:32 UTC, end at Thu 2017-12-21 23:22:39 UTC
Dec 21 13:29:15 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Stopping Plex Media Server for Linux…
Dec 21 13:29:15 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Stopped Plex Media Server for Linux.
Dec 21 13:29:15 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Starting Plex Media Server for Linux…
Dec 21 13:29:15 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started Plex Media Server for Linux.
Dec 21 23:22:38 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Stopping Plex Media Server for Linux…
Dec 21 23:22:38 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Stopped Plex Media Server for Linux.
Dec 21 23:22:38 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Starting Plex Media Server for Linux…
Dec 21 23:22:39 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started Plex Media Server for Linux.
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/Plex Media Server.log
cat: /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application: No such file or directory
cat: Support/Plex: No such file or directory
cat: Media: No such file or directory
cat: Server/Logs/Plex: No such file or directory
cat: Media: No such file or directory
cat: Server.log: No such file or directory
Also, @eXoticon I’m not sure why you thought it was ok to hijack my thread with your issue but I’d appreciate it if you start your own post or review feedback provided to me so I can focus on MY issue first. Thanks!
Setting up PMS on a Pi is not for a ‘noob Linux user’ unless you’re willing to dig in and get your hands dirty.
To help you on your way, I do have https://forums.plex.tv/categories/linux-tips
@ChuckPA I am willing to dig in and get my hands dirty so not sure why you thought otherwise. I’ve read your Linux tips and yes I did learn a lot from them but did not find solution to my problem. I continually research online to learn more about Linux as I’d love to eventually dump my windows systems all together. I’m just looking for guidance without another user injecting there problem in my thread so I resolve my issues. I appreciate all the help and support as I learn.
If I understand you correctly:
- The initial problem was PMS not being able to see your media (but you could?)
- After some fiddling, you can’t connect to the server.
If this is the correct status:
Let’s find out PMS current status:
sudo systemctl status plexmediaserver
If it’s not running, the normal next step is sudo systemctl start plexmediaserver and then open the server in the browser (http://127.0.0.1:32400/web)
To make sure it starts at boot sudo systemctl enable plexmediaserver
Since you’re not there yet, sudo journalctl -xe | grep -i plex and look for the obvious error or denied messages. If it’s so critical as to keep PMS from starting, it will be there (the system journal)
@RyanM0602 said:
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/Plex Media Server.log
cat: /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application: No such file or directory
cat: Support/Plex: No such file or directory
cat: Media: No such file or directory
cat: Server/Logs/Plex: No such file or directory
cat: Media: No such file or directory
cat: Server.log: No such file or directory
You have to use quotes, e.g. cat "/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/Plex Media Server.log" 
But please just upload the complete file here, like the other user did.
Please also post the output of ls -ahl /var/lib/plexmediaserver (this will tell is if there is something wrong with the permissions of the Library folder`.
@uglymagoo Sorry I realized I forgot the quotes afterwards and redid it but didn’t realize that I posted the wrong one to the forum. I’ll put it in a text file going forward. However, it looks like I don’t have anything in the Application Support folder. Not even the Plex Server folder to navigate to.
Here is output of ls -ahl /var/lib/plexmediaserver:
pi@raspberrypi:/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support $ ls -ahl /var/lib/plexmediaserver/
total 12K
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K Dec 10 20:39 .
drwxr-xr-x 47 root root 4.0K Dec 21 14:15 …
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K Dec 21 23:26 Library
@RyanM0602 said:
pi@raspberrypi:/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support $ ls -ahl /var/lib/plexmediaserver/
total 12K
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K Dec 10 20:39 .
drwxr-xr-x 47 root root 4.0K Dec 21 14:15 …
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4.0K Dec 21 23:26 Library
And that’s the whole problem. “/var/lib/plexmediaserver/” has to be owned by plex not by root. So please fix the permissions with sudo chown -R plex:plex /var/lib/plexmediaserver/ and you are good to go
Restart the server afterwards with sudo systemctl restart plexmediaserver.
1 Like
@uglymagoo That did it! Thank you so much for your help!
@ChuckPA Thanks for all the tips and tricks articles. They are very helpful.
May you both have a great holiday!
Have a great holiday !
