Background of the project
This is a strange project. An on-going ubuntu experiment and learning experience for me.
I want to create a portable Plex Media Server on an External SSD running ubuntu.
Firstly – I must emphasise that my ubuntu / linux knowledge is very minimal. I am trying to self learn. I have zero background in IT or networking. My background is in Finance, so there you go.
Why am I doing this project?
- I want to have a Plex Media Server without depending on Internet access with me when I travel. I don’t want to stream over the network from my home Plex Server. Don’t want to incur network charges; also on some occasions I find internet access when travelling either bad or non existent. Hence, the portable Plex Media Server.
- Why ubuntu? I am a ubuntu amateur, and I just want to further my knowledge on ubuntu. I can use Windows (which I use at work) or MacOS (for personal home use), but I want a reason to use & learn ubuntu / linux – hence, using it for the Plex Media Server as a start.
- Why an external SSD bootable with ubuntu? Well, my travelling laptop will likely be a Windows machine (as I carry work with me). And when I want to switch off work, I want to boot into ubuntu.
My use case: is to have this portable Plex Media Server (on ubuntu) booted from external (2TB) SSD on my laptop (currently a Surface Pro 4), and to watch videos on the hotel room TV using a Google TV or Roku device connected to the TV via HDMI. For ease of this post, I will call the Plex Media Server on Ubuntu, booted from the external SSD as THE SERVER.
So what I need is to configure the to connect THE SERVER to the internet using the hotel WiFi, and at the same time provide an access point so that the Google TV device connects to THE SERVER in order to watch the plex videos.
I have already created a bootable ubuntu on external SSD. I have tested the surface pro 4 booting from the external SSD. And I can setup the Plex Server no problems. Edit: Except when I try this on a Lenovo laptop, the external USB SSD does not want to boot.
Creating a wireless access point from my WiFi connection
I am only unsure how to set up the WiFi AND create the access point at the same time.
I’ve searched the net for guides on how to do this, and the one that seems closest are the following:
How to use wifi & enable hotspot at the same time
https://linuxh2o.com/how-to-use-wifi-enable-hotspot-at-the-same-time/
I’ve managed to use the create_ap to create the access point from THE SERVER, however while the Google TV device can see the access point SSID, it cannot connect. So I am not sure what is the problem.
The question has been asked on ask ubuntu at stack exchange https://askubuntu.com/questions/1317825/connected-to-hotspot-using-create-ap-but-no-internet-connection-please-help
Another reference I came across – but yet to get it working is at https://askubuntu.com/questions/318973/how-do-i-create-a-wifi-hotspot-sharing-wireless-internet-connection-single-adap
Hotspot and Internet access together — why not? https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/84440/hotspot-and-internet-access-together-why-not
Alternatively, instead of an Ubuntu Plex Media Server – why not a WD My Passport Wireless device?
I’ve also tried another option of using a Plex media server on a WD My Passport Wireless device (Pro and SSD), but have a different sort of problem: https://forums.plex.tv/t/help-my-passport-wireless-pro-problems-merges-home-videos-between-2gb-4gb/679994 and cross posted to https://community.wd.com/t/help-mpwp-plex-home-video-problems-merges-videos-between-2gb-4gb/262242
The problems with the WD My Passport Wireless devices is Plex Media Server merges personal video files (ie. not Film nor TV shows) that are between 2GB and 4GB and, I think, larger than 5GB in size. I’ve had the same experience with the same sets of personal video files on the WDMPW Pro and SSD devices. So it seems something is wrong either with the WD devices or Plex.
It seems that mine is a rare problem which I cannot get any help from the WD and Plex forums / staff either. Looks like it is not something that will be fixed, so I plan to try another solution.
Final alternative – using the Windows laptop as the Plex Media Server, but with the video files all on external SSD storage
I am therefore considering of using a Windows laptop to run as a Plex Media Server. But the internal SSD storage may be limited, hence I intend to store all media files on an external USB SSD / HDD. The Plex libraries can be pointed to the external drives, and build metadata accordingly (thumbnails, film & tv details, viewing and rating scores etc).
My concern is what happens when I unplug the external drive? I may swap external drivers and plug the ones with the media back in again later. I will also do this whenever I move my laptop when travelling. How do I ensure that I don’t lose all those metadata?
The response I get as follows:
- Do not start Plex Media Server automatically when you boot/login to your server. Start it manually after re-attaching the external drive.
- When you re-attach the drive, make sure it is always the same drive letter.
If the drive letter changes, your libraries will point to the wrong location. You won’t see your media w/o rescanning, metadata will re-download, thumbnails will regenerate, etc. - In Settings → Library, disable the library scans and emptying trash automatically.
If you start PMS with the drive disconnected, you’ll see a trash can icon over all your media. This means Plex cannot find the media. If you then empty the trash, Plex will delete the media from the server database, delete metadata, play history, etc. - When you add media, perform a manual scan of the library to pick up the new additions.
Conclusion
So in my final conclusion, I think perhaps I just run the Plex Media Server on my Windows laptop when I am travelling. Store the video files on an external USB SSD and run the Plex Media Server only when the USB SSD is connected. The other following alternatives are too complicated to get right:
- I have difficulty getting to dual boot Ubuntu from an external USB SSD on a Lenovo Thinkpad Windows machine.
- Although I am able to boot Ubuntu from an external USB SSD, I cannot get the wireless access point from WiFi connection to work – with a caveat, I may try this again if I get the Ubuntu external SSD to work. I also bought a WiFi transmitter dongle to act as a transmitter, while the internal WiFi acts as a receiver.
- The ideal solution would have been the WD My Passport Wireless device, but due to the unsolvable problem of merging personal videos – I have to move on.
If you have anything to add or suggest, please leave them down in the comments below. Thanks for reading.
