Trying to find the root of repeated crashes in the last month of nightlies

    Hi - i can't fully remember when this error started to occur - whether it is addon related of LE related. But about a month ago - i'll get a crash on Kodi initialisation and it'll then go into a boot loop 4/5 times before hitting the safe mode.

    I've tried disabling different addons and can't pinpoint it. I've put lots of logs into ChatGPT to help triage the issue and it thinks it could be some kind of python addon compatibility issue but doesn't specify / a race condition / something to do with loading up fonts. It's killing me trying to diagnose this so thought i'd see if i could draft in the pros.

    ChatGPT analysing the log said the following:

    Crash log (kodi_crashlog_20250914204731.log)

    kodi_crashlog_20250914204731

    • Kodi crashes with a SIGSEGV (segmentation fault).

    • The core dump trace shows the main crash is in:

      Code
      /usr/lib/libpython3.13.so.1.0

      → This is Kodi’s Python interpreter (used for add-ons).

    • Just before the crash:
      • Thread 48 shows HarfBuzz font shaping (text rendering).
      • Stack trace: CGUIFontTTF → CGUIFont → CGUITextLayout → CGUILabel → GUI rendering.
      • At the same time, Python invokers (addons/scripts) are running in other threads.
    • This suggests Kodi is dying when trying to render some text from an addon (or skin element) while Python is executing.

    Why it’s crashing

    • The crash is happening at the intersection of:
      • Python 3.13 integration (newer Python, nightly build).
      • Font rendering via HarfBuzz when labels/text are updated.
    • This is very likely a bug in the nightly LibreELEC/Kodi build, not your configuration.
    • Addons/skins that trigger heavy GUI updates (labels, list items, metadata fetches) increase the chance of hitting it.


    Here is my log

    External Content gist.github.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.

    P.S I've been trying to use Arctic fuse 2 as my skin but this may be where the issues are? I'll happily enable any debug logging etc. I've also been messing with CEC settings recently as that's been throwing a wobbler so happy to show you any of that if needed to eliminate it being an error.

    Edited once, last by sunlollyking: Merged a post created by sunlollyking into this post. (September 15, 2025 at 11:34 AM).

    This is more likely to be a Kodi (software) issue not an LE (packaging of software) issue; but some ideas in no particular order:

    * Go backwards in time with nightlies and pinpoint the first date when the issue appears. We can then look at what packages changed on that date. I'll guess that the main package bump will be 'Kodi' .. but then we can look at what changed between the previous Kodi version (tracked through githash) and you can start a conversation with Kodi developers around that.

    * Switch to the default skin. If the issues go away, it's either an issue with Arctic Fuse2 skin itself (something to take up with the skin developers) or the skin triggers a rendering problem (something for Kodi developers). If the issue remains; it wasn't the skin.

    * You have a large number of add-ons installed. Switch to a clean environment (stop Kodi, rename /storage/.kodi to /storage/.kodi-old and restart) and then start to add back add-ons until you find the one(s) which trip the problem.

    OK thanks for the reply - I think the problem i'm facing is that it seems like my error could be a race condition so once i start reenabling, sometimes i get the boot issue, sometimes it'll work fine.

    Quote
    • This suggests Kodi is dying when trying to render some text from an addon (or skin element) while Python is executing.

    I don't see evidence for that from a single crash log. The font rendering thread is just what kodi was doing when other thread crashed with a SEGV. The crashed thread was python related. It's most likely just luck what other threads happen to be doing when the python thread crashes.

    As chewitt says:

    find the date of first nightly with the issue.

    find if you can provoke the issue with a clean .kodi

    I renamed my addons folder to addons_old. Deleted .kodi folder and renamed kodi.FAILED to .kodi. However it has still somehow booted into safe mode and the failed folder has regenerated?

    Again thanks for the replies :)

    1. Safe Mode: don't rename .kodi or kodi.FAILED. Only perform needed changes in kodi.FAILED (or nothing) and reboot. Safe Mode is disabled on next boot.
    2. I set my bet on this Python issue. I've seen it rarely myself but the question is why it lead to safe mode on your side.