Install Plex on Arch|Manjaro|Garuda|EndeavourOS

Plex is a media center with a server and client applications to play Media files from Laptops, Smartphones, and Smart televisions e.t.c. Plex media server aims at organizing personal media stored on local devices with support for integration with third-party storage services like Google Drive,  Dropbox, Box e.t.c.

In this guide, I’ll take you through the installation and configuration of Plex on Arch|Manjaro|Garuda|EndeavourOS. Once you have Plex media server ready, you can start playing content from it using Plex media player and applications available for various devices.

Install Plex Media Server on Arch Linux|Manjaro|Garuda|EndeavourOS

For Arch Linux and its derivatives like Manjaro, Plex is available on AUR. You only need to have AUR installers like yay to install from.

Install yay AUR helper:

sudo pacman -Syy
sudo pacman -S --needed git base-devel
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay-bin.git
cd yay-bin
makepkg -si

Install Plex using yaourt:

$ yay -S plex-media-server

Start plex service:

Once the installation is complete, you can start it using systemd, the service unit for both Arch Linux and Ubuntu is plexmediaserver.service. To start it, run:

sudo systemctl start plexmediaserver.service

Enable service to start on boot:

sudo systemctl enable plexmediaserver.service

Configuring Plex Media Server

Plex provides a web interface that you can use to configure it. Once you start the service, head over to http://localhost:32400/web/ for configuration of PMS.

To configure PMS remotely, you must first create an SSH tunnel (setup can only be done from localhost)

$ ssh ip.address.of.server -L 8888:localhost:32400

On first access to the website, you’ll be redirected to login page, you can sign in using your Facebook account, Gmail or Email. Once the signup is complete, you should get the first setup page.

Provide the name of your Plex Media Server and click next.

Here you’re asked to Add your Library folders. Various types are avalailabel – Movies, TV Shows, Music, Photos and Other Videos.

Browse to the Path that contains the files to add and click the “Add Library” button.

You should now be ready to finish Library and server setup.

Plex Media server will start scanning for the files on added Libraries, and you should be ready to play files with Plex Media Player or any other applications.

Using Apache Web server Proxy

Here is the apache configuration file

 <VirtualHost *:80>
   ServerName ip.address.of.server
   ProxyPass        / http://localhost:32400/
   ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:32400/
 </VirtualHost>

Secure Plex Media Server with Let’s Encrypt SSL

You can consider securing your Plex Media Server with Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate.

• Secure Plex and Kodi Media Server using Let’s Encrypt SSL

Enjoy using Plex media server.