Debian Stretch and Kodi Krypton on Rock64

[Kwiboo]

@Kwiboo - I am in this same situation and have been checking back into this post for awhile and am anxiously awaiting any further direction from you! Thank you in advance!

The main part of the required code for hw decoding in FFmpeg, mpv and Kodi has already been upstreamed, the LibreELEC related parts is currently kept in a feature branch in upstream repo.

X11 support is nothing that is really planed as that would require importing the video frame into GPU and limits rendering to what the GPU can handle (struggles with 1080p 60hz and 2160p 24hz). Wayland support might be possible in the future but has very low priority.

To be able to render video at 4K 50/60hz the video frame needs to be sent directly to the Display Controller (VOP), and also the gui layer rendered by the GPU must be disable or limited in size to no more then 720p or there wont be enough memory bandwidth available.
This is what we aim to do in Kodi running on LibreELEC with the switch to use the Atomic DRM API for rendering.

I recommend that you test Raybuntu's LibreELEC image for ROCK64 for Kodi use, and if you need to run other services install the docker add-on and run any other service in one or more containers.

[Mrfixit2001]

@Kwiboo -

Thank you for the quick reply!! While I really like Raybuntu's LibreELEC image, I don't like that the LibreELEC file system is read only (due to the compression I think), and I don't like that I can't just drop to command line from KODI and then install additional packages, such as retropie/retroarch/emulation/etc. My attempts at streamlining them into a custom LibreELEC build have failed and I don't know how to (if it's even possible) add them into an already existing LibreELEC install and have them all interact with one another. Perhaps that's something you can provide insight on? Is that possible and if so how would I do that and call them from within KODI?

If I can't find a way to add any linux package to LibreELEC without having to recompile, then my goal would be to have a Debian Stretch install using the newest kernel that I can install any package on, the first of which would be LEIA with the optimal config, like what can be found within raybunt's LibreELEC (it's my understanding that LEIA doesn't use X11 and will perform better than Krypton will on the ROCK64, right?). I haven't been able to find any DEB packages for LEIA that support the ARM64 (and aren't meant for iOS) to even test, and even if I could I'm guessing they wouldn't be optimized to use HW decoding/accelleration. Which likely leads me to having to compile my own from source.

I'm comfortable doing custom builds, but I need some guidance, please! My preference would probably be to know what source and build flags to use in order to correctly compile a debian stretch package for KODI using optimal settings for the ROCK64 hardware so it performs the same as the raybuntu LibreELEC install. (I'm not opposed to using jessie instead of stretch if it's better for compatibility, but obviously my preference would be stretch as it's newer)... or unless you know of that already compiled in a debian package that I can download?
An alternative would be understand how to install any package I'd like (just like a standard APT-GET) alongside an already installed Raybuntu LibreELEC (without needing to recompile every time).

As always, thank you so much for your time and feedback! I really hope you can provide some guidance here, and I'll gladly share any of my results with the forum.

[Raybuntu]

Here are my 2cents. And as you know I'm a LibreELEC developer so my mind is set on it. Imho there is no better Kodi support for those small embedded devices like the Rock64 than in LibreELEC. I'm also a Debian guy, actually I have been maintaining my own debian based OS for my Odroid C2 before. I was never able to get the same quality as in LibreELEC. I ditched Debian and started working on LibreELEC.

I guess it all depends on what you are trying to do. Do you need your mediacenter to also be your server?
I actually have a dedicated OdroidC2 as a headless Ubuntu Server.
ROCK64 is so cheap that you can have multiple of those.

Then there is Docker in LibreELEC. It gives you the ability to have a full blown Linux with write access to root etc.
You don't have to do a lot of work. Just install the docker addon from the repo, ssh to LE and pull the container you like. Depending on your download speed it only takes couple of seconds to have a working installation of your favorite linux based OS.
We also have a dedicated kodi repo in our repo for kodi docker addons from the linuxserver.io guys. You can install and setup those from Kodi GUI. They give you small.containers with commonly used sevices like NextCloud, mariadb, emby server, tvheadend. Then are all preconfigured and ready to use.

[Mrfixit2001]

@Raybuntu - that's great advice and feedback, thank you! I would genuinely be interested to see benchmarks from this board's performance playing 4k content on LibreELEC vs a KODI install debian stretch. Those numbers would really prove the cause for permanently migrating over to LibreELEC.

I didn't know it was possible to run a full blown debian install inside docker, that's interesting... does that mean I'd have to configure all the necessary libraries within the docker container in order to use them (such as libsdl2), or will KODI make those libraries and resources available automatically? Does KODI release resources when the docker container launches in order to allow for optimal hardware performance and graphics rendering, or does it continue to consume resources when the docker is launched? If, for example, I wanted to run RetroPie on debian from within a docker container, I'd like to know if it would have any bottlenecks in performance due to running on LibreELEC.

Thanks so much for your excellent feedback, looking forward to your continued input and support!

[cpocarlos]

I am in the same situation also... I would like a SO like Xbian for Rpi, which combine armbian + kodi with CEC compatilibity and you can install your packages in debian....

For me is the way to use this board 100%


Best regards

[valdiks]

Hello,
I'm planning to use Rock64 as TV box + ioBroker.
But I would like to have rootfs on SSD and mount 2.5 HDD as media storage (USB 3.0 hub will be self powered).

Raybuntu, is it possible to install external docker images to the LibreELEC?
Maybe some another advice to my configuration?

[KernelPanic]

My TV box running LibreElec recently died and now I want to use my Rock64 server running Ubuntu bionic as a kodi box.
While I like LibreElec I really don't like the hassle over moving everything currently running on the Rock64 to containers (I bet it's not possible to take my current Rock64 setup and put it into 1 big container?)

[pfeerick]

My TV box running LibreElec recently died and now I want to use my Rock64 server running Ubuntu bionic as a kodi box.
While I like LibreElec I really don't like the hassle over moving everything currently running on the Rock64 to containers (I bet it's not possible to take my current Rock64 setup and put it into 1 big container?)

As long as all the stuff you want can be run on the rock64 I don't see why not... you might want to consider a docker-compose solution, or use multiple containers so you can re-purpose stuff - i.e. if you have mariadb in its own container other stuff can use it, etc.

[KernelPanic]

My TV box running LibreElec recently died and now I want to use my Rock64 server running Ubuntu bionic as a kodi box.
While I like LibreElec I really don't like the hassle over moving everything currently running on the Rock64 to containers (I bet it's not possible to take my current Rock64 setup and put it into 1 big container?)

As long as all the stuff you want can be run on the rock64 I don't see why not... you might want to consider a docker-compose solution, or use multiple containers so you can re-purpose stuff - i.e. if you have mariadb in its own container other stuff can use it, etc.

Everything I want running on the Rock64 is already running on it perfectly and very happy with it.
The only thing I am still missing is Kodi, but changing from a currently perfectly running Ubuntu server setup to LibreElec and having to set up everything in containers.... It feels like a bad tradeoff. I like the versatility from a full linux distro and even though I could run everything in dockers it seems like a lot more work and I don't know if it's a great idea security wise.

Still got my fingers crossed someone will port the great work people are doing on the LibreElec builds to regular linux distro's, untill then I'll probably buy an S912 amlogic box to hold me over untill that time (Or maybe I'll just buy another Rock64... I think if I could buy the RockPro64 I probably already would have )