# Plex did not create a linux user for itself? **URL:** \ **Category:** Plex Media Server\ **Tags:** livetv-dvr, server-linux\ **Created:** [December 23, 2022, 8:31pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968 "2022-12-23T20:31:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cerberus73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Cerberus73](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Cerberus73)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 8:31pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968/1 "2022-12-23T20:31:12Z")
Server Version#:1.30.0.6486 I have a Plex installation on Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS running headless HTPC. Plex works fine for serving files but I cannot get DVR to worry because of permission issues “no write access to destination.” Reading online, I’m seeing that there is supposed to be a user “plex” on the machine to have permissions assigned, but there doesn’t appear to be any such user on this machine. I thought plex was supposed to create a user? Grep seems to show that everything “plex” is being run from root. What’s going on here? Ultimately I’m trying to get the Live TV DVR working. Thanks. @ChuckPa ---
**Author:** ![pl\_5309](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/2bfe46/32.png) [@pl\_5309](https://forums.plex.tv/u/pl_5309)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 8:48pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968/2 "2022-12-23T20:48:02Z")
You did a snap install. ---
**Author:** ![Cerberus73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Cerberus73](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Cerberus73)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 9:04pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968/3 "2022-12-23T21:04:55Z")
I… think you’re right! What do I do about it? ---
**Author:** ![ChuckPa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/chuckpa/32/79710_2.png) [@ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChuckPa)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 9:17pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968/4 "2022-12-23T21:17:22Z")
```auto sudo snap remove plexmediaserver --purge ``` Now download from [https://plex.tv/downloads](https://plex.tv/downloads) To install: `sudo dpkg -i put_filename_here.deb` ---
**Author:** ![BanzaiInstitute](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/banzaiinstitute/32/293273_2.png) [@BanzaiInstitute](https://forums.plex.tv/u/BanzaiInstitute)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 9:58pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968/5 "2022-12-23T21:58:55Z")
It’s too bad Ubuntu pushes snap… I also did a snap install first not understanding the hassle that I was getting in to. ---
**Author:** ![ChuckPa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/chuckpa/32/79710_2.png) [@ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChuckPa)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 10:13pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968/6 "2022-12-23T22:13:05Z")
If you don’t mind fussing with it, you can rummage down into /var/snap and move the server instance to /var/lib where it belongs (and change the ownership) aftrerwards ---
**Author:** ![Cerberus73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Cerberus73](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Cerberus73)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 12:20am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968/7 "2022-12-24T00:20:52Z")
Did the purge and reinstall like you suggested, seems to have worked once I re-hooked up my libraries. Now I am back to the original problem of not having write access to the destination. ---
**Author:** ![ChuckPa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/chuckpa/32/79710_2.png) [@ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChuckPa)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 12:31am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968/8 "2022-12-24T00:31:30Z")
> [@Cerberus73](#): > > Now I am back to the original problem of not having write access to the destination. write access by which username to which destination ? Specifics / actual example please ---
**Author:** ![Cerberus73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Cerberus73](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Cerberus73)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 12:50am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968/9 "2022-12-24T00:50:39Z")
Oh, sorry. Have Plex DVR pointing to the /media/MYMEDIA/TVDVR folder, same place that my downloaded TV shows end up. When I schedule a recording via the DVR the recording fails and the message is “no write access to desitnation.” I suppose it’s the plex user that I’m having issues with ---
**Author:** ![ChuckPa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/chuckpa/32/79710_2.png) [@ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChuckPa)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 1:26am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968/10 "2022-12-24T01:26:04Z")
Look at the group which owns those directories Make sure: 1. user `plex` is a member of that group and PMS restarted after the addition. 2. the group permissions allow writing, e.g – 755 → 775 – 644 → 664 3. It’s usually advisable to set the setgid bit on all existing directories in there too. Doing so ensures new directories will be created with the same perms and ownerships. essentially ```auto cd /top/dir find . -type d -exec chmod 6775 {} \; # setuid/gid bits included in chmod find . -type f -exec chmod 0664 {} \; ``` ---
**Author:** ![Cerberus73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Cerberus73](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Cerberus73)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 2:20am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968/11 "2022-12-24T02:20:37Z")
“ls -al” on my media directory returns: drwsrwsr-x 23 [myusername] [mygroupname] 4096 DEC 23 20:48 [TVFolder] “grep [mygroupname] /etc/group” returns a list of entries, including one that says [mygroupname]❌1000:plex which I assume means that the user plex is a member of the group. Running the commands you listed above from within the TV media folder result in a brief pause and they don’t throw errors so I’m assuming they stuck. PMS still says “no write access to destination” when I try to record DVR. Do I need to be logged in as plex or something? There could be some fundamental linuxism that you guys just know but escapes me. ---
**Author:** ![ChuckPa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/chuckpa/32/79710_2.png) [@ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChuckPa)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 2:27am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968/12 "2022-12-24T02:27:18Z")
you can ‘become’ the plex user (no privileges or environment inherited) by ```auto sudo bash su -s /bin/bash plex # # Now you can safely go poking around and see where you can "touch x; rm x" ``` Without logs and traversing every directory in full path, it’s hard to say where it’s getting ‘cut off’ at. Personally, I avoid `/media` because the automounter is notorious for exclusivity to your username regardless the privilege bits set. (it’s an exclusive mount **UNLESS** the mount is performed by ‘root’ in /etc/fstab) ---
**Author:** ![Cerberus73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Cerberus73](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Cerberus73)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 2:31am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968/13 "2022-12-24T02:31:29Z")
I’m all ears for suggestions! I just installed the raw media storage drive last night. The only purpose for this drive is bulk storage of media… I’m not married to any particular location or parameter. Is there someplace that works better for you? ---
**Author:** ![ChuckPa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/chuckpa/32/79710_2.png) [@ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChuckPa)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 2:31am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968/14 "2022-12-24T02:31:34Z")
> [@Linux Tips](https://forums.plex.tv/t/linux-tips/276247/2): > > Using other hard drives (Windows or Linux) with PMS This How-To is written to help with Internal and External drives. It also is written to demonstrate how to cope with NTFS and EXT4 formatted drives. By logical extension, any format supported by Linux can be handled using the technique shown here. In all cases, the goal is to give user plex permission to read your media files which Linux doesn’t allow by default due to its strict security model. We will walk through the steps needed … Hint: ANY top-level-directory which doesn’t conflict with something else AND makes sense to you 👍 I have `/nas` as the TLD for the boxes and then `/usb` for the USB devices. It’s really however your mind and fingers work best 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cerberus73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Cerberus73](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Cerberus73)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 2:43am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968/15 "2022-12-24T02:43:30Z")
Oh boy, I’m going to need to digest this. I have all my media elsewhere so if I need to start fresh with this media drive I can. ---
**Author:** ![ChuckPa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/chuckpa/32/79710_2.png) [@ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChuckPa)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 2:44am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968/16 "2022-12-24T02:44:53Z")
Take your time. There is a quite the collection of `Linux Tips` up there. Use whatever applies, Ask if you need something. ---
**Author:** ![Cerberus73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Cerberus73](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Cerberus73)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 3:42am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968/17 "2022-12-24T03:42:52Z")
I get why it’s a good idea not to have things point to /media/. I went all the way through the process, set permissions (I think) and everything. I guess I’m curious as to why one would mount the /dev/sda1 as read-only… doesn’t that prevent one from adding media files to it, or no? I can’t add files to the folder through the file explorer. At any rate, while I was able to link up the libraries again and stream, I still can’t record to DVR. “No write access to destination” is the PMS error. Dumb noob question: if NTFS drives don’t require permissions to be set, is it silly to reformat the media storage drive to NTFS? ---
**Author:** ![ChuckPa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/chuckpa/32/79710_2.png) [@ChuckPa](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ChuckPa)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 3:46am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968/18 "2022-12-24T03:46:08Z")
Grab me the log files please (Settings - Server - Troubleshooting - Download Logs) Attach the ZIP it gives you so I can see exactly what it’s complaining about and guide you As for mounting read-only. 1. Main media library is mounted RO. 2. If I had DVR capability, it would be a separate area with RW ---
**Author:** ![Cerberus73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Cerberus73](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Cerberus73)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 4:03am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968/19 "2022-12-24T04:03:19Z")
I think I see, re the read-only bit. The logs are attached here. Hopefully this helps. And thank you for all your time on this. [Plex Media Server Logs\_2022-12-23\_22-50-42.zip](https://forums.plex.tv/uploads/short-url/bHt2CbNYZUzFDlfYYlUC6hzdb4W.zip) (2.2 MB) t ---
**Author:** ![Cerberus73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Cerberus73](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Cerberus73)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 4:21am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968/20 "2022-12-24T04:21:23Z")
Well, wait a moment… you said the DVR should aim to a different area with RW? Right now it points to the same TV folder inside the media library folder. [Next page](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-did-not-create-a-linux-user-for-itself/823968.md?page=2)