[sirmedia]

FireTV 4K Max stick (1st gen)
Kodi 21.1 Omega (sideloaded kodi-21.1-Omega-armeabi-v7a.apk)

More often than not, when I try to start Kodi it gets stuck on a black screen. I tried to exit Kodi gracefully before, or just press the Home button on the remote when done using it so that FireOS doesn't just kill it in the background, but nothing helps, I still end up with the black screen on start.

The workaround for now is to force close Kodi, clear cache (not sure if needed) and then it almost always starts up, though I've seen cases where even that doesn't help, but a reboot helps.

Kodi also gets in this state where the "OK" button on the remote just doesn't do anything in Kodi though it's functional outside of it in the FireOS settings or other apps.

Are these known issues on the FireTV stick or just a "me problem"?

[izprtxqkft]

Are these known issues on the FireTV stick or just a "me problem"?

not just a you problem

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=372331

[sirmedia]

Any workarounds? I see in the other thread the recommendation to gracefully exit Kodi via its menu, which I do already, and it doesn't help

[izprtxqkft]

Any workarounds? I see in the other thread the recommendation to gracefully exit Kodi via its menu, which I do already, and it doesn't help

not that i am aware of, other than the one i left in the other thread to skip the splash on startup

you might investigate if kodi actually exits or gets hung up on an addon or some such where it won't exit cleanly

[sirmedia]

you might investigate if kodi actually exits or gets hung up on an addon or some such where it won't exit cleanly

How can I tell? I don't install any 3rd party addons, just minimal stock config, opensubtitles and whatever the defaults are for media scanning.

[sirmedia]

It seems to happen overnight when the device is not being used, whatever the stick does, goes into low power mode, applies updates, etc. Otherwise I tried it now and can't reproduce it, no matter how I exit Kodi, either graceful or hit the home button on the remote, open other apps then back to Kodi. FireOS does something to it when it's idle for extended periods of time.

[Art67]

Get an android box

[izprtxqkft]

if it's an option and it works then maybe just remembering to close kodi at night is the solution
i don't think clear cache is fixing it, i think it's just the force close

otherwise if kodi is frozen then you need to get the "old" log from the next start otherwise it won't show anything since they rotate on every start

enable debug logging, let it freeze, force close, open kodi then use log uploader addon to get the old log and upload it to paste.kodi.tv

hopefully the log won't be too large

i don't know what level of expectation to have here, if it's consistently reproducible then maybe we can see what causes it and from there determine if it's something that can be prevented

[izprtxqkft]

Get an android box

not helpful since it's android's process management that's causing issues here

[wischnu]

Same issue on a Philips TV. 

I discovered that while the KODI screen is black I was still able to press play and start a TV channel. So something in Kodi is still running. But the GUI remains black.

Dirty workaround that I have implemented. Use the addon Keymap editor and map KODI shutdown (Global / system / Kodi shutdown ) on any preferred key on the remote.  Then save.  Whenever the GUI is black, this button quits Kodi properly and Kodi can be restarted directly afterwards. Much quicker.

[izprtxqkft]

Dirty workaround that I have implemented. Use the addon Keymap editor and map KODI shutdown

nice idea
wonder if this can be done with a long-press back button for devices with limited remote buttons available

[sirmedia]

Dirty workaround that I have implemented. Use the addon Keymap editor and map KODI shutdown

nice idea
wonder if this can be done with a long-press back button for devices with limited remote buttons available

I'll try next time this happens "long press back" which normally ends up showing the Exit menu followed by the OK/select button. But ... I also have problems with the OK/Select button sometimes in Kodi it just doesn't do anything, like the button is broken, but it's not, it works in other apps or the Fire Home screen.

[wischnu]

Dirty workaround that I have implemented. Use the addon Keymap editor and map KODI shutdown

nice idea
wonder if this can be done with a long-press back button for devices with limited remote buttons available

I have now also mapped it on long-press back. But you need to use the fork of Keymap Editor to map long button presses. (https://www.reddit.com/r/Addons4Kodi/com...?rdt=37546)

Much more intuitive than any other button. In fact I use it now the standard way and Kodi is always starting correctly.

[izprtxqkft]

Much more intuitive than any other button. In fact I use it now the standard way and Kodi is always starting correctly.

after your post i approached the current maintainer of the keymap editor addon to see about getting long press added to the official addon
there is now a beta version available that will do this, if everything tests well it should make it's way to the official addon in the repo

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid3218740

[wischnu]

Much more intuitive than any other button. In fact I use it now the standard way and Kodi is always starting correctly.

after your post i approached the current maintainer of the keymap editor addon to see about getting long press added to the official addon
there is now a beta version available that will do this, if everything tests well it should make it's way to the official addon in the repo

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid3218740

Super!