Verifying proper setup to support HEVC transcoding

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: 1.41.3.9314
Player Version#: N/A

I’m excited to try out HEVC transcoding, but after a few restarts and waiting overnight I’m not seeing the setting. I’m running an i7-10710U CPU with Ubuntu LTS (24.04.1, kernel 6.8.0-51 as of this writing). The only GPU listing I see in Plex is “auto” so I’m not sure if that means the card is seen or not.

Before I pull my hair out, I’m wondering if my system is even set up properly. Is there some way to verify that everything needed is in place? I see lots of information about NVIDIA cards, Docker setups, etc., but I’m just using an Intel NUC with Plex installed directly.

Any guidance would be appreciated!

2

What is the output for ll /dev/dri?

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~ » ll /dev/dri                                                                                                            foxbjk@Zoidberg3
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root      60 Jan 22 14:59 by-path
crw-rw---- 1 root video 226, 0 Jan 22 14:59 card0
4

Is this in a docker or lxc? You have no GPUs in /dev/dri.
lshw -c display to make sure the iGPU is seen and claimed by the OS.
Also id plex and make sure it is part of video group.

5

No

Ran the lshw, not sure what this indicates:

sudo lshw -c display                                                                                                   foxbjk@Zoidberg3
[sudo] password for foxbjk: 
  *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Comet Lake UHD Graphics
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       logical name: /dev/fb0
       version: 04
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pciexpress msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list fb
       configuration: depth=32 latency=0 resolution=800,600
       resources: memory:a7000000-a7ffffff memory:80000000-8fffffff ioport:3000(size=64) memory:c0000-dffff

‘plex’ user is in the video group.

So, the iGPU is not enabled or seen by the OS?

6

It looks like the i915/drm module might not be getting loaded successfully. What is the output of sudo dmesg | egrep i915 ?

7

@FoxBJK What @pshanew states is correct. If the i915 is loaded correctly the configuration line from lshw -c display would reflect this:

configuration: depth=32 driver=i915 latency=0 resolution=1920,1080
1 Like
8

@FoxBJK cat /etc/default/grub

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Nothing

# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
#   info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
GRUB_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`( . /etc/os-release; echo ${NAME:-Ubuntu} ) 2>/dev/null || echo Ubuntu`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet nosplash nomodeset"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

# If your computer has multiple operating systems installed, then you
# probably want to run os-prober. However, if your computer is a host
# for guest OSes installed via LVM or raw disk devices, running
# os-prober can cause damage to those guest OSes as it mounts
# filesystems to look for things.
#GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
#GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal
#GRUB_TERMINAL=console

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"

# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

Thanks!

10

From the provided information, it appears that your system is running in a fallback mode with a basic resolution of 800x600. This suggests that the nomodeset parameter is preventing the kernel from initializing the full graphics driver. The nomodeset kernel option disables the kernel’s mode-setting feature, which often limits the graphical capabilities and prevents the system from loading the proper graphics driver.

Did you have a reason for using nomodeset?

sudo nano /etc/default/grub
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet nosplash"
sudo update-grub
sudo reboot
11

Did that resolve your issue?

12

I’m traveling so it’ll be a few days before I can apply the update. But I’ll definitely report back

1 Like
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