Posts by dipswitch

Quote from Da Flex

On LE 12.0.1 Generic-legacy...

• connect NUC -> TV
• run getedid create
• connect NUC -> AVR -> TV

I'm not sure how to respond to this. As i already mentioned i don't have a nuc.

A short explainer: back in the day, devices like a nuc didn't exist, neither did libreelec/openelec etc. There was only xbmc running on xboxes (not much folks used that) and for the "average guy" there was mediaportal, for which we build a "htpc" (hometheater pc), also known as a "mediacenter" pc. Fast forward 20 years: these htpc desktop cases still exist and this is why some folks still choose to build an generic x86-64 "htpc" which fits nicely with its 42cm width in a hifi / television cabinet, ontop of other components. These contain generic x86 atx components and from the inside they are nothing more then a generic pc, but from the outside they look like a hifi component.

-ontopic:
Do you want me to run that command on my htpc with a hdmi cable directly connected to my tv? Is there perhaps anything else i should try. My hifi/tv cabinet sits in a tight space which isnt exactly pleasant for constant cable swapping. I dont want to damage anything or worst case flip my tv on its side rendering it useless...

heitbaum Do you perhaps have any ideas?

Well, i did the tests and the outcome was unmistakable clear:

connected htpc with hdmi to avr:
11.0.6 - boots to gui

12.0.1 - boots to blank screen

nightly-20240826-7643d36 - boots to blank screen

connected directly with hdmi to tv:

11.0.6 - boots to gui

12.0.1 - boots to gui

nightly-20240826-7643d36 - boots to gui

So it's clear that there is a problem with LE, from v12 apparantely not being able to handle the avr? This is in line with other recent topics on this forum?

Can this be fixed?

-edit: now i read in other topics that other users have problems with connecting there LE 12.01 device to an avr receiver. Now this is exactly how i hooked my LE box up. I have it connected to an Pioneer SC-LX81, which then is connected through hdmi to my tv. Could this be the issue? My setup is fullhd, so no 4k. I tried switching sources on the avr, but to no avail. Other hdmi sources work fine on my avr and 11.0.6 also gives no issues.

Quote from Da Flex

Yes, that works with LE backup function.

Seems like there is really no connection to display available.

• Try other HDMI connectors on NUC and TV.
• Try another HDMI cable. It should be conform to HDMI 2.0 or 2.1 (4K ready).
• You NUC probably uses an LSPCon chip to convert from DP to HDMI. LSPCon issues are usually unsolvable by us.

Yes there is an display connection available. Because if that would be the case, i wouldnt be seeing the motherboards asrock uefi logo and Libreelec/kodi bootscreen. Even better: i changed nothing to my current setup which ran fine for years. As already mentioned: i have an intel i3-8100 based htpc with an gt1030 graphics card. I don't have a NUC. This is a mediacenter pc build by myself with a normal atx asrock motherboard and standard components.

This mediacenter system sits in my livingroom tv cabinet, connected to my pioneer av receiver through hdmi, which is then connected to my tv (normal fhd, not 4k).

I always used this setup without problems. Up until 11.0.6 it ran fine without issues. Only 12.0.1 and current nightlys give these errors, when i run 11.0.6 there is not a single problem. The problem is the new LE, theres nothing wrong with my hardware, which is proven by the fact that 11.0.6 runs without issues.

Quote from heitbaum

dipswitch the pastekodi log is from "Starting Kodi (20.3 (20.3.0) Git:20.3-Nexus). Platform: Linux x86 64-bit" and the smb log is from "Starting Kodi (21.1 (21.1.0) Git:21.1-Omega). Platform: Linux x86 64-bit"

I can see Nvidia in the nexus log

Code

2024-08-27 21:56:32.916 T:1101     info <general>: CRenderSystemGL::InitRenderSystem - Version: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 470.161.03, Major: 4, Minor: 6
2024-08-27 21:56:32.916 T:1101     info <general>: GL_VENDOR = NVIDIA Corporation
2024-08-27 21:56:32.916 T:1101     info <general>: GL_RENDERER = NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030/PCIe/SSE2
2024-08-27 21:56:32.916 T:1101     info <general>: GL_VERSION = 4.6.0 NVIDIA 470.161.03
2024-08-27 21:56:32.916 T:1101     info <general>: GL_SHADING_LANGUAGE_VERSION = 4.60 NVIDIA
2024-08-27 21:56:32.916 T:1101     info <general>: GL_GPU_MEMORY_INFO_TOTAL_AVAILABLE_MEMORY_NVX = 2097152
2024-08-27 21:56:32.916 T:1101     info <general>: GL_GPU_MEMORY_INFO_DEDICATED_VIDMEM_NVX = 2097152

the pastekodi is a mix of nexus and omega:

the "journalctl -a -b -0" is Omega and the "/storage/.kodi/temp/kodi.log" is Nexus

Suggest using the USB Key boot (using the run option) before doing too much - this will isolate what is happening.

Display More

That will be my next step. Because i have a strong feeling the issue is LE, and has nothing to do with my hardware. As already mentioned, other software runs fine, 11.0.6 runs fine, only 12.0.1 cr*ps out.

So i've booted a clean LE 12.0.1 from usb key, and it gives me the exact same behaviour. It boots to the bootlogo, and after that a blank screen. I cant ssh into the computer, but i can access its smb shares. Unfortunately, there is no kodi.log in the zipfile in the logfiles smb share, but i could grab the system.log :

Quote from Da Flex

Thanks. Please install Generic-legacy 12.0.1 from scratch. Something is wrong here.

Can i export and then later import all my settings ? Would be a lot of work to do that all over again?

when i run "getedid create" nothing happens, the system seems to freeze. When i then control C and run the command again, it gives "Existing /storage/.config/xorg.conf detected. Aborting!"

Then when i give the reboot command, eventually the ssh session ends, but the system doesnt reboot, seems to hang. Only after a long time it actually reboots, only to boot again to a blank screen.

Quote from smp

If you can get it for free or dirt cheap I suppose it would be an ok choice. Otherwise, there are better choices (Intel Arc A310).

That arc a310 card is new to me. It even does av1 decoding, nice! Unfortunately, in my region, it can only be bought brand new for 100 bucks, there are no secondhand offerings.

I wonder if that wx3200 does av1 decoding, Can't find a lot about that card's compatibility.

Quote from Da Flex

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

Thank you for your reply. I have to confess that i'm not sure how to do what is requested. The problem is that, after i update LE to 12.0.1, i can't get to the gui. 12.0.1 is installed after a reboot. After that. the system boots, shows the boot splashscreen (kodi logo) and after that the screen goes blank. I did notice that in that state, i am able to ssh into the htpc, maybe this helps?

-update: i read the debug log wiki and am now trying to generate one.

from an ssh session i ran pastekodi (i with a blank screen on my display, since the gui wont start). This gave me:

# pastekodi
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::runtime_error'
what(): failed to find DRM cards
Aborted (core dumped)
https://paste.libreelec.tv/splendid-chigger.log

The logfile from the sambashare is this one:

Thank you admin for creating a new topic for this issue. I hope it generates some attention so that i in the future will be able to run LE 12.

Quote from heitbaum

I have tested LE with an AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS w/ Radeon 780M Graphics with success.

I would probably not recommend a PC with a external video card for a htpc, nor change the video card if your current device is working for you.

I asked specifically for the wx3200 card support, because this is not a mainstream graphics card, but a more professional grade card, not aimed at domestic use.

I seem to have the same issue. Upgraded from 11.0.6 to 12.0.1, after an succesfull upgrade procedure and a reboot, it results in a black screen. Tried LibreELEC-Generic-legacy.x86_64-13.0-nightly-20240826-7643d36.img with same result.

Fortunately i was able to downgrade to 11.0.6 , and now i'm able again to use my htpc.

My htpc specs: i3-8100 with 16gb ram, nvidia gt1030 gpu. Never had any issues with it before. Can this be fixed so i can use LE 12?

I've searched everywhere, but to no avail. I'm using LE with an nvidia gt1030. I always loved the decoding output of nvidia cards and the gt1030's output looks fantastic. But in the event that nvidia cards maybe, at one point, wouldnt be supported anymore, i was wondering if an AMD wx3200 card would be a good choice to use in an LE htpc? These cards can be bought occasionably for a small price, they are single slot low power cards, and even low profile compatible.

Would these cards be working with the new mesa / gbm / wayland? I'm looking for a drop in and run solution.

I've also noticed that these amd wx3200 cards, together with the gt1030, are probably the only low power htpc suitable cards currently available. intel doesnt provide small graphics cards and other amd/nvidia cards are mostly big power hungry cards.

Quote from chewitt

Amlogic releases their BSP codebase which is the same awful code from 3.10 ported to 3.14 ported to 4.9 ported to 4.19 (in process) where each iteration focusses only on supporting their latest/greatest chipsets. Their technical focus on new devices frequently stomps on support for older devices so it's a long-term nightmare to support a wide range of devices with and you cannot take the latest buildroot release and use it with Meson 8. It's also fragile code which is a pain in the arse to maintain; fixing one problem constantly breaks something else. LE's strategy is to move all of our target hardware platforms onto mainline kernel to solve these issues; mainline provides a maintainable codebase that supports a broad range of hardware using well written drivers using modern kernel API frameworks. The root of the problems with the BSP drivers is they were written long before many of the upstream frameworks existed (or matured) so Amlogic evolved their own proprietary ones (with no external scrutiny, hence the many architectural and code quality issues). This means the BSP drivers don't fit modern kernels and writing from scratch is cleaner and usually easier than attempting to adapt them. The solution for Meson 8 is someone (Martin B unless anyone else starts contributing) writing a new HDMI driver that fits into the current kernel DRM (direct rendering manager) framework. There's been a lot of work in the last 18m on the dw-hdmi IP Amlogic used with GXBB and up (and common with Allwinner/Rockchip). Meson 8 uses different IP so it needs a different driver, but dw-hdmi provides strong guidance on what the structure of the missing driver needs to be like. I'm confident it will happen, but HDMI drivers are complex, there is limited documentation on the IP used (and the in-use BSP drivers frequently disagree with Amlogic's internal documentation) so it's a reverse engineering effort. Martin has been experimenting with HDMI code for a while now, but it's only quite recently that surrounding core board support was really in a stable enough or complete enough state to start making a serious effort. And I'm sure he has a life outside of poking Meson 8 code, so it won't be quick.

Thank you for the explanation. It's great to read how so much effort is being put by so many people into te LE project, even keeping meson 8 up and running.

I feel it's sad that soc builders like amlogic maintain their focus on android and stb use, not really putting real effort in suppporting their products for the opensource community. It seems, from an economic point of view, it is not in their interest to spend developing cost in that area.

When i read this article:

Irdeto Partners with Amlogic and Skyworth to Launch Platform Under Google Android TV Production-Ready Hybrid STB Reference Design Program - Irdeto

it seems they got a goot deal. And to be fair, with having 500+ personnel on payroll, revenue is needed for the company to survive. They probably feel that investing in opensource wont give them enough profit. Well, seems the rasberry foundation is proving that things can be different.

Quote from chewitt

S812 has quite a bit more grunt than S905 but .. not much use without the HDMI driver. Fingers crossed..

for me as a noob to get a bit of an idea of whats going on... is it the question if a driver for kernel 3.x can be used for a newer linux kernel? i dont have any linux development knowlegde.., you cant use a kernel driver for an older kernel on a newer kernel? and if this is the case, doesnt amlogic / arm release drivers for newer kernels? do we need the source for the drivers? does the driver source even exist in public domain?

Quote from chewitt

Panfrost does not currently support the Mali G31/52 (Bifrost) chips used in G12A/G12B/SM1 hardware and I don't see that changing for a while yet. It's not an issue though as we have all the required blobs and can use those; hence we are shipping two images (AMLGX with lima/panfrost and AMLG12 with blobs) which are working on a range of newer hardware. There are no plans to drop support for S905 and up devices but it is a large task and developers have proper jobs and families so progress comes as it comes; we're not forcing the schedule. We will push a master branch bump to Linux 5.4.x soon; although there are ongoing changes to the video decoding drivers that need corresponding changes to Kodi/ffmpeg so our master branch will not be as usable as Linux 5.2/5.3 was for a while.

Great news! But wat a huge task. And to think that all this is being accomplished by volunteers coding in their spare time, awesome.

Am i right to assume that s802 - s805 - s812 are being considered obsolete?

Great to hear! Always enlightening to read your explanations, makes things a bit more understandable. Could the succesful development of panfrost mean that we possibly can expect future LE release on mainstream linux with support for s905x2 - s905x3 - s922 ? This all seems a huge task. Is there any prediction when all this magic will be reality?

Will s905* will be supported in future LE releases? (still going strong, great soc!)

it has been a while since i dropped in here asking this question, have been wondering how things are now..., if i might ask chewitt, status on the s912, last i can remember is that after it was being cursed upon for a long time a solution for the missing fbdev mail libraries was developed in using libhybris and android gralloc mali drivers. is this still the case? i seem to remember something about an opensource driver being developed for the s912, did that development succeed?I think this was called panfrost?

Why would you even bother trying to run illegal addons? There has been so much work put in LE / Kodi to get genuine video services like amazon prime and netflix working, so much effort to get adaptive streaming and widevine running. you wanna waste all that effort with some shitty add-on?

just get a decent supported device, dont be cheap and subscribe to your favourite streaming provider, and you're all set. you can even get something x86 with a bluray drive, buy second hand bluray's, then you've got yourself dirt cheap high quality content.