@l33tname said:
Does anyone know what the problem is that Gracenote does not build their libs for FreeBSD?
Its not a “problem”, its just that for now (not sure if ever) they just don’t want to spend any resources on supporting FreeBSD.
@steven.hartland any news from the folks at Gracenote?
Nothing recently, but still have high hopes that something is in the works.
I’m not so sure about that. But we will see.
At this point someone would have to built a product that would support FreeBSD. At this point, Gracenote is unable to do this.
Email I sent to Gracenote support:
Subject: Freebds support using plex media server plugin
Description: Just looking to see if there is any discussion or progress on getting gracenote support on FreeBDS. Plex just added the amazing features of gracenote to the majority of its platforms. However FreeBDS is not supported, thus the mood and mix play features powered by gracenote are not available on Freebds platforms. It would be greatly appreciated to get an official response to why or why not this cannot be done. I understand 1% of users isn’t much but most freebds (i.e. freenas) users are power users. I these users would benefit and promote the use of gracenote elsewhere! Yes I am challenging the gracenote developers to make this possible, unless they are note smart enough to make it happen (haha just kidding). Just trying to motivate a more than capable team. Don’t do it because it cost too much, or other business related reasons. Challenge your team and do it for your customers. Again, the worst thing you can do is say no.Best Regards,
CMAX
Email sent by Gracenote support:
Hello CMAX,
Thank you for writing. Plex decided to license Gracenote for our detailed metadata and fingerprinting technology. Most premium music libraries are available on the majority of platforms that can run Plex Media Server. However, there are a few instances in which the advanced technology from Gracenote is not available for a particular platform and thus it isn’t possible to create and use a Premium music library.
The following platforms are not supported for Premium music libraries:
• FreeBSD
• Synology (PowerPC)
• Thecus (PowerPC)While these platforms don’t support Premium music libraries, you can still use standard music libraries and enjoy features like Popular Tracks, Similar Artists, and more.
Currently there is no plans to build a product to support FreeBDS but it is always possible in the future. While this doesn’t solve the issue, I do hope the explanation helps.
Sincerely,
Sa C*c
Gracenote Support Specialist
Gracenote, Inc.
-I am still working on a possible work around and will post when I reach a solution.
-CMAX
Can’t say I’m to happy to hear this. Just purchased Plex Pass and was looking forward to all the features. Not regretting the purchase, been meaning to do it for sometime, but the fact that it’s not mentioned anywhere on the page of benefits. You can clearly see which services people are using and maybe a little red box should show up that its currently not support on your server “insert any server running FreeBSD” just so users are aware and can make a better decision, instead getting false hope that it will work. Even when going to create a premium music library, I don’t get the option or an explanation as to why its not there. You can’t blame gracenotes for the lack of information there. I have to go hunt down what I did wrong, only to find out it was nothing but the feature not being supported, which is understandable. Can’t please everyone. Even in the how to setup a premium music library there is no info about it not being supported.
Please fix this for the common user, just think of the common user!
@BroadcastJunkie ~ Sorry about that, I’ve raised an issue internally to be clearer about the limitation. Just to be clear, though, the only features a FreeBSD user missed out on is the acoustic fingerprinting and the Plex Mix; all the other premium music features work great.
@elan said:
BroadcastJunkie ~ Sorry about that, I’ve raised an issue internally to be clearer about the limitation. Just to be clear, though, the only features a FreeBSD user missed out on is the acoustic fingerprinting and the Plex Mix; all the other premium music features work great.
That they do. One downside I noticed as well, is that syncing music albums only lets you sync to 320kbs MP3. Even if you have FLAC. It would be nice to sync the full quality. FLAC is now supported on Android. Is there any way to get this added in a future update? I just figure sync to always be an identical copy, unless you wanted it down sampled. Which don’t get me wrong is a great feature for the space limited days. But I’d like to have the full quality sync available.
One more quick question @elan it could be that I haven’t messed with it long enough. Is there a way to just play music videos on random?
Thanks for the quick reply!
Even if you have FLAC. It would be nice to sync the full quality. FLAC is now supported on Android. Is there any way to get this added in a future update
I’ll note the request internally; we’re in the process of upgrading the sync experience, so this would likely be part of that.
Is there a way to just play music videos on random?
Not at the moment, but it’s a popular request.
@elan
I’ll note the request internally; we’re in the process of upgrading the sync experience, so this would likely be part of that.
Freaks out.
Anyway.
So I’m legitimately curious, but in light of not getting some features that you may like why stick with FreeBSD and not migrate to a flavor of Linux?
@vanstinator I might just have to do that. Any flavor you recommend that would handle as well as just a NAS setup, that can do CIFS and DC tasks.
I’m also looking into my 2.7ghz I7 tower sitting there, doing nothing. Probably over kill, but it could be the start of Linux based music server. But, if I could run all that on an easy migration from FreeBSD to Linux I’d prefer that. I’d like to hear some insight if you have something you’d recommend. Thanks
@BroadcastJunkie said:
vanstinator I might just have to do that. Any flavor you recommend that would handle as well as just a NAS setup, that can do CIFS and DC tasks.I’m also looking into my 2.7ghz I7 tower sitting there, doing nothing. Probably over kill, but it could be the start of Linux based music server. But, if I could run all that on an easy migration from FreeBSD to Linux I’d prefer that. I’d like to hear some insight if you have something you’d recommend. Thanks
For the specifics you’re looking for you’re going to have to do some googling when it comes to CIFS and DC tasks. As far as distros goes Ubuntu is a solid choice, or Linux Mint which is a downstream build that removes a lot of bloat. I personally run Plex on a Windows box at the moment as it shares my desktop with me but I’m planning on spinning it off at some point to another box which will likely have Ubuntu. I’ve personally never used FreeBSD so I don’t know what migrating would take.
If you’re only doing music that i7 is overkill but that would be really great for video, especially if you do some sharing.
@vanstinator said:
If you’re only doing music that i7 is overkill but that would be really great for video, especially if you do some sharing.
Well I did a small work around without effecting me much. I just hooked up a laptop to the network, and since CIFS lets me mount drives on winodws, I just installed PMS on it and pointed it to the FreeBSD. Seems to work, should be good enough for music. I wouldn’t use this setup for video. I just finished the setup, I’ll report back if its just not working out.
I still need two machines, which I don’t like. But the laptop pulls 12 watts give and take with load so its not to bad… for now.
I have installed omv in a virtual box and run plex in there. I have to do some more tests but until now it looks ok
Update:
Every thing runs smoothly. If you want the new music features you can get it over VM.
Well after testing it out a few days, it seems like this setup will work, till or if it is supported on FreeBSD. Haven’t run into any issues that I can say effect performance on any of the music playing.
@vanstinator one more thing I remember from FreeBSD is the jails aspect of it. Say someone hacked into my Plex account. They could in theory edit the server and see more files then allowed. Since you can browse just about any file system the server is installed on. So on my laptop that is running off the mounted drive, I can select any file system on drive C. With FreeBSD, its limited to just that one folder, if they really wanted, they could see all of the workings of Plex, but that’s it. Security, its tight 
Quickest workaround I could think of, if anyone has a spare laptop, run it to a mounted folder to your FreeBSD using CIFS for music. Hope this helps someone, we already know we are a minority 
but we will find a way.
You can run the Plex server as it’s own user and then lock it down so that user only has access to that directory. Not 100% on what steps to take to accomplish this but I know it’s possible. It’s been awhile since I’ve done this.
This thread has some information on the subject and can probably get you going in the right direction
@vanstinator that’s really not the same as a jail, if yo want something similar to jails in linux look for “LXC” (linux containers).
I’m not very familiar with FreeBSD, but both it and Linux are POSIX compliant, so I can’t imagine it’d be that different. That being said, I’m not sure if you’re referring to in FreeBSD what in Linux is a chroot jail. You can jail a user to a virtual filesystem, so they have access to a full directory tree staring at / that basically resides in their own separate folder, while not having access outside folders. It allows users to run programs as if they were root, without needing root access to the overall system. Containers are also a way to go, but much more of a hassle in my opinion, if you’re not having to manage resource sharing among multiple interested parties (like many customers on a web host’s server).
I know I am late to the party, but I use FreeNAS 9.3 with ubuntu in virtualbox and a premium music library, etc. Can confirm that everything (grace note) works perfect, no problems whatsoever.
