SOLVED: Updating Jellyfin on arch not working

[Takane7]

Running jellyfin 10.8.10 on Arch Linux x86 (Kernel 6.6.10-arch1-1)
When I try to update Jellyfin with either pacman or yay, I get this error:

Code:

sudo pacman -Syu
:: Synchronizing package databases...
core
core is up to date extra
:: Starting full system upgrade...                                                                                            8.3 MiB  2.95 MiB/s 00:03 [#############################################################################################] 100%
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...
error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
:: installing jellyfin-web (10.8.13-1) breaks dependency 'jellyfin-web=10.8.10' required by jellyfin
:: installing jellyfin-server (10.8.13-1) breaks dependency 'jellyfin-server=10.8.10' required by jellyfin

I have successfully updated both with yay before so I don't understand what changed to break it.

[Host-in-the-Shell]

Just a shot in the dark here but did you by any chance initially install jellyfin-web and jellyfin-server from the AUR before they were moved to the main repos? If so, my guess is that they're using an outdated PKGBUILD that still lists 10.8.10 as a hard dependency. You probably need to remove those packages with

Code:

# pacman -R jellyfin-web jellyfin-server

and then just to be sure, update your system so you can reinstall the packages safely

Code:

# pacman -Syu jellyfin-web jellyfin-server

Often, pacman wrappers tend to abstract a lot of the build process and situations like this can be created, so be on the lookout for that.

[Takane7]

Just a shot in the dark here but did you by any chance initially install jellyfin-web and jellyfin-server from the AUR before they were moved to the main repos? If so, my guess is that they're using an outdated PKGBUILD that still lists 10.8.10 as a hard dependency. You probably need to remove those packages with

Code:

# pacman -R jellyfin-web jellyfin-server

and then just to be sure, update your system so you can reinstall the packages safely

Code:

# pacman -Syu jellyfin-web jellyfin-server

Often, pacman wrappers tend to abstract a lot of the build process and situations like this can be created, so be on the lookout for that.

you might be on to something there, I dont remember how I installed it but it was a long time ago, so probably from the AUR yeah. Is there a way to look that up?

[Host-in-the-Shell]

Well, the earliest version they have recorded on their gitlab for those packages is 10.8.10-3 which dates from September 16, 2023[1][2], so you can run

Code:

$ sed -n "/ installed $1/{s/].*/]/p;q}" /var/log/pacman.log

replacing $1 with jellyfin-web and jellyfin-server to get the install date and time. You must run it for each package for it to print the information correctly. Using that data we can find out if they were installed prior to September 16.

[1] https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/p...mmits/main
[2] https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/p...mmits/main

[Takane7]

Well, the earliest version they have recorded on their gitlab for those packages is 10.8.10-3 which dates from September 16, 2023[1][2], so you can run

Code:

$ sed -n "/ installed $1/{s/].*/]/p;q}" /var/log/pacman.log

replacing $1 with jellyfin-web and jellyfin-server to get the install date and time. You must run it for each package for it to print the information correctly. Using that data we can find out if they were installed prior to September 16.

[1] https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/p...mmits/main
[2] https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/p...mmits/main

March 21st for both of them. So I'll reinstall the packages, thanks! Though one question, will i have to setup jellyfin anew? really been trying to avoid that

[Host-in-the-Shell]

Well, before you do anything... backup everything. Use the 3-2-1 backup rule if possible.[1]

I don't run jellyfin on arch, but considering they are just binaries and that pacman -R doesnt remove dependencies or config files it should be okay. But again, backup everything you can't afford to lose. If you still have an arch install media that you can boot from, it comes with clonezilla already as one of the utilities you can run from it, or you can go to their website to create your own utility.[2]

[1] https://www.veeam.com/blog/321-backup-rule.html
[2] https://clonezilla.org

[Takane7]

Well, before you do anything... backup everything. Use the 3-2-1 backup rule if possible.[1]

I don't run jellyfin on arch, but considering they are just binaries and that pacman -R doesnt remove dependencies or config files it should be okay. But again, backup everything you can't afford to lose. If you still have an arch install media that you can boot from, it comes with clonezilla already as one of the utilities you can run from it, or you can go to their website to create your own utility.[2]

[1] https://www.veeam.com/blog/321-backup-rule.html
[2] https://clonezilla.org

backed up everything, tried pacman -R...but ofc it wont do that, jellyfin-web and jellyfin-server are both dependencies of jellyfin itself
now -Rc might work..or it might completely remove Jellyfin and a bunch of other things, as that's recursive...

[Host-in-the-Shell]

I'd try a pacman -Rs first and if no dice then add the -c flag: -Rsc. Obviously if it prompts you to delete important stuff just say no instead of pulling an LTT. Either way since you have backups now you should be able to restore in case anything goes wrong.

[Takane7]

I'd try a pacman -Rs first and if no dice then add the -c flag: -Rsc. Obviously if it prompts you to delete important stuff just say no instead of pulling an LTT. Either way since you have backups now you should be able to restore in case anything goes wrong.

Well it worked, more or less. The important data, my libraries, are untouched. I did have to go through the basic jellyfin setup again though, as for some reason my plugins survived, but my users did not..
I got lucky in being able to do it remotely, as im not home rn, and setup isnt supposed to work remotely iirc...  I tried importing the users through the backup i made, but couldnt seem to find whatever config file is responsible for them

[Host-in-the-Shell]

I did have to go through the basic jellyfin setup again though

Seems like that is a known issue: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Jellyfi...ter_update.

I tried importing the users through the backup i made, but couldnt seem to find whatever config file is responsible for them

I believe it is not possible to migrate users due to the way databases are structured, although I'm basing this information on an old reddit post from 2020 I found online, and not sure if it's still the case.[1]

Well this could have gone much, much worse so I'm happy the transition left the service mostly intact. That said, I think this case exemplifies why I don't recommend to use pacman wrappers such as yay or paru in the first place; not only do they introduce unsafe flags,[2] but they also abstract a lot of the manual build process and can certainly create broken/messy situations very quickly. What I recommend is to use an AUR helper that is not a pacman wrapper. I personally use auracle to handle everything such as checking for updates, updating repositories, etc. Then, I build manually using makepkg. However, AUR helpers are unsupported so keep that in mind as well... but then again, AUR in general is unsupported too.

I get the convenience of wrappers, but the main problem is that they will break your system at one point, specially if you run them blindly without really understanding the manual build process and how to unscrew anything a wrapper can cause.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/jellyfin/commen...?context=3
[2] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/AUR_hel...n_wrappers