What is Plex?

Plex is a media server you can use to stream music, photos, and video to any device on your network or the Internet.

Why?

• Private Netflix server and Internet radio
• You don't know what it is? Plex does.

What You Will Need

1. An old or cheap computer - even a $35 Raspberry Pi will do!
2. Linux install media - this tutorial uses the Ubuntu distribution
3. An Internet connection

Post Ubuntu/Linux Installation

Install SSH

Let's install SSH to send commands to our server!

apt install openssh-server

Going Headless

The server can now be detached from a monitor and all input devices.

As long as it's connected to a network, we're good to go!

Install an SSH Client

On your primary computing device, install an SSH client. Linux or Mac users should have one built in.

Post-SSH Client Setup

User Setup

Let's setup a user that will be used to manage the server day-to-day that isn't root.

adduser {{username}}

Granting Administrative Privileges

We still want to be able to install software, updates, and modify our system. To do this, we need to add the user to the sudo group.

usermod -aG sudo {{username}}

Test the New User Account

Disconnect as root and make sure the new account works as expected. In fact, let's check for updates!

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Note that system commands that can alter the system must now be preceeded with "sudo".

Disable Remote Root Access

sudo sed -i "/^PermitRootLogin/c\PermitRootLogin no" /etc/ssh/sshd_config

sudo service ssh reload

Install Samba

sudo apt-get install samba

Add Network Shares

sudo mkdir -p /plex/Videos/Movies
sudo chown -R nobody:nogroup /plex
sudo chmod -R 777 /plex
sudo net usershare add Movies /plex/Videos/Movies "Plex Movies" everyone:F
guest_ok=y

sudo net usershare info --long Movies > /var/lib/samba/usershares/movies

Install Git

sudo apt-get install git

Clone the Plex Update Script

sudo git clone https://github.com/mrworf/plexupdate.git /opt/plexupdate

Why /opt? /opt is for unbundled software not provided by a package manager.

Symlinking into the Path

sudo ln -s /opt/plexupdate/plexupdate.sh /usr/local/bin/plexupdate

Install Plex

sudo plexupdate -p -a

Accessing Plex

Open a web browser on your primary computing device and access your Plex server at the specified URL.

http://{{servername}}:32400/web/index.html

Why Do I Need an Account?

Plex offers an account to make a few features easier.

• Sharing media with a set list of friends
• Accessing media through Plex's hosted service located at https://app.plex.tv/web/app

Plex Collections

Collections are how Plex knows how to organize media. Prominant collections include:

• Movies
• TV Shows
• Music
• Photos

Plex Cloud Sync

Buried in the plex.tv account settings...

With Amazon's Blessing?

Plex recently announced a partnership with Amazon to enable media syncing through the Plex interface for Plex Pass users.