Server Will Not Start

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: 1.21.2.3943-a91458577 installed via snap-store

I recently had to re-install Ubuntu in order to upgrade to 20.04, however, in the process I appear to have broken the config to allow the Plex Media Server to access my library. I store my Application Support folder on my media driver and was using the following override to handle that:
in /etc/systemd/system/snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service.d/override conf I have the following:

Customize Plex’s config

[Service]
Environment=“PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR=/media/Media 2/plexdata/Library/Application Support”

This is needed to change the default umask

UMask=0002 # this must be 4 digits of octal

However, when I try to start the server it fails and when I run systemctl status snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service I get the following:

Warning: The unit file, source configuration file or drop-ins of snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service changed on disk. Run 'systemctl d>
● snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service
Loaded: bad-setting (Reason: Unit snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service has a bad unit file setting.)
Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service.d
└─override.conf
Active: inactive (dead)

Feb 01 11:51:11 bennett-plex systemd[1]: snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service: Service has no ExecStart=, ExecStop=, or SuccessAction=.>
Feb 01 11:53:28 bennett-plex systemd[1]: /etc/systemd/system/snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service:7: Unknown key name ‘UNMask’ in secti>
Feb 01 11:53:28 bennett-plex systemd[1]: /etc/systemd/system/snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service.d/override.conf:7: Failed to parse mo>
Feb 01 11:53:28 bennett-plex systemd[1]: snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service: Service has no ExecStart=, ExecStop=, or SuccessAction=.>
Feb 01 11:53:41 bennett-plex systemd[1]: /etc/systemd/system/snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service:7: Unknown key name ‘UNMask’ in secti>
Feb 01 11:53:41 bennett-plex systemd[1]: /etc/systemd/system/snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service.d/override.conf:7: Failed to parse mo>
Feb 01 11:53:41 bennett-plex systemd[1]: snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service: Service has no ExecStart=, ExecStop=, or SuccessAction=.>
Feb 01 11:55:01 bennett-plex systemd[1]: /etc/systemd/system/snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service:7: Failed to parse mode value, ignori>
Feb 01 11:55:01 bennett-plex systemd[1]: /etc/systemd/system/snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service.d/override.conf:7: Failed to parse mo>
Feb 01 11:55:01 bennett-plex systemd[1]: snap.plexmediaserver.plexmediaserver.service: Service has no ExecStart=, ExecStop=, or SuccessAction=.>

I have run reload-daemon despite what the warning claims. Any advice on correcting this would be appreciated.

2

Your error here is: You put PMS in the /media directory.

Ubuntu will not allow that. When you log in, Gnome takes exclusive ownership and blocks all other users (user plex being the one who needs access).

Put your metadata anywhere else.

How about /plex ?

Also, you’re showing the SNAP container in there. SNAPs only allow your home directory to be used.

Which would you rather use? SNAPs or regular DPKG ?

1 Like
3

I had it in /media without a problem on 18.10, was this a recent change?

My issue is that I have a very small (~64 gb) internal drive, so I need to have it on the external, and Ubuntu seems to by default mount external drives under /media/$user. Do I just need to symlink that to a different directory to make it work?

I do not have a strong preference in terms of how it’s packaged. If it will work better with dpkg I can switch to that.

4

In Ubuntu 20, they changed the app store and how all the system apps work.

  1. Almost all the OS apps are SNAP containers now. (just like Docker containers)
  2. These SNAPs are proprietary and have one thing in common; they can only see your home directory.

With 18, downloading from the App store was the same as downloading from Plex.
That’s all different now. Now you get the Plex SNAP package.

You still have the option to download from Plex manually and install the old way or you can adopt their way. The choice is yours.

If you will tell me a bit more about what you have , I will help craft a workable solution.

  1. Did you previously have PMS in /var/lib/plexmediaserver?
  2. Was it actually there or “symlinked” out to somewhere else?
  3. Where would you like it now? Can you give me the path fragment?
1 Like
5
  1. No, on 18.10 it was in /media/bennett/Media 2/plexdata/…
  2. It was not symlinked, I used the override.conf as described in Moving PMS 'Library'
  3. I would like it to stay on my external hard drive Media 2 which is currently mounted under /media

I am okay with using solutions that involve either the traditional direct download or the newer containers

6

Thanks for that info. It tells me a lot.

  1. Am I correct you did not have an entry in /etc/fstab for your “Media 2” USB drive?
    a. /media/-username-/-Label-/ is the default automounter location

  2. Under Ubuntu 20, you’ll find permissions for /media/<username> are tighter. You might be able to chmod 755 for both /media and /media/bennett but until you can confirm they persist through a reboot, I would not trust them.

  3. An option you have, if you’re not tied to /media/bennett/Media 2 by specific name can be /media/Media 2.
    a. We can create an entry in /etc/fstab to make this happen and it will be reliable.
    b. We’ll use the UUID= technique to guarantee that, no matter which USB port it’s plugged into, it will always show up in the same place which PMS expects.

  4. Once tweaked, we can make the minor adjustments to /etc/systems/system/plexmediaserver.service.d/override.conf and remove the SNAP plex package ; replacing it with the proper DEB one (which you can also setup for auto-updating).

How would you like to proceed.

1 Like
7

I appreciate your help, but I think I am going to upgrade my internal drive with a larger SSD.

Long term will be a better experience to have the metadata on a more responsive drive.

Once I get that drive installed I should be able to run the metadata out of the normal location and this should not be a problem anymore.

Thank you again for your help

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