QuickSync HW Transcoding stopped after upgrade to latest version of PlexMediaServer

[tmanka]

Also @ChuckPa I plugged in monitor and the monitor is working after a reboot…so that is a good sign for a Nuke process working…Want me to try with 1.29.2.6364 ?

[ChuckPa]

You don’t get this with ‘sudo’ ??

[chuck@glockner ~.1998]$ sudo lshw -c display
  *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: GP106GL [Quadro P2200]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:07:00.0
       version: a1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: irq:213 memory:fa000000-faffffff memory:e0000000-efffffff memory:f0000000-f1ffffff ioport:d000(size=128) memory:fb000000-fb07ffff
  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: ASPEED Graphics Family
       vendor: ASPEED Technology, Inc.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:0d:00.0
       version: 30
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi vga_controller cap_list
       configuration: driver=ast latency=0
       resources: irq:18 memory:f8000000-f8ffffff memory:f9000000-f901ffff ioport:a000(size=128)
[chuck@glockner ~.1999]$

My “ASPEED” adapter is the IKVM built onto my motherboard (IPMI feature)

[tmanka]

@ChuckPa

sudo lshw -c display

ted@tedflix /mnt/storage/Share/Education $ sudo lshw -c display
[sudo] password for ted:
  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: HD Graphics 630
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 04
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pciexpress msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:130 memory:de000000-deffffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff ioport:f000(size=64) memory:c0000-dffff

Also tested with plexmediaserver_1.29.2.6364-6d72b0cf6_amd64.deb and no dice

1.29 log attached
Plex Media Server.log (1.6 MB)

[tmanka]

@ChuckPa …I am thinking more about this…if you are in communication with the devs can you find out more about the test that you saw that failed “Your system doesn’t pass the 1-frame decode test”? Would be great if we can run that same test outside of plex with more logging. Are they using an open source tool (ffmpeg?) to run the test? How is the test run? This is starting to feel like a permissions issue. Are there permissions that (were recently changed) are needed to use VAAPI / QuickSync / iGPU?

[ChuckPa]

@tmanka

“Your system doesn’t pass the 1-frame decode test”?

I can answer this.

What happens is very simple:

1. The transcoder puts 1 video frame, at the requested encoding and resolution, in a buffer
2. It then calls the API (drivers) to transcode that frame
3. It will PASS or FAIL.

There is no middle ground.

HD Graphics 630

There we go… That’s the Intel Internal GPU (renderD128)

Install intel-gpu-tools package and then invoke intel-gpu-top.
Now you can see the internal GPU working.

Back to the frame test.

The KabyLake GPU can transcode HEVC HDR 2160p and perform hardware tone mapping with ease. (I have a few of them here)

What does this come down to?

Mar 10, 2023 16:21:56.647 [0x7f8243188b38] INFO - Plex Media Server v1.31.2.6783-9209b39b4 - Linux Mint PC x86_64 - build: linux-x86_64 debian - GMT -05:00
Mar 10, 2023 16:21:56.647 [0x7f8243188b38] INFO - Linux version: 18.2 (Sonya), language: en-US

I am WILLIING TO BET… Get rid of Mint, switch to Ubuntu, and the problems will be gone.

We don’t support / vet mint for these kind of reasons. " It just doesn’t work ".
Also be advised. What you have is based on Ubuntu 18. In 1 month’s time, it will be EOL and NO SUPPORT status.

Think it’s time to make the switch to Ubuntu

[tmanka]

@ChuckPa Yeah I figured as much, I will be rebuilding then…it is the right thing to do anyway. It USED to work…so there is still some mystery but prob not worth your time nor mine to dig into it. I think I will start the rebuild tomorrow AM. I’ll update here to let you know how it goes. There is a bunch of surrounding work I will need to get done to fully rebuild so I might not be able to give a good update until later tomorrow or Sunday. Have a great weekend and thank you for sticking with me this far.

Best,
Ted

[ChuckPa]

@tmanka

It USED to work

This is the nature of Mint as we’e always seen it. “It works – then just breaks”.
There’s no rhyme or reason for it either.

If you’re rebuilding the OS / boot drive. might make a suggestion?

1. Make 3 partitions
   – Root partition (64 or 128 GB – your choice)
   – Swap partition (match memory)
   – /home partition

2. Now you have the OS independent of all your data

3. We write an override file to put Plex in /home/plex instead of /var/lib/plexmediaserver . You’ll never lose PMS metadata again if you reload / change the distro.

[tmanka]

@ChuckPa thank you for the pointers I will do that. For “We write an override file to put Plex” are you thinking a sym link or something else?

[ChuckPa]

Symbolic links are “poor form” in my book and should be avoided unless there is no other way.

HOWEVER, On Linux . we have the environment variable PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR

All we need to do is create a directory which will be that new “APP_SUPP_DIR” ,
customize the configuration,
Off we go

On all ‘systemd’ linux systems (which is 99.9% of them now).

This How-To shows you

Linux Tips

Customizing your Plex configuration on systemd based systems This information is intended for those systems where cat /proc/1/comm returns systemd. On systems which use Systemd (Ubuntu 16+, Fedora, Centos 7, Debian 8,) you create this customization file which SystemD reads prior to launching PMS. This file is independent of the default configuration and service control mechanisms in /lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service. Your customization override is preserved across updates, uninstal…

Here’s the Plan.

1. Setup your new OS with new partitioning
2. Install PMS and get the basic ‘claiming’ done. (easy stuff)
3. Stop Plex
4. Before we start populating it, we move things:
5. For you, lets assume /home/plex

Create the directories

# create the base directory  (plex main and a tmp)
sudo mkdir /home/plex  /home/plex/tmp
sudo chown -R plex:plex /home/plex

now we EDIT the plex configuration to move its APP_SUPP_DIR

sudo systemctl edit plexmediaserver

Text editor opens,
type:

[Service]
Environment="PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR=/home/plex"
Environment="TMPDIR=/home/plex/tmp"

Save(write) the file and exit the text edit. the configuration will be saved to an ‘override.conf’ file for Plex. (/etc/systemd/system/plexmediaerver.service.d/override.conf)

Before starting Plex, let’s bring it from /var/lib to its new home

sudo bash
cd "/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support"
mv "Plex Media Server"  /home/plex
exit

One last system config refresh

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Start Plex

sudo systemctl start plexmediaserver

And there you are, PMS is now running in /home/plex

As you start to add your library sections,

sudo du -ms /home/plex

You’ll see the space used increase

[ChuckPa]

Hollar if you have questions.

I do this so often, I might have missed a step but it looks good.

[tmanka]

@ChuckPa this might be inappropriate, but I love you! Thank you for the detailed steps. I am writing my users about system downtime now then I will be getting to work, I’ll keep you in the loop and update here. I also need to work on some mergerfs and snapraid which I am most anxious about as I haven’t touched that setup in years…fingers crossed

BTW I am going to try Ubuntu 22.04 as I assume that is what I should be going with

[ChuckPa]

Not inappropriate at all. Totally get where you’re coming from.

While you’re overhauling all that, maybe you can undo / upgrade all that other mickey-mouse stuff too? lol

[tmanka]

Hello @ChuckPa Happy Saturday,

A few things:

ted@tedflix:/home/plex/Plex Media Server$ cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS"
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION_ID="22.04"
VERSION="22.04.2 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)"
VERSION_CODENAME=jammy
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy"
UBUNTU_CODENAME=jammy

Looks like we are back in the game with HW

### Editing /etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service.d/override.conf
### Anything between here and the comment below will become the new contents of the file

[Service]
Environment="PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR=/home/plex"
Environment="TMPDIR=/home/plex/tmp"

ted@tedflix:/media/ramdisk/Transcode/Sessions/plex-transcode-p3f8ybzyd1fgn9xqfmxxgxcz-77b8de15-d494-4ae3-8b81-aabe2aa7361a$ sudo systemctl status plexmediaserver.service
● plexmediaserver.service - Plex Media Server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
    Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service.d
             └─override.conf
     Active: active (running) since Sat 2023-03-11 16:01:56 EST; 9s ago
    Process: 184117 ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c /usr/bin/test -d "${PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR}" || /bin/mkdir -p "${PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR}" (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 184119 (Plex Media Serv)
      Tasks: 77 (limit: 13891)
     Memory: 103.6M
        CPU: 7.086s
     CGroup: /system.slice/plexmediaserver.service
             ├─184119 "/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Media Server"
             ├─184160 "Plex Plug-in [com.plexapp.system]" /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Resources/Plug-ins-9209b39b4/Framework.bundle/Contents/Resources/Versions/2/Python/bootstrap.py --server-version 1.31.2.6783-9209b39b4 /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Resources/Plug-ins-9209b39b4/System.bundle
             ├─184272 "/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Tuner Service" /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Resources/Tuner/Private /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Resources/Tuner/Shared 1.31.2.6783-9209b39b4 32600
             ├─184309 "Plex Plug-in [com.plexapp.agents.imdb]" /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Resources/Plug-ins-9209b39b4/Framework.bundle/Contents/Resources/Versions/2/Python/bootstrap.py --server-version 1.31.2.6783-9209b39b4 /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Resources/Plug-ins-9209b39b4/PlexMovie.bundle
             └─184316 "/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Relay" -p 443 -N -R 0:127.0.0.1:32401 -o StrictHostKeyChecking=yes -o "UserKnownHostsFile=/home/plex/Plex Media Server/Cache/relayHostKey.txt" -o LogLevel=VERBOSE -o PreferredAuthentications=password -o PubkeyAuthentication=no -l tmanka -F /dev/null 66.175.212.2>

Mar 11 16:01:56 tedflix systemd[1]: Starting Plex Media Server...
Mar 11 16:01:56 tedflix systemd[1]: Started Plex Media Server.

BACK IN BUSINESS!!!

2. Quick correction to your steps if someone use it in the future:

sudo systemctl start plex
should be
sudo systemctl start plexmediaserver.service

and people do need to really pay attention to where they are pasting the service environment variables in…I figured it out after I decided to actually read the instructions in the file…but people need to paste in the place the file tells you to

3. Mickey Mouse, I am happy to change anything you see that is Mickey Mouse I am VERY open to suggestions and happy to take your sage advice.

4. I still have a bit of work to do to get my Snapraid and a few other ancillary things back up and going but from the Plex HW Transcoding perspective we are done…so THANK YOU again.

Moderator Note: Instructions edited as suggested

[ChuckPa]

Yes, you do need to follow the instructions

Is it working nice and steady for you again?

You’ll probably want to go through ALL your settings and fix them up.

I see Relay is running. You can turn it off if you have Remote Access fully working.

[tmanka]

Happy Sunday @ChuckPa ,

I googled around on how to turn off relay but didn’t find anything.

I really do like the idea of having the DB in the home directory for nice backup and keeping it separate from the OS partition…great idea, should make things much smoother in the future, thank you for that tip and the settings that are needed for it.

Best,
Ted

[ChuckPa]

Ted,

Settings - Server - Network - Show Advanced

[tmanka]

@ChuckPa done! Thank you…everything has been running perfectly…can I PM/DM you I’d like to send you something…

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