Why OSMC has a worst performance when compared to other Kodi installations?

General Discussion
1

I used to use Pi 2 and today I’ve updated to Pi 3 B+.

In Pi 2 I tried to use Retropie with Kodi installed, and it worked fine, but I dropped it after a couple of months because I couldn’t find a way to auto login directly to Kodi (I’ve always had to put the user/password manually). Other than this, Kodi worked like a charm, no hiccups at all.

In OSMC in Pi2 I used to face some hiccups, specially while navigating the menus. Also, a sad emoji in a blue screen used to happen frequently (specially after an update). The solution was turning it off and on again.

I never experienced this in Pi2 using RetroPie with Kodi.

Today my Pi 3 B+ arrived and I gave Retropie another chance, but again, I couldn’t autologin to Kodi without manually typing the user and password, so I decided to stick with OSMC again.

I downloaded the Mac app and did all the setup. Once the setup was done, the first thing that happened? The white emoji in the blue screen. Seriously: that was the first thing that happened after the setup was done.

Ok, I restarted Pi3 and OSMC booted correctly. Then I started configuring the system, to apply the theme I like and etc. And I can already feel the UI is slow in some cases, even though I literally just finished setting up the whole thing and I’m using the latest Raspberry Pi available.

Am I doing something wrong? Or these hiccups in the UI and the white emoji in the blue screen is something expected to happen from time to time?

2

The sad face sometimes appears after an update. It is not a sign of an issue, but a bug in the Skin Shortcuts add-on used by some skins.

The performance on OSMC should be more fluid than RetroPie, or at the very worst, provide identical performance. I would make sure your SD card and PSU are good.

3

And, take into account that after a new installation and configuration of the data/media sources, the scrapper will take a while to go through the content - and it will be very sluggish.

4

I know, but at that time I had not plugged the HDD yet.

5

Not all themes are designed for microcomputers like the Pi. Some are done for modern (HT)PCs with at least a quad core CPU, 8 GB of RAM and whatnot. I’m sure I’m not the only interested in hearing your installed themes and any other graphical modifications.

Have a look at RetrOSMC, a now fully functioning RetroPie installation inside of OSMC that lets you switch between gaming with RetroPie and media centre OSMC.

The sad face emoji shouldn’t happen. Still, I think you need to work on your attitude towards open/free software. This is an ongoing project receiving several updates, at least once a month, sometimes once a week.

1 Like
6

The sad face issue after update is a completely harmless bug.
Annoying. And in need of a fix, but harmless.

1 Like
7

I didn’t add any new theme, I just selected the Kodi’s default one. That’s all.

When I said Then I started configuring the system, to apply the theme I like and etc. I was just trying to say I was doing really basic things through the UI. That’s all. If there is something else you want to hear, you can ask and I will be more than happy to provide you with the information I have at the moment.

I did and it’s still one of the options I’m considering.

Maybe the way I’ve exposed my thoughts and questions were not ideal, but I wasn’t in any level underestimating the work the collaborators put in this project. Also, I don’t think I’m fluent in English yet, so sometimes I lack vocabulary to explain some thoughts. I’ve been using OSMC for the past 4 years, and the whole idea for this thread was to ask some questions that were in my mind in the past years. That’s all.

You can provide me a feedback if you want, I would be more than happy to receive it and think about it, so I don’t make the same mistakes in the future.

8

I would suspect SD card or PSU if you have performance problems with OSMC

Sam

9

Can be. The SD card is “new” (6 months old), the PSU is a bit older. Do you if there some tests I can run to try to isolate these issues?

10

I didn’t know about this. Thanks for clarifying. Every time I saw the sad face I thought there was something wrong with my OSMC configuration. Glad to hear that’s not the case.

11

You could try LibreELEC instead. :smirk:

12

I’m still on 2018.01-1 but actually updated to latest today, but slideshow with MMAL is no fun (forgot to try OMX to see if audio were studdering) - anyhow, I reverted back.
Regards
/L

13

This issue is caused by 4.14 kernel which LE will move to in LE 9.0.
Hopefully we can get it fixed soon. The CMA revert patches caused other issues, so we had to remove them.

The issue is Pi specific, and not distribution independent.

Indeed – if that’s what works for OP, then he should use it.

Sam

14

The latest LE nightly uses kernel version 4.18.7; I wouldn’t like to say if that issue has been fixed or not.

I was mostly just being cheeky when I suggested that. :slight_smile: But I have found LE to work quite comfortably on the Pi 3+, although it’s less flexible than OSMC.

15

I’m in the LE chat and the issue is still outstanding.
We are mutually invested in trying to fix it.

That’s fine. We don’t mind what people use, as long as it works well for them. We get along with and collaborate with LE, so it’s no big deal.

Cheers,

Sam