[TESTING] Kodi 17 (Krypton) Beta Builds for all platforms

Hello,

Current preview version: Kodi Krypton Release Candidate 4

Kodi Krypton development is well underway, and the final release is expected shortly. I have completed our rebase of OSMC patches for Kodi Krypton and we are now in a position to offer test builds. All platforms supported by Jarvis remain supported, including the AppleTV.

However, with the introduction of the new default skin, Estuary, Apple TV 1st Generation users and original Raspberry Pi users with 256MB RAM may experience diminished system performance. For these platforms, I am still undecided on whether to make Confluence the default skin instead.

We are also happy to announce the new OSMC skin, and we have taken your feedback on board to improve it. The new skin is now available. We would appreciate your feedback and thoughts – discussion is ongoing here.

A full list of changes can be found on the Kodi blog. We will cover them in some detail when the final version lands in a blog post of our own.

To try the Krypton builds, you can run the following commands on your OSMC device, after you access the command line:

sudo -s
echo "deb http://apt.osmc.tv krypton main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
apt-get update
apt-get -y dist-upgrade && reboot

Your system will then reboot and you will find yourself on the latest OSMC test build for Kodi Krypton. Please note:

  • If you have been using one of Greg’s Kodi test builds for Raspberry Pi, you will be able to install this build without any problems. Once you do so, you will no longer be eligible to receive his test builds unless you remove the repository. It is highly recommended that you first update to the latest version of his build and then run sudo apt-get autoremove to avoid dependency overlap issues.
  • Downgrading back to Jarvis is not trivial. These test builds are not recommended for all users, particularly if stability is important to you. However feedback is important to us, and we will do our best to resolve any problems you experience promptly.
  • Your database will be upgraded. If you are using a MySQL database with multiple clients, you should not try a test build unless you update your clients to v17 test builds as well.
  • There are also some CEC improvements with these builds, which may be beneficial to some users.

Please post all feedback in this thread. If you wish to report a bug, please check whether the issue has been reported to Kodi upstream first. All bug reports need to be accompanied by a full set of logs.

Thank you for testing, and making OSMC and Kodi better as a result. I am keen to hear your feedback.

Sam

4 Likes

Transition from @gmc’s Krypton builds to this new “official” branch went smoothly, everything seems to work, haven’t have the time to really test, yet.
Got one sad face after the first reboot, but the last three went fine.

That always happens – we’ll fix it eventually. It’s an issue with My OSMC and Skin Shortcuts requesting a skin reload at the same time.

Updated, ran out of space during the process, cleaned up (apt-get clean, apt-get autoclean) and am stuck in an endless sad face loop now :frowning:
http://paste.osmc.io/yafunurewu

If you ran out of space you probably need to run sudo apt-get -f install

22:03:47  48.024170 T:1958383616   ERROR: SQL: [Addons26.db] SQL error or missing database
                                            Query: SELECT idVersion FROM version

Looks like your database didn’t upgrade properly for addons. Might be easiest to start fresh.

1 Like

I’m updating all 3 of my Pi’s right now as they use a Shared Library. We’ll see how it goes. I’ve been waiting for this as I tried putting the Windows Store version of Kodi on my Surface and was quickly reminded that different versions had different versions of the database… Now I just need a Krypton version in the Play Store to update my Pi that’s testing Android TV. :slight_smile:

Damn… It removed my custom skin shortcuts… like for RetroPie. Guess I’ll need to figure out how to add those back. LoL

Is it expected to take a long time (1h, so far) to update?

Err http://apt.osmc.tv krypton/main armhf Packages
Err http://apt.osmc.tv krypton/main armhf Packages
Get:3 http://apt.osmc.tv krypton/main armhf Packages [3661 B]
Ign http://apt.osmc.tv jessie/main Translation-en
Ign http://apt.osmc.tv krypton/main Translation-en
Get:4 http://security.debian.org jessie/updates InRelease [63.1 kB]
Get:5 http://security.debian.org jessie/updates/main armhf Packages [295 kB]
Get:6 http://security.debian.org jessie/updates/contrib armhf Packages [1138 B]
Get:7 http://security.debian.org jessie/updates/non-free armhf Packages [14 B]
Get:8 http://security.debian.org jessie/updates/contrib Translation-en [1211 B]
Get:9 http://security.debian.org jessie/updates/main Translation-en [163 kB]
Get:10 http://security.debian.org jessie/updates/non-free Translation-en [14 B]
Ign http://ftp.debian.org jessie-updates InRelease
Hit http://ftp.debian.org jessie Release.gpg
Err http://ftp.debian.org jessie-updates Release.gpg
  Connection failed
Hit http://ftp.debian.org jessie Release
Ign http://ftp.debian.org jessie-updates Release
Ign http://ftp.debian.org jessie-updates/main armhf Packages/DiffIndex
Ign http://ftp.debian.org jessie-updates/contrib armhf Packages/DiffIndex
Get:11 http://ftp.debian.org jessie-updates/contrib Translation-en [14 B]
Get:12 http://ftp.debian.org jessie-updates/non-free Translation-en [496 B]
Hit http://ftp.debian.org jessie/main armhf Packages
Hit http://ftp.debian.org jessie/contrib armhf Packages
Hit http://ftp.debian.org jessie/non-free armhf Packages
Hit http://ftp.debian.org jessie/contrib Translation-en
Hit http://ftp.debian.org jessie/main Translation-en
Hit http://ftp.debian.org jessie/non-free Translation-en
Get:13 http://ftp.debian.org jessie-updates/non-free armhf Packages/DiffIndex [736 B]
100% [Waiting for headers]

Edit - it just finished. Reported some errors, but I went ahead anyways. We’ll see! :slight_smile: (I’m not too worried because I took a card image beforehand.)

Nope, around five minutes on an OSMC device.

Looks like you have a network problem connecting to the Debian mirrors. The OSMC repository seems to have updated fine in your excerpt above.

This sometimes happens with Debian mirrors in some regions.

Nope. It went into a continuous sad face loop. I am able to ssh, so I rebooted a couple of time - but it just keeps frowning! Here are the logs: http://paste.osmc.io/akifelemaz

I will try again tomorrow.

  • Not a debug log, so impossible to comment on the issue
  • You should probably try moving ~/.kodi to test
  • You should complete a full Debian upgrade first, a partial dist-upgrade is not recommended nor supported.

My guess is you’ve upgraded but haven’t checked if your skin is supported on Krypton. There seem to be a lot of skin related errors there.

I succesfully flashed the krypton build on my RPI2 without errors, however it started up in the Kodi default skin (Estuary)

How to set the OSMC skin as Sam stated in the OP? I only have Estuary (Kodi default) and Estouchy (which I cannot activate for some reason)

OSMC skin will come in the next days/week

1 Like

As a Vero 2 user, who does not have an extensive library or any special skins, the update went well and was pretty quick.

However, I am getting jerky playback on all my videos - not sure if this is a Krypton limitation at the moment or something daft I have done.

On the ‘Player Process Info’ screen I am seeing the codec as things like ‘ff-h264 (SW)’ and ‘ff-mpeg2video (SW)’ so I’d guess hardware decoding is not enabled.

Files are just simple Handbrake encodes or .TS files from TV recordings (I also see frequent buffering on the .TS files) being served from a Synology.

I noticed some situations last night in my testing where video is not accelerated by hardware, so I’ll take a look at that shortly and rebuild when necessary.

You may have also missed it but there are now settings on when to enable hardware acceleration that may need adjusting as well.

All some of the perks in running beta software :slight_smile:

I’ll post when a new build is updated.

Cheers

Sam

Thanks for reply - I do find running Beta software helps me learn where I am especially ignorant!

I thought I had found the relevant settings under settings/player/video and checked that ‘enable amcodec’ was on, then the settings for HW acceleration could be put to ‘always on’ for MPG2, MP4 and H264

That’s correct – although you’ll see MPEG2 (probably what’s in your .TS files), is only for HD by default.

I’ll look at things today and update you. There are a few other improvements I want to get in for all platforms anyway.

Cheers

Sam

The install took about half an hour, but finally it completed.
PVR had to be re-enabled, rest seems to work after 2 hours of use

Created a new build on a test card for my RPi 1 so will test over the weekend and see how it performs. Used the Pi1 on the basis that if it works ok there then the Pi2 will be fine. Be interesting to see the Partner Acceptance Factor of the Estuary skin too. :slight_smile:

1080p ISO and 1080p MKV (on the Vero 2) are all now very slow / stuttering / buffering

REALLY looking forward to being able to use an OSMC skin again, with my custom home screen mappings.

Channel next now switches the TV’s source rather than skipping forward a chapter

Please see: DVD.ISO Menu Regression - #3 by sam_nazarko