Hi, I am new to Linux mint, previously I was running a Plex Server on a Windows 7 machine. The media library was a shared network drive attached via USB to my router. After installing Linux Mint I was able to access the shared network drive in the files application.
After downloading and installing the Plex Media Server software from the Plex site I have been trying to re-establish my media library using the shared network directory. Unfortunately Plex will only recognise local files and directories - not the network.
I suspect it may be because the directory name is too long (smb://ftumsch8tb/seagate_8tb_expansion_drive/Media) , and I have been unable to find anything on this forum or elsewhere on how to resolve this issue.
Any help you can give me would be much appreciated. Thanks
Thanks for the info, however I am not using a NAS. It is only an 8Tb Seagate hard drive connected via USB to the Router. I have added this to the computer as a shared network drive in the FIles app under the “Windows Network” that showed up when I clicked on the Network folder.
So I’m not sure if step 1 “Prepare the NAS” actually applies to my situation? All I want Plex to do is recognise the windows network drive.
It won’t work that way because Linux permissions don’t let user Plex see files under your name (you mounted). You can’t let Gnome Nautilus (the desktop manager) handle it for you. This is what’s blocking user ‘plex’ from seeing it.
If the drive is attached to a router (not best practice whatsoever), it is a network share.
you should still be able to access it as //ip.addr.of.router/name which is what I pointed out to you.
for all practical purposes, your USB drive plugged into that router, is funcdtioning as a Network Accessible Storage device (NAS)
Were you to plug it into the computer, I would give you this how-to
OK, thanks Chuck. I realise its not optimal to have a HD attached to the router but beggars can’t be choosers and a proper NAS is expensive!
I did try directly connecting it to the computer but I found the same problem, and I would prefer to keep the drive attached to a network share so it can be accessed from other machines.
I will work my way through the original material you sent, I’m sure its not that difficult. Thanks again.
your computer is mounting that drive as if it were a NAS. You’re just not seeing it.
By you taking manual control, you can open things up, as I show, so you and Plex can use it.
Linux is one of those “get your fingers dirty” Operating systems.
Be advised, Mint is one of the, if not the, quirkiest Debian derivative out there. Mint came from Ubuntu which came from Debian.
Whenever we see Mint, there are usually problems somewhere along the way.
If you’ve not invested a lot of time and have a way to save any data in the /home directory you may have placed, I’d recommend you get Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Mint 19 won’t be supported as of April 2020. (odd numbered years end the following year while even numbers get LTS support).
OK, so I had a go at this and of course it was a complete disaster.
In Step A it says to add username “plex” to the NAS, but as stated I don’t have a NAS I have a hard drive attached to my router which I have mounted on my Linux machine under the Windows Network, this is the address.
smb://ftumsch8tb/seagate_8tb_expansion_drive/
So I assume as the shared drive is already recognised it means I don’t need to prepare it. so I go to step 2 - “Create the credentials file to pass to the CIFS/SMB server during mount”
The instructions here say I need to create a file to hold the username and password, so I try to create /etc/plex.cred with the following credentials
when I open the text editor and try to save the file as /etc/plex.cred I get an error message saying that I do not have the necessary permissions to save the file (screenshot attached)
So this means I’m at a bit of a dead end I’m afraid? Can you let me know where I’m going wrong? Thanks.
OK, so now I have created the plex.cred file and moved on to step C - "Create the Mount Point Directory Structure"
The attached screenshot shows the directories I’ve set up:
Then I move on to step D - "Create the entries to mount the NAS shares at their target locations"
It says here that each NAS has different pathname conventions and that I should follow the documentation for my NAS. Again not having a NAS I guess this step doesn’t apply?
