Permissions for media shares on Linux?

[Noobr 0]

Hi,

I was using Jellyfin and it has some issues.

No offense to the Jellyfin devs.

I am sure they're doing an awesome job considering Jellyfins popularity.

However, Jellyfins addon/extension culture is REALLY messed up and disorganized and you can't find

any REAL and CLEAR troubleshooting information on some of the plugins I wanted to use that were just messing up everything.

New user for Emby.

Fairly new for Linux (about 2yrs now)

I have a NTFS formatted media drive 

I want IT to be the media drive for Emby on Linux

I have mounted it in fstab, installed Emby 

Here is my fstab |

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a device; this may
# be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices that works even if
# disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system>             <mount point>  <type>  <options>  <dump>  <pass>
UUID=5A63-0C29                            /efi           vfat    fmask=0137,dmask=0027 0 2
UUID=4da47b34-3c7d-4740-992f-d01034c393c5 /              ext4    noatime    0 1
UUID=bf62f847-7d2d-4d96-8778-105aeb2289c7 swap           swap    defaults   0 0
tmpfs                                     /tmp           tmpfs   defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0
UUID="4A1CFAC97DF19F28" /mnt/Media ntfs uid=64522,gid=64522,dmask=022,fmask=133 noatime 0 0
#UUID="4A1CFAC97DF19F28"                   /mnt/Media     ntfs    defaults,noatime 0 0
#UUID="881e4150-2e3b-4eab-bace-62664c8c37e3" /mnt  noatime 0 0

I would like to know the proper format to implement the proper permissions for emby (gid=64522) on the media drive.

In my example above, do you think this will work?

I just spent 3 days copying media fails over so I would rather NOT re-format the drive to ext (but I will if that means no issues will playback for all users in my home).

Currently, I have a samba share on the media server to allow me to backup the main NTFS formatted media drive (attached to my personal desktop).

I dod this because I also have a windows 2016 server file server and media server that runs if/when the Linux media server one gets borked and I have to fix it.

I've been using Jellyfin and lots of "hardly any documentation to troubleshoot add-ons and extensions" and it gets messed up all the time purely through my own ignorance of the ext/add-on system and Jellyfins lack of control over it and documentation on most of it as Jelly provides hardly ANY useful add-ons and extensions and it looks like crap without them.SO, is what it is.

I don't want to get down on the Jellyfin devs though, that is not my point here, I am 100% sure that my Jellyfin issues are due to my own ignorance and so Jellyfin is not for me.

I started over with Jellyfin 5 times before saying <insert bad word here and add "it"> and purchasing Emby instead.

SO, I'm done with Jellfin and am now here where I now have a professionally purchased media server that is NOT <insert bad word here> PLEX!

My main goal with THIS thread is to get the proper permissions et on the NTFS media share so everyone in the house can use Emby clients to access the server OR to find out it cannot be done and reformat the media share drive to ext4 and start over again in order to accomplish that?

I have two media share users

my admin user (same as the samba share) ME

my 1 user (same as the samba share) home is the username

this is my smb.conf

[Media]
   comment = Samba Share
   path = /mnt/Media/
   valid users = ME home
   public = no
   writable = yes
   printable = no
   create mask = 0765

THANK YOU all for any help forthcoming.

[tedfroop21 101]

 

[Luke 42785]

@Noobrplease let us know if this helps. Thanks !

[Noobr 0]

I read that.

Well- I am a noobr, hence the name.

So, if I add this

Quote

UUID="4A1CFAC97DF19F28" /mnt/Media ntfs rw,uid=64522,gid=1001,dmask=022,fmask=133 noatime 0 0

I assume that will allow my home user (home = hm:x:1001:1001::/home/hm:/usr/bin/bash) to connect to and playback media? How can I add a 2nd user? Or is that what the article is talking about when it says 1 set of permission for the whole drive? Just one user?

I have 4 users that will need to access the SMB share from Windows clients and they will also need to be able to use Emby clients.

This is doable?

I want them to access the SMB share itself when I am done. Read access only.

 

Edited Friday at 08:15 PM by Noobr
change

[Noobr 0]

I think I am over thinking this.

I got some issues with that.

I just added uid emby and guid mylogonuser to fstab  and am adding folder to emby now.

It sees ot be populating the server just fine on the server machine itself..I have not yet tried o access it remotely

thats another step.

[Noobr 0]

I have no clue about those permissions. 

These are what I have and it seems to be working fine. I am unsure about security but only internal users, this server will never see the internet or anything outside of my LAN.

drwxrwxrwx 1 root root    4096 Jul 23 11:50 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 emby users   4096 Jul 24 10:07 ..
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root   12288 Jul 23 03:03 Documentaries
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root  311296 Jul 23 21:42 movies
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root  466944 Jul 23 03:18 Music
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root       0 Jul 23 00:11 Seasonal
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root    4096 Jul 22 23:57 .Trash-1000
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root   12288 Jul 23 11:50 TV

NO one in my home will delete anything so am not really worried about that. They're all over 30 and everyone but me is a dev / computer science engineer, they're not going to do anything out of ignorance or anything like that.

I am worried about some other repercussions due to these permissions.

Will they be OK they way they are or should I change them to something else?

[TMCsw 283]

Those permissions mean anyone can read/write/delete anything, you really should learn some Linux basics if you are going to use it .

Maybe start with permissions 

[Noobr 0]

Yah that's what I thought and you are not wrong either.

 

I AM still learning.

BUT, I can let everyone in my home know that they shouldn't even try to delete anything and it will be fine.

The Emby media drive changes all the time and regular backups are run to prevent any data loss if the emby media drive gets borked in any way.

As I understand it this is pretty much the ONLY way to do this with an NTFS formatted drive when using Linux.

Do you guys know otherwise?

For example, can I mount the drive via fstab and give multiple users different permissions in this manner?

I have samba running also and the home account has read only access while my user has r/w access.

In the Emby manager I have created 5 users, the admin user (mine) and 4 others for each member of my family, including myself.

I'll have 2 accounts, admin and reg user.

The reg users do not have any permissions to delete anything via Emby or Samba and none of them even logon to this server ever--not that I am aware off-we don't do DVR or camera uploads or anything that would cause them to want to write something using Emby--they'd ask me to put something on the samba share if it came to that.

I understand this is not a place where I am going to learn Linux and Linux permissions however, after purchasing the software I just assumed that part of the initial support would be more clear about permissions and the initial setup for noobs like myself.

I mean even Netgear will help a guy setup his AP for the first time.

If anyone can make things more clear for me like the command to implement the proper permission for my Emby server drive, that would be helpful.

Otherwise, everything is working right now, security aside, and I must have misunderstood the nature of this community support forum OR what I have done is about the only way to do it? I mean if there is a different more secure way using the NTFS drive please I AM WILLING to learn that's for sure.

I'll take it over to my own Linux distro support forum and see if I can get more real help there.

Cheers everyone!

 

[TMCsw 283]

https://emby.media/support/articles/Quick-Start.html

Also, since you're running on Linux, you should be using a Linux-formatted drive (xfs . ext4…) NTFS drives add more complexity and problems; NTFS via SMB remote is fine.

If you insist on using NTFS, then you should install and use it properly:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ntfs-3g fuse

Yes, you can get help here, but you need to do some of your own legwork 

[Noobr 0]

I am unsure what you mean? I have both built-in kernel driver and also ntfs-3g fuse installed. 

https://www.fosslinux.com/157903/linux-filesystem-drivers-ntfs-btrfs-storage-stack.htm

uname -r
7.1.4-zen1-1-zen

 

sudo pacman -Qs ntfs*
[sudo] password for myuser: 
local/libntfs-3g 2026.7.7-1
    NTFS-3G core library
local/ntfs-3g 2026.7.7-1
    NTFS FUSE driver

 

[JustAnIdiot 0]

.

Edited 17 hours ago by JustAnIdiot

[Noobr 0]

Correct!

Arch IS too complicated for me. I can't imagine even being able to install it without major issues!

For now anyways.

I started this journey 37 years ago but took 34 years off to work with Winblows only and raise a family - time being in constant short supply I only just recently got back to Linux.

THAT was a mistake.

So, Here I am 2yrs into my NEW Linux journey and a LOT has changed.

3yrs really, I took a year to experiment with distro's.

BUT permissions are still the same. I am a bit older now,  remembering and learning is a bit more difficult than it was back then - I have developed some challenges along the way and found out about challenges I had all along that went UN-diagnosed for most of my life.

I make notes as I go so as to not bother anyone too much with my forgetfulness by ask the same questions repeatedly.

It is what it is.

So far, in the past 3 years, I've installed and used Ubuntu in many varieties and flavors, Fedora, Debian..I mean I've been around the block as far as distro's go.

I settled on an Arch based distro because of it's up to date hardware support and it's compatibility with gaming, particularly steam gaming.

Literally anything else I could ever want from a desktop Linux is also, of course included. 

BUT Arch based distro's are the FEW distro's that are REALLY up to date and are absolutely stable as fuck.

I had three criteria when looking for a distro.

- Graphical environment works as expected immediately after install

- my modern hardware is supported

- stable software and OS usage and updates

Coming from a Winsucks environment I don't think these things are to much to be expected from ANY modern Linux Desktop.

Ubuntu installs fine, works fine, finds all my hardware and breaks frequently due to simple updates.

Must be Microsoft's influence.

Ubuntu also stole or TRIED REALLY hard to steal MY CHOICE to use Firefox as a package and not a SNAP. They are like the company I am trying to escape from in too many ways for me to be comfortable using their OS.

result | -- ditched all Ubuntu related OS's

Fedora is a non starter--it worked fine from the LiveISO and the install was flawless--but like every time I ever tried Red Hat OS's of any type, immediately after the install it reboots straight to a terminal with X crashing..sigh...it is GOOD to know some things never change and YES I DO KNOW it is easy to fix this but why the hell should ANYONE HAVE TO? IT is 2026 not 1996 (the last time I tried Red Hat-I think it was version 2.0) ffs!

Let's just toss all the Red Hat stuff in the above paragraph and move on.

OK, so that brings me to mint, LM works awesomely on my 11 yr old MSI GE60 laptop (NVIDIA 850 chip set) - found everything, including the proper NVIDIA graphics driver, installed it all, even my network printer was discovered and setup properly during the install (WOW..just WOW) HOWEVER, the NVIDIA driver install for my graphics adapter on my desktop left me high and dry sitting at a terminal--nouveau = good | NVIDIA = bad

result | fdisk install some other Linux n my Desktop - LM is STILL on my laptop and I love it there

Like I said if an OS does this to me it is off my list --- to bad, I might still be running LM if that NVIDIA driver thing hadn't have happen. A TRULY wonderful install experience and I highly recommend it to anyone who has no need of NVIDIA drivers or has the patience to fix them.

I was NOT going back to Wintheif so, I was determined to find MY Linux. I read about steam OS because gaming is important to me (I'm old, not dead). Found out it as based on Arch so went out looking for Arch derivatives and found EndeavourOS (I also dual boot Cachey OS).

SO, here I am. Using EndeavourOS for my Desktop and my media server.

I still run Windows Srv2016 as a file and backup server so I guess I COULD always have purchased the Windows version of Emby but I thought WHY do that when I am trying to move way from Winsucks and Microblows. SO, instead I purchased a license and chose to use the Linux version of Emby..

Knowing all that is it still your advice that I go back to using "something easier" than Arch?

Maybe instead of continuing my Linux journey and trying as best I can with my age and challenges to learn something new I should just give ti all up and quit because it is too difficult is that it?

I ask because, knowing what challenges I have over come so far I do not think NOW is the time to concede defeat to Microsoft and Linux people who don't think any non-expert Linux user should actually use Linux.

I can ALWAYS go ask my 2 sons who are both devs who use Linux daily I mean, they live me, it's a big house. BUT, I HATE doing that, it feels like cheating when I want to be apart of the Linux community. I get help and fairly regularly participate in the community forums. I feels better when I don't have to go ask them is all and I AM trying to learn.

IF someone here put the steps down I would dissect the shit out of them and learn from them but I also understand that no one wants to constantly be helping users who are not technical or computer savvy and will just repeatedly ask for help over and over and never go away.

I have been an IT tech all my life, just on the Winbreaks side of things. I mean I still get paid over 6 figures each year to support this shit so I MUST be doming maybe a little bit right? I know I am no genius but I only scored about 10 point below entry level so...not stupid no matter how it seems to you guys.

I AM NOT that guy that's going to copy paste shit and not try to understand what it is I am doing.

BUT, it is what it is.

I am too old to be concerned with elitism in Linux.

That's the old school elitist crap that made me leave Linux 34 years previous to now and it really doesn't fly in today's world - except if one chooses to use ARCH itself instead of a very well put together and stable ARCH based distribution. 

SO, all that being said, TYVM for your input everyone but if all I am going to get is "that's to hard for you" and go learn something" then this community forum is kind of useless isn't it?

I mean I've gotten as far as I have by myself by reading your documentation and a bunch of other websites dealing with Emby and Linux permissions in general and yet all say I NEED TO DO SOME LEGWORK and THAT'S to difficult for you". 

HUH? Here it is , me and my less than genius level I.Q. figuring I was doing some legwork and I had NO CLUE it was too difficult for me either, thank you all so much for pointing that out to me.

My problem is not that "it is too hard for me" it is that I have severe memory issues and learning difficulties. SO, I learn something and =if I practice it on a regular basis I am good. However if days or weeks go by and I do not practice I lose it and have to re-learn it. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over all my life! I am 63. I have had to re-learn things over and over again all my life. Does that make me stupid or more intelligent than average? I guess that's a point of view and probably not a discussion for this forum.

So, when I get a new piece of software I ask a ton of questions, make notes and back these notes up so I am not constantly asking the same questions over and over again. That STILL happens though, albeit more infrequently than before my diagnosis.

Sheesh - this is the very first Linux forum I've had to explain this in. Even in my EndeavourOS community forum I did not feel like I had to explain this to anyone. I mean I did explain it but not because i felt like people thought I was stupid or lacking in some way.

Tell me something, if every non-Linux expert went and used something easier, say Windows or Mac PC's, where would that leave Linux in the future going forward compared to what is in store it it now with it's growing popularity?

I kind of feel discriminated against and judge as being too stupid here.

SO, THAT being said, Have a great life everyone.

Cheers and thanks for all the fish!

Edited 15 hours ago by Noobr

[TMCsw 283]

14 hours ago, Noobr said:

Correct!

Arch IS too complicated for me. I can't imagine even being able to install it without major issues!

For now anyways.

I started this journey 37 years ago but took 34 years off to work with Winblows only and raise a family - time being in constant short supply I only just recently got back to Linux.

THAT was a mistake.

So, Here I am 2yrs into my NEW Linux journey and a LOT has changed.

3yrs really, I took a year to experiment with distro's.

BUT permissions are still the same. I am a bit older now,  remembering and learning is a bit more difficult than it was back then - I have developed some challenges along the way and found out about challenges I had all along that went UN-diagnosed for most of my life.

I make notes as I go so as to not bother anyone too much with my forgetfulness by ask the same questions repeatedly.

It is what it is.

So far, in the past 3 years, I've installed and used Ubuntu in many varieties and flavors, Fedora, Debian..I mean I've been around the block as far as distro's go.

I settled on an Arch based distro because of it's up to date hardware support and it's compatibility with gaming, particularly steam gaming.

Literally anything else I could ever want from a desktop Linux is also, of course included. 

BUT Arch based distro's are the FEW distro's that are REALLY up to date and are absolutely stable as fuck.

I had three criteria when looking for a distro.

- Graphical environment works as expected immediately after install

- my modern hardware is supported

- stable software and OS usage and updates

Coming from a Winsucks environment I don't think these things are to much to be expected from ANY modern Linux Desktop.

Ubuntu installs fine, works fine, finds all my hardware and breaks frequently due to simple updates.

Must be Microsoft's influence.

Ubuntu also stole or TRIED REALLY hard to steal MY CHOICE to use Firefox as a package and not a SNAP. They are like the company I am trying to escape from in too many ways for me to be comfortable using their OS.

result | -- ditched all Ubuntu related OS's

Fedora is a non starter--it worked fine from the LiveISO and the install was flawless--but like every time I ever tried Red Hat OS's of any type, immediately after the install it reboots straight to a terminal with X crashing..sigh...it is GOOD to know some things never change and YES I DO KNOW it is easy to fix this but why the hell should ANYONE HAVE TO? IT is 2026 not 1996 (the last time I tried Red Hat-I think it was version 2.0) ffs!

Let's just toss all the Red Hat stuff in the above paragraph and move on.

OK, so that brings me to mint, LM works awesomely on my 11 yr old MSI GE60 laptop (NVIDIA 850 chip set) - found everything, including the proper NVIDIA graphics driver, installed it all, even my network printer was discovered and setup properly during the install (WOW..just WOW) HOWEVER, the NVIDIA driver install for my graphics adapter on my desktop left me high and dry sitting at a terminal--nouveau = good | NVIDIA = bad

result | fdisk install some other Linux n my Desktop - LM is STILL on my laptop and I love it there

Like I said if an OS does this to me it is off my list --- to bad, I might still be running LM if that NVIDIA driver thing hadn't have happen. A TRULY wonderful install experience and I highly recommend it to anyone who has no need of NVIDIA drivers or has the patience to fix them.

I was NOT going back to Wintheif so, I was determined to find MY Linux. I read about steam OS because gaming is important to me (I'm old, not dead). Found out it as based on Arch so went out looking for Arch derivatives and found EndeavourOS (I also dual boot Cachey OS).

SO, here I am. Using EndeavourOS for my Desktop and my media server.

I still run Windows Srv2016 as a file and backup server so I guess I COULD always have purchased the Windows version of Emby but I thought WHY do that when I am trying to move way from Winsucks and Microblows. SO, instead I purchased a license and chose to use the Linux version of Emby..

Knowing all that is it still your advice that I go back to using "something easier" than Arch?

Maybe instead of continuing my Linux journey and trying as best I can with my age and challenges to learn something new I should just give ti all up and quit because it is too difficult is that it?

I ask because, knowing what challenges I have over come so far I do not think NOW is the time to concede defeat to Microsoft and Linux people who don't think any non-expert Linux user should actually use Linux.

I can ALWAYS go ask my 2 sons who are both devs who use Linux daily I mean, they live me, it's a big house. BUT, I HATE doing that, it feels like cheating when I want to be apart of the Linux community. I get help and fairly regularly participate in the community forums. I feels better when I don't have to go ask them is all and I AM trying to learn.

IF someone here put the steps down I would dissect the shit out of them and learn from them but I also understand that no one wants to constantly be helping users who are not technical or computer savvy and will just repeatedly ask for help over and over and never go away.

I have been an IT tech all my life, just on the Winbreaks side of things. I mean I still get paid over 6 figures each year to support this shit so I MUST be doming maybe a little bit right? I know I am no genius but I only scored about 10 point below entry level so...not stupid no matter how it seems to you guys.

I AM NOT that guy that's going to copy paste shit and not try to understand what it is I am doing.

BUT, it is what it is.

I am too old to be concerned with elitism in Linux.

That's the old school elitist crap that made me leave Linux 34 years previous to now and it really doesn't fly in today's world - except if one chooses to use ARCH itself instead of a very well put together and stable ARCH based distribution. 

SO, all that being said, TYVM for your input everyone but if all I am going to get is "that's to hard for you" and go learn something" then this community forum is kind of useless isn't it?

I mean I've gotten as far as I have by myself by reading your documentation and a bunch of other websites dealing with Emby and Linux permissions in general and yet all say I NEED TO DO SOME LEGWORK and THAT'S to difficult for you". 

HUH? Here it is , me and my less than genius level I.Q. figuring I was doing some legwork and I had NO CLUE it was too difficult for me either, thank you all so much for pointing that out to me.

My problem is not that "it is too hard for me" it is that I have severe memory issues and learning difficulties. SO, I learn something and =if I practice it on a regular basis I am good. However if days or weeks go by and I do not practice I lose it and have to re-learn it. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over all my life! I am 63. I have had to re-learn things over and over again all my life. Does that make me stupid or more intelligent than average? I guess that's a point of view and probably not a discussion for this forum.

So, when I get a new piece of software I ask a ton of questions, make notes and back these notes up so I am not constantly asking the same questions over and over again. That STILL happens though, albeit more infrequently than before my diagnosis.

Sheesh - this is the very first Linux forum I've had to explain this in. Even in my EndeavourOS community forum I did not feel like I had to explain this to anyone. I mean I did explain it but not because i felt like people thought I was stupid or lacking in some way.

Tell me something, if every non-Linux expert went and used something easier, say Windows or Mac PC's, where would that leave Linux in the future going forward compared to what is in store it it now with it's growing popularity?

I kind of feel discriminated against and judge as being too stupid here.

SO, THAT being said, Have a great life everyone.

Cheers and thanks for all the fish!

Perhaps you should talk to Dr. Phil <TL;DR>

Edited 46 minutes ago by TMCsw