Quick Start for Linux

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(2024/04/14) Configuration status web page updated automatically

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(2024/07/15) MinimServer 2.2 update 253 has been released

MinimServer 2 Quick Start for Linux

This page provides basic information for installing MinimServer 2 on Linux, getting up and running and performing some common tasks. If you have any questions about using MinimServer 2, please post them to the MinimServer forum.

Installing MinimServer 2

MinimServer 2 for Linux has been tested on Ubuntu, Debian, Raspberry Pi OS and Raspbian and in Docker and LXC containers. It should also work on most other versions of Linux. If you have any problems, you can get help by posting to the MinimServer forum.

To install MinimServer 2 on Linux, do the following:

Follow the instructions on the Installing MinimServer 2 on Linux page. If you are installing MinimServer 2 on a Raspberry Pi running Raspberry Pi OS or Raspbian, follow the instructions on the Installing MinimServer 2 on the Raspberry Pi page.
If you want to run MinimServer 2 in a Docker container on a QNAP NAS, on a Synology NAS or on Linux, or in an LXC container on a QNAP NAS, there are detailed instructions for this on the Running MinimServer 2 in a Docker or LXC container page.
When you first start MinimServer 2 after upgrading from MinimServer 0.8.5, some of your property settings from MinimServer 0.8.5 might not be active or shown in MinimWatch 2. This is because you are running MinimServer 2 Starter Edition, which has limited configurability. Your previous property settings will be enabled automatically when you activate a free 30-day trial of the full version of MinimServer 2 or when you purchase and activate a MinimServer 2 full license.
When you first start MinimServer 2 after upgrading from MinimServer 0.8.5, MinimStreamer will not be installed. If you want to use MinimStreamer, you need to install MinimStreamer 2 by following the instructions in the Installing MinimStreamer section. Your previous MinimStreamer property settings will be migrated automatically.
To activate a free 30-day trial of the full version of MinimServer 2, open the MinimServer 2 configuration page by selecting Configure from the minim icon pop-up menu. Alternatively, you can type the URL http://x.x.x.x:9790 into the address bar of a web browser, where x.x.x.x is the IP address of your Linux machine. After clicking through the License page and Welcome page, select the License tab and follow the instructions there.
For information about purchasing a MinimServer 2 full license, see this page. After purchasing the license, you need to activate it on your Linux machine. To do this, open the MinimServer 2 configuration page as described above, select the License tab and follow the instructions there.

MinimServer 2 licensing for multiple instances

MinimServer licensing is based on the number of devices that you are using to run MinimServer. For example, if you have purchased a MinimServer 2 license for up to 3 devices, you can install and run MinimServer on any 3 devices that support MinimServer.

On Linux, it is possible to install and run multiple instances of MinimServer on the same device. If you do this, all instances running on the same device share a single license activation.

For example, if you activate a full license for instance A and then install and start a second instance B on the same device that is running instance A, instance B will also have a full license when it is first started.

Similarly, if you then deactivate the full license for either instance A or instance B because you want to use this license activation on a different device, both instance A and instance B will reset to a starter license.

Activating a free 30-day trial for a MinimServer 2 instance makes the trial license available to any other MinimServer instances running on the same device. The trial must be activated separately for each instance and the trial expires 30 days after it was first activated on the device.

You can check which of your devices are using full license activations by entering your license information on the License details page.

MinimServer 2 licensing for Linux containers

On some devices, you can run one or more instances of MinimServer 2 in Linux containers. MinimServer 2 supports Docker containers and LXC containers running on a QNAP NAS and Docker containers running on a Synology NAS. For more information, see the Running MinimServer 2 in a Docker or LXC container page.

If you have activated a MinimServer 2 full license for a QNAP or Synology NAS running MinimServer 2, this license activation includes all MinimServer 2 instances running on that NAS, including instances running in Docker or LXC containers.

When you activate a full license for MinimServer running as a native package on QNAP QTS or Synology DSM, the full license is also enabled for Docker or LXC containers on the same device. When you activate a full license for a MinimServer instance running in a Docker or LXC container, the full license is also enabled for other containers of the same type (Docker or LXC) on the same device.

If you deactivate a full license for MinimServer running as a native package on QNAP QTS or Synology DSM, any other MinimServer instances running in Docker or LXC containers on the same device will reset to a starter license. If you deactivate a full license for a MinimServer instance running in a Docker or LXC container, any other MinimServer instances running in containers of the same type (Docker or LXC) on the same device will reset to a starter license.

When you activate a 30-day trial for MinimServer running as a native package on QNAP QTS or Synology DSM, the trial is also enabled for Docker or LXC containers on the same device. When you activate a 30-day trial for a MinimServer instance running in a Docker or LXC container, the trial is also enabled for other containers of the same type (Docker or LXC) on the same device. The trial must be activated separately for each MinimServer instance and the trial expires 30 days after it was first activated on the device.

You can check which of your containers are using full license activations by entering your license information on the License details page.

Configuring MinimServer 2 property settings

When MinimServer 2 is running and desktop integration is enabled, there should be a small minim icon (musical note) in the system tray or menu bar. If you right-click on this, you will see a menu with various selections.
If desktop integration is not enabled for MinimServer 2 (for example, if you are running MinimServer 2 on a "headless" Linux system or accessing the Linux machine remotely via SSH), see the following sections for other ways to configure MinimServer 2.
For details of how to use the minim icon to manage and configure MinimServer 2, see Controlling MinimServer using the minim icon.
For a list and descriptions of available property settings, see the Properties reference section.
Some MinimServer properties cannot be configured in Starter Edition (see the Starter Edition page). These properties are set to default values when you install MinimServer 2 and are greyed out in the Properties window. To configure these properties, you need to either activate a free 30-day trial or purchase and activate a full license (see above).
When you activate a free 30-day trial or a full license, your saved configuration settings from MinimServer 0.8.5 will be restored automatically and will be visible in the Properties window. You can then make changes to these settings if you wish.

Installing and using MinimWatch 2

This section applies if you want to configure MinimServer 2 from another computer instead of using desktop integration with the minim icon as described in the previous section.

To use another computer to configure MinimServer 2, you need to install MinimWatch 2 on that other computer. To do this, do the following:

Install the MinimWatch 2 application on another computer on your local network (Windows, Mac or Linux). You need to use MinimWatch 2 because previous versions of MinimWatch are not compatible with MinimServer 2. MinimWatch 2 is compatible with MinimServer 2 and also with previous versions of MinimServer. For details of how to download and install MinimWatch 2, see the MinimWatch page.
For details of how to use MinimWatch 2, see the Running MinimWatch section.
For a list and descriptions of the available property settings, see the Properties reference section.
Some MinimServer properties cannot be configured in Starter Edition (see the Starter Edition page). These properties are set to default values when you install MinimServer 2 and are greyed out in MinimWatch 2. To configure these properties, you need to either activate a MinimServer 2 free 30-day trial or purchase and activate a MinimServer 2 full license (see above). MinimWatch 2 does not require a license.
When you activate a MinimServer 2 free 30-day trial or full license, your saved configuration settings from MinimServer 0.8.5 will be restored automatically and will be visible in the MinimWatch 2 Properties window. You can then make changes to these settings if you wish.

Using the MinimServer 2 configuration web page

To use the MinimServer 2 configuration web page, do the following:

Open the MinimServer 2 configuration page by selecting Configure from the minim icon pop-up menu. Alternatively, you can type the URL http://x.x.x.x:9790 into the address bar of a web browser, where x.x.x.x is the IP address of the Linux machine that is running MinimServer 2.
After accepting the click-through license and reading the Welcome page, you will see the Status page. This shows the current status of MinimServer 2 and provides License, Properties, Profiles and MinimStreamer tabs for further configuration options.

Using the MinimServer 2 command interface

You can configure and control MinimServer 2 using a command interface. You can access this command interface in a number of ways.

If you start MinimServer 2 from a terminal window using the minimserver/bin/startc command, this provides an interactive command prompt. See this section for a list of available commands.
It is usually more convenient to run MinimServer 2 as a daemon background process. In this case, you can configure and control MinimServer using the command-line version of MinimWatch 2, started from a terminal window using minimwatch/bin/startc. You can run MinimWatch 2 on the same Linux machine as MinimServer 2 or you can run it a console (terminal) window on another Linux, Windows or Mac machine.
MinimServer also provides command scripting using the mscript program that is included with both MinimServer 2 and MinimWatch 2. For details, see this section.

Checking the current status of MinimServer

To check the current status of MinimServer, do the following:

When MinimServer is running and desktop integration is enabled, there should be a small minim icon (musical note) in the system tray or menu bar.
Hover your mouse pointer over the minim icon.
The minim icon will display a message showing the current state of MinimServer. If you are using GNOME Shell, you need to left-click the minim icon to see this message.
If you are using MinimWatch on another computer to manage MinimServer, you can use the MinimWatch minim icon or command interface (see above) to check the status.

Rescanning your library after adding or removing music

To rescan your library after adding or removing music, do the following:

Right-click the minim icon (see above) and select Rescan.
Alternatively, click the Rescan button on the MinimServer 2 configuration web page (see above).
While the rescan is in progress, MinimServer is not visible to UPnP control points. If you are playing music from MinimServer when the rescan starts, the music will continue to play during the rescan.
You can check the current status of MinimServer (see above) to see when the rescan has completed.

Creating and selecting a custom browsing profile

To create a custom (user-configured) profile for browsing your library, do the following:

To do this, you need to have activated a free 30-day trial or a full license (see above).
Configure the property settings that you want to save as a custom profile.
From the MinimServer 2 configuration web page (see above), select the Profiles tab followed by the Create tab.
In the 'New profile' field, type the name of the profile that you want to create, then click the 'Create Profile' button.
The newly created profile will contain your current property settings. It will appear in the list of available profiles and will become your current active profile.

To select a custom (user-configured) profile for browsing your library, do the following:

To do this, you need to have activated a free 30-day trial or a full license (see above).
From the MinimServer 2 configuration web page (see above), select the Profiles tab. The Select tab will automatically be selected below the Profiles tab.
Select any of the available profile choices and click the 'Select Profile' button.
The new profile will be selected and MinimServer will restart. When the restart has completed, the new profile will be active.
You can check the current status of MinimServer (see above) to see when the restart has completed.

Updating MinimServer

To check for and install a new version of MinimServer, do the following:

Click the minim icon (see above) and select About, then click the 'Show updates' button. If a new version is available you will see a message telling you this.
Note: You might see a message saying that an update is available. This is an online update (see below), not a new version. To install the online update, follow the prompts from the About dialog.
Alternatively, view the MinimServer 2 configuration web page (see above) to see if there is a message saying that a new version is available.
To install a new version, follow the instructions in the Updating an existing MinimServer installation section.
Some minor updates are installed automatically as online updates when MinimServer starts. For this, the Linux machine running MinimServer needs to have internet access.

Viewing MinimServer log files

To view the MinimServer log, do the following:

Click the minim icon (see above), and select 'Show log'.
Alternatively, look in the directory <minim-home>/minimserver/data where <minim-home> is the directory where MinimServer is installed. The file minimserver.log contains the MinimServer log. There might be other log files created by MinimServer in the same directory.

Installing MinimStreamer

To install the optional MinimStreamer component, do the following:

To install and run MinimStreamer, you need to either purchase and activate a full license or activate a free 30-day free trial. To activate your license or free trial, open the MinimServer 2 configuration web page by selecting Configure from the minim icon, then select the License tab and follow the instructions there.
In MinimServer 2, select Properties from the minim icon, then select the Packages tab and follow the prompts to install MinimStreamer.
If MinimStreamer is not shown as an available package, this probably means you have not activated a free 30-day trial or full license.
For details of how to do use MinimStreamer, see the MinimStreamer User guide.
Some transcoding settings require FFmpeg to be installed. To do this, download an FFmpeg static binary, extract the ffmpeg executable file from the downloaded archive and copy the ffmpeg executable file into the directory <minim-home>/minimserver/opt/bin where <minim-home> is the directory where MinimServer is installed. You can download Linux static binaries for FFmpeg from this page.

Stopping and starting MinimServer 2

To stop MinimServer 2, click the minim icon (see above) and select Exit. If you are running multiple instances of MinimServer, you need to do this on each of the minim icons.

To start MinimServer 2, click the MinimServer launch icon in your list of available applications.

Uninstalling MinimServer 2

To uninstall MinimServer 2, follow the instructions in the Uninstalling MinimServer 2 on Linux section. If you are uninstalling MinimServer 2 from a Raspberry Pi running Raspberry Pi OS or Raspbian, follow the instructions in the Uninstalling MinimServer 2 from the Raspberry Pi section.

Help and support

To get help and support, post your question to the MinimServer forum.