How to: Install Emby onto Linux

In my previous guide, we’ve installed Emby onto our Windows system. We have also configured it and set it up with a folder to stream content out of. Now this time, we are going to install Emby onto Linux.

Emby is considered to be surprisingly easy to install onto our Linux system. It seems to be a fairly straightforward process in terms of configuration as it is done mostly within the Emby webUI. A few adjustments will have to be made here and there in order for Emby to accept incoming connections. In order to install Emby, first we are going to here.

Install Emby onto Linux

Select an operating system where you plan on installing Emby. For me I will be going with Debian. If you’re planning to install Emby on a raspberry pi, then you will want the package for Arm64 (aarch64). For PC, use X64 for 64-bit processors. Now it’s time to download the respective package.

Downloading Emby

In order to download one of our Emby packages, we are going to use the shell program wget. This allows us to download web content into our Linux system straight from the web. In order to make this easy, I recommend using an SSH client from the desktop so that you can simply copy/paste the URL into shell. Once you’re ready, type in the following command to download Emby:

cd /home/$USER/ && sudo wget https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby.Releases/releases/download/4.3.1.0/emby-server-deb_4.3.1.0_amd64.deb

For example, we have now just downloaded the Debian package for Emby and placed it in our user directory. We are now ready to run the Debian package installer for Emby:

sudo dpkg -i emby-server-deb_4.3.1.0_amd64.deb

Note: If you’re having problems getting dpkg to run, do “sudo -i” first or run as root by typing “su root”.

Emby should now be installed and running by default. We are going to need to make some adjustments to our Linux system such as iptables.

First, allow incoming traffic to port 8096:

sudo iptables -I INPUT 1 -p tcp --dport 8096 -j ACCEPT

Next, make a new folder under /home/$USER/ directory and give it public access.

mkdir -p EmbyLib && chmod 777 -R EmbyLib

You cannot playback video unless Emby can access the folder and files inside, and you will also want to place files in there as well without any hassle.