CoreELEC Amlogic-ng(4.9 kernel) for S905X/S905D/S905W - FunHouse builds

Notice: Everything that was included in this build has now been included in the main CoreELEC repo. The nightly builds should now be used if you wish to try these features.

CoreELEC Amlogic-ng(4.9 kernel) for S905X/S905D/S905W - FunHouse builds

It’s been longer then we would have liked. However we are finally at the point where we can start public test builds of the Amlogic-ng (4.9 kernel) for the GXL(S905X/S905D/S905W) devices.

[I know it’s a long post but please read the whole post before attempting to use these builds.]

The support for these devices still has a lot of rough edges, despite showing some rather promising results during internal testing. Which is why support for using the Amlogic-ng builds on the GXL devices is being released first as what we refer to as our funhouse builds. Some of you may remember us using that naming before for experimental builds before. Hopefully with enough testing and feedback we can get these devices working well enough to feel comfortable moving support for them to our nightly and then our stable amlogic-ng builds.

Here is a quick definition for each of the CoreELEC builds.

Stable builds = our main stable release build.
Nightly builds = unstable; for testing and providing feedback on code that will be in the next release.
Funhouse builds = very unstable; for testing stuff that might make it into CoreELEC.

Fair Warning!!!

This is a “bleeding edge” build, that includes commits that the developers felt would require extra testing prior to merging into CoreELEC.

Expect more breakages and rough edges then would be found in the regular nightly builds.

Reporting issues.

Please report issues with these builds only in this thread.
Please be sure to reference the build number (e.g. funhouse_2027.6) when reporting issues.

Getting started

[These builds are only meant to be used with an sd card or usb drive as a test install and are not to be used as an internal/emmc install.]

To start because the amlogic-ng builds work a little different then the older amlogic builds you will need to do a fresh install, and if your device required you to hold the reset button on your first boot of CoreELEC before you will need to do so again on first boot with these builds.

The ability to update from an amlogic(3.14 kernel) to amlogic-ng(4.9 kernel) build will be added once it can be proven to work reliably.

The dtb (device trees) files should have the same names for your device as they did on the older amlogic builds with the 3.14 kernel. Make sure that you use the dtb file that is included with these builds. dtb files from the older releases and other sources will not work.

The current funhouse_2028.2 build can be found at the following link
https://test.coreelec.org/cdu13a/funhouse/

NOTE: There is one very important thing to keep in mind when testing. Because as stated above the ng builds use a slightly different boot script, you will need to not just do the hold reset button on on first boot with the ng build but when you go to switch back to an older build on the same device you will need to do the hold reset button thing again to get it to boot with the older build again. This could be a problem if the device has an internal install since it means that you might mess up the internal installs ability to boot, and would need an sd card with the older build available to get the device to boot the old build again.

Known issues

  • Some WiFi drivers are still missing
  • Attempting an Internal Install is much more likely to brick your device
  • Possible issues with shutdown/reboot on some devices.
  • Lots of yet to be discovered issues.
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Reserved for List of GXL(S905X/S905D/S905W) Devices and the status of how well they work with the amlogic-ng builds.

[Please don’t ask about GXM(S912) and GXBB(S905) devices in this thread. I will make a separate post later about those device with information about using them with the Amlogic-ng (kernel 4.9) builds, and when to expect test builds for them.]

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Tvbox: mecool ki pro s905d

Pixelated problems solved, now that channels have judder…

U can appreciate that effect with that recorded video

When you start the video let it start playing the use back button on remote once then back again to get to full screen.
Jitter stops for me but i get Pulldown correction 2 (pc2)
Shift + Control + o
See what you get.
It’s a known bug.

Not solution, try another time, judder continues, not a bug

This thread is only for s905X/s905W/S905D. Post that on the corresponding site.

I see a similar problem with live TV on LePotato + USB DVB-S tuner (Prof 7500). The recorded DVB stream plays fine but when watching live:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/uyi73jv9mvvlpa6/stutter.mkv?dl=1

I think that Tvheadend server is somehow interfere with video decoding. If Tvheadend server is on another device there is no video stuttering. But when both server and client are on the same device there is massive video stuttering.

With kernel 3.14 there is no such issue.

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I see a similar problem with live TV on GT Beelink Pro + USB DVB-S tuner TBS5520SE

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There is a member with issue and he supplied a recording with Live TV and i tested it with
9.2.1 Stable 3.14 Kernel so there is more than one specific playback issue happening.

This problem commented by fellow @mendi in kernel 3.14 it looks pixelated. While with kernel 4.9 it produces judder.

Example of what happens with 3.14: https://mega.nz/#!Shh2yQyC!ZY_y7Yj2dk2oKXXLYUtWX-HLJbT6JGqgiEGqIZgzlvs

Also here is a sample of the problem, for which you want to verify:Nightly builds (NEW)

FunHouse 2006.02 didnt boot on my GXL 1/8 device, black screen ~1 min and box going in reboot.
But early i was built amlogic-ng-on-gxl branch with last commit 15 Jan, and it working on my box.

Check the dtb.

I edited config.ini to start ssh daemon, and can connect to box, no any errors in dmesg or kodi.log, but box work few mins and reboot. Kodi didnt start and i see only black screen after CoreELEC splash. In my early build i used same dtb, and in 3.14 i use same.

I don’t see a .dtb for my Z69 S905X 3G/32G box.

On the current official CE build I use gxl_p212_3g.

@Ant123 It looks like I missed enabling the building of the gxl_p212_3g.dtb file. There is something like 30 dtb files that needed to be created for this build, so It was likely I would end up missing something.

I will make sure that it is included in the next build.

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Thank you.

i’ve seen that you’ve added support to S912.


Will next nightly build work on S912 or still need some other implementations?
Thanks.
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As stated above where I requested that people not ask about GXM(S912) devices in this thread, I will make a separate post about support for GXM(S912) based devices.

The new GXM branch you mentioned is incomplete and just there so that I can start to coordinate work on GXM(S912) with the other CoreELEC developers. There won’t be amlogic-ng (4.9 kernel)builds for GXM(S912) or GXBB(original S905) until after work on GXL(S905X/S905D/S905W) has progressed to the point that it can be included in the regular nightly builds.

There is just to many older devices to try and add all the older devices at the same time. GXL devices where selected to be worked on first because they would take the least amount of time and are used by the largest number of users.

5 Likes

I finally managed to install it on my Mecool KI Pro (905D) and a quick test revealed that the channels that had the artifacts problem, play smoothly with this build.

I’ll do more tests through the weekend and install it on my M8S Pro+, but it’s looking good :slight_smile:

edit: Not so smoothly :frowning: After some more tests the playback doesn’t seem fluid at all.

Is there something I can do to help development (dmesg, kodi debug logs?)

@cdu13a This version is supports the HDR metadata (MaxFALL, MaxCLL) passthrough on the S905X too?