Ubuntu Manual Update Download

Since the repositories are not updated often, it is best to manually download and install the updated versions of Plex Media Server manually. You may be forced to do this if you’ve seen the “An update is available. Please install the update manually.” error:

This is fairly simple (performed on Ubuntu 14.04):

Manually download Windows Subsystem for Linux distro packages.; 2 minutes to read +4; In this article. There are several scenarios in which you may not be able (or want) to, install WSL Linux distros via the Microsoft Store.

  1. Backup: Consider backing up your metadata and preferences. Updating this package should not affect either, but better safe than sorry. Plex wiki on what to back up.
  2. Grab the file and get it to the server: Now you need to get the new package onto the server. You can do one of two things:
    Transfer using WinScp: Go to the Plex Media Server download site, log in, and download the latest version (be sure to check under “PlexPass”), then manually move it onto the server using a program like WinSCP.
    OR…
    Directly download the file to the server: Figure out the URL for the file to be downloaded, and then just use wget on the Linux server (this is just an example URL – find the current version!):

    plexuser@plexserver:~$ wget https://downloads.plex.tv/plex-media-server/0.9.11.7.803-87d0708/plexmediaserver_0.9.11.7.803-87d0708_amd64.deb

  3. Install: Pretty easy! Just install the .deb file:

    plexuser@plexserver:~$ sudo dpkg -i plexmediaserver_0.9.11.7.803-87d0708_amd64.deb

    You’ll get something that looks like this:

    plexuser@plexserver:~$ sudo dpkg -i plexmediaserver_0.9.11.7.803-87d0708_amd64.deb
    [sudo] password for plexuser:
    (Reading database ... 198842 files and directories currently installed.)
    Preparing to unpack plexmediaserver_0.9.11.7.803-87d0708_amd64.deb ...
    plexmediaserver stop/waiting
    Unpacking plexmediaserver (0.9.11.7.803-87d0708) over (0.9.11.5.774-760cb52) ...
    Setting up plexmediaserver (0.9.11.7.803-87d0708) ...
    plexmediaserver start/running, process 8686
    Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.1+14.10.20140925-0ubuntu1) ...
    Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index...
    Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.22-1ubuntu2) ...
    Processing triggers for mime-support (3.55ubuntu1) ...
    Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.10.1-0ubuntu2) ...
    Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-16) ...
    plexuser@plexserver:~$

  4. Verify: That’s really all there is to it. The command above should have restarted your server automatically for you. On your Plex server web panel, navigate to: Settings->Server to verify that you’re on the latest version!
Ubuntu server manual-->

There are several scenarios in which you may not be able (or want) to, install WSL Linux distros via the Microsoft Store. Specifically, you may be running a Windows Server or Long-Term Servicing (LTSC) desktop OS SKU that doesn't support Microsoft Store, or your corporate network policies and/or admins to not permit Microsoft Store usage in your environment.

In these cases, while WSL itself is available, how do you download and install Linux distros in WSL if you can't access the store?

Note: Command-line shell environments including Cmd, PowerShell, and Linux/WSL distros are not permitted to run on Windows 10 S Mode. This restriction exists in order to ensure the integrity and safety goals that S Mode delivers: Read this post for more information.

Downloading distros

If the Microsoft Store app is not available, you can download and manually install Linux distros by clicking these links:

This will cause the <distro>.appx packages to download to a folder of your choosing. Follow the installation instructions to install your downloaded distro(s).

Downloading distros via the command line

If you prefer, you can also download your preferred distro(s) via the command line:

Download using PowerShell

To download distros using PowerShell, use the Invoke-WebRequest cmdlet. Here's a sample instruction to download Ubuntu 16.04.

Tip

If the download is taking a long time, turn off the progress bar by setting $ProgressPreference = 'SilentlyContinue'

Download using curl

Windows 10 Spring 2018 Update (or later) includes the popular curl command-line utility with which you can invoke web requests (i.e. HTTP GET, POST, PUT, etc. commands) from the command line. You can use curl.exe to download the above distros:

In the above example, curl.exe is executed (not just curl) to ensure that, in PowerShell, the real curl executable is invoked, not the PowerShell curl alias for Invoke-WebRequest

Note: Using curl might be preferable if you have to invoke/script download steps using Cmd shell and/or .bat / .cmd scripts.

Installing your distro

Ubuntu install update

Ubuntu Software Updates

If you're using Windows 10 you can install your distro with PowerShell. Simply navigate to folder containing the distro downloaded from above, and in that directory run the following command where app_name is the name of your distro .appx file.

If you are using Windows server you can find the install instructions on the Windows Server documentation page.

Ubuntu Update Server

Once your distro is installed please refer to the Initialization Steps page to initialize your new distro.