LibreELEC is a minimalist 'Just enough OS' Linux distribution for running Kodi. Our documentation can help you install and configure LibreELEC to run Kodi, or develop and build installation images using our buildsystem.

Documentation is authored and maintained by LibreELEC users. If you see something is incorrect or missing please click the GitBook link below to join our documentation team. The GitBook online app makes changing documentation simple, with your changes sent directly to our documentation repo on GitHub as a pull-request that project staff can review and merge.

https://app.gitbook.com/invite/-MLu6vC60WCTrc5ntH0o/-MLu6xOKP1FP_QoIzYwk

All content is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

Support

User support is managed through our forum: and the #libreelec IRC channel on Libera Chat. Start a forum thread to ask a question, and someone will reply. Please be patient and wait for answers, we are all unpaid volunteers with jobs and families!

For support on Kodi itself, please refer to the official and .

The “LibreELEC USB-SD Creator” app helps you select and download the latest LibreELEC image for your HTPC device and create bootable USB or SD Card media. The tool is available for current 64-bit Windows 10/11 versions, and macOS v14.x and newer.

Download Links:

• LibreELEC.USB-SD.Creator.x64.exe (sha256)

• LibreELEC.USB-SD.Creator.macOS.dmg (sha256)

Note: The Linux version of the app for Ubuntu and Debian derivatives is not currently available. Please see the note on Alternatives below.

Step 1

Choose the LibreELEC image and the app will show the latest stable release, e.g.

• Generic x86_64 - LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-12.0.1.img.gz

• RaspberryPi 2/3 - LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-12.0.1.img.gz

• RaspberryPi 4 - LibreELEC-RPi4.arm-12.0.1.img.gz

• RaspberryPi 5 - LibreELEC-RPi5.arm-12.0.1.img.gz

If you select the 'Show all' check-box the drop list includes older stable releases too.

Step 2

After selecting the LibreELEC image and version click the Download button. This will prompt you to select a folder to download to. You can also select a previously downloaded image file on your machine for installation. Hit the Select file button and browse your computer for the .img.gz file, or drag/drop the file on the app GUI.

Step 3

Select the USB stick or SD card to write the image onto. Click the refresh button if the removable device is not listed. Note: ALL DATA ON THE TARGET DEVICE WILL BE OVERWRITTEN so please ensure there is no important data on it!

Step 4

After selecting an image and target device the Write button is available. Click it to write the image. Once the progress bar reaches 100% and shows Writing done! you can exit the app, eject the USB or SD media, and boot your device to install LibreELEC.

Support

If you have problems with the app, please post in the .

Alternatives

Here are some alternative tools that can be used for creating LibreELEC boot media:

• can create Raspberry Pi images using files from our servers

• is popular but huge (almost the same size as our distro images!)

• is a reliable tool for Windows OS devices

• is available from most Linux OS command lines

If you experience problems and want to investigate yourself or ask others for help in the forum or the IRC channel, a log file (or files) and configuration data provides useful info.

Kodi has default and debug log modes. As you'd expect, debug logs show more detail and are more useful for staff and forum regulars to work with. If you are asked for a log - assume the request is for a debug log and for the entire log file, not just the small snippet you think is useful (often we need to see and understand the configuration too).

Enable 'debug logging' at Settings → System → Logging, then paste or copy/share the logs.

LibreELEC Settings

The settings add-on has a built-in "paste" function that grabs the current Kodi log file and other useful system configuration details and sends them to the pastebin service. It is an easy way for inexperienced (or command-line phobic) users to share logs.

Navigate to LibreELEC → System → scroll down to Paste system logs and press enter to submit them. Once the upload completes the GUI will show a short URL that you can copy and use in a forum post or while chatting to developers on IRC.

SSH/Console

SSH into your LibreELEC machine and run the following command:

You will get a short URL back. That will look like this:

Copy and paste the URL link to a forum post or an IRC chat session, or review it yourself.

Samba/SMB

If Samba (SMB Sharing) is enabled you can collect the log file by accessing the Logfile folder over the network. This is a special folder. When you access the folder it triggers a task to collect the current Kodi log and system configuration, and package everything into a single zip file that can be copied back to your local machine or unpacked in the share. The auto-created files are named with date and time to make it easier to find the latest file. Inside the zip are multiple files. The main one project staff will be interested in is KODI.log

!! PLEASE DO NOT UPLOAD LOG/ZIP FILES TO THE FORUM !!

Instead, open KODI.log in a text editor and copy/paste the content to an internet "paste" service like then share the paste URL. This makes reviewing your log a "one click" exercise so more people are likely to review it, and it saves a ton of disk space on our forum server.

Kodi Log Uploader

The "Kodi Log Uploader" add-on can be installed from the Kodi add-on repo. It will detect that is being used on LibreELEC to collect the correct log files, and it performs the same task as the paste function in the LibreELEC settings add-on. The main difference is that Kodi Log Uploader displays a QR code on-screen to make the process of copying the pastebin URL for use easier (for some). It also sends the log to the Team Kodi pastebin service, which uses highlighting to make reading the logfile easier for developers and forum staff.

Dragonboard 410c support exists in LibreELEC as open-source freedreno drivers provided a stable Linux reference implementation of stateful V4L2m2m uAPI usage, allowing Team Kodi developers to evolve support for GBM and EGL/DRMPRIME rendering with zero-copy hardware decoding, which is now the foundation for future support of Kodi on Linux.

Kodi runs well on the Dragonboard 410c due to mature support in the Linux kernel and ffmpeg, but it is a expensive board to purchase and rather fiddly to flash with a LibreELEC image, so is not hardware the project staff recommends. Device support remains in the buildsystem for occasional reference testing of changes and we do not provide release images.

It is technically possible to dual-boot LibreELEC alongside an existing Windows or Linux installation, but the installation process is complex and less experienced users are prone to mistakes that result in their main Desktop OS and personal data being wiped from the hard drive. LibreELEC installers assume a dedicated disk target and cannot install into a spare partition or free space on the same drive that boots the Desktop OS. For this reason the project staff do not encourage or support dual-boot configurations. If you choose to attempt one and things go wrong, you were warned!

Updating LibreELEC is (mostly) simple and can be done automatically, manually from inside the Kodi GUI via the LibreELEC Settings add-on, by downloading an update file from our website and copying the file to a local Samba share, or by running a command from the SSH console. We publish two image file types:

• LibreELEC-Project.arch-11.0.1.tar (update) files which are used for updates only.

• LibreELEC-Project.arch-11.0.1.img.gz (update + image) files which are used for creating new USB/SD installation media but can also be used for updates.

We can update from both .tar and .img.gz files.

Auto-Update

Auto-Update is enabled by default and tracks minor version updates, e.g. LibreELEC 11.0.0 will update to 11.0.1, 11.0.2, etc. as they are released. It will not perform major version updates as these involve Kodi add-on updates (broken add-ons are the main source of update issues) and user-experience changes we do not want to force onto users. If auto-update is enabled the latest update file will download in the background, then Kodi will prompt you to reboot and start the update process. If you prefer to manage system updates manually, auto-update can be disabled in the settings add-on.

Settings Add-On

Navigate to the Update section of the settings add-on, select the update channel (LibreELEC major version) and then the specific minor version to update to. The update file will start downloading, and once complete the system will reboot to perform the update.

Please see the following video

Samba Share

Using a file browser (explorer.exe, not a web browser) copy/paste an update file to the \\LIBREELEC\UPDATE Samba share on your LibreELEC device. Once the file transfer has completed, reboot LibreELEC to start the update process.

SSH Console

SSH into your LibreELEC device and navigate to the (hidden) update folder

Check to make sure there are no files in the folder

Download the update file (change the URL for the current release, etc.)

Once the download has completed, reboot to start the update process

USB Drive

Download the LibreELEC image or update file and copy it to a USB drive. Connect the USB drive to your HTPC and navigate to the /storage/.update/ update folder using Kodi File Manager (you will need to enable viewing of hidden files and folders in Kodi settings). Copy the update file from the USB drive to /storage/.update then reboot to start the update process.

Downgrade

Kodi does not support downgrading. If "updating" within the same LibreELEC/Kodi major release, e.g. LibreELEC 11.0.1 to 11.0.0, the downgrade will normally work. If downgrading to an older LibreELEC/Kodi major version e.g. LibreELEC 11.0.1 to 10.0.4, the downgrade process will complete but Kodi may not gracefully handle being restarted with configuration files and add-ons from the (newer) previous release. Always make a backup before upgrading so that you can clean install then restore the backup to effect a downgrade without problems.

Migrate OpenELEC

In 2016 when we forked from OpenELEC the differences between projects were small and it was simple to migrate by using our update .tar file. Today there are some challenges:

• LibreELEC images for Generic x86_64 hardware have grown to 240MB+ in size and most older OpenELEC installs have a small 230MB boot partition so LibreELEC files will not fit and the manual .tar update process will fail (gracefully). Raspberry Pi and similar images are smaller and will still fit, but read on:

• Older Kodi add-ons are frequently incompatible with newer Kodi versions, causing crashes when the system restarts, and the bigger the version jump the more likely add-ons will cause problems. LibreELEC will detect when Kodi repeatedly fails to start and defaults to a "safe mode" configuration, but this normally requires you to access the SSH console to get back to a working setup.

• Kodi does not self-manage media and add-on package caches so over-time filesystem litter accumulates. Starting over from a clean install removes all the not-needed junk resulting in a faster/lighter installation with an improved Kodi user experience.

To migrate essential Kodi data from the old installation before migrating (which is likely to fail) or making a clean installation, enable the SSH service in the Settings add-on, then log-in over SSH to stop Kodi and back-up the userdata folder:

Backup files are normally 1-2GB in size so move them off-box by copying to USB or moving them to /storage/backup which is accessible over the network via the \\LIBREELEC\BACKUP Samba share. After clean installing LibreELEC you can restore the backup:

The following video shows the migration process from OpenELEC v7.0 to LibreELEC v7.0 as it looked in 2016. The Kodi GUI now looks different (the skin changed) but the process remains the same:

Current iMX6 images support the ARMv7-A dual-lite and quad versions (ARM Cortex-A9) of the following boards:

• Cubox-i

• Wandboard

• Udoo

Current iMX8 images are experimental and do not support a specific board.

The project builds an OVA version of the Generic (x86_64) imported which can be imported into current versions of vmware Workstation, Fusion (on Intel macOS hardware), and vSphere (ESXi). The OVA exists to support project team-member development activities, e.g. functional testing of userspace changes and the LibreELEC settings add-on without needing to use HTPC hardware.

We have never formally supported running LibreELEC in a hypervisor. This is mainly because none of the active project maintainers do this, so when software breakage to the OVA occurs the break often goes undiscovered and unfixed for many months (until the next time some development needing it takes place).

As we do not support the current VMware oriented OVA image, there are no plans to extend virtual image non-support to include Hyper-V, KVM, QEMU or any other hypervisors.

We use GitHub Actions to automate building of "nightly" development snapshots of the master and stable branches and the add-ons for testing. Images can be downloaded from https://test.libreelec.tv/.

Kodi includes a default font that supports a large number of languages in a reasonable file size. It does not support all languages as this would require a font file larger than a LibreELEC image!

If you see blank squares for titles and filenames instead of readable text - You need to add a custom Arial True-Type (.ttf) font that supports the missing language characters and glyphs.

In LibreELEC create /storage/.kodi/userspace/Fonts/ (note the capital F) and place an Arial based font in the folder, e.g. /storage/.kodi/userspace/Fonts/Arial.ttf - after rebooting or restarting Kodi the font can be selected in Kodi Settings > Interface > Skin > Fonts.

Odroid XU4 and XU3 boards can run the Exynos image which uses a current upstream Linux kernel with a mesa/panfrost open-source graphics pipeline and the latest Kodi version.

H264, H263, VP8 and other older codecs are supported. XU4/XU3 do not have HEVC or VP9 support and cannot handle software decoding those formats.

Note: The Samsung S5-MFP decoding drivers regressed after Linux 5.4 when a cleanup was done on the driver that removed functionality. The original plan was to restore function in later changes, but this never happened. Due to the age of the boards now, is unlikely to happen. You may find the Linux 5.4 kernel images in the HardKernel forums are more functional.

Exynos images are designed to boot and run from SD card, but can also boot from an eMMC module if upstream u-boot is installed to the /dev/mmcblk1boot0 or /dev/mmcblk1boot1 partitions. The boot process requires extlinux support so will not work with the older vendor u-boot versions that sometime ship pre-installed on XU4 eMMC modules.

cron can be used to schedule timed event execution of binaries and scripts, e.g. download of EPG guides on a repeating time interval (hourly, every 12 hours, etc.) or running a nightly backup script in the background at 2am.

Running crontab -e will open the root user crontab in nano allowing you to paste content your cron commands. Use ctrl+o to save the file and ctrl-x to exit nano.

For more info on cron commands, see: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CronHowto

LibreELEC original code is licensed under the GPL v2.0

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.en.html

Disclaimer

• Only nightly releases are available right now. Use at your own risk!

• Boards/STBs with less than 1GiB of RAM are not supported

Boards Supported

A64 based boards

• OrangePi Win

• Pine64

• Pine64 LTS

• Pine64 Plus

H3 based boards

• BananaPi M2+

• Beelink X2

• Libretech ALL-H3-CC (Tritium)

• NanoPi M1

H5 based boards

• OrangePi PC 2

H6 based boards

• Beelink GS1

• OrangePi 3

• OrangePi 3 LTS

• OrangePi Lite 2

R40 based boards

• BananaPi M2 Ultra

LibreELEC builds and hosts a number of Kodi binary add-ons to extend functionality, e.g.

• Audio Encoders

• Audio Decoders

• Image Decoders

• Inputstream parsers

• PVR clients

• Screensavers

• Virtual Filesystems

• Visualisations

We also provide a range of program/service add-ons, including:

• .net Core Runtime

• Adafruit Libraries

• BTRFS Tools

• DVB Tools

"Tools" add-ons bundle multiple binaries into a single add-on with a themed purpose to reduce repo maintenance. Look in the Kodi GUI and the info panel will tell you the list of binaries in each bundle.

LibreELEC displays the project logo as a background "splash" screen during boot. This can be changed to your own image by placing oemsplash.png in the boot partition.

Copy your splash image to the Downloads folder, then SSH into your LibreELEC box. Next we must remount the boot partition in read-write mode so we can make changes:

mount -o remount,rw /flash

Copy your splash image to the boot partition, renaming it to oemsplash.png

cp /storage/downloads/yoursplash.png /flash/oemsplash.png

Remount the boot partition in read-only mode:

mount -o remount,ro /flash

On reboot you should see the new bootsplash.

Splash Image Requirements

Splash images must be a 32-bit png files with 1920 x 1080, 1280 x 720, or 1024 x 768 pixel dimensions. Images will be upscaled to the active display resolution, so it is best to use the largest resolution (but not 4k, as most boot firmware does not support 4k output). Most OS image editors do not support 32-bit png export, so we recommend the excellent and open-source editor for making boot splashes.

Linux kernel firmware files are normally installed in /usr/lib/firmware but in LibreELEC this directory is inside the read-only SYSTEM file preventing you from adding files. To allow user changes we support overlays. Copy firmware files and subfolders to /storage/.config/firmware and reboot. On boot the folders/files will be overlaid onto /usr/lib/firmware where kernel drivers expect to see them.

Example

The following text from dmesg shows the kernel failing to load rtl8761a_config.binwhich is needed for a Bluetooth device to work:

This can be fixed by creating the overlay directories and downloading the missing firmware file from the linux-firmware repository, then rebooting.

Firmware files can also be copied via the local Samba/SMB shares, as shown below:

LibreELEC images are targeted at common HTPC device hardware: typically small form-factor and single-board computer devices that are static/attached to a TV or AVR device. One characteristic of common target hardware is a single active display connection even if the hardware has several output connector options. Laptops are not target hardware devices for the project, but the "Generic" x86_64 image(s) boot and run on a wide range of x86_64 devices and some users recycle old laptops as their HTPC. Laptops normally support multiple active display outputs: the internal LCD screen plus one of the following:

• HDMI

• DisplayPort

• VGA

Some laptops can disable the internal screen and force display to an external output using BIOS configuration. Some detect whether the laptop lid is open or closed, and when closed output is automatically directed to an active external connector. Others require run-time switching using keyboard function keys, e.g. Fn+F7 but this needs software support in the OS, and since we are intentionally minimalist LibreELEC does not have that support.

In most cases with multiple display outputs the internal display probes first and display output is directed there. In this scenario users need to manually edit kernel boot parameters to disable the internal display connector, allowing the external connector to be found and used instead.

Enable SSH services and SSH into the laptop, then identify output devices:

The above output shows two display "connectors" are active and connected:

• eDP-1 = the internal screen

• HDMI-A-1 = the external HDMI connector

NB: Some laptops may use "LVDS-1" for the internal screen, and "VGA-1" for the external connector.

Next we make the boot partition writeable so boot parameters can be edited:

Now we edit them in the nano text editor:

Connectors are disabled by adding video= options, e.g. video=eDP-1:d will disable the eDP-1 connector allowing HDMI-A-1 to be used instead. In the example below the APPEND line has been modified to disable the eDP-1 connector:

After adding the details for the connector, you need to disable, save (ctr+o) and exit (ctrl+x) then reboot to test the change. On restart, the external connector should be the only active connector and Kodi should appear on the external display device. As the output capabilities of the external connector will be different to the internal screen, you may need to adjust the Kodi desktop resolution in Kodi display settings to match e.g. 720p or 1080p output.

The build-system also builds a range of LibreELEC or Kodi binary add-ons. These follow the same basic build command syntax as an image build, e.g. to build Tvheadend 4.2

PROJECT=Generic ARCH=x86_64 scripts/create_addon tvheadend42

To compile all game.libretro add-ons:

PROJECT=Generic ARCH=x86_64 scripts/create_addon game.*

To compile all https://github.com/LibreELEC/LibreELEC.tv/tree/master/packages/mediacenter/kodi-binary-addons:

To compile all https://github.com/LibreELEC/LibreELEC.tv/tree/master/packages/addons:

To compile all add-ons:

It is also possible to exclude specific add-ons:

To log errors to the $BUILD/logs/ directory:

To show help and list all add-on building functions:

Note

In LibreELEC 10.x and newer ARM SoC devices (Allwinner, Amlogic, NXP, Qualcomm, Rockchip, Samsung) use the ARMv7 or ARMv8 project. This project uses a minimal distro configuration (disabling most features) to reduce the overall time spent on building add-on dependencies.

In most Linux distros modules are blacklisted by creating /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf which contains the name of the module. In LibreELEC /etc is inside the read-only SYSTEM file so we provide an alternate location /storage/.config/modprobe.d which is overlaid onto the normal /etc location during boot.

Example

To blacklist the rc-pinnacle-pctv-hd module. Login to your LibreELEC box using SSH and confirm the module is loaded:

If the module is loaded, append the module name to blacklist.conf:

Now reboot to effect the change.

Module vs Driver

This approach to blacklisting only works with modules that are compiled with =m to create an independent module; meaning they are loaded via modprobe. If the module has been compiled directly into the kernel with =y modprobe is not used and this method has no effect. Drivers that are compiled-in are normally controlled via kernel boot params.

Enabling WiFi and Bluetooth

BananaPi M5 and M2S have an optional WiFi mezzanine board with an RTL8822CS chip providing 802.11 b/g/n/ac on 2.4GHz/5GHz channels and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity. The board is not active unless enabled through a device tree modification.

On BPI-M5 create /storage/.config/autostart.sh with the following content:

On BPI-M2S create /storage/.config/autostart.sh with the following content:

Create a bootable SD card using the AMLGX "box" image, then edit the uEnv.ini file in the root folder of the SD card and change @@DTB_NAME@@ to meson-gxbb-wetek-hub.dtb or meson-gxbb-wetek-play2.dtb then save/eject and boot the box using the SD card. If you have been booting from SD card before it should automatically detect the card and boot into LibreELEC. If you have been booting from eMMC you may need to select "boot from SD Card" during boot.

Once the box has booted into the "box" image you can download the latest WeTek "board" image and install LibreELEC to internal eMMC storage using emmctool. This permanently overwrites the Android vendor OS with LibreELEC.

Find the URL for the relevant board image on the

WARNING: Hyperion does not support the GBM/V4L2 video pipeline used in LibreELEC 10.x and 11.x: including all Raspberry Pi and Generic x86_64 (GBM) releases. Users with x86_64 hardware can update to the Generic_Legacy (X11) image. Users with Raspberry Pi hardware must use an external grabber hardware device or remain on older releases. Changes to add GBM support to Hyperion are tracked here: https://github.com/hyperion-project/hyperion.ng/pull/1422

is an open source project that provides an ambient lighting system, compatible with Kodi. Hyperion requires hardware and software configuration. This page describes the process to add Hyperion to Generic x86_64 and Raspberry Pi hardware. For software configuration please head over to .

Adalight

Safe Mode

This feature gives users the option to not end up in a Kodi restart loop if something went wrong on the Kodi side and the possibility to fix an existing installation.

How does it work

Useful links

The following links will help you get started with using docker to build LibreELEC.

To force-update an add-on repository:

1. Kodi

2. Add-ons

3. Box icon

cacert.pem

If you run LibreELEC behind an inline proxy that intercepts TLS communications or access content from an TLS encrypted source that requires a self-signed certificate to be trusted, you need to add the private CA certificate to the OS trust chain.

This is done by creating /storage/.config/cacert.pem with the private CA certificate details and rebooting. On restart the ssl-config systemd service will append the private certificate to the OS default certificate file to create a combined file /run/libreelec/cacert.pem which is the symlink target for /etc/ssl/cacert.pem

autostart.sh

The autostart.sh script runs at the start of userspace boot. It can be used to run commands before Kodi starts. It does not exist by default, but you can create it using nano.

You can place any commands in the script, but note they will block the boot process until they complete, so most uses of autostart.sh require you to "background" and delay the commands, e.g. the following script sleeps for 20 seconds and then runs a kodi-send command to update the video library.

No official Blu-ray player software exists for Linux, but open-source libraries allow Kodi (on LibreELEC) to play most Blu-ray discs once /storage/.config/aacs/KEYDB.cfg has been populated with a flat-file database of known encryption keys and certificates. To avoid legal issues with DMCA laws in the USA we cannot pre-configure a key database, so you must install this yourself.

Connect to your LibreELEC device via SSH, then run the following commands:

The current file contains PK, HC, VUK and UK data required for attempting disc decryption with more than 170,000 titles. Periodically running the commands will refresh the KEYDB.cfg file and add support for new Blu-ray discs.

WiFi networks with a hidden SSID are not visible to the connection manager (ConnMan) so cannot be selected in the LibreELEC settings add-on, and even if you manually configure a new ConnMan network profile via SSH, ConnMan cannot see the network to use the stored profile to connect.

LE10 and older use ConnMan to manage connections and wpa_supplicant to create the actual connection. LE11 also use ConnMan to manage connections, but switched from wpa_supplicant to iwd allowing a simple systemd service to be used for connecting to hidden networks.

Create /storage/.config/system.d/hidden-ssid.service with the following content:

Replace <PWD> with the WiFi passphrase and <SSID>

Amlogic images based on the legacy Linux 3.14 kernel were dropped for this release, with development shifting to the mainline Linux kernel.

Notes

To improve Jenkins/CI automation with ARM SoC projects that support multiple $DEVICE types make image will iterate through all board/u-boot configurations for the device defined in scripts/uboot_helper resulting in ~3-10 images in the target folder. To avoid this behaviour and build a single board-specific image UBOOT_SYSTEM=<board> can be appended to the build command, e.g. to build an Amlogic image for a LibreComputer LePotato board:

Several ARM SoC devices have a UBOOT_SYSTEM=box configuration which excludes u-boot and provides all device-trees, allowing the image to boot using the Android/BSP u-boot on eMMC/SPI.

Environment

Official releases were built using Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

This article documents LibreELEC's insecurities: the services we run by default and the security design choices and compromises the OS makes. Where options exist, it also provides guidance or warnings to help you better-secure your LibreELEC installation.

Avahi

Avahi (Zeroconf) runs in the background to announce services like Kodi, Samba, SSH over mDNS to the local network to make connecting from mDNS-aware OS and client applications easier. The service list is updated automatically when individual services are enabled or disabled. Avahi can be disabled in the LibreELEC settings add-on.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is enabled by default if hardware is detected to facilitate connections from remote controls and keyboards, and the OS listens for connections and pairing requests. Devices like speakers normally pair automatically while keyboards, remote controls, and compute devices with input capabilities normally prompt for a PIN code (shown on the screen). Bluetooth services including OBEX file transfer can be disabled in the LibreELEC settings add-on.

Credentials

In a conventional Linux distro users access the OS with a non-privileged user account and use sudoto elevate privileges to perform tasks as the rootuser. This provides security isolation between user and system processes, with the side benefit of preventing easy end-user access to disruptive configuration options that are easily changed or misconfigured resulting in complex support activity.

In LibreELEC there is a singlerootuser and most internal services run as the root user. This reduces distro maintenance and eliminates the need for sudo to provide a simple console experience for users with typically low or no Linux CLI experience. Although users have rootprivileges, most of the filesystem exists in a read-only state so there is limited scope for unskilled users to misconfigure the OS from its default known-good state.

As the default root/libreeleccredential is a well-known secret the first-run wizard prompts for it to be changed. It can also be changed from the console using passwd. It is not possible to add users, groups, or change the user:group context applications run under without creating a custom OS image with baked-in changes.

Firewall

The OS is intended for use inside a home network behind a NAT router/firewall device. It embeds the iptables firewall but this is disabled by default. It can be enabled via the LibreELEC settings add-on, and we provide simple Home/Public options for inexperienced users to enable for essential protection. The "Home" option allows traffic from 192.168.x.x, 172.16.x.x, 10.x.x.x IP ranges (RFC1918) while the "Public" option blocks all traffic from all networks. The firewall automatically enables when custom iptables configuration is provided by the /storage/.config/iptables file.

Samba

Samba is enabled by default to facilitate end-user access to the \Logfiles share when installation completes but the system does not boot to the Kodi home screen. Accessing the\Logfilesshare auto-generates a zip archive containing logs and config info that can be downloaded and shared with project staff and end-users providing support assistance in the forum.

On successful boot the first-run wizard is shown and users can disable Samba. After the wizard has completed Samba services can be enabled/disabled or reconfigured via the LibreELEC settings add-on. Here you can enable authentication and change the default credential used to access the Samba server. You can also downgrade SMB protocol support to min/max SMBv1 to support legacy devices that cannot connect to an SMBv2/v3 capable server.

SSH

SSH services are disabled by default but can be enabled on successful boot in the first-run wizard. If you enable services you are prompted to change the default root/libreeleccredential. After the wizard has completed SSH services can be enabled/disabled or reconfigured via the LibreELEC settings add-on. Here you can reset the root password. The password can also be changed from the local console or SSH console using the standard Linux passwdtool.

For better security and convenience, add a public key to /storage/.ssh/authorized_keys and then disable password authentication in the LibreELEC settings add-on. You can replace the default 2048-bit RSA keys generated on first-boot and stored in the /storage/.ssh directory. New SSH keys must be secured with 600 permissions else the SSH daemon will not start.

VPN

Connecting to any commercial or private VPN server that provides a public IP address to the VPN tunnel network interface requires the server to block inbound connections or the to be enabled with either Home or Public profiles. Services like Samba and SSH listen on all available interfaces so the VPN connection exposes services to the public internet.

WSDD2

The WSDD2 service broadcasts information on Samba share to Windows OS devices to support auto-discovery in Explorer. It is started and stopped alongside the Samba service.

LibreComputer LaFrite (AML-S805X-AC) is an S805X (GXL) board with 512MB or 1GB of RAM and 16MB SPI boot flash. The board runs upstream U-Boot from SPI, and has no SD card slot, so you can boot the AMLGX box or lafrite images written to a USB stick or eMMC module. Default boot order is:

• SPI (built-in)

• EMMC (optional module)

• USB (socket furthest from the GPIO header)

Run LibreELEC from eMMC

LibreComputer preinstalls their eMMC modules with Android, so if you power on the board with the module attached it will always boot into Android. To erase Android or overwrite with LibreELEC the board must first boot from USB without the module attached. Once in LibreELEC booted from USB, the module can be attached, detected, and erased or imaged with the lafrite image:

1. Power on the Board, and boot the AMLGX box image from USB

2. Attach the eMMC module, and from the SSH console:

3. Run emmctool d to detect the module

Updating U-Boot in SPI

LibreComputer provides files for updating the SPI flash. LibreELEC does not need a minimum version to boot, but newer U-Boot firmware fixes some graphical on-screen glitches seen in the early boot stages. To update:

1. Download the latest aml-s805x-ac-spiflash.img and flash it to a USB stick

2. Connect the USB drive to the socket furthest from the GPIO header

3. Power on the board

4. Current U-Boot checks if the new image matches existing firmware, and when it does not (as it is newer) the firmware will be updated. When complete:

UART

The debugging UART is accessible on the 40pin GPIO header:

• TX (Green) on Pin 3

• RX (Grey) on Pin 5

• GND (Black) on Pin 6

HEVC on LibreELEC 9.2.x and 10.x or newer

The following table summarises LibreELEC support for HEVC media on different Raspberry Pi hardware generations:

Raspberry Pi 4, 400, and 5 are the ONLY devices with native hardware decoding of HEVC content, and in LE10 and newer releases (LE11 for RPi5) we support 8/10/12-bit output for great results with 4K HDR material. Note that the original LE 9.2.9 release for RPi4/400 devices only supports 8-bit output for basic playback.

Older Raspberry Pi devices support only software decoded HEVC. In practice Raspberry Pi 3 devices running LE 9.2.x with mild overclocking can play lower-bitrate 1080p content without issues, but if media has higher bitrates and larger filesizes you should expect poor results. Raspberry Pi 2/1/0 models can normally manage 720p media but will struggle with 1080p.

LibreELEC 9.2.x runs best on older Raspberry Pi hardware because the video pipeline in Kodi v18 supports vendor proprietary hardware decoding methods (MMAL and OMXplayer) and custom optimisations for software-based HEVC decoding on Pi hardware. The optimisations for HEVC are very clever, but also require a large and invasive patch (more than 50,000 lines of additional code for FFMpeg). The complexity and Raspberry Pi specific nature of the optimisations has prevented them from being accepted upstream into FFMpeg, and few Linux distributions have allowed such a large patch into their codebase.

Kodi v19 (LibreELEC 10.x) also removed support for vendor proprietary hardware decoding methods (on Raspberry Pi, the MMAL and OMX decoders) to focus on a standards-based approach (V4L2, named for the Linux kernel 'Video for Linux v2' API used). LibreELEC 10.x also dropped support for Raspberry Pi Zero and other 512MB RAM devices as 1GB is now considered as the minimum RAM needed for a good Kodi experience. The Raspberry Pi Foundation have rewritten their video drivers and FFMpeg support to follow the common V4L2 frameworks. As their goal is to upstream all driver and player-app changes, allowing them to be included and used with all Linux distros, the rewrites do not include the custom HEVC optimisations that would never be accepted. This means HEVC support on Raspberry Pi 4, 400, and 5 hardware is excellent as these devices support native HEVC hardware decoding, and the newer drivers support 8/10/12-bit output for better 4K HDR, but playback on older Pi 0/1/2/3 devices will be challenging as FFMpeg software decoding is no longer as-optimised for Pi hardware, and users can expect SD media support only, not HD (720p and 1080p) support as seen with older LibreELEC releases.

In summary:

If you need HEVC support on older Raspberry Pi 0/1/2/3 hardware use LibreELEC 9.2.x and do not update to LibreELEC 10.x or newer releases.

If you have Raspberry Pi 4 or 400 hardware, use LibreELEC 10.x or newer to benefit from better HEVC and 4K HDR support. Raspberry Pi 5 devices require LE11.x or newer.

Composite Output

LibreELEC images for all Raspberry Pi boards ship pre-configured for HDMI output. Two simple changes are required to switch the image into Composite mode:

First, edit config.txt in the root folder of the SD card to comment out include distroconfig.txt and uncomment include distroconfig-composite.txt , e.g. the comments should look like this:

Second, edit cmdline.txt in the root folder of the SD card to configure PAL or NTSC output. This is done by appending a video=Composite-1 option to the line of boot params in the file. Append to the existing single line; do not add them on a new/separate line. The two options are:

• video=Composite-1:720x576@50ie for PAL output

• video=Composite-1:720x480@60ie for NTSC output

Boot after saving the changes and HDMI will be disabled and Composite enabled. You may also need to adjust audio output preferences in Kodi as the pre-configured default is for HDMI.

Installation

Ubuntu dependencies

sudo apt install ruby-full make gcc gpp build-essential zlib1g zlib1g-dev ruby-dev dh-autoreconf

Update gem packages

sudo gem update

Install Gem bundler

sudo gem install bundler

Clone the website

git clone https://github.com/LibreELEC/website.git

Install Jekyll

cd /path/to/git/website/

bundle install

Run the website from Linux

Run the command from the cloned website folder.

bundle exec jekyll serve --livereload --unpublished --incremental

Run the website from Windows (WSL2)

It is possible to run Ruby natively in Windows but this is difficult to do. So in our example we just run it at WSL and bypass all those problems.

Run the command from the cloned website folder.

bundle exec jekyll serve --force_polling --livereload --unpublished

Display the website

After starting the server the website is autogenerated at every change excluding changes at _config.yml and packages.json that requires a restart of the server.

The website is now located at .

LibreELEC configures a set of default Samba (SMB) shares, which you can use to copy content to and from your system.

The default shares are listed in the /storage/.config/samba.conf.sample file, and if you want to modify the default shares, you can do that too!

Accessing the Shares

On a Mac, while you're in Finder, select Go > Connect to Server..., the click 'Browse' and find the LIBREELEC server (the name of the server corresponds to the name you set in Kodi's settings). Alternatively, don't click 'Browse', just type in smb://LIBREELEC/ and press Enter.

On Windows, in Explorer, type in \\LIBREELEC and press Enter, and you should see a list of all the shares.

If you are prompted for a password, you should be able to log in as a 'Guest' instead, and have full access to the files on any of the shares.

Copy files into the shares as needed, and in Kodi's UI, you can that include the media you've copied across.

Modifying the Default Shares

You can either create a fresh Samba config file, or copy the sample file and modify it to your liking:

After modifying the shares, restart Samba:

...or just reboot, and the new settings should take effect after a restart.

The sample configuration file is recreated on every reboot, so you should not modify that file. Because that file changes over time, you can also create your own samba.conf file, and .

On Raspberry Pi hardware, the config.txt file is used to configure boot and hardware configuration, similar to how the BIOS or UEFI are used on an PC.

Editing config.txt

There are two options for editing config.txt: over the network using SSH or removing the storage medium (SD card, USB drive) and editing the file directly on your computer.

Requirements

• Windows 11 with installed WSL2 and Ubuntu WSL

The embedded Samba server in LibreELEC is enabled by default and provides CIFS/SMB shares that can be accessed from all modern OS to or collect for support or access the /storage/.config folder to make basic system changes. Samba starts with configuration from /storage/.config/samba.conf if it exists, else it starts with a default configuration from /etc/samba/smb.conf which is inside the read-only filesystem.

Samba services can be disabled from the LibreELEC settings addon.

Not working anymore since LE10

Starting with LE10 Hyperion no longer works due to changes in the video pipeline. Consider hardware/external grabbers.

HyperCon is a graphical application which allows you to configure (an ambient lighting system) running on a remote LibreELEC device, from a Windows, macOS or Linux desktop. Hypercon is a Java application, and so requires you to have a working Java runtime environment (JRE) installed to run it. Java v1.7 or higher is required.

The latest version is here

In 2015 the OpenELEC project team had a falling out with project founder @sraue over change management practices and maintenance of project infrastructure. Despite many months of talking and trying to resolve our differences, it became clear the founders vision for his hobby did not match everyone else's vision of being a project, and in March 2016 the codebase was forked and the "LibreELEC" project was born. The meaning of "Libre" in our name is "freedom" (to run the project as we like) not the Libre-software meaning, although the core project team are strong advocates for open-source code and we strive to manage the project along open-source principles.

Since we are ourselves a fork, the project team have always encouraged others to fork and (re)use our codebase as this helps to shake out issues in our build-system, and over time increases the number of people who contribute changes to it.

The following are known forks of our codebase:

Prevent Idle Shutdown

This script uses the kodi-send tool to prevent Kodi from shutting down if there are active SSH, SAMBA, or NFS connections. The script checks every 60 seconds, and if at least one connection exists the command InhibitIdleShutdown(true) is sent to Kodi.

Create /storage/.config/prevent_idle.sh with the following content:

#!/bin/sh

IDLE_SHUTDOWN_ALLOWED_LAST_STATE=-1

while true
do
  KODI_RUNNING=`ps -A | grep kodi.bin | grep -v grep | wc -l`
  if [ 1 == $KODI_RUNNING ] ; then
    SSH_ACTIVE=`netstat -tnpa | grep 'tcp.*:22.*ESTABLISHED.*' | wc -l`
    NFS_ACTIVE=`netstat -tnpa | grep 'tcp.*:111.*ESTABLISHED.*' | wc -l`
    SMB_ACTIVE=`netstat -tnpa | grep 'tcp.*:445.*ESTABLISHED.*' | wc -l`  
    [ $SSH_ACTIVE -gt 0 -o $NFS_ACTIVE -gt 0 -o $SMB_ACTIVE -gt 0 ] && IDLE_SHUTDOWN_ALLOWED=1 || IDLE_SHUTDOWN_ALLOWED=0 
      if [ $IDLE_SHUTDOWN_ALLOWED_LAST_STATE != $IDLE_SHUTDOWN_ALLOWED ] ; then
        IDLE_SHUTDOWN_ALLOWED_LAST_STATE=$IDLE_SHUTDOWN_ALLOWED
        kodi-send --action="AllowIdleShutdown"
        if [ 0 == $IDLE_SHUTDOWN_ALLOWED ] ; then
          kodi-send --action="InhibitIdleShutdown(false)"
        else
          kodi-send --action="InhibitIdleShutdown(true)"
        fi
      fi
  fi
  sleep 60
done

Call the script from /storage/.config/autostart.sh so it runs as a background task. It will continue to monitor the state of connections until the device is halted.

DYNU IP Updater

This script identifies your public IP address and updates a Dynamic DNS record.

Create /storage/.config/dynu_update.sh with the following content:

Call the script from /storage/.config/autostart.sh so it runs as a background task. It will continue to monitor the state of connections until the device is halted.

Note: If you set the refresh rate under 60 seconds the checkip.dyndns.org server will probably block your requests causing the script to fail.

Notes

To improve Jenkins/CI automation with ARM SoC $PROJECT(s) that support multiple $DEVICE types make image will iterate through all board/u-boot configurations defined in scripts/uboot_helper resulting in ~3-10 images in the target folder. To avoid this behaviour and build a single board-specific image UBOOT_SYSTEM=<board> can be appended to the build command, e.g. to build an Amlogic image for a LibreComputer LePotato board:

Several ARM SoC devices have a UBOOT_SYSTEM=box configuration which excludes u-boot and provides all device-trees, allowing the image to boot using the Android/BSP u-boot on emmc/spi.

Environment

Official releases were built using Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04 LTS.

Environment

Official releases were built using Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

This page explains the configuration points:

• Desktop Resolution

• Modeline Whitelist

• Adjust Refresh

LibreELEC images for Amlogic with modern Linux kernels use boot processes and device-tree files that are not compatible with older LibreELEC images (LE 9.x and earlier) that use Amlogic Linux 3.14 or 4.9 kernels. The change to boot processes means you cannot update from older releases and must make a new/clean installation.

There are two images supporting Amlogic Gen10+ (64-bit) SoCs and older Gen8 (32-bit) SoCs used in a range of Linux SBC and Android STB devices:

AMLGX supports the following 64-bit SoCs:

• GXBB (S905)

Since Kodi v17 LCD/VFD displays are supported through the LCDProc add-on which must be installed from the Kodi add-on repo. See for documentation and for a sample file, and the .

Configuration

The /storage/.kodi/userdata/LCD.xml file can be created to customise output to an LCD or VFD display. It contains "content" sections that describe how the display will look:

Build Commands LE 12.0.x

Build Commands LE 11.0.x

This is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the

You are free to:

Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format

Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material

The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

Pulseaudio is used for routing audio to a Bluetooth device. With additional configuration it can also be used to receive audio and stream to multi-device (multi-room) configurations.

The tutorials on this page are basically using four commands:

• pactl load-module <name> to load a pulseaudio module (not all are loaded by default)

• pactl set-default-sink to set the pulseaudio output device

• pactl set-default-source to set the pulseaudio input device

• pactl info to check the current sink/source configuration

Sample pactl info output:

Bluetooth Sending

This is the default configuration. Simply pair a Bluetooth audio device in the LibreELEC settings add-on and change the Kodi output device (in Kodi settings) to Bluetooth Audio.

Bluetooth Receiving

This allows you to stream Bluetooth audio from a smartphone or other Bluetooth device. Before you start, pair the device in the LibreELEC settings add-on.

Stop Kodi (else it holds onto the audio device):

Load the pulseaudio udev module:

List the names of pulseaudio output devices using the pactl utility:

For example:

Configure the pulseaudio output device:

Use pactl to find your Bluetooth audio device:

For example:

Configure the pulseaudio source device:

Restart Kodi:

Select the audio output device in Kodi if you want audio from your device, and from playing files in Kodi.

Network Sending

This requires another computer or device running pulseaudio, e.g. an MPD music player or another LibreELEC device.

On the pulseaudio target device, ensure the native-protocol-tcp and zeroconf-publish modules are loaded:

On the pulseaudio source (LibreELEC) device, stop Kodi and find the output device:

For example:

On the pulseaudio source, configure the pulseaudio output device:

Restart Kodi:

You can now select the default pulseaudio output device in Kodi settings. Audio will be broadcast on the network and other pulseaudio devices can select it as their audio source.

Network Receiving

This requires another pulseaudio device in the network, e.g. an MPD player or another LibreELEC device.

Stop Kodi else it will hold onto the audio output device:

Load the pulseaudio udev module:

Use pactl to list pulseaudio output devices:

For example:

Configure the pulseaudio output device:

On the source pulseaudio device, load the native-protocol-tcp and zeroconf-discover modules:

On the target device, use pactl to list available input devices:

For example:

Configure the pulseaudio input device:

Restart Kodi:

Configuration

Custom pulseaudio configuration is stored in /storage/.config/pulse-daemon.conf.d as /etc/pulse is inside the read-only filesystem. Files must have a .conf extension. The file daemon.conf is processed first, followed by other files in alphabetical order so if the same option is set in multiple files, the last one to be read will be used. If files have the same name as a default (embedded) file they override (replace) the embedded file.

To make custom configurations persistent, we must override /etc/pulse/default.pa which is read on startup. Create /storage/.config/pulse-daemon.conf.d/custom.conf and set the following to override the startup script file location:

Now create /storage/.config/pulse-daemon.conf.d/custom.pa to extend the default startup script:

Sample Rates and Resampling

Create /storage/.config/pulse-daemon.conf.d/custom.conf with your custom options, e.g.

To see the available resample methods:

For example:

The LibreELEC “build-system” is a collection of scripts that simplify the complex task of cross-compiling hundreds of inter-dependent source packages into a working LibreELEC image with a few simple commands. It is the "secret sauce" of the project, as it allows users of all experience levels to tinker and experiment with the distro. Forking our codebase and experimenting is encouraged!

Environment

The team currently builds official releases, and nightly images in Ubuntu LTS 22.04 Docker containers at the teams https://github.com/LibreELEC/actions CI/CD. It is possible to use other Linux distributions (Arch, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Manjaro, etc.) but Ubuntu is the most-used and proven. If you plan to build on an existing Linux desktop we recommend building in a Docker container to isolate the build folders from the rest of the OS (Dockerfiles can be found in the tools folder of the main LibreELEC git repo, see Build (Docker) for more info). Another option is building in a Virtual Machine, e.g. Oracle Virtualbox ($free) or vmware Workstation.

Note: If you want to compile older LibreELEC releases you will need to use an era-appropriate Ubuntu LTS release, e.g. LibreELEC 7.0 will need Ubuntu 14.04 or 16.04.

Hardware

Image build times depend on CPU and I/O performance so the more CPU cores you have or can allocate, the faster your build times will be. For example:

Approx. 3 hours build time:

• 2x Core i3 CPU

• 4GB RAM (with swap enabled)

• 50GB HDD

Approx. 1.5 hours build time:

• 4x Core i7 CPU

• 8GB RAM

• 100GB SSD

Approx. 30 mins build time:

• 32x Core AMD Threadripper2

• 64GB RAM

• 1TB NVME SSD

Testing with large CPU counts shows build times continue to decrease as CPU count increases (as you'd expect) although over ~16x CPUs the gains per-CPU reduce, and overall build times are limited by the inherently sequential nature of the initial stages of building (creating the cross-compile toolchain). The current build record is ~22 mins (64x CPUs, build folders on a ramdisk).

Dependencies

Before you can build, it is important to update the OS and install build dependencies:

Note: The first time the build-system runs it will validate and prompt you to install any missing package dependencies.

Cloning

Use git to clone the LibreELEC sources to your user folder:

Versions

After cloning you are now at the current HEAD position of the master development branch. To compile a specific LibreELEC release we need to checkout the specific version tag or githash associated with the release, e.g. to build the LibreELEC 11.0.1 release we checkout the 11.0.1 tag:

You can also build at a specific point in the git revision history identified by a commit githash:

You are now in the root folder of the build-system and ready to build!

Sources

The first time the build-system runs it will download and cache package sources, but there are ~260-380 packages to cache (depending on the build PROJECT) and some sources are large, and others are download from super-slow servers. To download sources in advance of building, use download-tool, e.g.

Building

As a normal user (not as root, and not using sudo) run a build command, e.g.

This will compile the Generic build PROJECT for the x86_64 arch, and make image will generate an .img.gz file that can be written to USB/SD media for installation, and a .tar file that can update an existing installation (.img.gz files can also be used for updates, but .tar files are faster).

It is not uncommon for first-time builds to take 6-8 hours due to the number of sources that must be downloaded. Once the build completes the finished image files will be in the ~/LibreELEC.tv/target/ directory.

Rebuilding

After completing your first build, you probably want to make some nip-tuck changes and then rebuild the image to include them. If you re-run the same build command the build-system will detect most changes and will clean and rebuild only the packages that have been changed. This means a "respin" with minor changes often takes only 1-2 minutes. As a general rule you can keep rebuilding (respinning) unless there are changes to the "toolchain" packages. If these are changed, you will need to clean or remove the build folders and make a "clean build" again.

Cleaning

If you see strange or transient compilation errors, start by cleaning the sources for the failing package and clear the compiler cache (ccache), e.g. to clean the linux package:

You can also remove all build directories (keeping ccache):

Or just for one project:

To remove everything and ccache:

Or just for one project:

PXE booting with SYSTEM and /storage mounted via NFS is supported on Generic x86_64 and current Raspberry Pi devices (Pi 4 and newer). Older Raspberry Pi devices can also be booted over the network, but they require a different procedure. In the following writeup the server is Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

Server (Ubuntu)

In Ubuntu we need to install and configure DHCP, TFTP, and NFS services:

DHCP

Edit /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf and change the DHCP range if needed. Create entries in the host section for your client(s):

Edit /etc/default/isc-dhcp-server to set the interface name handling DHCP requests:

NFS

Create the directories that will contain your /storage userdata and TFTP boot files, e.g.

Download the LibreELEC image for your device. On x86 systems, copy the KERNEL and SYSTEM files into the /mnt/tftpboot directory:

On a Raspberry Pi, just copy all files into the /mnt/tftpboot directory:

Then add the following lines to the /etc/exports file:

TFTP

Create directories for the TFTP bootfiles. In this example they are served from a different disk:

You may also want to copy the KERNEL and SYSTEM files to /mnt/tftpboot

Add the following lines to /etc/default/tftpd-hpa and save the file:

Create /mnt/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default (or instead of default use the MAC-Address of your device in the format 90-91-92-93-94-95) and insert the following:

Replace 192.168.0.1 with the NFS server IP address. The overlay parameter is not required if you only intend to boot one system. LibreELEC is now configured to boot using TFTP and NFS!

NFSv4

Today many server use NFSv4 while the kernel still default to NFSv3. In such a case set the correct NFS dialect via the vers= option:

Valid nfs versions are 2 3 4 4.0 4.1 4.2.

Firewall

If using the default Ubuntu firewall (UFW) add the following rules to allow ports for TFTP (69) and ONRPC (111):

Clients normally connect to the NFS server on random ports, so it the firewall is active "mountd" needs to be told to use a fixed port allowed through the firewall, or boot will hang.

Edit /etc/default/nfs-kernel-server and replace the current RPCMOUNTDOPTS line. In the example below 8765 is a randomly chosen port:

Create a matching firewall rule to allow the port:

Services

And finally, start services:

Package management

LibreELEC is made up of over 800 packages which are in themselves developed by many other teams and groups across the Internet. These packages are maintained in the packages directory. An example of a package is Linux which has its main LibreELEC makefile as packages/linux/package.mk, or Kodi packages/mediacenter/kodi/package.mk.

The project team and Contributors prepare and regularly update the code that makes up the LibreELEC distribution. This is done by "bumping" the PKG_VERSION in the package.mk file and updating the other variables, code, patches and dependencies that make up the distribution. These are then rolled up into a and submitted as a change.

Release Monitoring

The update-scan tool has been developed to check PKG_VERSION of packages against release monitoring sites. This tool currently uses Anitya from with the following distribution

An example of the output from update-scan is below:

The tool provides a report at the end of the currency of the packages in the current checked out LibreELEC code.

Packages are ignored if either the PKG_VERSION or PKG_URL __ are empty or hosted by LibreELEC.

For packages not known at the tracker - this means that the package is either not release monitored or not configured for release monitoring at .

The following image shows the Projects of LibreELEC monitored by release-monitoring.

Adding a project to the distro can be made by logging in using your Fedora ID.

Search for the project that you have developed the package.mk for and you want release-monitoring to monitor. In the example - we have added the distro LibreELEC to aixlog.

Click the Add new distribution mapping button within the Project (aixlog example.)

You need to choose LibreELEC from the Distribution drop down. Then click + Add mapping to project.

Most community/user developers have simple git goals, for example:

• Changing the Linux kernel defconfig to enable a driver

• Bumping the version for a software or binary add-on package

• Contributing to project documentation!

The awesome folks at maintain a range of popular Docker containers installable as Kodi add-ons. After installing the Docker add-on (from the LibreELEC add-on repo) you can install the LinuxServer repo add-on (from the LibreELEC add-on repo) and then install container add-ons from within the Kodi GUI. To make maintenance easier LinuxServer add-ons are designed to pull the latest Docker image automatically on Kodi startup to keep the containers fresh.

It is also possible to install Docker containers manually from the SSH console using docker pull commands. This allows you to install a container from any public container repository. This is also how you can access the full .

Container Architecture

LibreELEC can be configured as a WireGuard VPN client allowing you to accessing media in a remote location or tunnel traffic to avoid local inspection of network activity. This guide assumes configuration of a single WireGuard tunnel that is persistent, i.e. activated on device boot so that Kodi network traffic is routed through the WireGuard VPN tunnel.

WireGuard tunnels are managed by a ConnMan VPN plugin (connman-vpn.service) that acts as a companion to the network connection manager daemon (connman.service). The VPN plugin watches /storage/.config/wireguard/*.config and defines ConnMan services from auto-discovered configuration files. Once a valid WireGuard .config has been imported it can be connected manually using connmanctl from the SSH console or scripted from a systemd service that runs on boot. Connections can also be managed using the network 'Connections' tab in the LibreELEC settings add-on which controls ConnMan via d-bus.

Sample Config

ConnMan uses its own configuration file format (see below) so you cannot import/use the files exported from WireGuard server tools and third-party VPN services - the format is different. Those files will contain everything you need, but you must manually transpose the information into the ConnMan format:

Name = AnythingYouLike Host = IP of the WireGuard server (IP, not FQDN) WireGuard.Address = The internal IP of the client node, e.g. a /24 address WireGuard.ListenPort = The client listen port (optional) WireGuard.PrivateKey = The client private key WireGuard.PublicKey = The server public key WireGuard.PresharedKey = The server pre-shared key (optional) WireGuard.DNS = Nameserver to be used with the connection (optional) WireGuard.AllowedIPs = Subnets accessed via the tunnel, 0.0.0.0/0 is "route all traffic" WireGuard.EndpointPort = The server ListenPort WireGuard.PersistentKeepalive = Periodic keepalive in seconds (optional)

Creating Keys

If you need to create some, run wg-keygen from the SSH console and /storage/.cache/wireguard will contain new publickey, privatekey, and preshared files with keys inside. Most users will not need to generate WireGuard keys as they will be in the configuration file provided by a VPN service provider.

Testing Connections

Once you have saved a configuration file, check it is valid:

In the above example vpn_185_210_30_121 was created (vpn_host) as the ConnMan service name. Test the service will connect using:

ConnMan will create a new network interface, so ifconfig will show wg0 or sometimes a higher number like wg1 or wg2:

You should be able to ping the remote (server) side of the WireGuard VPN tunnel. In our example this is 10.2.0.1:

The routing table will show normal traffic routed to the wg0 interface:

To disconnect the ConnMan service:

Check ifconfig again and the WireGuard interface will be gone.

Configuring Systemd

Create a systemd wireguard.service file to start the connection automatically on boot, after the network starts, and before Kodi is launched. The sample wireguard.service file looks like:

Copy the sample wireguard.service file to /storage/.config/system.d/wireguard.service

Replace vpn_service_name_goes_here with your service name, e.g. vpn_185_210_30_121 using nano. Use ctrl+o to save changes and ctrl+x to exit nano:

Now we can enable and start the service:

Check the WireGuard tunnel is active using "ifconfig" and "ping" and if all is good, reboot to test the WireGuard tunnel comes up automatically on boot.

WireGuard Routing

ConnMan configures wg0 to route all traffic over the WireGuard tunnel by default, no matter what WireGuard.AllowedIPs configuration is set. To route only specific networks via the tunnel the ConnMan service order (which influences routing order) must be changed.

In the example below note thesleep and connmanctl move-after and route add commands used in the following tweaked systemd service file:

The following forum thread has tips and examples:

Thanks

Big thanks! to ConnMan maintainer Daniel Wagner (wagi) who worked with LibreELEC staff to implement WireGuard support in ConnMan (he wrote the code, we abused tested it).

Kodi can natively mount SMB, NFS, SFTP, WebDAV (and more) remote filesystems (shares) to read media for playback, but many applications that write content, e.g. TVHeadend storing TV recordings, must write to "local" storage. Remote SMB and NFS shares can be "mounted" to the local filesystem using kernel mounts configured through systemd .mount files.

The following NAS configuration is used in the examples below:

• NAS IP: 192.168.1.222

• Username: nasuser1

To provide a better download experience and offload bandwidth and hosting charges from the project, our main downloads (releases and installers) are distributed over a global network of volunteer mirror servers. The project is always interested in adding new mirrors to our pool, and we welcome offers of assistance!

If you would like to help, you should:

• Be an experienced provider of mirroring services

• Be able to sync with a frequency between 1-12 hours