69 replies to this topic

[Snottmonster]

EDIT:

Latest Installer for Plex Media Server for ReadyNAS (x86) can be found here: http://www.readynas....hp?f=48&t=53205

----

First - Yeeha! Plex on Linux - Fantastic.

Installed and running on my ReadyNAS Ultra - but a note to others: Do not decompress the Plex app on your Mac! The extra resource fork files (beginning "._") that get created in the process appear to screw up the install and cause a lot of python related errors.

Do a clean install directly on your NAS via SSH

I guess this problem will disappear when the ReadyNAS version is packaged with the installer SDK rather than as a tar archive. (Fixed per above link)

Congrats dev team (except I will probably have to upgrade my NAS now...)

[monsieurblack]

First - Yeeha! Plex on Linux - Fantastic.

Installed and running on my ReadyNAS Ultra - but a note to others: Do not decompress the Plex app on your Mac! The extra resource fork files (beginning "._") that get created in the process appear to screw up the install and cause a lot of python related errors.

Do a clean install directly on your NAS via SSH

I guess this problem will disappear when the ReadyNAS version is packaged with the installer SDK rather than as a tar archive.

Congrats dev team (except I will probably have to upgrade my NAS now...)

Hey Snottmonster

Thanks for the headsup

I was wondering if you could spare a few minutes and wouldn't mind writing a step by step installation guide for us ReadyNAS owners who are less technically versed in the world of Linux please?

I'm really not sure how to go ahead getting it on there and then configuring it so Plex sees it as the server instead of my Mac mini....although I could always switch it off to make sure it can't be discovered!

I would be extremely grateful!

Thanks

[Snottmonster]

Installation & running Plex is currently a very manual process. I'm sure either the Plex Devs or the ReadyNAS Community Devs will build an installer - it's not a complex install.

Here's how to do it in the mean time. Note that you must have root SSH access to your NAS:

1. Create a new share for the plex install (I'll assume you will call it "plex") but do not enable AFP access to prevent hitting the above issue
2. Download the Plex package to the share
3. SSH into your NAS
4. Change to the Plex share directory: "cd /c/plex"
5. Decompress the package: "bzip2 -d <downloaded_package>.bz2"

Note - if you do not have bzip2 installed (I don't know if it is a standard package - I may have installed it previously) you can obtain it with the command

"apt-get install bzip2"

6. Extract the application from the resulting .tar file: "tar xvf <downloaded_package>.tar

Note - steps 5 & 6 are the ones to avoid doing on your mac per my original post

7. Change into the directory just created: "cd Plex*"
8. Run the start script: "nohup ./start.sh &"
9. Plex should then be accessible at "http://<nas_ip_address>:32400/manage"

FYI I'm running the latest 4.2.17 firmware from Netgear. I had no dependencies issues and no errors with the exception of what I posted originally (above)

Streaming to Mac client is working perfectly. iOS works, but is not so great - but that is due to the performance of my NAS and the transcoding maxing out the processor - I need to upgrade

[WhoCares?]

I guess this problem will disappear when the ReadyNAS version is packaged with the installer SDK rather than as a tar archive.

Working on that thanks to your kind pointing me here First version should be ready in a couple of hours, hopefully.

[mkopel]

@whoCares? Let us know when that plugin is ready. I can't wait to try it out!

[mkopel]

Streaming to Mac client is working perfectly. iOS works, but is not so great - but that is due to the performance of my NAS and the transcoding maxing out the processor - I need to upgrade

Darn, I was afraid of that. Looks like Pro 6, here I come.

[Snottmonster]

Darn, I was afraid of that. Looks like Pro 6, here I come.

Yeah - me too

Long time, no hear buddy - hope all is well

-- sphardy ---

[WhoCares?]

Hi folks,

the add-on is ready and available here: PlexNineServer_0.9.2.8-34880ac-rnx86-0.1.5.bin

Before installing please note that this is really, really beta. When building the add-on I noticed some bugs that are "brutally" fixed in this release. The most serious one is that all the "libavahi*" stuff seems to be linked against libssp.so.0 which is NOT available on the ReadyNAS per default. Thus I choose to DELETE these parts of the original package on installation an use the libavahi stuff provided by Netgear. This may or may not cause problems and I'd really love to get feedback on that.

Another issue that is not fixed is that all the libraries shipping with the original archive aren't stripped. This isn't a real problem but not stripping the libs causes some bloat and thus uses more space on the limited boot partition of the ReadyNAS than necessary.

Also, to simplify calling conventions, I introduced a symlink "plexserver" linking to the original file "Plex\ Media\ Server". I really do not think that using names with spaces on a Linux based platform is a good idea. It makes scripting a PITA

For those of you who followed Snottmonster's guide please note that the add-on will use /c/.plex as its installation directory instead of /c/plex as given in his instructions. This is to prevent the more or less automatic addition of the "plex" share which would occur if your installed the add-on and somehow restarted the ReadyNAS. If the target directory doesn't start with a dot, a share with public access would be automatically created for you. I thought that may not be what you'd want.

From my preliminary testing, you should be able to start and stop Plex Media Server from within FrontView's add-on section. The add-on should work with RAIDiator 4.2.15, 4.2.16 and 4.2.17 - if you encounter any problems please let me know.

Since most of the stuff is compiled already I wasn't able to add any optimizations specific to the ReadyNAS. I would love to do so, so if anyone of the Plex team wants to contact me about that, feel free - you've got my email address

Having said the above, I hope you have fun with the release and that it is working for you. If not, please let me know. I haven't yet fully configured the forums account here, so if I don't reply in a resonable amount of time please bug Snottmonster to ping me (yeah SM, you are allowed to hate me for this ;-))

-Stefan

[WhoCares?]

Darn, I was afraid of that. Looks like Pro 6, here I come.

I think I would be able to tweak the ffmpeg stuff if I'd know the original compiler settings used for the ffmpeg included with the Plex Media Server.

-Stefan

[Snottmonster]

(yeah SM, you are allowed to hate me for this ;-))

*NO* problem - Have installed the addon and it's scanning...

My OSX client is auto-detecting the server as normal and I can stream video without issue, so it appears the avahi mods have not adversely impacted anything.

Will do some more thorough testing over the next few days

Thanks Stefan

[David Parry]

Streaming to Mac client is working perfectly. iOS works, but is not so great - but that is due to the performance of my NAS and the transcoding maxing out the processor - I need to upgrade

I've got the ReadyNAS Pro Business and the transcoding performance on 1080p BD rips is pretty average, buffering constantly. Performance of the Pro 6 might be better given to the updated processor but it still might not be up to scratch for that task.

Also, I've found that streaming to my Mac Mini (2.66 GHz 8GB RAM) for the same movies seems fine until I start trying to skip between chapters. The skipping chapters seems to pause for anything from 5-10 secs, while the same movies (still streamed from my NAS) on the local media server skip instantly.

Here's a screencam of what I am seeing...
http://www.smugmug.com/photos/i-R6VC54g/0/960/i-R6VC54g-960.mp4

[Derk]

Hi folks,

the add-on is ready and available here: PlexNineServer_0.9.2.8-34880ac-rnx86-0.1.5.bin

Before installing please note that this is really, really beta. When building the add-on I noticed some bugs that are "brutally" fixed in this release. The most serious one is that all the "libavahi*" stuff seems to be linked against libssp.so.0 which is NOT available on the ReadyNAS per default. Thus I choose to DELETE these parts of the original package on installation an use the libavahi stuff provided by Netgear. This may or may not cause problems and I'd really love to get feedback on that.

Another issue that is not fixed is that all the libraries shipping with the original archive aren't stripped. This isn't a real problem but not stripping the libs causes some bloat and thus uses more space on the limited boot partition of the ReadyNAS than necessary.

Also, to simplify calling conventions, I introduced a symlink "plexserver" linking to the original file "Plex\ Media\ Server". I really do not think that using names with spaces on a Linux based platform is a good idea. It makes scripting a PITA

For those of you who followed Snottmonster's guide please note that the add-on will use /c/.plex as its installation directory instead of /c/plex as given in his instructions. This is to prevent the more or less automatic addition of the "plex" share which would occur if your installed the add-on and somehow restarted the ReadyNAS. If the target directory doesn't start with a dot, a share with public access would be automatically created for you. I thought that may not be what you'd want.

From my preliminary testing, you should be able to start and stop Plex Media Server from within FrontView's add-on section. The add-on should work with RAIDiator 4.2.15, 4.2.16 and 4.2.17 - if you encounter any problems please let me know.

Since most of the stuff is compiled already I wasn't able to add any optimizations specific to the ReadyNAS. I would love to do so, so if anyone of the Plex team wants to contact me about that, feel free - you've got my email address

Having said the above, I hope you have fun with the release and that it is working for you. If not, please let me know. I haven't yet fully configured the forums account here, so if I don't reply in a resonable amount of time please bug Snottmonster to ping me (yeah SM, you are allowed to hate me for this ;-))

-Stefan

Thanks for the work!

I doesn't work for me I try to install the addon on my:
Model ReadyNAS NV+ [X-RAID]
Firmware: RAIDiator 4.1.7 [1.00a043]
Memory: 1024 MB [2.5-3-3-7]

See attachment for the error. In English it says something like: Invalid checksum is detected in the update file update aborted

Hope you have a sollution!?
Derk

Attached Files

•  Plex addon install on Netgear NV.jpg   126.24K   11 downloads

[Snottmonster]

Thanks for the work!

I doesn't work for me I try to install the addon on my:
Model ReadyNAS NV+ [X-RAID]
Firmware: RAIDiator 4.1.7 [1.00a043]
Memory: 1024 MB [2.5-3-3-7]

That's because Plex is only supported on x86 based NAS like the Pro and Ultra models, and not the sparc models such as NV+ & Duo. I would not expect this to change - ever

[WhoCares?]

That's because Plex is only supported on x86 based NAS like the Pro and Ultra models, and not the sparc models such as NV+ & Duo.

Yes, sorry, I guess I wasn't clear enough on that in the announcement. Attribute it to it's been really late when I wrote that.

-Stefan

[WhoCares?]

Updated to: PlexNineServer_0.9.2.8-34880ac-rnx86-0.1.6.bin

Changes:
Fixed the location of Plex Media Server's internal database so that it will be stored on the data volume instead of the ReadyNAS' system volume. Thanks to Snottmonster for reporting this issue.
On upgrading to this version existing data will be moved from /root/Library to /c/.plex/Library automatically. Please do not uninstall before upgrading since this may delete your existing media database.

[Derk]

That's because Plex is only supported on x86 based NAS like the Pro and Ultra models, and not the sparc models such as NV+ & Duo. I would not expect this to change - ever

:-( what a shame

[WhoCares?]

:-( what a shame

To be honest I wouldn't expect the 260/280MHz Sparc CPU in the Duo/NV+ to support any kind of realtime transcoding or streaming to multiple devices. So, if I had to make the decision, I wouldn't support this kind of hardware because I know in advance that the users will be disappointed by the end result.

-Stefan

[skro]

First off, this is really fantastic. Thanks!

2 questions.

I would appreciate comments regarding the ability of the processor to transcode high bit rate material (blu ray mkv). I think the readynas line tops out at a 1.8 ghz dual core atom right now, I wonder if that is sufficient.

Also, I'm planning on getting a NAS ( was leaning toward synology, but now I may go with the netgear if this doesn't get ported over) and I was wondering how this version of pms handles aperture/iPhoto libraries? Since a lot of people probably back up their iphoto/aperture libraries on a NAS, can the Linux psm see these library backups and read them like the Mac version?

[Derk]

To be honest I wouldn't expect the 260/280MHz Sparc CPU in the Duo/NV+ to support any kind of realtime transcoding or streaming to multiple devices. So, if I had to make the decision, I wouldn't support this kind of hardware because I know in advance that the users will be disappointed by the end result.

-Stefan

[bigbearf]

So far so good.
Installed on RNPP with good results so far. I am streaming to an ATV2 jailbroken with Plex client.
bigbearf