Plex Server running on WD MyCloud

Dev Community Dev/API Corner
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A quick how-to memo to be found by people looking for a solution to install and run a Plex Server on a Western Digital MyCloud NAS.
 
It is possible to successfully install and run Plex Media Server on WD MyCloud with a custom stripped down clean Debian (it may eventually also work with a MyCloud running an official firmware of the v3 series, did not try it. Will definitely NOT work with WD firmware of the v.4 series) by following the procedure described here: -> https://bitbucket.org/inkubux/cubox-i/wiki/Plex%20Wheezy <- (basically by installing an armv5 version of Plex on a wheezy-armel chroot).
 
A few notes:
  • I first installed Drobo NAS build: https://plex.tv/downloads (Package for Drobo 5N Version 0.9.11.1.678-c48ffd2).Have since upgraded to latest builds, up until 0.9.11.7.803-87d0708 with no problems.
  • You will need to install the wheezy-armel chroot OUTSIDE of the default system md raid 2GB partition (Plex server itself is huge, this is a MUST). Locate it somewhere in /DataVolume and adapt applicable paths supplied in above instructions page.
  • You will need to add extra chroot bind mount points to /etc/fstab so as to make your /DataVolume/shares/Whatever_Data_Folders available to Plex inside the chroot environment.
  • Additionally to the bitbucket guide you should also install libexpat1 (run "apt-get install libexpat1" from within the chroot environment).
    Thanks to  jonathanmcalroy for point this. It does fix some errors I was attributing to transcoding.

 

Caveat: bear in mind that most of the transcoding will not work as the CPU isn't powerful enough (meaning the web player and channels won't work properly).

 

Otherwise, the Comcerto ARM7 650Mhz dual core seems to cope surprisingly well serving media via Direct Play and DLNA.

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Just to add to this.  You don't need to go through the clean Debian steps.  

All you need is a v3 Firmware.  I'd already updated so I followed this guide: http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-My-Cloud/GUIDE-How-To-Unbrick-your-2TB-3TB-4TB-My-Cloud/td-p/765959 to go back to v3.

Then follow the bitbucket guide.  I had to add contrib and non-free to the /etc/apt/source.list to install debootstrap.

Once the chroot is setup, add libexpat1 (apt-get install libexpat1) 

Once you have Plex installed, in the WD UI, turn off media sharing and add the shares you want to share through plex (ie TV, FILMS, 3D) then add them to the /etc/fstab in addition to those described in the guide:

I added: 

/home            /DataVolume/chroots/wheezy-armel/home            none bind 0 0
/mnt             /DataVolume/chroots/wheezy-armel/mnt             none bind 0 0
/tmp             /DataVolume/chroots/wheezy-armel/tmp             none bind 0 0
/proc            /DataVolume/chroots/wheezy-armel/proc            proc defaults 0 0
/dev             /DataVolume/chroots/wheezy-armel/dev             none bind 0 0
/dev/pts         /DataVolume/chroots/wheezy-armel/dev/pts          none bind 0 0
/nfs/Movies     /DataVolume/chroots/wheezy-armel/movies           none bind 0 0
/nfs/TV /DataVolume/chroots/wheezy-armel/TV           none bind 0 0
/nfs/3D_Movies  /DataVolume/chroots/wheezy-armel/3D_Movies           none bind 0 0
 
where /DataVolume is my version of /data in the guide..
 
The red rows are the mounts required for the chroot and green are my Datashares.  Then in plex I add a Movies share and use "/movies" as the directory.
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Hi, I have WD My Cloud  with v03.04.01-230 firmware ,is not totally clear for me wich steps I have to follow,  my linux knowledge is very limited , could you please explain me step by step from the beginning the commands that I have to introduce??

Thanks

4

If I try to follow the guide i get error in the first line:

login as: root
root@192.168.1.41's password:
Linux WDMyCloud 3.2.26 #1 SMP Fri Dec 27 13:50:41 PST 2013 armv7l
 
The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.
 
Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by applicable law.
Last login: Mon Jan 12 22:59:57 2015 from 192.168.1.6
WDMyCloud:~# apt-get install debootstrap
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  debootstrap
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 82 not upgraded.
Need to get 60.6 kB of archives.
After this operation, 231 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Err http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy/main debootstrap all 1.0.48+deb7u1
  404  Not Found [IP: 64.50.233.100 80]
Failed to fetch http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/d/debootstrap/debootstrap_1.0.48+deb7u1_all.deb  404  Not Found [IP: 64.50.233.100 80]
E: Unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with --fix-missing?
WDMyCloud:~#
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I solve the first problem , but now at the end I get  this error

(wheezyArmel)root@WDMyCloud:/tmp/plex# mkdir -p /opt/plex/
(wheezyArmel)root@WDMyCloud:/tmp/plex# mv Application/ /opt/plex
(wheezyArmel)root@WDMyCloud:/tmp/plex# mkdir -p "/opt/plex/Library/Application Support"
(wheezyArmel)root@WDMyCloud:/tmp/plex# plexmediaserver &
[1] 8026
(wheezyArmel)root@WDMyCloud:/tmp/plex# Error: Unable to set up server: boost::filesystem::copy_file: No such file or directory: "./Resources/com.plexapp.plugins.library.db", "/opt/plex/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Databases/com.plexapp.plugins.library.db"
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Tulkar,

Did you do this step:apt-get install libexpat1?

7

wrong thread

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