Quicksync/nvenc use in Plex - OK?

[LimeCrusher]

@LimeCrusher Even with the Plex version that supports it, it still won't work on FreeNAS

Pardon my total newbism but why so exactly? Is it because FreeNAS itself does not support Intel Quick Sync yet?
I don't know what is the exact relation between the Plex FreeNAS plugin and the Plex Media Server for FreeBSD. I would expect the former to be a partial rework of the latter for FreeNAS compatibility?

However 11.2-u1 has added gpu drivers as well the ability to pass those devices to an iocage jail. So we have to wait till then.
The ticket description directly references that these features will work for the Plex plugin.

Indeed, that version is due for late January 2019. We're only talking support for CPU-embedded GPU here right? Not an extra external GPU plugged on a PCIe port of the motherboard?

 

[gt2416]

An embedded gpu still needs dedicated gpu drivers. Without them you wont get gpu hardware acceleration and Intel features like Quicksync. Windows 10 does a great job at hiding this process as it installs both cpu and gfx drivers automatically even if you switch hardware.

 

[Kennyvb8]

Apparently in the new release they added Plex media server plugin with the ability to use GPU as accelerator according to the release notes. Someone test it ?

 

[Kennyvb8]

Also Plex released a version that supports it on freebsd

 

[Kennyvb8]

Plugins release

 

[LimeCrusher]

Apparently in the new release they added Plex media server plugin with the ability to use GPU as accelerator according to the release notes. Someone test it ?

Great news! It seems like this is moving in the right direction. What about GPU drivers though ?
Can't wait to know if this works. Maybe @CraigD can solve this question.

 

[file_haver]

Please let me know how i can test if plex is making use of the iGPU in my intel i5 4th gen chip.
I also have a spare RX 580 8gb i can install into my freenas server for testing.

 

[LimeCrusher]

Please let me know how i can test if plex is making use of the iGPU in my intel i5 4th gen chip.
I also have a spare RX 580 8gb i can install into my freenas server for testing.

Hey, if you want to test, you should follow the guidelines available on the Plex website: Using Hardware-accelerated Streaming. You'll need a Plex pass though. You can probably get a trial one just to try.
Remember that you have to update your FreeNAS to version 11.2 though! You need to update your Plex plugin to the latest version as well.

 

[PnoT]

So does anyone know how to get this to work yet with a P2000 card installed? I've installed the latest plugin, that supposedly supports hardware acceleration, but no dice. Wouldn't you have to install the latest drivers for Nvidia as well to enable the features? Do those get installed in the jail? What does the plugin mean by they've enabled the acceleration actually mean... what was done and how do you use it.

 

[LimeCrusher]

So does anyone know how to get this to work yet with a P2000 card installed? I've installed the latest plugin, that supposedly supports hardware acceleration, but no dice. Wouldn't you have to install the latest drivers for Nvidia as well to enable the features? Do those get installed in the jail? What does the plugin mean by they've enabled the acceleration actually mean... what was done and how do you use it.

From Using Hardware-accelerated Streaming, the hardware acceleration is using the Intel Quick Sync technology. We are talking about the GPU embedded in recent Intel CPUs, not an external GPU.

 

[PnoT]

I'd seen "Hardware Acceleration" enabled so instantly thought it was across the board but if it's only iGPU then I'll stop trying to get it to work.

 

[gt2416]

I really dont get whats here to test.... the link I posted previously addresses this thread COMPLETELY from the freenas devs, NOT ME !!!!!
To make this possible, the request has like 5 other changes to make plex with hardware encoding work. One of them was ADD GPU DRIVERS FOR INTEL NVIDIA from the FreeNAS kernal to FreeBSD.
Theres nothing to test. IT WON'T WORK STOCK.

Yes, FreeBSD Plex has hardware transcode, Ill repeat this to make it clear, PLEX FreeBSD does support hw transcoding so FUUCKING install it on FreeBSD which HAS the drivers.

FreeNAS != FreeBSD, it uses a cut down version for most efficient use. Even iocage isnt the upto date iocage version, FreeNAS has a separate branch from iocage to control how its implemented and makes sense for this product.
FreeNAS WONT have the drivers till 11.2 -U1. Stop wasting your time lol. And yes if you could get it to work, its a waste of time.
You could try to use custom kernal load mods but thats not really natively supported for this use case, which IT WILL BE.

Install windows 7 and try to go to youtube with an Integrated gpu which APPARENTLY doesn't need any "EXTRA" drivers and see what happens. Your cpu will be transcoding not your igpu.

READ https://redmine.ixsystems.com/issues/33399

That ticket literally has the same topic as this one. If you want answers from the devs then read.

 

[LimeCrusher]

I really don't get whats here to test.... the link I posted previously addresses this thread COMPLETELY from the freenas devs, NOT ME !!!!!
To make this possible, the request has like 5 other changes to make plex with hardware encoding work. One of them was ADD GPU DRIVERS FOR INTEL NVIDIA from the FreeNAS kernal to FreeBSD.
Theres nothing to test. IT WON'T WORK STOCK.

Yes, FreeBSD Plex has hardware transcode, Ill repeat this to make it clear, PLEX FreeBSD does support hw transcoding so FUUCKING install it on FreeBSD which HAS the drivers.

FreeNAS != FreeBSD, it uses a cut down version for most efficient use. Even iocage isnt the upto date iocage version, FreeNAS has a separate branch from iocage to control how its implemented and makes sense for this product.
FreeNAS won't have the drivers till 11.2 -U1. Stop wasting your time lol. And yes if you could get it to work, its a waste of time.
You could try to use custom kernal load mods but thats not really natively supported for this use case, which IT WILL BE.

Install windows 7 and try to go to youtube with an Integrated gpu which APPARENTLY doesn't need any "EXTRA" drivers and see what happens. Your cpu will be transcoding not your igpu.

READ https://redmine.ixsystems.com/issues/33399

That ticket literally has the same topic as this one. If you want answers from the devs then read.

Oops! My bad! I think I got confused with the FreeNAS 11.2 blog post and read "iGPU with Quick Sync" where it only says "GPU". I am a little lost here, does the FreeNAS 11.2 Plex plugin support hardware transcoding with GPU, but the NVIDIA/AMD drivers are missing as you mentioned?
I am aware that issue 33399 is targeted at 11.2-U1 that still has about 50 days of development left but in all honesty the blog post got me totally confused here.

 

[gt2416]

Your exactly right, FreeNAS itself does not have the gpu drivers including the Intel ones.
Also the FreeNAS Plex plugin DOES NOT support hw transcode.
However you can spin up a manual jail and install the latest version of Plex FreeBSD which does have hw transcode. (I use this latest version), but due to lack of drivers and device pass through, hw transcode wont work.
The plugin is like 3 versions behind at this point or more. So you have to install it manually.

Remember at this point, when you create a iocage plugin / jail, it does not have access to your gpu device, either igpu or external, even with drivers.
There are ways to custom load the kernels but in my case I tried and failed.
I wanted to make a jail with a Gnome gui that I can quickly log into to use. However lack of gfx drivers absolutely killed that project for me. Its the same for Plex, we need the drivers first.
Im not sure what that post it trying to say, but maybe they are advertising future features.
Even in beta, on their website they advertised 11.2 as stable, virtualization ready which was SOOO misleading considering ZERO plugins worked at that point. Not to mention, the ethics of advertising a beta as stable is just EEEEK

 

[LimeCrusher]

However you can spin up a manual jail and install the latest version of Plex FreeBSD which does have hw transcode. (I use this latest version), but due to lack of drivers and device pass through, hw transcode won't work.

Ok, this makes sense to me.

Remember at this point, when you create a iocage plugin / jail, it does not have access to your gpu device, either igpu or external, even with drivers.

I don't understand this point. I apologize for my newbiness but I thought an iocage plugin / jail had complete access to the hardware. So if the drivers were present, that iocage jail / plugin should be able to exploit the GPU. Am I misled here?

 

[gt2416]

I don't understand this point. I apologize for my newbiness but I thought an iocage plugin / jail had complete access to the hardware. So if the drivers were present, that iocage jail / plugin should be able to exploit the GPU. Am I misled here?

Its not passed through by default. If you have the drivers and change the setting to load your gpu it will work.

 

[pantera]

According to https://redmine.ixsystems.com/issues/33399 the drivers for intel quicksync are added and it is probably possible to enable hardware passthrough for Intel graphics enabled systems.

Wonder if it is possible to manually install nvenc drivers and use the same methodology to pass through that?

 

[bhadreshl]

Has anyone been able to get this working with dedicated NVIDIA gpu drivers being passed through?

 

[Yorick]

Has anyone been able to get this working with dedicated NVIDIA gpu drivers being passed through?

Plex itself does not support NVIDIA acceleration on FreeBSD. Even if you can pass the drivers through to the jail, Plex would still have to make use of the drivers, and it won’t.

Your best bet for using NVIDIA hw transcode is to see how the FreeNAS on Linux work in 2020 is shaping up.

 

[Saberwolf]

yes i am currently running nightly the only things you need to get Nvidia GPU hardware acceleration work is running 4 commands

apt update && apt install nvidia-cuda-dev nvidia-cuda-toolkit && [ ! -f /dev/nvidia-uvm ] && /usr/bin/nvidia-modprobe -c0 -u

midclt call -job chart.release.update 'plex' '{"values":{"gpuConfiguration": {"nvidia.com/gpu": 1}}}'

midclt call -job chart.release.update 'plex' '{"values":{"extraEnv": {"NVIDIA_DRIVER_CAPABILITIES": "all"}}}'

midclt call -job chart.release.redeploy 'plex'

we are making the assumption that you named your app plex if not change any where you see plex to your name of app

the first command installs missing cuda drivers and toolkit
the second line updates app to support gpu
the thrid line updates plex to add env varible
the forth line redeploys plex app all with out restarting server