Installing LE

Burning an SD card with the Libreelec utility did not work, but Etcher did the trick. I also switched from a 2 GB to an 8 GB card, perhaps that was a factor, too.

Installed the image onto an SD card, so that I can switch back to the original installation if it doesn’t work out. I ended up using LibreELEC-Odroid_C2.aarch64-8.2.1.img.gz

Recovering the library

This is where I was really happy to have the EMMC with the original Kodi image. It’s really easy to swap it in and out, so that you can get access to the original data and files.

Exported the original library to a single file.

Imported it again in the new install. Seemless. You do need to switch the skin to Advanced mode in order to get access to the Import and Export functions.

Browsing the network in order to open the library was a challenge at first. It helps if you set the Workgroup to the same workgroup that your server is in. I had to change it in 2 places: The LibreElec Add-on and the Kodi network settings. Then, it worked.

Disable SSH password

SSH on Libreelec only supports the default user/pass combination (root/libreelec). In order to secure this, I used ssh-copy-key root@libreelec to copy my ssh keys to the device. You might need to make a key first, Google it.

Then, disable the password login in the Libreelec settings addon in Kodi.

Disable blinking blue led

Followed this link

The startup scripts in Libreelec are very simple, so actually you put the following into /storage/.config/autostart.sh:

echo none > /sys/devices/gpio_leds.43/leds/blue:heartbeat/trigger

and then (using ssh):

chmod a+x autostart.sh

Another option for the trigger, is default-on. I prefer this trigger in combination with a killing of the LED at shutdown, to confirm a safe shutdown state. This is in my /Configfiles/shutdown.sh:

#!/bin/sh

case "$1" in
  halt)
    # your commands here

	echo none > /sys/class/leds/blue\:heartbeat/trigger
    ;;
  poweroff)
    # your commands here
	echo none > /sys/class/leds/blue\:heartbeat/trigger
    ;;
  reboot)
    # your commands here
    ;;
  *)
    # your commands here
    ;;
esac

Favourite plugins

• Youtube
• BSPlayer
• Arctic Zephyr
• Uitzendinggemist (NPO)
• Nederland 24

Keymap changes

The Minix A2 Lite air mouse is quite nice, but the default support in Kodi is a bit lacking. You can improve it a lot with a few modifications. The first, is to be able to use the back button properly.

As a reference, the following site is really helpful, as it lists the key codes for the remote

Back button goes back in menus

On the Odroid forum

I created a file called A2lite.xml into the Samba share /Userdata/keymaps on the box. Restart (the skin?) and the back button behaves properly. Look at the forum posts for a few options, including automatically stopping the media playing.

The file:

<keymap>
<global>
<keyboard>
<backspace>Back</backspace>
<key id='61467'>Back</key>
</keyboard>
</global>
<FullscreenVideo>
<keyboard>
<backspace>Back</backspace>
</keyboard>
</FullscreenVideo>
</keymap>

Subtitle shifting

I like to use the Fast Forward and Fast Reverse buttons to shift the sub delay. That way, it’s easy to fix small errors in timing. Also, I configure the key with the three horizontal lines, to switch subtitle options.

A Subs.xml could look like this:

<keymap>
 <global>
  <keyboard>
   <key id="61654">contextmenu</key>
  </keyboard>
 </global>
 <fullscreenvideo>
  <keyboard>
   <key id="61654">nextsubtitle</key>
   <key id="61627">subtitledelayminus</key>
   <key id="61626">subtitledelayplus</key>
  </keyboard>
 </fullscreenvideo>
</keymap>

Getting LIRC to work

Careful: this is untested and probably not really correct

cp /etc/lirc/lircd.conf.amremote /storage/.config/lircd.conf reboot

systemctl stop eventlircd.service systemctl stop lircd@lirc0:default:lircd.conf.amremote.service ps aux|grep lirc

597 root       0:00 {kodi.sh} /bin/sh /usr/lib/kodi/kodi.sh --standalone -fs --lircdev /run/lirc/lircd
602 root       2:15 /usr/lib/kodi/kodi.bin --standalone -fs --lircdev /run/lirc/lircd
773 root       0:00 grep lirc

irrecord –device /dev/lirc0 /storage/.config/lircd.conf