Emby hangs after install - Armbian Opi PC & Others

[DevoteeOfEmby 4]

Hi Everyone.  I am a long time devotee of Emby and have run the server on Armbian for probably close to a decade. It is always easy. Download the .deb.  sudo dpkg -i, then open up the permissions on the library drives and it just goes.

So last week I tried an Orange PI PC just to see if the thing could handle munching about 500 different TV shows. And it worked great. Took about a day to index, but they worked fine.  I am attempting to make a guide, so I went to test my methodology on a few other boards (a NanaPi M4, Odroid C2, an RPI 2 with Raspbian), and got the same behavior, all with that same drive, same workflow, everything the same.  But now when I click on the server after setup, it hangs and spins. Happens on the IP address on localhost, and Emby apps on the TV don't even see the server.

Tried sudo service emby-server restart in case it was crashing. Same behavior.  Logs don't seem to have any errors, and it does appear that it munched some files as they are quite large and repeated ffmpeg calls.

I'm flustered. Any help would be help. It usually does not go this way.

[DevoteeOfEmby 4]

Update: Just tried it with DietPi installed via the interface, not from the website, and same exact behavior, with a completely different drive, on the Odroid C2.

[DevoteeOfEmby 4]

I'm bumping this because I can't imagine why it would not be answered at this point and it is about to fall off the board.  Maybe it was a bug introduced and there is no time to fix it?  Some answer at all would be appreciated.  This is a huge percentage of the user environments out there, and I can't find anything I did differently. There are really only a couple steps regardless. 

[Happy2Play 9780]

Please post server log.

How to Report a Problem

 

[DevoteeOfEmby 4]

Ok here are the logs from the most recent install using DietPi.  Those instructions, btw, are for windows, and if I can't log in, I have no web interface obviously. These are from /var/lib/emby/logs for people who may be reading this topic down the road.

embyserver-63815837364.txt embyserver-63815837597.txt embyserver-63815869032.txt embyserver-63816004800.txt embyserver.txt hardware_detection-63815837412.txt hardware_detection-63815837657.txt hardware_detection-63816004789.txt hardware_detection-63816004918.txt

[DevoteeOfEmby 4]

I have now confirmed that this is a problem on x86/amd64 platforms as well. This is Linux Mint on a Dell Laptop.  So whatever this bug is that was introduced, it is affecting all Linux new installs. old installs are unaffected.

[DevoteeOfEmby 4]

And the same computer, using a Windows partition, ran the portable just fine and is now munching the same drive.  I was able to click on the initial user and the server behaved as normal. 

One note though. The setup.exe didn't work. 

[Luke 42077]

Hi, since this is a new install, can you try the beta and see how that compares? Thanks.

[DevoteeOfEmby 4]

I will tomorrow.  But I have to add something that I was just testing.  It seems that on my older servers that I built in mid to late march, on a different x86 laptop and an Odroid HC4, the existing clients work fine. Like I have a browser on my phone that was playing an episode of csi miami, and I can click home and everything is fine. Likewise the TV apps and the computers that have browsers logged into the two systems. 

But new clients are having that same hanging when you click on a profile.  I put the app on my phone and tried it, and both servers load the user table, but then hang when you click on one.  I have a feeling it is some kind of upstream conflict that was recently introduced, but I'm not that smart guy who has the ability to even try to figure it out.

[DevoteeOfEmby 4]

The beta has the same behavior.

[DevoteeOfEmby 4]

This fixed itself. Maybe it was hanging on an Emby Premiere check?   I have gotten the life Premiere twice I think, and recently got it on the email I use now.  I feel like I have used Emby without being online before, so who knows.   I don't think there is a way to put my code in without registering my server, which I don't want to do for privacy reasons. My most recent code ends in 1b4b00e7106afc666.   Thanks for looking at it. Seems like it is fine now.

Edited April 4, 2023 by DevoteeOfEmby

[DevoteeOfEmby 4]

Correction.  It fixed itself on existing installs, including newer ones that I tested. But on a new one it did the same behavior.  So I have no idea and will await someone who knows what they are doing to perhaps duplicate the problem. If someone needs me to send them a Pi I would be happy to do so.

[DevoteeOfEmby 4]

But it came up on the phone ap.  So I have no idea why all of a sudden this stuff changed, but my first several installs didn't do any of this stuff.  I'm going to let this new server munch for a few days and test it then.  I don't know why it would play nice with the ap but not a browser.

[DevoteeOfEmby 4]

Ok, so to close this, I have no idea what breaks and it and what fixes it, except that I now plugged my Emby Premiere into one of my servers on the network. And because I am actually writing a book on this subject, I will be testing this on other networks to see if the problem is persistent, or it was just a temporary upstream problem.  Obviously most people are on Windows, so the Linux problems are not a priority. If you run into this problem, try plugging in an Emby Premiere code and see if it fixes. The lifetime expense is ridiculously low for the service that this software offers.  I had just preferred to not use the code.

[DevoteeOfEmby 4]

I did find a new tip. When it sits and spins, click the manual login, and that seems to work.

[Luke 42077]

Hi, so are you all set now?

[DevoteeOfEmby 4]

Well yes and no Luke.   Yes that I figured out how to personally use my server, but as I am trying to write a book on this stuff and instruct people as to why they should choose Emby as compared to Plex or even Kodi, no. 

My main reason for this advice in my book would be that Emby does not require that you buy the Premeire, nor register your server on the Emby system. But this does not appear to be the case, based on my actual use of the product. 

If I plug in my Emby Premiere number on the server, and use Emby Theater, it works great.  If I attempt to use a browser and the IP of the server the regular login does not work. I have to use the manual login with the name of the server.  This was not true when I first installed the server, so go figure.

Then the output stops and starts, on the same file, on the same computer, on the same server, only when I use the IP address.   On Emby Theater it is solid as a rock. I have searched around and have not seen this issue even asked, so who knows.

But I have tried this on two computers, one x86 and one Arm. And I have tried it on an ethernet connection and a wireless connection, thinking that maybe the Theater has a better buffering system than the browser serving the file. 

Emby is still a much better system than the other options out there, by a country mile. And I would encourage everyone to pay for the lifetime. As I said, I believe I have purchased it twice, but I did not intend to register my server on the network.  I don't really care. But for the book, the free and anonymous option does not seem to be a reality.

[DevoteeOfEmby 4]

This was probably not easy to reproduce, assuming someone even looked at it because we'll never know. The problem probably has something to do with the Linux version of Firefox and how it digests video files. I have been unable to reproduce it from a remote computer running Windows, and Brave works fine on an Orange Pi 800 my kids use.  So if you experience this problem with halting playback, most likely it has something to do with this.  The log in issue can be resolved by using the Manual Log In.

[DevoteeOfEmby 4]

I will  be more detailed, not that it matters from a problem resolution perspective.  Emby Premiere client software interacts with Emby Server to play files natively between them, and it is extremely optimized. Therefore, and this is a big one, you can run Emby Server on an Orange Pi Zero with only 512M of RAM, but you have to play through the Premiere clients. This is mind blowing when you think about it.

But unfortunately, through a browser, Emby Server uses ffmpeg, which is a notoriously difficult piece of software, and a black box for most of us.  On the same OpiZero, it shows the processor running at over 300%, which probably means that it is overflowing the multiple cores.   

When the Emby client is used, it doesn't call ffmeg at all.  So there you have it folks.  After a month of scratching my head, I finally figured it out. Just pay for Emby and use the client software. As I have said, the lifetime subscription is more than worth it. I assume for privacy that an internal network that is not connected to the internet will be anonymous, but I have not yet tried to plug my Premiere code into an offline pi. 

[Luke 42077]

Hi, yes, ffmpeg is used if the browser doesn't support the media that you're trying to play. The server will convert it to something compatible. Thanks for the feedback.

[DevoteeOfEmby 4]

Oh that perfectly explains it thanks. Now I am trying to figure out why the lesser computers are stalling out when digesting large libraries. It makes it through a certain number then, dies.  My test libraries is about 500 shows with over 40,000 files, though I'm sure some are subtitles. I have not searched the existing posts for the problem yet. My first thought was that maybe it was running out of space for the images, but there is only 2g out of 16 available.  Doesn't seem to be a way to force anything besides standard scan library or replace metadata, and when I do that the board resources aren't overloaded at all. And I have successfully scanned this library with this SoC, the Allwinner H3. It took several restarts when I did it successfully, but it did work finally. This one has half the memory, only 512, and it just doesn't want to give up the ghost.  Seems like there is plenty of swap left, and the free RAM doesn't even seem to be moving that much when it calls ffmpeg to convert an image. It isn't just not grabbing all the images. When you click on a series it is blank.

 

[DevoteeOfEmby 4]

Here is the most recently log from that server.

embyserver(1).txt

[DevoteeOfEmby 4]

This is after one more try with debugging enabled.

embyserver(2).txt

[Luke 42077]

Hi, see this here:

	*** Error Report ***
	Version: 4.8.0.28
	Command line: /opt/emby-server/system/EmbyServer.dll -programdata /var/lib/emby -ffdetect /opt/emby-server/bin/ffdetect -ffmpeg /opt/emby-server/bin/ffmpeg -ffprobe /opt/emby-server/bin/ffprobe -restartexitcode 3 -updatepackage emby-server-deb_{version}_armhf.deb
	Operating system: Linux version 5.15.93-sunxi (root@d707798f2e43) (arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc (GNU Toolchain for the A-profile Architecture 8.3-2019.03 (arm-rel-8.36)) 8.3
	Framework: .NET 6.0.13
	OS/Process: arm/arm
	Runtime: opt/emby-server/system/System.Private.CoreLib.dll
	Processor count: 4
	Data path: /var/lib/emby
	Application path: /opt/emby-server/system
	SQLitePCL.pretty.SQLiteException: Corrupt: database disk image is malformed
	SQLitePCL.pretty.SQLiteException: Exception of type 'SQLitePCL.pretty.SQLiteException' was thrown.
	   at SQLitePCL.pretty.SQLiteException.CheckOk(sqlite3 db, Int32 rc)

Please take a look at this and it will help you get squared away:

https://support.emby.media/support/solutions/articles/44002210894-corrupt-database

[DevoteeOfEmby 4]

Thanks Luke. That's for sure what it was.  After trying to delete the two files and then when that didn't work doing a dpkg -P, I burned a new TF card in case it was that, and the server crashed again on the first library crawl of 500 shows. Could be the memory just isn't enough to hold the ship together.  This is the log after the fresh OS.  I didn't turn debugging on before I ran it, but I think it's a moot point at this point as the behavior is repeated and it is just generic Armbian that was successful on an H3 Opi PC with a gig of RAM. The board is working fine otherwise. I'll try Kodi and plex for the other part of the book on it. I'm just in the process of setting parameters for lowest common denominator with the media servers available.

embyserver(3).txt