This might be the wrong place to post this. There may be a FAQ which is relevant. I am floundering despite trying. Could it be that a forum specifically called “newbs” might be nice? Anyway…
OS: Linux Mint 18.3.
Aim: to get the MP3 music files on a hard drive attached to my comp to play through my Yamaha R-N602 amplifier/receiver (uses the Yamaha “Musiccast” system meaning that you can control things from your smartphone).
That’s ALL I want to achieve for the moment. I’m not interested in streaming from outside, in paying money to subscribe to something, in watching videos or in accessing my files outside my home.
I previously, by some fluke, managed to get this working (using Plex) in a W10 OS, about a year ago. I now find the instructions anywhere get stymied.
I got to the ssh instruction: this failed thus (NB I got the supposed private URL of the Plex server by going Settings --> Remote access):
mike@M17A ~ $ ssh root@192.168.0.11 -L 8888:localhost:32400
ssh: connect to host 192.168.0.11 port 22: Connection refused
when I went to URL http://localhost:32400/web this initially had me “installing the Plex server”, which I thought I had already done.
when I went to URL http://localhost:32400/web again the Plex page was there OK, but when I clicked “Your media” with a view to setting a source for my MP3 files there was something which said “Get Plex Media server”, which I had just done.
Really I need an absolute Plex For Dummies.
Can anyone help point me in the right direction? From my experience last year (in a W10 OS) it would appear that the Yamaha Musiccast system is fairly cooperative … IF you can actually manage to make a source of MP3 files (i.e. a server) available through the Wifi?
Just to clarify as to where I’ve got… when I enter “Plex” in the start menu a new instance of Chrome starts up and it takes me to the Plex Media Server page… which shows that by doing something I have in fact already managed to get the PM server connected to the source of my MP3 files (the connected HD). I can click on something in this library and hear it playing… on the computer.
The question is how to get it to “push things out there” so I can use the Wifi (then my smartphone and the Yahama device should hopefully be able to play music through the audio system)…
Does this Mint server have keyboard,mouse, display? Did this drive come from a Windows machine?
If you just downloaded the file from Plex then it should be a 1.18 version which turns off DLNA by default. Plex has full documentation at: https://support.plex.tv/articles/
@pl_5309 Thanks. I’m not sure I understand your first question. When you say “Mint server” are you talking about the computer: yes, it’s a PC with keyboard, mouse, display. The drive (hard drive) works fine with the Linux OS, there’s no difficulty there. It’s formatted NTFS.
My Plex version is 1.13 for some reason, even after going “sudo apt-get update && … upgrade”. So what I can do is install 1.18 and take it from there. Thanks for the link… I will follow the instructions there and report back.
a few minutes later
Ow. I uninstalled my 1.13 version (following the Plex uninstall instructions) and then downloaded the Ubuntu Intel64 .deb installer (for 1.18). When this ran, installation failed:
Job for plexmediaserver.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See “systemctl status plexmediaserver.service” and “journalctl -xe” for details.
here’s what systemctl says:
plexmediaserver.service - Plex Media Server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service; enabled; vendor
Active: failed (Result: start-limit-hit) since Sun 2019-12-15 09:45:20 GMT; 2
Process: 4838 ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c /usr/bin/test -d “${PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_AP”
I then repeated a couple of times (i.e. uninstall, and try again). I even rebooted. Same thing.
Synaptic now contains no entry at all for Plex, so I can’t try reinstalling the old version (1.13). My next step is to see whether there’s a download available of this old version.
@ChuckPa hmmm. If I google “simple dnla linux”, Plex comes at the top of the results. In its blurb Plex also continuously repeats everywhere about how simple it is. So maybe, as you are a team member, you could instead try and explain how I can get on with things and, most helpfully, why I’ve had the problems I’ve had so far. A few months down the line I might want to do things with videos and streaming outside the house or whatever. I’m a pretty tech-inclined person, so in fact my problems with Plex possibly point to complexity (contrary to the simplicity as advertised), or else confusion in terms of your existing documentation.
The directions you followed were for a system that was either remote or had no display (gui) to run a browser. Hopefully this is all on a AMD/Intel CPU system.
To clean up your install, open a terminal window on the machine and paste this.
sudo dpkg --purge plexmediaserver
Still in the terminal, cd to the location that has the plexmediaserver_1.18.2.2058-e67a4e892_amd64.deb file you downloaded.
@pl_5309 Thanks. Done that now. Looking at Manage --> Console I see lots of requests gradually registering (if that’s the right word) lots of MP3 files in my library. Under Settings --> DLNA I have checked “Enable DLNA server”. Under Settings --> General I see that the version is indeed 1.18.
I can play these MP3 files (on the computer). Plex is now not present in Synaptic.
Finally… , and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you can’t help with this much (third-party), my Yamaha tuner/receiver is saying “Server [No content]”… so any tips/links to get DLNA up and functioning? Will now revert to those setup instructions you linked to.
@pl_5309 Again, I’m a little confused. As I say, I CAN now play these MP3s on the computer. These MP3s are on the external hard drive. Plex CAN seen them.
But maybe you meant something else, like: “Plex can’t see them in order to set up a DLNA service”?
Setting up DLNA is the thing I’m trying to do now: if such a service were set up over my Wifi system, my Yahama device should list it in some way when its “Net” input is selected. At the moment it just says “Server: [no content]”
Are you still suggesting that it’s necessary to follow Chuck’s instructions on that page?
Thanks… done. So I’ve rebooted and the library is now at /disks/MyBook/Audio/Music library
I have checked that DLNA is set to Enable
I can play MP3s from the HD.
The Yamaha device is still saying “SERVER: [No content]”. I’ve tried switching off and on. I’ve checked that it’s linked to the Wifi.
Aha… my Musiccast app on my phone just requested a “firmware update”. All sorts of funny messages are flashing on the console of the actual device…
5 min later: firmware updated… machine switched off and on several times… STILL saying “No content”… Grrr.
later:
Checked what’s using my Wifi. Plex isn’t one of the things. However, in fact this is no surprise: the Linux machine is connected to the router using an Ethernet cable: it has no Wifi adapter. The Yamaha device is definitely Wifi-connected. I’m not clear: should the Ethernet connection be visible to the Yahama device (which is using only Wifi)? I’m going to plug in an external Wifi adapter to the Linux machine…
later:
Still no go. The Fing app shows clearly that all the devices are now connected over Wifi (inc. the Linux PC where the Plex MS is installed). Still no sign whatsoever of the Yamaha device “seeing” the Plex MS service. I wonder if there is some app I can install on my laptop just to check that it is able to pick up the Plex MS service via Wifi? This might indicate that the problem lies with the Yahama device (which I don’t currently believe is the case).
Experience on W10
I have a dual-boot on this machine… so I just thought I’d see whether it was possible with Windows 10. It worked out of the box… as it’s presumably meant to. I was able to play MP3s in about 1 minute flat, choosing through the Musiccast app on my phone. Under “Server” “Plex Media Server” was displayed on my Yamaha machine…
NB works fine with only Ethernet connection between the dual-boot PC and the router (so the router clearly rebroadcasts all inputs, as you’d expect)…
This would therefore appear to be a Linux-specific problem. I shall have to compare all the settings between the two installations … tomorrow.
This was a firewall problem. I had ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall) installed in my Mint OS. Uninstalling it and reboot: Plex works out of the box… Hurrah.
NB of course I don’t know whether the page referenced above about setting permissions in NTFS and ext4 locations is also necessary. That page is only concerned with settings permissions for ext4 partitions. Experiments needed…
firmware updated… machine switched off and on several times… STILL saying “No content”… Grrr.