I have read that some hardware/software combinations can have SMB hiccups. Personally I've used NFS in my network for almost 10 years now running XBMC/OpenELEC/LibreELEC/Kodi, and I never had to create any buffer settings in the advancedsettings.xml file...
Why SMB can be such a PITA, I don't know. But you could try NFS instead and see if that protocol works better for you.
Which image writing tool have you used, and which exact SD card?
what files or directories should I copy onto the new card from the old, in order to recover the setup (database, settings, sources etc).
All root files in the userdata folder, the Database folder, possibly the keymap folder, and the Thumbnails folder.
For add-ons, copy the ./kodi/addons folder as well as the userdata/addon_data folder.
You'll need to re-enable all add-ons one by one after that.
don't even have the option to upgrade in the GUI
Update options can be found in the LibreELEC Settings add-on, not in the main Kodi GUI.
Libreelec on Pi model 3b
Yes, SDcards are still not my favourite storage solution. They don't have TRIM support like SSDs do.
An alternative would be to use the RPi3 capability of USB booting. Then you can use an USB stick or even an external SSD drive (via USB), and have LibreELEC run that way. Doing backups is still very much recommended no matter which option you choose.
Any way of recovery other than full re-install and re-setup?
It depends on the extend of the disk damage. You could try to have a Linux machine ready (or even an Android box if you're handy), and have the machine mount the SD card with its EXT4 storage partition. Then you can see which files you can copy to a safe location.
Whenever I start a stream from any repo, kodi will reboot.
Da main problem here is your 'streams'. Kodi and LibreELEC have the policy not to support any type of add-on that facilitates media piracy.
So you can either remove all such repositories and add-ons, and see if your generic problems still occur, or you can find your support at those locations where you downloaded your repositories from.
The RPi devices have built-in CEC support, so any decent/recent TV set should support it, so just use the TV's own remote, no other remote is required.
For the price of a discrete PC graphics card, you can also buy for example a Raspberry Pi 4 2GB set.
And have a quiter and cheaper (less power-hungry) HTPC experience.
You could look at the GT1030 Nvidia card, but Nvidia support will stop with LibreELEC v10.
Alternatively you could run Ubuntu Linux 20.04 (and up), but support for 10bit video in Linux for Nvidia in Kodi is still not availabe.
Windows 10 could be a solution, but seeing your old hardware I don't think that will be a wise decision.
That is the preferred method, as a user's circumstances can still vary.
But now that you already started here, we might as well continue here.
Have you also tried Milhouse's nightly build over on the Kodi forum?
Perhaps the outcome is different.
Just checked my RPi4 4GB and 9.2.3.
It connects to "TV", and the message box ends after a few seconds.
It's basically a new install: installed the test version 9.2.3 and then upgraded to the final 9.2.3 version.
I didn't and don't have a persistent CEC message box.
I'll have a check with my RPi4-4, but I don't recall any hanging CEC message boxes.
Perhaps your TV is a bit clingy? If possible, try your RPi on a different TV (friend, neighbor..)
I just counted several messages from the author of the topic, to which no one answered for the whole year.
The opening poster started with having a shitload of piracy add-ons on his Kodi setup.
That is never a good begin/moment to ask support for.
After that he ultimately moved on to a RPi3, which no long had the troubles.
For all I know, he could have thrown the RPi2 into a garbage bin.
Hijacking an outdated topic with your own RPi3 troubles is not recommended.
It's better to create your own new forum thread.
Ran a scan and now the second box has all thumbs.
What you could do is scan the initial Kodi client, and cache as many as thumbs as possible.
Then copy the userdata/Database/Textures13.db file as well as the userdata/Thumbnails folder to all other connected Kodi clients. That way the other clients will not need to download all the art by themselves. From that point on, only new entries will be retrieved by internet by each client.
Hey! Is this really a tech support forum?
No, this website all is just a cover up for a shoarma and kebab sandwich shop.
Don't piss off the volunteering people who could help you. Things might backfire on you.
And to be clear, we have no obligation to respond within a certain time limit.
We are also not a commercial company with 9-5 working hours.
"Hey!" is also not the term we normally respond to.
Just to make sure... Are you using a Pulse-Eight USB-CEC adapter?
Because the RPi's do not need one.
Do you also have a PC connected to your TV with a Pulse-Eight USB-CEC adapter at the same time?
Also provide a full debug-enabled kodi.log file, just in case.
There are both 32bit boxes with Intel graphics only, and 64bit boxes with an Nvidia GPU.
From here, I cannot tell which one OP's box is.
Any idea on how to disable it ?
Not for now. You are also posting in the News section of the forum.
For support questions, create your own thread.
Include a debug log while you're at it.
Indeed. Patience, grasshopper.
