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OpenELEC 8.0 Linux Distro Released For PC, Raspberry Pi, WeTek Hub (betanews.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the Linux-y-goodness dept.

BrianFagioli writes: Today, popular Linux distro OpenELEC reaches version 8.0 stable. This operating system leverages Kodi to provide a well-rounded media center experience. Not only are there images for PC, but for Raspberry Pi, and WeTek boxes too.

'OpenELEC 8.0 release contains a Kodi major version bump. If you are updating from OpenELEC 7.0 or earlier we strongly recommend you perform a full backup before performing a manual update. If you experience issues please perform a soft-reset to clear OpenELEC and Kodi settings,' says Stephan Raue, OpenELEC.

9 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Site Flagged By Google As Hacked by kamaaina · · Score: 2

    Not sure if it is an over aggressive google check or if they were really hacked, but last time I went there I got a warning.

    1. Re:Site Flagged By Google As Hacked by lucm · · Score: 3, Funny

      if they were really hacked

      Impossible: that website is powered by Joomla.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
  2. OSMC is better by AncalagonTotof · · Score: 2

    OpenElec is a PITA to upgrade.
    OSMC is based on Debian, thus performs upgrades through apt-*. The interface takes care of checking for available upgrade. I recently got a massive one that brought Kodi 17.x.
    IR configuration is easier, although still not for the faint of heart.
    And if you need something more from your box, just login and apt-get install the packages.

    --
    Totof
    1. Re:OSMC is better by jimbo · · Score: 2

      I really enjoy OSMC for the reasons you mention here, as well as the friendly and helpful community. I use it with a RPi2 and a Vero 4K that mains media center but doubles as a small server for various purposes.

  3. I hate Kodi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Maybe it's just me, but I hate Kodi. The interface is Fisher Price style, combined with horrible Windows file selector style dialogs popups appearings. It's unintuitive but worst of all, it's hard versioned, so every time I run it, some plugin is incompatible and cannot be used.

    Even when everything is up to date, it just doesn't work half the time.

    I'm spoilt, I usually run Up TV, or Synology Video player, and they are far more solid and professional than Kodi.

    Isn't it time someone replaced Kodi?

    1. Re:I hate Kodi by Harold+Halloway · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well the beauty of Kodi is that if you don't like the interface, you can change it. There are dozens of alternative ones out there. And if you are describing the Confluence skin then that's now been dropped in favour of a more modern looking skin.

      But if you are simply looking for a straight video player and don't need the addon or library functions in Kodi then you are probably better off using a straight video player app.

  4. Re: DOWN WITH OPENELEC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    The change from OpenSSL to LibreSSL (in LibreELEC v8.0.1) was causing various problems with add-ons.
    Everyone impacted is waiting for LibreELEC v8.0.2 now :-/

    However LibreELEC is a real open/transparent community project, whereas OpenELEC is basically a one-man-show nowadays.

  5. Re:Qualifier by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 2

    I run it... Bulletproof

    In the niche you need it for, an embedded, Hands off XMBC/Kodi install that you set once and pretty much forget (meaning you can set it up for your folks and not worry about support calls) it's very popular. Much like Microsoft Windows would be popular with a bunch of PC makers but not so much with cell phone makers. Yeah, it's a niche, but it dominates its niche.

    Or were you being snarky?

  6. Re:systemd by pak9rabid · · Score: 2

    Irrelevant. If you have any interaction with your init system then your media centre is outright broken and it belongs in the bin

    Not necessarily. I needed to setup an NFS mount for my to access my ROMs remotely via RetroArch, which is used entirely outside of Kodi. The old, pre-systemd way (on OpenELEC anyways), was to write an autostart.sh script that gets executed at boot time to do the mount. The problem is, in order to ensure that the NFS mount will actually get mounted at boot is to do some hacky shit like sleep for 30 seconds, which obviously increases boot time by that much.

    With systemd, I just create a unit file to do the mount for me, telling it that it depends on on the networking service first so that the mount isn't even tried until the network is up & running.