Please help me with a clean start for consuming media

[carvegybe]

Hi All

You know when you're hungry and you walk past a steakhouse...it makes you wonder what's inside? Well, I'm smelling the benefits of Jellyfin but I have never managed to make it work. I think part of the problem is that I tried to run it on a NAS (WD PR2100) which sounds like a mistake because (1) NASes aren't good at this and (2) WD...

I currently run my music media from something installed on the NAS called the Twonky Server and my video/photo media from NAS-connected Nvidia Shield Pro (ancient) Android-box with Kodi installed on it (giving me all kinds of errors but somehow working)....

I am now moving from the US to Germany (permanently) and have an opportunity to reset everything and start the set up properly, starting from getting the right hardware. I'd still use the WD NAS, but only as a media source, not a media server.

I am short on time, but I am willing to play with Linux...it feels like the right way to go. I learned how to SSH and run a few commands on the NAS, but the experience feels like running DOS 3.1 in the 1980s...I

My media collection is a disaster....disorganised and insufficient...I never figured out how to access broadly available content and would love to branch out...as my wife and I have a wide range of interests...e.g. Australian Masterchef (the good old seasons), World Rugby, Scandinavian crime series.

So I need to get all this under control and I think I need to start with the right hardware, which I assume needs to be some mini PC with enough memory and a CPU/GPU that will handle current and future needs.

Any help would be appreciated, especially given all the Black Friday sales in the US now.

I am sure I will soon revert with software / installation - related questions. 

Thank you in advance for pointing me to some structured content about how to walk this path...

[carvegybe]

Further to the above, I'm thinking about getting this for the Jellyfin server: https://www.amazon.com/CyberGeek-Ubuntu-...to_dp&th=1

Any thoughts? There seem to be some negative comments about Realtek wireless chip not working well with Linux Mint and regarding limited BIOS access making it difficult to update to Ubuntu v 23.10.

Thanks in advance!

[TheDreadPirate]

Preferably you'd use the Ethernet connection instead of wireless. Then any concerns about Realtek wireless chipsets no longer matters.

Otherwise, it is a perfectly good mini-PC for Jellyfin.

[carvegybe]

Thank you, TheDreadPirate!

[carvegybe]

Ok, so Linux mini-PC is on order and should arrive in a few days. I prepared a bootable Ubuntu USB to load the latest stable version.

I would humbly request some feedback on my planned approach:

Objectives:
Primary Objective: to set up linux and run Jellyfin to play NAS-stored media
Secondary Objective: to branch out from there and explore how I can derive value from a linux system and linux-based applications

Approach:
Step 1: focus on learning only Linux basics that either support reaching Primary Objective or make use of Linux more efficient (e.g. get the right file editor and shell terminal application and anything else that makes use of Linux time-efficient
Step 2: install and understand Docker and containers (in my limited knowledge, containerizing Jellyfin will make it more reliable because developer's environment is replicated, will make automatic updates of Jellyfin easier, and should simplify permissions with the NAS)
Step 3: install and configure Jellyfin

Feedback on the above, including ideas or potential pitfalls would be appreciated, as would be references to documentation that will help me get to running Jellyfin in quickest time without any "side quests", which I might explore as part of Secondary Objectives.

Thank you in advance.

[TheDreadPirate]

We literally have a "one liner" to install Jellyfin on Ubuntu/Debian.

https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/installation/linux/

Code:

curl https://repo.jellyfin.org/install-debuntu.sh | sudo bash

But only if you don't want to use Docker. Their guide for installing Docker is here.

https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/u...repository

Our guide for setting up Jellyfin in docker.

https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/instal...er-compose

Docker does not make Jellyfin more reliable. What it does do is encapsulate all of the dependencies that Jellyfin needs to run and keeps them separate from the operating system. So, in a way, that can make it more reliable because you can't accidentally remove something Jellyfin needs. But, in and of itself, Docker does not make Jellyfin more reliable.

Plain Linux installs of Jellyfin also auto-update when the Jellyfin repo is added to the OS. For a lot of other apps that don't have their own repo, this is a valid selling point of running their app in Docker.

Docker doesn't necessarily make accessing network shares easier. But you can run containers as your user instead of the jellyfin user created for direct Linux installs. This slightly simplifies mounting the network share since you don't have to configure share to also allow the separate Jellyfin user to access the share.

How to properly mount a network share (I'm assuming it is a CIFS/Samba share).

https://askubuntu.com/questions/157128/p...re-on-boot

[carvegybe]

This is great, thank you. I will probably chew on this for a while...

Are there any downsides to installing Jellyfin with Docker? I'm defaulting to Docker also as a learning experience, but I want to go into it with eyes wide open.

Also regarding your comment "I'm assuming it is a CIFS/Samba share"... I know what CIFS stands for but no idea what it means. Samba also rings a bell. What I know is this:

- NAS FTP Access is OFF
- NAS NFS Service is ON
- NAS SNMP is OFF
- NAS SMB Protocol is "SMB 2, SMB 3" but this is under "Windows Services" so I thought it is irrelevant

Also, I run a dd-wrt router and I remember "CIFS" was in one of the menus and it is turned OFF.

Should I be asking about necessary NAS and router settings to make this setup work?

[carvegybe]

Ok, I found the relevant router setting under Administration > Management..it's called "CIFS Automount" which is set to OFF

[TheDreadPirate]

SMB/Samba/CIFS are essentially the same thing.

The only downside to Docker is wrapping your head around how passing in devices and folders works.