Plex server advice.

Rev

have spent the morning googling how to share the drive to the network so I can access it on my desktop and it's baffling me.

I go to join network or whatever it is, input everything it asks for then it says "Failed to mount Windows share: Invalid argument"

For the average user I can absolutely see why they just stick with windows. Everything in linux is 100x harder.

Rev

Now it's changed to failed to mount windows share connection timed out

There's no way something as simple as sharing a drive on the home network should be this difficult.

Think I'll just give up and go back to windows. At least I don't have to jump through 100 hoops to do a basic thing like have plex view an external drive or share a drive to the network.

It's completely exasperating.

toshi

Hahaha, Wow what a progress! :j Now you are challenging multi OS network environment.

I would agree that Windows network share is much easier, and Windows is GUI based, which makes user friendly. (But how long have you played with Linux in comparison to Windows?)

If you want to use this lightweight stable Linux OS, this is not the best place to ask, I really suggest to go to LinuxMint Forum again. You will get an answer in a couple of hours. (Yes, I am learning Linux as well)

But I just want to assist a bit, as you really go this far, which is really great. :beer: A lot of people simply dismiss Linux even they never ever install and use it at all by themselves. How lazy they are, they can install Linux to virtual machine easily within Windows..

OK, BASICS:

Windows mapping = Linux mounting.

In order to mount "network shared folder", firstly you have to create a folder to mount. (Yes, very different, no drive mapping but like folder mounting.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/46183/how-to-map-a-network-drive

Go Terminal: (Once get used, command is easier. Just copy and paste it, hit enter)

sudo mkdir /media/Data

This will create a folder "Data" for mounting.

Then magic command

sudo mount -t cifs -o username=raghu //172.29.32.184/sharename /media/Data/

raghu = Windows user name
172.29.32.184 = Your Windows network IP
sharename = your windows share folder name

(You will be asked a password for Windows)

I just tested with LinuxMint 18 to access Windows 7 share folder, I accessed from Linixmint VLC player to Windows 7 folder to play some videos.

You should be able to access /media/Data via your application.

Go to LinuxMint forum. See you there.

Happy hacking

P.S. Performance-wise, it would be better for Plex server directly to connect an external hard disk? So connect external hard disk to Linux or install Plex server to Windows? Whatever you do, hope you will enjoy (with some efforts ?) at this new Linux world.

Rev

toshi wrote: »

Hahaha, Wow what a progress! :j Now you are challenging multi OS network environment.

I would agree that Windows network share is much easier, and Windows is GUI based, which makes user friendly. (But how long have you played with Linux in comparison to Windows?)

If you want to use this lightweight stable Linux OS, this is not the best place to ask, I really suggest to go to LinuxMint Forum again. You will get an answer in a couple of hours. (Yes, I am learning Linux as well)

But I just want to assist a bit, as you really go this far, which is really great. :beer: A lot of people simply dismiss Linux even they never ever install and use it at all by themselves. How lazy they are, they can install Linux to virtual machine easily within Windows..

OK, BASICS:

Windows mapping = Linux mounting.

In order to mount "network shared folder", firstly you have to create a folder to mount. (Yes, very different, no drive mapping but like folder mounting.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/46183/how-to-map-a-network-drive

Go Terminal: (Once get used, command is easier. Just copy and paste it, hit enter)

sudo mkdir /media/Data

This will create a folder "Data" for mounting.

Then magic command

sudo mount -t cifs -o username=raghu //172.29.32.184/sharename /media/Data/

raghu = Windows user name
172.29.32.184 = Your Windows network IP
sharename = your windows share folder name

(You will be asked a password for Windows)

I just tested with LinuxMint 18 to access Windows 7 share folder, I accessed from Linixmint VLC player to Windows 7 folder to play some videos.

You should be able to access /media/Data via your application.

Go to LinuxMint forum. See you there.

Happy hacking

P.S. Performance-wise, it would be better for Plex server directly to connect an external hard disk? So connect external hard disk to Linux or install Plex server to Windows? Whatever you do, hope you will enjoy (with some efforts ?) at this new Linux world.

Thanks but I give up. I've wasted an entire day trying to get this drive shared, that's just ridiculous. There is no way it should be this difficult. Followed the manual guide to the letter, still no dice.

Linux can get in the bin, I don't have the patience for it.

toshi

Rev wrote: »

Thanks but I give up. I've wasted an entire day trying to get this drive shared, that's just ridiculous. There is no way it should be this difficult. Followed the manual guide to the letter, still no dice.

Linux can get in the bin, I don't have the patience for it.

Mmm, it was too late, you didn't have to struggle alone. But you really have challenged multi OS network environment, which isn't super easy one. This would happens between Windows, Mac, Linux etc.

Anyway, hope you enjoy Plex server streaming.

emptybox

You can definitely get that kind of setup to work on Linux with some perseverance.

At one time I had an old desktop PC running Ubuntu, with a 2 TB external drive connected to it, which I shared to my network PCs, Windows Linux and Apple.
But it does require editing of configuration files.
You need to edit fstab to mount the external drive in the file system at boot up, and you probably need to edit the Samba configuration file as well to tweak permissions etc.

Worked flawlessly for a couple of years until I switched, first to a drive connected to the router by USB, and now an ethernet connected NAS.