I just picked up an Alienware Alpha on the cheap mainly for my son and I to play games use the web etc but I'd like to load Kodi on it as well. I have a Chromebox now running Kodi flawlessly, it's been great for us. I haven't seen much information on running Kodi on the Alpha, anyone here using one? Any issues I should be aware of?
Thanks!
I'd be careful installing Kodi on it as it's actually Kodi underneath the current Interface iirc. If you would install Kodi it could wipe the AW interface.
Since no one of us has one we don't really know.
Alienware Alpha primarily comes with WIndows 8.1 and not Steam OS. I am going to suggest, if its a Windows machine, you should be fine installing Kodi on it.
If its Steam OS, I actually played around with it on my old Gateway Desktop and installed Linux port of Kodi on it and I did not have any issues. Then again I did not really test it with high bit rate files and what not.
(2015-05-18, 23:15)onizuka Wrote: [ -> ]Kodi underneath wha?
Dell uses Kodi as a game launcher (or something like that) for Alienware Alpha. Really. Weird, huh? :)
I wonder any issues/conflicts could be avoided if the "real" Kodi (i.e. downloaded from kodi.tv) was installed in a different folder than the default folder - which is where presumably Dell installed "their" version of Kodi/AW launcher?
-Topper
(2015-05-19, 18:17)topperdude Wrote: [ -> ]I wonder any issues/conflicts could be avoided if the "real" Kodi (i.e. downloaded from kodi.tv) was installed in a different folder than the default folder - which is where presumably Dell installed "their" version of Kodi/AW launcher?
-Topper
You would still have userdata that could "fight" each other.
Running Kodi in portable mode could work i guess
I also wonder if using profiles would work. You could load a profile based on a keypress or a controller button, and then that profile could have its own skin and such.
(2015-05-20, 01:24)Ned Scott Wrote: [ -> ]I also wonder if using profiles would work. You could load a profile based on a keypress or a controller button, and then that profile could have its own skin and such.
I don't think that would work. Issue is, from my understanding, that their version is already using a portable mode to deal with how they're doing python (I don't understand it at all), so any normal install of Kodi screws up where Kodi is pointing, resulting in all the AW stuff appearing to disappear. It's a BIG problem for them.
to everyone: They're offering to give us some hardware to look at it, but that hasn't happened yet. Once it does, and once the issue gets figured out, the Alpha would easily be the single best all-in-one gaming machine to run Kodi on.
That doesn't make any sense to me, if their launcher version of Kodi indeed runs portable mode then installing another version of Kodi should be perfectly possible, the biggest problem I foresee is that if the launcher is a permanent overlay on Windows you will run into the problem of not being able to run more than one Kodi instance. unless they have done the hack to allow this. Although if their version of Kodi is just a different skin which points to python scripts then it maybe possible to edit the xml's to be able to switch to Confluence or any other skin and get access to the the underlying Kodi.
But until someone with some know how gets access to one then it's all speculation.
It sounds like I should hold off on installing Kodi then?
depends on how comfortable you are to reinstall the system in case of problems
I went ahead and installed it and so far so good (knock on wood). It's been working great, no issues to report so far. I have to say this Alpha is pretty slick. Hopefully it gets in the hands of the right people so they can work any potential issues.
can anyone please tell my if there is a alienware build I can use on kodi