Here’s another reason why I don’t like flatpak (which is what Plex is using for the Linux Player). Occassionally the flatpak image for Plex needs updating. But it doesn’t tell you that. I configured a shortcut that simply runs flatpak run tv.plex.PlexDesktop 'cause that’s not a string that pops to mind when I say “Gee, let’s watch something using Plex”. So the shortcut sits in my mate-panel and I click it. Sometimes that doesn’t work and I can’t tell why because nothing happens! So instead I have to go into the shortcut and retrieve that string that I run (cause again, it doesn’t spring to mind) and run it at the command line and I get:
Earth:flatpak run tv.plex.PlexDesktop
/app/bin/Plex: line 48: 5 Aborted (core dumped) "$BASE_DIR"/bin/plex-bin "$@"
Earth:
Ah ha! It’s dumping core! I guess I need to update it. And, of course, I can’t use dpkg or apt or dnf or snap… I have to use flatpak itself. And, of course I cannot use something like:
Earth:flatpak update plex
Looking for updates…
error: Invalid id plex: Names must contain at least 2 periods
Earth:
I have to remember to use tv.plex.PlexDesktop (why we need to have these additional components and periods is beyond me!).
So then I update using:
Earth:flatpak update tv.plex.PlexDesktop
Looking for updates…
ID Branch Op Remote Download
1. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.nvidia-515-65-01 1.4 u flathub 364.2 MB / 365.1 MB
2. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.nvidia-525-105-17 1.4 i flathub 415.4 MB / 415.5 MB
3. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.nvidia-525-85-05 1.4 u flathub 415.1 MB / 416.0 MB
4. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.nvidia-525-89-02 1.4 u flathub 414.1 MB / 415.0 MB
5. [✓] tv.plex.PlexDesktop stable u flathub 5.5 MB / 129.8 MB
Changes complete.
Earth:
And shake my head when I realize that although Plex does a lot, does the player really need to download 1.2 gig of stuff? Wasteful, just wasteful.
<Thanks for listening to my rant. We now return you to your regularly scheduled forum posts>
