Install Plex Media Server on Ubuntu

You can find the latest release listed here and either download the file to your server directly or use the path to update the wget in the commands listed below…
https://plexapp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201181647-Plex-Media-Server-Linux-nix-

Pre-requisite, you need to have avahi installed first or the script will later prompt you to do so…
sudo apt-get install avahi-daemon

i386 install:
wget -c downloads.plexapp.com/plex-media-server/0.9.8.18.290-11b7fdd/plexmediaserver_0.9.8.18.290-11b7fdd_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i plexmediaserver_0.9.8.18.290-11b7fdd_i386.deb

amd64 install:
wget -c downloads.plexapp.com/plex-media-server/0.9.8.18.290-11b7fdd/plexmediaserver_0.9.8.18.290-11b7fdd_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i plexmediaserver_0.9.8.18.290-11b7fdd_amd64.deb

Then a series of commands, they should all be relatively straight forward. As the installer creates and runs the software under a user named ‘plex’, I create the user folders and change the default password in these steps… do what you are comfortable with!

sudo apt-get -f install
sudo mkdir /home/plex
sudo mkdir /home/plex/Music
sudo mkdir /home/plex/Videos
cd /home/plex
sudo chown plex * -R
sudo chmod 777 * -R
sudo passwd plex

Now you should be able to access the app with your browser, change the IP if you are not on localhost.
http://{ip}:32400/manage/index.html

WARNING: An installation using these steps could leave your server open to the general public, you
will want to password protect your server to secure any sensitive content, I’ll leave that for a separate topic.

REFERENCES:

Free Computer Based VOIP

I’ve used a variety of computer based VOIP over the years. My current preference in this space is Skype as it’s free for computer-to-computer calls and even allows calls to and from regular phones (at a fee).

Video and text chat are also provided, as is ‘white-boarding’ with additional plugins.

Skype is available for most platforms, even mobile phones… I’ve found that while the Windows beta versions has some additional features, the Linux release is rock-solid.

http://www.skype.com/

There are also several hardware based solutions, like Vonage, available to replace your traditional phone service… perhaps we’ll cover that later.

Skype me!

Open Source Media Player

There’s a lot of free software out there, but just like with Instant Messaging software you have to install many of them to be flexible.

Examples:

Several years ago I stumbled upon the VideoLAN Client (aka VLC) when researching methods to stream video from my ReplayTV (Tivo predecessor/clone) to my laptop as the files were in MPEG4 format and my previous clients didn’t support it.

I urge you to check it out as it’s an all in one solution, so that you don’t need all of that other bloat-ware installed.

G’day!

P.S. – I should add that this plays most video and audio formats and is available on most platforms, not just Windows.

Video Blogs (Vlog?)

When I first started subscribing to Podcasts, I used a variety of client software. Notable was iPodder “Lemon” (now known as Juice). Soon after that I found Democracy Player (now Miro), a client that natively supported video in addition to the common audio (MP3) standard. Both clients are free and available on many common platforms.

In the video space, I’m a regular watcher of:

Podcasting

Just figured i’d share in the knowledge of this topic as it’s been a part of my life since about May 2005. Podcasting is essentially an MP3 (audio) blog, some have developed to the point of having adds or even being broadcast over satellite radio.

I’m subscribed to several podcasts, the most popular being Adam Curry‘s Daily Source Code…. yeah, for those of you that are my age, you’ll remember this guy as an MTV JV (as a regular top-40 jock as well as on HeadBangers Ball).

I don’t anticipate ever doing one of these on my own, but would be willing to provide some content for anyone that would like my input.

Listen in and enjoy!