Posts by tkocou

Quote from brunetton

Hi tkocou, would you share your ugly baby script ? I'm interested too !

Thanks

Update:

Two issues:

First: As far as the "relatime vs noatime" issue goes, using a vfat format on the external HDD sidesteps the issue since vfat does not support either relatime or noatime options.

Second: The delay, between "playing" a video from an external HDD and the video actually playing, has gotten worse since implementing my fix. After observing the behavior, I've come to the conclusion that LibreElec copies the video from the HDD to the SDcard and then plays the video from the SDcard. This degradation occurs whether I play a video file located on an external HDD or when I play a streaming video from a source like Netflix or Amazon Prime.

Fixing the degradation issue will require upgrading the hardware (Raspberry Pi 4, etc.) and fixing the RPI firmware to boot from an external HDD thereby avoiding the use of an SDcard. The only potential problem will be how to get LibreElec to honor booting up from an external USB option (now available for the Version 4). Perhaps a dual boot with RaspberryOS and LibreElec.

Quote from BeauSlim

Defaults may have changed and it has been a while, but in the past I have seen some improvement in local content stuttering by forcing buffer mode to 1 as per the kodi wiki.

Thank you for the tip. As expected for a default value, the buffer mode was set to 2 (Streaming only). So I will try the suggested mode and see if the studdering diminishes.

Quote from chewitt

We don't use /etc/fstab which is why it's blank and you cannot edit or override the file. It only exists because some other Linux plumbing looks for it and craps out when it doesn't (even if the file is blank). We use udevil for mounting and it's possible to override our default udev rules if you want to (use a file with the same name in /storage/udev.rules.d). I guess when all the upstream sources adopt noatime we'll acquire the same change. Until then, we'll stick to the accepted defaults.

I accept the reason for the /etc/fstab situation. My only concern is the lack of a tutorial on how to create a proper udev rule for udevil. While there is online documentation, the documentation is somewhat obscure and I have not found any concrete examples.

I understand about using EXT4 format. I deliberately chose FAT32 for a Linux reason.

A SSD should be mounted with the 'noatime' option at the time of mounting. Setting the option to 'noatime' extends the life of the drive. By default, LibreELEC mounts the SSD with the "relatime" option for ExFAT and EXT4 formats. To make matters worse, the /etc/fstab is read only. So there is no way to add an entry to /etc/fstab to specify the mounting options. A FAT32 format sidesteps the issue.

Furthermore, with the FAT32 format, the buffering has been reduced - 1 to 10 seconds range, which is acceptable to me.

A thank you to chewitt for the technical explanation

My Hardware setup: Raspberry Pi 4 (w/4Gb memory), 32Gb SDcard, USB3 500 Gb SSD -

The idea of using a USB drive is so that should I desire to change the content, I power down the Raspberry Pi, move the SSD to my desktop, make the desired changes of content, plug in the SSD to the Raspberry Pi and then power up the system. Kodi recognizes the change in content accordingly.

Problems: First problem - Way too much buffering while accessing the 500 Gb SSD. Press Enter to start the play of media located on the SSD and Kodi would sit spinning its wheels for upwards of a minute. Second problem - I was not able to invoke the various ViewTypes for content existing on the SSD ( Wall vs Slide vs List )

Solution: First) reformat the USB SSD from  ExFAT FS to  FAT32 (VFAT) FS. Second) assign a new label to the SSD (11 characters or less)

Discussion: LibreELEC (and other Linux distributions) do not handle ExFAT FS format efficiently. The older FAT32 (VFAT) format works much smoother. And a 500 GB USB drive can be formatted as FAT32.

For some reason (unknown to me), Kodi fails to allow the various ViewTypes on outboard media if the USB media lacks a volume label. This problem goes away once a volume label has been assigned.

The Raspberry Pi 4 generates a lot of extra heat as compared to the Raspberry Pi 3. You might want to make sure the RPi 4 has sufficient cooling.

Quote from urig

Hi,

I've installed LibreELEC v9.2.1 on my Raspberry Pi 4 model B (4GB). It boots nicely but I can't connect to my home wi-fi router.

Here's what I'm doing:

1. I go to Settings > LibreELEC > Connections
2. My router's SSID is shown, having the strongest signal
3. I choose it and click Connect
4. I enter my wi-fi password
5. I see the status changing from 'idle' to 'association'
6. After a few seconds it changes back to 'idle'
7. I try connecting again. I'm not prompted for a password
8. I see the status changing from 'idle' to 'association'
9. After a few seconds I'm shown a Network Error saying 'Input/output error'
10. The status changes back to 'idle'

Am I doing it right? What am I missing?

Thanks,

urig

PS - I'm setup for WPA2-PSK but I see no mention of this in the LibreELEC GUI

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The 2.4 Ghz band has better penetrating power for a given distance than the 5.8 Ghz. As suggested by Da Flex, try a different wifi band. Wifi signals are similar to a flashlight (torch in the UK). Try: different orientations of the wifi router, possibly its antennas, reducing the distance between the RPI and the wifi router.

I tried setting up option b with zero success. I went with option a and it works as expected. Ugly, but working. Thank you.

With a little bit of sleuthing, I found the rules. After spending a few hours trying different 'rules', I have come to the conclusion that using the udevil option is unproductive. I did a shell script which accomplishes the switch from relatime to noatime options and that script works.

So, where can I read up on the startup sequence of LibreElec. Perhaps there is a point where the shell script can be executed after all the other startup processes have finished. Normally, one would use the '/etc/rc.local' file of a full featured Linux to accomplish this.

Quote from chewitt

We use "udevil" to mount filesystem devices dynamically instead of storing/editing static content in /etc/fstab. You can place your own udev rules in /storage/.config/udev.rules.d that will either add-to the rules (most specific rule wins) or if you name them the same as an existing embedded rules file they will overwrite/replace the same-named rules file.

Thank you. Another question: Where are the "embedded" rules located? I would like to inspect the pre-existing rules.

on my Raspberry Pi 4, I noticed that LibreElec mounted my USB SSD as "relatime". Without recompiling LibreElec, is there a way to force the USB SSD to be mounted with the "noatime" option instead of the default of "relatime"? I was surprised that the /etc/fstab file was not a link to an area in /storage.

Raspbery Pi 4 with LibreElec 9.2.0

Yep, the thread is old, however, I installed that version of Amazon Prime repository plus video addon. Looked through the Kodi thread and noted a bunch of problems earlier on. The latest version works like a champ on my Raspberry Pi 4 with LibreElec 9.2.0 and Kodi 18.5

Questions, questions...

1) I was testing the paste command in LibreElec and it works quite well. However, I would like to delete the posting. The command is asking for a user & password. Is there a default combo or do I have to register with ix.io?

2) Is there a File Structure map for LibreElec? Basically, I would like to know where files are stored. I am using a Raspberry Pi 4 with LibreElec OS ver. 9.2

Bugs, Bugs...

I am using a wireless mouse and wireless BT keyboard. When I select a video for playing, the response is very slow. Eventually, the video starts playing, but getting the interface to respond to the KB or mouse can be frustrating.

My issue is similar to the one reported on this posting: raspberry-pi-4-model-b-4gb-freezes-when-playing-movies