[balint1]

Hi,

First of all thank you very for developing Kodi!! :R. Please read my sentences as usecase/test/user experience only.

Could anyone please kindly tell me if there is a configuration (tool) I can run any new version of Kodi as fast as an old version e.g. OpenELEC 5.0.2 Kodi v14.1 and it can mount my usb ssd drive automatically?
I mean on one hand the new versions of Kodi have new features and enhancements etc. That is why you are making new versions. It is a very good thing. On the other hand it has extremely law performance on old hardware like on Rpi 1 installing the right version suitable for Rpi 1. Please allow me to explain it in details.

The very first thing is navigating in Kodi's menu. In the most of the cases I have to wait seconds or minutes by pressing one of the arrows of Yatse android app. I am using Yatse remote because hardware mouse does not work at all due to the low UI performance. It seems Kodi is freezing or I am just not patient enough. Especially at the first run when add-ons etc. are updating automatically. It would be nice if installation and updating process can be separated with progress bar to avoid GUI "freezing". The installation process do not need beautiful hardware intensive GUI in my opinion.
I mean it is "just" the UI of Kodi. The main menu is for accessing components of Kodi. It would be nice if GUI can run fast as main process with higher priority in foreground and other processes should run in the background or not at the same time.

Installing and using Kodi I have the same feeling when installing new versions/updates of Android/iOS on mobile phone. The new OS is making the old hardware useless and we "have to" buy a new phone.

At this point I can remember other's posts "buy a new version e.g. Rpi 3", "try overclocking", "use fast sd" etc. They are absolutely right new hardware can run new Kodi fast I am sure but some people do not want to buy new hardware again and again if would like to use a new service like HBO GO in my case. Solution can be downgrading to a working version of Kodi and skipping the new services/features of Kodi. It is true as well but I am not sure it is a best way I should follow.

Other point is the ability of automatic mounting usb ssd/hdd which feature has been lost. I have two hard drives one with simple partition and another with windows installation with sda1-sda4. Kodi 18-17 cannot mount automatically at all. Manual mounting via ssh is working and fstab can be applied I guess but there is something missing compared to Kodi v14 for example. Reading threads there are many advices what to do to make it work but basically it is a feature downgrade/bug in my point of view.

In my case I have tried out LibreELEC 9.0.0 (stable and #217), and some other Kodi 18, and Kodi 17 distros as well. Downgrading has definite performance boost. Finally I installed OpenELEC 5.0.2 with Kodi v14.1 which version was downloadable. V14.1 runs lighting fast both in menu and FHD video playback as well which is the purpose using Kodi in my case.

Please allow me to ask you please let us know where we can find basic configurations for the new versions of Kodi if exists to make Kodi v17-18 as fast as v14.

Thank you and best regards,
Balint1

[Klojum]

I think that in a way you are comparing apples and oranges. Kodi 14 and 18 are literally some 5 years apart. But also putting the words "lightning fast" and "raspberry pi" in one sentence doesn't happen very often.

To have a good comparison, did you run LibreELEC 9.0 on the same or at least a similar spec SD card to rule out speed differences?
As already pointed out to you elsewhere on this forum, OpenELEC 5.0.2 is a very outdated and surely a slimmer version of Kodi/XBMC.

Kodi 14 has vastly less functionality in its main screen than the current Kodi 18. Also more/other functionality will no doubt take a toll on a low-powered Raspberry Pi device when using a Kodi 18 distro. Kodi 18 has to work on 5 types of Raspberry Pi, your old RPi-1 has the original software.

In simple terms: if Kodi 14 "works" for you, by all means just keep using it. If for some reasons you need the most recent functionality in Kodi 18, then an upgrade of your hardware will warrent a Raspberry Pi 3B+. A faster type SD card and a bit of overclock will help as well.

Other point is the ability of automatic mounting usb ssd/hdd which feature has been lost. I have two hard drives one with simple partition and another with windows installation with sda1-sda4. Kodi 18-17 cannot mount automatically at all.

LibreELEC / Kodi 18 will mount all external drives when possible. If multiple drives are not all mounted, then there is a reason for that. Hidden disk errors, suspend/hibernation states, identical disk labels... Log files would help there.

where we can find basic configurations for the new versions of Kodi if exists to make Kodi v17-18 as fast as v14.

You already get your basic configuration when installing Kodi for the first time. There are no magic tricks to have Kodi run a 5-10 times faster.

[popcornmix]

Do you have a very early Pi1 with only 256M of ram? If so then I think you need to stick with the old version of kodi.
Kodi has just grown so much in 5 years that running in that amount of ram is just not feasible.

If the Pi1 is slightly newer and has 512M of ram then using it is feasible.
Switching to a lighter skin is probably the best chance of a performance boost. Confluence is one option.
OSMC is another option which ships with lighter skin by default.

[speedwell68]

Set force_turbo=1 in the Config.txt file and setup Dirty Regions in the Advancedsettings.xml file.

https://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Modify_dirty_regions

I have one RPI model B being used for Kodi and those two mods make it just about passable.

[balint1]

@Klojum

Thank your very much for your detailed answer Klojum.

"Lightning fast"
I mean there is no lags at all. The GUI responding immediately without any noticeable delay when I am pressing the arrow keys to navigate the menu or when starting, stopping the playback on Kodi 14.
In case of Kodi 18 for example I have to wait (sometimes seconds) to get GUI response. Sometimes there is no response at all just "frozen" screen. In the most of the cases the initial configuration wizard does not start at all in some minutes.

Testing conditions
I used the same hardware for installing Kodi 18 and 14 of course. This is reason of my post. Speed and auto mount ability using same hardware installing different versions and distros of Kodi on the same sd card:
 - same hardware config with Kodi 14: auto mount is working well, GUI has no lags
 - same hardware config with Kodi 18: auto mount does not work at all, GUI is extremely slow

Auto mount
After my tests it is no sense to check the log files what the problem could be because in case of Kodi 14 it is working well. It means something changed during the last 5 years. (Linux version, libs and many other thing I know and the is not enough resources to test everything maybe... I understand this).
I would not like complaining at all about this. I just would like to let you know about this.

Functionality of the main menu
As I wrote in my my post I know the new hardware and other improvements can solve the problem of course. It is not a question at all.
We are talking about the main menu which contains some menu items. Kodi 14 and 18 have different menu of course but Kodi 18 does not have 10 not even twice as much menu items as Kodi 14 has (at the main screen the main menu).
I know if you have to build 10 or 100 times more menu items you need much more resources but this is not the case we are talking about.
It is just a menu with more or less the same number of menu items.
I can imagine that there are many background processes why the GUI is so slow or the new libs are not so optimized compared to Kodi 14.
I know it is almost impossible do check/debug what can be the reason due to the millions of rows in the source code and libs. I just would like to let you know my feelings how the new versions need more and more system resources like new operating systems on pc or mobile.

Basic configuration
Installing some different distros of Kodi one can see sometimes the update of add-ons are set to auto or manual. In case of auto Kodi is running the update process at the same time when initial config wizard should start. Maybe there are other background processes that is why RPi is running out of resources and looks frozen.
Basic configuration I mean there is no unnecessary background processes like auto update, rss etc. When you are downloading the img it is a complete tested build I am sure and should work out of box without any update. I mean there is no hundreds of different RPi versions we do not need to download manufacturer's drivers to make Windows working fine on our unique hardware configuration.
The main reason Kodi is developed to play media on RPi. Videos, music and picture. All other features like youtube, browser etc are extras only. I can imagine more and more people would like to have more and more built in features out of the box without any additional config but it leads a useless Kodi in case of RPi 1 you are still supporting.

As a conclusion
Everybody can understand including me the new version has many new features like playback of streaming videos new look and feel etc. which needs more resources. You can decide you will not support old hardware like RPi 1-2 anymore. Please allow me to explain to you rolling out and extremely slow build for an old hardware is destroying your reputation in my point of view nevertheless I am sure you are working very hard developing Kodi in your spare time maybe and you should not read similar posts like mine "it does not work" at all.

@popcornmix
Thank you popconrmix for your advices. I have the 512Mb version. I have already tried different distros and I can see there are differences between them regarding performance. Using Kodi and reading many posts I know skin can influence the performance due to the texture size.

@speedwell68
Thank you fo the tip speedwell68.


@all
One again thank you very much for your help and reading my post.