HI
I have tried to run it just off USB, will this work or do I have to do it with a SD card as well?
Cheers
RPI must have SD to boot from, so you need both. Just flash the image to both the USB and the SD using the installer, and then change the cmdline.txt file on the SD card as stated a few posts above.
Hi - As USB drives are being discussed here I thought is woulkd be the place for my problem. I was not getting any viewable output from running the RAsplex on the SD card so now run it on a new 16GB Transend Jetflash which is quite a fast drive. There is some improvement with the odd occassion of 'pausing' on H264 1080p files - still very annoying though. Is there any way and is it worth it to expand the partitioning on the USB? Currently it has the following partitions:
System(FAT)250mb(used)
Storage(Ext4)1.2GB
Unallocated 13.3GB
I would have thought that 1.2GB for the storage would be more than enough for a 2.6GB file. I take it taht all the caching/buffering is done the the storage section.
Also under the preferences/quality I get the best results at under 2 mbps - which is rubbish really.
I would appreciate any comments or ideas to improve the output.
many thanks
Richard
NOTE - I HAVE STARTED A NEW TOPIC ON THIS SUBJECT. - SORRY CAN'T SEE HOW TO DELETE THIS.
Hi - As USB drives are being discussed here I thought is woulkd be the place for my problem. I was not getting any viewable output from running the RAsplex on the SD card so now run it on a new 16GB Transend Jetflash which is quite a fast drive. There is some improvement with the odd occassion of 'pausing' on H264 1080p files - still very annoying though. Is there any way and is it worth it to expand the partitioning on the USB? Currently it has the following partitions:
System(FAT)250mb(used)
Storage(Ext4)1.2GB
Unallocated 13.3GB
I would have thought that 1.2GB for the storage would be more than enough for a 2.6GB file. I take it taht all the caching/buffering is done the the storage section.
Also under the preferences/quality I get the best results at under 2 mbps - which is rubbish really.
I would appreciate any comments or ideas to improve the output.
many thanks
Richard
NOTE - I HAVE STARTED A NEW TOPIC ON THIS SUBJECT. - SORRY CAN'T SEE HOW TO DELETE THIS.
are you using wifi? then try wired.
rasplex will direct play 1080p from both sd card and usb. most problems with pi's are related to power supply or network.
Thanks for the reply - I am using a wired network on the pi with a seperate power supply
Hey,
i tried it with a generic USB thumb drive and the over clocking is more stable now. But the UI still feels slow. So i bought a Lexar USB 3.0 16 GB drive, pretty cheap but good speed.
Somehow it does not recognized if i use it on the raspberry usb port. If i use an USB hub it works. All other sticks work on the raspberry usb port.
Any ideas?
Ive just bought a nice USB3 drive, how will running it off the stick affect the updating process on the SD card, am i going to have to manually update the SD card and USB?
Ive just bought a nice USB3 drive, how will running it off the stick affect the updating process on the SD card, am i going to have to manually update the SD card and USB?
Once you have properly prepared your SD card and USB3 stick so that RasPlex is booted off that stick the SD card will no longer be used for anything other than the initial boot in each boot session. All else will run off the USB3 stick, and any auto-update that is applied will update the files on the stick. This should work fine, same as if you were using just an SD card.
The exception to this rule is for some future update where the initial boot drivers on the SDcard may need to be updated, in which case you may again need to prepare the SD card by flashing an image to it and repeating the patching of "config.txt" and "cmdline.txt" again, for adding your CODEC license codes (assuming you've bought some) and modifying the boot procedure to use the USB3 stick.
But the upcoming v0.4.0 RC4 release should not require any changes to the SD card.
Best regards: dlanor
Thanks:)
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Trying to format my USB drive and it seems that rasplex places some sort of write protection onto it. I cannot format my USB drivE. Anyone have a solution. I have tried all the methods i could find online including using HP usb formating tool, regedits, rufus formatiing tool and using windows diskpart. Nothing has worked.
Trying to format my USB drive and it seems that rasplex places some sort of write protection onto it. I cannot format my USB drivE. Anyone have a solution. I have tried all the methods i could find online including using HP usb formating tool, regedits, rufus formatiing tool and using windows diskpart. Nothing has worked.
It's not any form of write protection but simply a Linux-type partition that the Windows OS is unable to handle, even for basic reformatting needs. This partition is necessary for RasPlex, since it runs under OpenELEC which is a minimal Linux distribution. In fact all Raspberry Pi OS images that I know of are Linux-based and use this kind of dual partition layout (or even more complex ones).
There are several methods to clean up the drive content.
The simplest way, though it might not always be enough, is to use the "Win32 Disk Imager" to completely rewrite a new image to the drive. But this only works if the FAT32 partition also stored on the same drive has survived. Otherwise there is no way to select the drive for use by "Win32 Disk Imager".
Another way that some people use (though I don't like it) is to reboot the PC with a 'Live-CD' for the Linux tool GPartEd, which allows for Linux-based reformatting of the drive. (Even if you normally boot that PC to Windows.)
But the way I prefer is to use the free edition of "Paragon Partition Manager", which is capable of handling any common partition formats (both Windows- and Linux-oriented), and can create, format or delete any mixture of such partitions on any drive. (HDD, USB or SDcard)
You should of course take great care when using any partitioning tool, and study the help texts and docs before using any of its powerful commands.
What you need is essentially to delete any of the existing partitions on the USB drive, then create a new partition using all the drive space and format that partition to FAT32, and assign that partition a drive letter. After this work Windows should no longer have any problems using the drive.
Best regards: dlanor
As always, very helpful dlanor.
How the heck are you all accessing your USB drive post setup to do things like add a remote.xml file or install a different skin? I am using Transmit for Mac to connect via SFTP and I don’t see any of the folders referenced in any of the posts elsewhere describing how to accomplish the above. Even tried SSH but again I seem to be getting dumped into the root of the SD card (but I don’t know for sure).
How the heck are you all accessing your USB drive post setup to do things like add a remote.xml file or install a different skin? I am using Transmit for Mac to connect via SFTP and I don't see any of the folders referenced in any of the posts elsewhere describing how to accomplish the above. Even tried SSH but again I seem to be getting dumped into the root of the SD card (but I don't know for sure).
I use Cyberduck (OSX - free) http://cyberduck.io/?l=en
You have to 'view hidden files' to 'see' all directories, careful what you change in the hidden directories!
To write to the boot partition (to edit config.txt using SSH) you have to remount it as read and write, if you don't know how to do this then search the forum, again, if you're not sure what you are doing then be careful what you change.
Were you aware that since 0.4.0-RC4 there is no longer any real gain from using a USB drive, stick with the SD card install.
Regards
I use Cyberduck (OSX - free) http://cyberduck.io/?l=en
You have to 'view hidden files' to 'see' all directories, careful what you change in the hidden directories!
To write to the boot partition (to edit config.txt using SSH) you have to remount it as read and write, if you don't know how to do this then search the forum, again, if you're not sure what you are doing then be careful what you change.
Were you aware that since 0.4.0-RC4 there is no longer any real gain from using a USB drive, stick with the SD card install.
Regards
Thanks for the info Ned. I will give CyberDuck a try. Will I easily be able to get to the usb drive or at least know what drive I'm working on? At the moment I am using only the SD card (a 4gb class 6) and it is noticeably slower so I'm still keen on trying to get the usb stick working..
Thanks for the info Ned. I will give CyberDuck a try. Will I easily be able to get to the usb drive or at least know what drive I'm working on? At the moment I am using only the SD card (a 4gb class 6) and it is noticeably slower so I'm still keen on trying to get the usb stick working..
You should be using a Class 10 SD Card, these are a lot faster than Class 6, and are less prone to corruption, comment relating to little performance improvement was related to using a Class 10 and some form of overclocking, need only be 'modest' for a significant gain. I assume that you've over clocked your Pi.
Regards
How the heck are you all accessing your USB drive post setup to do things like add a remote.xml file or install a different skin? I am using Transmit for Mac to connect via SFTP and I don't see any of the folders referenced in any of the posts elsewhere describing how to accomplish the above. Even tried SSH but again I seem to be getting dumped into the root of the SD card (but I don't know for sure).
What you see is dependent both on the protocol used and the login method used.
With SSH you should login as "root" with password "rasplex" (no quotes in either), in order to see EVERYTHING.
This will indeed 'dump you in the root', since that is the ONLY way to gain access to everything.
So when logged in this way everything must be accessed using full path strings starting at the root "/".
But personally I prefer to do most access using Windows Explorer, so I can just drag-drop stuff between folder windows of my Win7 PC and a folder Window opened for the RPi SMB server. It takes some reconfiguring of a file in the RPi to access everything, but even that reconfiguration can be done from the PC, using PC text editors and drag-drop to/from the Rpi SMB folder window.
Here's how I do this work, step by step, starting from scratch with a newly installed RasPlex image:
(I'm just assuming that you've done initial startup, getting past the init 'wizard'.)
01 RPi: In main menu use DPad_Left to open the side menu and there open the "System Settings" menu (used to be "RasPlex Settings").
02 RPi: In the "System Settings" menu open the "Connections" submenu and note the IP address of your RPi
03 RPi: In the "System Settings" menu open the "Services" submenu and activate the "Enable Samba" entry. Then back out to main menu.
04 Win: Open a Windows Explorer window (no matter which folder) and enter the RPi address in the path field, but preceded by two backslashes
------- eg: if my RPi IP address is "192.168.10.120" then I enter "\\192.168.10.120" (no quotes)
------- as you press return for that entry you should see the RPi fileshares, but as usual for fileshares these do not show the
------- true folder structure. They represent folders and files from various places in the RasPlex filesystem. You need a MAP !
05 Win: Open the fileshare folder "Configfiles" and look for the file "samba.conf.sample". That is your map, and can be extended.
06 Win: Make a copy of that file (in same folder) and rename it simply to "samba.conf".
------- This file will become the future master control for SMB of your RasPlex.
07 Win: Open "samba.conf" in a text editor and inspect its contents. The [global] header section is best left alone though.
08 Win: All the other sections starting with a "[" character represent the shares made visible as top-level Samba fileshares.
09 Win: Carefully add new such sections for each location in the RPi filesystem that you want to access.
------- Here's an example of some things I add at the bottom of the "samba.conf" file
[-_PHT Addons] path = /storage/.plexht/addons available = yes browsable = yes public = yes writable = yes root preexec = mkdir -p /storage/.plexht/addons------- Note that some of the folders shown here might not be visible in FTP or even in SSH (without correct “ls -a” parameter)[-_storage_plexht_temp area]
path = /storage/.plexht/temp
available = yes
browsable = yes
public = yes
writable = yes
root preexec = mkdir -p /storage/.plexht/temp[-_storage_cache area]
path = /storage/.cache
available = yes
browsable = yes
public = yes
writable = yes
root preexec = mkdir -p /storage/.cache
------- But when declared as fileshares this way, their content will be visible in the fileshare folder windows
10 Win: After adding what you want, save the “samba.conf” file and exit from the text editor, and close the RPi fileshare window.
11 RPi: Reopen the “System Settings” menu like earlier, and likewise its “Services” submenu.
12 RPi: First disable the “Enable Samba” setting, and then immediately enable it again.
------- This step is needed to force the OpenELEC system of RasPlex to make use of the new “samba.conf” file.
13 Win: Open a Windows Explorer folder window for the RasPlex IP address again like you did in step 04 earlier.
------- Note how the fileshare folder window now includes the shares you added in step 09.
------- And if you used my example share names, they will always appear at the top of the list (with normal name sorting)
To make the usage even more convenient you can create a desktop shortcut of its own for the RPi fileshares.
Depending on your system and LAN it might not be convenient to do that by browsing the network for the RPi entry.
But you can do it by creating a shortcut to any other folder (even a local one) and then editing the shortcut properties so as to change the 'Target:" path property to the same path string you used in the Windows Explorer path field. (two backslashes followed by the IP address). Then you just rename the shortcut to “RasPlex” and you’re all set…
Best regards: dlanor
Thanks for the info Ned. I will give CyberDuck a try. Will I easily be able to get to the usb drive or at least know what drive I'm working on?
When booting from USB the SD card is only involved in the initial boot procedure, so thereafter the system root folder and all its subfolders are those of the USB drive. (In an Ext4 partition, not the FAT32 partition accessible from a Windows PC.)
Even so, I strongly recommend getting a faster SD card, preferably one with not only Class10 rating, but also with UHS-1 certification. This will give you a better speed improvement than a USB drive, and will also allow you to overclock the RPi without risk of SD card corruption (any Class10 card will allow that, but the UHS-1 cards are faster).
Best regards: dlanor
Thanks so much for the info dlanor. So if I have everything set up correctly, booting from the SD with Plex running off the USB, when I connect to the Rasberry Pi I via sftp, I can be positive that the "/storage" section I am looking at is in fact on the USB drive? I realized, thanks to NedtheNerds help that I needed to select "show hidden files" in my Transmit and Cyberduck programs to be able to see the file structure I was expecting to see. Without doing that, it made it seem like I wasnt getting to where I was supposed to be going.
That said I think I am just going to get a nicer SD card and do everything of of that. I want the performance boost of a USB drive setup since I am used to the snappiness of a real HTPC experience so i just assumed that i needed to go this route from the get go.
Thanks so much for the info dlanor. So if I have everything set up correctly, booting from the SD with Plex running off the USB, when I connect to the Rasberry Pi I via sftp, I can be positive that the "/storage" section I am looking at is in fact on the USB drive?
Yes.
I realized, thanks to NedtheNerds help that I needed to select "show hidden files" in my Transmit and Cyberduck programs to be able to see the file structure I was expecting to see. Without doing that, it made it seem like I wasnt getting to where I was supposed to be going.
That said I think I am just going to get a nicer SD card and do everything of of that. I want the performance boost of a USB drive setup since I am used to the snappiness of a real HTPC experience so i just assumed that i needed to go this route from the get go.
A faster SD card is definitely the best choice today.
With the older RasPlex versions the caching was much less efficient, leading to tons of inefficient storage access. This made even a slight speed improvement from USB3 drives add up to significant improvements in response times, particularly when entering a large media section (like over a thousand movies or shows). But with the new RasPlex versions the caching methods have been improved so that a slight difference in access speed no longer has the same impact on response time. (A different balance between stored caching and RAM caching.) So when using a fast SD card there's really no point in also using a USB3 stick, since its speed advantage over the card will be very small (also limited by the USB2 bus of the RPi). That's why I've switched to using only SD cards in my own RPi, where I previously also used a USB3 stick.
Best regards: dlanor
