Quite a while ago I set up a Plex Media-Server. It is a great piece of Software to archive all your media such as pictures, music and movies.

It has standard features such as DLNA, so you can stream your media to a DLNA capable device like your TV. But also it’s own Android App to stream to your devices or Chromecast even when you’re not at home. I have it set up on a dedicated Linux computer that is running silently in the office in the corner right next to the cable-modem and router. So it is out of the way and doesn’t even have a mouse or keyboard attached to it. And of course no monitor either.

I have two options to log into that computer. Either by using Teamviewer or just by connecting via SSH to it on the so called shell-console. That is just a text-interface where you have to type in a command and it will do what you want it to. It’s like really old-school computers from back in the 1980s, or for nerds like myself. For people not familiar with it, it’s weird gibberish but for nerds it is faster than using a mouse. Weird, I know.

I bet a lot of people these days don’t even know what that is like.

However, I used to update Plex via Teamviewer, but just now switched to doing it on the shell, since it is a lot easier and faster that way.

Here is how to update a linux plex-server via the commandline:

Go to https://www.plex.tv/downloads/ to find the downloadlink to the correct distribution.

Log onto the computer via SSH
Preferably change into a temporary directory and download the archive (change the URL accordingly)

Then start the installation using this command replacing the archive name.

And that’s it! It’s that easy.