PMServ - PS3 Media Server Linux Distribution

[vyrticul]

Just wanted to drop in and let everyone know of a little project I've been working on. I started working on on this for my own needs but decided that someone else may find it useful as well.

I've been using PS3 Media Server on Windows for awhile now and decided I no longer wanted the overhead of Windows. I also didn't want to download a complete Linux distribution and have to deal with extra bloat. So, using Suse Studio I created a Linux distribution based around PS3 Media Server. I call it PMServ.

PMServ is designed to be headless and lean so that it can have more resources available for transcoding. The goal is to have an all-in-one server that will be able to download media and share that media with as much automagic as possible.

Current features include:

PS3 Media Server

• Shares all media located in the Downloads, Movies, Music, Pictures, TV, and USB directories in the /shared directory.
• Update to the latest SVN revision using the command "ps3mediaserver-update".
• Edit the configuration using the command "ps3mediaserver-editconf".
• Starts automatically just like a real daemon. Manage the service using the command "service ps3mediaserver [start|stop|restart|status]".
• Multithreaded Mencoder via mencoder-mt. Users with 2 or more cores will get more performance with this. Use the command `enable-mencoder-mt` to enable. (64-bit only)

Transmission

• Web UI (port 9091) makes for easy remote management.
• By default, torrents download to /shared/Downloads so that new media is instantly available via PS3 Media Server.
• Automatically extracts .rar files from downloaded torrents.
• Edit the configuration using the command "transmission-editconf".
• Starts automatically just like a real daemon. Manage the service using the command "service transmission [start|stop|restart|status]".

SABnzbd

• Web UI (port 8080) makes for easy remote management.
• By default, nzbs download to /shared/Downloads so that new media is instantly available via PS3 Media Server.
• Setup using the command "sabnzbd-setup". From there, just login to the Web UI to configure.
• Starts automatically just like a real daemon. Manage the service using the command "service sabnzbd [start|stop|restart|status]".

FlexGet

• Web UI (port 5050) makes for easy managing of feeds. Start with the command `service flexget start`. (experimental at the moment)
• Integrates with Transmission and SABnzbd to automatically start downloads. For details go to: http://flexget.com/wiki/Plugins
• Setup using the command "flexget-setup". For help with editing the config file, go to: http://flexget.com/wiki/Configuration
• Update to the latest version using the command "flexget-update".
• Edit the configuration and feeds with the command "flexget-editfeeds".

64-bit and 32-bit versions available. Get the most out of your system.
NTFS read/write support so it has access to your existing library.
Auto-mounts USB storage drives to the /shared/USB directory so that all media on the drive is automatically available on PS3 Media Server.
Samba & NFS server pre-configured to give everyone full access to the /shared directory. Use the command "insserv -r [smb|nfsserver]" to disable one if you don't use it.
SSH server for easy management.
Uses system accounts for PS3 Media Server, Transmission, SABnzbd, and Flexget for added security.
Permanently install to your hard drive from the Live CD with the command "yast2 live-installer".

Default User/Pass: root/toor

Current Version: 0.3.1
Download 64-bit / 32-bit

This is still a work in progress and I plan to continue to develop this. So if anyone decides to give this a try, let me know if you run into any issues or have any ideas for new features.

Code: Select all

version 0.3.1 (02/26/2011)
  [+] Multithreaded mencoder (2+ core users rejoice), install using the command `enable-mencoder-mt`. (64-bit only) (thanks Joksi for your testing)
  [*] Fixed typo in Transmission init.d script

version 0.3.0 (02/20/2011)
  [+] 64-bit version.
  [+] Can now start the FlexGet WebUI as a daemon using `service flexget start`. The webUI is experimental right now but it's there when it becomes stable :)
  [*] ps3mediaserver-update has been improved.
  [*] Restarting or stopping PS3 Media Server will also stop mencoder processes.
  [*] Removed workaround for making sure PS3 Media Server restarts, not needed anymore with newer versions.
  [*] ps3mediaserver-editconf more consistently restarts PS3 Media Server when changes are made.
  [*] transmission-editconf more consistently reloads Transmission when changes are made.
  [*] flexget-setup and flexget-update now install the latest FlexGet and dependencies from PyPI.
  [*] Fixed problem using the transmission plugin in newer versions of FlexGet.
  [*] flexget-editfeeds will now always refresh your feeds.
  [*] Tab-completion works in a lot more places. (services, with sudo, etc.)
  [*] Updated to PS3 Media Server 1.21 r507.
  [*] Updated to Transmission 2.13.
  [*] Updated to SABnzbd 0.5.6.
  [*] Updated to pmsencoder 1.4.0.

version 0.2.1 (09/01/2010)
  [*] The booting loading bar now works properly.
  [*] Auto-mounted USB drives are now browsable via NFS. (NFSv4 only)
  [*] PS3 Media Server should now restart correctly more consistently.
  [*] Changed so that network settings are configured during first boot.
  [*] Updated to FlexGet r1377.

version 0.2.0 (08/08/2010)
  [*] Upgraded to OpenSUSE 11.3. A lot of behind the scenes changes from this.
  [+] Added PMSEncoder plugin to PS3 Media Server for web streaming. (created by chocolateboy)
  [*] Fixed subtitle support.
  [*] Fixed SABnzbd not installing correctly.
  [*] Fixed flexget-editfeeds so that it doesn't complain about not finding config.yml.
  [*] Updated update scripts to behave better if the SVN download fails.
  [*] USB drives will now mount over existing non-mountpoint directories. (helps when a reboot happens with a drive attached)
  [*] Transmission now automatically starts the extract script when a torrent completes, doesn't need to be running every minute anymore.
  [*] Updated to Transmission 2.03.
  [*] Updated to FlexGet r1354.
  [*] Updated to SABnzbd 0.5.3.

version 0.1.2 (05/18/2010)
  [*] All users added to the system can run commands that require different access with sudo.
  [*] FlexGet, PS3 Media Server, SABnzbd, and Transmission commands will now make sure they are executed with the right permissions.
  [*] Got rid of an annoying warning message when starting NFS.
  [*] Updated Transmission to 1.93.
  [*] Updated FlexGet to r1278.
  [*] Updated SABnzbd to 0.5.2.
  [*] Minor script cleanups.

version 0.1.1 (04/16/2010)
  [+] Added NFS server and client.
  [+] /shared directory is now also shared over NFS.
  [*] Auto-mounted USB storage drives are now mounted to /shared/USB/<usb label> to makes things easier to find.
  [*] Improved performance for auto-mounted USB storage drives.
  [*] Fixed issue with backups of ps3mediaserver and flexget not working on the usb/hard disk image version. I forgot to include the tar package :(
  [*] Fixed errors in the Samba log complaining about not being able to connect to the CUPS server.
  [*] Made Samba more secure by not making every user that connected to the share act as root. All created files/folders are now owned by whoever owns the parent directory.
  [*] More tweaks to improve Samba performance.
  [*] Changed defaults for FlexGet to wait 8 hours instead of 4 hours for 720p.

version 0.1.0 (04/07/2010)
  [+] All USB storage devices will now be automatically mounted to the /shared/USB directory. This directory is accessible on PS3 Media Server.
  [+] Added SABnzbd for downloading from newsgroups, just use "sabnzbd-setup" to set it up.
  [+] Added nano for those not familiar with vim.
  [*] Fixed issue when trying to install from the Live CD.
  [*] User accounts for each of the applications are now system accounts. This is a better way then how I was doing it to make the accounts secure.
  [*] Improved "ps3mediaserver-update". It will now get rid of useless leftover files, back up WEB.conf, the backup is now gzipped, and it tells you what revision it updated to.
  [*] Reverted "service ps3mediaserver stop" change from v0.0.3 that gets rid of stray mencoder and tsmuxer processes because it's no longer needed.
  [*] Complete rewrite of "transmission-extract" so it should be faster, more reliable, and work in any directory a torrent is downloaded to.
  [*] Modified Transmission to give read/write permissions for downloaded torrents to everyone. It was previously read only to anyone but the owner.
  [*] Lowered upload slots per torrent in Transmission. The default setting is much too aggressive and can cause slow download speeds.
  [*] The blocklist for Transmission will now only be updated once a week rather then once a day.
  [*] Renamed the service from "transmission-daemon" to "transmission". Easier.
  [*] "flexget-update" now gets rid of useless leftover files, backs up the previous installation, and tells you what revision it updated to.
  [*] Modified "flexget-setup" to ask before overwriting an existing database.
  [*] Fixed a small issue with the FlexGet config file, nothing that caused any issues it just bothered me.
  [*] Tweaked Samba to improve performance.
  [*] Minor modifications to various scripts.
  [*] Updated PS3 Media Server to r410.
  [*] Updated FlexGet to r1226.
  [-] Removed /shared/torrents directory as it's no longer needed.

version 0.0.3  (03/24/2010)

  [+] Auto extraction of .rar files from finished torrent downloads. Can also be called manually using the command "transmission-extract".
  [*] PS3 Media Server no longer plays movie files from within archives thanks to the auto extraction script.
  [*] FlexGet now passes the torrent url directly to Transmission instead of downloading a torrent to a watched directory. This allows FlexGet much more control over downloads, most notably the ability to set different download directories for each group.
  [*] Fixed an issue with the "ps3mediaserver --update" script not properly restarting the PS3 Media Server. Because of this fix, "ps3mediaserver --update" and "ps3mediaserver --edit-conf" have been changed to "ps3mediaserver-update" and "ps3mediaserver-editconf".
  [*] Fixed "service ps3mediaserver stop" sometimes not properly stopping PS3 Media Server. This also has the great side effect of getting rid of any stray mencoder and tsMuxeR processes when stopping or restarting PS3 Media Server.
  [*] "ps3mediaserver-editconf" now restarts PS3 Media Server if any config changes were made.
  [*] "flexget-editfeeds" now checks for updated feeds if any config changes were made.
  [*] Updated PS3 Media Server to r406.
  [*] Lots of random packages have been updated.
  [*] Minor optimizations and cleanups to scripts.

version 0.0.2  (03/18/2010)
  [+] added "flexget-update" command
  [+] added "ps3mediaserver --edit-conf" command
  [+] added "transmission-editconf" command
  [*] changed "pms-update" command to "ps3mediaserver --update"
  [*] cleaned up all scripts so they're easier to read and not produce so much cluttered output
  [*] changed the default repos to more popular and up-to-date ones
  [*] lots of packages have been updated due to the change in repos
  [*] probabaly made some other minor changes that I forgot about

version 0.0.1  (03/15/2010)
  [+] initial release


[shagrath]

very cool idea !!

care to share the login/pass asked ?

[vyrticul]

:o very cool idea !!

care to share the login/pass asked ?

Haha, awesome. I do all this hard work to make this easy to use but forget to mention how to actually use it.

Anyways, updated the first post with the user/pass.

[G-rom]

take a look at qbittorent instead of transmission
You ll save resources and gain simplicity as it have rss fetcher in.

[vyrticul]

take a look at qbittorent instead of transmission
You ll save resources and gain simplicity as it have rss fetcher in.

I checked out qBittorrent yesterday, however it doesn't allow you to edit the RSS feeds through the webUI, just the Qt GUI which won't be possible for PMServ. I looked to see if the RSS feed file could be edited directly but that won't work either.

However I looked for some other alternative torrent clients that had RSS feeds built-in. I came across rTorrent w/ ruTorrent webUI. It seems that the rTorrent core is solid but the webUI isn't as polished as the webUI for Transmission. However the rTorrent webUI has a lot more features available to it.

I'm testing rTorrent out in PMServ to see if it could replace Transmission. Has anyone used rTorrent with a webUI and have any opinion on it?

[G-rom]

Rss on web ui is coming. He just wanna do first ui search then rss.

Why QT GUI wont be possible for PMServ ? Even once ? Because once your rss are setup, you don't have to change them. So even if there was rss ui on web ui you ll rarely use it.

[vyrticul]

PMServ has no GUI, just a terminal. The only GUI is the web UI for the bittorrent client. So doing an initial setup won't work, unless you want to install qBittorrent on another computer then copy the RSS file over to PMServ. Not too user friendly.

Being able to edit the RSS feed either through a web UI or the terminal at any time is a necessity.

Not being able to change the RSS feeds would be bad. You wouldn't be able to add an RSS feed from a new site you found. You wouldn't be able to add a new TV series to automatically download, etc.

Once qBittorrent adds the ability to manage RSS feeds through the web UI or by manually editing a file, I'll take another look at it for this project.

[vyrticul]

Code: Select all

version 0.0.2  (03/18/2010)
  [+] added "flexget-update" command
  [+] added "ps3mediaserver --edit-conf" command
  [+] added "transmission-editconf" command
  [*] changed "pms-update" command to "ps3mediaserver --update"
  [*] cleaned up all scripts so they're easier to read and not produce so much cluttered output
  [*] changed the default repos to more popular and up-to-date ones
  [*] lots of packages have been updated due to the change in repos
  [*] probabaly made some other minor changes that I forgot about


[vyrticul]

There have been some pretty significant changes in this release. Namely auto-extraction of RAR's and the ability to setup FlexGet to make Transmission download directories other then /shared/Downloads. (EX: /shared/TV)

Code: Select all

version 0.0.3  (03/24/2010)
  [+] Auto extraction of .rar files from finished torrent downloads. Can also be called manually using the command "transmission-extract".
  [*] PS3 Media Server no longer plays movie files from within archives thanks to the auto extraction script.
  [*] FlexGet now passes the torrent url directly to Transmission instead of downloading a torrent to a watched directory. This allows FlexGet much more control over downloads, most notably the ability to set different download directories for each group.
  [*] Fixed an issue with the "ps3mediaserver --update" script not properly restarting the PS3 Media Server. Because of this fix, "ps3mediaserver --update" and "ps3mediaserver --edit-conf" have been changed to "ps3mediaserver-update" and "ps3mediaserver-editconf".
  [*] Fixed "service ps3mediaserver stop" sometimes not properly stopping PS3 Media Server. This also has the great side effect of getting rid of any stray mencoder and tsMuxeR processes when stopping or restarting PS3 Media Server.
  [*] "ps3mediaserver-editconf" now restarts PS3 Media Server if any config changes were made.
  [*] "flexget-editfeeds" now checks for updated feeds if any config changes were made.
  [*] Updated PS3 Media Server to r406.
  [*] Lots of random packages have been updated.
  [*] Minor optimizations and cleanups to scripts.


[kennykix]

Could you add nano to this distro by chance?
Would you be interested in adding NZBGet or something to handle NZBs?
Also, USB Thumb Drive Support? Haven't had much luck with this...
I've googled around for OpenSUSE USB Drive booting and it can't find the image when booting...
http://www.chyd.co.cc/linux/opensuse-110-liveusb.html <-- Instructions for USB Booting OpenSUSE