Sets up an on-router plex media server instance
HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS: an ARMv7 or ARMv8 device with a beefy CPU (quad-core is probably preferable), a USB port (preferably usb3+) and external hard drive (to hold the plex library) and at least 120 MB of free RAM that can be dedicated to plex media server.
SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS: the ability to unzip *.zip files, the ability to both create and mount XZ-compressed SquashFS filesystems, and the ability to mount the external hard drive.
IMPORTANT NOTE: At minimum, you will need the following openwrt packages (plus their dependencies): kmod-fs-squashfs squashfs-tools-mksquashfs kmod-usb-core kmod-usb-storage
You may need additional packages as well, depending on your specific setup (e.g., the driver to run the usb port, the ntfs-3g driver if the external drive is ntfs, etc.)
COMPATIBLE DEVICES: This should work on any sufficiently powerful armv7 or armv8 device that meets the above requirements, but has only been tested on a Netgear R9000 (ARMv7) and a dynalink dl-wrx36 (ARMv8).
The dynalink dl-wrx36 (quad core cortex-a53 @ 2.2GHz + 1gb RAM + 1x usb3 port) is probably the least expensive device ($80 at the time of writing) that can run a plex media server instance fairly well.
NOTE: Everything works well except video transcoding...transcoding any video at 720p or higher resolution is going to studder with an ARM CPU. I highly recommend turning off video transcoding altogether in the plex media player settings.
I have updated the plexmediaserver init script to be better at automatically finding the external drive holding the plex library and to auto-start with the built in service enable plexmediaserver.
To get plex up and running, all that is required is:
# Mount the drive you want the plex library stored on (prefferably somewhhere under /mnt)
mkdir -p /mnt/$MOUNTPOINT
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/$MOUNTPOINT
# create .plex/Library dir (the script looks for this to automatically figure out where the plex media server library is)
mkdir -p /mnt/$MOUNTPOINT/.plex/Library
# enable and start service to start plex and to auto-start on future boots
service plexmediaserver enable
service plexmediaserver start
NOTE on mountpoint selection: By default, if there is only a single directory under /mnt (e.g., /mnt/MY_DRIVE) then plex will use that as the mount point. If this condition is not met it will default to mounting it at /mnt/plex. You can specify an arbitrary mountpoint by setting the following UCI config parameter plex_drive_mnt. e.g., run
uci set plexmediaserver.@main[0].plex_drive_mnt=/mnt/MY_DRIVE
uci commit plexmediaserver
NOTE on block device selection: if you have multiple /dev/sd__ drives that have a .plex/Library dir, then the 1st one found is used. Set the UCI config parameter plex_drive_dev to override this. e.g.,
uci set plexmediaserver.@main[0].plex_drive_dev=/dev/sda2
uci commit plexmediaserver
If you have an older version of the plexmediaserver init script and want to update to this new version, you can do so by running
curl 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jkool702/openwrt-plexmediaserver/main/etc/init.d/plexmediaserver' >/etc/init.d/plexmediaserver
chmod +x /etc/init.d/plexmediaserver
service plexmediaserver enable
service plexmediaserver start
When you run service plexmediaserver update, it:
- downloads an [ARMv7|ARMv8] NAS plexmediaserver package (specifically the ASUSTOR one)
- unpacks it (in the
.plex/library/Applicationdirectory on the external hard drive) - creates an xz-compressed squashfs image of the unpacked plexmediaserver package
this squashfs image will be stored on the external drive at .plex/Library/Application/plexmediaserver.sqfs
When you run service plexmediaserver start, it:
- copies the
plexmediaserver.sqfsimage to/tmp/plexmediaserver/plexmediaserver.sqfs - mounts the squashfs image to
/tmp/plexmediaserver(which hides it from the rest of the system under the squashfs mount) - sets up required environment variables and forks a process that runs the plexmediaserver binary in the background
using an in-memory squashfs-image keeps the server responsive (since its binaries/libraries are all on a ramdisk, not the external drive) without taking up too much memory (since it is all xz-compressed). Memory usage is around 100-120mb or so, which uses up, 10-12% of the WRX36's 1gb of RAM.
It all works quite well, provided you turn off video transcoding in the plex settings. On my WRX36 I was streaming a HDR HEVC-encoded 4k movie to a plex app on a 4k apple TV with audio being transcoded (but not video) and had 0 dropped frames. If you need to transcode video the experience will be quite choppy on anything 720p or higher resolution....the a53 just doesnt have the processing power for realtime video transcoding.
note: turning off the "automatically adjust quality" option in plex seemed to improve quality and performance by a good amount.
An install script (install_plex.sh) is in the top level repo directory. This will setup and install plex media server (via an init.d service) and will add something to something to /etc/rc.local to start plex on boot can be found HERE
IMPORTANT NOTES:
- the install script requires
curl - if the external drive is NTFS and you are using the ntfs-3g driver, the mount command that the script adds to /etc/rc.local might not work. You may need to manually change
mount /dev/sdaN ______tontfs-3g /dev/sdaN _______
The easiest way to set everything up is probably to run the following on your Router:
curl 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jkool702/openwrt-plexmediaserver/main/OLD/install_plex.sh' >/tmp/install_plex.sh
chmod +x /tmp/install_plex.sh
/tmp/install_plex.sh <PLEX_DEV> <PLEX_MNT>
Replace <PLEX_DEV> and <PLEX_MNT> with the block device and mountpoint you will be using. e.g. it should look something like
/tmp/install_plex.sh /dev/sda2 /mnt/plex
After install, you can access plex from a plex media player app or from a web browser by going to ${ROUTER_IP}:32400/web (e.g., 192.168.1.1:32400/web)