Why the delay in the Debian/Ubuntu repository?

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Server Version#: 1.16.2.1297

I’ve been meaning to ask this one for a while: The new version of Plex Media Server was released 22 hours ago, but when I run apt-get on Ubuntu., the repository is still not showing it available. That’s a weirdly long (and AFAIK pretty common) delay. It has led me to a few questions:

  1. Mainly due to curiosity: What’s causing the delay? Why isn’t it near-instantaneous when a new version releases? (It’s possible this is a repository limitation and I’m simply unaware)
  2. At some point Plex is due for a 0-day vulnerability. It happens to all products at some point. On that day, will all Debian/Ubuntu users be asked to manually update, or else wait a full day with a vulnerability before the update is available via repository?
  3. I’m stuck with a “You need to update” banner in PlexWeb, but no corresponding repository update. That is weird. Not a question, it just looks weird and I wanted to mention it.
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There is a simple, but unpleasant, answer.

We are waiting for the build team (who manages the Repository) to fix it.

I don’t know why (I am in customer support and packaging so I don’t know their scheduling / prioritization of work).

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I am also finding this very annoying. I just got the last update just for the most recent update to come out. I can download it from the website. So what is the difficulty for the build team to simply add it too the repository? I already switched from a FeeBSD Jail to Ubuntu thinking I would no longer have to deal with delays in updates or features. What platform do I need to run to not have this issue anymore? Windows Server? I hope not.

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You have two options:

  1. As you guessed, run PMS for Windows. Plex will automatically install it during their scheduled maintenance, or you can kickstart the install directly from the Web interface (it’s actually kind of cool).
  2. Manually download and install it in Linux. If you’re using VNC or RDP it’ll automatically download it when you click the “new version” banner at the top of PlexWeb.

At the moment I believe that’s it.

Edit: I typically run PMS in Linux instead of Windows because Plex’s hardware acceleration is unreliable on Intel graphics hardware in Windows. Otherwise, PMS on Windows seems to run about as well as it does on Linux.

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Deal with forced reboots and windows overhead on my server. No thanks. Looks like I am back to using third party software to fix problems Plex can’t manage to resolve or be bothered with.

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I came to this forum specifically to find out the answer to this question. Annoying the server tells me there is an update, only for apt-get not to have it.

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In all seriousness, threads like this have been open all year. Is it really that hard to build a repo?

Here’s a simple step by step wiki you can provide to your build team, since they seem to be having problems getting there: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianRepository/SetupWithReprepro

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