Simplify Kodi setup/experience: WiFi AP and no auth user

1st Official Post

    First, I understand that Kodi/LibreELEC is NOT Chromecast. I get that, and I very much appreciate that it isn't. I've de-Googled my life, and I'm using Kore + LibreELEC on a RPi 0W as opposed to Chromecast.

    I'm a very technical user, but even still, I found the whole setup and experience to be . . . challenging. I have a RPi 0W with a broken USB controller, so I used that for LibreELEC. However, I didn't realize that I would need a keyboard to set up the WiFi network. This is where I realized that the casual user would give up. Many non-technical users don't even own USB keyboards, these days - they own laptops, tablets, and phones.

    At the risk of saying, "Make it work like Chromecast," I think I have a solution that would make "onboarding" a LOT easier:

    • When the system starts, set up a WiFi AP.
    • Display the network SSID and password on the screen that can be used to connect to the device and finish the configuration.
    • (Ideal) Display a QR code on the screen that can be used to connect to the AP using a mobile device. Add functionality to Kore to allow scanning this QR code and perform the setup via the app.
    • (Ideal) If the device loses connectivity to the known network, set up the AP and display the AP credentials and/or QR code so the user can fix the problem.

    Next, while I found that setting up Kore was easy, again, non-technical users might be lost. Username? Password? Why? Also, this makes it inconvenient for guests to use the device. Instead, here are some ideas:

    • Provide the option of creating a non-privileged user account so that Kore can be connected without requiring credentials. (Yes, this is less secure, but make it optional. For many users, if you're already on their WiFi network, they probably don't mind if you access their media devices)
    • Again, provide a QR code on the screen that can be scanned with Kore. This QR code would provide everything necessary for connecting (IP, port, user:pass). It would be much easier and preserve the security of the system.

    Thoughts?

    • Official Post

    The main (only?) hardware where this request comes from is RPi0 where the default board lacks physical ports. LE10 drops support for 512MB RPi hardware as in our opinion the performance under the new GBM/V4L2 pipeline (using more RAM and not-using OMX) is no longer suficcient for a good Kodi experience. It might improve over time with optimisation but under LE9.2 that optimisation requires 100k lines of not-upstream code and one of our long-term goals with Kodi is no (or minimal) not-upstream code, so it will be hard to replicate. Active-install numbers for RPi0/1 are tiny so from our side it's a low-impact change. So thanks for the creative thoughts, and I'm sure it's not the answer you wanted to hear, but we will indirectly solve the RPi0 problem by no longer supporting the hardware that has the problem.

    I wonder if the reason that there are so few users for the RPi0W is that the requirement of having a USB keyboard for setup is such an annoyance - just a thought. Anywho, I guess I'm off to OSMC until LE decides to support future iterations of the RPi0.

    • Official Post

    User numbers are small because an RPi3B+ is not a huge amount more $$ and is a considerably better Kodi device. RPi0 has never been positioned as an HTPC board and the only reason we "support" installs on it with LE 9.2 and older images is it happens to use the same image as RPi1 devices and thus needs no effort. Using MMAL in LE 9.2 is sub-optimal so most users are forced to use OMX anyway (same for RPi1) so Kodi is pushing the limits of what's sensible on the low-spec Pi boards for a while already. LE10 formalises that reality by discontinuing support completely.

    If OSMC works better for you that's great and we encourage you do us it. OSMC currently runs the same underlying kernel, drivers and Kodi version that we use in LE 9.2 so there won't be any major difference, but the packaging might be easier for you. NB: In the near future they will make the same decision to end support for RPi0/1 as LE because they will migrate to the same K19 code stack that we're developing for Kodi. K19 does not support OMX or MMAL, only GBM/V4L2, so the decision is technical and nothing to do with user numbers.

    Ah, I checked OSMC, and they've announced EOL for the RPi0W. That's a shame. Perhaps a new version of the Zero will be released with more power in the near future.

    RPi0W aside, I agree with you that users should have a "good Kodi experience" and "considerably better Kodi device." With that goal in mind, wouldn't implementing some of my ideas also provide a considerably better Kodi experience? I believe so. I'm a freelance developer with two degrees in CS, but I only have one USB keyboard, and I had to dig it out of a closet. I doubt any of my non-technical friends even have one lying around. Bridging that gap would go a long way to help user adoption.

    • Official Post

    The cummulative number of struggling users and/or feature requests we've seen over the yers suggests it's not a top-of-mind issue. There are no plans among our entirely volunteer stafff to pursue this that i'm aware of, but we have no objections to someone else (perhaps someone with two CS degrees?) making the effort and sending us a pull-request.

    I'm not entirely familiar with the version of Linux that LE uses. I looked at the WiFi manager, and it's something derived from Alpine, if I recall? I'm more comfortable with Debian since it has been my daily driver for well over a decade (which is why OSMC would be my second choice, but I was attracted to the simplicity/JeOS nature of LE). I could certainly take a crack at it, though.

    Ah, good ol' LFS. I remember toying with that back when I was interested in micro distros (my favorite is Slitaz, and I'm sad that it never caught on). Okay, I can't promise anything, but I'll look if I have some time.

    Thanks!