Install Universal Media Server on Ubuntu 14.x •

Install Universal Media Server on Ubuntu for a complete DLNA server that works on a variety of devices. It is on github and releases are hosted on Sourceforge too. For a full DLNA server comparison to Plex and Serviio features see this link. DLNA devices include support for streaming video to Microsoft XBOX, Sony Playstations, Smart TVs and other devices. Universal Media Server will transcode too in case your TV or DLNA client doesn't support the right codec. You will find a range of plugins for Universal Media Server, here is the full list. This tutorial was tested on Ubuntu 14.x and includes a Universal Media Server init.d script so it will autostart on boot.

Pi Unit	Processor	RAM	RAM Bus	Network	WiFi	USB	SATA	Cost
Raspberry Pi 3	1.2 GHz ARMv8 Quad Core	1 GB DDR2	450 MHz	100 Mbit	Yes	4	No	$35
Raspberry Pi 2	900 MHz ARMv7 Quad Core	1 GB DDR2	450 MHz	100 Mbit	No	4	No	$35.00
Raspberry Pi	700 MHz ARMv6 Single Core	512 MB SDRAM	400 MHz	100 Mbit	No	4	No	$25
Banana Pi	1 GHz ARMv7 Dual Core	1 GB DDR3	432 MHz	Gigabit	No	2	Yes	$36.99
Banana Pi Pro	1 GHz ARMv7 Dual Core	1 GB DDR3	432 MHz	Gigabit	Yes	2	Yes	$45.00

Install Universal Media Server on Ubuntu

Install Java on Ubuntu first, accept the license

echo "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/webupd8team/java/ubuntu trusty main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/webupd8team-java.list
echo "deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/webupd8team/java/ubuntu trusty main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/webupd8team-java.list
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys EEA14886
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-installer -y

Autodownload using this rather hacky bash script, if it fails then you can replace $UMSURL with the latest download link from Sourceforge

UMSURL=$(wget -q http://sourceforge.net/projects/unimediaserver/files/Official%20Releases/Linux/ -O - | grep UMS | awk -F "[\"]" '{print $2}' | grep /download | awk 'NR==1 {print $1}')
wget $UMSURL -O UMS.tgz
sudo mkdir -p /opt/UMS
tar --strip-components=1 -xzf UMS.tgz -C /opt/UMS

Change ownership of the Universal Media Server folder to your main user

sudo chown -R htpcguides:htpcguides /opt/UMS

Check if Universal Media Server runs

cd /opt/UMS
./UMS.sh

If you don't see any errors then use Ctrl+C to kill the process in the SSH session

Install VLC for transcoding video files to your Smart TV or other DLNA devices which may lack the necessary codecs

sudo apt-get install vlc-nox -y

Autostart Universal Media Server init.d Script

Create the Universal Media Server init.d script

sudo nano /etc/init.d/ums

Paste the Universal Media Server init.d script and adjust the DAEMON_USER to your username

#!/bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          Universal Media Server
# Required-Start:    $local_fs $remote_fs $network
# Required-Stop:     $local_fs $remote_fs $network
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: Universal Media Server
# Description:       Universal Media Server
### END INIT INFO
 
 
# Documentation available at
# http://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/LSB_3.1.0/LSB-Core-generic/LSB-Core-generic/iniscrptfunc.html
# Debian provides some extra functions though
. /lib/lsb/init-functions
 
DAEMON_NAME="UniversalMediaServer"
DAEMON_USER=htpcguides
DAEMON_PATH="UMS.sh"
DAEMON_OPTS=""
DAEMON_PWD="/opt/UMS"
DAEMON_DESC=$(get_lsb_header_val $0 "Short-Description")
DAEMON_PID="/var/run/${DAEMON_NAME}.pid"
DAEMON_NICE=0
DAEMON_LOG='/var/log/universalmediaserver'
 
[ -r "/etc/default/${DAEMON_NAME}" ] && . "/etc/default/${DAEMON_NAME}"
 
do_start() {
  local result
 
	pidofproc -p "${DAEMON_PID}" "${DAEMON_PATH}" > /dev/null
	if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
		log_warning_msg "${DAEMON_NAME} is already started"
		result=0
	else
		log_daemon_msg "Starting ${DAEMON_DESC}" "${DAEMON_NAME}"
		touch "${DAEMON_LOG}"
		chown $DAEMON_USER "${DAEMON_LOG}"
		chmod u+rw "${DAEMON_LOG}"
		if [ -z "${DAEMON_USER}" ]; then
			start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --oknodo --background \
				--nicelevel $DAEMON_NICE \
				--chdir "${DAEMON_PWD}" \
				--pidfile "${DAEMON_PID}" --make-pidfile \
				--exec "${DAEMON_PATH}" -- $DAEMON_OPTS
			result=$?
		else
			start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --oknodo --background \
				--nicelevel $DAEMON_NICE \
				--chdir "${DAEMON_PWD}" \
				--pidfile "${DAEMON_PID}" --make-pidfile \
				--chuid "${DAEMON_USER}" \
				--exec "${DAEMON_PATH}" -- $DAEMON_OPTS
			result=$?
		fi
		log_end_msg $result
	fi
	return $result
}
 
do_stop() {
	local result
 
	pidofproc -p "${DAEMON_PID}" "${DAEMON_PATH}" > /dev/null
	if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
		log_warning_msg "${DAEMON_NAME} is not started"
		result=0
	else
		log_daemon_msg "Stopping ${DAEMON_DESC}" "${DAEMON_NAME}"
		killproc -p "${DAEMON_PID}" "${DAEMON_PATH}"
		result=$?
		log_end_msg $result
		rm "${DAEMON_PID}"
	fi
	return $result
}
 
do_restart() {
	local result
	do_stop
	result=$?
	if [ $result = 0 ]; then
		do_start
		result=$?
	fi
	return $result
}
 
do_status() {
	local result
	status_of_proc -p "${DAEMON_PID}" "${DAEMON_PATH}" "${DAEMON_NAME}"
	result=$?
	return $result
}
 
do_usage() {
	echo $"Usage: $0 {start | stop | restart | status}"
	exit 1
}
 
case "$1" in
start)   do_start;   exit $? ;;
stop)    do_stop;    exit $? ;;
restart) do_restart; exit $? ;;
status)  do_status;  exit $? ;;
*)       do_usage;   exit  1 ;;
esac

Make the Universal Media Server init.d script executable

sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/ums

Tell Ubuntu to start Universal Media Server on boots

sudo update-rc.d ums defaults

Start Universal Media Server service

sudo service ums start

You can access the headless Universal Media Server on the default port 9001 http://IP.address:9001/console

You can initiate a scan for new media from this location http://IP.address:5001/console/index.html

Configure Universal Media Server

Open the UMS configuration file

nano /opt/UMS/UMS.conf

Change the language

language = en-US

Change the GUI setting so Universal Media Server doesn't open a gui since we're running it headless

minimized = true

Choose the port of Universal Media Server

port = 9001

You can also change the sorting method which can help make TV shows and/or music show up correctly

# GUI selector generates a numeric indicator according to the following.
# 0: Alphabetical A-Z
# 1: By date (newest first)
# 2: By reverse date (oldest first)
# 3: ASCIIbetical (i.e. using ASCII code values)
# 4: Alphanumeric (AKA natural sort e.g. "Season 2" before "Season 10")
# 5: Random
# 6: No Sorting
# Default: 4
sort_method = 4

You can also remove the releasegroup and quality by enabling prettify

prettify_filenames = true

If you want to use imdb info set this parameter, note that it becomes true automatically if you enable prettify

use_imdb_info = true

By default Universal Media Server will scan your system for media, if you'd rather specify folders then set your media folders as a comma separated values list

folders = /home/htpcguides/TV, /mnt/usbstorage/Movies

Set the number of CPU cores for Universal Media Server to use

# CPU threads to use when enabled for engine
# ------------------------------------------
# Choose the number of processor cores that should be used for transcoding.
# Default: "", which will use automatic-detection.
number_of_cpu_cores = 2

Enable gpu transcoding if your system supports it and you are using vlc to transcode

gpu_acceleration = true

When you are done restart Universal Media Server

sudo service ums restart

Now you can go to the Universal Media Server web interface on its default port 9001 and watch video in your browser