Kodi version upgrade for retropie

ParadoxGBB

Today Kodi 19.0 Matrix was released too --- hope to see an update soon!

slimbrick

@paradoxgbb
I agree, it'd be nice to have the updated version of Kodi come with the installation. However it appears RetroPie is using http://pipplware.pplware.pt as a source for Kodi and that repository hasn't been updated since June of 2020. Looks like we will have to go inquire there in terms of the plans for updating Kodi in the repository.

ParadoxGBB

@slimbrick While true, those guys frequent here too.

Crush

Is there actually any benefit ?

slimbrick

@crush
While Kodi 18.8 and 18.9 were primary bugfix releases, Kodi 19.0 is a major release that has several new desirable features. I'm primarily interested in the significant improvements that have made to live TV and PVR, however below is the full discussion for the Kodi 19.0 release:
https://kodi.tv/article/kodi-190-matrix-release

They have made good strides in playback, the Kodi skin, added support for Python 3, security, and Linux platform operability.

So, I eager to get Kodi 19, although admittedly not so much that I'll go through the effort to do it myself. Hopefully the people at http://pipplware.pplware.pt will incorporate it soon for us.

saccublenda

@crush In addition I think Kodi 19 will use v4l2 and be compatible with KMS driver.

ParadoxGBB

According to this, folks have been questioning the state of the project too (this is a bing translation of the original Portuguese):

http://www.translatetheweb.com/?from=&to=en&ref=TVert&refd=www.bing.com&dl=en&rr=DC&a=http%3A%2F%2Fforum.pplware.com%2Fshowthread.php%3Ftid%3D24564%26page%3D7%23.YDPxrHmIaS8

Rascas

Hi, I am the current maintainer of the Kodi packages currently available on Raspberry Pi foundation repository for Raspbian / Raspberry Pi OS.
The PiPplware project in currently unmaintained but I still support Kodi packages. About Kodi 19, there is quite a lot changes, you can read more about it here:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1823600#p1823600

One thing that I think wasn't mentioned and I am still not sure, is that Kodi 19 doesn't work with the legacy drivers, only fkms/kms. If RetroPie still uses legacy drivers on the RPi up to 3, Kodi 19 probably won't work on those.
Just to make clear I did not had anything to do with this kind of decisions, I just compile and package Kodi for Raspbian / Raspberry Pi OS based systems.

slimbrick

@rascas
Rascas,

Thank you for the information. I think we have our answer. Retropie draws on PiPplware which is unmaintained so Kodi 18.7 is the last we will get if Retropie continues to use PiPplware as a source.

However, the repository for Rasbian / Raspberry Pi OS will be updated to Kodi 19, however Kodi 19 won't work on RetroPie if RetroPie uses legacy drivers.

Rascas

@slimbrick PiPplware is an OS for the RPi that I and some more people have developed that is currently on halt. But the Kodi packages are still maintained, just not so frequently mainly because I am pretty busy on this days of the pandemic. I will eventually update to Kodi 19, just can't give a timeline for that.
FYI, the packages on the Raspberry Pi OS and RetroPie are the same as the ones on the PiPplware repo.

slimbrick

@rascas
Thanks again, I mis-interpreted your last post a little bit. The pandemic has made life challenging for all of us (I've lost two relatives to the virus) and I definitely respect that you are unable to provide a timeline for updating the kodi package. Stay safe and healthy.

cmx

@rascas
I've read a few of your posts, and count as one of the many people who've been freeloading off of yours and the rest of the Retropie team's hard work. I fully appreciate the circumstances, this whole pandemic has been hell for many people including myself.
All I wanted to ask was, have you made any more progress on getting Kodi 19 up and running? A lot of core addons I use for pi4 my media centre have moved onto using python 3, so many of them are either partially broken or flat-out don't work (despite the hard work of their respective devs), so being able to jump onto the new version would be fantastic. If you've gotten any further along, would there be a possibility of a rough ETA on when you'll be able to do it? Its fine if not, obviously things are very unpredictable right now.

Again, thanks for the hard work!

ParadoxGBB

I was hoping maybe we could have some information here about the issues surrounding preliminary v19 builds because I'm curious --- I've been looking around the RPi org and Kodi forums and it's not clear to me if there's technical problems that need sorting or just time to compile the package.

I'd love to help out with testing like I did for 18.x. I'm also hoping that with the latest 19.1 release might have eased RPi issues on the Kodi side if truly blocking if any were there on the initial 19.0 release.

There seems to be some compatibility issues around higher res videos and the latest kernel versions, but that doesn't seem to be unique to Kodi 19. Or are there kms/vlc considerations too?

Some reading I've bumped into so far:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=312199&p=1867804&hilit=rascas#p1867804

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=251645&p=1874730&hilit=kodi#p1874730

https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/issues/4112

Slightly unrelated, but I'm also curious why packages like this could be compiled in RetroPie directly rather than a curated binary release? Are there dependency differences just pointing at the libreELEC / OSMC repositories? I'm out of my depth probably here --- but they've had test builds and from what I've gathered they kind of work.

I don't mean to sound too impatient or ungrateful, but I've hit a few issues now, at least one that was fixed between 18.7 and 18.9 --- and as others have mentioned I'd love to take a look at the new features too. Also, some of my Kodi plugins are already reporting updates that are for Python 3 only.

Thanks in advance for any updates!

slimbrick

@paradoxgbb
For what it's worth, the folks over at LibreELEC appear to be working hard to get Kodi 19 running on the Pi4. As of July 15, they are at beta 5 and they write that they consider the RPi4 "stable alpha" because the code is very new. I'm looking at LibreELEC as a bellwether which is telling me we have some time in front of us before we see a stable release of Kodi 19 on the Pi4.

Crush

Is it possible to install kodi not using pipplware?
I can't watch any tv cause the plugins do not function properly, and these are all from the default repository.
I tried installing it as you normally would on a RPI, but it still uses pipplware then. how do i change the repository?

mitu

@crush said in Kodi version upgrade for retropie:

I tried installing it as you normally would on a RPI, but it still uses pipplware then. how do i change the repository?

There's no other repository with a newer Kodi version for RetroPie right now. The version included in Raspberry Pi OS/Raspbian is 17.6, while the Pipplware repository has version 18.7. If you wish to use the version distributed by Raspbian, you can uninstall Kodi from RetroPie setup and then manually install it with apt. Also, you're off-topic here and you should have kept your original topic you posted.

pen2paper

@mitu Is there a guide for installing Kodi this way, please? I too would like to use the most recent version possible, but am not sure where to start. Would the 'apt' method allow Kodi to be launched from within Retropie as normal? Hope you can help.

haplo

Hi

Is there any news on this topic?
I'd like to use the latest version of Kodi with Retropie.

Hope to have some positive news soon :)

Matthieu

windg

@haplo

I believe the next version of RetroPie will have the last version of Kodi.

Ashpool

@windg Just that people know/be remembered about it: Kodi v19+ also means no OMX player and therefor no more accelerated HEVC decoding (besides some other stuff) on a raspi 3 (IMHO with 19 it became more or less useless on any pi below a 4).