2023-05-15, 11:36
2023-05-16, 17:25
(2023-05-15, 11:36)Klojum Wrote:I believe it's a design limitation of the Alder Lake-N processors, not the motherboard.(2023-05-15, 11:32)tzanig Wrote: Finally an Alder Lake-N ITX board announced:
"Supports 1 DDR4 DIMM". Sadly, no dual-channel for that generation.
I am more concerned with only 2 SATA ports, as I'd use it for a NAS and in the one I currently have I am using more. Will need to use a PCI-e SATA controller for the disks I don't require speed performance.
2023-05-18, 18:11
(2023-05-16, 17:25)tzanig Wrote: Will need to use a PCI-e SATA controller for the disks I don't require speed performance
I'd prefer a separate RAID controller over onboard RAID controllers anyway, as it would result in an easier transfer to a different host PC machine. And if the motherboard with onboard RAID would be DOA, you'd be in bigger trouble.
2023-08-18, 00:04
Based on your feedback, and on a friend of mine, I've bought the ASRock N100DC-ITX (https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/N100DC-ITX/index.asp). Not on Amazon, they are really expensive, 200€, vs 137€ on https://www.reichelt.com/de/de/asrock-n1...54892.html)
Anyway, I hit some major issues, since I was using an AMD E-450 motherboard. Yes, I bought it in 2012, it was very old, and my disk was using BIOS, while the N100DC-ITX only support UEFI. After a loooong migration (this is possible), the boot process was successful, but… no Kodi.
Here was my previous settings:
- Manually installed an Ubuntu LTS (since 2012, constantly upgrading from LTS to another, so I was on 22.04 Jammy)
- Using GBM backend to avoid lauching X/Wayland, since this is a dedicated machine
And in fact, you may have guessed it, the kernel from Ubuntu 22.04 was too old. I've discovered it after going into the "do-release-upgrade" to get Ubuntu 23.04 Lunar, and TADA: Kodi was alive.
Everything is working fine, except VAAPI-AV1. It just crashes Kodi with the following kernel log:
And nothing really useful in the crashlog, except maybe the last line? (2023-08-17 23:42:54.430 T:929 warning <general>: VAAPI::SupportsFilter image format not NV12)
Anyway, disabling VAAPI-AV1 makes AV1 1080 24fps playing peacefully using a quarter of each 4 CPU.
Major advantages:
- This is fanless. The board reports no more than 54°C while playing, but it's currently not in a box, but naked on my desk
- The 19V-DC power input is really nice, since there is no need for a fat ATX PSU. It's a completely standard power input, anything can fit, and depending on your usage, you can use a 50W adapter.
Honestly, single channel for a dedicated mediacenter (not transcoding) is not an issue: I've bought a 8GB DDR4, and there is only 411MB used when not playing, and less than 450MB while playing.
And I guess that VAAPI-AV1 will improve with newer Linux kernel and/or newer Kodi build. But now, I'm ready for the next 10 years
Anyway, I hit some major issues, since I was using an AMD E-450 motherboard. Yes, I bought it in 2012, it was very old, and my disk was using BIOS, while the N100DC-ITX only support UEFI. After a loooong migration (this is possible), the boot process was successful, but… no Kodi.
Here was my previous settings:
- Manually installed an Ubuntu LTS (since 2012, constantly upgrading from LTS to another, so I was on 22.04 Jammy)
- Using GBM backend to avoid lauching X/Wayland, since this is a dedicated machine
And in fact, you may have guessed it, the kernel from Ubuntu 22.04 was too old. I've discovered it after going into the "do-release-upgrade" to get Ubuntu 23.04 Lunar, and TADA: Kodi was alive.
Everything is working fine, except VAAPI-AV1. It just crashes Kodi with the following kernel log:
Code:
août 17 23:42:54 mediacenter kernel: VideoPlayer[927]: segfault at 19 ip 0000564c916dbeee sp 00007f0d49382d30 error 4 in kodi.bin[564c8fb3b000+348a000] likely on CPU 2 (core 2, socket 0)
août 17 23:42:54 mediacenter kernel: Code: 41 80 bf 8f 02 00 00 00 0f 84 ae 02 00 00 49 0f be 87 be 00 00 00 45 0f b6 57 19 48 69 c0 c8 01 00 00 49 8b 84 06 c0 00 00 00 <44> 0f b6 58 19 49 8b 46 58 0f b6 88 3b 02 00 00 44 89 de b8 01 00
août 17 23:42:54 mediacenter kodi[696]: Segmentation fault
août 17 23:42:55 mediacenter kodi[696]: Crash report available at /home/xbmc/kodi_crashlog-20230817_234254.log
And nothing really useful in the crashlog, except maybe the last line? (2023-08-17 23:42:54.430 T:929 warning <general>: VAAPI::SupportsFilter image format not NV12)
Anyway, disabling VAAPI-AV1 makes AV1 1080 24fps playing peacefully using a quarter of each 4 CPU.
Major advantages:
- This is fanless. The board reports no more than 54°C while playing, but it's currently not in a box, but naked on my desk
- The 19V-DC power input is really nice, since there is no need for a fat ATX PSU. It's a completely standard power input, anything can fit, and depending on your usage, you can use a 50W adapter.
Honestly, single channel for a dedicated mediacenter (not transcoding) is not an issue: I've bought a 8GB DDR4, and there is only 411MB used when not playing, and less than 450MB while playing.
And I guess that VAAPI-AV1 will improve with newer Linux kernel and/or newer Kodi build. But now, I'm ready for the next 10 years
2023-11-08, 06:46
I recently upgraded my apollo lake HTPC with the same mobo (n100dc itx) and i am very happy with the result. I went with ubuntu 22.04, using the offcial linux-oem.d kernel (6.5.0), also running kodi standalone with GBM.
The only caveat in this board is the higher operating cpu temp comprared to the prior generations. I didnt notice thermal throttling with normal use though.
I ran into the same issue with AV1, when hardware accel for av1 is enabled, I get the same seg fault and Kodi restart. Did you find a workaround for this?
For anyone running in 22.04, if you get constant libpython crashes on this hardware, you can easily parallel-install python3.11 and libpython 3.11 and then use patchelf in the kodi binary.
The only caveat in this board is the higher operating cpu temp comprared to the prior generations. I didnt notice thermal throttling with normal use though.
I ran into the same issue with AV1, when hardware accel for av1 is enabled, I get the same seg fault and Kodi restart. Did you find a workaround for this?
For anyone running in 22.04, if you get constant libpython crashes on this hardware, you can easily parallel-install python3.11 and libpython 3.11 and then use patchelf in the kodi binary.
2023-11-08, 11:53
(2023-11-08, 06:46)htpcero Wrote: I ran into the same issue with AV1, when hardware accel for av1 is enabled, I get the same seg fault and Kodi restart. Did you find a workaround for this?No workaround for now. CPU decoding is fast enough for many AV1 encoded media. I'm just waiting for a new kernel in Ubuntu, maybe the driver will be better?
2023-11-09, 14:21
I am suspecting more of ffmpeg (embedded in kodi) not being up to date to use the HW decoder in these new chips, since its an older version from the time when kodi 20 was launched, way before the alderlake N launch. I am hopeful that kodi 21 with its new ffmpeg will sort this out. I am running kernel 6.5 and vaapi detects the decoder presence (vainfo shows it)
