Posts by LibreELEC

Quote from LibreELEC News

4B is not a typo! For the last six months a small group of LibreELEC developers have been collaborating with Pi Foundation staff and fellow ‘Alpha team’ members on initial software support for the new board. The 4B has faster memory, faster CPUs, faster Ethernet, faster USB, and more native codecs than previous generations. It’s a comprehensive hardware refresh that will please many users seeking a 4K capable device for LibreELEC and Kodi – here’s the new specification:

• 1.5GHz Quad A72 (BCM2711) with 1MB L2 cache, 32KB L1
• 3200-LPDDR4 (1GB, 2GB or 4GB)
• HEVC decode to [email protected] (with HDR)
• H.264 decode to [email protected]
• 2x 4K micro-HDMI (LE/Kodi outputs to 1x screen)
• HBR audio (TrueHD/DTS-HD)
• 2x USB 3.0 ports
• 2x USB 2.0 ports
• Analogue 2.0 audio and Composite video port
• Gigabit Ethernet (not over USB!)
• 2.4GHz/5.0GHz 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0
• 5V/3A USB-C power input
• Micro-SD card slot

Initial demand for the Raspberry Pi 4 is going to be massive and it will be a couple of days before get their hands on boards. To answer some of your questions we posted a short video review to our YouTube channel that explains some of the new capabilities and shows the new LibreELEC 9.2 ALPHA release running on the board:

HARDWARE

The 0.1Hz CPU bump to 1.5GHz appears modest (3B+ is 1.4GHz) but switching from quad A53 to an A72 chip results in a large gain in overall processing power and multimedia performance. Gigabit Ethernet that runs at full speed and USB 3.0 ports boosts bandwidth and playback from a NAS or USB 3.0 storage device is noticeably quicker. WiFi and Bluetooth performance is essentially the same as the previous model – only a minor change from Bluetooth 4.2 to 5.0.

The 4B continues to boot from a micro SD card to save $$ and maintain the famous $35 price-point for the 1GB RAM board, and new 2GB ($45) and 4GB ($55) board options have been added. Extra RAM boosts the number of use-cases for the 4B and makes Raspbian a usable Desktop OS. That’s not particularly relevant to our use-case with Kodi, but we can see the 4B playing a wider role in schools in the future, which will be great for the Pi Foundation.

SOFTWARE

It would be nice to have the 4B running the same kernel as other devices in LibreELEC 9.2, but adding support for an entirely new SoC chipset is a huge effort and the Pi Foundation needed to align initial 4B software support with the current Raspbian release to keep the workload sensible and maximise compatibility with existing software. So while Raspberry Pi 0/1/2/3 devices (and Intel x86/64) in LibreELEC 9.2 are running Linux 5.1, the 4B is using Linux 4.19 with lots of new/extra code. LibreELEC 9.2 also bumps Kodi to v18.3 which was timed for release ahead of the launch (thanks @spiff). In the next 24h all the sources for our new “RPi4” image will be made available via our GitHub repository.

In this initial release 1080p playback behaviour and performance on the 4B are broadly on-par with the previous 3B/3B+ model – with the exception of HEVC media which is now hardware decoded and massively improved. New 4K video capabilities still have plenty of rough edges to be smoothed out, but the Pi Foundation developers have been pushing fixes to the Alpha test team at a phenomenal rate over the last month and that will continue as the userbase expands.

The 4B now uses SPI flash for the bootloader. Current firmware supports SD card boot only – Network and USB booting are still on the Pi Foundation to-do list. Also on the list is HBR audio (current audio capabilities are the same as the 3B) and 3D video. The 4B hardware is HDR capable but software support has a dependency on the new Linux kernel frameworks merged by Intel developers (with help from Team LibreELEC/Kodi) in Linux 5.2 os a kernel bump is needed to use them. Once the initial excitement and activity from the 4B launch calms down some serious work on HDR and transitioning Raspberry Pi over to the new GBM/V4L2 video pipeline can start.

ACCESSORIES

Raspberry Pi 4B needs a 5V/3A power supply with a USB-C connector. If you are using USB devices with more than 500mA power draw the 5V/3A spec is a firm requirement. If you are using simple peripherals you should be able to reuse an existing 5V/2.5A PSU with a small micro-USB to USB-C adaptor. Users with 5V/2A or lower spec PSU’s should invest in a higher rated 5V/3A PSU.

Everyone will need a new case – the board layout is different to previous models. The 4B has two micro-HDMI sockets instead of one full-size HDMI socket, and the USB ports and Ethernet swap positions. On launch day the official Pi Foundation case is available, but Kodi fans might prefer an updated version of the Flirc “Kodi Edition” case which is available for pre-order at USD $11.20 (normal price $15.95) until the cases come into stock, making it an absolute steal. The Kodi Foundation receives a royalty on each case sold to help fund the project, and percentage goes towards Cancer research at the USC Norris . The updated cases will ship in late July.

ROCKCHIP

LibreELEC 9.2 is not all about Rasberry Pi. Rockchip releases will continue in long-term ‘Alpha’ state with some minor nip/tuck changes to the kernel and to add more support for HDR infoframe data. We are still using the Linux 4.4 kernel in these images. In the near future we will make a longer ‘development update’ blog post to outline the plan to move Rockchip images to mainline kernels.

ALLWINNER / AMLOGIC

Our original goal was to announce Allwinner and Amlogic images alongside Rockchip and the 4B as part of the LibreELEC 9.2 release, but while overall readiness has greatly improved in recent months – each has specific technical challenges to overcome before they meet our basic critera for a public release. On the human side of the project several maintainers also have reduced availability for support due to work and family commitments, and the summer vacation season is about to start. Combining these factors together, the team felt it was better to be patient and not rush releases.

So instead of releasing LibreELEC 9.2 alpha images we are announcing the start of official nightly images from our master development branch. At the moment the master branch uses Linux 5.1 and Kodi v18 so nightlies mirror LibreELEC 9.2, but in the near future we will start moving master towards Linux 5.3 and Kodi v19. NB: Users of the new Amlogic A311D based Khadas VIM3 board (which also lauches today) will be able to use the master-branch nightly images – we have a device-tree prepared.

BETA NOTES

LibreELEC 9.2 for Generic x86/64 and Raspberry Pi 0/1/2/3 devices is a solid beta quality release. Raspberry Pi 4B images are more “late stage Alpha” and are not feature complete or perfect. Normal LibreELEC testing rules apply; if you do not want to experiment on your family’s primary entertainment system – please stick with your current version and wait for the final/stable release. If you do want to experiment – please be prepared to submit log files and work with developers to hunt down problems and test solutions.

Enjoy 🙂

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Source: LibreELEC (Leia) 9.2 ALPHA1 with Raspberry Pi 4B Support – LibreELEC

Quote from LibreELEC News

LibreELEC 9.0.2 (Leia) has arrived based upon Kodi v18.2, the 9.0.2 release contains many changes and refinements to user experience and a complete overhaul of the underlying OS core to improve stability and extend hardware support. Kodi v18 also brings new features like Kodi Retroplayer and DRM support that (equipped with an appropriate add-on) allows Kodi to unofficially stream content from services like Netflix and Amazon.

Changes since LibreELEC 9.0.1:

• updated Kodi to 18.2
• updated Kernel to 4.19.36
• fixed TBS 5520SE tuning
• fixed Zotac remotes
• fixed pvr.hts (Tvheadend) timeshift (partly)

Settings Add-on:

• Changeable SSH passwords!
• Default firewall (iptables) with simple configurations for Home/Public networks
• Updates are moved to their own menu, other options are cleaned up a little
• Safe Mode boot when Kodi experiences startup problems

• 
• 

Changeable SSH passwords and a default firewall configuration have been added to combat the increasing number of HTPC installs that can be found on the public internet. The increase is partly due to simple maths; our userbase has grown so the number of users inappropriately exposing their HTPC to the internet has also grown. The static password for libreelec is present on most/all password dictionary lists so it’s important we start encouraging users to change it (the first-run wizard will prompt when SSH is enabled).

More people are using VPN services for privacy without realising this exposes SSH/SMB/Web services. To combat this problem we have added simple firewall configurations for Home/Public networks; the Home configuration blocks inbound connections from non-private networks, e.g. traffic from the Internet to the public IP address used with the VPN connection.

As the Kodi piracy scene continues to decline we have seen an increase in users with outdated add-ons that cause problems during upgrades so “Safe Mode” counts Kodi startup crashes. After five startup failures it intervenes with a default (clean) configuration and prominent warning so users know there is a problem – but still have a working GUI to troubleshoot from.

Retroplayer:

Kodi v18 brings initial support for retro gaming and the ability to play hundreds of retro games directly from within Kodi. We provide a large number of emulator cores from our add-on repo, but no games (bring your own) although there are a couple of open source test game add-ons (2048 etc.) in our repo. In this first iteration of Kodi retro gaming support the user interface can be a little confusing and we still need to write-up some HOWTO guides for the wiki. Kodi developers are working on a game database (for Kodi v19) which will make the process of managing and using game ROMs easier in the future.

DVB Drivers:

We now offer a larger range of DVB drivers (depending on your platform) to choose from. The “DVB drivers from the latest kernel” option also includes the majority of Hauppage drivers which have been recently upstreamed into the kernel, which is great to see!

• 
• 

Rockchip:

Despite the 8.95.15 release number our Rockchip releases remain in an Alpha state with limited support. The Kodi version is updated but there are no significant video/audio improvements to the Rockchip 4.4 kernel codebase – and none planned. Our work on Rockchip support has refocussed onto the Linux 4.20 kernel to use the modern kernel frameworks needed for the next-generation Kodi video pipeline. This work is progressing nicely, but it means the 4.4 codebase “is what it is” until a future kernel bump.

New Devices:

Amlogic

• Khadas VIM(1) – requires a clean install if using current community images
• Libre Computer LePotato

Rockchip

• 96rocks ROCK960
• ASUS Tinker Board
• Firefly ROC-RK3328-CC
• Khadas Edge
• PINE64 ROCK64
• PINE64 RockPro64
• Popcorn Hour RockBox
• Popcorn Hour Transformer
• Radxa ROCK Pi 4
• Rockchip Sapphire Board
• Mqmaker MiQi

If you experience problems, please open an thread at our forum. You can also open an ticket at our issue tracker.

Upgrading

On first boot the Kodi media database will be upgraded. Depending on your hardware and media collection size this could take several minutes. Please be patient.

Downloads

Click here to go to the download page.

Display More

Source: LibreELEC (Leia) 9.0.2 MR – LibreELEC

Quote from LibreELEC News

LibreELEC 9.0.1 (Leia) has arrived based upon Kodi v18.1, the 9.0.1 release contains many changes and refinements to user experience and a complete overhaul of the underlying OS core to improve stability and extend hardware support. Kodi v18 also brings new features like Kodi Retroplayer and DRM support that (equipped with an appropriate add-on) allows Kodi to unofficially stream content from services like Netflix and Amazon.

Changes since LibreELEC 9.0.0:

• updated Kodi to 18.1
• updated Kernel to 4.19.23
• fixed TBS 5520SE tuning
• fixed Zotac remotes
• fixed pvr.hts (Tvheadend) timeshift (partly)

Settings Add-on:

• Changeable SSH passwords!
• Default firewall (iptables) with simple configurations for Home/Public networks
• Updates are moved to their own menu, other options are cleaned up a little
• Safe Mode boot when Kodi experiences startup problems

• 
• 

Changeable SSH passwords and a default firewall configuration have been added to combat the increasing number of HTPC installs that can be found on the public internet. The increase is partly due to simple maths; our userbase has grown so the number of users inappropriately exposing their HTPC to the internet has also grown. The static password for libreelec is present on most/all password dictionary lists so it’s important we start encouraging users to change it (the first-run wizard will prompt when SSH is enabled).

More people are using VPN services for privacy without realising this exposes SSH/SMB/Web services. To combat this problem we have added simple firewall configurations for Home/Public networks; the Home configuration blocks inbound connections from non-private networks, e.g. traffic from the Internet to the public IP address used with the VPN connection.

As the Kodi piracy scene continues to decline we have seen an increase in users with outdated add-ons that cause problems during upgrades so “Safe Mode” counts Kodi startup crashes. After five startup failures it intervenes with a default (clean) configuration and prominent warning so users know there is a problem – but still have a working GUI to troubleshoot from.

Retroplayer:

Kodi v18 brings initial support for retro gaming and the ability to play hundreds of retro games directly from within Kodi. We provide a large number of emulator cores from our add-on repo, but no games (bring your own) although there are a couple of open source test game add-ons (2048 etc.) in our repo. In this first iteration of Kodi retro gaming support the user interface can be a little confusing and we still need to write-up some HOWTO guides for the wiki. Kodi developers are working on a game database (for Kodi v19) which will make the process of managing and using game ROMs easier in the future.

DVB Drivers:

We now offer a larger range of DVB drivers (depending on your platform) to choose from. The “DVB drivers from the latest kernel” option also includes the majority of Hauppage drivers which have been recently upstreamed into the kernel, which is great to see!

• 
• 

Rockchip:

Despite the 8.95.1 release number our Rockchip releases remain in an Alpha state with limited support. The Kodi version is updated but there are no significant video/audio improvements to the Rockchip 4.4 kernel codebase – and none planned. Our work on Rockchip support has refocussed onto the Linux 4.20 kernel to use the modern kernel frameworks needed for the next-generation Kodi video pipeline. This work is progressing nicely, but it means the 4.4 codebase “is what it is” until a future kernel bump.

New Devices:

Amlogic

• Khadas VIM(1) – requires a clean install if using current community images
• Libre Computer LePotato

Rockchip

• 96rocks ROCK960
• ASUS Tinker Board
• Firefly ROC-RK3328-CC
• Khadas Edge
• PINE64 ROCK64
• PINE64 RockPro64
• Popcorn Hour RockBox
• Popcorn Hour Transformer
• Radxa ROCK Pi 4
• Rockchip Sapphire Board
• Mqmaker MiQi

If you experience problems, please open an thread at our forum. You can also open an ticket at our issue tracker.

Upgrading

On first boot the Kodi media database will be upgraded. Depending on your hardware and media collection size this could take several minutes. Please be patient.

Downloads

Click here to go to the download page.

Display More

Source: LibreELEC (Leia) 9.0.1 MR – LibreELEC

Quote from LibreELEC News

LibreELEC 9.0 (Leia) has finally arrived after a long gestation period. Based upon Kodi v18.0, the Final 9.0 release contains many changes and refinements to user experience and a complete overhaul of the underlying OS core to improve stability and extend hardware support. Kodi v18 also brings new features like Kodi Retroplayer and DRM support that (equipped with an appropriate add-on) allows Kodi to unofficially stream content from services like Netflix and Amazon.

Settings Add-on:

• Changeable SSH passwords!
• Default firewall (iptables) with simple configurations for Home/Public networks
• Updates are moved to their own menu, other options are cleaned up a little
• Safe Mode boot when Kodi experiences startup problems

• 
• 
  

Changeable SSH passwords and a default firewall configuration have been added to combat the increasing number of HTPC installs that can be found on the public internet. The increase is partly due to simple maths; our userbase has grown so the number of users inappropriately exposing their HTPC to the internet has also grown. The static password for libreelec is present on most/all password dictionary lists so it’s important we start encouraging users to change it (the first-run wizard will prompt when SSH is enabled).

More people are using VPN services for privacy without realising this exposes SSH/SMB/Web services. To combat this problem we have added simple firewall configurations for Home/Public networks; the Home configuration blocks inbound connections from non-private networks, e.g. traffic from the Internet to the public IP address used with the VPN connection.

As the Kodi piracy scene continues to decline we have seen an increase in users with outdated add-ons that cause problems during upgrades so “Safe Mode” counts Kodi startup crashes. After five startup failures it intervenes with a default (clean) configuration and prominent warning so users know there is a problem – but still have a working GUI to troubleshoot from.

Retroplayer:

Kodi v18 brings initial support for retro gaming and the ability to play hundreds of retro games directly from within Kodi. We provide a large number of emulator cores from our add-on repo, but no games (bring your own) although there are a couple of open source test game add-ons (2048 etc.) in our repo. In this first iteration of Kodi retro gaming support the user interface can be a little confusing and we still need to write-up some HOWTO guides for the wiki. Kodi developers are working on a game database (for Kodi v19) which will make the process of managing and using game ROMs easier in the future.

DVB Drivers:

We now offer a larger range of DVB drivers (depending on your platform) to choose from. The “DVB drivers from the latest kernel” option also includes the majority of Hauppage drivers which have been recently upstreamed into the kernel, which is great to see!

• 
• 

Rockchip:

Despite the 8.95.1 release number our Rockchip releases remain in an Alpha state with limited support. The Kodi version is updated but there are no significant video/audio improvements to the Rockchip 4.4 kernel codebase – and none planned. Our work on Rockchip support has refocussed onto the Linux 4.20 kernel to use the modern kernel frameworks needed for the next-generation Kodi video pipeline. This work is progressing nicely, but it means the 4.4 codebase “is what it is” until a future kernel bump.

New Devices:

Amlogic

• Khadas VIM(1) – requires a clean install if using current community images
• Libre Computer Le Potato

Rockchip

• 96rocks ROCK960
• ASUS Tinker Board
• Firefly ROC-RK3328-CC
• Khadas Edge
• PINE64 ROCK64
• PINE64 RockPro64
• Popcorn Hour RockBox
• Popcorn Hour Transformer
• Radxa ROCK Pi 4
• Rockchip Sapphire Board
• Mqmaker MiQi

If you experience problems, please open an thread at our forum. You can also open an ticket at our issue tracker.

Downloads

Click here to go to the download page.

Display More

Source: LibreELEC (Leia) 9.0.0 RELEASE – LibreELEC

Quote from LibreELEC News

LibreELEC 9.0 (Leia) Beta 3 has finally arrived after a long gestation period. Based upon Kodi v18 RC5.2, the 9.0 Beta 3 release contains many changes and refinements to user experience and a complete overhaul of the underlying OS core to improve stability and extend hardware support. Kodi v18 also brings new features like Kodi Retroplayer and DRM support that (equipped with an appropriate add-on) allows Kodi to unofficially stream content from services like Netflix and Amazon.

Compared to 9.0 Beta 2, major changes are:

• Added support for Khadas Edge RK3399 Board
• Updated to Kodi 18 RC5.2
• Updated to Linux Kernel 4.19.14
• Fixed DVBSky S960 driver (tx jahutchi)
• a lot more updates and fixes, have a look at the detailed changelog

Compared to 8.2, major changes are:

Settings Add-on:

• Changeable SSH passwords!
• Default firewall (iptables) with simple configurations for Home/Public networks
• Updates are moved to their own menu, other options are cleaned up a little
• Safe Mode boot when Kodi experiences startup problems

Changeable SSH passwords and a default firewall configuration have been added to combat the increasing number of HTPC installs that can be found on the public internet. The increase is partly due to simple maths; our userbase has grown so the number of users inappropriately exposing their HTPC to the internet has also grown. The static password for libreelec is present on most/all password dictionary lists so it’s important we start encouraging users to change it (the first-run wizard will prompt when SSH is enabled).

More people are using VPN services for privacy without realising this exposes SSH/SMB/Web services. To combat this problem we have added simple firewall configurations for Home/Public networks; the Home configuration blocks inbound connections from non-private networks, e.g. traffic from the Internet to the public IP address used with the VPN connection.

As the Kodi piracy scene continues to decline we have seen an increase in users with outdated add-ons that cause problems during upgrades so “Safe Mode” counts Kodi startup crashes. After five startup failures it intervenes with a default (clean) configuration and prominent warning so users know there is a problem – but still have a working GUI to troubleshoot from.

Retroplayer:

Kodi v18 brings initial support for retro gaming and the ability to play hundreds of retro games directly from within Kodi. We provide a large number of emulator cores from our add-on repo, but no games (bring your own) although there are a couple of open source test game add-ons (2048 etc.) in our repo. In this first iteration of Kodi retro gaming support the user interface can be a little confusing and we still need to write-up some HOWTO guides for the wiki. Kodi developers are working on a game database (for Kodi v19) which will make the process of managing and using game ROMs easier in the future.

DVB Drivers:

We now offer a larger range of DVB drivers (depending on your platform) to choose from. The “DVB drivers from the latest kernel” option also includes the majority of Hauppage drivers which have been recently upstreamed into the kernel, which is great to see!

Rockchip:

Despite the 8.95.1 release number our Rockchip releases remain in an Alpha state with limited support. The Kodi version is updated but there are no significant video/audio improvements to the Rockchip 4.4 kernel codebase – and none planned. Our work on Rockchip support has refocussed onto the Linux 4.20 kernel to use the modern kernel frameworks needed for the next-generation Kodi video pipeline. This work is progressing nicely, but it means the 4.4 codebase “is what it is” until a future kernel bump.

New Devices:

Amlogic

• Khadas VIM(1) – requires a clean install if using current community images
• Libre Computer Le Potato

Rockchip

• 96rocks ROCK960
• ASUS Tinker Board
• Firefly ROC-RK3328-CC
• Khadas Edge
• PINE64 ROCK64
• PINE64 RockPro64
• Popcorn Hour RockBox
• Popcorn Hour Transformer
• Rockchip Sapphire Board
• Mqmaker MiQi

If you experience problems, please open an thread at our forum. You can also open an ticket at our issue tracker.

Downloads:

RPi 2/3 LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-8.95.003.img.gz (info)

RPi 0/1 LibreELEC-RPi.arm-8.95.003.img.gz (info)

Generic LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-8.95.003.img.gz (info)

Odroid_C2 LibreELEC-Odroid_C2.arm-8.95.003.img.gz (info)

KVIM LibreELEC-KVIM.arm-8.95.003.img.gz (info)

LePotato LibreELEC-LePotato.arm-8.95.003.img.gz (info)

Slice LibreELEC-Slice.arm-8.95.003.img.gz (info)

Slice3 LibreELEC-Slice3.arm-8.95.003.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Core LibreELEC-WeTek_Core.arm-8.95.003.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Hub LibreELEC-WeTek_Hub.arm-8.95.003.img.gz (info)

Warning: Update at WP1 is broken if you use img.gz – please use .tar to update:

WeTek_Play LibreELEC-WeTek_Play.arm-8.95.003.tar (info)

WeTek_Play LibreELEC-WeTek_Play.arm-8.95.003.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Play_2 LibreELEC-WeTek_Play_2.arm-8.95.003.img.gz (info)

*** IMPORTANT ***

Rockchip images are not available via the USB/SD Creator App (we’re working on a fix)

Please download them manually!

Rockchip RK3328

NO RK3328 builds for LE9 B3 due a major bug that prevents booting.

Rockchip RK3399

Khadas Edge LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.012-khadas-edge.img.gz (info)

96rocks ROCK960 LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.012-rock960.img.gz (info)

PINE64 RockPro64 LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.012-rockpro64.img.gz (info)

Rockchip Sapphire Board LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.012-sapphire.img.gz (info)

Rockchip RK3288

ASUS Tinker Board LibreELEC-TinkerBoard.arm-8.90.012-rk3288.img.gz (info)

mqmaker MiQi LibreELEC-MiQi.arm-8.90.012-rk3288.img.gz (info)

Display More

Source: LibreELEC (Leia) v8.95.3 BETA – LibreELEC

Quote from LibreELEC News

LibreELEC 9.0 (Leia) Beta 2 has finally arrived after a long gestation period. Based upon Kodi v18 RC4, the 9.0 Beta 2 release contains many changes and refinements to user experience and a complete overhaul of the underlying OS core to improve stability and extend hardware support. Kodi v18 also brings new features like Kodi Retroplayer and DRM support that (equipped with an appropriate add-on) allows Kodi to unofficially stream content from services like Netflix and Amazon.

Compared to 9.0 Beta 1, major changes are:

• Updated to Kodi 18 RC4
• Updated to Linux Kernel 4.19.12
• a lot more updates and fixes, have a look at the detailed changelog

Compared to 8.2, major changes are:

Settings Add-on:

• Changeable SSH passwords!
• Default firewall (iptables) with simple configurations for Home/Public networks
• Updates are moved to their own menu, other options are cleaned up a little
• Safe Mode boot when Kodi experiences startup problems

Changeable SSH passwords and a default firewall configuration have been added to combat the increasing number of HTPC installs that can be found on the public internet. The increase is partly due to simple maths; our userbase has grown so the number of users inappropriately exposing their HTPC to the internet has also grown. The static password for libreelec is present on most/all password dictionary lists so it’s important we start encouraging users to change it (the first-run wizard will prompt when SSH is enabled).

More people are using VPN services for privacy without realising this exposes SSH/SMB/Web services. To combat this problem we have added simple firewall configurations for Home/Public networks; the Home configuration blocks inbound connections from non-private networks, e.g. traffic from the Internet to the public IP address used with the VPN connection.

As the Kodi piracy scene continues to decline we have seen an increase in users with outdated add-ons that cause problems during upgrades so “Safe Mode” counts Kodi startup crashes. After five startup failures it intervenes with a default (clean) configuration and prominent warning so users know there is a problem – but still have a working GUI to troubleshoot from.

Retroplayer:

Kodi v18 brings initial support for retro gaming and the ability to play hundreds of retro games directly from within Kodi. We provide a large number of emulator cores from our add-on repo, but no games (bring your own) although there are a couple of open source test game add-ons (2048 etc.) in our repo. In this first iteration of Kodi retro gaming support the user interface can be a little confusing and we still need to write-up some HOWTO guides for the wiki. Kodi developers are working on a game database (for Kodi v19) which will make the process of managing and using game ROMs easier in the future.

DVB Drivers:

We now offer a larger range of DVB drivers (depending on your platform) to choose from. The “DVB drivers from the latest kernel” option also includes the majority of Hauppage drivers which have been recently upstreamed into the kernel, which is great to see!

Rockchip:

Despite the 8.95.1 release number our Rockchip releases remain in an Alpha state with limited support. The Kodi version is updated but there are no significant video/audio improvements to the Rockchip 4.4 kernel codebase – and none planned. Our work on Rockchip support has refocussed onto the Linux 4.20 kernel to use the modern kernel frameworks needed for the next-generation Kodi video pipeline. This work is progressing nicely, but it means the 4.4 codebase “is what it is” until a future kernel bump.

New Devices:

Amlogic

• Khadas VIM(1) – requires a clean install if using current community images
• Libre Computer Le Potato

Rockchip

• 96rocks ROCK960
• ASUS Tinker Board
• Firefly ROC-RK3328-CC
• Khadas Edge
• PINE64 ROCK64
• PINE64 RockPro64
• Popcorn Hour RockBox
• Popcorn Hour Transformer
• Rockchip Sapphire Board
• Mqmaker MiQi

If you experience problems, please open an thread at our forum. You can also open an ticket at our issue tracker.

Downloads:

RPi 2/3 LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-8.95.002.img.gz (info)

RPi 0/1 LibreELEC-RPi.arm-8.95.002.img.gz (info)

Generic LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-8.95.002.img.gz (info)

Odroid_C2 LibreELEC-Odroid_C2.arm-8.95.002.img.gz (info)

KVIM LibreELEC-KVIM.arm-8.95.002.img.gz (info)

LePotato LibreELEC-LePotato.arm-8.95.002.img.gz (info)

Slice LibreELEC-Slice.arm-8.95.002.img.gz (info)

Slice3 LibreELEC-Slice3.arm-8.95.002.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Core LibreELEC-WeTek_Core.arm-8.95.002.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Hub LibreELEC-WeTek_Hub.arm-8.95.002.img.gz (info)

Warning: Update at WP1 is broken if you use img.gz – please use .tar to update:

WeTek_Play LibreELEC-WeTek_Play.arm-8.95.002.tar (info)

WeTek_Play LibreELEC-WeTek_Play.arm-8.95.002.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Play_2 LibreELEC-WeTek_Play_2.arm-8.95.002.img.gz (info)

*** IMPORTANT ***

Rockchip images are not available via the USB/SD Creator App (we’re working on a fix)

Please download them manually!

Rockchip RK3328

Firefly ROC-RK3328-CC LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.011-roc-cc.img.gz (info)

Generic Rockchip Box LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.011-box.img.gz (info)

PINE64 ROCK64 / Popcorn Hour Transformer LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.011-rock64.img.gz (info)

Popcorn Hour RockBox LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.011-rockbox.img.gz (info)

MVR9 LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.011-box-trn9.img.gz (info)

Z28 LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.011-box-z28.img.gz (info)

Rockchip RK3399

96rocks ROCK960 LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.011-rock960.img.gz (info)

PINE64 RockPro64 LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.011-rockpro64.img.gz (info)

Rockchip Sapphire Board LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.011-sapphire.img.gz (info)

Rockchip RK3288

ASUS Tinker Board LibreELEC-TinkerBoard.arm-8.90.011-rk3288.img.gz (info)

mqmaker MiQi LibreELEC-MiQi.arm-8.90.011-rk3288.img.gz (info)

Display More

Source: LibreELEC (Leia) v8.95.2 BETA – LibreELEC

Quote from LibreELEC News

LibreELEC 9.0 (Leia) Beta 1 has finally arrived after a long gestation period. Based upon Kodi v18 RC3, the 9.0 Beta 1 release contains many changes and refinements to user experience and a complete overhaul of the underlying OS core to improve stability and extend hardware support. Kodi v18 also brings new features like Kodi Retroplayer and DRM support that (equipped with an appropriate add-on) allows Kodi to unofficially stream content from services like Netflix and Amazon.

Compared to 8.2, major changes are:

Settings Add-on:

• Changeable SSH passwords!
• Default firewall (iptables) with simple configurations for Home/Public networks
• Updates are moved to their own menu, other options are cleaned up a little
• Safe Mode boot when Kodi experiences startup problems

Changeable SSH passwords and a default firewall configuration have been added to combat the increasing number of HTPC installs that can be found on the public internet. The increase is partly due to simple maths; our userbase has grown so the number of users inappropriately exposing their HTPC to the internet has also grown. The static password for libreelec is present on most/all password dictionary lists so it’s important we start encouraging users to change it (the first-run wizard will prompt when SSH is enabled).

More people are using VPN services for privacy without realising this exposes SSH/SMB/Web services. To combat this problem we have added simple firewall configurations for Home/Public networks; the Home configuration blocks inbound connections from non-private networks, e.g. traffic from the Internet to the public IP address used with the VPN connection.

As the Kodi piracy scene continues to decline we have seen an increase in users with outdated add-ons that cause problems during upgrades so “Safe Mode” counts Kodi startup crashes. After five startup failures it intervenes with a default (clean) configuration and prominent warning so users know there is a problem – but still have a working GUI to troubleshoot from.

Retroplayer:

Kodi v18 brings initial support for retro gaming and the ability to play hundreds of retro games directly from within Kodi. We provide a large number of emulator cores from our add-on repo, but no games (bring your own) although there are a couple of open source test game add-ons (2048 etc.) in our repo. In this first iteration of Kodi retro gaming support the user interface can be a little confusing and we still need to write-up some HOWTO guides for the wiki. Kodi developers are working on a game database (for Kodi v19) which will make the process of managing and using game ROMs easier in the future.

DVB Drivers:

We now offer a larger range of DVB drivers (depending on your platform) to choose from. The “DVB drivers from the latest kernel” option also includes the majority of Hauppage drivers which have been recently upstreamed into the kernel, which is great to see!

Rockchip:

Despite the 8.95.1 release number our Rockchip releases remain in an Alpha state with limited support. The Kodi version is updated but there are no significant video/audio improvements to the Rockchip 4.4 kernel codebase – and none planned. Our work on Rockchip support has refocussed onto the Linux 4.20 kernel to use the modern kernel frameworks needed for the next-generation Kodi video pipeline. This work is progressing nicely, but it means the 4.4 codebase “is what it is” until a future kernel bump.

New Devices:

Amlogic

• Khadas VIM(1) – requires a clean install if using current community images
• Libre Computer Le Potato

Rockchip

• 96rocks ROCK960
• ASUS Tinker Board
• Firefly ROC-RK3328-CC
• Khadas Edge
• PINE64 ROCK64
• PINE64 RockPro64
• Popcorn Hour RockBox
• Popcorn Hour Transformer
• Rockchip Sapphire Board
• Mqmaker MiQi

If you experience problems, please open an thread at our forum. You can also open an ticket at our issue tracker.

Downloads:

RPi 2/3 LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

RPi 0/1 LibreELEC-RPi.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

Generic LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

Odroid_C2 LibreELEC-Odroid_C2.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

KVIM LibreELEC-KVIM.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

LePotato LibreELEC-LePotato.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

Slice LibreELEC-Slice.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

Slice3 LibreELEC-Slice3.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Core LibreELEC-WeTek_Core.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Hub LibreELEC-WeTek_Hub.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

Warning: Update at WP1 is broken if you use img.gz – please use .tar to update:

WeTek_Play LibreELEC-WeTek_Play.arm-8.95.001.tar (info)

WeTek_Play LibreELEC-WeTek_Play.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Play_2 LibreELEC-WeTek_Play_2.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

Rockchip RK3328

Firefly ROC-RK3328-CC LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.010-roc-cc.img.gz (info)

Generic Rockchip Box LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.010-box.img.gz (info)

PINE64 ROCK64 / Popcorn Hour Transformer LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.010-rock64.img.gz (info)

Popcorn Hour RockBox LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.010-rockbox.img.gz (info)

MVR9 LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.010-box-trn9.img.gz (info)

Z28 LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.010-box-z28.img.gz (info)

Rockchip RK3399

96rocks ROCK960 LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.010-rock960.img.gz (info)

PINE64 RockPro64 LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.010-rockpro64.img.gz (info)

Rockchip Sapphire Board LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.010-sapphire.img.gz (info)

Rockchip RK3288

ASUS Tinker Board LibreELEC-TinkerBoard.arm-8.90.010-rk3288.img.gz (info)

mqmaker MiQi LibreELEC-MiQi.arm-8.90.010-rk3288.img.gz (info)

Display More

Source: LibreELEC (Leia) v8.95.1 BETA – LibreELEC

Quote from LibreELEC News

The LibreELEC 9.0 Alpha cycle has continued and releases for Amlogic and Slice hardware have been added additionally to the test cycle. We official support now Khadas VIM (AML S905X) and the LePotato (AML S905X) too. Since the 8.90.006 release we support a wide range of Rockchip devices. There are no plans to release LibreELEC 9.0 images for NXP/iMX6 hardware as support was removed from Kodi some months ago. Support will be reinstated in a future LibreELEC, we wrote an dedicated article about the future of LibreELEC.

Alpha releases are important to the team because we cannot test every scenario and sometimes sidestep issues without realising. The project needs a body of regular testers to go find the problems we miss. Testing will be particularly important for LibreELEC 9.0 as Kodi v18 includes substantial internal changes to VideoPlayer and introduces new retro-gaming capabilities.

** ROCKCHIP **

We added several Rockchip devices at this release. Please consider it as alpha quality and not yet as perfect. All kind of flavors of HDR, 4k and audio are supported already. These images are rather new and it is likely that you hit an problem sooner or later. Please report them at our issue tracker or at the dedicated Rockchip forum that they could get fixed. Within the LE9 release cycle we are likely not able to finish the Rockchip devices to reach an perfect stable state – they stay in alpha status as long it is needed.

TEST NOTES

Our current focus is the OS core and we are more interested in hardware and driver bugs than Kodi problems. Please report the issues you find by starting a thread in the forums or use our bug tracker. Raspberry Pi users are reminded that dtoverlay=lirc-rpi has now been deprecated. Please read the infrared remotes wiki page before updating.

** CAUTION **

Alpha builds exist for hands-on testing not a hands-off experience. If you run Alpha builds you must be willing to report issues and engage the LibreELEC and Kodi developers in hunting bugs. If you have no idea what a debug log is or “wife acceptance factor” is critical, these builds are not for you. If you want to run Alpha builds please make a backup and store it somewhere off-box first. Your failure to make a backup is not our problem.

Updates since v8.90.008 ALPHA:

– updated to Kodi 18 RC2
– fixed shutdown at WeTek Play 1 and WeTek Core
– added AV1 decoder to Kodi
– a lot more updates and fixes, have a look at the full changelog

LibreELEC 9.0 Alpha 009 (Kodi 18 RC2)

To update an existing installation from within the Kodi GUI select manual update in the LibreELEC settings add-on and then check for updates; select the LibreELEC 9.0 channel and then the 8.90.009 release. To create new install media please use our simple USB/SD Creator App. The following .img.gz files can also be used to create install media or update the old fashioned way:

RPi 2/3 LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-8.90.009.img.gz (info)

RPi 0/1 LibreELEC-RPi.arm-8.90.009.img.gz (info)

Generic LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-8.90.009.img.gz (info)

Odroid_C2 LibreELEC-Odroid_C2.arm-8.90.009.img.gz (info)

KVIM LibreELEC-KVIM.arm-8.90.009.img.gz (info)

LePotato LibreELEC-LePotato.arm-8.90.009.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Core LibreELEC-WeTek_Core.arm-8.90.009.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Hub LibreELEC-WeTek_Hub.arm-8.90.009.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Play LibreELEC-WeTek_Play.arm-8.90.009.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Play_2 LibreELEC-WeTek_Play_2.arm-8.90.009.img.gz (info)

RK3328

Firefly ROC-RK3328-CC LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.009-roc-cc.img.gz (info)

Generic Rockchip Box LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.009-box.img.gz (info)

PINE64 ROCK64 / Popcorn Hour Transformer LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.009-rock64.img.gz (info)

Popcorn Hour RockBox LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.009-rockbox.img.gz (info)

MVR9 LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.009-box-trn9.img.gz (info)

Z28 LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.009-box-z28.img.gz (info)

RK3399

96rocks ROCK960 LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.009-rock960.img.gz (info)

PINE64 RockPro64 LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.009-rockpro64.img.gz (info)

Rockchip Sapphire Board LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.009-sapphire.img.gz (info)

RK3288

ASUS Tinker Board LibreELEC-TinkerBoard.arm-8.90.009-rk3288.img.gz (info)

mqmaker MiQi LibreELEC-MiQi.arm-8.90.009-rk3288.img.gz (info)

Display More

Source: LibreELEC (Leia) v8.90.009 ALPHA – LibreELEC

Quote from LibreELEC News

The LibreELEC 9.0 Alpha cycle has continued and releases for Amlogic and Slice hardware have been added additionally to the test cycle. We official support now Khadas VIM (AML S905X) and the LePotato (AML S905X) too. Since the 8.90.005 release we support a wide range of Rockchip devices. There are no plans to release LibreELEC 9.0 images for NXP/iMX6 hardware as support was removed from Kodi some months ago. Support will be reinstated in a future LibreELEC, we wrote an dedicated article about the future of LibreELEC.

Alpha releases are important to the team because we cannot test every scenario and sometimes sidestep issues without realising. The project needs a body of regular testers to go find the problems we miss. Testing will be particularly important for LibreELEC 9.0 as Kodi v18 includes substantial internal changes to VideoPlayer and introduces new retro-gaming capabilities.

** ROCKCHIP **

We added several Rockchip devices at this release. Please consider it as alpha quality and not yet as perfect. All kind of flavors of HDR, 4k and audio are supported already. These images are rather new and it is likely that you hit an problem sooner or later. Please report them at our issue tracker or at the dedicated Rockchip forum that they could get fixed. Within the LE9 release cycle we are likely not able to finish the Rockchip devices to reach an perfect stable state – they stay in alpha status as long it is needed.

TEST NOTES

Our current focus is the OS core and we are more interested in hardware and driver bugs than Kodi problems. Please report the issues you find by starting a thread in the forums or use our bug tracker. Raspberry Pi users are reminded that dtoverlay=lirc-rpi has now been deprecated. Please read the infrared remotes wiki page before updating.

** CAUTION **

Alpha builds exist for hands-on testing not a hands-off experience. If you run Alpha builds you must be willing to report issues and engage the LibreELEC and Kodi developers in hunting bugs. If you have no idea what a debug log is or “wife acceptance factor” is critical, these builds are not for you. If you want to run Alpha builds please make a backup and store it somewhere off-box first. Your failure to make a backup is not our problem.

Updates since v8.90.007 ALPHA:

– updated to Kodi 18 RC1
– Kernel updated to 4.19.4 for Generic, RPi and Slice
– a lot more updates and fixes, have a look at the full changelog

LibreELEC 9.0 Alpha 008 (Kodi 18 RC 1)

To update an existing installation from within the Kodi GUI select manual update in the LibreELEC settings add-on and then check for updates; select the LibreELEC 9.0 channel and then the 8.90.008 release. To create new install media please use our simple USB/SD Creator App. The following .img.gz files can also be used to create install media or update the old fashioned way:

RPi 2/3 LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-8.90.008.img.gz (info)

RPi 0/1 LibreELEC-RPi.arm-8.90.008.img.gz (info)

Generic LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-8.90.008.img.gz (info)

Odroid_C2 LibreELEC-Odroid_C2.arm-8.90.008.img.gz (info)

KVIM LibreELEC-KVIM.arm-8.90.008.img.gz (info)

LePotato LibreELEC-LePotato.arm-8.90.008.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Core LibreELEC-WeTek_Core.arm-8.90.008.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Hub LibreELEC-WeTek_Hub.arm-8.90.008.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Play LibreELEC-WeTek_Play.arm-8.90.008.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Play_2 LibreELEC-WeTek_Play_2.arm-8.90.008.img.gz (info)

Rockchip

due a major bug no release for 008

Display More

Source: LibreELEC (Leia) v8.90.008 ALPHA – LibreELEC

Quote from LibreELEC News

The LibreELEC 9.0 Alpha cycle has continued and releases for Amlogic and Slice hardware have been added additionally to the test cycle. We official support now Khadas VIM (AML S905X) and the LePotato (AML S905X) too. Since the 8.90.006 release we support a wide range of Rockchip devices. There are no plans to release LibreELEC 9.0 images for NXP/iMX6 hardware as support was removed from Kodi some months ago. Support will be reinstated in a future LibreELEC, we wrote an dedicated article about the future of LibreELEC.

Alpha releases are important to the team because we cannot test every scenario and sometimes sidestep issues without realising. The project needs a body of regular testers to go find the problems we miss. Testing will be particularly important for LibreELEC 9.0 as Kodi v18 includes substantial internal changes to VideoPlayer and introduces new retro-gaming capabilities.

** ROCKCHIP **

We added several Rockchip devices at this release. Please consider it as alpha quality and not yet as perfect. All kind of flavors of HDR, 4k and audio are supported already. These images are rather new and it is likely that you hit an problem sooner or later. Please report them at our issue tracker or at the dedicated Rockchip forum that they could get fixed. Within the LE9 release cycle we are likely not able to finish the Rockchip devices to reach an perfect stable state – they stay in alpha status as long it is needed.

TEST NOTES

Our current focus is the OS core and we are more interested in hardware and driver bugs than Kodi problems. Please report the issues you find by starting a thread in the forums or use our bug tracker. Raspberry Pi users are reminded that dtoverlay=lirc-rpi has now been deprecated. Please read the infrared remotes wiki page before updating.

** CAUTION **

Alpha builds exist for hands-on testing not a hands-off experience. If you run Alpha builds you must be willing to report issues and engage the LibreELEC and Kodi developers in hunting bugs. If you have no idea what a debug log is or “wife acceptance factor” is critical, these builds are not for you. If you want to run Alpha builds please make a backup and store it somewhere off-box first. Your failure to make a backup is not our problem.

Updates since v8.90.006 ALPHA:

– updated to Kodi 18 Beta 5
– Kernel updated to 4.19 for Generic, RPi and Slice
– added updated DVB drivers to all S905 devices
– fixed Odroid_C2 update problems
– removed: systemctl mask eventlircd can no longer be used to get long-press support on remotes
– a lot more updates and fixes, have a look at the full changelog

LibreELEC 9.0 Alpha 007 (Kodi 18 Beta 5)

To update an existing installation from within the Kodi GUI select manual update in the LibreELEC settings add-on and then check for updates; select the LibreELEC 9.0 channel and then the 8.90.007 release. To create new install media please use our simple USB/SD Creator App. The following .img.gz files can also be used to create install media or update the old fashioned way:

RPi 2/3 LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-8.90.007.img.gz (info)

RPi 0/1 LibreELEC-RPi.arm-8.90.007.img.gz (info)

Generic LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-8.90.007.img.gz (info)

Odroid_C2 LibreELEC-Odroid_C2.arm-8.90.007.img.gz (info)

KVIM LibreELEC-KVIM.arm-8.90.007.img.gz (info)

LePotato LibreELEC-LePotato.arm-8.90.007.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Core LibreELEC-WeTek_Core.arm-8.90.007.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Hub LibreELEC-WeTek_Hub.arm-8.90.007.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Play LibreELEC-WeTek_Play.arm-8.90.007.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Play_2 LibreELEC-WeTek_Play_2.arm-8.90.007.img.gz (info)

RK3328

Firefly ROC-RK3328-CC LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.007-roc-cc.img.gz (info)

Generic Rockchip Box LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.007-box.img.gz (info)

PINE64 ROCK64 / Popcorn Hour Transformer LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.007-rock64.img.gz (info)

Popcorn Hour RockBox LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.007-rockbox.img.gz (info)

MVR9 LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.007-box-trn9.img.gz (info)

Z28 LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.007-box-z28.img.gz (info)

RK3399

96rocks ROCK960 LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.007-rock960.img.gz (info)

PINE64 RockPro64 LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.007-rockpro64.img.gz (info)

Rockchip Sapphire Board LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.007-sapphire.img.gz (info)

RK3288

ASUS Tinker Board LibreELEC-TinkerBoard.arm-8.90.007-rk3288.img.gz (info)

Display More

Source: LibreELEC (Leia) v8.90.007 ALPHA – LibreELEC

Quote from LibreELEC News

The LibreELEC 9.0 Alpha cycle has continued and releases for Amlogic and Slice hardware have been added additionally to the test cycle. We official support now Khadas VIM (AML S905X) and the LePotato (AML S905X) too. Since the 8.90.006 release we support a wide range of Rockchip devices. There are no plans to release LibreELEC 9.0 images for NXP/iMX6 hardware as support was removed from Kodi some months ago. Support will be reinstated in a future LibreELEC, we wrote an dedicated article about the future of LibreELEC.

Alpha releases are important to the team because we cannot test every scenario and sometimes sidestep issues without realising. The project needs a body of regular testers to go find the problems we miss. Testing will be particularly important for LibreELEC 9.0 as Kodi v18 includes substantial internal changes to VideoPlayer and introduces new retro-gaming capabilities.

** ROCKCHIP **

We added several Rockchip devices at this release. Please consider it as alpha quality and not yet as perfect. All kind of flavors of HDR, 4k and audio are supported already. These images are rather new and it is likely that you hit an problem sooner or later. Please report them at our issue tracker or at the dedicated Rockchip forum that they could get fixed. Within the LE9 release cycle we are likely not able to finish the Rockchip devices to reach an perfect stable state – they stay in alpha status as long it is needed.

TEST NOTES

Our current focus is the OS core and we are more interested in hardware and driver bugs than Kodi problems. Please report the issues you find by starting a thread in the forums or use our bug tracker. Raspberry Pi users are reminded that dtoverlay=lirc-rpi has now been deprecated. Please read the infrared remotes wiki page before updating.

** CAUTION **

Alpha builds exist for hands-on testing not a hands-off experience. If you run Alpha builds you must be willing to report issues and engage the LibreELEC and Kodi developers in hunting bugs. If you have no idea what a debug log is or “wife acceptance factor” is critical, these builds are not for you. If you want to run Alpha builds please make a backup and store it somewhere off-box first. Your failure to make a backup is not our problem.

Updates since v8.90.005 ALPHA:

– updated to Kodi 18 Beta 3
– Kernel updated to 4.18.11 for Generic, RPi and Slice
– added Rockchip RK3328, RK3399 and RK3288 Devices
– a lot more updates and fixes, have a look at the full changelog

LibreELEC 9.0 Alpha 006 (Kodi 18 Beta 3)

To update an existing installation from within the Kodi GUI select manual update in the LibreELEC settings add-on and then check for updates; select the LibreELEC 9.0 channel and then the 8.90.006 release. To create new install media please use our simple USB/SD Creator App. The following .img.gz files can also be used to create install media or update the old fashioned way:

RPi 2/3 LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

RPi 0/1 LibreELEC-RPi.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

Generic LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

Odroid_C2 LibreELEC-Odroid_C2.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

KVIM LibreELEC-KVIM.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

LePotato LibreELEC-LePotato.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

Slice LibreELEC-Slice.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

Slice3 LibreELEC-Slice3.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Core LibreELEC-WeTek_Core.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Hub LibreELEC-WeTek_Hub.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Play LibreELEC-WeTek_Play.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Play_2 LibreELEC-WeTek_Play_2.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

RK3328

Firefly ROC-RK3328-CC LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.006-roc-cc.img.gz (info)

Generic Rockchip Box LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.006-box.img.gz (info)

PINE64 ROCK64 / Popcorn Hour Transformer LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.006-rock64.img.gz (info)

Popcorn Hour RockBox LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.006-rockbox.img.gz (info)

MVR9 LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.006-box-trn9.img.gz (info)

Z28 LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.006-box-z28.img.gz (info)

RK3399

96rocks ROCK960 LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.006-rock960.img.gz (info)

PINE64 RockPro64 LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.006-rockpro64.img.gz (info)

Rockchip Sapphire Board LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.006-sapphire.img.gz (info)

RK3288

ASUS Tinker Board LibreELEC-TinkerBoard.arm-8.90.006-rk3288.img.gz (info)

mqmaker MiQi LibreELEC-MiQi.arm-8.90.006-rk3288.img.gz (info)

Display More

Source: LibreELEC (Leia) v8.90.006 ALPHA – LibreELEC

Quote from LibreELEC News

The LibreELEC 9.0 Alpha cycle has continued and releases for Amlogic and Slice hardware have been added additionally to the test cycle. We official support now Khadas VIM (AML S905X) and the LePotato (AML S905X) too. There are no plans to release LibreELEC 9.0 images for NXP/iMX6 hardware as support was removed from Kodi some months ago. Support will be reinstated in a future LibreELEC release and we will update you on progress with the next-generation Kodi video pipeline (which makes that possible) soon.

Alpha releases are important to the team because we cannot test every scenario and sometimes sidestep issues without realising. The project needs a body of regular testers to go find the problems we miss. Testing will be particularly important for LibreELEC 9.0 as Kodi v18 includes substantial internal changes to VideoPlayer and introduces new retro-gaming capabilities.

TEST NOTES

Our current focus is the OS core and we are more interested in hardware and driver bugs than Kodi problems. Please report the issues you find by starting a thread in the forums or use our bug tracker. Raspberry Pi users are reminded that dtoverlay=lirc-rpi has now been deprecated. Please read the infrared remotes wiki page before updating.

** CAUTION **

Alpha builds exist for hands-on testing not a hands-off experience. If you run Alpha builds you must be willing to report issues and engage the LibreELEC and Kodi developers in hunting bugs. If you have no idea what a debug log is or “wife acceptance factor” is critical, these builds are not for you. If you want to run Alpha builds please make a backup and store it somewhere off-box first. Your failure to make a backup is not our problem.

Updates since v8.90.004 ALPHA:

– updated to Kodi 18 Beta 2
– improved IR remotes at all Amlogic devices
– a lot more updates and fixes, have a look at the full changelog

LibreELEC 9.0 Alpha 005 (Kodi 18 Beta 2)

To update an existing installation from within the Kodi GUI select manual update in the LibreELEC settings add-on and then check for updates; select the LibreELEC 9.0 channel and then the 8.90.005 release. To create new install media please use our simple USB/SD Creator App. The following .img.gz files can also be used to create install media or update the old fashioned way:

RPi 2/3 LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

RPi 0/1 LibreELEC-RPi.arm-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

Generic LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

Odroid_C2 LibreELEC-Odroid_C2.arm-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

KVIM LibreELEC-KVIM.arm-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

LePotato LibreELEC-LePotato.arm-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

Slice LibreELEC-Slice.arm-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

Slice3 LibreELEC-Slice3.arm-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Core LibreELEC-WeTek_Core.arm-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Hub LibreELEC-WeTek_Hub.arm-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Play LibreELEC-WeTek_Play.arm-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Play_2 LibreELEC-WeTek_Play_2.arm-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

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Source: LibreELEC (Leia) v8.90.005 ALPHA – LibreELEC

Quote from LibreELEC News

Team LibreELEC has been rather quiet on development and priorities for a while. Silent does not mean inactive though, so here’s an update on what’s been happening and what’s coming soon:

GBM/V4L2 and DRMPRIME

Our work on Kodi’s next-generation Linux video rendering and DRMPRIME decoding pipeline continues to make solid progress and there has been some great multi-vendor and multi-project teamwork. Initial support for the DRMPRIME decoder is part of Kodi v18 (existing in parallel with older proprietary code-paths) and we now have functional “proof of concept” LibreELEC images for the following platforms:

• Allwinner (A20, A33, H3, H5) on Linux 4.18+
• AMD (radeon) using VAAPI on Linux 4.18+
• Amlogic (GXBB/GXL) on Linux 4.18+
• Intel (i915) using VAAPI on Linux 4.18+
• NXP (iMX6) using etnaviv on Linux 4.18+
• Qualcomm (DragonBoard 410c) using freedreno on Linux 4.18+
• Raspberry Pi (VC4) on Linux 4.18+
• Rockchip (3288, 3328, 3399) using rkmpp on Rockchip Linux 4.4

Kodi is one of the first major-name apps to adopt GBM/V4L2 as a framework covering multiple GPU/SoC types so this work is elevating our project profile within the Linux community. Progress is good, but also slow as we are constantly breaking new ground, and each new improvement to Kodi and FFmpeg needs to be tested over an increasing number of GPU/SoC hardware targets which have their own individual quirks. Each platform is at a different stage of evolution, but the overall trend is that we are starting to shift focus away from code creation to code stabilisation and fixing.

There are two objectives for the next-generation pipeline; maintenance and performance. Removing older and proprietary code-paths in Kodi simplifies code and makes it easier to maintain and introduce new features that work consistently over devices that share the common GBM/DRMPRIME code path. Moving to modern code frameworks like V4L2 that use zero-copy techniques allows better performance on all hardware, but this will be most beneficial to the increasing number of low-power ARM devices that need to more efficiently process ever-increasing amounts of video data.

LibreELEC 10.0 will remove support for Xorg/X11 windowing on x86_64 hardware and move the entire distro to a common DRM/GBM video framework. In the time between now and 10.0 the team will be working to achieve feature parity so nobody notices the switch 🙂

ROCKCHIP

Forward progress on Rockchip stalled in recent months because we had to stop and adapt a large chunk of the work completed on the Rockchip Linux 4.4 kernel codebase so it could start the parallel and lengthy process of being upstreamed into the mainline kernel. This burned lots of time, but work to get the Rockchip 4.4 kernel into a reasonable state (not perfect, but usable) has now resumed. Recent commits have added initial support for HDR on RK3328/3399 devices so it’s no surprise that active-install stats have started to show an increase in the number of users running test images. RK3399 support still needs work and we also need to start thinking about the install/first-run experience. It is likely that Alpha releases for Rockchip hardware run for some time, with full release targeting LibreELEC 9.2.

ALLWINNER

Video driver development essential for LibreELEC to support newer Allwinner SoC’s is also starting to drop into place. Community developer Paul Cooper (codekipper) has started to nudge the sunxi i2s audio driver towards multi-channel audio support, and Paul Kocialkowski from the Bootlin team working on player support for their current kickstarter project joined our Slack team to contribute to our V4L2 ‘group therapy’ sessions and further the cause of the bootlin driver and Kodi support (see the Bootlin blog for demo videos).

To showcase their work on the DRM driver the bootlin team have shared an LE image. At the current time their codebase is a little behind our master branch and further behind current Kodi master branch. The majority of their code has been actively developed in collaboration with our developers working on other SoC platforms, but we need to adapt their concepts in a couple of areas so approaches remain unified over multiple SoC/GPU types. We are also waiting on mali GBM libraries to be released for the H6 chip, and we haven’t done any serious work on distro packaging. Most SoCs have hardware support challenges when bumping to mainline kernels (device trees, drivers, etc.) and we expect Allwinner hardware to be no exception. So we are still some way from making firm plans. Overall platform support needs to progress further before we can start thinking about distro packaging and initial target devices.

NXP (iMX6)

Support for the proprietary iMX6 code-path used in LibreELEC 7.x/8.x releases was dropped from Kodi v18 due to a long-term lack of maintainers and it being completely broken for 6+ months due to other code changes. Our long-term plan is to switch iMX6 releases to the new Kodi pipeline and open source ‘etnaviv’ video driver. At the current time distro packaging is mostly complete and Kodi boots and runs but video rendering for GC2000 (i.MX6q and similar) devices has some limitations that mean we cannot achieve full frame rate when rendering a 1080p video while GC3000 devices (i.MX6qp and similar) render at full speed. We will most likely wait until LE10 before we releasing images for iMX6 devices again.

AMLOGIC

Maxime Jourdan (now working for Baylibre) has made great progress on a V4L2 video decoding driver and his initial patch-set has been submitted to the kernel for review. We now have functional images for GXBB (S905) and GXL (S905X/D/W) devices running a mainline 4.18+ kernel that hardware decode the 1080p video formats we need to support. At the current time deinterlaced media is handled in software which is okay (it works) but further development will be needed to support the hardware deinterlace IP capabilities. HDMI audio is working with 2.0 output and collaboration among developers working across Amlogic, Allwinner and Rockchip (which all use the same DesignWare audio IP) is starting to fill gaps in multi-channel support. The main block to public test releases is now the DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) display driver which provides HDMI support and the foundation for DRMPRIME in Kodi. Neil Armstrong from the Baylibre team has historically worked on the DRM driver pro-bono in his spare time, but with a busy work schedule progress has been slow. LibreComputer who manufacture the popular “LePotato” board (aka, AML-S905X-CC) have agreed to fund further work under their support contract with Baylibre so Neil can schedule time and move the driver forwards. The short-term goal is HDMI 1.4 support (up to 4K/30) with a separate block of work for HDMI 2.0 following once more of the kernel framework for HDR and colourspace handling (ongoing work from Intel and AMD) is in-place. This is awesome and we’d like to publicly thank LibreComputer for their open-source commitment (Da hero’s of the hour!).

Switching Amlogic GXBB/GXL hardware to use DRMPRIME on a mainline kernel was our original stretch “Plan A” for LibreELEC 9.0 but the timescales do not align. We also considered “Plan B” with a simple delay to Amlogic releases while others moved forwards, but in the end the only sensible option was “Plan Z” and we’ve dusted off the 3.14 kernel codebase for one final round. Our goal for LibreELEC 9.0 is simply to improve on LibreELEC 8.2 by absorbing some of the less objectionable bits from community releases while expanding official support to the LePotato and Khadas VIM(1) devices. At the same time we’re not aiming for perfection, because it’s a dead and deeply flawed codebase. There is a lot more to discuss on our mainline kernel plans, but we’ll save that for a dedicated blog post after LibreELEC 9.0 has shipped.

GENERIC AND RASPBERRY PI

The team are currently working through changes to move Raspberry Pi images to Linux 4.18 (the Generic image has already bumped). Our original plan was Linux 4.14 everywhere due to it’s LTS status and use with Raspbian which would benefit Pi support, but the latest generations of Intel and AMD hardware need something newer. It also became clear the Raspberry Pi Foundation and LibreELEC are mutually interdependent. We depend on Pi Foundation staff supporting and fixing issues in the latest kernels, and the Pi Foundation depends on LibreELEC needing (and proving) the latest kernels to justify supporting them. If we remained on Linux 4.14 we removed their justification and in the long-term both sides would become stuck on a ‘safe’ kernel. Generic and Raspberry Pi releases represent 85% of our active userbase so kernel choice is an important decision and it’s taken a few rounds of passionate debate to reach agreement. Helped by a clear “don’t worry folks, we have your backs!” commitment from the Pi Foundation staff, we finally reached consensus to keep moving our kernel baseline onwards and upwards.

ALPHA, BETA and KODI

LibreELEC 9.0 Alpha releases are now running and will continue for a while as our definition of Beta is “finished product with only minor bugs” so we need to have kernel bumps etc. complete before we can progress. In the past we’ve been in lock-step with the Kodi schedule and were able to go full-release within 24 hours of Kodi 17.0, but this time around the pre-Alpha stage of development has been chaotic and we’re behind on where we’d normally expect to be in our release plan. It’s likely that Kodi 18.0 will ship before we’re done with Beta testing, but the team are working hard to move things forwards.

Thanks for reading! 🙂

Display More

Source: Development Update – LibreELEC

Quote from LibreELEC News

The LibreELEC 9.0 Alpha cycle has started! and releases for Amlogic and Slice hardware have been added additionally to the test cycle. We official support now Khadas VIM (AML S905X) and the LePotato (AML S905X) too. There are no plans to release LibreELEC 9.0 images for NXP/iMX6 hardware as support was removed from Kodi some months ago. Support will be reinstated in a future LibreELEC release and we will update you on progress with the next-generation Kodi video pipeline (which makes that possible) soon.

Alpha releases are important to the team because we cannot test every scenario and sometimes sidestep issues without realising. The project needs a body of regular testers to go find the problems we miss. Testing will be particularly important for LibreELEC 9.0 as Kodi v18 includes substantial internal changes to VideoPlayer and introduces new retro-gaming capabilities.

TEST NOTES

Our current focus is the OS core and we are more interested in hardware and driver bugs than Kodi problems. Please report the issues you find by starting a thread in the forums or use our bug tracker. Raspberry Pi users are reminded that dtoverlay=lirc-rpi has now been deprecated. Please read the infrared remotes wiki page before updating.

** CAUTION **

Alpha builds exist for hands-on testing not a hands-off experience. If you run Alpha builds you must be willing to report issues and engage the LibreELEC and Kodi developers in hunting bugs. If you have no idea what a debug log is or “wife acceptance factor” is critical, these builds are not for you. If you want to run Alpha builds please make a backup and store it somewhere off-box first. Your failure to make a backup is not our problem.

Updates since v8.90.003 ALPHA:

– added official Khadas VIM and LePotato support
– added images to the test cycle for for WeTek devices (Core, Play 1, Play 2, Hub), Odroid_C2 and for Slice 1 + 3
– updated to Kodi 18 Beta 1 (v2)
– updated Raspberry Pi to latest 4.14 Kernel and added back the HEVC optimisations that allows HEVC playback at the RPi
– a lot more updates and fixes, have a look at the full changelog

LibreELEC 9.0 Alpha 004 (Kodi 18 Beta 1)

To update an existing installation from within the Kodi GUI select manual update in the LibreELEC settings add-on and then check for updates; select the LibreELEC 9.0 channel and then the 8.90.004 release. To create new install media please use our simple USB/SD Creator App. The following .img.gz files can also be used to create install media or update the old fashioned way:

RPi 2/3 LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-8.90.004.img.gz (info)

RPi 0/1 LibreELEC-RPi.arm-8.90.004.img.gz (info)

Generic LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-8.90.004.img.gz (info)

Odroid_C2 LibreELEC-Odroid_C2.arm-8.90.004.img.gz (info)

KVIM LibreELEC-KVIM.arm-8.90.004.img.gz (info)

LePotato LibreELEC-LePotato.arm-8.90.004.img.gz (info)

Slice LibreELEC-Slice.arm-8.90.004.img.gz (info)

Slice3 LibreELEC-Slice3.arm-8.90.004.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Core LibreELEC-WeTek_Core.arm-8.90.004.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Hub LibreELEC-WeTek_Hub.arm-8.90.004.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Play LibreELEC-WeTek_Play.arm-8.90.004.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Play_2 LibreELEC-WeTek_Play_2.arm-8.90.004.img.gz (info)

Display More

Source: LibreELEC (Leia) v8.90.004 ALPHA – LibreELEC

Quote from LibreELEC News

Alpha builds are an important part of our long-term test strategy. Our developers do high quality testing but we are small in number, don’t have every device to test with, and often sidestep problems without realising. The project needs a community of regular testers with a larger selection of hardware and more ‘human’ behaviour to find problems we miss.
Thorough testing will be particularly important for LibreELEC 9.0 as Kodi v18 brings major video changes and introduces new retro gaming capabilities.

At this stage it’s too early to talk about release dates but we do want to talk about LibreELEC releasing 9.0 shortly after Kodi push their v18.0 release. It would be awesome if the time gap is small, but our priority is a stable release not fast release.
If there are outstanding issues when Kodi v18.0 ships we may hold LibreELEC 9.0 back until v18.1 or needed patches become available.

TEST NOTES

The current focus for Alpha testing is the OS core. Right now we’re more interested in hardware/driver things that don’t work than Kodi issues. LibreELEC v8.90.003 is only available for Generic x86_64 and Raspberry Pi devices.

Amlogic (KVIM, Odroid C2, WeTek Play1&2/Core/Hub) and Rockchip are “work in progress” but we have visibility on developer progress and hope to start Alpha builds for them in the near future.

If you have found a problem please report them to the Forum or to our Bugtracker (forum account required).

RPi users with IR remotes may have a look at our Wikipage – dtoverlay=lirc-rpi is now deprecated.

** CAUTION **

Alpha builds exist for hands-on testing not a hands-off experience. If you run Alpha builds you must be willing to report issues via the forums and engage the LibreELEC and Kodi developers in hunting bugs. If you have no idea what a debug log is or “wife acceptance factor” is critical, these builds are not for you.

If you want to run Alpha builds please make a backup and store it somewhere safe (off-box) first. Your failure to make a backup is not our problem.

Enjoy 🙂

LibreELEC LE9 Alpha 003 (Kodi 18 Alpha 3)

RPi 2/3 LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-8.90.003.img.gz (info)
RPi 0/1 LibreELEC-RPi.arm-8.90.003.img.gz (info)
Generic LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-8.90.003.img.gz (info)

You can also download it with our USB-SD Creator tool.

Display More

Source: LibreELEC (Leia) v8.90.003 ALPHA – LibreELEC

This forum area is for users of LibreELEC community software releases. If you have chosen to run CoreELEC releases on your device please report your problems to their support forum: CoreELEC Forums where people familiar with their codebase hang out. Posts on CoreELEC will be closed and moved to an "unsupported" forum to ensure the focus of support here remains on LibreELEC users seeking help with LibreELEC software.

This morning LibreELEC board member @xe received written notices from GDPR-2 and GDPR-1 demanding their GDPR Article-17 right to have all personal information held by the project deleted from our systems. They have further requested we remove all of their forum posts and purge any data stored on team webspace. To prevent further creation and propagation of their data while we clarify our GDPR obligations and investigate what technical steps may be required, we have suspended their accounts.

It's a shame to see this level of deliberately awkward activity, but we aren't going to fight their decision. Other forks in our ecosystem (Lakka, OpenPHT, PlexEmbedded, etc.) exist happily as derivatives of LibreELEC and their team members regularly and proactively contribute to our codebase. From the outset CoreELEC proclaimed total independence and leading team members have repeatedly stated they will not contribute back to LibreELEC. We don't really care that CoreELEC exists and we've been ignoring derogatory statements for the sake of peace, but continuing to host their drama and noise in our forum has zero upside for LibreELEC if they refuse to participate in our project. It is unclear whether other CoreELEC contributors with presence in our forum will request the same trip to /dev/null or would prefer to retain their status and become supportive and helpful participants to our project.

The Board

Quote from LibreELEC News

Following the recent board election we started the important work of defining project bylaws. We also started to review project policies, some of which are long-running and documented but need revising, while others are more informal and need to be written down. One of those policies is our definition of a LibreELEC Community Build and the responsibilities of Community Build creators.

Our requirements are simple and now apply retrospectively to all Community Releases. They can be read on the Wiki here:
Minimum requirements for a LibreELEC Community Build

Recognising what is/is-not a LibreELEC Community Build and defining common-sense rules allows the project team to focus on supporting community developers and the users they serve. We often provide dedicated sub-forums and webspace to help builders distribute and support their releases without incurring personal costs. In some cases we also hook their releases into core project assets such as the update mechanism and our add-on repository.

In the next week we will reach out to a small number of community developers identified as non-compliant. If they are willing to work with the LibreELEC project team and address discrepancies we will be happy to allow continued use of our infrastructure. If they are not, we will be encouraging them to provide their own.

The Board

Source: Community Builds – LibreELEC