Libreelec on Mac Mini 2012 Works but 2 issues

    So I installed the latest stable version of LibreElec on my Mac Mini 2012. It was so easy. BEAUTIFUL! Put new life in my Mac Mini 2012. I love it. However, two annoyances.

    1) If I switch input source of my TV to something else, then come back to the Mac Mini, I hear crackling and flashing on TV. Basically I have to already have switched my TV input source to the HDMI port where my Mac Mini is connected *before* I turn it ON, else I will not get picture. Seems like LibreElec not able to detect it. I can live with this, but wanted to ask in case I am doing something stupid.

    2) A bigger problem. I can suspend with my USB remote using the "Power" Menu item. Then I can press any button on my remote and it tries to resume (of course as I said in 1 above I need to first be on the HDMI input source). I see LibreElect deliver picture to TV. *However* it gives message saying "Please wait" or something like this and hangs. Then I have to power cycle. Very annoying because I have to go to the Mac Mini and power cycle it.

    Thanks in advance for any pointers.

    Kodi only detects output config at startup so if you connect to the TV after boot it didn't receive necessary info. You can run "getedid create" to cache/force the EDID data from the HDMI connection, then the box will never see HDMI state changes that might be upsetting things.

    There's not much we can do locally if suspend/wake doesn't work; it's all about the upstream kernel and what that inherently supports on your device. The challenge with mac mini's has always been that there's no BIOS that power states can be tweaked from, and no upstream kernel developers are using decade-old Apple hardware to validate Linux support so regressions can creep in over time (or things never worked in the first place). Your best bet is generall Googling .. if there's a patch we can add or a missing kernel module to enable; we can probably do that, but nobody on the team has old mac kit for testing so we're shooting blind on the problem. You can also report the issue to upstream kernel maintainers and see what they suggest. If you do, feel free to cc me (chewitt@ the LE domain). The power-management and ACPI mailing lists are probably the ones to target for Qs:

    Linux power management - Patchwork

    Linux ACPI - Patchwork

    chewitt - TYVM! I will study what you said and try find out what my suspend / resume issue could be.

    I will also try with different TVs. I had a similar issue happen with a computer running windows with my TV. This under the assumptions the two problems are related. Do you think that's a possibility or am I barking up the wrong tree?

    Using a cached EDID file might solve the first problem, it won't be part of the second. If you Google remote wake issues you'll find articles on setting USB devices as wake devices, and that might not be happening, in which case you can concoct a systemd service that runs when the box is suspended .. allowing you to wake again.

    Okay. Just to clarify though. The Mac Mini does wake up from suspend back to the screen it was in, in the Power menu. It is just that I see a circle of dots as if it needs to do something which eventually freezes. So I was thinking the problem is *after* resuming from suspend.

    Perhaps enable persitent logging in the LE settings add-on and see what's going on. Then you can also retrieve previous system logs from the journal, e.g. "journalctl -b 1 --no-pager > /storage/old.log" to see if there are any clues (feel free to pastebin logs and share URLs).

    Quote from griftopia

    So I installed the latest stable version of LibreElec on my Mac Mini 2012. It was so easy. BEAUTIFUL! Put new life in my Mac Mini 2012. I love it. However, two annoyances.

    1) If I switch input source of my TV to something else, then come back to the Mac Mini, I hear crackling and flashing on TV. Basically I have to already have switched my TV input source to the HDMI port where my Mac Mini is connected *before* I turn it ON, else I will not get picture. Seems like LibreElec not able to detect it. I can live with this, but wanted to ask in case I am doing something stupid.

    2) A bigger problem. I can suspend with my USB remote using the "Power" Menu item. Then I can press any button on my remote and it tries to resume (of course as I said in 1 above I need to first be on the HDMI input source). I see LibreElect deliver picture to TV. *However* it gives message saying "Please wait" or something like this and hangs. Then I have to power cycle. Very annoying because I have to go to the Mac Mini and power cycle it.

    Thanks in advance for any pointers.

    Hi Griftopia, I also installed Libreelec on my Mac mini Server late 2012 and everything work super fine with the big exception of the boot... Every time I shut down the system and I power it on again, the next day, I have to switch it ON and then OFF, at least three times... It doesn't boot, you don't hear the HDD moving until the third time you try...

    Yesterday I did all the cached EDID file procedure, I tried to switch ON and OFF the machine a lot of times an it always worked, I was so happy! Today I try to switch it on again and... nothing, I had to switch it OFF and ON several times til it finally started...

    What can I do?

    The Mini is a superb HTPC, when it works...!

    Thanks in advance

    Fedux

    Quote from chewitt

    Kodi only detects output config at startup so if you connect to the TV after boot it didn't receive necessary info. You can run "getedid create" to cache/force the EDID data from the HDMI connection, then the box will never see HDMI state changes that might be upsetting things.

    There's not much we can do locally if suspend/wake doesn't work; it's all about the upstream kernel and what that inherently supports on your device. The challenge with mac mini's has always been that there's no BIOS that power states can be tweaked from, and no upstream kernel developers are using decade-old Apple hardware to validate Linux support so regressions can creep in over time (or things never worked in the first place). Your best bet is generall Googling .. if there's a patch we can add or a missing kernel module to enable; we can probably do that, but nobody on the team has old mac kit for testing so we're shooting blind on the problem. You can also report the issue to upstream kernel maintainers and see what they suggest. If you do, feel free to cc me (chewitt@ the LE domain). The power-management and ACPI mailing lists are probably the ones to target for Qs:

    https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-pm/

    https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-acpi/

    Hi Chewitt, can you help me in some ways?

    Thanks a lot!

    Quote from chewitt

    The only mac mini I have dates from 2008 and it's a complete pile of crap for Linux support.

    So .. probably not /shrug

    Thank you very much!

    Are you aware of some kind of kernel editor? Something like the GUI in normal BIOS?