2015-04-10, 23:11
Kodi "master" is now based on Isengard, or Kodi 15. See this thread for Kodi 14 (Helix) testbuilds. For previous Kodi 15 builds, see here.
** Kodi "master" is now Kodi 16.0 alpha1 - see the Kodi 16 thread for new builds. **
Fair Warning
Kodi 15 is currently "RC1". and there is likely to be a lot of activity in the coming weeks. There will be breakage.
Many of the newclock4 commits that have been tested over the past few months are now in helix_rbp_backports and should appear in official OpenELEC builds, so if you favour stability then stick with the official builds.
I will continue with periodic build releases based on master and whatever popcornmix throws our way. Fingers crossed the generally pretty good review procedures and change management will keep problems to a minimum. Your continued feedback and testing is appreciated.
Skin Usage
By all means use third party skins with these builds (if the skins are compatible), but please do not report problems that cannot be reproduced while using the stock Confluence skin that is included with every build.
If a problem is not reproducible with stock Confluence then it's most likely to be a third-party skin problem, in which case contact the skin maintainer.
Installing
You need a working system in order to install a test build. If you are starting from scratch, use an official OpenELEC disk image to create a working system on your SD card. Once you have a working system, install the test build by copying the tar file into your Update folder and reboot.
Recent builds (see next post for older builds):
Feature Requests:
I will not be adding extra add-hoc packages to these builds as that is not their purpose, which is to help test bug fixes and enhancements for existing features/packages/drivers in stock OpenELEC. New functionality may be included for testing purposes if it is considered both beneficial and highly likely to be merged upstream in the near future, and is available as a github pull request or commit.
I have no desire to create builds with unique features upon which someone becomes dependent, as this benefits nobody in the long term not even those using the unique features once I stop creating new builds. In theory, when I stop creating new builds you should all be able to seamlessly switch back to official OpenELEC builds which by then should be including most if not all of the enhancements originally tested in these builds.
If you care about long term support for your favourite package, feature or driver and want to see it included in an OpenELEC build, contact the OpenELEC developers on github and open an issue requesting the addition of support in the base OpenELEC build (or better yet, create a Pull Request with patch). That way everyone building or using an OpenELEC derived system "wins".
Additional Testing Notes:
** Kodi "master" is now Kodi 16.0 alpha1 - see the Kodi 16 thread for new builds. **
Fair Warning
Kodi 15 is currently "RC1". and there is likely to be a lot of activity in the coming weeks. There will be breakage.
Many of the newclock4 commits that have been tested over the past few months are now in helix_rbp_backports and should appear in official OpenELEC builds, so if you favour stability then stick with the official builds.
I will continue with periodic build releases based on master and whatever popcornmix throws our way. Fingers crossed the generally pretty good review procedures and change management will keep problems to a minimum. Your continued feedback and testing is appreciated.
Skin Usage
By all means use third party skins with these builds (if the skins are compatible), but please do not report problems that cannot be reproduced while using the stock Confluence skin that is included with every build.
If a problem is not reproducible with stock Confluence then it's most likely to be a third-party skin problem, in which case contact the skin maintainer.
Installing
You need a working system in order to install a test build. If you are starting from scratch, use an official OpenELEC disk image to create a working system on your SD card. Once you have a working system, install the test build by copying the tar file into your Update folder and reboot.
Recent builds (see next post for older builds):
- #0701, 01-Jul-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Bump libplatform; fix for GetDriveSpace() crash)
- #0630, 30-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New firmware; include fix for distorted OpenELEC splash images; updates for libcec)
- #0629, 29-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Fix for PVR addon language commits; fix SMS handling)
- #0628, 28-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Potential fix for PVR channgel group related crash; switch PVR addons to language resources)
- #0627, 27-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Fix for sdhost driver/overclock issue)
- #0626, 26-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New firmware; add the Raspberry Pi firmware driver; testing: HW mouse pointer)
- #0625, 25-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Potentially improved database access through string key reuse)
- #0624, 24-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Updated libnfs - drop streaming cache patch)
- #0623, 23-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New firmware; flip default of prefer pts timestamps)
- #0622, 22-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New firmware and newclock4 updates with 3D detection fixes; kernel 4.1)
- #0621, 21-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Use upstream scissor fix PR7293, with correction for vertically oriented text)
- #0620, 20-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New firmware)
- #0619, 19-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (No fix yet for Hifiberry-Digi; bump pvr.hts; updated sdhost driver)
- #0618, 18-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New kernel 4.1.0-rc8)
- #0617, 17-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New firmware; FontTTF scissor fix)
- #0616, 16-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Enable io_is_busy for sdhost driver by default; optimise CPU frequency scaling)
- #0615, 15-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Updated pvr.vbox; fix subs in archives)
- #0614, 14-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Kodi 15.0 rc1; fix for positioning of subtitles; bump audiodecoder and pvr add-ons)
- #0613, 13-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Fix for videodb scraping issues)
- #0612, 12-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Various PVR/EPG updates)
- #0611, 11-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New v93 videodb schema)
- #0610, 10-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New firmware, with fix for 3D zoom, and emmc clock issue; improve PVR EPG startup performance)
- #0609, 09-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Bump rtl8192du)
- #0608, 08-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Various upstream commits tested in previous builds)
- #0607, 08-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New firmware; new kernel 4.0.5; bump pvr.mythtv addon to 2.2.1; make it possible to use multiple PVR clients)
- #0606, 06-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (ffmpeg warp point fix; ignore pts value when m_hints.ptsinvalid set; libcec python wrapper; fix JSON filter)
- #0605, 05-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Various updates)
- #0604, 04-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Fix for tiled hevc videos)
- #0603, 03-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (HEVC Update)
- #0602, 02-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Fix crash in PVR::CPVRClient::GetDriveSpace; HEVC updates - should reduce 1080p judder)
- #0601, 01-Jun-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Fix for language dialog issue)
- #0531, 31-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New firmware; ShaderToy screensaver and visualisation are now installable addons)
- #0530, 30-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New firmware; build SPI support as modules)
- #0529, 29-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Fix for subtitle font corruption)
- #0528, 28-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (NEON SAO HEVC optimisations; libarmmem-a7 on RPi2)
- #0527, 27-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Add luma prediction on QPUs; replace separate screensavers with ShaderToy screensaver, add new ones)
- #0526, 26-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (BD Bookmark change)
- #0525, 25-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Add "Prefer PTS timestamps" GUI option)
- #0524, 24-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Various small changes)
- #0523c, 24-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New firmware; improved hevc acceleration; #0523c: Fix build)
- #0522, 22-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Fix cachemembuffersize initialisation; MVC and 3D support updates)
- #0521, 21-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Shadertoy improvements; temporarily add logging/core dump capability to kodi-splash.sh)
- #0520, 20-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (RTL8188EU updated)
- #0519, 19-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New kernel 4.0.4; bump ffmpeg 2.6.3)
- #0518, 18-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New firmware; h265: add support for weighted prediction in P frames)
- #0517, 17-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New kernel 4.0.3; string/language cosmetics)
- #0516, 16-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Update libplatform; latest librtmp/KSV patches)
- #0515, 15-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New mmc and sdhost overclock options)
- #0514, 15-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (HEVC optimisations)
- #0513, 13-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New firmware)
- #0512, 12-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New Shadertoy visualization; enable the mailbox driver kernel option)
- #0511, 11-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New kernel 4.0.2; bump libbluray to 0.8.0; no longer include audiodecoder, audioencoder and visualization addons)
- #0510, 11-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (libCEC change merged upstream)
- #0509, 09-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (curl certificate fix; audiodecoders library fix; libbluray 0.8.0; AirPlay/AirTunes/libshairplay updates)
- #0508, 08-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Move DTS HD 8 channel support option to System -> Audio output, and make dependent on Passthrough)
- #0507, 07-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (newclock4: include CEC repeating keypress commits)
- #0506, 06-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (sdhost driver support added in OpenELEC; dcadec updates; two more GLES screensavers)
- #0505, 06-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Move to libCEC 3.0.0; build PVR addons with kodi-platform/platform; fix for cachemembuffersize and multiple profiles)
- #0504, 04-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Revert libCEC 3.0.0 bump - not ready for this yet; include videodb fix to help with v90 migration)
- #0503, 03-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Build upstream dcadec (DTS HD) as shared, fix performance issues; bump libressl & libcurl - new addons required)
- #0502, 02-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (Fix RPi1 kernel warnings/performance regression with default [old] SD driver)
- #0501, 01-May-2015: RPi / RPi2 -- Release post (New firmware.; new kernel 4.0.1; kodi 15.0 beta2; mmc fixes in 4.0.y; new experimental SD card driver)
Feature Requests:
I will not be adding extra add-hoc packages to these builds as that is not their purpose, which is to help test bug fixes and enhancements for existing features/packages/drivers in stock OpenELEC. New functionality may be included for testing purposes if it is considered both beneficial and highly likely to be merged upstream in the near future, and is available as a github pull request or commit.
I have no desire to create builds with unique features upon which someone becomes dependent, as this benefits nobody in the long term not even those using the unique features once I stop creating new builds. In theory, when I stop creating new builds you should all be able to seamlessly switch back to official OpenELEC builds which by then should be including most if not all of the enhancements originally tested in these builds.
If you care about long term support for your favourite package, feature or driver and want to see it included in an OpenELEC build, contact the OpenELEC developers on github and open an issue requesting the addition of support in the base OpenELEC build (or better yet, create a Pull Request with patch). That way everyone building or using an OpenELEC derived system "wins".
Additional Testing Notes:
- Build references
When reporting issues, refer to builds using only the published build codes, ie. #0215, #0216 etc. The build code is visible on the boot screen, and by typing "lsb_release".
Do NOT use any other reference, as these are often meaningless. For instance, the OpenELEC github revision identifier, 20272, 20281 etc. can be used by more than one build if nothing changes in OpenELEC between successive builds meaning such references could identify multiple builds, rendering it useless as a unique reference.
Anyone using the wrong reference will be ignored by me, possibly others, as I'm just not interested in working out which build you may or may not be referring to.
- Usage information
Starting with build #0529, very limited usage information will be collected during the first boot of each newly installed build. The information collected is: build#, Pi memory size (256MB, 512MB or 1008MB) and maximum ARM frequency. No IP or personal information is collected!
If you wish to opt out of data collection, run the following command:
The purpose of this data collection is really just to get an idea of how much testing is being carried out and on what hardware, and would otherwise be achieved via non-opt out server logs if such logs were available (which they're not).Code:touch /storage/.config/milhouse.dnt
- Migrating OpenELEC from Pi1 to Pi2, and back again
Note: Prior to migration I would recommend disabling all overclocks, as a Pi1 overclock may not work successfully on a Pi2, and vice versa.
From Pi1 to Pi2: While using the Pi1, upgrade with the RPi2 tar. Once the upgrade is complete, the system will reboot to a rainbow boot screen (as you're now booting the ARMv7 kernel). Shutdown (pull the power) and transfer the SD card into your Pi2, which will boot normally.
From Pi2 to Pi1: While using the Pi2, upgrade with the RPi tar. Once the upgrade is complete, the system will reboot to a rainbow boot screen (as you're now using the ARMv6 kernel). Shutdown (pull the power) and transfer the SD card into your Pi1, which will boot normally.
- Builds since early Dec 2014 include crashlog support
In the event of a crash, the file /storage/.kodi/temp/kodi_crashlog will be created. Upload this file to a paste site and post details on the forum.
Debug builds are occasionally uploaded to the debug folder. Debug builds will usually include more detailed crashlog information, but require a larger System partition (at least 384MB) and more RAM (reduce gpu_mem to 128 or as low as you can live with while still able to reproduce the problem).
- Odds and sods
