Podman quadlet fails to start exit code: 125

[delitin]

Greetings, 

I am having some trouble trying to run Jellyfin in a podman container. The container fails to start with the 

Code:

Error: invalid container path "cache", must be an absolute path

error code 125. 

I am running a fresh install of Debian 13. 

I followed the steps listed here: https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/instal...ia-systemd

I created a new jellyfin user, created

Code:

/home/jellyfin/.config/containers/systemd/jellyfin.container

, changed permissions to the /config and /cache mounted directories with

Code:

chown -R jellyfin /mnt/SSDstorage/containers/storage/jellyfin

. 

Does anyone have any suggestions? 

Thank you. 

Quadlet file: 

Code:

cat /home/jellyfin/.config/containers/systemd/jellyfin.container
[Container]
Image=docker.io/jellyfin/jellyfin:latest
AutoUpdate=registry
PublishPort=8096:8096/tcp
UserNS=keep-id
Volume=/mnt/SSDstorage/containers/storage/jellyfin/config:/config:Z
Volume=/mnt/SSDstorage/containers/storage/jellyfin/cache:/cache:Z
Volume=/mnt/storage/data/media/movies:/movies:Z
Volume=/mnt/storage/data/media/tv:/tv:Z

[Service]
# Inform systemd of additional exit status
SuccessExitStatus=0 143

[Install]
# Start by default on boot
WantedBy=default.target

Copy of logs: 

Code:

Aug 03 14:19:27 debian-server systemd[2676]: Starting jellyfin.service...
Aug 03 14:19:27 debian-server podman[3243]: 2025-08-03 14:19:27.374877375 -0400 EDT m=+0.108344946 system refresh
Aug 03 14:19:27 debian-server jellyfin[3243]: Trying to pull docker.io/jellyfin/jellyfin:latest...
Aug 03 14:19:27 debian-server jellyfin[3243]: Pulling image //jellyfin/jellyfin:latest inside systemd: setting pull timeout to 5m0s
Aug 03 14:19:27 debian-server jellyfin[3243]: Getting image source signatures
Aug 03 14:19:27 debian-server jellyfin[3243]: Copying blob sha256:eebe860b351f46c211bd65bdf6d6bc63a481aafaa1c0d668a8e85ff7b1b45dae
Aug 03 14:19:27 debian-server jellyfin[3243]: Copying blob sha256:4f4fb700ef54461cfa02571ae0db9a0dc1e0cdb5577484a6d75e68dc38e8acc1
Aug 03 14:19:27 debian-server jellyfin[3243]: Copying blob sha256:50bfcc1f0f6ba12b18c5a3dba75fbcf1cc9a9bffbfad4b55b1bcd5c8605efeb5
Aug 03 14:19:27 debian-server jellyfin[3243]: Copying blob sha256:6e909acdb790c5a1989d9cfc795fda5a246ad6664bb27b5c688e2b734b2c5fad
Aug 03 14:19:27 debian-server jellyfin[3243]: Copying blob sha256:4f4fb700ef54461cfa02571ae0db9a0dc1e0cdb5577484a6d75e68dc38e8acc1
Aug 03 14:19:27 debian-server jellyfin[3243]: Copying blob sha256:7cd79a9dc695e7f688ebae3c11db65f01a222e930a111732329fa48940d54262
Aug 03 14:19:27 debian-server jellyfin[3243]: Copying blob sha256:0687818e8a1a8e356921818200eb496c6ebd827055400c07bfd353d17fd3b2be
Aug 03 14:19:28 debian-server jellyfin[3243]: Copying blob sha256:02f98a034ebd721759c9259f741d9dafa8aa861d6b67eafc3e70b14263728279
Aug 03 14:19:38 debian-server jellyfin[3243]: Copying config sha256:bb8553ab0efe4b205734408fbd790684dfba22985f1fdef43453ba055fbb2339
Aug 03 14:19:38 debian-server jellyfin[3243]: Writing manifest to image destination
Aug 03 14:19:38 debian-server jellyfin[3243]: Error: invalid container path "cache", must be an absolute path
Aug 03 14:19:38 debian-server podman[3243]: 2025-08-03 14:19:38.095901715 -0400 EDT m=+10.829369262 image pull bb8553ab0efe4b205734408fbd790684dfba22985f1fdef43453ba055fbb2339 dock>
Aug 03 14:19:38 debian-server systemd[2676]: jellyfin.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=125/n/a
Aug 03 14:19:38 debian-server systemd[2676]: jellyfin.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Aug 03 14:19:38 debian-server systemd[2676]: Failed to start jellyfin.service.