Posts by chewitt

    There is no hardware deinterlace in any codec, forcing software deinterlace which is limited (else you hit the CPU limits). I've disabled support for MPEG2/MPEG4 hardware decoding in the latest images (as the hardware decoder is broken) which is why those 'work' now. However, ff those codecs and interlacing are important for your media; you aren't in the narrow band of users who should be using the AMLGX image. I have low expectations on progress because it's basically me solo supporting Amlogic these days, and I don't write driver code.

    Code
    touch /storage/.cache/services/sshd.conf
    systemctl start sshd
    connmanctl
    agent on
    services
    connect <service_string>
    (enter pw when prompted)

    Running ^ that sequence of commands form the textmode console should enable SSH, start it, then connect you to a WiFi network instead of Ethernet, although from logs it appears SSH is running (as it was forced) and the Ethernet NIC is up/active and assigned 192.2168.1.76. Make sure that you're using a current version of PuTTY as support for ciphers does change over time.

    Then, to have more info on why Kodi isn't working, create /storage/.kodi/userdata/advancedsettings.xml with the following content (to put Kodi into debug mode) then reboot and run "pastekodi" and share the URL:

    XML
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
    <advancedsettings version="1.0">
      <!-- enable debug logging -->
      <loglevel hide="false">1</loglevel>
    </advancedsettings>

    Then maybe we get some insights on the problem..

    If you add "textmode" to boot params in uEnv.ini the box boots to a text console instead of Kodi and you can attach/use a USB keyboard to run commands. To retrieve the logs, make the SD card read-write with "mount -o remount,fw /flash" and then dump the boot log content to /flash with "journalctl > /flash/journal.log" .. then connect the SD back to something you can retrieve and pastebin the log file from.

    AFAIK all the atheros USB chips are enabled in the kernel but we are probably missing the firmware, which should be obvious if you look in dmesg for the chip being probed. This might get it working: "mkdir -p /storage/.config/firmware && cd /storage/.config/firmware && wget https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/…plain/ar9271.fw && reboot"

    There is no driver code in-common between the Legacy image and AMLGX image so there is no value in making comparisons. It's like pointing at a Nissan car and a Ford car and saying .. "they're different" .. because they are.

    I'll add the investigation to my list, but these days Amlogic support is largely a one-man team (and I don't write driver code) so these things take time.

    The "reboot update" triggers recovery boot mode causing the SoC to search for boot scripts in the first partition on the SD card. The LE boot scripts are then found, which sets params in the vendor u-boot environment to use LE boot files and if you reach Kodi then everything has worked. To revert to CE you will need to trigger recovery boot mode again. In most cases that's done with the toothpick method, which (with SD card removed) will find their boot scripts and set boot params to use CE boot files. On most boxes (but it depends on what customisation was done in vendor u-boot) both OS are tweaking the same boot params to suit themselves which prevents a simple swap between OS(es) by removing the SD card.

    The ethmactool-config service creates a unique MAC address based on the CPU serial to avoid issues where vendor code sets the same MAC for all boxes (and users have more than one of the same box causing conflicts) or where the MAC was not set in the factory and changes on each boot. As long as you have a static MAC address "systemctl mask ethmactool-config" will disable the service on future boots and stop the message from showing up.

    Not sure about the blue tint, but as long as it doesn't happen on the TV it's not something I'll be interested in chasing. Vendor u-boot does a few weird things.

    NB: If the S805 image is AMLMX .. it is pre-Alpha state and is not even remotely supported.

    Code
    2023-02-05 01:29:18.397 T:1533    ERROR <general>: failed to initialize egl
    2023-02-05 01:29:18.397 T:1533  WARNING <general>: Visual 0x21 of the window is not suitable, looking for another one...
    2023-02-05 01:29:18.403 T:1533    ERROR <general>: GLX Error: vInfo is NULL!

    No idea what the cause of the problem is, but basically it fails to find an OpenGL surface to render the GUI onto and fails. As LE10 will receive no further fixes/changes now I'd start with a bump to LE11 beta 1 and see if that resolves things?

    The box is clearly booting and SSH is running if the connection is reset (if it wasn't, it would time out). If you remove "quiet" from boot params it will dump text onto the screen. It will scroll fast so the trick is to record a slow-motion vidio on a phone and as long as you have a steady hand you can watch it back slowly to see if you can spot something. Another option is to add "textmode" and it will boot to a local console session (Kodi is not started) and with a USB keyboard connected you can poke around (run "journalctl | paste" and share the URL).

    For kicks, create a new SD card from https://chewitt.libreelec.tv/testing/LibreE…95.1-box.img.gz as there are some minor fixes for things and a newer kernel.

    You can try booting the Tanix or Beelink 'box' devices on the Allwinner/H6 download page.

    LibreELEC is an appliance-like Linux. There are add-ons for most media-related things that users might want (other than piracy tools) but there is no package manager so you cannot just install things.

    You can experiement with Pulse audio to send audio over the network, but this generally sucks. There is no default/native option in the OS or Kodi to route audio to a UPnP target. Kodi can play from UPnP sources, but not 'cast' media to a UPnP target.