Posts by frankvw

OK. I'm going to do a clean install of LE only without any customization at all and see what that does, then install add-ons one by one until things go boom. That should help to narrow it down.

Tnx!

// FvW

Quote from doug

Not quite. Recent versions of Kodi/LE have changed how GPU/CPU handle audio/video compared to previous versions of Kodi/OE. You can't draw the conclusion. A more relevant comparison would be the same version of Kodi in LE vs. Kodi in OE. And this still wouldn't eliminate the power supply as a possible issue.

I'd test a separate power supply. I'd also test a different USB cable as those can cause problems too.

The kodi.log and kodi.old.log you provided weren't debug enabled logs. Enable debug logging, reboot, then reproduce. Then upload the logs.

I did enable debugging. But the crash reverted that setting to the default (i.e. no debugging).

I hear what you say about the changes in GPU/CPU handling. However, the highest CPU load I get while playing H.265 encoded video, which works fine without a hiccup. I use a 2.5A power supply that came with the Pi and that only powers the Pi, and when I ssh in and generate maximum CPU load on all 4 cores (until the thermal warning appears on screen) there's no problem. However by simply playing audio and switching the visualization I can reproduce the crashes reliably.

If there's a spontaneous crash while audio is playing (and the visualizations are doing their thing) I usually get two or three subsequent reboots, and as soon as I resume audio playing the system crashes again. Power cycling resolves that problem.

So yes, I hear what you say, and I'll try to organize another power supply to see if that makes a difference, but this honestly doesn't feel like a power problem to me.

Meanwhile I've disabled all visualizations to see if that makes a difference.

Whatever the case may be, thanks for looking into it. I appreciate it!

// FvW

Quote from doug

Power supply issues?

I'm using an "officially approved" 2.5 amp power supply from which only the RPi itself is powered. The USB disks hang off a self-powered USB hub that does not backpower into the RPi.

If power supply issues were the cause, this should also have been apparent with the previous OE install under the same CPU load, and it should be worse while playing, say, H.265 video's which currently generate the highest CPU load. But it isn't. Instead the problem occurs while switching visualizations during audio playback and the like, at which time Kodi freezes for a second or two, then reboots.

In other words, this appears to be tied to software operations rather than to high CPU load operations (which should draw the highest current). Doesn't sound like a power supply issue to me... But the thought is appreciated.

// FvW

Quote from doug

Decrease or eliminate your overclock to see if the trouble goes away.

Hi, Doug,

I didn't overclock. The RPi 3 is straight out of the box. No tweaking, modding or souping upping done in any way.

// FvW

Quote from DaVu

check /storage/.kodi/temp/kodi.log or ssh in an enter:

Code

pastebinit /storage/.kodi/temp/kodi.log

and

Code

pastebinit /storage/.kodi/temp/kodi.old.log

after the reboot and get us the links you will receive.

Thank you so much for responding-- it's greatly appreciated.

I've done the above for both kodi.log and kodi.old.log, as well as for the two recent crash logs that I find in the same subdirectory. The pastebin URLs are:

For kodi.log: cbWP
For kodi.old.log: Ifbh
For kodi_crash.log (symlink to kodi_crashlog_20170519182358.log): YXAJ
For kodi_crashlog_20170519182231.log: CgdT

These are the crash logs that (according to their time/date stamps) should cover the crashes/reboots that occurred just before I pastebinned the lot.

Platform / How installed:
Raspberry Pi 3 with 2 Toshiba USB harddisks via self-powered, non-backpowering USB hub, and a VRC-1100 MCE IR Remote Control receiver. No other peripherals present. Clean install of LE 8.0.1 from image LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-8.0.1.img on 8GB micro SD card. Xonfluence skin installed from the helly repo; everything else from standard repo's. Instability issues occur with two installations on two different SD cards, which should rule out the SD card as a possible source of problems. None of the above ever occurs with my old OE 6.0.3 install, which should rule out hardware issues with the RPi3.

What I did to produce the crash that generated the above log files:
play music, switch visualizations using the Visualizations Setting button in the Music Playback OSD. Playback halts; screen freezes, reboot after a few seconds. Wait for system to come back up, restart playback of same track; crash and reboot follows after about a second of music playback. Power cycle and switch visualizations back to 'Shadertoy' using the settings menu before resuming playback (finding that menu's have reverted to yesterday's configuration; screen resolution has reverted to DESKTOP, and "Enable CD case and disk art" and "Diffuse music visualization with artist fanart" have reverted to factory defaults. The above crashes are reproducible by repeating the above sequence of operations.

Once again many thanks!

// FvW

Since I upgraded to LE 8.0.1 on my Raspberry Pi 3 (with all add-ons up-to-date as well) I'm enjoying the improvements in Kodi 17 (over Kodi 15 which I had on my previous OE install) but unfortunately I'm also having serious stability problems. Mostly during user operations (i.e. navigating menu's and selecting options) but occasionally also during playback, Kodi will just freeze for a few seconds, followed by either one or by multiple reboots.

Question 1: Since Kodi is an app running on top of Linux, I can't see how a Kodi crash could corrupt the Linux OS to the point where it crashes into a reboot (that shouldn't be possible). So how do problems with Kodi cause these reboots? Is there a watchdog process somewhere that reboots the system in response to an unrecoverable error state in Kodi?

I suspect that not LE/Kodi itself but one of the add-ons is the problem. The Shadertoy visualization doesn't seem entirely stable (most reboots occur while "playing" with the different visualizations during music playback) and the visualizations are off-center and not full-screen, and also sometimes fail to come on-screen. Another possible culprit could be the Xonfluence skin, seeing as whenever I edit a menu options and there's a reboot shortly after that, I loose the latest menu edits and the menu's revert to what they were before the last (but not the previous) change.

Question 2: Is there anything in terms of debug logging (either module-specific or not) that may hint at what causes these reboots?

One last funny thing is that after a crash more often than not my display resolution settings have reverted from full screen HD to DESKTOP, with a refresh rate of either 60fps or 59.94fps. When that happens I need to restore the resolution to 1920x1080p and do another screen calibration to adjust the overscan to its correct settings.

Question 3: What could cause the display resolution to revert to the factory default without affecting other settings?

Any pointers in the right directions would be appreciated. Thanks!!

// FvW

Quote from trogggy

That's everything in your video library. Plus a bit of junk that accumulates in textures.db / Thumbnails.

It would be a good idea to keep a backup of some kind just in case, obviously, until you're happy it's worked.
Using a different card is the easiest way, or use the backup addon in the kodi repo or copy files from storage/.kodi via smb / ftp / whatever.

Awesome. Going to try that, using a different card just in case. Thanks a million-- it's greatly appreciated!!

// FvW

Quote from trogggy

If your intention is to install the same version of libreelec as now then copying the following will keep your whole library and sources intact:
[snip]
Install new libreelec.
Connect via ssh (putty if using windows).
Run 'systemctl stop kodi'
Paste the files and the Thumbnails folder into place.
Run 'systemctl start kodi'
Library should be back.

If you're doing that on a fresh card there's no need to make backups - if using the same card back up first with the built-in libreelec addon and move the backup (tar) off the card before reinstalling.

The alternative to doing the above would be to export your library and re-import - details in the kodi wiki.
Personally I'd just copy the databases, as long as your file paths aren't changing.

Display More

Yes, I will reinstall exactly the same LE version. Will the above include the fanart images?

The built-in libreelec addon doesn't work on my current install, which is one of the reasons for the clean install (see my OP) so I need to do this manually.

Tnx!

// FvW

Hi everyone,

A few weeks ago I migrated from OE to LE on my RPi3, including the add-ons which I retained from my old OE set-up and where necessary updated after the migration. However not all is well. The LE system settings addon complains that it's not ready and I'm having stability problems (sudden reboots in the middle of audio playing, something I suspect but can't prove might be related to the Shadertoy visualization add-on).

A clean install seems to be indicated.

However I have a fairly massive video library that I have spent a lot of time massaging into what I want it to be, and I can't bear the thought to have to start from scratch by re-scraping everything and then restoring my collections, watched/nonwatched marks and what not from scratch. Also, I've got a lot of fanart, which is an important part of the user experience offered by Xonfluence (which is my skin of choice).

What I want is to back up all video related database stuff and artwork, then do a clean install including the add-ons from scratch, then restore the video database contents and artwork. Unfortunately, with the LE settings add-on out of commission, I don't have access to the standard backup feature.

So how do I manually back up my video library (not worrying about music for now since that's not been scraped yet in any case) INCLUDING all the video artwork? I've managed to locate .kodi/userdata/Thumbnails, .kodi/userdata/library and .kodi/userdata/Database, but I'm not sure that's all I need.

If anyone can point me into the right direction, it would be greatly appreciated. Tnx!

// FvW

Quote from DaVu

So just re-do your settings. It might have been a problem with the skin you have used. So I would keep it this way, do your settings, add your addons and see, if it fails again.

I already redid all the settings. I was hoping that a migration would mean I'd not have to go through the weeks of finetuning and installing add-ons all over again. I might as well forget about migrating and start with a fresh image from scratch then. Oh well.

Thanks for looking into it.

// FvW

Quote from DaVu

this is really strange. Would be intersting from which OE version you tried to migrate and what skin might be in use then

Could you please try for a test to do a hard reset by:

Code

mv /storage/.kodi /storage/kodi-bak

That will remove all your settings and installed addons, but those will be stored in the "kodi-bak"-folder. I'm not sure what exactly causes the issue, but the message cames from here:

service.libreelec.settings/default.py at 17315f4066454fb9ef12d36c465cb423726757a9 · LibreELEC/service.libreelec.settings · GitHub

OK. Did that, and Kodi reverted to defaults (and the Estuary skin). Then the settings add-on worked. When I restored my backed up .kodi folder I did find several settings had reverted to defaults (resolution back to DESKTOP from 1920x1080p; audio output back to HDMI only from HDMI and Analog) and the settings add-on once again tells me to come back later. [Edit: in fact ALL kodi settings had reverted to their defaults after the restore and I had to re-customize everything, from subtitle preferences in the OSD to the video calibration in the Kodi system settings. Just mentioning it in case it's relevant.]

I migrated from OE6 with Kodi 15.1 and the Xonfluence skin to EE8 and Kodi 17.1. Upon start-up Xonfluence was disabled as an incompatible add-on and Kodi reverted to Estuary. I updated Xonfluence from its repo and all was well. In fact everything works with the exception of the settings add-on. [Edit: so it's clear that something in the .kodi folder breaks the OpenELEC settings addon.]

Tnx!

After migrating to LibreELEC (and what an improvement it is, everything runs much better and smoother!) I am left with one problem: I am unable to change any LibreELEC system settings. When I try to run the LibreELEC configuration add-on, I get the following error message:

Quote

Settings addon is not yet ready, please try again later

I've googled for it, but the only references to this error message that I can find relate to LE 7.90 alpha and I can find nothing useful.

I'd supply a debug log file, but I need to enable that under the system settings that I can't get into.

Suggestions, anyone?

Tnx!

// FvW

Quote from chewitt

The hard reset process is triggered by /storage/.cache/reset_oe being present in the filesystem. There is no logging on that process so you're not missing anything useful from the logs being nuked as part of the reset.

The only scenario that I can come up with for this happening is that you've hit "hard reset" and then said "no" when it prompts to reboot (assuming it does prompt, it probably does) and then you've taken a backup of the system. This would lead to reset_oe being present in the backup.

You, sir, rock!

A bit of mystery remains, because I definitely have NOT gone for any hard reset ever (I'm 100% sure of that) yet on my old OE config the file /storage/.cache/reset_oe (5 bytes in size, content 'reset') _is_ present. I have power cycled my OE setup numerous times and never gotten a hard reset. Why? I have no idea. There's also a /storage/.cache/reset_xbmc with the same contents. Anyway, I removed both from the backup tar, installed a clean LE image, restored backup on same, and we're back in business! I followed your instructions on how to reload the repo by manually requesting updates, and that worked as well!

Some small niggles (Error messages like "settings addon is not ready, please try again later" and trying to figure out how to re-activate Xonflence after updating it from its own repo, but those are normal and to be expected after a migration two major versions up. I'll see how get that sorted somehow. [Edit: it took a few tries but I finally managed to get Xonfluence updated, enabled and running. Everything seems to be working 100% now!]

Thanks for curing that headache for me!!

Quote from chewitt

No idea what the issue is, but the backup is just a .tar archive containing some folders. Copy this to /storage and uncompress the archive, then stop Kodi (systemctl stop kodi.service) and move the directories you care about (.cache, .config and .kodi) back to the right places, then restart kodi.service.

Thanks for the suggestion! I did the above, and upon restarting the kodi.service I did get Kodi to run. There was a message stating that Xonfluence had been disabled as an incompatible add-on, which is not what I wanted to see but at least did make sense. Even better, all my libraries and most of the settings were there as well. Progress! (Some interface settings had reverted to their defaults, but that's easily explained from the fact that Xonfluence was not available and Kodi had reverted to its default skin.

[Edit: since then I've seen several instructions on installing Xonfluence on Kodi 17, so it may be that the version of Xonfluence I've got installed on my old OE has been updated since to support Krypton. Will look into that.]

However, when i tried to install the Confluence skin, nothing happened when I selected 'Settings > Interface > Skin > GET MORE...' -- the GET MORE button is simply inoperative. Before restoring my backup I did install Confluence on the out-of-the-box image and that went flawless. Now it didn't. (I only now saw someone running into the same problem, the solution for which in that case was apparently to refresh or reinstall the add-on repository. Going to try that as soon as I manage to deal with what happened next!

What happened next was that I tried a reboot to see if that would do anything. And boy, did it do something. The startup screen appeared, told me not to switch anything off while it was performing a hard reset, completed said hard reset and rebooted, and there I am back again to the out-of-the-box config where I'm being asked for a system name and network settings.

Aargh. What in the name of all that's unholy causes this unwanted hard reset? It has to be something in my backup, because as soon as I restore it on a virgin Libreelec image and reboot, that's what happens.

[Edit: Of course the problem is, once again, that the hard reset nukes everything including the logfiles, so there's nothing to do a post-mortem on. So how do I find out what's triggering this hard reset?]

Suggestions are welcome!

// FvW

Hi, all,

As per the instructions in the wiki, where it says that:

Quote

There is a possibility however, that migration from OpenELEC to LibreELEC will not work because of a smaller sized system partition in OpenELEC. In that case, make a backup of your OpenELEC setup using the internal Backup option. Then install a fresh copy of LibreELEC onto your (new) SD card and restore the previously made backup afterwards.

The system partition on my OE6 install is only 113MB. So I did the above: made a backup of my OE6 install, took a new SD card, copied a fresh LE8 image on it, booted it, restored the backup. The system went through two reboots and then I was left with the factory default config, again a request for system name, network settings and the like, and no databases. It looks like the second reboot was a hard reset. However no error messages were displayed, and there's no logfile to tell me what went wrong, either.

What troubleshooting options could try to find out why and how this is going wrong?

// FvW

Quote from Klojum

I don't see Xonfluence in the current list of skins for Krypton in the Kodi repo. But, it could still work...

It's not part of the standard repo but a separate one (helliyrepo.kodi).
[hr]

Quote from trogggy

Switch to confluence before you run the upgrade. Otherwise xonfluence will be disabled due to the version being incompatible with krypton - only a nuisance but an avoidable one.
If you're in confluence then on booting to krypton the skin will change to estuary, Helly's repo will update , xonfluence will update and you can switch back to it.

Thanks - I'll do that when I actually get that far. Right now migrating doesn't seem to work at all. Will discuss that in a separate thread.

Quote from Klojum

That circle thing... lol

Yes, that.

However, the point I'm trying to make is that that search option leaves room for improvement:

• It could be more recognizable

• It lacks the text labels that the other options in that same button bar do have

• It provides search options for the forum while the button is not grouped with the forum controls but with the overall website options.

None of which helps form a user interface design standpoint, and could be easily improved on.

Once again, just my five cents...

// FvW

Quote from Klojum

Lots of Jarvis addons *should be* Krypton compatible as well. There is always the odd outsider.
LE uses the common Kodi repository and has some tools/add-ons rebuilt for Krypton.
LE and OE do not differ for add-ons, as both are running Kodi. OE however is still running Jarvis, not Krypton.
I never used that specific Backup add-on, I always used the built-in Backup/Restore tool in the settings add-on.
There is always the option to create an image of the SD card via Win32diskimager..

OK. I'm going to try it this weekend. The advantage of the backup add-on is that you can schedule it on a regular basis and write to a networked device or cloud storage. But for migration purposes the internal backup option is probably the way to go.

I'm hoping that after the migration I'll still have Xonfluence. From what I see it will run on Krypton, so holding thumbs. (The fact that OE is still sitting on Jarvis and there's no sign of any progress there soon is my reason for ditching OE in favor of LE.)

Thanks!

// FvW