this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2026
17 points (100.0% liked)

technology

24455 readers
366 users here now

On the road to fully automated luxury gay space communism.

Spreading Linux propaganda since 2020

Rules:

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Having a very ...fun time trying to install Plex Media server on Bazzite. Can anyone explain what the hell I'm even supposed to be trying to do here?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] transbyanism@hexbear.net 1 points 1 hour ago (3 children)

I personally use Kodi as Plex is not open source, though there's also Jellyfin. Let me know if you need help with Docker as I work in the industry

[–] EmmaGoldman@hexbear.net 1 points 53 minutes ago (2 children)

I truly do not understand how to work with Bazzite's immutable file structure. I get why it's good, but it also means I can't just run a command or open a Debbie or Rippum to install software. I also understand that containerizing the media server is better somehow, but I don't really get the point nor do I get how to actually do any of that. Like, it's faster than a VM but why is it actually bad practice to just install and run all this stuff "normally" like I can on Windows?

Apparently I'm supposed to use a quadlet for plex?

Presumably I'm also going to have to use containers to set up services like Radarr and Sonarr and Bazarr for automatic torrent and subtitle management?

[–] transbyanism@hexbear.net 3 points 32 minutes ago* (last edited 30 minutes ago) (1 children)

I truly do not understand how to work with Bazzite's immutable file structure.

Yep it's good until it isn't imo, it's good for casual users but once you try something with it, it's a PITA, I personally use CachyOS. Containerizing the media server, in this case, is better insofar they can push an update to the image and instantly update it and all dependencies, it's a "clean" slate and the program isn't spread through your filesystem everywhere, it's configured directly through the yaml file, and it's replicable so if you send them a bug report they will know you run X version which wont have build differences; though containerization has a small overhead, though if the image is good, it's largely reliable (I use containers on production servers). Tbh introducing your average Desktop user to running docker/podman containers seems like not a good idea on their part, especially for Desktop apps, I get the dev point though, but it's in tune with the whole immutability of the systems, while a neat idea for many they personally annoy me

With Plex you'd do something like:

# ~/.config/containers/systemd/plex.container
[Container]
ContainerName=plex
Environment=TZ=Your/TimeZone
Environment=PLEX_CLAIM="<claimToken>"
Image=docker.io/plexinc/pms-docker
AutoUpdate=registry
Network=host
Volume=/home/user/.config/plex:/config:z
Volume=/home/user/.cache/plex-transcode:/transcode:z
Volume=/home/user/Movies:/data:z

# Remove if you don't want autostart
[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Then execute:

systemctl daemon-reload

# Autostart Plex at boot, if you want
systemctl enable plex.service 

systemctl start plex.service

Though FYI I've never used Plex, this is mostly me doing it mentally, If you need a good resource there is https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Podman#Quadlet though it's dense and informative as usually the ArchWiki is. Let me know if you have any issues

[–] EmmaGoldman@hexbear.net 1 points 19 minutes ago

Just what I needed!

Awesome! I'm gonna give this shot in the morning, thank you!!