RK3399 Legacy Multimedia Framework

[JMCC]

23 minutes ago, tony013 said:

what needs to be done to start kodi?

Please see post #1 of this thread

[JMCC]

2 hours ago, tony013 said:

top menu is outside of my screen

Sorry, I didn't notice this. Can't you set up your monitor to disable overscan and show the full screen? If you want to use the desktop, you will miss the top panel and/or window bars anyway.

 

If you cannot change your monitor overscan setting, the easiest solution is to create a custom LightDM configuration, with a menu in some place that you can see. You can find instructions for that via Google.

 

Otherwise, you need to stop lightdm and launch Kodi manually from console.

[tony013]

vor 8 Stunden schrieb JMCC:

If you want to use the desktop, you will miss the top panel and/or window bars anyway

Yes, but I found a way around that.

I use the second bar with iconsize of 100 and changed conky to have all informations, I otherwise want in top bar ...

With twister I could start cody from desktop without changing lightdm session. That was beautiful :)

But as I can't use twister any longer, I have to live with your solution

 

vor 11 Stunden schrieb JMCC:

Please see post #1 of this thread

Sorry, I was unprecise.

Of cause I tried the hints from #1 to disable lightdm, but I don't know, how to recover desktop. So I had to reinstall armbian from sdcard.

 

vor 8 Stunden schrieb JMCC:

is to create a custom LightDM configuration, with a menu in some place that you can see. You can find instructions for that via Google.

Ok, I'll try that. Thank you

[JMCC]

3 hours ago, tony013 said:

With twister I could start cody from desktop

That's because it does not have VPU acceleration. You can probably also do that in Armbian, simply by installing the regular Debian Kodi packages (never tried it myself), but performance will be terrible. If you want fullacceleration on this chip, you need to disable X server for GBM KMS to take exclusive control of the display block.

[tony013]

vor 7 Stunden schrieb JMCC:

That's because it does not have VPU acceleration.

I'm not convinced, that it is true.

TwisterOS has same kodi-version like armbian legacy and movie playback gives the same impression like armbian legacy - smooth video and fresh sound.

Firefox-implementation of armbian pushed me towards twisteros.

... and I'm already completely angry about firefox experience on armbian. Really, that sort of spam turns me into a spree killer :(

 

vor 7 Stunden schrieb JMCC:

You can probably also do that in Armbian, simply by installing the regular Debian Kodi packages (never tried it myself)

Well, I tried it. Very disappointing experience. Kodi on armbian current is 3 generations back and has no hardware support for video and audio is the same very poor.

 

vor 7 Stunden schrieb JMCC:

If you want fullacceleration on this chip, you need to disable X server for GBM KMS to take exclusive control of the display block.

I guess, you should give twisteros a try. They use current kernel (same version like armbian current and LE) and have hardware acceleration for video and desktop - and best of all, switch between desktop and kodi in a wink.

Don't know, if that propaganda is true, but from twisterOS you can read:

• Latest PanfrostGPU drivers with desktop hardware acceleration
• Kodi and MPV media players with built-in hardware acceleration support
  
  

 

[JMCC]

2 hours ago, tony013 said:

movie playback gives the same impression like armbian legacy

Did you try 4k?

[tony013]

I finally was able to kill armbian-spammer, so don't need to search for other os any more :)

 

vor 9 Stunden schrieb JMCC:

Did you try 4k?

No, I'm not interested in 4k. Don't have equipment for 4k.

I'm happy with 2k and the equipment that I own.

But I do have movies, that none of rockpi images is able to play (like inception). Some movies have wrong colors on playback or you see jpg-artifacts or the like ...

But I couldn't detect any difference between armbian legacy and twisteros.

 

Anyway - as I can't use twisteros any more, armbian legacy is the only desktop os with acceptable movie playback.

 

Am 6.6.2021 um 19:24 schrieb JMCC:

create a custom LightDM configuration, with a menu in some place that you can see.

I found the settings for login top bar and changed fontsize to 100 or so, now I can use the menu.

Having that bar moveable like it is possible for the second bar would be wonderful. I'll keep searching.

[balbes150]

@JMCCNow I tested the latest versions of Station-legacy P1\M1 with the installation of the media package. I get the same error - hard binding of the package to the rockchip64-legacy kernel. This creates a lot of problems. Back to the question, maybe you should remove the hard binding to the kernel ?

[JMCC]

11 minutes ago, balbes150 said:

@JMCCNow I tested the latest versions of Station-legacy P1\M1 with the installation of the media package. I get the same error - hard binding of the package to the rockchip64-legacy kernel. This creates a lot of problems. Back to the question, maybe you should remove the hard binding to the kernel ?

Well, my position is the same as before. I can summarize it in two points:

• I don't like the idea of adding a new kernel to the already oversaturated mess of RK BSP. We had two (RK3399 and rockchip64), and we were trying to find ways to merge them. It has been a long issue with @piter75, @TonyMac32, @chwe, myself and others trying to find ways of getting rid of this duality, which we haven't gotten yet. But introducing a third one makes the issue even worse.
• The dependency is necessary for a proper debian packaging. If a package requires another package in order to work (as it is the case), then it must be reflected in the Debian dependencies.

The problem with any additional kernel that you may use either in standard Armbian or Armbian-TV, can be easily solved just by adding a field "Provides: linux-rockchip64-legacy" to your custom kernel package.

[balbes150]

I suggest not to add separate versions of kernels, but to remove the very presence of a hard binding to some kernel.

[JMCC]

3 minutes ago, balbes150 said:

to add separate versions of kernels

But, if the package is giving an error when installing, then it means that the system does not have the rk3399 nor rockchip64 kernel package, but a different one. Am I understanding well?

[balbes150]

The problem is that the system rigidly replaces the kernel, without giving the user the option to refuse to replace the kernel.

[JMCC]

21 minutes ago, balbes150 said:

The problem is that the system rigidly replaces the kernel, without giving the user the option to refuse to replace the kernel.

But then it means that the system has already installed some other kernel, other than rk3399 or rockchip64, am I understanding well?

[balbes150]

yes

[JMCC]

Then it can be easily solved by adding a field like "Provides: linux-image-legacy-rockchip64" to the Debian control file of that kernel.

[balbes150]

the formation of the core is laid down in the build patches and there is no change provided.

[tony013]

Hi,

 

I did some more tests and it turned out, that there is little difference between LE and armbian legacy for x264 or avc movies - but I found no movieplayer, that worked half as good as armbian legacy with vc-1 movies.

Don't have that many movies with vc-1 but some much-loved like inception ...

 

I already wrote, that I use rockpi as movieplayer together with a beamer, so session selection of armbian legacy is suboptimal for me, as about 10-15% on top and bottom of the screen are invisible (outside of screen). Lightdm/xfce is so dumb, that icons in topbar will not be scaled to bar height, which works fine for second bar ...

Sadly I didn't find any other greeter, that runs on armbian and is more attractive like lightdm-gtk-greeter.

So I started to build my own, which took lot more of time than expected ...

 

any way - I finally have a working sample:

 

is uses gtk too, so it works with armbian.

 

I check the available sessions and if there's no session definition for kody-gbm, the kodi-button will be disabled (as in the screenshot taken from my desktop computer).

Font- and button-size have been increased for a screen distance of 3m approximately.

 

Last login will be cached, so user will be prefilled and hitting ENTER in the password field will login to the last session. Left most button starts kody and right most button the desktop.

 

[JMCC]

3 minutes ago, tony013 said:

So I started to build my own, which took lot more of time than expected ...

 

any way - I finally have a working sample:

 

is uses gtk too, so it works with armbian.

 

I check the available sessions and if there's no session definition for kody-gbm, the kodi-button will be disabled (as in the screenshot taken from my desktop computer).

Font- and button-size have been increased for a screen distance of 3m approximately.

 

Last login will be cached, so user will be prefilled and hitting ENTER in the password field will login to the last session. Left most button starts kody and right most button the desktop.

 

Hey, that looks very good!

[tony013]

The greeter can be downloaded from github.

[d00m178]

hello)

Im really need to use on my rock pi 4c simple OS with simple DE like XFCE + Kodi.

After a lot of time of googling I've found this topic and seems this is what I want.

I installed 

https://armbian.hosthatch.com/dl/rockpi-4c/archive/Armbian_21.05.1_Rockpi-4c_buster_legacy_4.4.213_xfce_desktop.img.xz

and run these commands:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade sudo apt install media-buster-legacy-rk3399 --install-recommends

 

but I wonder - is this the only last working variant for having Kodi and graphics hardware acceleration on rock pi 4с?

Or maybe there is also variant based on Mainline version of Armbian? but I can't find any info about it..

 

for example - the issue with this current variant - described here - 

Only one USB port is working and as far I understand - there no fix for this on Legacy armbian on which this current variant is based.

So - we have hardware acceleration but no additional USB?

 

 

[JMCC]

44 minutes ago, d00m178 said:

there is also variant based on Mainline version of Armbian?

We are working on that: 

 

[d00m178]

ok

I've checked the previous suggested link and got there recommendation to return here)

So I supposed that only Legacy Buster currently the best variant of Armbian for rock pi 4c if you want use it as multimedia center (kodi etc)

 

But anyway - what to do with broken USB ports? I can connect only one device but want to connect more.

Also seems XRDP doesnt work..

[JMCC]

25 minutes ago, d00m178 said:

got there recommendation to return here

Are you sure? Maybe you should read again and follow the link

[d00m178]

8 minutes ago, JMCC said:

Are you sure? Maybe you should read again and follow the link

Yes, as far I understand, I am sure )

below the two answers that I received:

 

1 - 

Quote

 

https://www.armbian.com/rock-pi-4/

https://forum.armbian.com/topic/16516-rk3399-legacy-multimedia-framework/

 

 

 

 

 

2 - 

Quote

 

For the RockPi4C you just need the default armbian buster legacy. https://redirect.armbian.com/region/EU/rockpi-4b/Buster_legacy_xfce
from https://www.armbian.com/rock-pi-4/
To install kodi with addones :
 

sudo apt install media-buster-legacy-rk3399 --install-recommends

https://forum.armbian.com/topic/16516-rk3399-legacy-multimedia-framework/

 

 

both answers are told about exactly this topic...

 

[JMCC]

Follow my link

[d00m178]

2 minutes ago, JMCC said:

Follow my link

sorry..

which link?

[JMCC]

This one, and the link in the post

 

 

[d00m178]

1 hour ago, JMCC said:

This one, and the link in the post

 

 

 

hmm.. seems the weather is getting hot in my town... 

I do not understand your answer at all - your link just opens topic on 1 page. What I need to get from there?

 

upd:

 

https://forum.armbian.com/topic/15693-board-bring-up-station-p1-rk3399-m1-rk3328/page/8/?tab=comments#comment-126668

 

found it) it is about only Kodi packages, right? 

 

upd2:

 

ok

as far I understand - I can install Debian Bulseye and your Kodi packages on my rock pi 4c.

but I wonder - if hardware acceleration and other stuff which discussed here will work on such configuration?

and there no Bullseye images yet..

https://armbian.hosthatch.com/dl/rockpi-4c/archive/

where I can download it for rockpi?

[d00m178]

On 7/7/2021 at 5:06 PM, JMCC said:

This one, and the link in the post

 

 

 

sorry but can you explain in some more details - what can I do for my rockpi 4c with your kodi version for Bulseye?
I tried to follow these doc: https://github.com/armbian/build and build new image for 4c but it has configs only for ubuntu and buster not bulseye.
so I totally dont understand how can I use your advice..
seems there are a lot of blockers if you want to use rock pi like mediacenter - you restricted to legacy buster because only this image has HW acceleration but in legacy you face with USB and XRDP issue.
I dont know and cant find any info about images with current kernels which works good with video and has a modern version of kodi.

for example if you install kodi from default debian repo on armbian - you receive some modified version of kodi which has 18.4 ver(or 18.6) but remote web not working and I suppose HW also now working.

[ATK]

Just downloaded latest legacy buster image from download page of OPI4 few hours ago , then did sudo apt update and then sudo apt upgrade  .. Rebooted... After which started getting error " Failed to start Light Display Manager " Picture of same attached... on terminal after update/upgrade the OS version shown NOW is Armbian 21.05.6  with Linux 4.4.213-rk3399 . 

hardware is Orange Pi 4