Upgrade to 1.15.1.710 and init.d script went away

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

Server Version#: 1.15.1.710
Player Version#: N/A
Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS

I performed an upgrade using the .deb file I downloaded from within my server configuration page and everything seemed to be working ok after it completed last night but today I requested that it optimize the database and rather than taking the normal 20 seconds that task has now been running for 8 hours. I decided I would try to restart plex but found that /etc/init.d/plexmediaserver is now missing and I have no explanation for this other than the deb package removed it for some reason. I’m now concerned that if I restart the server that plex may not start again since the script is missing and fear that possibly other things have been broken. Can someone shed some light on what might be happening before things get worse than they already are?

2

Please confirm?

You are using Ubuntu 12?

3

In anticipation of your reply,

  1. Ubuntu 12 is no longer supported. It is now almost 2 years past LTS EOL

Published by Canonical: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS April 2012 April 2017

  1. Ubuntu 14 LTS will not be supported after April 2019.

Your best next step is to install fresh Ubuntu 18.10 LTS and start again.

4

Where was that announced and why was there no warning on the upgrade page or anywhere else that would have mattered? And are you seriously telling me that I’m completely screwed and can not get this installion stable? Can’t downgrade to the previous Plex version?

5

https://support.plex.tv/articles/200375666-plex-media-server-requirements/

6

This is something that should have been pushed or published somewhere (like on the same page that tells me I have an update to install). Once someone installs software you expect it to tell you when updates are available and if said update has new requirements.

The only reason I was still using Plex was because of my watch status and not wanting to have to have another software build a new database but since Plex put me in this position and gives me no other option than to start from scratch this is likely the end of the road.

It would be nice if Plex would offer a path but I know better. Most of my clients have been broken in the last year with my primary client having no solution in sight.

7

Your Library, and all its metadata, is fully transportable to a new installation of the OS.

It is as simple as making a tar archive file of the Library and then restoring it and updating the UID/GID on the newly created system.

This Tip details the procedure.

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8

Anyone who got backed into this corner and needs a quick out I’ve found that I was able to dpkg -i the older .deb file for 1.14.x and it fortunately put the init.d script back and everything seemed to go back to normal.

I’ll stick at 1.14 until I figure out which way I want to go. I have a server sitting in my basement getting ready for a new OS install when I have time but I’m really not sure if I want to stick with Plex anymore… It’s becoming too much work dealing with the changing and breaking clients and having a new release drastically change file structure without any heads up just adds to my fear especially when the focus of Plex no longer seems to be the media server but subscription cloud services.

9

To All reading here:

Yes, I suspect I am going to get flamed for this but am trying to work for everyone’s betterment and (frankly) reduce, if possible, the seemingly endless hours I spend supporting all the different versions of Linux.

Facts:
PMS 1.14.1 was the final build done with the old CI.
PMS 1.15.0 was the first production and public build with the new CI.

As stated by a Plex employee, updating glibc was absolutely necessary and unavoidable. This unfortunately froze some customers at the PMS 1.14.1 version level as their highest version much like many of the NAS platforms were frozen back at 0.9.16.6 a few years ago.

Now add the different distributions and versions in use:

  1. Fedora - While 18+ (systemd based) will work (26+ for HW transcoding), only Fedora 26+ is supportable due to their 9 month update cycle. Fedora 27 (my workstation) is already EOL and receives no updates effective Dec 2018. Even I must update soon to current release.
  2. Centos 7.x (systemd based) - Supported and current
  3. OpenSuSE - During the migration to the new CI, it was required I rewrite the packaging and installer. The old installation scripts were an unmaintainable disaster. The complexity was such that only a limited number of OpenSuse configurations would actually work. This mandated the full rewrite. Add to this, the glibc increase made supporting older OpenSuSE versions impossible leaving only systemd-based systems to be addressed.
  4. Ubuntu 12 is long ago dead.
  5. Ubuntu 13 discontinued when Ubuntu 14 released
  6. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS will be fully discontinued by Canonical effective April 30, 2019
  7. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS is the sole remaining init based Linux version PMS runs on.
  8. Ubuntu 15 discontinued when Ubuntu 16.04 released
  9. Ubuntu 16.04 LTS will be supported until 2021
  10. Ubuntu 17 discontinued when Ubuntu 18 released
  11. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS will be supported until 2023
  12. Debian 6 - Supported by a Plex Ninja out of the goodness of his heart with company permission. That ninja has since left the program
  13. Debian 7 - Supported by the same Plex Ninja above.
  14. Debian 8 - Changed from being init-based to systemd-based. Debian 8 became the first officially supported Debian version.
  15. Debian 9 - Current.

Now for the logistics part of this post which is unpleasant to write and will be clearly unpleasant to read.

  1. How many versions of Windows does Microsoft support?
  2. How many versions of MacOS does Apple support
  3. How many distributions and versions of Linux must I support ?

I will GLADLY provide support to migrate from an older version of Linux to current. Why? That’s easy. It is a Win-Win scenario. You get a far better distribution and I can reduce my workload.

As an example of how easily a live system can be captured, a completely new installation performed, and all the old software re-installed, including system settings, automatically , I do that every 9 months with Fedora. It runs at full internet download speed (my whopping 40 Mbps… haha)

I can not continue to support init based systems. There are only so many hours in a day.

How can I help you, which in return, makes your system better and makes my job easier?

What tools (scripts) can I write and distribute here to help?

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10

I completely understand the need to stop supporting old platforms and that is not my concern at all. The problem is that the installation has continued to tell me an update was available for my installation and there was nowhere that would have indicated that something drastic was about to happen. I know my platform is old and I was expecting a point to come where Plex was going to stop giving my updates which is why I was working on getting another server together in my spare time. What happened instead is that the Plex server continued to keep persisting that I install the latest updates which I was doing at it’s direction. If my Plex installation would have stopped telling me to update when I reached a point where my installation couldn’t be updated or said something like “Update available” with a note saying that the update would break older installations we never would have got to this point. What is even more concerning to me is that a Plex employee responded to me saying that my installation is broke and there is nothing I can do about it instead of telling me that I could downgrade the installation and take some steps to get back up and running in between the time that the update broke me and the time that I can get a server together or the time to do a wipe and reload. The reason why many of us use Plex over other platforms is simply because we want it to work when we have downtime and not have to worry about if my only day off this week can result in relaxing and watching something or if my only day off is going to be filled with heartache and frustration. When clients are being broken overnight and drastic changes are being made without any concern as to the reprocussions then I don’t understand why I actually payed money to Plex when there are projects out there marked as unstable that are more stable than what is supposed to be a polished production environment called Plex.

11

@bblboy54

That is an App issue. It has no correlation to the OS which we are discussing here. Check your “Update Channel” in your Server settings. Change what it’s pointed at. I do know they changed those mappings which is the source of your issue.

12

I understand the issues about supporting old Linux distributions and I don’t believe that you should have to. I understand the upgrade to glibc.

But lumping init scripts (SysVInit / OpenRC) as being deprecated is incorrect as Debian 8/9, Devuan, and all the derivative distributions support init scripts. The nice thing, is very little has to be done on your part. You just need to include the init scripts in the package which have not changed in years. Both Systemd systems and init systems will work with the same package.

The whole thing revolves around the simple job of starting PMS. Sysvinit and SystemD both do this.

You have a strong Linux community that is willing to help. Please utilize us.

13

Another option to make your life a LOT easier is to just dump packaging all together and just provide a x86, amd64, arm tarballs in the manner that Mozilla provides their tarballs for Firefox. Include a contrib directory with systemd and init scripts and let the user set it up. An advantage of this is that the system can then be upgraded from the WebUI like what you do under Windows.

I think you will find a LOT of takers for this. All linux distributions can run PMS as long as they meet the minimum system requirements. Gentoo, Arch, Slack, etc. will then be happy users as well.

14

No. That won’t be allowed. (package signing and all)

Plus, I will not support any architecture Plex hasn’t been tested on.

I am not going to trust someone to install it right, waste hours finding out they didn’t setup the group membership correctly. all when my package install scripts do that perfectly EVERY time.

Publishing tarballs would be like giving my 16 year old the keys to my brand new car and telling him “Sure! Go ahead and drive across country alone”

15

this by itself would be awesome (regardless of implementation details)

it sucks that windows has this but linux doesn’t.

16

here’s an archive of the old debian thread which has been removed… it has lots of info like how to re-add init files and all. it took a lot of hand work to assemble since the forum only gives you a few posts at a time

REMOVED by ChuckPA but reposted elsewhere

good luck

if anyone knows how to remove all the space under each post let me know, check reddit maybe

17

I think you should expect a certain amount of knowledge from Linux users. Perhaps have a “make install” script that creates everything under /opt/plexmediaserver, creates the user and group, and perhaps install systemd or init based on the output of “cat /proc/1/comm”

I don’t know about the package signing issue. Right now I can just download the debian package, extract it, modify it the way I like, and re-package it.

As for support, that is what this forum is for and the IRC. Let the *nix users help each other. There are some awfully smart 16 year old *nix users.

I understand there are not enough hours in the day. I feel that tarball approach will make maintaining Linux much easier.

18

I prefer the native package when possible, and there’s nothing stopping plex from having a helper to install the package, but yeah a tarball under it’s home would be easier from an update perspective. both could be easily provided, debs for initial install and a self updating tarball. Might confuse someone who looks at the package manager and sees an old version but they could always install the latest native package manually.

19

I would love to be able to have that expectation of “make install” but it is simply not realistic.

Ubuntu is the “Linux for Windows users”. That’s the lowest common denominator I must contend with. “Where’s the button to click?”

That said, “installable packages must remain”.

20

Ok, now you are just offending people. Just because someone uses Ubuntu doesn’t mean they use it because they know nothing. I get what you are trying to say but, come on, that’s really not a fair statement. I bet the majority of people running PMS on Ubuntu are using a server version and using the command line – no mouse involved.

Plex’s issue is that they want to work towards competing with Hulu and Netflix rather than doing what they started out to do… the problem is that content producers don’t understand linux and Plex is in a tough spot where they’ll have to distance themselves from a very large part of their community in order to keep content producers happy… This is why signing is such an issue and why Plex wants to try to keep as much hidden as possible – and let’s face it, Ubuntu is probably the easiest to start implementing more DRM controls of some sort since they already have such a focus on multimedia.

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