Announcing end of support for Vero 4K and 4K+ - OSMC

Deleting it :thinking:

Had thought of that, but didnā€™t know if it would break something.

I retasked my old Vero 4K+ to run headless as a second instance that does the auto updates from the usual stack when files change etc to my central DB - I find this helped avoid pauses etc when playing on the main OSMC etc. Will this affect that process, i.e. library versions in the central DB will become out of date?

Yes, for the update to Kodi 22 the device that will be upgraded will create a new database. So you will not be able to use a shared between the new device and the Vero 4k+

Thanks for the info. Time to retire the 4K then, it has been a great device and paid for itself, and the V is going just as well.

Well if you want to separate scrapping and watching you could install docker on the Vero 4k and try to run Kodi 22 in a docker by the time it comes to the Vero V.

I used to run a headless Kodi in docker also to update the main db, but the issue was keeping the db version in cycle with OSMC releases, which is where the old Vero 4 running headless was good as it was in the same cycle.

I think itā€™s not so cool to discontinue a device that perfectly do the job for plenty of year to come.

I mean, most of the world is barely in full HD, and the vero 4k is already above their requirements.
Why would they buy a new one ? To have netflix on it, when almost any TV embed the netflix player ?

Iā€™m quite surprised by the strategy, because if you discontinue a product like that, what confidence will I get that vero V would be better ?

Not even speaking of all people who will just let the vero 4k stay like that, with no security update. What happen if, or when you get a zombie attack using osmc device due to the lack of update ? What brand will be damaged you think ?

I see only 3 honorable ways out of that decision:

  • To put the vero 4K maintenance in opensource. People might decide to pursue the job.
  • To migrate, if needed, to an LTS version for all tools and perform only security updates after that.
  • To build a tutorial to switch to generic repository for the security updates. Or even better to perform the switch as a last update.

Especially in the current world where ecology is important, throwing away device is not a good strategy.

Hi

I appreciate your frustration but at some point things have to come to an end.

Vero 4K has been supported for 8 years which is far longer than our intended 5 year target.

I suspect people are upgrading for improved performance, support for new video codecs and the fact that technology moves forward.

The Vero V will receive the same levels of support we offered to previous customers.

How do you propose that this would happen? We have never advised our users to expose their devices to the internet.

We did this. Vero 4K and 4K + support was upstreamed to the Linux kernel. You could use another distribution without needing to rely on OSMC. The necessary device trees and support is upstream. Of course there isnā€™t feature parity, but if you want to stay up to date for years to come, you can do so.

Thatā€™s the joy of open source.

We already base ourselves on a distribution with a long LTS. You will still get security updates until August 2026.

Not needed as explained above.

Your TV certainly wonā€™t get 10 years of updates.
Your PC will probably get 10 for its OS version. Then you might not be able to run the next OS version (TPM requirements for example).

What we did is long term support and Iā€™m proud that we supported the device for as long as we did.

If your device is behind a secure LAN, it wonā€™t be vulnerable and at no point will your device stop working. You can just keep using it.

Out of curiosity: when do you propose a reasonable cut off? If I extend support for another five years, people will just complain then.

We promised five years of support and exceeded it. Our plan was always to under promise and over deliver. We plan to do the same for Vero V.

Cheers

Sam

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Hello Sam

Thank you for your long and precise reply.
I totally understand that at some point we need to reprioritize and focus.

I really think stopping support after 8 years for function update is reasonable.

What triggers me is the fact that I would expect a minimum of security update as much as possible.
Iā€™m usually at ease with computer and linux, but with that device ā€œready to useā€ itā€™s hard to know what could be done to keep getting security update without removing the nice product current functions.

Iā€™m pretty sure people have already done it, seeing the other posts above. But maybe in the communication, it would be nice to throw some how to to recycle the device:

  • How to keep the device secured (Using apt package manager ?)
  • How to install a generic distribution and kodi (might be just the basic or a link)
  • How to do something else with the device, again could be some link thrown on a page.

Itā€™s just communication, but it will show more care, and especially for the first suggestion, it will make people able to manage their device. And because they know you have their back, and itā€™s just their laziness that prevent them to do the job, they will keep their trust level to OSMC.

Here in the forum I posted a link to my git repository, how to make your Vero4 into to a small docker server. The problem is that if you use dockers own installer it ask the Vero4 which hardware platform and installs armhf, since it has both 32 & 64 bit support. What I did was to rewrite it to force 64bit arm server, which means it supports more modern containers. So the apt package, stops mediacenter and installs a bunch of console tools. Perfect for a headless miini-server, Iā€™ve used this setup for more then 2 years, but I also know that itā€™s a system with limited memory and storage.

All this mentioned by fzinken earlier, in my mind mind itā€™s a good use of an older Mediabox.

thank you.

Ideally, I bought the Vero to be a media playerā€¦ would prefer to keep it to do that job. 4k is already largely above what I can read.(my monitor is only full HDā€¦)

Than just continue to use it like that. It will continue to work flawless with the current installed version for many years to come

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