From 2b5cd9d04e5e7002fb1c858fe9249ce5ac1adeb3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Connor Hawley <connor.hawley4@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2026 19:42:25 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] fix(compose): drop user: directive from LSIO services
 (jellyfin, plex)

linuxserver.io images are designed to start as root and drop privileges
internally via PUID/PGID env vars (s6-overlay). Forcing a compose
'user: UID:GID' on them makes s6 run as an unprivileged user that cannot
fix permissions on root-owned dirs, and the container crash-loops:

  /run belongs to uid 0 instead of 1000 - fixing it
  s6-chmod: fatal: unable to change mode of /run: Operation not permitted
  s6-overlay-suexec: fatal: child failed with exit code 111

Reproduced on Ubuntu 24.04 + Docker 29.1.3 with jellyfin:10.11.10:
container restart-loops and nothing listens on 8096. Removing the
user: directive fixes it (PUID/PGID are still honored by s6, so file
ownership is unchanged). Radarr/Sonarr/Prowlarr already work this way
in this compose file; plex had the same latent bug.
---
 docker-compose.yml | 7 +++++--
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 3d5314f..a50ced3 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -291,11 +291,15 @@ services:
   # ── Plex ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
   # Media server option 1 - streams your library to any device.
   # Activated via COMPOSE_PROFILES=plex in .env
+  #
+  # NOTE: linuxserver.io images must NOT run with a compose `user:` directive.
+  # Their s6-overlay needs to start as root and drop privileges via PUID/PGID;
+  # forcing `user:` makes s6-chmod fail on root-owned dirs (/run) and the
+  # container crash-loops. Same applies to the jellyfin service below.
   plex:
     image: lscr.io/linuxserver/plex:1.43.2
     profiles: ["plex"]
     container_name: plex
-    user: "${PUID:-1000}:${PGID:-1000}"
     restart: unless-stopped
     networks:
       - media-network
@@ -344,7 +348,6 @@ services:
     image: lscr.io/linuxserver/jellyfin:10.11.10
     profiles: ["jellyfin"]
     container_name: jellyfin
-    user: "${PUID:-1000}:${PGID:-1000}"
     restart: unless-stopped
     networks:
       - media-network