RasPlex, Plex Server, ISOs & FSTAB

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1

I've been plyaing with a Raspberry Pi for a bit now, and have a setup of RaspBMC that works ok for streaming my ISO files, but it's far from perfect. Ideally, I would like to get a 'Boxee-Like' interface, which is essentially what RasPlex along with Plex Server gives. Very easy to use, can search, gives a lot of information on the movies etc. Perfect for my wife to be able to use.

 

The problem I found is that while the PMS can see all the ISOs, has thumbnails and info, and the RasPlex can see everythign as well, it can't play them. From some more searching, it would seem that in order for it to work with ISOs, the client and server both need access to the location that the files are stored. Not a big deal, I have PMS running on CentOS 6.3 x64 and have it set up in FSTAB to mount the network location as /media/Movies.

 

When I attempted to do the same with the RasPlex, I found that the filesystem is mounted read only. After some more searching, I'm still empty handed.

 

None of the options I've found to re-mount a FS as read-write worked. Is it possible to re-mount the filesystem, even temporarily, read/write so I can edit the fstab file to add the mounting information for my collection?

2

yup you can. 

-ssh into rasplex as root (password rasplex)

-type the following command:

mount -o rw,remount /flash

-change whatever you need

-type reboot and you are done

3

Didn't work... that remounted 'dev/mmcblk0p1 on /flash' as read/write, but / is still rean only... I suspect it has something to do with '/' being squashfs... Any other thoughts?

openelec:~ # mount
rootfs on / type rootfs (rw)
devtmpfs on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,relatime,size=152424k,nr_inodes=38106,mode=755)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,relatime)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,relatime)
/dev/mmcblk0p1 on /flash type vfat (ro,noatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/mmcblk0p2 on /storage type ext4 (rw,noatime,data=ordered)
/dev/loop0 on / type squashfs (ro,relatime)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,relatime,gid=5,mode=620)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,relatime,size=61776k)
tmpfs on /var type tmpfs (rw,relatime,size=10240k)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,relatime)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw,relatime)
openelec:~ # mount -o rw,remount /flash
openelec:~ # mount
rootfs on / type rootfs (rw)
devtmpfs on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,relatime,size=152424k,nr_inodes=38106,mode=755)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,relatime)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,relatime)
/dev/mmcblk0p1 on /flash type vfat (rw,noatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/mmcblk0p2 on /storage type ext4 (rw,noatime,data=ordered)
/dev/loop0 on / type squashfs (ro,relatime)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,relatime,gid=5,mode=620)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,relatime,size=61776k)
tmpfs on /var type tmpfs (rw,relatime,size=10240k)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,relatime)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw,relatime)

4

Ok... got it partially figured out. It was because of SquashFS. I was able to get a new file made but two issues were present. First, the location where I needed to mount my network location (/media/Movies) is apparently something that's loaded into a RAMDrive, as when I create the folder, it's gone on reboot. The '/media' acutually isn't a folder, either, it appears to be a symlink. It also appeared that having the 'media' folder in '/var' and symlinked is not 'standard' and that appeared to cause the fstab file to not automount my NFS location. I removed the symlink, added 'media' and '/media/Movies' folders and created a new SYSTEM file. On reboot, the '/media/Movies' folder remains, however, for some reason, it's still not automounting the NFS share. if I SSH into the RasPlex and run 'mount /media/Movies', it mounts fine.

RasPlex is still unable to play the native ISO files; I just get 'Playback failed/ One or more items failed to play. Check the log file for more details' (Where's the log file?).

I converted one movie to a mkv for testing, and that works.... but if I don't 'Force transcoding on local network', the playback is anything but smooth... under RaspBMC with PlayDVD, native playback of the ISOs is smooth. I do have both MPEG2 and WVC1 hardware decoding licenses installed.

RasPlex is a LOT closer to what I'm looking for than RaspBMC & PlayDVD - It's MUCH more 'Boxee-like' with regards to ease of use and the movie info it provides (the way it ignores 'The' in the movie names when it sorts alphabetically is NICE), but not being able to stream my ISOs is more or less a show stopper... It works in RaspBMC, albiet not as 'cleanly' as I'd like, and it's BEAUTIFUL on my Boxee. Any chance I'm missing something that would make it work? Any thoughts why the playback of the native mkv file is super choppy and requires transcoding, wheras native ISOs play smooth as can be under RaspBMC?

Edit: Playing the same mkv file natively through RaspBMC is dramatically better.... It's HORRIBLE with Plex without transcoding (when it can play that way) and it's noticably choppy with transcoding. I think the transcoding also darkens the video a little...

5

Cougar! How did you get /media and recreate the SYSTEM file?

It seems if I can just add the folders I need then I can also eliminate the transcoding by mounting my nfs shares in the gui.

Transcoding is the one downfall from raspbmc.

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