Separate rpi to control speakers

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Hi all,

I have plex server running on a ubuntu server with all my media files, and now have a separate Rpi with plex, avahi, etc plugged into an amplifier with speakers. Question: what’s the best way to set up the configuration on the rpi to allow plex apps (e.g. plex client on my iphone) to fling music playback to the rpi? I currently have a plex server running on the rpi, but it doesn’t actually have the files on there (they’re on the ubuntu server). Perhaps it’s fine as it is (i.e. plex on the rpi but no libraries, files, etc, just waiting to be flung to), but would appreciate suggestions if there are better ways. Thanks!

A

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If your file server has more computing power than your RasPi (I assume it does) then you shoud run the Plex server on it.
Use the Pi only as a Plex client.
For music, I recommend you this one: Plexamp for Raspberry Pi Release Notes

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Great, thanks. I’ll give it a shot!

  Just for clarification, the client in this case is headless...

Will I be able to control plexamp via, for example, the plex app
on my iphone?

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Yes, it doesn’t have an own user interface at all. It is just a “daemon”.

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cool, thanks. trying to install, but i don’t see an install guide around for headless systems… do i need AppImage, as referred to in the install page?

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There is no mention of AppImage on this page: Plexamp for Raspberry Pi Release Notes

Just follow a current, generic guide to install Raspbian on a Raspberry Pi and go from there.

This is not about running Plex server on a raspberry Pi. You already have a Plex server on Ubuntu.
Plexamp is just a plex client.

1 Like
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so… i understood you to mean that plexamp gets installed on the (headless) raspberry pi (with speakers attached). If that’s the case, then i need to install plexamp on the rpi. What am I not getting?

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That’s exactly the case.

You brought up AppImage, which is not mentioned anywhere in connection with Plexamp. And you(?) tagged this thread with server-raspberry-pi.

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Right - and my question is: how do I install plexamp? I download it from the page you link to, but I don’t see any install instructions there. It seems to assume that I’ve already installed a previous version of plexamp?

Ummm… AppImage is mentioned about 1000 times in the plexamp help page here: Plexamp - Frequently Asked Questions

And yes, I am running this on a raspberry pi with raspbian, which as you know, is a version of linux… so I think it’s not unreasonable for me to make a connection here when I’m searching around for answers about how to install plexamp.

Nonetheless, back to the point. The rpi plexamp page you kindly pointed me to gives the following instructions:

  1. Download https://files.plexapp.com/elan/Plexamp-v2.0.0-rPi-beta.2.tar.bz2
  2. Get a server.json file from existing Plexamp install, install in /home/pi/.config/Plexamp/ . Sign out and back into your existing install to get a new identifier/token.
  3. Install node 9 on the Pi.

As you can see, it seems to assume a previous installation of plexamp. Can you please help clarify how I’m supposed to install plexamp on an rpi that does not contain a previous installation?

thank you…

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The instructions are right there

  1. Download https://files.plexapp.com/elan/Plexamp-v2.0.0-rPi-beta.2.tar.bz2
  2. Get a server.json file from existing Plexamp install, install in /home/pi/.config/Plexamp/ . Sign out and back into your existing install to get a new identifier/token.
  3. Install node 9 on the Pi.
$ curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_9.x | sudo -E bash -
$ sudo apt install -y nodejs
  1. Unpack in /home/pi
  2. Install service file:
$ sudo cp /home/pi/plexamp/plexamp.service /lib/systemd/system/plexamp.service
  1. Get service running:
$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
$ sudo systemctl enable plexamp
$ sudo systemctl start plexamp
$ sudo systemctl status plexamp

Sorry, this is a completely new version of Plexamp (as in, completely re-written) and it must be installed exactly like detailed above. Think of it as a “pre-pre alpha version”. Appimage is not usable at this point.

No. If you don’t have a previous version of plexamp installed, you create this folder yourself.
As I said: this is a pre-pre alpha version. it doesn’t have a fancy installer yet.
Despite that, once it’s installed it works better than than the other options. Hence why I recommended it, despite the more complicated set up procedure.
Installing it requires you to (temporarily!) plug the RasPi into your TV and attach a USB keyboard and mouse. After it is up and running you can use it completely “headless”.

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excellent, thanks. does it require a windowing system for initial setup, or will command line suffice?

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Command line should be fine, since it has no graphical interface anyway.

But you need to install the regular version of Plexamp on your regular computer, to get a working server.json file, which you then can transplant onto the RasPi.
Plexamp.com
(After copying the file, you need to erase it from the computer. Otherwise you’ll have 2 clients with the same ID, which can cause major malfunctioning with casting.)

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