jellyfin-desktop/dev/linux/README.md

Building Jellyfin Desktop on Linux

Quick Start

Setup and build

dev/linux/setup.sh   # First time: install dependencies (Debian/Ubuntu)
dev/linux/build.sh   # Configure, build, and optionally install

Prerequisites

• Debian/Ubuntu (or derivative) with apt-get

setup.sh installs everything else:

• Build tooling: devscripts, equivs, ninja-build, cmake
• Build-time packages from ../../debian/control's Build-Depends, including the required Qt6 modules (qt6-base-dev, qt6-base-private-dev, qt6-declarative-dev, qt6-webengine-dev, qt6-wayland-dev), libmpv-dev, libcec-dev, and the rest of the native toolchain
• Runtime QML plugins from debian/control's Depends: field (qml6-module-qtwebengine, qml6-module-qtwebchannel, qml6-module-qtquick-controls, qml6-module-qtquick-window, qml6-module-qtqml-workerscript, qml6-module-qtquick-templates, qml6-module-qt-labs-platform), none of these are pulled in transitively by the -dev packages above, so they're installed separately

Install

build.sh asks for confirmation separately before each sudo step:

1. Install Binary @ /usr/local/bin/jellyfin-desktop
2. Desktop integration (.desktop file, icon, appdata metadata) @ /usr/local/share/{applications,icons,metainfo}/

Answer n to either prompt to skip it. The built binary at build/src/jellyfin-desktop still runs without installing.

Directory Structure

• build/ - Build output (safe to delete)
• build/src/jellyfin-desktop - Built executable

Scripts

• setup.sh - Install build and runtime dependencies
• build.sh - Initialize submodules, configure, build, and optionally install

Clean Build

rm -rf build
dev/linux/build.sh

Troubleshooting

Missing Qt6 packages

error: Qt6 dev packages not found. Run setup.sh first

Run dev/linux/setup.sh.

Notes

• Data/config/cache/log file locations are documented in the main README