Buffering when swithcing to LE V8.95. 1 or 2 or 3 Beta from LE v8.2.5

1st Official Post

    To start my hardware is an HP Chromebox CB1 with the latest updated custom UEFI firmware from MrChromebox. My video files are on my main PC in a shared folder. The PC and the Chromebox are connected together by Gigabit Ethernet. Running LE 8.2.5 from a clean install after updating the firmware, my videos play without any buffering. Clean installing and connecting to the share folder by a backup settings file or manually setting up the share again with LE 8.95.1, 2 or 3 Beta results in buffering of all video files within a few seconds of playing a file (the little circle with the number in the middle pops up). Am I missing an important setting when switching to the Beta LE releases? Is there any additional information or logs that I need to take to see what my issue is? Is my hardware even still compatible for the new LE releases? Any suggestions as to where to start to figure this out would be appreciated. Forgot to say PC where files are stored is running Windows 7 Pro.

    Edited once, last by ex-r-wagon: Add additional information. (January 28, 2019 at 5:42 PM).

    • Official Post

    This shouldn't be an issue.

    With a *fresh* install of 8.95.3 can you setup your SMB shares and try to play a file. After the problem occurs, can you then:

    Please provide a full debug log.

    How to post a log (wiki)

    1. Enable debugging in Settings>System Settings>Logging
    2. Restart Kodi
    3. Replicate the problem
    4. Generate a log URL (do not post/upload logs to the forum)

    use "Settings > LibreELEC > System > Paste system logs" or run "pastekodi" over SSH, then post the URL link

    I think SMB chunk size could be the issue here. This is hardcoded in Kodi, so no easy way to change it. If you can set up an LE build system you can try to build some images with an increased SMB chunk size (256K, 512K...).

    Quote from smp

    I think SMB chunk size could be the issue here. This is hardcoded in Kodi, so no easy way to change it. If you can set up an LE build system you can try to build some images with an increased SMB chunk size (256K, 512K...).

    As I am not a coder, are you indicating that the SMB chunk size is different in Kodi 17 vs Kodi 18. If it is then it might be the reason that LE v8.2.5 works for me and LE 8.95.xxx Beta's are not. Would this not be an issue for others using Chromebox hardware?

    We had a similar problem with our Chromebox 1 , but not the Chromebox 3 according to Matt Devo,

    it's a 4.19+ kernel bug, current work around is to add 'pci=nomsi' to kernel parameters in /flash/syslinux.cfg


    I think there is a simple smb fix for Chromboxes, but you need to check out the following kodi link:

    ChromeBox Kodi E-Z Setup Script (LibreELEC/Linux+Kodi) [2017/02/21]

    depending on the Chromebox you append either "extlinux.conf", or "syslinux.cfg"


    with:

    APPEND boot=LABEL=KERN-C disk=LABEL=ROOT-C tty quiet pci=nomsi


    There is a more detailed howto in the Mr Chromebox Kodi EZ-setup script thread linked above,

    it's close to the page I listed.

    Applied the kernel bug fix as you indicated in your post. Had tried it before however I did it again after a fresh install of LE 8.95.3 beta. Now videos play without buffering. Thanks for your input. Now the question is "Does this work around have to be applied every time LE is updated?".