What's the benefit of Arch Linux over Minibian? Which seems to be a minimalist build for rPi?
What's the benefit of Arch Linux over Minibian? Which seems to be a minimalist build for rPi?
Actually I didn't know about Minibian. But it seems to be a really good alternative to Arch Linux!
My main reason using Arch Linux over Raspbian (I didn't know about Minibian until I just read your post), was the simplicity, lower footprint (I use the RPi headless) and the repositories are always up to date. Raspbian's repos are so many months behind! Years in some cases. And also, I like pacman alot better than apt-get!
Minibian uses 16MB of RAM on boot, it just takes these few steps to make Minibian fully functional like Raspbian. I haven't personally tried Arch but I am comfortable with debian, my understanding is some projects prefer the Arch platform and that is the only reason I have seen to use Arch over debian.
One of the differences is that Arch has a rolling release update model, while Debian is focused os stability and mostly has old versions of software. While this might make Debian more stable and reliable if you are running a server, it can be frustrating if you are trying new software and like to test the latest versions.
Has an example, the IRC channel for ZNC bouncer software, states in the topic the following: ""Debian stable: 0.206 is 2.5 years old | 1.0 is 2 years old | 1.2 is 1 year old | 1.4 is 0.5 years old."
That is the main reason why I'm running Arch instead of Debian Wheezy on the Raspberry Pi 2/ Cubieboard.
Well that was surprisingly painless. Set up PMS on RP2 and working with Synology NAS, the guide is pretty accurate, only deviation for me was as others have said, in the plexmediaserver script, have LC_ALL="C".
Doing a library scan at the moment, that is obviously killing the CPU, but was still able to connect to PMS from iPad and start watching tv show. Video loaded in a few seconds and playback was fine. In fact, I'm also posting this from the Epiphany browser on the RP2 :)
In my case, I have no transcoding needs so I can imagine this setup will work out fine for me going forward. Will have a better look once library scan is done, e.g. I will try streaming to multiple clients and the likes. Raspbian itself isn't entirely stable, every other time I restarted the RP2 it got stuck in boot until a second restart, but I assume that will improve.
One question as it's been referred to in earlier posts, would I be better running from the USB stick or microSD card? Bearing in mind I do no transcoding.
Could you explain how you resolve this LC_ALL="C" issue... I have it but can't see the solution for it.
If anyone could make a image file with an OS and PMS so noobs like me wouldn't ask stupid questions
One question as it's been referred to in earlier posts, would I be better running from the USB stick or microSD card? Bearing in mind I do no transcoding.
no clue since I don't have a PIv2b -- but -- assuming the SD slot wires directly into SoC, it will be a LOT faster than USB. and frees up a USB port (eh 4 ports may already be enough for many people)
then again, uSD prices are about comparable to USB up to around 64GB - once you jump to 128 the uSD prices seem to start getting stupid.
easy way to check if the SD slot is direct or usb: run lspci and lsusb - see which one reports the SD controller. or just do a df or a lsblk -- usb will probably look like /dev/sdXY and direct/mmc would look something like /dev/mmcblkXYZ. or troll thru sysfs looking for devices. or a hundred other ways :)
also speed obvs will vary a bit between different sdcards, as well different usbsticks.
mixed results on my BBB (1ghz single-core cortex-A8; load stayed under 1.0 for all of the following)
- sda is a 32GB HP-v165w USB (class unknown, probably somewhere between 6 and 10)
- mmc0 is the SD slot, with a 32GB samsung SDXC UHS-1/class10
- mmc1 is the onboard 4GB 8-bit eMMC/NAND
$ sudo hdparm -t /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
Timing buffered disk reads: 38 MB in 3.16 seconds = 12.02 MB/sec
$ sudo hdparm -t /dev/mmcblk0
/dev/mmcblk0:
Timing buffered disk reads: 62 MB in 3.06 seconds = 20.24 MB/sec
$ sudo hdparm -t /dev/mmcblk1
/dev/mmcblk1:
Timing buffered disk reads: 46 MB in 3.14 seconds = 14.66 MB/sec
oddly, the write performance on the USB was better than the SD:
$ dd count=1k bs=1M if=/dev/zero of=/media/usb1/foo.img
1024+0 records in
1024+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 137.407 s, 7.8 MB/s
$ dd count=1k bs=1M if=/dev/zero of=/media/microsd/foo.img
1024+0 records in
1024+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 204.956 s, 5.2 MB/s
(not really much space available on mmc1, so...)
sudo dd count=512 bs=1M if=/dev/zero of=/media/foo.img
512+0 records in
512+0 records out
536870912 bytes (537 MB) copied, 72.3957 s, 7.4 MB/s
Hi,
I've created and uploaded an iso featuring Minibian with PMS installed.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/51466004/MiniBianPMS.zip
EDIT: For some dumb reason I called it a .iso - please rename it to .img.
It's a 2Gb image though Minibian and PMS only take up 900Mb. If there's demand, I'll re do it as a 1Gb image.
The user/password is root/raspberry
Once burnt and running you should do the usual update/upgrade. Plex should be running and it's the (as of 18/02/15) latest Drobo version: Version 0.9.11.7.803-87d0708
Samba is installed but not configured.
There's no USB mounts in the fstab, you need to mount your drive and then mount media directories somewhere beneath /chroots/wheezy-armel so that you can add that location from the Plex web gui.
If you get stuck with this point you can ask here and google..
Let me know if you have issues accessing the file.
One other thing I was able to backup my existing Plex Library metadata
(/chroots/wheezy-armel)/opt/plex/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server
and copy it back into my new minibian microSD which saved having to re import my media.
Plex is amazing..
more results, this time from Intel Edison/Arduino (SD slot wires directly to CPU; SoC is a 2-core 500mhz Atom/Silvermont variant. 1GB of LPDDR3 RAM (frequency unknown) vs BBB's 512MB@800mhz of DDR3L.)
runs plex quite well, simply using the i386 official plexpass .deb. (which anyone can get from the repo in the pinned debian thread...)
- sda is a 64GB HP-v165w USB (class unknown, probably somewhere between 6 and 10)
- mmc1 is the SD slot, with a 64GB samsung SDXC UHS-1/class10
- mmc0 is the onboard 4GB eMMC/NAND rootfs
$ sudo hdparm -t /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
Timing buffered disk reads: 54 MB in 3.02 seconds = 17.90 MB/sec
$ sudo hdparm -t /dev/mmcblk1
/dev/mmcblk1:
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 3.07 seconds = 20.84 MB/sec
$ sudo hdparm -t /dev/mmcblk0
/dev/mmcblk0:
Timing buffered disk reads: 296 MB in 3.02 seconds = 98.04 MB/sec
wow, Edison definitely has a way better eMMC hardware than BBB. the extra core&memory probably don't hurt either. the ubilinux/debian partitioning for Edison is a bit frustrating though - I had to symlink /usr/lib/plexmediaserver and /var/lib/plexmediaserver into /home to reclaim space on / - otherwise the rootfs became dangerously full, like not even enough space to apt-get upgrade plex - even now the root is 75% full.
double-wow, the usb stick has awful write performance on Edison - and I tried several times only to get worse write numbers for USB.
sudo dd count=512 bs=1M if=/dev/zero of=/media/usb0/foo.img
512+0 records in
512+0 records out
536870912 bytes (537 MB) copied, 665.467 s, 807 kB/s
sudo dd count=512 bs=1M if=/dev/zero of=/media/microsd/foo.img
512+0 records in
512+0 records out
536870912 bytes (537 MB) copied, 26.4995 s, 20.3 MB/s
dd count=512 bs=1M if=/dev/zero of=foo.img
512+0 records in
512+0 records out
536870912 bytes (537 MB) copied, 39.4538 s, 13.6 MB/s
There's no USB mounts in the fstab, you need to mount your drive and then mount media directories somewhere beneath /chroots/wheezy-armel so that you can add that location from the Plex web gui.
consider including usbmounter if there's a later release?
it may not be the perfect solution for some people (mainly those with multiple usb storage, who need to rely on consistent mount point names (whereas usbmounter simply picks the first available of /media/usb[0-7]
a good feature though is that usbmount.conf allows you to specify the entire mount path you prefer e.g.
/chroots/wheezy-armel/media/usb[0-7] so no bother about linking/remounting more than once.
and its conf also allows useful mount options such as uid/gid/masks - which are extremely useful when dealing with FAT/NTFS that would otherwise only mount as root.
e.g.
FS_MOUNTOPTIONS="-fstype=vfat,uid=109,gid=109,umask=002,discard"
gives ug+rwx permission to my plex:plex user (and technically also to transmission daemon, since it also belongs to the :plex group)
of course the downside to this feature is that you can only specify privileges PER-FS-TYPE. which could get problematic if you have multiple usb devices and don't want the same levels of access on all of them.
usbmount, underneath, simply uses pmount. which DOES let you have all the same options as fstab and regular mount. and additionally allows users beloging to the group plugdev, to be able to pmount partitions without needing sudo or root elevation. (and there's also /etc/pmount.allow to specify additional user-mountable partitions (possibly for users not in plugdev group?))
but anyway, I'm guessing that if the system boot-time enumerates the USB ports in the same order, then you'd always get a consistent e.g.:
/dev/sda1->/media/usb0
/dev/sda2->/media/usb1
/dev/sdb1->/media/usb2
/dev/sdb3->/media/usb3
I'm still trying to figure out what the automounter being used on my Mint laptop is - can't seem to find a trace of it, but definitely is not happening at boot time, only starts working at gui/desktop login. I have 2 USB cards in there, and they always get assigned the same /dev/sd block file, although in this case the mountpoint is simply /media/myusername/ + the volumeID/volname/fs-label, if present. (if not, some squished version of the uuid is used) - and this automounter, whatever the heck it is, takes care of all partitions, and makes sure to set myusername's uid+gid and givess myusername full u+rwx.
it would be nice if this could be done in a headless version...
Watching the thread with interest. I don't yet have a Pi2, but if PMS can run on it I'd get one. I'd like to not have to leave my PC on all the time, and this could be the answer. It is very rare that Plex has to cope with two users at one time. It's either us using it on the Roku 2, or my daughter at Uni watching something late at night. So I need to see how this can be made to work with transcoding.
Kudos to all those working on this!
PLEX - ARE YOU LISTENING?????
Edit:-
Forgot to say that I'm looking to connect my WD Mycloud drive as the library. I've had Kodi running from my Pi b and using this as storage but just didn't like Kodi. Besides, the family know, and like Plex.
Hi,
I've created and uploaded an iso featuring Minibian with PMS installed.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/51466004/MiniBianPMS.zip
I tried your image, on boot there is no network, eth0 not enabled.
Have gone back to a fresh Raspbian install, removed all of the 'educational' packages and reinstalled PMS again, works fine. Thanks for putting up the link though. Third time I've done this, it's a breeze, also installed FFMPEG and mkvtoolnix.
Regards
Thanks for making the image, it is too popular and dropbox has blocked access. Could you put it on mediafire or somewhere else?
This breaks my ethernet most times I start it. It doesnt 'matter if I use Minibian, fresh Raspbian or what. I have tried both guides and I'm going nuts trying to get this consistently working (hence my willingness to donate for a proper ARM7 package for the Pi 2 and Banana Pi)
Can somebody test if using an upstart script like the one here breaks the system. The last time I got Plex working in the chroot the whole system was fucked after I installed upstart outside the chroot.
I tried your image, on boot there is no network, eth0 not enabled.
Have gone back to a fresh Raspbian install, removed all of the 'educational' packages and reinstalled PMS again, works fine. Thanks for putting up the link though. Third time I've done this, it's a breeze, also installed FFMPEG and mkvtoolnix.
Regards
Hi I am also experiencing the same with no network. eth0 not enabled plus my keyboard is not recognized.
Cool that dropbox already blocked it due to a popular download...
Great stuff - can't wait to try this out.
1 - Anyone knows if there is an official way to request features / new releases for Plex ?
They offer so many builds already - I would be surprised, if they couldn't create an official Raspberry Pi Server themselves - where can we ask for it?
2 - Like people said before me - that dropbox link is down.
I could host it myself, if anyone is able to share it again or maybe make a torrent for it?
Hi,
I've created and uploaded an iso featuring Minibian with PMS installed.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/51466004/MiniBianPMS.zip
EDIT: For some dumb reason I called it a .iso - please rename it to .img.
It's a 2Gb image though Minibian and PMS only take up 900Mb. If there's demand, I'll re do it as a 1Gb image.
The user/password is root/raspberry
Once burnt and running you should do the usual update/upgrade. Plex should be running and it's the (as of 18/02/15) latest Drobo version: Version 0.9.11.7.803-87d0708
Samba is installed but not configured.
There's no USB mounts in the fstab, you need to mount your drive and then mount media directories somewhere beneath /chroots/wheezy-armel so that you can add that location from the Plex web gui.
If you get stuck with this point you can ask here and google..
Let me know if you have issues accessing the file.
One other thing I was able to backup my existing Plex Library metadata
(/chroots/wheezy-armel)/opt/plex/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server
and copy it back into my new minibian microSD which saved having to re import my media.
Plex is amazing..
I am assuming you are using MINIBIAN release "2014-11-24" for this? Apparently, just today there was an update about a new release of minibian, which should be optimised for the Raspberry Pi 2 (check: https://minibianpi.wordpress.com)and should be available soon.
Great stuff - can't wait to try this out.
1 - Anyone knows if there is an official way to request features / new releases for Plex ?
They offer so many builds already - I would be surprised, if they couldn't create an official Raspberry Pi Server themselves - where can we ask for it?
2 - Like people said before me - that dropbox link is down.
I could host it myself, if anyone is able to share it again or maybe make a torrent for it?
I have been speaking to one of the Plex devs and he told me that they have a backlog of work that needs to be done before they look at making arm7 packages for the different Pi machines. He told me it isn't possible to just create a generic arm7 package so each build has to be specific to the arm7 device. So it looks like we are stuck with chroot for now and without it working with upstart I will just wait until a proper package is available.
New Minibian release just dropped with Pi 2 and backwards compatibility
FML on the new Minibian release! I had a nightmare getting it working, I ended up using the boot from Raspbian..
I have no idea what's wrong with the network, I didn't touch it. Perhaps its a result of the above change. If anyone has diagnosed the actual issue, please let me know and I'll incorporate it.
In the meantime I'm redoing it with the new Minibian build and I'll make it a 1Gb image.
I'll upload to mediafire and as many other places as possible. Send suggestions.
FML on the new Minibian release! I had a nightmare getting it working, I ended up using the boot from Raspbian..
I have no idea what's wrong with the network, I didn't touch it. Perhaps its a result of the above change. If anyone has diagnosed the actual issue, please let me know and I'll incorporate it.
In the meantime I'm redoing it with the new Minibian build and I'll make it a 1Gb image.
I'll upload to mediafire and as many other places as possible. Send suggestions.
Did you follow this Minibian initial setup? It got me setup to install all my programs, which issues did you have? If there's something missing please let me know and I'll update it.
