Reinstalling OSMC

Overview

OSMC is a completely open and expansible system. As a result of this, users can install software or make changes that can cause issues with OSMC’s normal operation as a media center.

The Vero 4K features internal storage, but you can reinstall OSMC on the device in the same way that you can for any other OSMC compatible device. You will need an SD card or USB flash drive, which will allow you to load the OSMC installer on. When the Vero 4K is started with this card or drive, the internal storage will be formatted and repartitioned, and the version of OSMC you have downloaded will be installed.

Reinstallation steps

  • Ensure that you have backed up any data before proceeding. My OSMC allows you to back up your user data to external media.
  • Go to the Download page and download the installer for your computer.
  • Select the latest Vero 4K image in the installer, and insert an SD card or USB stick
  • With the Vero 4K powered off, insert the SD card or USB stick in to your device.
  • Power the Vero 4K and you will see the installation on screen
  • Wait a few minutes for this to complete, and then follow the on screen setup instructions. It is now safe to remove the SD card.

Restoring your backup

If your system was up to date, your backup will usually be compatible with the latest OSMC image and can be restored immediately using My OSMC. If you are reinstalling OSMC shortly after a release, the downloaded image may not be up to date and you should update to the latest version before configuring the backup location and restoring the backup.

It would be really awesome to include step-by-step instructions for backing up user data.

Also, some kind of FAQ on the page itself explaining what is being backed up (does it backup profiles, for example, does it backup extensions, or at least extension data/settings?)

OK – we will work on that. Backups can currently be performed with My OSMC.

Yes, but it’s very unclear what exactly that is backing up, and more importantly, where…

You are prompted where to place the backup when you start the backup.

The .kodi directory is what’s backed up for now.

ok, kewl, so that includes everything, your addons, your settings, your profiles, etc. Does it do any encryption of the backup? I mean that can be pretty sensitive data. This is the type of FAQ I’m talking about. I’m out of work right now, so if you’re willing to answer questions as I go along, I’m happy to help out with the Wiki pages.

There’s no encryption of the backup at this time, because you’re only backing up to local storage at this stage.

@sam_nazarko
This may be totally obvious to someone familiar with Linux, but I didn’t know the following:
Under Windows, after downloading the image file, you get a .gz file, which you have to unpack. That gives you an .img file that you also have to unpack. Only then do you get the kernel.img (and two more files). I think this should be added to the following paragraph (my suggestion for addition in bold):

“Go to the Download page and download the installer for your computer.
Windows users: Use a program such as 7-Zip to extract the .img file from the downloaded .gz file. Then use 7-Zip to unpack that .img file. This gives you the following files: dtb.img, filesystem.tar.xz, kernel.img.
Select the latest Vero 4K image in the installer, and insert an SD card or USB stick
With the Vero 4K powered off, insert the SD card or USB stick in to your device.”

This isn’t correct.
You can use the installer which will download and unpack the archive for you.

You also do not need to manually download the image file, but if you do, you should not be extracting it manually

Sorry, clear case of me not thoroughly reading everything on the download page.
But if manually downloading the image file, why not extract it manually? The installer gives me the exact same three files with identical file sizes …

Most people don’t want to download and extract files manually.

Not trying to be a smartass or nitpicker, but there are some people who don’t want to download/install .exe files. Yeah, tiny minority, but still …

You still need to use a program on Windows to extract and write the image to the installation media. Granted, some people may not want to use our installer, which is why we also make images available. But if you don’t trust our installer you probably shouldn’t trust our OS!

Most disk images tool support compressed images.

Sam

2 Likes

Why confuse the heck out of most users by suggesting they pull the install file apart? It’s unnecessary.

If you want to install without the installer, then you are missing the essential step of formatting the SD card/USB stick.

1 Like

I missed the part where you have to use something like Rufus to write the image to the SD card or USB stick

Hi,

If you are using Windows, the installer should write the image to sd card. If this isn’t the case, can you please create a new topic, with the logs from the installer.

Thanks Tom.