Kodi on Orange Pi 5 with GPU Hardware Acceleration and HDMI Audio
Huge thanks to user @roykon the Armbian forums for the directions on this in their various forum posts and Armbian forum user @amazingfate for maintaining the PPAs and software builds required for GPU acceleration. I have simply listed below, for the reference of others, the minimum Steps used to get Kodi running with GPU hardware acceleration (for x264/x265 decode) plus HDR auto switching and with HDMI Audio output*. (I am using the Orange Pi 5 with a Samsung 4K TV)
*No instructions added yet for enabling HDMI passthrough.
** No instructions added yet for enabling HDMI CEC.
Step 1 (SD card image creation)
Download the image below, uncompress it and write it to an SD card.
https://github.com/armbian/build/releases/download/23.02.0-trunk.0173/Armbian_23.02.0-trunk.0173_Orangepi5_jammy_legacy_5.10.110_xfce_desktop.img.xz#orangepi5
Step 2 (First boot)
Boot the SD card image and complete the on-screen prompts for user & password creation.
Note down the IP address of the Orange Pi 5, you will need it in step 3.
Step 3 (SSH into the Orange Pi 5)
SSH to the IP address of your Orange Pi 5 and login using the user account and password you set up in Step 2.
Step 4 (Enable PPAs and install other elements required for GPU hardware acceleration)
At the command line, enter the following commands (highlighted in Blue):
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:liujianfeng1994/panfork-mesa
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:liujianfeng1994/rockchip-multimedia
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade
sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop kodi
When prompted on-screen if you wish to use gdm or lightdm, select gdm.
Step 5 (Configuration file additions & changes)
At the command line, enter the following commands (highlighted in Blue):
sudo mv /usr/share/xsessions/kodi.desktop /usr/share/wayland-sessions/kodi-wayland.desktop
sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/11-rockchip-multimedia.rules
KERNEL=="mpp_service", MODE="0660", GROUP="video"
KERNEL=="rga", MODE="0660", GROUP="video"
KERNEL=="system-dma32", MODE="0666", GROUP="video"
KERNEL=="system-uncached-dma32", MODE="0666", GROUP="video" RUN+="/usr/bin/chmod a+rw /dev/dma_heap"
sudo nano /etc/gdm3/custom.conf
Add the line below and save the file.
WaylandEnable=true
sudo nano /usr/share/alsa/cards/HDMI-OUT.conf
Add all of the content below and save the file.
# configuration for HDMI connection which just expose the
# audio out device
<confdir:pcm/hdmi.conf>
HDMI-OUT.pcm.hdmi.0 {
@args [ CARD DEVICE CTLINDEX AES0 AES1 AES2 AES3 ]
@args.CARD {
type string
}
@args.DEVICE {
type integer
}
@args.CTLINDEX {
type integer
}
@args.AES0 {
type integer
}
@args.AES1 {
type integer
}
@args.AES2 {
type integer
}
@args.AES3 {
type integer
}
type hw
card $CARD
}
sudo nano /usr/share/alsa/cards/aliases.conf
Add the line below and save the file.
rockchip-hdmi0 cards.HDMI-OUT
Step 6 (Reboot and Start Kodi)
At the command line, enter the following commands (highlighted in Blue):
sudo reboot
At the login screen, select “kodi” in the bottom right hand corner menu.
Now login using your username and password. Kodi should now load.
Step 7 (Adjust Kodi settings)
From within Kodi goto Settings -> Player -> Videos goto the bottom left corner of the screen and change it from Standard to Expert.
From within Kodi goto Settings -> Player -> Videos, Playback, and change Adjust display refresh rate to “On start/stop”
From within Kodi goto Settings -> Player -> Videos, Processing, enable "Allow using DRM PRIME decoder" and "Allow hardware acceleration with DRM PRIME". And set "PRIME Render Method" to "Direct To Plane"
From within Kodi goto Settings -> System -> Display, and change the resolution to 1920x1080p
From within Kodi goto Settings -> System -> Audio, and change the Audio output device to “Built in Audio Digital Stereo (HDMI),HDMI / DisplayPort (PULSEAUDIO)”
Step 8 (Test video playback and check that GPU acceleration & HDMI Audio are working)
During video playback, press ‘o’ on the keyboard, and it should show Video decoder: ff-hevc_rkmpp-drm_prime (HW)
During video playback, if you have a Samsung TV, press the “Info” button on your Samsung TV remote to show the current playback resolution, frame rate and whether or not HDR is in use. (Depending on the video content being played)
Thank you again to Armbian forum users @royk and @amazingfate
