Kodi Community Forum

My wish is that kodi could be more backward compliant. Perhaps a low res version. I also use a crt display so SD is fine with me.

most people run Kodi on linux and linux is run on old pc's. I was told that the whole point of linux is to save old pc's from ending up in a landfill. If you need state of the art equipment to run Kodi then why even bother with linux? One could simply use Windows with kodi and their life would be a lot simpler. Now before you ask how is their life simpler by using a Microsoft product, which btw seems to be the arch enemy of linux, well with linux it is a pain in the butt to have to use the terminal and sudo this or su that, yes I have used linux and quite extensively. I have in fact used many different distros as well as MS windows, and contrary to linux advocates, Windows works right out of the box whereas linux, not so much. Linux takes a bit of a learning curve and installing it can be problematic.

I am so surprised to see so many linux advocates here and on other forums complaining and downright being rather rude to those who are using older hardware. You have to realize that not everyone has the money to get a state of the art system. I use Windows xp and I know it is old but when the choice comes down to: do I use my money, what little I have of it, for food or to get a state of the art computer to make those linux guys happy on the forums, well, I'm going to choose food. So you see there is an excuse for using old Windows operating systems and old hardware. It is called poverty. So I think tech people should understand and if they want everyone to have a state of the art system, maybe they should start giving them out for free to those who have to make hard decisions in life like should I eat today or upgrade my pc? Nine times out of ten I choose to eat so condemn me if you want for using a 12 year old OS but it's not like I have any choice.

I would love to have a 64 bit system with a quad core and water cooled but then I can't pay my rent and I don't want to live on the street again. I'm not trying to say I'm some kind of hero for using an old system as my primary pc but what I am saying is that I have an excuse for using 12 year old tech. I don't have much choice at the moment. Can someone buy a system for me that can run Kodi? No I guess that is too much to ask, but I don't think it is too much to ask for a little understanding and maybe just a tiny bit of compassion and sympathy. Not just for me but for everyone out there who is struggling to get by and dare say want a little entertainment to take their depression away even for just a little while. Thank you.

I also wanted to add that it is possible to own tech and be homeless. I was living out of my car for awhile but got enough money from disability to have a storage unit where I stored among other things: my dual core machine with win Xp and a dual core laptop with vista but I later installed win 7. Not all homeless are the stereotypical kind that have long beards, smell like poo poo, and wear dirty clothes, pawn all their belongings for drugs or alcohol, and are raving lunatics. On the contrary, I was laid off, developed depression and couldn't rent an apartment since they are too expensive so I lived out of my car. Right now I managed to find a place I could afford but most of my money goes to rent. There will be no upgrades in the near future so it's either use what I have and find a way to make it work or suicide. Sometimes suicide does seem appealing but I choose to find a way to work with what I have.

Thank you.

tl;dr

Last I checked, OpenELEC is designed with older system like yours in mind.

Someone has been working on a 480 version of the default skin Confluence: https://github.com/YggdrasiI/skin.confluence.480

Moved to feature request

...what?

"Linux" is a catch-all term for anything that is linux based. Some of it is command line. Some of it never uses the command line. Most operating systems based on linux are not aimed at running Kodi, so it's no surprise if most of the "linux" you used was a PITA. Some distributions require newer hardware because that hardware is what is supported for drivers. Some don't. I think there are some people who are rocking Ion hardware even today. Most likely, there is a kodi-centric OS that is linux-based and will work really well on the hardware you already have.

Kodi also runs on Raspberry Pi hardware that is as cheap as $5 USD. All of the ARM development (iOS, Android, Linux/ARM) was to allow dirt cheap hardware that can run Kodi.

Worst case scenario, don't use Kodi. Use VLC or whatever, or use an older version of Kodi/XBMC. One of the main goals for Kodi is to be an interface for people with home theaters, so you can control a nice interface with a remote control. If you don't even have a home, let alone a home theater set up, why does it matter? I've known people who are poor or homeless or drifting by, and they were very tech savvy. They just lived within their means, and didn't bitch about not having a 10-foot user interface for their video player. VLC or Mplayer are not that bad.

I'm sorry to hear that you're having a hard time, but honestly, why do you have to upgrade to a newer Kodi version if you would like to keep using XP? Your old hardware very likely won't benefit from the newer Kodi features, so simplest solution would be to just stick to the last available Version for XP. If it aint broken, don't fix or replace it.

If the only purpose of your HTPC is to run Kodi, then you could also think about installing OpenElec on it. You don't need any bash foo for it. You can even boot it from USB stick in order to give it a try on how it's running on your hardware.

But, if money is of concern for you, it might be an idea to switch away from your HTPC and use a cheap ARM device as replacement, as these also consume a lot less power and keep your electrical bill down a bit. If this is relevant to you depends on the power consumption of your current hardware and how long a day you have it running ofc.

Hi everyone,

Thank you for taking the time to reply and all the very helpful suggestions. One thing I should have mentioned in my post was that the pc I wanted to run linux and Kodi on was my pentium 4 machine that someone got rid of and i put a slimmed down version of win xp on it. I then put kodi on that and used the Windows 32 bit version which worked! The P4 machine is dedicated to being my media server or HTPC. I watched a whole season of the man in the high castle which is an Amazon series. I would use the links for the SD versions instead of the HD version and it worked great! It would stream with no hiccups. Then I got to thinking that it could be faster and less chance of a crash if I could get a lighter OS to run with Kodi so I searched on the web using my dual core and found kodibuntu but it wouldn't work on the P4. The os is basically lubuntu stripped down with Kodi. It would have been cool if it would of worked. The problem lies with the video drivers. I found a work around with mesa_something_something that you add to a script in usr/bin/xbmc but it didn't work for me.

Then I found openelec and it sounded perfect, but same problem as before: Kodi would start then crash. I think it is the video card which is on-board video Intel 82865g graphics controller. It was at some forum when I was researching the problem of Kodi crashing after barely starting, that I read nasty comments like: get a pc made in this century and that there is no excuse to be using old hardware or os's and so forth. It's true that the P4 was made in the last century but it works well with a small os. I really wanted openelec but Kodi would not even startup. So I figured that either I have to find some other video card for the P4 which would have to be off eBay since the age of the pc or I use my dual core for kodi but I like to work on my dual core while watching something on my P4. I do some video editting and pc repair from time to time so I use the dual core for that. I doubt the P4 could handle video editing. There are times I have to wait in between edits for the dual core to catch up.

So I guess I might put the small version of xp back in and use the older version of Kodi, at least it worked. I use a crt tv with a device called pc to tv and it allows me to use the set as a monitor or tv. I know, I am really old school.

(2016-03-05, 15:03)Semperfisuperfly Wrote: [ -> ]. I watched a whole season of the man in the high castle which is an Amazon series. I would use the links for the SD versions instead of the HD version and it worked great! It would stream with no hiccups.

This sounds suspiciously like you are using 3rd party piracy add-ons with Kodi. This of course is totally up to you be please be aware of the forum rules when you post. We do not allow the discussion or support of anything piracy related.


http://kodi.wiki/view/Official:Forum_rul...acy_Policy


http://kodi.wiki/view/Official:Forum_rul...ed_add-ons

I've got Kodi Jarvis running on a minimal Ubuntu install with a Pentium 4 Dual core, 1 Gb ram and 80Gb HDD. The hardware is at least 8 years old. Kodi runs absolutely fine. The only newish bit of kit in the box is an Nvidia half height GT 610, but any Nvidia card you can get into your mobo will be an improvement on the onboard intel rubbish.