CoreELEC 19 Matrix Discussion (Kodi RC)

Development Development & Testing
852

The currently available vendor kernel is the 4.9 kernel. This is the only maintained kernel that has support for the hardware decoder and all the other media features provided by Amlogic SoC(such as HDR).

While using something like the current 5.11 kernel would get us lots of nice driver updates. The mainline 5.x kernels do not have working support for the hardware decoders that are in the Amlogic SoCs. They also don’t support features such as HDR on Amlogic devices.

So in short you would end up with support for a couple extra USB dvb adapters, gpu drivers for the S912, and loose the ability to play most video content. Overall not a good trade at the moment for the majority of users that want to setup a device for media playback.

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853

@risa2000 If you want to use the 5.11 kernel with something functional, buy a raspberry 4.
And use LibreELEC.

1 Like
854

Based upon what you know right now, is there reasonable/realistic hope of AMlogic SOC support in 5.x kernels?

855

Mainline 5.11 kernel has a work in progress reverse engineered panfrost graphics support. It is still not ready for full hardware accelerated media playback for codecs such as vp9 (youtube). Already bifrost gpus are out and support for it mainline kernel is pretty basic
If you are planning to use your amlogic device as a desktop PC, then yes mainline kernel is adequate with kde and gnome support
For hardware accelerated Media Playback, have to rely on the Vendor kernel and that is 4.9 as @cdu13a already explained. Unless Amlogic release their binary blob for 5.x kernel, there is just no hope for it to show up on CE.

856

So based on current knowledge, that’s a no then.

857

I created a separate thread to continue(and to organize in one place answers to related FAQ) the discussion about what kernel CoreELEC uses, and the current status of the mainline linux kernel. If further conversation on the subject of linux kernels can move there.
It’s starting to get a little to far off-topic in this thread, which was for discussion of the test build for the next major version of CoreELEC.

1 Like
858

@Comma, could you remove or rename disp_cap file and try this CE19 build if it fixes EDID issue or not?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k5nP7tYb2zzc3kR2XW-89fIL1F9-MJqG/view

859

What is the real benefit of CE 19 besides CE 9.2?

860

It is the current stable. 9.2 is obsolete and in the future new versions of addons won’t be available.
You can still use 9.2.

861

Not quite what they asked.

862

So no feature added, like Dolby vision support etc.?

863

Not much, the most difference is only Kodi Matrix instead Kodi Leia.
It’s only moving forward…

You can ask for more details in Kodi forum about the difference.

864

Yes, just downloaded will report back.

865

First 5 reboots, no issue so far.

1 Like
866

If you have a possibility please collect logs, update to CE-19 stable and check that issue exist again.
If yes, then return back to this version and test it some time to confirm it really fixed

867

You get to use a new kernel, with all benefits thereoff.

868

Kernel is actually the same for ng-builds.

869

Yes. What i really like about Matrix (above average PVR user here) is

  • integrated functions that required add-ons
  • PVR gui changes
  • PVR excellent integration of archive-iptv
  • Better handling of multiple PVR clients
  • Python3 / repo cleanup
  • Better addon management and security

I have only one sacrifice which I still miss (the addon ‘sleep’ which mimics the everyday, old-school sleep timer button that were found on older TV’s perfectly).

I guess that it could work out differently if you use many pyhton2 add-ons that are not (yet) updated.

870

Sorry if this was already answered but couldn’t find a clear explanation.
I have a K1 Pro working fine with 9.2.6 from internal for years, mostly for DVB-S, but would like to try 19.
Is it possible, maybe by installing it on a USB pen? Will DVB-S still work (with tvheadend)?
If so, will it be possible to install to internal later on? And what distribution is needed (generic, -ng, whatever)?
Thanks

871

You can try. At least usb or sd card should not affect your internal installation. Internal DVB is very complicated because our main developer went MIA.