Posts by staufl

I'm still a bit confused why my .nfo files were working fine in 11.0.6, but it seems this is a relatively common issue. To fix it, I used NotePad++ in windows. I created a new file with UTF-8 encoding and then just copy/pasted the old file into the new one. Seems to work fine. Everything is parsing fine now.

Not sure if this is more relevant to a kodi forum or what but figured I would start here trying to figure it out. I've got a repo of music videos that I curate by-hand in my kodi database. I do all my scraping using local info so I create my own .nfo files for each video. I upgraded from 11.0.6 to 12.0.`1 and noticed there are about a dozen of my shows that now appear to fail scraping the .nfo file (these worked fine before in 11.0.6). I'm assuming what is going in here is special character support as it seems that each of the affected files has some sort of special character in the .nfo file. For example: Æ, ä, etc... Has there been a change in what special characters are supported? Do I need to do something like escape these characters? Any other idea why navigating the list of movies, I see a bunch of files with blank title info? I can still navigate to the file and play the show, the poster files are referenced just fine, it just appears as if the .nfo file is failing to be parsed.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

I recently tried to add a new video to my Kodi database. I added the file in my mounted folder and then asked kodi to re-scan. When it got to this new file, kodi crashed and re-started. In looking at the logs I saw this:

2024-04-22 13:37:18.613 T:1135 warning <general>: VideoInfoScanner: Error 1 occurred while retrievinginformation for sftp://192.168.6.200:22/video/Blu/Music Videos/abcdefg..n/abcdefg..n.mkv.

I had a special character in a couple places. The ".." in the above filename should have been an á. I replaced this as well as the title and the outline in the nfo file. Once this special character was fine, this file scraped just fine. Are special characters like this intentionally not supported?

I finally figured out what was wrong. I have not seen this "issue" reported anywhere else so I thought I would report it here in case anyone else hits it. I was spending all my time concentrating on the mysql side of things. Turns out, the issue was on the libreelec side of things. I needed to reboot. In some instances, I needed to delete and re-create my definition of where my videos were stored. Maybe there is a simpler method? Clear Library or something? Not sure, all I know is that after I rebooted libreelec, everything was working fine for me.

Are there password requirements? I found some people saying they needed to escape certain password characters to make it work. I tried deleting every user and re-creating a user with a password of 'abc'.

IF I create the localhost version of the new user, I can log into mysql just fine and have permissions that I set, but I try to sync from kodi and I get these failure:

2024-03-22 20:51:19.230 T:840     error <general>: Unable to open database: MyMusic82 [1045](Access denied for user 'kodi'@'192.168.6.11' (using password: YES))

Not sure if it is related, but I see this warning farther up in the logs:

2024-03-22 20:51:17.673 T:824   warning <general>: VIDEO database configuration is experimental.

Even though this feels like a mis-config in the mariaDB, I am not sure how to go about making this any simpler. I can use this mariaDB with other applications but kodi always tells me Access is denied. Is there a way to dump the actual password into the logs for testing?

Is this not sufficient? As far as I can tell "ALL" grants the user all privileges other than granting other users privileges. Ideally I would grant the subnet privileges but, for now, I just want to start with seeing something work.

Thank you for your help btw.

MariaDB [mysql]> SHOW GRANTS FOR 'kodi'@'192.168.6.11';
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Grants for [email protected]                                                                                            |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO `kodi`@`192.168.6.11` IDENTIFIED BY PASSWORD '*BF231FABB9BE63B7F26FCE0C6C7F190EE7F60339' |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.000 sec)

MariaDB [mysql]> 

I thought maybe there was some syntax formatting on my password that wasn't matching, however, I can log into the mariadb using the kodi user and the password I generated. I have to assume that means I configured the user correctly. I am thinking I am going to feel very foolish when I finally figure out what I am doing wrong here.

Here is my specific advancedsettings.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<advancedsettings version="1.0">
  <videodatabase>
    <type>mysql</type>
    <host>192.168.6.8</host>
    <port>3306</port>
    <user>kodi</user>
    <pass>kodipass</pass>
  </videodatabase> 
  <musicdatabase>
    <type>mysql</type>
    <host>192.168.6.8</host>
    <port>3306</port>
    <user>kodi</user>
    <pass>kodipass</pass>
  </musicdatabase>
  <videolibrary>
    <importwatchedstate>true</importwatchedstate>
    <importresumepoint>true</importresumepoint>
  </videolibrary> 
</advancedsettings>

telnet is not installed on the container I am running MariaDB on (so that is refused), but I can ssh to it without any issue from libreelec. Its also listening on port 3306 and other applications seem to be using it fine. I turned on debugging on libreelec but I don't see any mention of mysql, my MariaDB IP or port 3306 in the logs other than the parsing of the advancedsettings.xml file. Are there other keywords to look for?

How is one supposed to use this feature? Is the UX of libreelec supposed to be the same as it was before, just the data is stored on this external database rather than internally? When I try to "Update Library" without this external mysql setup, I see a spinner on the top right corner and it appears to walk through all my video and update all the local info (as expected). If I try to do the same thing with this mysql data present, when I click on "Update Library", as far as I can tell, nothing happens. I don't see a spinner, I don't see anything in the logs. I can view the flat file structure of my NAS video folder, but if I try to play a video, kodi crashes and re-starts. This does not reboot the entire OS, just kodi itself it appears.

I'm not sure if it is related to my mysql problem or not but maybe this crash file will shed some light, I will attach it.

I am using libreelec 11.0.6 on generic Intel. I noticed there is a 12.x stream started, should I try a nightly? I noticed in the 11.0.6 UI if I select the 12.x repository, it tells me 11.95.1 is the latest version. I guessing none of this is relevant and this feature has been working for a while. I feel like I am missing something very basic here but I keep finding different instructional websites and youtube videos telling me to set things up this way and it doesn't work for me.

I am installing libreelec from scratch here on new hardware. Did not want to upset my working systems while trying to get this working. Do I need to parse my video directory into the local database before turning the external one on? Or does that not matter? I'm kind of grasping at straws here.

I have used LibreElec for a number of years now and it generally works wonderfully. My biggest complaint is that with 4 boxes, the watched history is not shared between them. I'm not a fan of cloud tools and did not want to use something like trakt. I tried a number of self-hosted tracker options but could never get any of them to work. My latest attempt is to have my kodi boxes use an external mysql database. This seems like it should be simpler and easier to manage. I've tried MariaDB, mysql and am now using an LXC turnkey MySql container. The database seems fine, its listening on its network port on the standard port 3306 and other applications seem to be able to reach it just fine.

I follow the instructions for configuring kodi. I have existing config in the advancedsettings.xml file and they seem to work fine. I added in the <videodatabase> and <musicdatabase> options in the xml file and rebooted. Username, password, port all correct yet when I scan my video source (or rather attempt to scan), nothing happens. No scanner up in the corner, nothing displaying on the Movies/TVShows menus. If I restore the advancedsettings.xml file to my old config, the scanning of my video directory works just fine. I feel like I am missing a step in the config but every instructional article/video I can find seems to indicate this is all I need to do. Can anyone suggest a good how-to on configuring libreelec kodi to use an external mysql database? As far as I can tell, my kodi instance isn't even trying to reach out to the database. Furthermore, if I manually navigate to one of my videos, the machine crashes and reboots immediately. If I go back to my old advancedsettings.xml, everything is fine again, I just, obviously have data stored in the local database.

I'm willing to deploy a new mqsql database but I would prefer it in a Proxmox container if possible.

Well, my freezing issue was certainly not a hardware problem. For the past month, the longest I have been able to run without a freeze has been about an hour. Running last night's CoreElec nightly, I have now been able to run for 24 hours without any freezes.

Isn't Le Potato supposed to be the "flagship hardware platform" of libre? Its been out for 3 years, they are talking about coming out with a new, re-designed version and yet they haven't figured out how to make it work reliably yet? Just seems crazy to me. Are there any old builds that work reliably?

I really don't understand how it could be a hardware problem. I've replaced all the hardware and still have exactly the same issues. If I run regular Ubuntu Linux, it runs as long as I want and stays perfectly stable. Sure, Kodi may be exercising hardware that Ubuntu does not, but I can literally boot Kodi on a fresh install (of "Stable" CoreElec or LibreElec) and touch nothing, eventually it will hang.

Nightly CoreElec seems to work (stay stable). Biggest issue so far is 5.1 audio. 5.1 audio causes major stuttering in the video and no audio at all. If I configure Kodi for 2.0 channel out, everything appears to work great. I am attempting to use audio out over HDMI (not 1/8"). This works fine in the "stable" images of both CoreElec and LibreElec (I just have to deal with the random freezing).

Nightly LibreElec I have all sorts of problems. The Add-on repo doesn't contain the Extras add-on like it used to. Not the end of the world, but annoying. Also, I have not been able to find a single video file that will actually play. I just get an error pop-up saying that something went wrong and the video can't be played.

I guess, for now, I run the currently nightly of CoreElec and watch for progress on getting the audio working properly. Certainly better than tossing all this hardware.

Thanks for the help.

If you go to LibreElec and select LePotato, it tells you to download this: LibreELEC-LePotato.arm-9.0.2.img It's been this image since I purchased my LePotato boards. On the CoreElec site, I chose 9.2.3 (Stable) and select LePotato and get this image: CoreELEC-Amlogic.arm-9.2.3-LePotato.img. Should these not be the current stable versions? Should I try to find older images? Nightly images?

The thing that really confuses me is what changed between my multiple months of 100% stability and today? I'm using the same hardware, the same software images (I saved it locally, did not re-download) but now, all of a sudden, it just freezes on me randomly under any circumstances. A month ago, I had no freezing issues and I could play 1080 or 4k content without any issues whatsoever.

I installed the nightly image of CoreElec today and, so far (cross my fingers), it has been stable. I've been able to scrape all my TV Shows without a freeze (first time in a month). The part I find strange is that 5.1 audio now doesn't work. If I change my output to stereo, my videos with a 5.1 track (or any others) will play fine. If I change the settings to output 5.1, I get no audio at all and the video stutters dramatically. With it set to 5.1, videos with a stereo track play fine, only videos with a 5.1 track have issues.

I will try the nightly image of LibreElec you mentioned and see if I have any better luck there. Thank you for the help.

At the moment, I don't need the latest/greatest, I would just like to have something that I can reliably watch for more than 5 minutes. Is there any image known to be stable/functional on the LePotato boards?

I transitioned to running Kodi on lePotato SBCs about 6 months ago. The transition went really smoothly at first. Everything worked, 4k content played easily, I was really happy with the setup. Everything was stable and working fine for a few months.

I then started having Kodi freeze on me. Seemingly at random times. Sometimes during playback, sometimes sitting in screensaver mode, anywhere in the UI...or anywhere in between. I've turned on debug logging but not once have the logs pointed me at anything that seemed to be going wrong. The logs just stop while sending DEBUG info usually, and not the same debug logs.

I've looked at all sorts of "how to stop kodi from freezing" blogs and videos. Some say it is usually your power input, I have tried literally dozens of different supplies (and cables) rated for 2.5a and none appear to make any difference. As the problem happens at idle as often as under load, I tend to doubt this is part of my problem. Others say that the userdata contents is generally the problem. I've now been able to reproduce my crash/hang with a fresh install of libreElec or CoreElec. Nothing changed after install of the base image. No Add-ons installed, no content scraped. I don't see how I can isolate my userdata directory any more than this. I've even been able to reproduce the hang with literally touching nothing after the base install, not even going through the base setup routine that auto-pops up.

I am not familiar with debugging heat issues, but I have little stick-on heat-sinks on the CPU and memory and nothing appears even warm to the touch, never-mind hot. The OS generally shows in the vicinity of 45 degrees C and below. This appears to be no different than when everything appeared to be stable.

I have swapped out the entire SBC with another board thinking my specific device may be at-fault, I hit the same issue. Also replaced the SD card with brand new variants, again, no change.

I have installed generic Ubuntu (well, the LePotato version) and that image appears to stay stable on the systems under any load for as long as I want. Its only Kodi that appears to be hitting this stability issue.

Can anyone think of any bright ideas? While I have made some changes to my library since everything was stable for me, like I mentioned above, the problem appears to have nothing to do with my library as the freeze happens with a base install and nothing altered. I've even added a firewall rule on my router so the device can't reach the internet (in case it is randomly reaching out somewhere that is a problem) and it happens with/without this rule.

What else is there to eliminate? The versions of CoreElec and libreElec are the same versions that I was running months ago when these systems seemed to run just fine.

I also tried disabling HDMI-CEC (which some people claimed to have caused stability problems), no change.

I'm running out of ideas of how to narrow this problem further... Is there some sort of bootloader/firmware that might get automatically installed?

Many thanks for any Help!