Lubuntu14.10 file server not playing video files

Question

i started off with Lubuntu 13.XX. initially setup the box as a torrent/file server box. for whatever reason, i needed to make changes, and moved to 14.04 but still using the same hardware in the torrent/file server. obtained larger hdd, and decided to update to 14.10 on that drive. everything was working properly for the last 2 weeks without fail until yesterday.

i setup lubuntu with no problem. update/upgrade - no problem. configured samba - no problem. normally use Kodi media player (sometimes VLC) from windows 7 to access lubuntu file server. without warning, it was not able to play some files that i had recently copied to the box. it also stopped playing other files it had always been able to play. i am still able to navigate and view all folders, but the files would not even play with VLC. most files were copy/cut & pasted to the drive via external USB device. i did not think that it should, but is it possible that copy vs cut would affect anything?

the one thing that i did differently was that i ran additional system updates on this box when i had not previously done it under the other configurations. is it possible that new updates broke some file access permissions? naturally i am able to play the videos directly from the lubuntu box itself. i find it strange that files that were recently copied within the same sub folders did not work. for example; season 3 was downloaded and seasons 1&2 were copied from another source, but only season 3 worked since it was originally on lubuntu.

any ideas before i destroy everything and rebuild?

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

0

14.10 is a version of Ubuntu with a shorter support period. Problems are solved more quickly on this version, but it also has more problems. For stability, always choose LTS versions. See this Q&A for more info.

Furthermore, copy-paste or cut-paste should make no difference, however the way you remove the USB disk has an impact. If you just yank it out without ejecting it, you're going to end up with unreadable files in the long run.

I don't think you have to re-install the system: do a apt-get purge kodi and apt-get install kodi OR try MiniDLNA.

On the other hand, if you do decide to re-install, read this Q&A on how to better set up and backup your system, so that if you do run into troubles, you're just a restore away from a solution.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

Community

1

answered Jan 19 '15 at 15:12

Fabby

34,259

And as you're a reputation 1 user: If this all works, don't forget to click the grey check-mark under the "0" at the left of this text, which means "yes, this answer is valid"! ;-) – Fabby Jan 19 '15 at 15:12
"the staging release version of Ubuntu". Where's this statement from? Your assumptions or an actual Ubuntu/Canonical document? – Thomas Ward Jan 19 '15 at 15:16
@ThomasW. Never looked for a document, It was and is obvious for me. Chat? General room? – Fabby Jan 19 '15 at 15:25
done - http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/201/conversation/discussion-between-fabby-and-thomas-w-regarding-terminology-usage-when-discussin – Thomas Ward Jan 19 '15 at 15:57
for this build, it was only supposed to be a torrent/file server box. i did not install kodi, so purging will not matter. playing from this box was for testing purposes only and not originally intended because i did not include audio support.
you have raised more questions: if i were to revert to an (older?) LTS version, would i still have to go through the steps for a full re-install?? is there an option to downgrade to a previous version from within 14.10?? would installing miniDLNA remove the need for samba? how does ejecting the external media affect the local internal hdd?
– ThatOneGuy Jan 21 '15 at 17:13
We're not on the same wavelength then: Can you summarize what your question is in one sentence? – Fabby Jan 21 '15 at 17:20

Lubuntu14.10 file server not playing video files

1 Answers1