Posts by chewitt

  • First boot, stuck on boot screen

    The one other thing you can try is adding "textmode" to boot params. This boots the box to a text console (not Kodi) allowing you to poke around in the OS to look for problems using a USB keyboard. If the issue is still related to Kodi specifically it's not going to be seen (as Kodi isn't started) but... you might spot something.

    Otherwise I've no idea what the issue could be. I've installed AMLGX images on a couple of things using the same batch of files in my testing share earlier today and they all run without any major issues.

    To see more, we really need to see the systemd journal log and/or kodi.log to see what's causing the issue.

  • How to Scan for Muxes on LibreElec

    Both "dvbscan" and "w_scan" are included with the "DVB Tools" add-on in the LE repo. The description for the add-on only mentions w_scan but looking at the package sources we bundle everything in the dvb-apps package so the description needs fixing/updating:

    LibreELEC.tv/packages/addons/tools/dvb-tools/package.mk at master · LibreELEC/LibreELEC.tv
    Just enough OS for KODI. Contribute to LibreELEC/LibreELEC.tv development by creating an account on GitHub.
    github.com

  • Simple NAS

    IMHO if users want a NAS they're better off aiming for a lower-spec Synology box like DS223J which is purpose-built and easy to expand in the future to include a second drive for data redundancy. The cost difference vs. an RPi4 + PSU + Case really isn't so big and it'll be easier to use and maintain than a homebrew RPi device, and there's no rats-nest of cables and PSU's to deal with. If you do want to go down the RPi route look at OpenMediaVault or similar (NAS distro) unless you plan to use the other RPi for playback too.

  • 1920x1080 on Wetek Play 2 LE 11 OR 12

    Code
    mount -o remount,rw /flash
cp /flash/uEnv.ini /flash/uEnv.original
sed -i 's/quiet/quiet video=HDMI-A-1:1920x1080M@60/g' /flash/uEnv.ini
mount -o remount,ro /flash
reboot

    ^ That should force output to 1080p@60 .. or you'll get a black screen maybe /shrug

    Run "dmesg | paste" and "modetest | paste" first, and share the URLs.

  • First boot, stuck on boot screen

    Add "ssh" to boot params so the daemon is forced to start and then you can SSH into the box to look at (and share) dmesg and Kodi logs. The box doesn't hang at the boot splash, it's simply never overwritten with Kodi so remains visible.

    It's possible for bad cards to cause problems, but since the entire OS (kernel and userspace) are essentially in two compressed files; if the card media is damaged it generally results in nothing booting (not partial boot). If you have a spare card you're welcome to try another, and also experiment with https://chewitt.libreelec.tv/testing/LibreE…80.0-box.img.gz (LE12).

  • 1920x1080 on Wetek Play 2 LE 11 OR 12

    Upstream kernels rely on EDID data on the HDMI connection to determine the resolutions available. So one of the following applies:

    a) TV has bad EDID data

    b) TV has bad HDMI sockets

    b) HDMI cable has a problem

    c) WP2 box has an HDMI hardware problem

    The AMLGX image shows 1080p/4K resolutions fine on my WP2 box so I'm confident there's no software problem. You can try forcing the kernel DRM layer to output at 1080p with "video=HDMI-A-1:1920x1080M@60" in kernel boot params, but that's not a proper solution since you'll be forced to play everything at 60Hz (which doesn't give great results).

    To prove whether the box, TV, or cables are at fault .. connect it to another TV, use a different socket, HDMI cable, etc.

    NB: If the TV shows "DVI" I'd start with using a different HDMI socket.

  • Orange Pi Zero 2W

    Assuming H618 is a derivative of H616 (which is a reasonable assumption) the upstream kernel and u-boot need to gain support for the SoC before we can think about creating LE images for the board. Something can probably be done with downstream vendor sources, but that's for the Sunxi community to do; we have low/no interest in working with vendor sources.

  • Argon One Fan Control

    In the non-RPi world (Allwinner, Amlogic, Rockchip) the boards that need active cooling dut to SoC chips that run hotter tend to have thermal properties in device-tree which allows the kernal to control a pwm fan automatically; there are simple thermal ramps/steps or simple on/off mechanisms. In the RPi world things are generally done from userspace "because it's more tinker friendly" but IMHO it would be better for a case vendor like Argon to push a device-tree overlay into the RPi kernel sources (which are more receptive to such things than true upstream) so that users can enable similar thermal support at kernel level in the same way HAT devices are enabled. Then any distro being used by e.g. an Argon case user has nothing to do in userspace and it's a one-line cmdline.txt change kernel side. NB: The latest RPiOS (Bookworm) release is deprecating lots of hackier GPIO libs/methods in favour of upstream tooling that follows upstream standards. It will take a while for those changes to ripple through the Pi ecosystem, but it's some long-overdue spring cleaning that will help rationalise the number of ways things can be done from userspace and lead to better documentation and consistency. Of course, in forums you'll mostly just see users bitching that various tools have been thrown under the bus. Progress always entails ruffling a few feathers.

    To return to your request: it's one of those topics where the idea is simple but the technical implementation is far-from; due to the myriad of ways that box and board manufacturers 'could' implement fan support from userspace. The only consistent thing is, there's no consitency on how it's done. Thus creating a universal "simple" fan control app for LE is a mountain of work, and that's probably why nobody has ever leapt at the chance to create one. LE is staffed entirely by volunteers, and that means people inherently work on the fun things they enjoy or use themselves. AFAIK nobody on staff uses an Argon case, so there isn't much interest among staff to own support for those boxes. And that's another reason why the best people to implement a simple add-on for Argon cases is .. Argon.

  • DO NOT BUY list

    I'm going to stop/lock this thread on the simple principle that all forum threads I've ever seen that claim to list supported and unsupported hardware are instantly out of date and rarely maintained by the original user-with-grudge over time; thus ensuring the thread hangs around giving outdated bad advice to users for the rest of time. It's better to not have those threads and force people to ask fresh questions and get current answers.

    NB: Argon cases aren't particularly loved by the staff here as a result of the number of support issues we've seen, but users showing up with problems is the inherent purpose of a support forum; so our perspective is likely biased. Argon seem to sell their cases in large volumes so plenty of other users presumably aren't seeing issues and are happy with their purchases. And I have no idea what a "Desktop Pro" is, so I rather doubt that information is much use to anyone else either.

  • LibreELEC on RPi4 messed up after repeated loss of electricity

    Code
    systemctl stop kodi
mv /storage/.kodi /storage/.kodi-old
mkdir -p /storage/.kodi
cp -R /mnt/oldcard/STORAGE/.kodi/userdata /storage/.kodi/
systemctl start kodi

    ^ that will deliberately not import add-ons (which will need to be updated) but does get all their settings and any other userdata config so anything you've configured should restart using the pre-existing configuration. Databases will be updated on first restart, assuming they aren't corrupted (which is a possibility). If a file is corrupted and Kodi hangs you can "tail -f /storage/.kodi/temp/kodi.log" and see which DB file things hang on, then stop kodi, delete the offending DB file and then restart Kodi again and if there's an older/earlier DB file it will attempt to import that one instead. Art content like thumbs is best left to download again as the resulting cache is smaller and more efficient.