bbeny123
New Around Here
I was recently installing Plex media server on my router and as the existing sources are outdated and/or unavailable I had to fiddle around a bit to get it to work.
Here's a little tutorial on how to do it.
Based on:
Prerequisites:
1 - ssh to router
* - increase swappiness if it is 0 (in my case, it significantly improved the performance of the Plex Media Server)
2 - install required packages
3 - remount Entware partition
4 - install chrooted Debian
5 - prepare Debian's init.d script
* - prepare Debian's remount hotplugged USB script
6 - prepare chrooted services list and create symlink to Debian
* - copy hosts file to Debian
7 - enter debian
8 - upgrade packages and install those required by Plex Media Server
9 - configure timezone
10 - ensure that
11 - instal Plex Media Server
12 - exit Debian
13 - add Plex Media Server to chrooted services list
14 - restart Debian
1 - ssh to router
* - update amtm and entware packages using amtm
2 - enter debian
3 - ensure that
4 - upgrade debian packages
* - restart Debian
Here's a little tutorial on how to do it.
Based on:
- https://hqt.ro/how-to-install-debian-stretch-arm/ (accessed by The Wayback Machine)
- https://www.hqt.ro/plex-media-server-on-asuswrt-armhf-routers/ (accessed by The Wayback Machine)
- https://www.snbforums.com/threads/asus-rt-ac86u-and-debian-bullseye-nextcloud.79428/
Prerequisites:
- installed Entware
- SWAP enabled (2GB or more recommended)
1 - ssh to router
* - increase swappiness if it is 0 (in my case, it significantly improved the performance of the Plex Media Server)
Bash:
# check current value of swappiness
cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
# change swappiness on runtime and persists it after reboot
echo 10 > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
echo 'echo 10 > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness' >> /jffs/scripts/post-mount2 - install required packages
Bash:
opkg install coreutils-sha256sum debootstrap binutils perlbase-autodie3 - remount Entware partition
Bash:
mount -i -o remount,exec,dev /opt/..4 - install chrooted Debian
Bash:
debootstrap --variant=minbase --arch=arm64 bookworm /opt/debian/ http://ftp.debian.org/debian/5 - prepare Debian's init.d script
Bash:
rm /opt/etc/init.d/S99debian
wget -O /opt/etc/init.d/S99debian https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bbeny123/Plex_Asuswrt-Merlin/main/init-debian.sh
chmod 755 /opt/etc/init.d/S99debian
# instead of downloading the script, it can also be copy-pasted:
# cat >> /opt/etc/init.d/S99debian << 'EOF'
# copy-paste script from the spoiler below
# type 'EOF' and press enter
Bash:
#!/bin/sh
PATH=/opt/bin:/opt/sbin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
CHROOT_DIR=$(readlink -f /opt/debian)
CHROOT_SERVICES_LIST=/opt/etc/chroot-services.list
if [ ! -e "$CHROOT_SERVICES_LIST" ]; then
echo "Please, define Debian services to start in $CHROOT_SERVICES_LIST first!"
echo "One service per line. Hint: this is a script names from Debian's /etc/init.d/"
exit 1
fi
running() {
if [ $(mount | grep $CHROOT_DIR | wc -l) -gt 0 ]; then
return 0
fi
return 1
}
mount_int() {
mkdir -p $CHROOT_DIR/opt/tmp
for dir in dev proc sys opt/tmp; do
if ! mountpoint -q $CHROOT_DIR/$dir; then
mount -o bind /$dir $CHROOT_DIR/$dir
fi
done
}
mount_ext() {
for dir in /mnt/*; do
dir=$(readlink -f $dir)/
if ! echo "$CHROOT_DIR" | grep -q ^$dir; then
target_dir=$CHROOT_DIR/mnt/$(echo "$dir" | sed 's!^.*mnt/!!')
mkdir -p $target_dir
if ! mountpoint -q $target_dir; then
mount -o bind $dir $target_dir
fi
fi
done
}
start() {
if running; then
echo "Chroot'ed services seems to be already started, exiting..."
exit 1
fi
mount_int
mount_ext
echo "Starting chroot'ed Debian services..."
for item in $(cat $CHROOT_SERVICES_LIST); do
chroot $CHROOT_DIR /etc/init.d/$item start
done
}
stop() {
if ! running; then
echo "Chroot'ed services seems to be already stopped, exiting..."
exit 1
fi
echo "Stopping chroot'ed Debian services..."
for item in $(cat $CHROOT_SERVICES_LIST); do
chroot $CHROOT_DIR /etc/init.d/$item stop
sleep 2
done
if mountpoint -q $CHROOT_DIR/dev/pts; then
umount $CHROOT_DIR/dev/pts
fi
mount | grep $CHROOT_DIR | awk '{print $3}' | xargs umount -l
}
restart() {
stop
start
}
enter() {
if ! running; then
start
fi
if ! mountpoint -q $CHROOT_DIR/dev/pts; then
mount -o bind /dev/pts $CHROOT_DIR/dev/pts
fi
chroot $CHROOT_DIR /bin/bash
if mountpoint -q $CHROOT_DIR/dev/pts; then
umount $CHROOT_DIR/dev/pts
fi
}
status() {
if running; then
echo "Chroot'ed services running..."
else
echo "Chroot'ed services not running!"
fi
}
case "$1" in
start)
start
;;
stop)
stop
;;
restart)
restart
;;
enter)
enter
;;
status)
status
;;
*)
echo "Usage: (start|stop|restart|enter|status)"
exit 1
;;
esac
echo Done.
exit 0* - prepare Debian's remount hotplugged USB script
Bash:
wget -O /jffs/scripts/mount-debian.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bbeny123/Plex_Asuswrt-Merlin/main/mount-debian.sh
chmod 755 /jffs/scripts/mount-debian.sh
echo './jffs/scripts/mount-debian.sh' >> /jffs/scripts/post-mount
# instead of downloading the script, it can also be copy-pasted:
# cat >> /jffs/scripts/mount-debian.sh << 'EOF'
# copy-paste script from the spoiler below
# type 'EOF' and press enter
Bash:
#!/bin/sh
CHROOT_DIR=$(readlink -f /opt/debian)
if [ $(mount | grep $CHROOT_DIR | wc -l) -gt 0 ]; then
for dir in /mnt/*; do
dir=$(readlink -f $dir)/
if ! echo "$CHROOT_DIR" | grep -q ^$dir; then
target_dir=$CHROOT_DIR/mnt/$(echo "$dir" | sed 's!^.*mnt/!!')
mkdir -p $target_dir
if ! mountpoint -q $target_dir; then
mount -o bind $dir $target_dir
fi
fi
done
fi6 - prepare chrooted services list and create symlink to Debian
Bash:
touch /opt/etc/chroot-services.list
chmod 755 /opt/etc/chroot-services.list
ln -s /opt/etc/init.d/S99debian /opt/bin/debian* - copy hosts file to Debian
Bash:
cp /etc/hosts /opt/debian/etc/7 - enter debian
Bash:
debian enter8 - upgrade packages and install those required by Plex Media Server
Bash:
apt update && apt upgrade -y
apt install -y apt-transport-https curl gnupg procps9 - configure timezone
Bash:
dpkg-reconfigure tzdata10 - ensure that
/usr/sbin/init is not a symlink pointing to systemd
Bash:
[ -f /usr/sbin/init ] && ls -l /usr/sbin/init | grep -q systemd && mv -f /usr/sbin/init /usr/sbin/init.bak11 - instal Plex Media Server
Bash:
curl -sS https://downloads.plex.tv/plex-keys/PlexSign.key | gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/plexmediaserver.gpg
echo 'deb https://downloads.plex.tv/repo/deb public main' | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/plexmediaserver.list
apt update
apt install plexmediaserver12 - exit Debian
Bash:
exit13 - add Plex Media Server to chrooted services list
Bash:
echo 'plexmediaserver' >> /opt/etc/chroot-services.list14 - restart Debian
Bash:
debian restartUpdate procedure
1 - ssh to router
* - update amtm and entware packages using amtm
2 - enter debian
Bash:
debian enter3 - ensure that
/usr/sbin/init is not a symlink pointing to systemd
Bash:
[ -f /usr/sbin/init ] && ls -l /usr/sbin/init | grep -q systemd && mv -f /usr/sbin/init /usr/sbin/init.bak4 - upgrade debian packages
Bash:
apt update && apt upgrade -y* - restart Debian
Bash:
exit
debian restart
Last edited:
