[User 252983]

Is this supposed to work when you use the Kodi desktop environment in Ubuntu 16.04?

When using the Ubuntu desktop environment it works ok (except Steam BPM seems to crash after exiting a game - different issue)

But when I use the Kodi desktop environment, I get the Error check kodi.log for details. To start it I have to disable the check for wmctrl option. After launching, Kodi exits as it should, BPM starts, and during the startup animation Kodi launches over the top of it again and crashes the system.

Appreciate any help,

-bry

[teeedubb]

First post has a section in it with the heading in bold font and labelled 'Linux users'. Read that.

[Steel99]

But launching games and emulators over xbmc has always give me problems - xbmc accepting controller inputs while games are playing, games/emulators having no sound, xbmc not getting focus on game exit and xbmc using a significant amount of cpu. Do you not get this problem?

I would try changing the second line in default.py to this

os.system('taskkill /f /IM XBMC.exe && timeout 1 && E:\Steam\steam.exe -bigpicture && timeout 1 && C:\path\to\XBMC.exe') to have xbmc killed, steam launched and when exited xbmc is relaunched.

Hi teeedubb,
this quote is from the first page of this thread and i have exactly these problems when launching programs.

I am desperately looking for an addon, that can start windows executables, exit kodi and restart it, after the executable is quit. In my special case i want to start Hyperspin (you should know it as author of hyper launcher) from Kodi. I have tried a lot the last days. Advanced Launcher and its successor Advanced Emulator Launcher, Rom Collection Browser .....and none works well. Sometimes i had no audio in Hyperspin, or i needed to switch to window mode in Kodi, then i did not get back focus after relaunching Kodi or got no "add to favorites" function and so on and on.....and of course Kodi needs resources, when running in background.

So my question is, can't i use the Steam Launcher with some modification to launch Hyperspin? But one thing i also need, is the possibility to add this to the kodi favorites, so that i can launch Hyperspin from kodi main menu.

Or maybe there is another solution?

I use Windows 7 and Kodi 16.1 as shell (instead of explorer) with Aeon MQ7 skin. By the way, exiting Kodi would be enough, because i think i could restart it from within Hyperspin (exit script)....

Thank you for an answer.

Steel99

[teeedubb]

Here you go... from when I used HS

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7lwer51fd7clce...r.zip?dl=0

You need to edit hslauncher.bat to suit your install paths.

[Steel99]

Thank you.

This gets me a step further.

But 2 things do not work:
First it does not start kodi after exiting Hyperspin....but this is not a real problem, cause i just configured HS to launch Kodi after exit.
So it worked well .....if i start kodi after booting to Windows Desktop.

Second one: As i said, i use Kodi as shell instead of explorer (done this with the tool Launch4Kodi). If i boot directly into Kodi, your script does not work and gives an error in Advanced Launcher.

Here is the relevant part of the kodi log:

Code:

12:22:20 T:3324   ERROR: XFILE::CDirectory::GetDirectory - Error getting
12:22:22 T:3844   ERROR: Previous line repeats 1 times.
12:22:22 T:3844   ERROR: EXCEPTION Thrown (PythonToCppException) : -->Python callback/script returned the following error<--
                                             - NOTE: IGNORING THIS CAN LEAD TO MEMORY LEAKS!
                                            Error Type: <type 'exceptions.KeyError'>
                                            Error Contents: ('727fad328cc3584e1caa2bc9fc2ede18',)
                                            Traceback (most recent call last):
                                              File "C:\Users\xbox\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\addons\plugin.program.advanced.launcher\addon.py", line 20, in <module>
                                                plugin.Main()
                                              File "C:\Users\xbox\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\addons\plugin.program.advanced.launcher\resources\lib\launcher_plugin.py", line 207, in __init__
                                                if (self.launchers[launcher]["rompath"] == ""):
                                            KeyError: ('727fad328cc3584e1caa2bc9fc2ede18',)
                                            -->End of Python script error report<--
12:22:22 T:2428   ERROR: PlayMedia could not play media: plugin://plugin.program.advanced.launcher/?default/727fad328cc3584e1caa2bc9fc2ede18

xbox is my windows user name ....chosen this after changeover from my old xbox

Maybe you can see something or maybe it can just not work without explorer....but i had launched HS also with advanced launcher without an error before.

[teeedubb]

The link I posted is a addon, it works independently of AL - Install the zip file in kodi and it will show up under programs. It works with without the explorer shell running, thats how I use kodi on windows. If youre running kodi via HS you need to remove the line in hslauncher.bat that launches kodi.

[Steel99]

I have everything done, as you said....and i just tested a little more. You are right, it has nothing to do with explorer shell, the problem is the favorites. If i start it from programs folder it works, if i start from main menu, the error occurs.
So i have to find out the problem ....i had used a favorite from AL before at same position and name, maybe there is some garbage left.

Thank you for your effort.

[Steel99]

ok..

The problem was the background image, the same i used before with AL. I changed it and then it worked. Then i restarted Kodi and replaced the image with the one before and it worked, too.

Next problem is, that i configured Launch4Kodi to start explorer shell on exit of Kodi. So when i use your addon, first explorer is launched and then HS. I don't like that.
I will try to modify your addon, so it will install with another name and will launch explorer. Then i will configure Launch4Kodi to not start explorer and i will start it, if needed, with the modified addon manually.
It's a little bit complicated, but hey

Edit:
Yeah, got it! ...It works great now. Thanks!

[bonniebear]

Hi, I'm trying Steam launcher from Kodi Linux 64-bit and whenever I attempt to do so it appears like nothing happens except Kodi goes out of fullscreen

Here's the log: http://paste.ubuntu.com/24639335/

[teeedubb]

Looks like you're​ pointing the add-on to the .desktop file and not the actual executable. Run

which steam

From the command line to find out where the executable is.

[Fletch2099]

Hi,

I found this topic looking for a solution to my problem that is slighly different so maybe someone knows how to do that:
I use kody to launch steam games and the overlay si way to small. I've augmented the font size but the perfect way would be to launch a game in big picture mode then close the bpm.
Well I try to find a solution for the first part, launch a game in bpm.
Tried some batch like:

@echo off
start steam://open/bigpicture
sleep 5
start steam://rungameid/xxx
exit
and it launched the game and not bpm.

The alternate solution would be to launch bpm as it's described here, but launch kodi to launch bpm to select a game to have the overlay in the correct size not worth it.

[snipah]

Hey teeedubb! Would it be possible to build another launcher for EmulationStation just like the one you made for Steam? There is one available (https://github.com/BrosMakingSoftware/Ko...tion-Addon), but it does not give the opportunity to quit Kodi before starting and restart Kodi after usage, which is very useful if you use Kodi's fullscreen mode. I need to use fullscreen mode, because otherwise Kodi crashes while changing the refresh-rate.
It would basically be the same addon, same functionality but just another executeable

[teeedubb]

I've posted a simpler add-on, which behaves like this add-on. It for Hyperspin, but it's easy to modify for another front-end.

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2153567

[snipah]

I've posted a simpler add-on, which behaves like this add-on. It for Hyperspin, but it's easy to modify for another front-end.

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2153567

Excellent! That worked great! Thanks a lot (although your link points to a dead dropbox-link, but I found the plugin anyway!)

[MarcelMAH]

I've posted a simpler add-on, which behaves like this add-on. It for Hyperspin, but it's easy to modify for another front-end.

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2153567

Hi,

I found that addon on GitHub and looked at the source but can't find a way to modify the program (exe) it starts (I'm not a programmer) ...

Would it be possible for you to create an addon where one can select the program (exe) from the settings menu and when started it will quit Kodi (just like Steam Launcher) and when the program quits it will start Kodi again.

I've been looking for existing addons already but all of them have had no updates since ages and a lot of problems, it would be nice if some developer steps in and fills in the gap and I think you have a working addon which (for you) can be easily adapted for this functionality.