Plex-Desktop AUR Sign-In Button Not Working

General system Applications
1

Hi,

I recently installed plex-desktop from the AUR on Arch Linux, and I’m running into a strange issue that’s oddly familiar. It’s the exact same problem I had when I was using NixOS, but while I managed to fix it there, the same solution isn’t working on Arch, and I’m hoping someone here can help me figure out why and how to resolve it.

Here’s the issue: after installing plex-desktop from the AUR, everything seems fine until I click the “Sign In” button, nothing happens. No popup, no login window, just silence.

On NixOS, I fixed this by adding the following to my configuration file:

  # Enable XDG portals for desktop integration
  xdg = {
    portal = {
      enable = true;
      xdgOpenUsePortal = true;
      extraPortals = [
        pkgs.kdePackages.xdg-desktop-portal-kde
      ];
    };
    autostart.enable = true;
  };

This worked perfectly on NixOS, so I assumed I could replicate it on Arch by installing the xdg-desktop-portal and xdg-desktop-portal-kde packages (since I’m using KDE). I’ve done that, but the sign-in button still doesn’t work.

Has anyone encountered this or know what I might be missing on Arch? Any help would be appreciated.

Screenshot_20250328_091253
Screenshot_20250328_0912533232×1882 148 KB

2

Maybe there is a solution here.

3

I tried the fix suggested in the AUR comments, but it doesn’t seem to work on Wayland. I believe another user has reported the same issue. This problem has persisted across most distros, even the Flatpak, for months now.

4

This is kind of strange. My daily driver is currently LinuxMint 22 and I have no issues running the Plex Desktop there – it allows me to sign in and plays media fine. I am currently testing EndeavorOS in a VM (thinking this might become my new daily driver) but I am experiencing what seems to be the same or a similar issue which you describe. And I am using X11 on that instance, not Wayland, so that would indicate it is not a Wayland issue.

When I click on the [Sign in] button, it responds by dimming slightly but does not bring up the sign-in page in my browser. Instead, after a few seconds, it displays a message “Plex is down for maintenance.” But, checking the status.plex.tv page it clearly is not in maintenance mode and I can go to the app on my LinuxMint native instance and can sign out and in there without issue.

On the other hand, in EndeavorOS, I can open a browser to my server directly (app.plex.tv) and am able to login there and play media. So, clearly something specifically wrong with the desktop client as built for Arch.

5

I have no idea about plex-desktop. I am actually wondering what it is good for. But anyways, I want to give my two cents.

debian seems to be relevant even for the AUR package. It pulls in a package from debian:

  "http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/libw/libwebp/libwebp6_0.6.1-2.1+deb11u2_amd64.deb"

May be this library has an issue on Arch. taht would explain why it works fine on MInt but not on Arch.

@SudoMason :

Can you start plex-desktop from the terminal and see if it throws some debug messages? May be you can find some hints in the journal. If the issue is related to the debian library libwebp6 you should see some errors.

EDIT:
I just installed plex-desktop 1.108.1.307-1 and it works for me. No issue.

When I first started /usr/bin/Plex it opened a firefox window in the background for authentication. I only noticed it because gnome desktop gave me a notification. Check for open browser windows.

6

So, little confused. If you don’t know what it is used for, how do you know it works for you? What I mean is that, if you haven’t used it and don’t have a server to sign in to, how would you confirm it is working.

I can run plex-desktop. This is what I installed originally (v 1.108.1.307-1) and I just removed it and reinstalled it. But it is the same version I had previously. And it does run in that it can access things from the plex servers (their servers; e.g., “What’s on now”, etc.) but it does not allow me to sign in to MY local server. Without that, it is not working correctly.

7

I have my own plex server and I use the web client to watch videos on Linux. I didnt even know that a plex-desktop app exists. The web client is just fine for me.

I installed plex-desktop to help you trouble shoot your problem. plex-desktop works fine for me. It connects to my server and I can watch videos.

8

Have you tried running it from the command-line to see what errors you get?

I use it as well and works fine for me.

9

The error messages I’m seeing in terminal indicate a version mismatch between the Qt libraries required by the kde-open command and the Qt libraries bundled with the Plex application on Arch.

[user@archlinux ~]$ Plex
qt.scenegraph.general: Using QRhi with backend OpenGL
Graphics API debug/validation layers: 0
QRhi profiling and debug markers: 0
Shader/pipeline cache collection: 0
qt.scenegraph.general: Using QRhi with backend OpenGL
Graphics API debug/validation layers: 0
QRhi profiling and debug markers: 0
Shader/pipeline cache collection: 0
kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version Qt_6.8' not found (required by kde-open) kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version Qt_6.8’ not found (required by /usr/lib/libKF6KIOGui.so.6)
kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version Qt_6.8' not found (required by /usr/lib/libKF6KIOCore.so.6) kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version Qt_6.8’ not found (required by /usr/lib/libKF6CoreAddons.so.6)
kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version Qt_6.8' not found (required by /usr/lib/libKF6I18n.so.6) kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version Qt_6.8’ not found (required by /usr/lib/libKF6Service.so.6)
kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version Qt_6.8' not found (required by /usr/lib/libKF6Solid.so.6) kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version Qt_6.8’ not found (required by /usr/lib/libKF6WindowSystem.so.6)
kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version Qt_6.8' not found (required by /usr/lib/libKF6ConfigCore.so.6) kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version Qt_6.8’ not found (required by /usr/lib/libKF6Crash.so.6)
kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version Qt_6.8' not found (required by /usr/lib/libKF6AuthCore.so.6) kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version Qt_6.8’ not found (required by /usr/lib/libQt6Xml.so.6)

10

Try installing “qt6-base” if it’s not installed then try again?

11

It’s already installed.

12

Are you using KDE Plasma as your DE?

13

When was it last working?

14

Oh, great; thanks for the clarification! Strange that it isn’t working for us…

15

Looks like the same issue here. I’ve tested this with both X11 and Wayland – running KDE Plasma – with the same results. I confirmed that I have qt6-base 6.8.3-1 installed and, in my case, I installed this using yay -S plex-desktop.

This is what occurs at start-up:

[test@endeavoros ~]$ Plex
qt.scenegraph.general: Using QRhi with backend OpenGL
  Graphics API debug/validation layers: 0
  QRhi profiling and debug markers: 0
  Shader/pipeline cache collection: 0
qt.scenegraph.general: Using QRhi with backend OpenGL
  Graphics API debug/validation layers: 0
  QRhi profiling and debug markers: 0
  Shader/pipeline cache collection: 0
[1810:1859:0404/083057.090729:ERROR:address_tracker_linux.cc(214)] Could not bind NETLINK socket: Address already in use (98)
[1873:7:0404/083057.534924:ERROR:command_buffer_proxy_impl.cc(140)] ContextResult::kTransientFailure: Failed to send GpuChannelMsg_CreateCommandBuffer.
[1810:1867:0404/083057.963962:ERROR:context_group.cc(146)] ContextResult::kFatalFailure: WebGL1 blocklisted
[1810:1867:0404/083057.979427:ERROR:context_group.cc(146)] ContextResult::kFatalFailure: WebGL1 blocklisted
[1810:1867:0404/083058.660899:ERROR:context_group.cc(146)] ContextResult::kFatalFailure: WebGL1 blocklisted

When I click the [Sign in] button, I get the same QT related message posted by @SudoMason:

kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version `Qt_6.8' not found (required by kde-open)
kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version `Qt_6.8' not found (required by /usr/lib/libKF6KIOGui.so.6)
kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version `Qt_6.8' not found (required by /usr/lib/libKF6KIOCore.so.6)
kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version `Qt_6.8' not found (required by /usr/lib/libKF6CoreAddons.so.6)
kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version `Qt_6.8' not found (required by /usr/lib/libKF6I18n.so.6)
kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version `Qt_6.8' not found (required by /usr/lib/libKF6Service.so.6)
kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version `Qt_6.8' not found (required by /usr/lib/libKF6Solid.so.6)
kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version `Qt_6.8' not found (required by /usr/lib/libKF6WindowSystem.so.6)
kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version `Qt_6.8' not found (required by /usr/lib/libKF6ConfigCore.so.6)
kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version `Qt_6.8' not found (required by /usr/lib/libKF6Crash.so.6)
kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version `Qt_6.8' not found (required by /usr/lib/libKF6AuthCore.so.6)
kde-open: /opt/plex-desktop/lib/libQt6Core.so.6: version `Qt_6.8' not found (required by /usr/lib/libQt6Xml.so.6)
16

Yes KDE Plasma on Vanilla Arch and it has never worked.

17

I’m using Gnome so may think it might have to do something with that, I’m installing an EndeavourOS vm now with KDE Plasma to test it out.

1 Like
18

Yeah it’s a problem specific to KDE Plasma because I had the same issue in my vm with KDE Plasma. There is a pinned comment by mrgrim on 2024-10-01. If you apply the fix described there it fixes it and you are redirected to a login screen.

I’ll just quote it here.

mrgrim commented on 2024-10-01 05:16 (UTC) (edited on 2024-10-01 05:20 (UTC) by mrgrim)

The Qt 6.7 problem is an issue where xdg-open inherits the environment of the Plex app causing kde-open to try to load the Qt 6.6 libraries from /opt/plex-desktop/lib due to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH set in Plex.sh.

This can be solved by editing the RUNPATH of the binaries using chrpath then removing the LD_LIBRARY_PATH line from Plex.sh. It turns out The main Plex library has a working RUNPATH but includes a bunch of automation cruft. The transcoding binary does NOT have it set, and QtWebEngineProcess needs no changes. In /opt/plex-desktop/bin run:

chrpath -r '$ORIGIN/../lib' Plex
chrpath -r '$ORIGIN/../lib' Plex\ Transcoder

However, this only exposes additional issues with all of the Qt environment variables set in this script. I couldn’t find a super clean way to fix this, but interestingly enough KDE uses a little utility for their AppImage deployments to deal with this exact problem:

https://invent.kde.org/brauch/appimage-exec-wrapper/

Compile it and copy the exec.so file into /opt/plex-desktop/lib then alter Plex.sh like this:

https://gist.github.com/mrgrim/1357da402f8ceccaf8224e145fa6acc3

This could even allow using LD_LIBRARY_PATH and not using chrpath. The choice is yours. Using chrpath seems cleaner but pulls in a dependency.

2 Likes
20

@Cphusion Thanks for sharing that. I followed the instructions using chrpath and commenting the line about LD_LIBRARY_PATH and Plex Desktop now allows me to sign in without error. I didn’t try the other option from that post.

This likely explains why I didn’t have an issue running it on LinuxMint with Cinnamon (based upon Gnome).

21

I ran into other issues when I only followed half of the instructions but if that works for you it works, if you do later run into other issues I would then recommend to also follow the rest of the instructions mentioned by that comment.