[Oh wow]

I recently downloaded the rapier skin, however as soon as I saved the settings, I can no longer change back to the default skin, and can't access any settings menus. It is stuck on a page with videos, music, pictures, and programs on the left hand side and all I have is my Apple TV 2 remote. I am new to this stuff, and may have bit off more than I can chew. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Is there a way to get rid of the rapier skin using ssh?

Thanks!

[Gade]

Hi Oh wow.

That sounds very weird. Have you tried restarting XBMC/Kodi?

Can you access submenus and click them?

Do you see the Settings category in the home screen? What happens when you click it?

[Oh wow]

I can access the music, videos, pictures and programs tabs but nothing else. I can't go back a screen or anything. I think it has something to do with the atv2 remote not working properly with that skin.

That's why I am trying to get rid of the skin or at least try to edit settings and go back to confluence. I can't use the remote though which is where the problem lies... I have tried completely re-installing Kodi and every time I re-open it, the rapier skin loads and I am stuck on that page.

I am wondering if I should go get a Bluetooth mouse, so I actually have a cursor (hopefully) and can actually click on something other than the aforementioned options.

Thanks for responding. I appreciate any help you are able to offer.

[Gade]

The remote should work the same with all skins. And I bet that your problem has nothing to do with Rapier.

If you can enter the shutdown menu, try reloading the skin (that's most likely the button in the bottom) or restarting Kodi. You can maybe enter the shutdown menu by clicking the Power category in the home screen. Or by pressing the power button to the left of the top menu bar in most windows (programs, pictures, movies, videos, tv shows etc.).

Did the above do any difference?

Do you have access to the userdata folder? Then you can manually delete the skin.rapier folder.

I'm afraid I'm not very familiar with Apple TV, so I really someone else can help here.

[azuaro]

There are 2 options in this skin that can be the problem:
- KIOSK (Settings-General - first option)
- HIDE TOP OPTIONS MENU BAR (Settings-General - fourth option)

In any case, the problem is not the skin, it is how you set it up...

If you used HIDE CATEGORIES for excluding all other categories but the ones you are seeing, this will exclude everything except what you are seeing in the menu...

The menu bar (top of the screen) might still be present but hidden (displayable) if you used HIDE TOP OPTIONS BAR. ..

So...If you used Kiosk together with HIDE CATEGORIES and excluded the categories that will take you to skin settings, you can not do anything but uninstall and re-install because there is no way you can see something that you are telling the skin not to display.

If you used HIDE TOP OPTIONS MENU BAR and didn't use KIOSK, then you are in good shape....It will be a matter of going to the videos or movies screen and bring the cursor up to the top part of the screen just below the Kodi logo (the options menu bar is located there) and the menus will appear...Go to the very right to SETTINGS and this will take you to the skin options.

Note: If you can access settings, make sure you correct the option(s) that are causing your problem before leaving the settings menu...

For accessing the hidden top options bar you need to point the OPTIONS BAR with a cursor, so your best bet is to use a MOUSE...There might be a combination of keyboard keys that will open this bar but I am not familiar with them, maybe someone else knows better...

I hope this helps...

Regards,

azuaro

[Gade]

Hi azuaro.

Thanks so much for helping out here and for all of your suggestions - they are absolutely spot on!

So...If you used Kiosk together with HIDE CATEGORIES and excluded the categories that will take you to skin settings, you can not do anything but uninstall and re-install because there is no way you can see something that you are telling the skin not to display.

Actually, if you hide the Settings category, a Settings button and a Skin Settings button will appear in the Shutdown Menu. If you hide the Power category, a Power submenu will appear in the Settings Category.

For accessing the hidden top options bar you need to point the OPTIONS BAR with a cursor, so your best bet is to use a MOUSE...There might be a combination of keyboard keys that will open this bar but I am not familiar with them, maybe someone else knows better...

Clicking LEFT with a keyboard/remote from most lists in libraries takes you to the top options menubar. In other views you have to press UP or RIGHT.

Cheers
Gade

[azuaro]

Hi Glad:

Thank yo so much for these tips...Very useful and good advice...

Going back to the problem "Oh Wow" has...
If he hid everything from the HOME PAGE but VIDEOS, MUSIC, PICTURES AND PROGRAMS and he used the KIOSK option, I suppose that he will only be able to go from HOME back and forth to only these categories mentioned above without seeing POWER buttons in any of those categories and neither on his HOME PAGE...

So let's assume that he goes to VIDEOS...Since KIOSK hides the top options bar which hides every menu (including POWER) and only leaves the HOME button available, then I suppose that he would have no other option but going back and forth from HOME to VIDEOS, MUSIC, PICTURES and PROGRAMS...Everything else is hidden and he would not find POWER buttons in any of those pages....

So my question for you or anyone who knows better about these issues:
Is there a keyboard/remote combination or a way for opening the POWER button so he can access settings while the skin is locked with the KIOSK option for correcting the problem or for actually quitting Kody?

I know that there has to be a way of editing the settings file directly at: C:\Program Files (x86)\Kodi\system\settings ...Doing this will make the hidden menus reappear upon restarting Kodi but I am not proficient at editing or know where the files are located...In my case I would have to start from scratch and uninstall and re-install, editing would be faster and much simpler if you know how to do it.

Any advice from you or anyone who is proficient on how to edit menus directly from C: in order to resolve these kinds of "self inflicted traps" will be very illustrating for us newbies

Thanking you once again for your time and advice please receive my best regards,

azuaro

[Gade]

Hi azuaro.

Is there a keyboard/remote combination or a way for opening the POWER button so he can access settings while the skin is locked with the KIOSK option for correcting the problem or for actually quitting Kody?

"S" on a keyboard brings up the Shutdown Menu, which would in the above situation have a button for Settings, Skin Settings etc.

Look here for a list of all keyboard controls.

I know that there has to be a way of editing the settings file directly at: C:\Program Files (x86)\Kodi\system\settings ...Doing this will make the hidden menus reappear upon restarting Kodi but I am not proficient at editing or know where the files are located...In my case I would have to start from scratch and uninstall and re-install, editing would be faster and much simpler if you know how to do it.

Any advice from you or anyone who is proficient on how to edit menus directly from C: in order to resolve these kinds of "self inflicted traps" will be very illustrating for us newbies

You can manually edit the skin settings in the guisettings.xml file in the userdata folder, which is where all skin settings are stored. For Rapier, look for settings named <setting type="bool" name="skin.rapier.XXX">XXX</setting>

Just ask away! I'm glad to help

[access2sumit]

I am having the same problem. I installed xbmc in my amazon fire tv it was working fine but when i changed my xbmc skin it no longer gives me option to go to settings.please let me know how to delete the skin and default to something else.

[azuaro]

Hi Gade:

Thank you !...I will be loading Rapier in a scrap Lap Top to play with the skin settings and other...

The skin itself NEEDS NOTHING on my end but it is always fun to learn the boundaries/ limits of how things work from experimenting...

If I may ask another question:
Is this guisettings xml file where I would find the settings for defaulting the HOME page in Rapier?...I am thinking in setting another old PC to be used by our kids in VIDEOS or MOVIES so we can control what they watch...I want Kodi to land in Rapier/Videos (or Movies) by default.

I want to thank you for your generosity and time in helping all of us in this forum, hopefully we can correspond one day...

Regards...

azuaro

[Gade]

I am having the same problem. I installed xbmc in my amazon fire tv it was working fine but when i changed my xbmc skin it no longer gives me option to go to settings.please let me know how to delete the skin and default to something else.

Hi access2sumit.

No need to post the same issue twice in the forums. I will give the same answer here that I wrote in the official Rapier for Kodi thread.

I need a little more info than that.

Which version of XBMC/Kodi do you use and which version of the skin?

Have you changed anything in the skin settings? Or have you tried anything mentioned in the previous posts?

Do you have a settings and a skin settings button in the Shutdown Menu (pressing "S")?

In Videos, Music, Pictures and Programs you have a top options menubar. If it is hidden, you can press left from most views and that will get you to it (in some views you have to press up). In this menubar, you have a power button to the left and this will bring up the Shutdown Menu. To the right in most views is a settings button.

Another thing you can do is delete your guisettings.xml file. This will reset the skin settings, but this will also reset all other settings - so be careful doing this. The guisettings.xml file can be found in your userdata folder.

[Gade]

Hi azuaro.

I agree that it is always fun learning how things work, and with Rapier you can customize almost anything. You should also look in the View Options dialog for each view. This can be found in the top options menubar and has a lot of extra customization for views.

Is this guisettings xml file where I would find the settings for defaulting the HOME page in Rapier?...I am thinking in setting another old PC to be used by our kids in VIDEOS or MOVIES so we can control what they watch...I want Kodi to land in Rapier/Videos (or Movies) by default.

Good idea with a seperate PC for the kids. You can also use the same computer and create a new profile for your kids. That profile gets its own settings, skin settings, library (if you wish) etc, and you can put a password on settings, video libraries etc. This is very powerful

Read about profiles here.

For bypassing the home screen and let XBMC/Kodi start directly in Videos or something like that, go to Settings -> Appearance -> Skin -> Startup window.