Linux newbie.
I made my drive to small that I installed Plex on. It’s hosted in esxi. I extended the drive. I then extended the volume in ubuntu. The transcode directory isn’t playing nice from what it looks like to me.
Help please!
Need to know more.
What do you have ? (what does df show ? )
The transcode directory defaults to where PMS is stored (/var/lib/plexmediaserver)
Plex Media Server Logs_2021-06-10_20-20-11.zip (5.9 MB)
R710 no GPU
esxi 6.0
Ubuntu 18.04
What else can I provide that would help?
How about your disk partition map (my previous request) so I can help you pick out a possible solution?
Plex logs tell me nothing about the host.
Chris,
Would you mind using text copy/paste?
- In the terminal window
- Use the mouse to highlight all of it (more than one page)
- Right-Click COPY
- Come to this REPLY window
- Click the
</>(code) button. - Between the two markers, Paste the text.
It will look like this after you hit “POST”
[chuck@lizum ~.513]$ df -m
Filesystem 1M-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
devtmpfs 15987 0 15987 0% /dev
tmpfs 16013 502 15511 4% /dev/shm
tmpfs 6405 3 6403 1% /run
/dev/nvme0n1p2 124939 24623 100317 20% /
/dev/nvme0n1p4 788400 377849 410552 48% /home
/dev/nvme1n1p1 976285 816521 159764 84% /backup
/dev/nvme0n1p1 476 21 456 5% /boot/efi
/dev/loop1 33 33 0 100% /var/lib/snapd/snap/snapd/11841
/dev/loop2 167 167 0 100% /var/lib/snapd/snap/signal-desktop/358
/dev/loop4 56 56 0 100% /var/lib/snapd/snap/core18/2066
/dev/loop3 65 65 0 100% /var/lib/snapd/snap/gtk-common-themes/1514
tmpfs 16013 79 15934 1% /tmp
/dev/loop5 32 32 0 100% /var/lib/snapd/snap/tautulli/766
/dev/loop6 56 56 0 100% /var/lib/snapd/snap/core18/1997
/dev/loop7 66 66 0 100% /var/lib/snapd/snap/gtk-common-themes/1515
/dev/loop8 32 32 0 100% /var/lib/snapd/snap/tautulli/816
/dev/loop9 160 160 0 100% /var/lib/snapd/snap/signal-desktop/354
/dev/loop10 163 163 0 100% /var/lib/snapd/snap/gnome-3-28-1804/145
192.168.0.21:/nuc 79263990 35137813 44125649 45% /vie/nuc
This is a lot easier for me to read, thanks.
chris@plex:~$ /dev/sda2 999320 206372 724136 23% /boot
-bash: /dev/sda2: Permission denied
chris@plex:~$ /dev/loop0 56832 56832 0 100% /snap/ core18/1997
-bash: /dev/loop0: Permission denied
chris@plex:~$ /dev/loop2 32896 32896 0 100% /snap/ snapd/11841
-bash: /dev/loop2: Permission denied
chris@plex:~$ /dev/loop1 56832 56832 0 100% /snap/ core18/2066
-bash: /dev/loop1: Permission denied
chris@plex:~$ /dev/loop4 69248 69248 0 100% /snap/ lxd/20326
-bash: /dev/loop4: Permission denied
chris@plex:~$ /dev/loop3 32896 32896 0 100% /snap/ snapd/12057
-bash: /dev/loop3: Permission denied
chris@plex:~$ //192.168.0.4/movies 28113371136 23546102676 4567268460 84% /home/ chris/server/movies
-bash: //192.168.0.4/movies: No such file or directory
chris@plex:~$ //192.168.0.4/tv 28113371136 23546102676 4567268460 84% /home/ chris/server/tv
-bash: //192.168.0.4/tv: No such file or directory
chris@plex:~$ //192.168.0.4/music 28113371136 23546102676 4567268460 84% /home/ chris/server/music
-bash: //192.168.0.4/music: No such file or directory
chris@plex:~$ tmpfs 2463004 0 2463004 0% /run/u ser/1000
Command 'tmpfs' not found, did you mean:
command 'tmfs' from deb tmfs (3-2build10)
Try: sudo apt install <deb name>
chris@plex:~$ df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev 12270404 0 12270404 0% /dev
tmpfs 2463008 1248 2461760 1% /run
/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv 256862724 22079996 224066028 9% /
tmpfs 12315036 4 12315032 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5120 0 5120 0% /run/lock
tmpfs 12315036 0 12315036 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda2 999320 206372 724136 23% /boot
/dev/loop0 56832 56832 0 100% /snap/core18/1997
/dev/loop2 32896 32896 0 100% /snap/snapd/11841
/dev/loop1 56832 56832 0 100% /snap/core18/2066
/dev/loop4 69248 69248 0 100% /snap/lxd/20326
/dev/loop3 32896 32896 0 100% /snap/snapd/12057
//192.168.0.4/movies 28113371136 23546105848 4567265288 84% /home/chris/server/movies
//192.168.0.4/tv 28113371136 23546105848 4567265288 84% /home/chris/server/tv
//192.168.0.4/music 28113371136 23546105848 4567265288 84% /home/chris/server/music
tmpfs 2463004 0 2463004 0% /run/user/1000
chris@plex:~$ ^C
chris@plex:~$
That looks VERY good.
- The root filesystem (/) is 9% used. Excellent space.
- I see you mounted media in your home directory.
- Did you also install directly from the Ubuntu App store or from Plex?
If you downloaded from Ubuntu, you will get the SNAP package – which works completely differently.
If you download from Plex,
- Plex puts all its data in
/var, which is part of/(plenty of space - Has access to the hardware for HW transcoding
I’m VERY new to linux. I followed a guide that had me add a repository to install from. I wish I was better with this. I came from Windows and wanted to try linux.
So the / root was out of space. I increased the disk size in esxi and extended the partition in linux. When I launch a large mkv it hangs at 33% and from what I understand it has something to do with the transcoding directory. I’m not fluent enough with linux to know what to do next.
chris@plex:~$ cd /
chris@plex:/$ ls
bin cdrom etc initrd.img lib lost+found mnt music nfs photos recordedtv run snap swap.img sys tv var vmlinuz.old
boot dev home initrd.img.old lib64 media movies nas opt proc root sbin srv synology tmp usr vmlinuz
chris@plex:/$ cd /var
chris@plex:/var$ ls
backups cache crash lib local lock log mail opt run snap spool tmp
chris@plex:/var$
The first thing I must share (which is obvious , and I’m sorry ) you will need to learn basic Linux admin skills as fast as you possibly can . We can help with Plex on Linux and even teach some of the more advanced things but not equipped or staffed to teach linux itse.f
As for learning: a small VM is great for “educational sandbox” for you to safely play in without hurting anything else is perfect. You can try things, break them, snapshot restore the VM, and try again 
I don’t know which guide you might have used (there are many self-proclaimed experts out there) but it’s not difficult to do.
We have the How-To documented on our support site
You’ll find a lot of stuff here.
Additionally, I have curated a small collection of tailed How-To’s for common problems.
Back to your problem.
What you’re showing me here:
/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv 256862724 22079996 224066028 9% /
- ubuntu–vg-ubuntu-lv is the volume where the root file system exists
- it is only using 9% of the 256GB allocated.
That sound right?
As part of your Plex settings, in Settings - Server - Transcoder - Show Advanced
did you type in a location for the transcoder temp directory?
If you didn’t, then it’s going to use space in the root (/) partition – which is plenty.
If you configured a value of /dev/shm (shared memory for tempory space) then I can see where you’ll run out quick.
It looks like you allocated 24 GB of RAM?
If true, 12 GB can be used for the /dev/shm ‘ramdisk’.
Am I getting closer ?
Lastly, would you please type:
dpkg -l | grep plexmedia
It will tell us what you have installed for PMS.
I’m definitely doing the crash course on linux here. I sincerely appreciate your time helping me out.
I haven’t defined a directory for transcoding. It is still blank at this time.
24 GB of ram is correct
chris@plex:/var$ dpkg -l | grep plexmedia
ii plexmediaserver 1.23.0.4497-a1b1f3c10 amd64 Plex organizes all of your personal media so you can easily access and enjoy it.
chris@plex:/var$
Where did you get 1.23.0.4497 ?
Neither our Public or PlexPass are that version.
Have you had this a while?
I’ve had this running for 2 months or so. I wish I bookmarked the guide I followed but I no longer have it.
Is there any chance you can recreate the error you saw and then immediately download the log files and attach them?
After looking at your system, and your logs, I am not finding where you’re out of disk space.
Certainly. The error first occurred when I saw that I was out of space. I thought that increasing the disk size would fix it but it didn’t. Certainly I could just blow this machine up and start over but I’d rather turn this into a learning experience see what the actual problem is.
Plex Media Server Logs_2021-06-11_00-57-29.zip (6.1 MB)
Thank you!
Jun 11, 2021 00:52:40.536 [0x7fdfd21cdd30] ERROR - IsFileWritable: failed to create file '"/4986f66f-7fb9-49be-929b-b9839d55a75b"'
Jun 11, 2021 00:52:40.536 [0x7fdfd21cdd30] WARN - IsDirWritable: directory '"/"' is not writable
Not out of space. No Permission to write to the root / file system (which is correct behavior on linux --or-- <space>/filename is not writeable (which is illegal).
Check to make sure there isn’t a space character in the Transcoder Temp Directory value. I’ll bet there is. I think it’s trying to write to /xxxx
Under settings…transcoder it is blank. Is there another place to define it?
Let’s try this.
I’m sorry I don’t have a standard linux machine in front of me but we can make whatever we want
Please do the following:
- Open a terminal window
# sudo bash
# mkdir /var/lib/plexmediaserver/transcoding
# chown plex:plex /var/lib/plexmediaserver/transcoding
-
In the Transcoder Temp directory setting, making certain there are no leading or trailing spaces, type
/var/lib/plexmediaserver/transcoding -
SAVE the change
-
Now test it
