File Permissions Guide for New Linux Users

[azeos 8]

8 minutes ago, TMCsw said:

This means only 'matias' can see anything or change into (cd) this directory!

if you really want to let emby save to anything under this you will need to open up the permissions to all user to the 'matias' dir:

sudo chmod 755 /home/matias

or make emby part of users group then allow the 'users' group access:

sudo adduser emby matias
sudo chmod 750 /home/matias

 

And which option do you recommend? Or should I store my backups elsewhere?

[TMCsw 252]

38 minutes ago, azeos said:

And which option do you recommend? Or should I store my backups elsewhere?

It's mostly up to you as IDK how you use your server, but generally I don't like opening up access for storing backups (or media, etc..) under /home as i find it makes it more difficult to maintain a coherent set of 'external backups' or maintain solid security of the sever....  

[azeos 8]

1 hour ago, TMCsw said:

It's mostly up to you as IDK how you use your server, but generally I don't like opening up access for storing backups (or media, etc..) under /home as i find it makes it more difficult to maintain a coherent set of 'external backups' or maintain solid security of the sever....  

Hope I'm answering your question:

I have a RPi 5 with Open Media Vault 7 with 4 HDD 4TB in an external enclosure (USB). I'm using mergefs and SnapRAID (3 disks for storage + 1 for parity).
Those disks are mounted on "/srv/mergerfs/...".

Emby is installed directly on mi SD card.

The server is used 99% of the time from LAN (Windows clients), but sometimes I access it remotely. The only use (at least from now) is for media files, Emby, nothing else.

[TMCsw 252]

On 3/25/2025 at 9:18 PM, azeos said:

Hope I'm answering your question:

Sorry for the late late reply (a bit busy lately) but i kinda gave you my opinion before . So just for fun I asked Copilot for Help, Here is what it gave back...

Q:can you help answer this?

Q:Absolutely, Tmc! Could you share a bit more about what you need help with? Whether it's a tricky question or a brainstorming session, I'm here to jump in.

A::(from past 2 posts) input?

A...:

It sounds like you're seeking advice or confirmation about your current server setup and practices. Here's my take:

• Server Organization & Backups: The suggestion not to store backups under /home is a solid one, as /home tends to house user-specific data and can complicate backup structures. Keeping your backups and media content within a dedicated directory like /srv/mergerfs/... ensures better organization and separation, making recovery and management simpler.

• MergeFS and SnapRAID: Your setup with mergefs and SnapRAID is robust for media servers, especially with SnapRAID's parity for redundancy. It’s a good balance between storage efficiency and data protection. Since you're using one parity disk for three data disks, make sure your parity disk is as large (or larger) than the biggest data disk to avoid issues.

• Emby on SD Card: Hosting Emby on your SD card can work, but be mindful of the card's write endurance. If Emby performs frequent writes (e.g., database updates or metadata scrapes), consider moving it to an SSD or another location with greater durability to prevent wear-out.

• Remote Access & Security: Since you access your server remotely, ensure that you're using secure methods, like SSH with strong keys or a VPN. Keeping services behind a secured network minimizes risks.

Does this align with what you were looking to address? Let me know if you'd like to dive deeper into any part of your configuration!

end of Copilot.

I have to agree with most of this, AND AGREE SD cards die! (my Pi 3/4 experience with Quality cards fail too soon, can (use ssd/m.2 if youi can) l also urge you to do an external backup

Avyway you probably already decided what to do  

Anyway just a little fun to unwind (but may actually help?)

[azeos 8]

@TMCswThanks for the (copilot)reply!

I created a new folder just for emby backups and only that user can write in there.

And as for the SD card, yeah... I know that eventually it will die, that's why I store the nfos and thumbs with the media files. What I need to do now is to copy the emby backup automatically to another location, just to be safe.

Thanks again for all your help!

[Xplorer4x4 1]

I am using CachyOS and can't seem to figure out the proper permissions. I have 2 internal drives in NTFS mounted via fstab, and the permissions show as xplorer4x4:media as they should, but my server will not pick up any new files or let me play any existing files.

[Cougar55 0]

Having a heck of a time getting Emby running on a UGreen DXP2800.  I installed Emby (the Linux edition) without using Docker.  I have been able to create libraries under a main "Media" shared folder.  Emby seems unable to get file permission to access any of these files. It makes no difference whether I have transcoding on or not. I get the "No compatible streams available" error code. For instance, when trying to play the 2 Guns.mkv file the log says "/volume2/Media/Movies/2 Guns/2Guns.mkv: Permission denied".  All the users have read/write access to the Media folder and all subfolders and files from with ugos. All the existing users are in a group I created and the group has all the permissions to read/write as well. Still, no joy getting it to play or get any new metadata.  I no longer know what else to do.  The files and folders themselves when listed on Linux show the file owner to be one of my administrators and the group to be the one I created in ugos. They have 777 permissions.  What am I missing here? Is there something special I must do when creating an Emby user from within Emby?

Here is the part of the log that shows the problem. The whole file is attached.

15:22:24.998 ffmpeg version 5.1-emby_2023_06_25_p4 Copyright (c) 2000-2022 the FFmpeg developers and softworkz for Emby LLC
15:22:24.998   built with gcc 10.3.0 (crosstool-NG 1.25.0)
15:22:24.998 Execution Date: 2026-02-28 15:22:24
15:22:24.999 /volume2/Media/Movies/2 Guns/2Guns.mkv: Permission denied
15:22:25.000 EXIT

ffmpeg-directstream-60a78a79-afe5-4f6e-9b9c-0c03b6ab6e20_1.txt

[Q-Droid 994]

Your individual Emby users only need access to your application web page and/or app login. Not to anything else on the system running Emby.

Check to see which OS user owns the Emby server logs. That is the user and group that needs access to the paths (folders) holding your media libraries and files. That same user:group also needs access to the transcoding temp path, recordings (if using LiveTV) and backup destination.