Retropie with background plex server

Silster85

Hello, I'm new to the world of Raspberry Pi and this forum. I'm trying to find out if it is possible to run Retropie with a plex server running in the background. I have a Raspberry 4 - 4gb. My primary purpose is Retropie but would thrilled if I could get plex server to work in the background too. In my efforts to find if it is possible, I can only find discussions which are about 5-6 years old. Has anyone since been able to get this setup to work?

Darksavior

@Silster85 Probably, though, I haven't tried. Try it. The plex server runs in the background. I assume you won't use plex when you're playing a game because that will be too much for the pi.

mitu

@Silster85 said in Retropie with background plex server:

I'm trying to find out if it is possible to run Retropie with a plex server running in the background.

RetroPie is using Raspi OS Lite underneath, based on Debian 10 buster, use the Ubuntu/Debian Armv8 package downloaded from https://www.plex.tv/media-server-downloads/#plex-media-server to install it.

Darksavior

@mitu You can do a manual install of the plex server from the terminal. I couldn't find the official guide but I believe I used this one when I made mine. It should install on the retropie buster image but I've never tried. I was using a separate pi for it. https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-plex-server/

Silster85

Great, thanks for your advice. Shall give it a go 😁

luckyluca

@Silster85

Hey, did you have any success?

In planning to use my pi400 ad both retropie retrogaming machine and plex server when not in use, using an external 4tb ssd.

My only concern is perhaps degraded performance using the 32bit os rather than 64bit.

retropieuser555

@luckyluca you can always try it from the 64bit version? RetroPie does still build on 64bit, just certain things may not work perfectly (like some of the experimental or optional cores and emulators as they're built for 32bit, e.g Drastic)

luckyluca

@retropieuser555 Thanks, I researched it a bit, the best action for me is probably to have a dual boot:

microsd with Raspian 64bit and Plex server,
ssd via usb with my existing Retropie installation

And have a dual boot option with a choice at startup that defaults to Raspian after 5 seconds.

Any idea how I could set that up?

Best!