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Jellyfin From Scratch: How to Build a Complete Media Server on Linux Mint (Docker, Nginx, and Let’s Encrypt)

Start from a clean OS and end with your own secure, self-hosted streaming platform — complete with HTTPS access, remote streaming, and full media organization.

🧠 Introduction

Jellyfin is a free, open-source media server that lets you organize and stream your movies, shows, and music to any device. Think of it as your personal Netflix — except you control everything.

In this guide, you’ll start from a clean Linux Mint installation and finish with a fully working Jellyfin server running inside Docker, served securely through Nginx with Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates, protected by Fail2ban, and accessible anywhere through a DuckDNS domain.

This tutorial uses CPU-only transcoding (no GPU acceleration) and follows current Docker Compose v2 standards. This means, if want to use your GPU to do all the heave lifting, I ain't gunna show you that here but, you can still use this tutorial to get your server up and running then, configure your GPU later.

🧰 Prerequisites

    A clean install of Linux Mint (based on Ubuntu 20.04 or later)

    Sudo privileges

    An active internet connection

    A DuckDNS account and domain (e.g., myserver.duckdns.org)

    Some media files stored locally or on a mounted drive

    🧱 Step 1 — System Preparation

    Start by updating your system and installing a few required packages.


    sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y sudo apt install -y ca-certificates curl gnupg lsb-release ufw fail2ban

    Enable the firewall and allow only essential services:


    sudo ufw default deny incoming sudo ufw default allow outgoing sudo ufw allow OpenSSH sudo ufw allow 80,443/tcp sudo ufw enable

    Check status:


    sudo ufw status

    You should see SSH, HTTP, and HTTPS allowed.

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