Kodi

Kodi (formerly known as XBMC) is an award-winning free and open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub that can be installed on Linux, OSX, Windows, iOS and Android, featuring a 10-foot user interface for use with televisions and remote controls. These can all be played directly from a CD/DVD, or from the hard-drive. Kodi can also play multimedia from a computer over a local network (LAN), or play media streams directly from the Internet. It can also be used to play and record live TV using a tuner, a backend server and a PVR plugin; more information about this can be found on the Kodi wiki.

Installation

Install the kodi package. Be sure to review/install optional dependencies listed by pacman to enable additional functionality.

The kodi package supports for several composers, including Xorg, GBM, and Wayland. In terms of functionality, X11 is currently the most mature and feature rich. Wayland and GBM are both a close second and should be considered on-par with X11, however, a known limitation of Wayland is having the resolution and frame rate set in the compositor rather than in Kodi's GUI. As well, Wayland currently does not support VT switching. GBM has some known features it lacks compared to both X11 and Wayland. A complete list can be found in Kodi issue 14876. GBM may be a good choice for standalone operations since it runs directly on the GPU without the X11 layer.

It is recommended for users to test the various options particularly if the hardware on which Kodi is running is limited. For example, the X11 composer may offer CPU/GPU efficiency gains vs the GBM composer.

All of the official addons in the kodi-addons group are disabled by default and need to be enabled in Kodi's addon menu after installation.

Running

There are two general use cases:

  1. /usr/bin/kodi is meant to be run by any user on an on-demand basis. Use it like any other program on the system.
  2. /usr/bin/kodi-standalone is meant to be run as the only graphical application, for example on a HTPC. See #Running standalone for more information.

Running standalone

Using standalone mode is advantageous for several reasons:

  1. One can define an unprivileged user to run kodi and have no access to a shell.
  2. When paired with a systemd unit (or equivalent, see below), this setup makes the box on which kodi is running more like an appliance.
Warning: Select only one of the methods listed below.

kodi-standalone service

kodi-standalone-serviceAUR provides three services and automatically creates and provisions the unprivileged user to run Kodi in standalone mode.

  • kodi-x11.service (for X11)
  • kodi-gbm.service (for GBM)
  • kodi-wayland.service (for Wayland)
Note:
  • The correct video driver and optionally hardware video acceleration is an assumed dependency.
  • The home/userdata directory for the created kodi user is /var/lib/kodi/.
  • If kodi-x11.service fails to start, see Xorg#Rootless Xorg for possible workarounds.
  • Certain use cases require environment variables to be passed to the service. Define these variables in /etc/conf.d/kodi-standalone and they will be passed along to the service.

Be aware that these services run Kodi in systemd's system.slice, not user.slice. In order to have Kodi exit gracefully, initiate system reboot/shutdown with the respective Kodi actions instead of using . Failure to do so will result in an ungraceful exit of Kodi and the loss of GUI settings, Kodi uptime etc. In principal this is no different than data loss occurring from a user doing work when a sysadmin issues a reboot command without prior warning. While it is possible to run Kodi in systemd's user.slice instead, doing so makes it difficult to use USB mounts within Kodi and to use pulseaudio for Kodi sessions.

  • Kodi GUI: Selecting the corresponding option under power menu in the Kodi GUI.
  • Mobile device: The official Android/iOS apps can also perform these actions (assuming the corresponding options are enabled in Kodi).
  • CLI: Use provided by to send the or the Reboot command. The syntax is:
$ kodi-send -a "Reboot"
$ kodi-send -a "ShutDown()"

Xsession with LightDM
Note:
  • This assumes that a kodi user named kodi is on the system and that the following file is present as described.
  • lightdm does not pull in an X server as a required dependency, it is optional. The X server listed as an optional dependency (xorg-server-xephyr) does not work when run as root by lightdm.service (FS#52067, LightDM Bug 852577). Install xorg-server.

To use LightDM with automatic login, see LightDM#Enabling autologin and LightDM#Enabling interactive passwordless login. Kodi includes as xsession.

Xsession with NoDM

Nodm is an automatic display manager which automatically starts an X session at system boot.

By creating a user for kodi (e.g. ) and installing we simply have to specify the kodi user inside:

Make sure to execute inside the xinitrc file.

Socket activation

Socket activation can be used to start Kodi when the user issues a Wakeup command from a remote control app like Kore, or makes a connection to Kodi's html control port. Start listening by starting (replace user with the user running Kodi to be started as).

There are no packaged kodi@.service and kodi@.socket files, one must create them manually. Depending on the setup, one can optionally change the ports in kodi@.socket.

Start from remote control with LIRC / irexec

Kodi can be configured to start via a key press. Users will need kodi-standalone-serviceAUR and . This can be useful on setups running 24/7 and having kodi up on demand.

See the corresponding LIRC article and create a functional setup with a remote. Also, the package kodi-standalone-serviceAUR has to be installed.

Generate the file with the following content:

Adopt to whatever button on the remote is to start Kodi. One can use irw (see LIRC#Testing) to find out the correct values for and .

Create a drop-in for :

Start and enable it to run at boot time.

Using a remote control

As Kodi is geared toward being a remote-controlled media center via an official app, physical remote control, or USB/bluetooth keyboard/mouse.

Using the Android or iOS app

Both Android and iOS users can use the official app (currently free of charge) to control kodi once it is correctly setup to do so. Steps to configure both Kodi and the app are detailed on the Official Kodi Remote and Kore Manual page.

Tip: Kore provides power management actions to perform remotely suspend/hibernation and Wake-on-LAN (WoL).

Using a physical remote control

Any PC with a supported IR receiver/remote, can use LIRC or even kernel supported modules to drive it. Configuring specific remotes with lirc is covered on the LIRC article.

To work properly with Kodi, a file that maps the lirc events to Kodi keypresses is needed. Create an XML file at ~/.kodi/userdata/Lircmap.xml (note the capital 'L'). 

format is as follows:
  • Device Name is whatever LIRC calls the remote. This is set using the Name directive in lircd.conf and can be viewed by running and pressing a few buttons on the remote. IRW will report the name of the button pressed and the name of the remote will appear on the end of the line.
  • XBMC_button is the name of the button as defined in keymap.xml.
  • LIRC_button is the name as defined in . If was autogenerated using , these are the names selected for the buttons. Refer back to LIRC for more information.
  • A very thorough LIRC page hosted on the Kodi Wiki should be consulted for more help and information on this subject as this is out of scope of this article.

HDMI-CEC

With a supported USB-CEC adapter, Kodi can be used to automatically turn on and off the TV and other home theater equipment. Volume control from Kodi can be sent to a supported amplifier, one can manage DVD or Blu-Ray players from inside Kodi, and redirect the active source on the TV to whichever equipment needs it, all from one remote control. For more information see the official Kodi wiki page on CEC and libCEC FAQ.

Install .

When connected, the USB-CEC's entry (usually /dev/ttyACM*) will default to being owned by the group, so in order to use the device the user running Kodi needs to belong to that group. The user also needs to belong to the group, otherwise Kodi will be unable to connect to the device. See Users and groups#Group management for instructions on how to add users to groups.

  • Add all users that will use Kodi to the and user groups.
  • Users of kodi-standalone-serviceAUR do not need to take any action as group membership is handled automatically upon installation.

Sharing media and a centralized database across multiple nodes

If multiple PCs on the same network are running Kodi, they can be configured to share a single media library (video and music). The advantage of this is media and key metadata are stored in one place, and are shared/updated by all nodes on the network. For example, users of this setup can:

  • Stop watching a movie or show in one room then finish watching it in another room automatically.
  • Share watched and unwatched status for media on all nodes.
  • Simplify the setup with only a single library to maintain.

As well, the media itself can be located in one space thus allowing a lighter footprint of client systems (ie no need for large HDD space).

Several things are needed for this to work:

  • Network exposed media (via protocols that Kodi can read, e.g. NFS or Samba).
  • A MariaDB server.
Note: The following guide is only an example of one configuration and is not meant to be limiting but illustrative. Key steps are shown but a detailed discussion is not offered.

These assumptions are used for the guide, substitute as needed:

  • The media is located under following mount points: .
  • The network addresses of all nodes are within the 192.168.0.* subnet range.
  • The IP address of the machine running both the NFS exports and the MariaDB database is 192.168.0.105.
  • Each Kodi box is referred to as a node.
  • The Linux user running Kodi is 'kodi' on all nodes.

For additional info, refer to the official Kodi wiki.

NFS server export example

This section provides an example using exports, see NFS for install and usage.

Create an empty directory in NFS root for each media directory to be shared. E.g.:

# mkdir -p /srv/nfs/{shows,movies,music}

Bind mount the media directories to the empty directories in /srv/nfs/.

Setup exports:

Install and set up the MariaDB server

See MariaDB for installation and configuration instructions.

To create a database for Kodi, use the following commands:

$ mysql -u root -p
   <<enter the mariadb root password assigned in the first step>>
MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE USER 'kodi' IDENTIFIED BY 'kodi';
MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL ON *.* TO 'kodi';
MariaDB [(none)]> flush privileges;
MariaDB [(none)]> \q

Set up Kodi to use the common SQL database

To tell Kodi to use the common database, insure that Kodi is not running, then create the following file:

Set up network shares

Load Kodi and define the network shares that correspond to the exports by browsing to the following within the interface Video > Files > Add Videos > Browse > Network Filesystem(NFS).

After a few seconds, the IP address corresponding to the NFS server should appear.

Select from the list of share and then OK from the menu on the right. Assign this share the category of TV Shows to setup the appropriate scraper and to populate the SQL database with the correct metadata.

Repeat this browsing process for the "movies" and "music" and then exit Kodi once properly configured. At this point, the SQL tables should have been created.

Cloning the configuration to other nodes on the network

To set up another Kodi node on the network to use this library, simply copy to that box and restart Kodi. There is NO need to copy any other files or to do any other setup steps on the new kodi node. The nfs exports, the metadata for the programming, any stop/start times, view status, etc. are all stored in the SQL tables.

Tips and Tricks

Keep a log of what is watched

Keep track of every video watched on kodi with kodi-loggerAUR.

Speedup video playback (synchronized audio and video) up to 1.5x

To enable speed-up and slow-down with audio/video sync (0.8x - 1.5x) do the following:

  • Create the following file that will map the and keys to the tempo down and actions, respectively:
  • Restart kodi which will read in these changes.
  • Navigate to System > Player > Videos > Playback and enable "Sync playback to display" option.

Modify default values for watch and resume points

Some users may wish to make the thresholds Kodi uses to create a resume point/consider a video "watched" entirely. Do so by editing inserting the following three xml fields:

  • ignoresecondsatstart: the number of seconds to wait before keeping track of the start point. If users watch a value below the one defined, no start point is recorded. Default is 180.
  • playcountminimumpercent: the percentage of total play time to consider something watched. If users watch more of the video that this number but not the entire video, it is considered watched and any previously recorded resume point is deleted upon stopping and finally, the video is flagged as watched. Default is 90.
  • ignorepercentatend: the percentage of total play time at the end of a video to ignore making a resume point. This is related to the previous setting except it considers the last x percent of the video. If users watch enough content to enter this space of the file, no resume point is saved and the video is flagged as watched. Default is 8.

CLI for kodi
  • can handle many aspects of library management, from clean-up of unused images, to searching, to querying what is currently playing.

Hardware video acceleration

Enable and configure hardware video acceleration to speed up playback performance.

Restart Kodi and enable the hardware backend(s) in Playback under Settings.

Use Kodi to view security camera streams (rtsp or rtmp)

Since Kodi uses ffmpeg for video playback, it is able to play streams such as rtsp and rtmp can be viewed. To do so, simply create a txt file in the filesystem exposed to the kodi user containing the stream. For example:

$ cat front-door.strm
rtsp://username:password@10.1.10.101

Optionally meta-data, such as cover art and summaries can also be associated to the .strm file just like normal entries in a library by using an NFO file.

UPnP and DLNA

Go to Settings > Services > UPnP/DLNA and toggle Enable UPnP support.

Adjusting CD/DVD drive speed

The eject program from the util-linux package does a nice job for this, but its setting is cleared as soon as the media is changed.

This udev-rule reduces the speed permanently:

Replace with the device name of the optical drive. Replace with -x 4 if the preference is 4x-speed instead of 2x-speed.

After creating the file, reload the udev rules with

# udevadm control --reload

Use port 80 for webserver

Kodi has a webservice that allows interaction through a web-interface. By default, it uses port as requires root privileges. Use the following to permit it to use low port numbers:

# setcap 'cap_net_bind_service=+ep' /usr/lib/kodi/kodi.bin

Restart Kodi and set port in the configuration menu (Services > Webserver > Port).

Using ALSA

If PulseAudio does not work properly, try using ALSA directly by starting Kodi with the environment variable. The Kodi wiki for NUC devices provides instructions

If using , change the variable in /usr/bin/kodi-standalone to

APP="${bindir}/pasuspender -- env KODI_AE_SINK=ALSA ${bindir}/${bin_name} --standalone $@"

If the above fix still does not work with kodi-standalone try editing the following

Audio Passthrough

One can allow an external receiver or sound bar to decode audio by enabling passthrough. This is useful for files encoded in TrueHD or Atmos. If using PulseAudio, follow the instructions at https://kodi.wiki/view/PulseAudio to first enable passthrough in PulseAudio. Once complete, the corresponding passthrough options should appear in Kodi. If using ALSA, the passthrough options will appear in Kodi without modifications provided that the AE_SINK=ALSA environment variable is defined prior to starting kodi.

Another way of getting TrueHD and DTS-MA passthrough without disabling Pulseaudio or Pipewire-Pulse is to use an external player like MPV, first create the file then paste the following into it:

<playercorefactory>
  <players>
    <player name="MPV" type="ExternalPlayer" audio="false" video="true">
      <filename>/usr/bin/mpv</filename>
      <args>--fs=yes "{1}"</args>
      <hidexbmc>true</hidexbmc>
    </player>
  </players>
  <rules action="prepend">
    <rule video="true" player="MPV"/>
  </rules>
</playercorefactory>

MPV should now be the default media player for Kodi, now you need to set the correct audio output device for MPV, you can use the following command to show a list of available audio devices:

$ mpv --audio-device=help

For example:

alsa/hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1

Now edit and add the following lines:

audio-spdif=ac3,eac3,dts-hd,truehd
audio-device=alsa/hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1

To have auto switching of refresh rates create the following folder then download and place mpv-plugin-xrandr/xrandr.lua into the scripts folder you just created.

Kodi JSON-RPC API to alter settings from external tools

Users can interact directly with Kodi on the CLI or from a python script etc. by making use of the JSON-RPC API.

For example, using :

$ curl -v -H "Content-type: application/json" -d \
  '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"Settings.GetSettingValue","params":{"setting":"audiooutput.audiodevice"}}' \
  http://localhost:8080/jsonrpc -u xbmc:xbmc

Another example is this python script which simply toggles between two groups of settings, in this case, toggling the audio source back-and-forth between HDMI and optical out.

Fix for delayed startup on wifi

If running with WiFi only (wired network unplugged) while #Sharing media and a centralized database across multiple nodes, kodi will likely start before the wireless network is up, which will result in failure to connect to the shares and to the SQL server. Assuming the network is managed by the default systemd-networkd, this can be fixed by using a drop-in file for :

[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-networkd-wait-online --ignore eth0

Run kodi in a window manager

Users running kodi in a Window manager may see a black screen at exit. To fix this, try switching to another tty. A possible solution is to run kodi with this script (running as the root user):

kodi.sh
#!/bin/sh
kodi-standalone
sudo chvt 2 
sleep 1
sudo chvt 1

To make sure that sudo does not ask for password for add this line to sudoers file:

USB DAC not working

Users of USB DAC/sound cards may experience distorted sound/clicks/pops or no sound at all when selecting it from Audio settings. A possible fix:

Open (it should be under if using the supplied ) and change

<processquality default="true">101</processquality>

to

<processquality default="false">100</processquality>

Virtual file system support

Kodi provides addons for accessing various virtual file systems from within Kodi. RAR archives can be accessed using . SFTP shares can be accessed using . Super Audio CD ISO files can be access using . Each of these addons must be enabled within Kodi's addon manager in order to be utilized.

Inhibit KDE automatic sleep during playback

Using the add-on ossscreensavermanager in combination with commands using kwriteconfig5 it is possible to inhibit KDE's power saving functions during playback. Install the add-on, then under its advanced settings write under "Command to suspend screen saver":

kwriteconfig5 --file powermanagementprofilesrc --group AC --group SuspendSession --key idleTime 1800000

Under "Command to resume screen saver", write:

kwriteconfig5 --file powermanagementprofilesrc --group AC --group SuspendSession --key idleTime 86400000

In this example, the system suspends after 360 minutes during playback, and after 30 minutes without playback.

Troubleshooting

Accessing Kodi logs

In case of an error the first point to start investigation can be .

Fullscreen mode stretches Kodi across multiple displays

For a multi-monitor setup, Kodi may default to stretching across all screens. One can restrict the fullscreen mode to one display by setting the environment variable SDL_VIDEO_FULLSCREEN_HEAD to the number of the desired target display. For example, having Kodi show up on display 0, add the following line to the Kodi user's configuration:

SDL_VIDEO_FULLSCREEN_HEAD=0
Note: Mouse cursor will be held inside screen with Kodi.

H.264 playback is using only a single core

If the hardware does not or cannot make use of acceleration, disable it and explicitly set video decoding to software. This is because H.264 decoding is only multithreaded when video decoding is set to software.

To achieve this, go to System Settings > Video. Set the to or . Then go to Acceleration and set to .

Kodi hangs on exit, fully occupying one CPU core, UI unresponsive

This problem can arise with third-party plugins installed, there is some issue with their termination,.

Workaround: find proper UI description file () and tweak exit button type from internal Kodi's function call to sending signal from outside system to Kodi. Here is one-liner that makes modifications to any skin from the default Kodi package:

# find /usr/share/kodi/addons/skin.* -name DialogButtonMenu.xml -exec sed -i 's%<onclick>Quit()</onclick>%<onclick>System.Exec ("killall --signal SIGHUP kodi.bin")</onclick>%' {} \;

kodi-standalone will not play DVDs

If kodi-standalone will not play DVDs, it may help to install udisks.

gollark: 37010
gollark: I cannot hear you.
gollark: Fear it.
gollark: <@747067747569106974> It has been an hour or so. I RETURN.
gollark: I will be available in an hour or so.

See also
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