SOLVED plex media server does not autostart at boot time

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Hi

I obtained the RPM of plexmediaserver from Plex TV main site. The RPM is for Fedora so I had fingers crossed.

It install no problem and is functionally fine. Except it doesn’t autostart at boot time.

So I look in Yast → Services manager. The “plexmediaserver” is listed there but it’s disabled + inactive. So I try to Enable + Start it. It fails and gives a comment like this: " …Invalid escape sequences in …" I can’t see it fully, that’s a snippet, not copy-paste-able.

So I run the systemctl status query to see if I can track the problem a bit more:

Nov 07 20:10:35 Tumbleweed132 systemd[1]: [/lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service:14] Invalid escape sequences in command line: "/bin/sh -c '/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex\ Media\ Server'"
Nov 07 20:12:30 Tumbleweed132 systemd[1]: [/lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service:14] Invalid escape sequences in command line: "/bin/sh -c '/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex\ Media\ Server'"
Nov 07 20:15:19 Tumbleweed132 systemd[1]: [/lib/systemd/system/plexmediaserver.service:14] Invalid escape sequences in command line: "/bin/sh -c '/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex\ Media\ Server'"
Nov 07 20:15:19 Tumbleweed132 systemd[1]: Starting Plex Media Server for Linux...
Nov 07 20:15:19 Tumbleweed132 systemd[1]: Started Plex Media Server for Linux.
Nov 07 20:22:26 Tumbleweed132 systemd[1]: Stopping Plex Media Server for Linux...
Nov 07 20:22:26 Tumbleweed132 systemd[1]: Stopped Plex Media Server for Linux.

Then I run the start commend

Tumbleweed132:/home/john # systemctl start  plexmediaserver.service

and the media server comes to life.

It is a Fedora RPM so I’m not surprised it’s a bit tetchy in Tumbleweed.

I can always set up a cron command to run 60 secs after boot time, to start the server, but that’s a bit unsatisfactory.

Any suggestions on how to make this work automatically?

Thanks

#2

Looks like no one knows the answer to this question so I’ll add the workaround in case of other users.

I need to have the Plex TV server start the service daemon automatically (on boot). I use a cron task manager.
I need to edit the root cron table. I like to use kwrite as the editor (because I never did like the default editor vi in a gui environment), so in a su console I run this command to temporarily change the root editor:

export EDITOR='dbus-launch /usr/bin/kwrite'

Then run this command (in su console) to open the root cron table

crontab -e

The table will open and add this line into it:

@reboot sleep 60;systemctl start  plexmediaserver.service

There must also be a final line in the file, a blank line, or it will fail.
That entry will give the cron a 1 minute pause at boot time, then execute the startup of the media server.

PS if you like to permanently change the global environment for editor, put the command

export EDITOR='dbus-launch /usr/bin/kwrite'

in the file /etc/profile.local (which file you might need to create). But that’s a very bad move if you later might need to run cron table in a console environment.

#3

Hi
Sounds like it’s error in the service file? What is in that file: plexmediaserver.service

#4

I should have posted this before, obvious brain malfunction, ----- so here it is:

[Unit]
Description=Plex Media Server for Linux
After=network.target

[Service]
Environment="PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR=/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support"
Environment=PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_HOME=/usr/lib/plexmediaserver
Environment=PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_MAX_PLUGIN_PROCS=6
Environment=PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_TMPDIR=/tmp
Environment=LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/plexmediaserver
Environment=LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
Environment=LANG=en_US.UTF-8
ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/test -d "${PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR}" || /bin/mkdir -p "${PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_APPLICATION_SUPPORT_DIR}"'
ExecStart=/bin/sh -c '/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex\ Media\ Server'
Type=simple
User=plex
Group=plex
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5
StartLimitInterval=60s
StartLimitBurst=3

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target