[Video Tutorial] How to install Plex Media Server using Distrobox on Bazzite

Bazzite
1

A great guide by @wolfyreload

However, it is better to use Podman, Docker, or linuxserver.io over Distrobox for most software that you host including Plex Media Server.

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This is how I initially ran Plex in Bluefin-DX, but I’ve since switched to using Docker. In case anyone is interested, here’s my docker-compose.yml, just update your Claim ID, Hostname and Paths to Music/Movies/etc

---
services:
  plex-service:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/plex:latest
    container_name: plex-service
    network_mode: host
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=America/Chicago
      - VERSION=latest
      - PLEX_CLAIM=claim-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
      - HOSTNAME=plex.domain.com
      - device=/dev/dri:/dev/dri
    volumes:
      - ./config:/config:rw
      - ../Music:/music
      - ../Movies:/movies
      - ../TV-Shows:/tv-shows
    restart: unless-stopped
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This is possibly a stupid question, but how do I update my plex media server manually through distrobox? Plex is telling me there’s an update available but it needs to be manually installed, unlike on Windows. I’m still learning my way around distrobox and the terminal in general.

I know this is a noob question, but I would greatly appreciate some help with this! Can I just use standard debian commands to update my media server? If so, I can just google the proper way to update it through the terminal, I just wanted to ask before doing anything because my mom and brother use my plex a lot and I’d rather not cause too much down time by messing up the update. I especially don’t want to lose my watch history because this is the 3rd time I’ve reset everything on plex due to once wiping my Windows 11 installation and then switching to Bazzite after that.

Thanks in advance for anyone that can help me out, and again, I’m sorry for the noob question!

Edit: Btw, this video was super useful to me, it’s greatly appreciated that you took the time to make this for us Linux noobs!

4

I think you should look more into the docker compose method described above. This way you are more so using the container to only the one specific app of Plex. Updates can also be done ~easier with just a docker pull && docker restart. I like to treat distrobox instances more as disposable CLI’s things. I wouldn’t mind being thrown in a new instance of my distrobox container. Maintaining a long time distrobox instance of plex sounds just sounds like a nightmare.

Other wise yes you should be able to just run apt update && apt upgrade and restart the distrobox.

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Thank you very much for the help, it’s greatly appreciated! I’ll look into docker, do you have any recommendations for documentation for a noob? I know I can google things like that, but having information for my specific use case would be ideal.

Again, thank you!

8

You could just add the plex repo inside the distrobox itself, because plex is not in the standard repos. You can check here how to do it: Enable repository updating for supported Linux server distributions | Plex Support

I would recommend installing nano first so you can edit the files mentioned on the link.

After you complete the all the steps you just use your package manager inside the distrobox to update it. So either apt, dnf etc. depends on the distro you’ve selected for the distrobox.

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Is there any way to start the distrobox environment for plex directly on startup? Right now I have to enter the distrobox for the plex server to start.