[8.2.4.1] LibreELEC Kodi Krypton - S905 & S912 devices

    Quote from Avok78

    I updated my M8S+ (S905x) device with the 8.2.5 release.

    I have a problem with some mkv files. For instance, here you can find a 30sec sample.

    I tried with older version of LibreElec (an old adamg 1.0.6 release) and also the latest CoreElec. All have the same problem: video stuttering and audio out of sync.


    Test file plays OK on all my boxes, all of them on CoreElec 8.95.5

    Sholander wrxtasy  chewitt, I'm curious as to where Amlogic devices sit now with the (semi) fork of Coreelec, this ongoing and excellent community build and whether the intention is for Amlogic to become an officially supported Libreelec SOC. It certainly seems that Amlogic is the most active, by far, community build forum suggesting that most libreelec users that arent using a RPi are using a Amlogic box.

    I know its normal but perhaps unfortunate consequence of OSS but it always sucks to see a bifurcation and also perhaps duplication of efforts.

    Anyway, like to hear where the projects sit in relation to each other and where you guys envision things moving going forward.

    First of all thanks for the great work! I have been testing LibreELEC-S905.arm-8.2.5-Chroma.422.10bit.img on a X96 (s905x) in combination with an LG OLED C8

    Everything looks really good accept for video stuttering in some specific x265, 23.976fps movies.

    First I couldn't put my finger on why it not happened to every movie, but now I can.

    It happens for every video file that has a number of lines that is not a multiple of 8.

    818/8= 102.25 -> problem

    800/8 = 100 -> no problem

    1038/8=129.75 -> problem

    1080/8= 135 -> no problem

    In the problem cases you can also see that the bottom lines are copies of each other. It seems like the AMLogic hardware doesn't like the case where the lines are not a multiple of 8 or are we configuring the amlogic hardware wrong somehow?

    Is this issue known to you?

    Edit: I did some more testing with the latest CoreELEC and I didn't see the stuttering. I did see the same bottom line being copies of each other in case the height is not a multiple of 8. So perhaps the stuttering is not related to the height of the video.

    Edited 2 times, last by unicron: more testing (December 6, 2018 at 6:25 PM).

    I see there is a new S905X processor generation now available certainly seen on a new MXQ box advertised. It is I believe if my memory serves me correctly an S905XS Amlogic processor and seems to also support USB3 too. So my question is will it be supported here with LibreELEC ?? Not worried about CoreELEC as I have currently no intention of moving to KODI 18 for some time yet as I am very happy with KODI 17.6 and there is nothing essential or otherwise in Leia to tempt me to be honest.

    Love these builds here from wraxsy and currently use the 8.2.5.1 444 1000 nits edition with my S912 TX9 Pro box . Much appreciation to wraxsy and to kszaq before him for this excellent fimrware.

    Since the S905X has been out for quite some time, are you infact referring to the newly released S905X2 ?

    Since this represents yet another GPU with undocumented closed source drivers - it will be quite some time before there is any Linux support. On past form this could be over a year before it gets support.

    So S905X2 is not just another iteration of the S905 range - it is entirely a new beast and it would be extremely foolish to be an early adopter unless you intend to do development work with it.

    Shoog

    Quote from Shoog

    Since the S905X has been out for quite some time, are you infact referring to the newly released S905X2 ?

    Since this represents yet another GPU with undocumented closed source drivers - it will be quite some time before there is any Linux support. On past form this could be over a year before it gets support.

    So S905X2 is not just another iteration of the S905 range - it is entirely a new beast and it would be extremely foolish to be an early adopter unless you intend to do development work with it.

    Shoog

    Yes I am referring to the S905X2 I mistyped XS sorry. Yes I also realise it is a completely new iteration with its support for Gigabit LAN port and USB 3.

    Thanks for the info and indeed it is what I thought woudl be the case. Just wondered if any of the developers here were yet working on this new Amlogic cpu as the boxes are now becoming available of course. Maybe indeed the archecture of this new device may be loosely based on the S905X and thus not too difficult to recompile from an earlier S905X build, but probably this is not the case.

    • Official Post

    For once the undocumented closed-source GPU drivers won't be the issue (or probably won't be) as this time around Amlogic licensed the right blobs from ARM and we already have them. The bigger issue is that S905X2/D2 hardware requires the Amlogic 4.9 BSP kernel, which in an evolution of all the low-quality Amlogic proprietary media code from the 3.14 kernel with additional new capabilities (none of which follow emerging kernel standards) and everything a bit more Android oriented than before. We can expect all the old bugs .. plus new ones. So the challenge is all about persuading good developers to take an interest in a(nother) bad codebase. You fix something, you break something else. You fix that thing, you break two things more. You fix those two things, something else doesn't work. So it's a shitty thankless slog, and with Kodi dropping amcodec support after K18 ships the large effort has a potentially short lifespan (far less than the run 3.14 has had). I'm not aware of anyone poking their nose into the Amlogic 4.9 kernel at the moment, so right now these boxes are Android only.

    In the long-term there will be mainline support, but at the current near-glacial rate that Amlogic is submitting G12 platform code (which all requires nip/tuck rework, which incurs extra time) it's going to be "some time" before G12 hardware is mainline usable. There is also a conspicuous absence of media code being submitted, so we could be looking at a rerun of the current GX platform situation where Amlogic upstreams core platform support only and media support is left entirely to the goodwill of the community and a couple of vendor benefactors. It won't be quite such a drama as there's a moderate level of code inheritance from GX, but until core platform support gets further along we can't really start. I doubt we'll have mainline support for G12 boards within the next 12 months. Current GX boards will have moved to mainline long before then as the codebase is ~85% complete and so much easier to work with (and nearly all the major code components are written by LE team members). Once you've moved forwards and seen the light it's really (really) hard to resume an interest in the older kernels again.

    NB: Apart from USB 3.0 support the main addition to S905X2/D2 boxes is hardware support for more codecs, e.g. HDR10, but support in hardware needs matching support in software and Linux doesn't support any of that stuff yet (and nobody has media to watch) so once you put the spec. sheet down and re-enter the real world there's no major compelling reason/advantage for S905X2/D2 over current S905X/D.

    I am using LibreELEC-S912.arm-8.2.5-Chroma.422.10bit.img. I want to thank you very much for this version. It is solid and it finally works with USB DACs connected to my Minix_Neo U9-H. Your previous version didn't work.

    With LibreELEC-S912.arm-8.2.4.1.force.444.10bit.img when I connected my FiiO DAC to the USB of NEO U9, LibreELEC didn't output sound through the USB DAC.

    Quote from chewitt

    For once the undocumented closed-source GPU drivers won't be the issue (or probably won't be) as this time around Amlogic licensed the right blobs from ARM and we already have them. The bigger issue is that S905X2/D2 hardware requires the Amlogic 4.9 BSP kernel, which in an evolution of all the low-quality Amlogic proprietary media code from the 3.14 kernel with additional new capabilities (none of which follow emerging kernel standards) and everything a bit more Android oriented than before. We can expect all the old bugs .. plus new ones. So the challenge is all about persuading good developers to take an interest in a(nother) bad codebase. You fix something, you break something else. You fix that thing, you break two things more. You fix those two things, something else doesn't work. So it's a shitty thankless slog, and with Kodi dropping amcodec support after K18 ships the large effort has a potentially short lifespan (far less than the run 3.14 has had). I'm not aware of anyone poking their nose into the Amlogic 4.9 kernel at the moment, so right now these boxes are Android only.

    In the long-term there will be mainline support, but at the current near-glacial rate that Amlogic is submitting G12 platform code (which all requires nip/tuck rework, which incurs extra time) it's going to be "some time" before G12 hardware is mainline usable. There is also a conspicuous absence of media code being submitted, so we could be looking at a rerun of the current GX platform situation where Amlogic upstreams core platform support only and media support is left entirely to the goodwill of the community and a couple of vendor benefactors. It won't be quite such a drama as there's a moderate level of code inheritance from GX, but until core platform support gets further along we can't really start. I doubt we'll have mainline support for G12 boards within the next 12 months. Current GX boards will have moved to mainline long before then as the codebase is ~85% complete and so much easier to work with (and nearly all the major code components are written by LE team members). Once you've moved forwards and seen the light it's really (really) hard to resume an interest in the older kernels again.

    NB: Apart from USB 3.0 support the main addition to S905X2/D2 boxes is hardware support for more codecs, e.g. HDR10, but support in hardware needs matching support in software and Linux doesn't support any of that stuff yet (and nobody has media to watch) so once you put the spec. sheet down and re-enter the real world there's no major compelling reason/advantage for S905X2/D2 over current S905X/D.

    Thanks very much chewitt. That was an excelletn detailed reply.

    I now can fully understand why there will be no forthcoming LInux firmware developed for these new S905X2 devices. So AFAIC I am perfectly happy with the S912 and even S905X boxes with the LibreELEC KODI 17.6 firmware. There is IMHO no reason to worry about upgrading from this current excellent set up we have. To be honest I have no real reason or interest to change up to KODI 18 Leia as so far can see nothing in there I particualrly want or need except for some different eye candy which is really irelevent. A Netflix working addon may be useful for some without smart TVs, but for most Netflix runs excellently with Dolby Vision HDR and UHD contecnt too on my LG Smart TV system and is not a rip off monthly price either for a considerable amount of good content too. So can anyone say why we actually really need KODI 18 for now ???

    Quote from olivluca

    Good, now I only need a working dvb driver for the ki pro....... :(;)

    Wit last LE 8.2.5 on my MECOOL KI PRo is good dvb driver. On Coreelec i had working dvb driver on 8.95.5 release, but from 8.95.6 release is not working. I tried change also driver from original libreelec driver to last kernel driver. But bug is last update of coreelec in frame of dvb driver of KI PRO. Libreelec with kodi 17.6 is great !

    Quote from atirage21

    Wit last LE 8.2.5 on my MECOOL KI PRo is good dvb driver. On Coreelec i had working dvb driver on 8.95.5 release, but from 8.95.6 release is not working. I tried change also driver from original libreelec driver to last kernel driver. But bug is last update of coreelec in frame of dvb driver of KI PRO. Libreelec with kodi 17.6 is great !

    Not here. I tried both 8.2.5 and I'm currently on 9 beta. DVB-S sometimes works, sometime doesn't (muxes that I can tune one moment I cannot the next, some cannot tune at all). DVB-T doesn't tune any mux (though tvheadend can scan and find some services). Android works flawlessly but if I wanted to use android I wouldn't be here ;).

    Maybe the problem is heat related, now I'm trying with the box horizontal, with the tuner part at the bottom, and it seems it's working better (not as good as android and still no DVB-T).

    I use dvb-s only on KI PRO. Never had problem on CE 8.95.6. But I have problems with other things... Please where could I get this 8.2.5 you talked about for KI PRO? Thanks.

    Quote from jirkan

    I use dvb-s only on KI PRO. Never had problem on CE 8.95.6. But I have problems with other things... Please where could I get this 8.2.5 you talked about for KI PRO? Thanks.

    If you go to the first post, under "test releases" there's a link to a mega folder.

    I'm wondering if I have a defective unit, but I don't think so: I'm not the only one having problems with the dvb tuner (Edit: besides, under android the tuner works fine). Maybe this is the cause.

    I installed 8.2.5 on my TX3 Mini and seems to be running fine. Wifi Working, Wireless mouse working.

    Boot from internal command is working too.

    I just want to know how to boot from Android back into Libreelec? Is there an easy way to do it, without getting up and unpluging the box?

    Then the dual boot would be complete!


    Any help would be appreciated.