(Tutorial) How To Install Plex in a FreeNAS 11.2 Jail

[nightshade00013]

Using the pkg version will give you a newer version of the Plex Media Server sooner than the plugin will. The plugin relies on someone else to create the plugin jail and upload it so that an update is available. The pkg version will also have other software that may be needed that is updated a little more often.

The caveats of using the pkg system is that YOU have to run the upgrades and there are no reminders out there to say "Hey, a new version is out there so update" like the plugin system does.

As far as the two different versions in the pkg system, from what I can tell the plexmediaserver-plexpass version is slightly newer than the plexmediaserver version by a small increment. Both will allow you to sign in with a plexpass though so it's not that big of a deal.

To upgrade from one to the other you may as well plan on just creating a new jail. Once the new jail is created setup the storage and then either go through the setup process again or import your settings from the other jail (export to a shared point and then import to the new jail) I am pretty sure each one installs into a slightly different directory so you would have a pain trying to install one over top of the other and setting up the jail is too simple to warrant trying an in place upgrade from one to the other IMHO.

You could theoretically use the pkg system to update the plugin jail but it's probably not the greatest idea and at some point will likely show an upgrade being available to you when you actually have a newer version than what is available to the plugin.

 

[dedeaux]

Using the pkg version will give you a newer version of the Plex Media Server sooner than the plugin will. The plugin relies on someone else to create the plugin jail and upload it so that an update is available. The pkg version will also have other software that may be needed that is updated a little more often.

The caveats of using the pkg system is that YOU have to run the upgrades and there are no reminders out there to say "Hey, a new version is out there so update" like the plugin system does.

As far as the two different versions in the pkg system, from what I can tell the plexmediaserver-plexpass version is slightly newer than the plexmediaserver version by a small increment. Both will allow you to sign in with a plexpass though so it's not that big of a deal.

To upgrade from one to the other you may as well plan on just creating a new jail. Once the new jail is created setup the storage and then either go through the setup process again or import your settings from the other jail (export to a shared point and then import to the new jail) I am pretty sure each one installs into a slightly different directory so you would have a pain trying to install one over top of the other and setting up the jail is too simple to warrant trying an in place upgrade from one to the other IMHO.

You could theoretically use the pkg system to update the plugin jail but it's probably not the greatest idea and at some point will likely show an upgrade being available to you when you actually have a newer version than what is available to the plugin.

Thanks for the response. I was suspecting that there likely was just the difference of newer versions of the server being available via plexpass pkg, but wanted to be sure. I just got my system up and running, and may consider just redoing my Plex following this guide.

 

[ArgaWoW]

Hi,
I have installed plex on a jail according to the tutorial on the first page. But I have a problem. When I signed up on my account I can't fetch the Metadata for my movie files.
I have read something about this problem on the plex forum but I can't find a solution. Has anybody here the same problems ND can help to solve?

 

[dedeaux]

Was gonna post this in the How-To tutorial section but no privileges.


PlexPy Setup:

• Add PlexPy Jail (you can also install it within the PMS if you wish)
• Open the shell through plexpy.
• pkg install python2 databases/py-sqlite3 security/py-openssl security/ca_root_nss git
• cd /usr/local/share/
• git clone https://github.com/drzoidberg33/plexpy.git
• chmod 777 plexpy or to allow one user: chown -R user:group plexpy
• cd plexpy
• python2 PlexPy.py
• PlexPy will be loaded in your browser or listening @ http://localhost:8181
• To automate the PlexPy script just do this (in root directory):
  • cp /usr/local/share/plexpy/init-scripts/init.freenas /etc/rc.d/plexpy
  • chmod 777 /etc/rc.d/plexpy
    • edit /etc/rc.d/plexpy
      • edit the following line: ${plexpy_user:="username you would like it to run with"} I just used 'root'
  • edit /etc/rc.conf and add plexpy_enable="YES"
  • Restart the plexpy jail
  • service plexpy status start/stop/

Sorry if this is obvious, and I know you mention installing it alongside PMS... Who is running this in their Plex jail and who made a jail for it? Any caveats to running it within the existing plex jail?

 

[adrianwi]

I'm running PlexWatch, which is similar, in a seperate jail. I prefer to keep each jail running it's own task, which is a little wasteful in some cases but makes resolving issues easier and avoids screwing up anything else :D

 

[JJT211]

I just tried updating to the latest version (this is my second time updating via the package method, absolutely it is much faster and easier), it seemed to succeed. I had to acknowledge updating the package from (1.5.4 -> 1.6.1), or something**. But when I refreshed the Plex Server settings page, the server version is still showing up as V 0.9.12.12 instead of 0.9.12.13(.1464) that the freshports lists as the latest version. I've stopped/started/restarted the Plex service via shell numerous times with not fix.

Any ideas?

Thanks

I had the same exact prob with that version and gave up. I just gave it another whirl and it worked like a charm. It was prob something to do with the update itself

 

[diskdiddler]

Dumb question:

Does Plex for FreeNAS support Plugins?
https://github.com/trakt/Plex-Trakt-Scrobbler

 

[nightshade00013]

Dumb question:

Does Plex for FreeNAS support Plugins?
https://github.com/trakt/Plex-Trakt-Scrobbler

A FreeNAS Plex installation supports any plugins that another version will support. The only problem will be with permissions if the plugin wants to save files. You will how ever have to do the instal manually and place the plugin in the proper plugin folder.

 

[diskdiddler]

That's what I'm trying to figure out, how to load in the Trakt.TV plugin, first things first, locate the right plugin directory.

 

[nightshade00013]

If you're using a jail instead of the plugin it would be either

/usr/local/plexdata-plexpass/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins
or
/usr/local/plexdata/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins


Remember that when there are spaces in a directory you have to put things in "quotations"

 

[BossyBear]

I gave up on the plugin after 2 weeks of trying and more than my fair share of frustration. Installing the plugin was easy. Adding storage, easy. Scanning media, editing the database, easy. Signed the server into my plex.tv account, piece of cake.

The problem was it would work fine for a couple of days and then another day my Xbox 360 said "No Servers Found". Restarting the service/plugin/jail made no difference. Logging the Xbox 360 and the server out and back into my plex.tv account made no difference. Then it would start working again for a couple of days and then all over again. Same crap.

I was able to start dissecting the issue when Plex made their smart TV app free on my Vizio LCD TV. It behaved the same way as the Xbox 360 so that indicated that it wasn't the Xbox 360. The common thing here is the plugin.

I did a fresh install of Plexmediaserver on a Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Virtual Machine (the iSCSI block device for which are on the same FreeNAS) and mounted the same storage volumes, added media, and it's flawless on the Xbox 360 and the Vizio TV Smart App.

There is just something about the networking with this plugin that keeps the local discovery from working where the clients can't find the server (on the same subnet). I also had DLNA enabled in the plugin and it worked flawlessly failed throughout this ordeal.

Sum Ting Wong!

-ds

 

[diskdiddler]

Did you install the plugin or did you do the method outlined in this guide and install it 'properly' in it's own jail, manually?

 

[BossyBear]

Why have the plugin at all if you have to install manually?

I didn't install the jail first, I installed the plugin and it created the jail. I'll give it a try.

 

[BossyBear]

Going through the process... then...

Accessing Mounted Storage In Your Jail With Plex:
To add storage to your FreeNAS Jail, start by following this documentation: http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Adding_Jails#Adding_Storage

"Page Not Found"
Looking for FreeNAS documentation? Download the PDF of the Users Guide for your version of FreeNAS from doc.freenas.org.

Rather, I think it ought to refer here http://doc.freenas.org/9.3/freenas_jails.html?highlight=storage#add-storage

After adding storage through the GUI, I can see that /mnt shows the file systems owned by root with group of wheel.

drwxrwxrwx+ 6 root wheel 6 Oct 24 15:06 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 3 Nov 1 19:55 ..
drwxrwxrwx+ 11 root wheel 13 Aug 17 07:44 Misc
drwxrwxrwx+ 14 root wheel 14 Oct 24 22:48 Movies
drwxrwxrwx+ 4 root wheel 5 Oct 31 21:56 Other
drwxrwxrwx+ 46 root wheel 47 Oct 24 22:40 TV

So I skipped this step
pw groupadd Media -g 1001 && pw usermod plex -G Media

Plex is loading media and metadata and I'll try again.

 

[adrianwi]

Not directly related to the thread, but there is now a Plex client for the new Apple TV4 if anyone missed it, and very nice it is too! Needs 0.9.12.18 but that's available in the Ports - My PlexConnect jail is no longer required :D

 

[nightshade00013]

Not directly related to the thread, but there is now a Plex client for the new Apple TV4 if anyone missed it, and very nice it is too! Needs 0.9.12.18 but that's available in the Ports - My PlexConnect jail is no longer required :D

Something else also not directly related but will be of interest for those plex users out there. The LG, WebOS smart tv's now have access to the Plex App without a plexpass. I can confirm this with a 55UB8500-UA running version 05.00.20 of the OS.

 

[trey22]

Upgraded from 9.2.1.8 to 9.3 (that was an adventure having to use a source and destination for the install files compared to imaging a thumbdrive and booting directly).

Kept my current Plex plugin, created a new jail following this guide... done! Added storage, created my libraries, awesome. I can now delete my plugin and enjoy easy updating with this jail.

THANKS!

 

[R.G.]

Ran into something unexpected. When I tried to get the upgraded version of Plex, my server can't find

root@plex:/ # pkg update && pkg upgrade -y
Updating FreeBSD repository catalogue...
pkg: Repository FreeBSD has a wrong packagesite, need to re-create database
pkg: http://pkg.FreeBSD.org/freebsd:9:x86:64/latest/meta.txz: No address record
pkg: repository FreeBSD has no meta file, using default settings
pkg: http://pkg.FreeBSD.org/freebsd:9:x86:64/latest/packagesite.txz: No address record
pkg: Unable to update repository FreeBSD

A little thought (doh!) makes me think that I have successfully isolated the freenas machine containing this jail from the internet so it can't get to the freebsd package repositories at all.

Does that make sense?

If so, is there a manual patchup that I can use to go get the most updated plex package manually from a different machine and not connect the freenas machine to the net. I really don't want to undo and then re-do the isolation.

 

[nightshade00013]

Ran into something unexpected. When I tried to get the upgraded version of Plex, my server can't find

root@plex:/ # pkg update && pkg upgrade -y
Updating FreeBSD repository catalogue...
pkg: Repository FreeBSD has a wrong packagesite, need to re-create database
pkg: http://pkg.FreeBSD.org/freebsd:9:x86:64/latest/meta.txz: No address record
pkg: repository FreeBSD has no meta file, using default settings
pkg: http://pkg.FreeBSD.org/freebsd:9:x86:64/latest/packagesite.txz: No address record
pkg: Unable to update repository FreeBSD

A little thought (doh!) makes me think that I have successfully isolated the freenas machine containing this jail from the internet so it can't get to the freebsd package repositories at all.

Does that make sense?

If so, is there a manual patchup that I can use to go get the most updated plex package manually from a different machine and not connect the freenas machine to the net. I really don't want to undo and then re-do the isolation.

Try creating another jail and install it there. If that works it shouldn't be too hard to set plex up again and import everything. If it doesn't I would suspect something else is wrong with your config or hardware and start checking.

 

[trey22]

How do I delete my original Plex plugin? I first removed its storage then destroyed the dataset, but it still shows up under jails as "plexmediaserver_1". Do I have to manually delete that entry?