Just got my hands on a n2+ to use as a mediacenter. It replaces my raspberrypie 3 and before that my rasperry pie 2.
So, I installed coreelec on a sd card (not gonna use EEMMC(ssd thing) via balenaetcher, set up the wifi on kodi and did a scrap of my movie+tv shows.
Thing is, i got a red screen when i start, is this normal (in the background) ? did i forget to configure something or to erase a config file ?
Also, when i’am on kodi and i select to shutdown. Everything stops, but then it restart automatically. I have to remove the power plug from the wall to turn it off. Is there a way to counter this ? or is there a way to install a switch (power on off button) knowing i have no programming skills at all ? On my rasbperry pie 3 i had a cord with a power switch which allowed me to turn it on/on without removing each time the cord. It doesn’t fit on the N2+…
Shutdown from the menu should shut the device down, it’s possible that maybe the TV is waking it back up via CEC. If this is the case the CEC wake up settings can be found in Settings>CoreELEC>Hardware
If you really want a power button there are two main options to do this.
One option for a power button is documented here.
However there is one difference when doing this while running CoreELEC, and that is that instead of editing the boot.ini file you edit the config.ini file that is found at /flash/config.ini(or if you have the the sd card mounted on a computer it is in the first partition labeled COREELEC)
This is the section of the config.ini that needs to be edited. uncomment the gpiopower line and make sure that the 3 digit number specified in the one that relates to the pin you used.
Another Option to provide a power switch is to use something like the following, which is just a simple switch inline of cable with m/f barrel jack connectors https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11705
However it has the disadvantage that it will just kill the power instead of properly shutting the device down.
sure i wouldn’t mind. But i have no idea how to turn it on whitout removing the power cable/cord…
I do as following:
a. turn it on by plugging the power cord
b.watch something
c. power off using the kodi menu shut off (now it works as it doesn’t reboot thanks to cdu13a)
a. repeat.
that’s why as far as i know, this could be usefull as i wouldn’t need to remove and to plug again. (but maybe there is a way to turn it on with the remote controller with a cec option ?!?)
The IO header switch is the only really satisfactory way of adding an on/off switch and if you don’t have technical skills and the bits its going to be an ugly process to achieve.
I have mine on all the time and when I need to reboot I simply pull the plug and reinsert. Not elegant but maybe less than once a week makes it acceptable.
As pointed out the inline switch to the barrel is no more elegant as far as the N2 is concerned since its a forced reset just like pulling the plug and you still have to get up and do the physical act which is not really any time saving on pulling the plug.
There maybe a way of getting CEC to do this and its worth digging, but your N2 isn’t really off if you are using CEC so there is very little benefit over simply leaving it switched on.
When I say its best to leave the N2 switched on - what I mean is that power cycling your hardware is the single most likely event to trigger a hardware failure due to thermal stresses and power surges associated with voltage switching. It really is safer to leave it on all the time. Idling consumes less than 3W - which is undoubtedly less than your TV in standby mode.
Yes.
The N2 was designed to be powered on 24/7.
My N2 is running 24/7 365 days.
Needs sometime a reboot, after CE update - thats it.
Why should I cause problems for myself ?
Another point to note is that its my experience that Linux systems often fail to come back from deep hibernate cleanly (ie CEC off) which then necessitates you power cycling them by pulling the plug anyway. Things like WIFI/LAN and shares often fail to come back from hibernate.
@tomume I don’t know what kind of remote you use to control the N2+, but if you use an IR remote it is also possible to configure it to power on / power off the device when you press a specific button on the remote.
but then, how do you send files to the connected hard drives ? I have 2x5tb external hard deives via USB, how do I send files over there ? I can disconnect the HD, past the files, connect it again whitout powering it off ?
