XU4/HC1 [BIONIC] - plexmediaserver failed

vtr1000 · September 16, 2018

Hello, I'm looking for some support with installing plex media server on an Odroid HC1 running the non-desktop stable release of Armbian Bionic.

I first used armbian-config to select and install 'plex' but the service didn't start. I then removed the installed 'plexmediaserver-installer' and any created 'plexmediaserver' files/directories & reinstalled manually as shown below:

ahaslam@odroidxu4:~$ sudo apt update
Hit:1 http://ppa.launchpad.net/bitcoin/bitcoin/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Hit:2 http://ports.ubuntu.com bionic InRelease
Get:3 http://ports.ubuntu.com bionic-security InRelease [83.2 kB]
Get:4 http://ports.ubuntu.com bionic-updates InRelease [88.7 kB]
Hit:5 http://apt.armbian.com bionic InRelease
Hit:6 http://dev2day.de/pms stretch InRelease
Get:7 http://ports.ubuntu.com bionic-backports InRelease [74.6 kB]
Fetched 247 kB in 2s (145 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.
ahaslam@odroidxu4:~$ sudo apt install plexmediaserver-installer
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  plexmediaserver-installer
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/7658 B of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Selecting previously unselected package plexmediaserver-installer.
(Reading database ... 51400 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../plexmediaserver-installer_1.13.5.5332-21ab172de-1_armhf.deb ...
Unpacking plexmediaserver-installer (1.13.5.5332-21ab172de-1) ...
Setting up plexmediaserver-installer (1.13.5.5332-21ab172de-1) ...
Adding user plex to group video
Downloading readynas package ...
################################################################################################################# 100.0%
Passed checksum test.
Extracting readynas.deb ...
rm: cannot remove '/etc/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service.d/override.conf': No such file or directory
Synchronizing state of plexmediaserver.service with SysV service script with /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install.
Executing: /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install enable plexmediaserver
Job for plexmediaserver.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status plexmediaserver.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.
Processing triggers for systemd (237-3ubuntu10.3) ...

The service status was as follows:

ahaslam@odroidxu4:~$ sudo systemctl status plexmediaserver.service
● plexmediaserver.service - Plex Media Server for Linux
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sun 2018-09-16 10:17:40 BST; 23s ago
  Process: 2723 ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c /usr/bin/test -d "${PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR}" || /bin/mkdir -p

Sep 16 10:17:40 odroidxu4 systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
Sep 16 10:17:40 odroidxu4 systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 4.
Sep 16 10:17:40 odroidxu4 systemd[1]: Stopped Plex Media Server for Linux.
Sep 16 10:17:40 odroidxu4 systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Sep 16 10:17:40 odroidxu4 systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Sep 16 10:17:40 odroidxu4 systemd[1]: Failed to start Plex Media Server for Linux.

And the corresponding log made it quite obvious what was initially wrong:

ahaslam@odroidxu4:~$ sudo journalctl -xe | grep -i plex
Sep 16 09:56:39 odroidxu4 systemd-udevd[312]: link_config: autonegotiation is unset or enabled, the speed and duplex are not writable.
Sep 16 09:56:39 odroidxu4 systemd-udevd[314]: link_config: autonegotiation is unset or enabled, the speed and duplex are not writable.
Sep 16 09:56:49 odroidxu4 systemd-udevd[1199]: link_config: autonegotiation is unset or enabled, the speed and duplex are not writable.
Sep 16 10:16:48 odroidxu4 sudo[2283]:  ahaslam : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/home/ahaslam ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/apt install plexmediaserver-installer
Sep 16 10:16:51 odroidxu4 gpasswd[2317]: user plex added by root to group video
Sep 16 10:17:20 odroidxu4 systemd[1]: Starting Plex Media Server for Linux...
-- Subject: Unit plexmediaserver.service has begun start-up
-- Unit plexmediaserver.service has begun starting up.
Sep 16 10:17:20 odroidxu4 sh[2685]: /bin/mkdir: cannot create directory '/var/lib/plexmediaserver': Permission denied
Sep 16 10:17:20 odroidxu4 systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=1
Sep 16 10:17:20 odroidxu4 systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Sep 16 10:17:20 odroidxu4 systemd[1]: Failed to start Plex Media Server for Linux.

To address the permissions issue:

ahaslam@odroidxu4:~$ sudo mkdir /var/lib/plexmediaserver
ahaslam@odroidxu4:~$ sudo chown -R plex /var/lib/plexmediaserver
ahaslam@odroidxu4:~$ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/lib/plexmediaserver

Now the service status shows:

● plexmediaserver.service - Plex Media Server for Linux
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sun 2018-09-16 10:59:33 BST; 50min ago
  Process: 1317 ExecStart=/bin/sh -c LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/plexmediaserver "/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Media Server" (code=exited, status=134)
  Process: 1315 ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c /usr/bin/test -d "${PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR}" || /bin/mkdir -p "${PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR}" (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 1317 (code=exited, status=134)

Sep 16 10:59:33 odroidxu4 systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
Sep 16 10:59:33 odroidxu4 systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 3.
Sep 16 10:59:33 odroidxu4 systemd[1]: Stopped Plex Media Server for Linux.
Sep 16 10:59:33 odroidxu4 systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Sep 16 10:59:33 odroidxu4 systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Sep 16 10:59:33 odroidxu4 systemd[1]: Failed to start Plex Media Server for Linux.

And the log shows:

ahaslam@odroidxu4:~$ sudo journalctl -xe | grep -i plex
Sep 16 10:59:03 odroidxu4 systemd-udevd[336]: link_config: autonegotiation is unset or enabled, the speed and duplex are not writable.
Sep 16 10:59:03 odroidxu4 systemd-udevd[322]: link_config: autonegotiation is unset or enabled, the speed and duplex are not writable.
Sep 16 10:59:14 odroidxu4 systemd[1]: Starting Plex Media Server for Linux...
-- Subject: Unit plexmediaserver.service has begun start-up
-- Unit plexmediaserver.service has begun starting up.
Sep 16 10:59:14 odroidxu4 systemd[1]: Started Plex Media Server for Linux.
-- Subject: Unit plexmediaserver.service has finished start-up
-- Unit plexmediaserver.service has finished starting up.
Sep 16 10:59:15 odroidxu4 systemd-udevd[1204]: link_config: autonegotiation is unset or enabled, the speed and duplex are not writable.
Sep 16 10:59:17 odroidxu4 systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=134/n/a
Sep 16 10:59:17 odroidxu4 systemd[1]: plexmediaserver.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

I have no idea what an exit code of 134 means, but I have found that my problem would not appear unique: https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-server-wont-start-after-server-update/304604

While I have also posted in that thread, I am not certain that it is necessarily a Plex issue, as the same version is running without issue on my Raspberry Pi running Raspbian Jessie.

Any input would be greatly appreciated. I am hoping to replace my Raspberry Pi with the Odroid HC1 and this is the last thing in my way.

Edited September 16, 2018 by vtr1000

Igor · September 16, 2018

3 hours ago, vtr1000 said:

as the same version is running without issue on my Raspberry Pi running Raspbian Jessie.

You are most likely facing the problem that Plexmedia server just doesn't work (properly) on Ubuntu which means you should stick to our Debian version. That is the main reason why we provide both of them and not just one. We have the same case with OpenMediaVaoul which also works only with Debian userspace and not with Ubuntu. There are more cases out there.

vtr1000 · September 16, 2018

Thank you Igor. I tested it out on a spare SD card and I can confirm that Plex works on the Debian version.

I can also confirm that upgrading udev to version 237 (backports) replicates the 'link_config' errors displayed above but does not affect the functioning of Plex...