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I've been using Plex for a while and when I first started there was no official repository to pull from and the 3rd party (not Ubuntu or Plex) PPAs were badly maintained. So I simply used wget and dpkg to do a manual install of the official .deb files.

Now there is an official repository, I'd like to add it so that Plex will update with the rest of the system using apt. I saw this answer, but it's talking about going the other way; manual install over an apt installed package. I'd like some confirmation that this would work with apt over manual before I screw something up and have to uninstall/reinstall/reconfigure my media server. I'm pretty sure it will be fine since I'm get the .deb either way, but I just want to be sure.

Also, this repository is only for public releases, meaning I won't get early access as a Plex Pass user. This is normally fine, but if a new feature comes out that I want to try, could I then manually install and hold back apt as well? Can I switch back and forth between an apt install and a dpkg install and be sure that they will update the same package? What are the potential problems with doing this?

embedded.kyle
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1 Answers1

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Regarding potential problems in switching sources

It's always a good idea to back up configuration and settings regularly, especially when changing software sources. It's possible some of your server's settings might be missed if one package is looking for data in another location, or deleted or overwritten with default values (this shouldn't happen, but is possible - For clarification, I'm talking about your server's metadata & config, not your media)

Replace manual with apt:

Yes, if apt finds a newer version of a package in a repository that isn't blocked by your preferences, it will propose installing it. If you want to see exactly what will happen if you install the new package, you can do a dry run of the upgrade by running:

sudo apt-get upgrade --dry-run

which will install nothing, but will give you a play by play of what changes would happen if you did run the upgrade.

So, if you once installed Plex Media Server with dpkg, and then add the plex repository to your sources using their recommended method, your version of Plex Media Server will be upgraded. I successfully tested an upgrade from a version of ~1.5.5 I found, then added the repo, and it updated to 1.7.5.4035-313f93718, the version currently offered as an update to xenial. There were no obvious problems with the update, sources were retained and the web interface updated. Before attempting this, it would be a good idea to back up your server's configuration, as mentioned earlier.

Manual over apt:

if a new feature comes out that I want to try, could I then manually install and hold back apt as well?

apt will only install a newer version of a package, as long as you haven't excluded it with your preferences. So, as long as the advance builds have a higher version number than what is in the repositories (they should), apt should not try to overwrite the package that you manually installed with an earlier version.

To be extra safe, you can prevent updating of a specific package - that linked answer shows exactly how to do that in dpkg or apt.

drkokandy
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