Subj : Re: No longer
To   : Tiny
From : Accession
Date : Sun Dec 14 2025 08:53:34

Hey Tiny!

On Sun, Dec 14 2025 05:16:17 -0600, you wrote:

> I restored a 2 day old image just to get jellyfin to display videos 
> again.  So yeah, I guess the trick is to not ever update and maybe 
> once a year just do a re-install to get security updates.

I'm guessing that's not the "trick", as there may be some other issues at hand.

> Everything I read online suggests not waiting on updates...But for>
> some reason every update borks ffmpeg and I'll be damned if re- 
> installing it helps. lol

While I have no skin in this game, and don't mess around with that kind of stuff at the moment, are you using the regular ffmpeg package? I see that there's a jellyfin-ffmpeg (and even a jellyfin-ffmpeg-git) package out there that may be a decent alternative? Again, I don't know and didn't look very far into it. But, if ffmpeg updates, and it relies on other packages for jellyfin that /weren't/ updated to reflect ffmpeg's update (or vise versa - jellyfin updates and relies on ffmpeg and other packages that weren't updated yet), you can definitely run into issues. That shouldn't normally be the case, though. I'd think jellyfin would wait for new packages it relies on, and then update it's own package accordingly.

There does seem to be issues out there, so it's definitely not just you. I did a quick DDG search for "archlinux updating ffmpeg breaks jellyfin" and it came up with quite a few results. Maybe there's something there that is similar to what you're experiencing.

Either way, once you have it working, there's nothing requiring you to update anything, unless there's something specific you want or need (security update or new features, etc). You can use an LTS version of just about anything as well, and if there's an update to ffmpeg during an update, you could run in to the same issue(s) there, too. If you're just trying to set things up to work, and leave it alone, there's no need to constantly update any distro, Arch or anything else.

There's also the option of separating your desktop environment from your jellyfin setup, as in installing jellyfin and it's prerequisites in it's own VM or container while leaving it alone once it's working. Then having your desktop environment in it's own instance where you can update and break things all you want. ;)

Regards,
Nick

.... Sarcasm, because beating people up is illegal.
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