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Not too long ago I found myself tired of how Plex on my server would periodically break itself and unhappy with how the company was continuing to pivot away fro

Not too long ago I found myself tired of how Plex on my server would periodically break itself and unhappy with how the company was continuing to pivot away from the core product, so I started looking into alternatives. Jellyfin was the most promising option but unfortunately ended up being unviable for me, because my home server/NAS runs FreeBSD, and by virtue of C#/Mono being a pain to get running on FreeBSD so is Jellyfin. I could work around this with a Linux jail or moving the server over to Linux but I'd really rather not have to do either. As an side it's a bit odd to me how all of the most complete media server packages heavily rely on either Python or C#, and also a bit frustrating because when they break it not infrequently has something to do with some quirk in either. Would really like to see a media server comparable to Plex written in something less prone to breakage.

0ld 3y ago
Well, it was recently added to ports, JFYI https://www.freshports.org/multimedia/jellyfin/ https://www.freshports.org/multimedia/jellyfin/
- kitsunesoba 3y ago
  Good to hear, it was a few months ago when I was looking and it was still a mess back then. Will have to take another look.
  - mikehotel 3y ago
    It looks like the port was compiled with a binary SkiaSharp [0] since that requires Google tooling to build. Interesting to see the committer allowing this. Apparently it is not the first time. 0. https://github.com/mono/SkiaSharp https://github.com/mono/SkiaSharp
afavour 3y ago
> As an side it's a bit odd to me how all of the most complete media server packages heavily rely on either Python or C# Why? Not trying to be an ass but there isn’t much in a media server that would warrant it all being written in a lower level language. Personally I run Plex in a Docker container and basically don’t worry about it at all.
- kitsunesoba 3y ago
  The language doesn't necessarily have to be lower level, just less finicky about the environment it's running in. Docker might technically qualify as a fix, but I'd rather that the software be engineered well enough to not need it.
  - soulofmischief 3y ago
    I'm not sure that ensuring BSD support is a requirement of well-engineered software. You're welcome to start your own project vs. complaining about Jellyfin, a free and open project. I just wouldn't confuse their product focus with badly engineered software on account of it using a modern language. Anyway, there is Docker; You could spend the rest of your life shaking your fist, or you could just run it via Docker and be happy that someone else also developed free software to solve these problems for you.
    - kitsunesoba 3y ago
      It's not just on BSDs that these breakages occur. The forums are full of reports, many of which occur on Linux. And yes, I've actually considered starting a project of my own. The main thing that gives me pause is not writing the CRUD and server bits but learning ins and outs of the absolute beast that is FFMPEG.
      - selectodude 3y ago
        It’s enough of a beast that jellyfin actually created a custom spin of it.
      - predictabl3 3y ago
        With gstreamer and it's webrtcbin stuff, it's incredibly easy to hack something together that would get an MVP going. I'd love to see a modular, but integrated approach, and one that lets me treat the media server itself as fungible. I want a sqlite database that is easily syncable/backup/restorable, I want a small Rust component that does media scanning and writes metadata to the database, and another small server component that has "storage" plugins for accessing the actual media and then uses gstreamer to "simul-cast" it to any WebRTC capable client. Imagine being able to WHIP your media into an OBS session, or have it cast side-by-side with a webcam feed to an RPi hooked up to a TV. Etc. If I could clone myself, this is the project Clone #1 would work on.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
LeFantome 3y ago
Pretty sure recent Jellyfin uses dotnet ( actual Microsoft ) and not Mono. Python, and increasingly dotnet are already packaged for every distribution I have tried recently. Dotnet is even being ported to Haiku right now. What is the challenge in getting these setup?
- kitsunesoba 3y ago
  It’s been several months so I forget the exact issue, but at that point whatever the C# runtime was didn’t install cleanly without manually building a specific branch or somesuch, with no official package being available for FreeBSD.
  - GlumWoodpecker 3y ago
    Is Docker not an option? As far as I can tell, Docker is available on FreeBSD, and Jellyfin has a Docker image available, I've been using it for a few years at this point (on Linux, though).
    - mishac 3y ago
      Docker on freebsd's been abandonware for a few years now.
secstate 3y ago
I happily run Jellyfin in a jail using: https://github.com/Thefrank/jellyfin-server-freebsd https://github.com/Thefrank/jellyfin-server-freebsd It's not an official build, but its been very reliable for me.

0ld 3y ago

Well, it was recently added to ports, JFYI https://www.freshports.org/multimedia/jellyfin/ https://www.freshports.org/multimedia/jellyfin/

kitsunesoba 3y ago
Good to hear, it was a few months ago when I was looking and it was still a mess back then. Will have to take another look.
- mikehotel 3y ago
  It looks like the port was compiled with a binary SkiaSharp [0] since that requires Google tooling to build. Interesting to see the committer allowing this. Apparently it is not the first time. 0. https://github.com/mono/SkiaSharp https://github.com/mono/SkiaSharp

afavour 3y ago

> As an side it's a bit odd to me how all of the most complete media server packages heavily rely on either Python or C# Why? Not trying to be an ass but there isn’t much in a media server that would warrant it all being written in a lower level language. Personally I run Plex in a Docker container and basically don’t worry about it at all.

kitsunesoba 3y ago
The language doesn't necessarily have to be lower level, just less finicky about the environment it's running in. Docker might technically qualify as a fix, but I'd rather that the software be engineered well enough to not need it.
- soulofmischief 3y ago
  I'm not sure that ensuring BSD support is a requirement of well-engineered software. You're welcome to start your own project vs. complaining about Jellyfin, a free and open project. I just wouldn't confuse their product focus with badly engineered software on account of it using a modern language. Anyway, there is Docker; You could spend the rest of your life shaking your fist, or you could just run it via Docker and be happy that someone else also developed free software to solve these problems for you.
  - kitsunesoba 3y ago
    It's not just on BSDs that these breakages occur. The forums are full of reports, many of which occur on Linux. And yes, I've actually considered starting a project of my own. The main thing that gives me pause is not writing the CRUD and server bits but learning ins and outs of the absolute beast that is FFMPEG.
    - selectodude 3y ago
      It’s enough of a beast that jellyfin actually created a custom spin of it.
    - predictabl3 3y ago
      With gstreamer and it's webrtcbin stuff, it's incredibly easy to hack something together that would get an MVP going. I'd love to see a modular, but integrated approach, and one that lets me treat the media server itself as fungible. I want a sqlite database that is easily syncable/backup/restorable, I want a small Rust component that does media scanning and writes metadata to the database, and another small server component that has "storage" plugins for accessing the actual media and then uses gstreamer to "simul-cast" it to any WebRTC capable client. Imagine being able to WHIP your media into an OBS session, or have it cast side-by-side with a webcam feed to an RPi hooked up to a TV. Etc. If I could clone myself, this is the project Clone #1 would work on.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

LeFantome 3y ago

Pretty sure recent Jellyfin uses dotnet ( actual Microsoft ) and not Mono. Python, and increasingly dotnet are already packaged for every distribution I have tried recently. Dotnet is even being ported to Haiku right now. What is the challenge in getting these setup?

kitsunesoba 3y ago
It’s been several months so I forget the exact issue, but at that point whatever the C# runtime was didn’t install cleanly without manually building a specific branch or somesuch, with no official package being available for FreeBSD.
- GlumWoodpecker 3y ago
  Is Docker not an option? As far as I can tell, Docker is available on FreeBSD, and Jellyfin has a Docker image available, I've been using it for a few years at this point (on Linux, though).
  - mishac 3y ago
    Docker on freebsd's been abandonware for a few years now.

secstate 3y ago

I happily run Jellyfin in a jail using: https://github.com/Thefrank/jellyfin-server-freebsd https://github.com/Thefrank/jellyfin-server-freebsd It's not an official build, but its been very reliable for me.