Installing Raspberry Pi 3 PMP image using NOOBS

Plex Players Desktop Players
1

I would like to install Raspberry Pi 3 PMP using NOOBS, so I can multi-boot from the same SD card. Does anyone have experience in converting IMG volumes to NOOBS compatible format?

Thank you.

2

You sir deserve a cookie.
No serious now, I have never thought about it but this is not a bad idea.
I will try if I can get it to work and when it works (if ever) I will keep you updated

3

Ok I got it working.
It’s not difficult if you do as I did.
Assuming you use linux or run it in a VM

Setup

Easy way

I’ve created archives containing the files for the latest PMP and RasPlex releases.
Dowload the Easy install archive for your desired version and extract the contents to the os folder on your NOOBS installation.
Than boot and install as normal.
Updates should work, if not please let me know.

Hard Way

If you want to make the NOOBS install package yourself follow these instrustions

  1. Download the setup files
  2. Download the PlexMediaPlayer image and mount it. (In most distros this can be done through the file explorer) OR mount your SD wich has PMP on it. This gives a 537MB volume (boot) and a 34MB/rest-of-SD volume (root)
  3. Make a .tar.xz archive from the files in the boot partition. Call it boot.tar.xz
  4. Make a .tar.xz archive from the files in the root partition. Do not include .please_resize_me. You need root privileges to do this as some files here are owned by root. Call this archive root.tar.xz. If you archived your own root files you have to change the uncompressed_tarball_size value for root in partitions.json to the uncompressed size of your archive rounded up to the nearest MB.
  5. chown the root.tar.xz to your own user
  6. Download NOOBS and install it on an SD
  7. Create a folder PlexMediaPlayer in the os folder and move/copy-paste the root and boot archives here.
  8. Add the 3 files from the NeededFiles archive. These tell Noobs what os it is, how the partitions should be formed and the script changes some parameters in the cmdline.txt.
  9. Check and if needed change the version parameter in os.json
  10. Boot and profit

Please like if this has helped you

Downloads (latest):

Easy install PlexMediaPlayer: https://nextcloud.robertsmits.be/s/wMMhkM7nHyhOMIX
Easy install RasPlex (RPi): https://nextcloud.robertsmits.be/s/jQcFasjFSp76chq
Easy install RasPlex (RPi2/3): https://nextcloud.robertsmits.be/s/Uq0I0EJ1d9jHR8r

All Versions: https://nextcloud.robertsmits.be/s/WAtkHSrEu6AVFKZ

4

~ Merged in previous post ~

5

Have you tried installing it side-by-side with RetroPi image?

6

I have not done side-by-side with RetroPi but I have done a side-by-side with Raspbian.

7

I did it side by side with RetroPie successfully, however the partition sizes didn’t seem to be large enough to handle updates - they would download but fail to apply on reboot. I will be re-building with a new SDXC card later this week and will tweak the JSON to use a 1GB partition instead. I’ll report my findings here. Also of note, you can add a .PNG file to the same directory as the three required files RobertSmits posted above to get a pretty looking logo next to Plex in the bootloader. It should be 40x40 in size.

Thanks RobertSmits for your effort getting the ball rolling on this.

8

Loving this. Testing out my multi-boot Pi3 tonight with Kodi and the latest PMP. Iirc I set my PMP partition to 850. I was able to update PMP without any issue. Added my flirc to this as well and can control the NOOBS OS selector just fine from my Harmony remote.

Now I just need to test for a couple days and confirm everything plays as I expect before I make it my primary bedroom client. I have a lot of full Bluray remuxes I’ll watch in PMP (some IPTV too possibly) and will be using Kodi for IPTV almost exclusively. I am hardwired.

I think my only concern at this point is how well the Pi3 will play the highest bitrate files. I had issues in the past but I think that was a 1st gen Pi.

Update: So far so good. Watched a full remux this evening without any issue. Just need to tweak some buttons on my Harmony/Flirc and this should end up being what I install at every 1080p TV in my house.

9

@BrianAz Nice to hear the package and updates are still working one year later.
I still regularly get a notification that someone downloaded the zip file and I always wondered “Does it still work?”
I am currently making a updated version for everyone who is still interested in this.

10

@RobertSmits said:
@BrianAz Nice to hear the package and updates are still working one year later.
I still regularly get a notification that someone downloaded the zip file and I always wondered “Does it still work?”
I am currently making a updated version for everyone who is still interested in this.

I have made this my primary setup at my three bedroom TVs. No issues.

Great work again on this. The WAF is much higher than it was with the noisy older player the Pi3 replaced.

11

Great job, I was looking for this so I can install PMP next to Kodi.
So which files from the post do I have to download and where do I put them exactly?
Can I just add PMP to my excisting sd card?

12

@RobertSmits
I have a Pi 3 and downloaded both versions of the PMP (1.3.11 and 2.9)
Installed Noobs on my SD card and put tried both versions.
I put them in different folders in os and replaced some files with PMPNeededFiles.
After starting the Pi, I was able to install it fine, but after installation I just have a black screen.

Do you maybe know what could I have done wrong?

13

@chickenduy
First of all sorry for the late reaction.
If you download the prebuild packages you don’t need to replace any files. You can just put them in the OS folder.
You also can’t place two versions (1.3.11 and 2.9 Nightly) without changing some stuff.
Without change the NOOBS installer can’t make a difference between the two and probably, maybe installs the first it finds or just makes a mess of it all, that I don’t know.

So can you try to install just one version, I recommend 1.3.11 as it is the latest stable and the 2.x builds are slow as hell even on a RPi 3.

If you really want to dualboot the two versions follow this
To dualboot the two versions you have to change the foldername of the 2.9 version to PlexMediaPlayer2.9,
PlexMediaPlayer.png to PlexMediaPlayer2.9.png and edit the contents of os.json to match this:

    {
        "name": "PlexMediaPlayer2.9",
        "version": "2.9.0.847-b1acec41",
        "release_date": "2018-04-22",
        "description": "Plex Media Player 2.9 Nightly",
        "url": "http://www.plex.tv/",
        "kernel": "4.4",
        "username": "root",
        "password": "plex",
        "supported_models": [
            "Pi 2",
            "Pi 3"
        ]
    }

Don’t change anything else
Your Folder now looks like this

    os
    ├── PlexMediaPlayer
    │   ├── PlexMediaPlayer.png
    │   ├── boot.tar.xz
    │   ├── os.json
    │   ├── partition_setup.sh
    │   ├── partitions.json
    │   └── root.tar.xz
    └── PlexMediaPlayer2.9
        ├── PlexMediaPlayer2.9.png
        ├── boot.tar.xz
        ├── os.json
        ├── partition_setup.sh
        ├── partitions.json
        └── root.tar.xz

This should work

14

Hi @robertsmits

I downloaded your image for pmp 2 latest. Ive tried installing it with noobs 3 and I’m getting an error or resizing the partitions. Gets to 100% before the error occurs.

System: write error
System.md5: write to restore size failed

There is also an error about bsdtar.

Any ideas whats wrong?

Thanks
Chris

15

@chriscolden

Thanks for reporting the issue.
I have created a package for the latest nightly (2.31) can you give that a try?

16

Thanks Robert. I will give it a try later on today and report back.

Chris

17

Thanks Rob. All tested and working just fine with PINN, the noobs fork.