This is going to be a widely researched topic among the Plex community next year when a lot of older hardware lose Windows 10 updates next year and don't have official Windows 11 support.
I decided a couple years ago Win 10 would be my last Windows OS. I ended up switching about 6 months ago. I got tired of them trying to make me use their other products. I'd uninstall Edge and they would put it back. Removed Cortana from the task bar and it came back. They'd nag me about getting an MS online account. I had to install Windows offline to have a local account. I wanted an OS not an advertising platform. Linux hasn't been perfect but it's been worth it!
An N100 box like this running a lightweight Linux distro like Debian with Docker and Jellyfin, PiHole, etc., containers will be popular for home server users shortly.
Great video. That little NUC box is looking more and more attractive. I have a massive gaming PC running 24/7 for Plex and I probably only use it a couple of times a week. I am not sure how much power my PC is using at idle but I bet I could save some energy by switching to the smaller PC.
The N100 can't keep up trying to transcode DTS:X audio down to PCM. I've tried. Can't do it. It's not fast enough. The 4K video can direct stream, but the audio can't be transcoded fast enough.
@@cruiserusa Well...originally, I wanted to actually buy a trio of Mini PCs that had the Intel N305 processor in it, but at the time that I was looking to make the purchase, none were available. (Tried looking for the Minisforum UN305(C) and to no avail. The N100s were available, but didn't pass the $/(performance/Watt) metric, so that's how I ended up with a trio of OASLOA Mini PCs that has the N95 processor in it instead.)
Lon, did you install Ubuntu as a subsystem on a Windows 11 mini-PC (I think W11 comes installed on most mini-PCs)? Or did you wipe a previous (possibly Windows) install and start from scratch? I'm wondering because I don't know if the Plex Linux-based advantages still exist if it's built as a Windows subsystem, and I was hoping you could tell me if Plex still works better with Linux as a Windows subsystem or not.
I use NFS and mount the NAS, but SMB also works. You need to turn either protocol on in the Synology control panel anyway, I just use NFS because it worked long before SMB was a thing and it's native to Linux (and is a less chatty protocol). Either will work just fine. Just Google "NFS mount Ubuntu" or "SMB mount Ubuntu" and you can find some easy directions.
You would make a share on the synology (SMB or NFS) then mount it on the linux box. Test it out then add the mount to the /etc/fstab and point Plex libraries at that mount point.
This was a wonderful tutorial for a Linux noob like myself. Would you mind making a video explaining how to add Plex within Docker on Ubuntu since you mentioned that would be your preferred method?
I've got piles of DVDs from years past, a Synology, and some time. What do people use to copy DVDs they own to a file they can stream over Plex? There seems to be a lot of discussion of how many apps refuse to do anything due to copy protection. Some burn files but not to what can be read. I spent a lot of time making files then trying to convert them to a usable format mkv or whatever. Linux and Windows whatever works but most things I tried only did half what was needed.
@@Charles0511 I had tried MakeMKV but for some reason it wouldn't work I thought maybe copy protection issues? I tried again and it worked I used Emby instead of Plex. Video of the file looks skewed but seems OK when streamed to the TV.
Thanks Lon! I've been running a Plex DVR server on a ZimaBoard under Windows 10, without any problems so far. But, switching to Linux is appealing to me. So, now that I have some inspiration, I'm going to give it a shot. 😁
Great video I've been running Emby on Ubuntu LTS for a few years now. The main part of the configuration is creating mount points and setting permissions to connect back to my Windows file server. Eventaully I plan on moving everything over to Docker.
Loved that you covered this, thanks! The only other thing that would’ve been helpful for me would be instructions on how you got the computer to boot onto the other drive to install Linux.
I believe HDR tone mapping is now working for tigerlake and newer cpus (includes N100) on Windows 11. May want to do a video to test this. Would love to see!
I have Plex server running on a Ubuntu 22.04 LXC. The CPU is Ryzen 5900x and the GPU is Intel Arc A380. HDR Tone Mapping doesn't work for me. I installed Jellyfin on the same LXC and HDR tone mapping works fine. I think Plex has compatibility issues with Intel Arc cards maybe.
Could be the kernel drivers for i915/Arc. The newest TrueNas Scale is using 6.6.29 which has broken tone mapping. The bug is in the 6.6.26 to .30 and fixed with 6.6.31.
Thanx for the video. Took mee about 2 hours to get this going on Ubuntu 24. Worked well will just take a bit of getting used to . Streams OK to my TV via the Plex Android app via my Chromecast.
Thanks for this. I am going to have to move my 2 Plex servers to Linux due to them not being able to go to Windows 11. My 2 run perfectly on the Precision T1700's I have so I see no need to get new machines for 11, which I am not a fan of anyway. I will do my MakeMKV on my Mac Mini. I appreciate the walk-through.
Running plex direct on synology nas works better than using docker on top of synology. Now Ubuntu server docker and portainer works great also ! just my 2 cents ....
I have been running Plex Media Server on a Windows 10 with no problem. Erased the drive and installed Linux. As long as the media was attached to the USB ports it worked properly. But I have 2 different spinning drives on my PC which hold my data. I spent several days trying to resolve permission problems I gave up and loaded Windows 11 and of course it worked properly . I have been running various Linux flavors for many years but am not that proficient with making changes via the terminal.
Hi! Since Plex seems to break all feedback loops with their customers. You are my only hope to knock at them. There are two use cases they seem to ignore that would help them to succeed. First and most important. They needed to implement separation of transcoders from storage. That would introduce the concept of the Plex cluster. I've got a Shield Pro which is a superb transcoder, but poor storage and I've got a medium NAS that is superb storage but mediocre transcoder and Shield is not the best thing to have reliable WiFi connection. So most of my library is on NAS but I need to mount it to Shield to enjoy faster start and better quality but all that fails if Shield connection fails. And I have to have a separate library setup on NAS as fallback. This is an annoying setup. Plex should build the way to join libraries on different servers and ability to use transcoder of one server and storage of the other. Second feature is more straightforward. They introduced Home theater as a separate application but that application is lacking the Download feature. They need to include that as I find myself using more that app on my Laptop and Steam Deck over Desktop and being mobile makes Download a must have. Thank you for the great content!
This is a great vidhow do the other apps work with plex like removing the commercials from TV shows And convert it to more favorable videos.Formats like I can do in windows
Excellent very informative video. I set up a lex server on a GMKTec G3 and it works fine except I dislike Windows 11. I was going to install Windows 10 but based on your video I bought a $20 2242 SATA M.2 and will give ubuntu(which looks more like Windows 10 than Windows 11 does) a try. The size, cost, and performance of the little N100 system just blows my mind. Perhaps I'm easy but I'm impressed with the engineering at both Intel and GMKTtec. I'm would also be interested in an unraid Plex video on the same hardware.
These little PCs are amazing for how little they cost. I suspect Intel could push this low end stuff even further but hold back in order to prevent cannibalizing their more expensive processors.
At work, they're starting to swap out some of the regular pc's with those GMTek G2's. They have Windows 11 Pro. You have me wondering if the key/install is legit. How could it be so cheap with a real Windows Pro license?
The key is legit. I have installed a new SSD and done a fresh install of Windows 11 via the media creation tool, and no problems. The only problem is that the media created has no drivers for the ethernet or wifi hardware. Easy work around is to use a $20 USB gigabit ethernet device to load Windows 11 so you can then install the drivers you need. No "this copy of Windows needs to be activated" desktop logo, just a legit copy of Windows 11 pro direct from Microsoft rather than China. The Intel ethernet drivers and Realtek Wi-Fi drivers are easy to find.
Looks like they're retailing for about $140, which is $50 less than the cost of a Windows 11 Pro license. The bigger concern is the malware some of these NUCs from unknown brands come with. That and a lack of drivers/support would drive me toward buying HP or Dell machines if I were buying machines for business.
@@stemlator I just wiped the SSD and used the media creation tool (straight from Microsoft) to install a fresh Windows 11 pro image. It's legit, no activation required (the key is in non-volatile memory). I actually purchased a new SSD so I could swap between the two testing Plex under Windows and Linux. Any modern machine with UEFI bios stores the license key in non-volatile memory (that means anything less than approximately 15 years old).
So from what I gather they are buying legit OEM licenses for these PCs which cost a lot less than retail. Although I suspect the ones they are buying are not supposed to be distributed in this way.
I can confirm Plex 4K HDR to SDR transcode works fine in Windows 10 Pro with latest Nivdia GPUs. I'm currently using MSI GEFORCE GTX 1660 ARMOR 6G OC. Thank you
Hey Lon.... I ran into something yesterday while trying to help my in-laws. They are not tech savvy, and Comcast customers. The Plex app is available for the cable box, but does not have access to media. Could you possibly share some insight? Thanks.
That external drive is formatted exfat, that's why there are no permission issues :) If you're not automating things with the arrs, using package managed version installed is fine. One of the big advantages of containers (docker) is avoiding dependency & library hell when different software might need different versions of things like python or java. You should think about doing a video on truenas scale when they make the switch away from helm/kubernetes to docker-compose. Right now, for the majority of users, their charts are basically no different from snaps. You have to have a LOT of knowledge to do anything yourself. That will change this fall!
Ahh forgot about the exFAT issue as to why this worked so seamlessly :). Thanks for the tip on Truenas - I'll keep an eye on it! I was looking for the simplest free turn-key solution so this is where I landed. Everything else requires a lot of extra work :).
@@LonSeidman Lots of projects out there that try to make things as turnkey as synology boxes, but they aren't quite turnkey. TrueNas Scale is currently using helm/k3s and would like to be turnkey but IME it hasn't been. With 20+ years of linux and systems support, I was able to handle the issues. Can't imagine what someone new to linux would do when confronted with a new OS plus the templating/orchestration of helm/kubernetes for issues. With their change to docker-compose, all of the complexity mostly goes away so you can understand what's going on.
I wonder if there is anything similar to Diet-pi OS for mini PC like this? Diet-PI does require the command line but it's very easy and lightweight. You can install programs like Plex from the command line. That's how I started using Plex and Home Assistant in the first place. It basically uses Docker containers but all the Docker images are optimized. It's an awesome OS and does all the hard stuff like permissions for you. EDIT: I think Diet-PI will run on this.
@@DarthV506 Yes but the cool part of Diet-pi for beginners is you can run a single command then select what you want to install from a list. Stuff like Plex, FreshRSS, Nextcloud, Docker, and Portainer. Lots to choose from. It's way more complicated to use any standard builds of Linux headless. It's even easy then using a Linux desktop in many ways.
@@jmr Lots of issues when something goes wrong. You're not learning how it all works. I'd rather learn how it works, then I can fix it when something breaks!
@@DarthV506 It's a good OS for people that just want to get things done and it can be a great learning platform. I like to tinker and fix things but not everyone has the time.
Its called UBuntu. I don;t know where UMbuntu comes from? As an educator, you should pay attention to how you pronounce things. Imagine being a maths teacher and teaching kids 2+2 = 7.
