Kodi Flatpak Experiences

[ArmBoy1988]

Is anyone using the current Kodi Flatpak, Omega?

 

I'm having issues viewing videos that have pixel format of yuv420p10le with the current apt repository Kodi Nexus.

 

I thought to try Kodi Flatpak and it worked and I was able to view those yuv420p10le videos without issue.  However, it was choppy and had high CPU usage...around 80% on many of the CPUs.  I'm trying to figure that out.  It's happening on all types of videos.  All is played using software decoding.  I've never gotten hardware decoding working.  In the Kodi Nexus version I'm using it also software decoding but very low CPU usage.

 

In any case, just want to see what experiences others are having.

[ozacas]

i run kodi via flatpak:

acas@t6:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
Description:	Armbian 24.11.2 noble
Release:	24.04
Codename:	noble
acas@t6:~$ flatpak list
Name                     Application ID                          Version                  Branch      Installation
Freedesktop Platform     org.freedesktop.Platform                freedesktop-sdk-23.08.27 23.08       system
Freedesktop Platform     org.freedesktop.Platform                freedesktop-sdk-24.08.9  24.08       system
Mesa                     org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default     24.3.1                   23.08       system
Mesa (Extra)             org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default     24.3.1                   23.08-extra system
Mesa                     org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default     24.3.1                   24.08       system
Mesa (Extra)             org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default     24.3.1                   24.08extra  system
openh264                 org.freedesktop.Platform.openh264       2.1.0                    2.2.0       system
openh264                 org.freedesktop.Platform.openh264       2.4.1                    2.4.1       system
Freedesktop SDK          org.freedesktop.Sdk                     freedesktop-sdk-24.08.10 24.08       system
OpenJDK 17 SDK Extension org.freedesktop.Sdk.Extension.openjdk17                          24.08       system
Kodi                     tv.kodi.Kodi                            21.1-Omega               stable      system

the video output I believe is hardware accelerated as it reports 'Mali-G610 (panfrost)' under settings ->  system info -> video (as opposed to llvmpipe) with Mesa 24.3.1 and wayland

 

[royk]

While playing a video press the letter "O" to check if you're using hardware or software decoding. For hardware decoding you need to compile Kodi with FFmpeg that supports rkmmp hardware decoding and with gless. For 10 bit decoding you should run Kodi from GBM. You'll also need to change a setting in Kodi under video, set render method to "Direct to plane".

So install FFmpeg as described at:

https://github.com/nyanmisaka/ffmpeg-rockchip/wiki/Compilation

 

Build Kodi as described at:

https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/blob/master/docs/README.Linux.md#41-configure-build

 

with as cmake command for example:

cmake ../kodi -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local -DCORE_PLATFORM_NAME="wayland gbm" -DAPP_RENDER_SYSTEM=gles

[ArmBoy1988]

I still can't get Hardware decoding to work.  I'm going to start over when kernel 6.13 is out.  In the meantime, I noticed another message.  For some reason, I tried to start Kodi Flatpak from the command line and got this message:

 

root@orangepi5-181:~# flatpak run tv.kodi.Kodi
'this->recurse > 0' failed at ../src/pipewire/thread-loop.c:62 do_unlock()
libva info: VA-API version 1.22.0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/dri/rknpu_drv_video.so
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/dri/intel-vaapi-driver/rknpu_drv_video.so
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/GL/lib/dri/rknpu_drv_video.so
libva info: va_openDriver() returns -1

I don't think this is relevant as the file is rknpu...  Don't know.  Should this file be there?  Does this message show up for anyone else.

[ArmBoy1988]

Still working on this.  Trying to go through steps to see if I missed anything.

 

Found that although I thought I was in Wayland, it wasn't.

 

I logged out and tried Kodi in Wayland session fullscreen.  FYI, I'm still using Armbian Ubuntu Jammy.  So Kodi starts up into the GUI and the DRM option showed up and I set it to Direct to Plane in the settings.  When I play any video, it's a black screen/no video.  Audio is playing.  When I bring up the OSD, it does say it's using HW to play.  I remembered reading about these issues previously.  I couldn't find the posts or any solutions.

 

Does anyone know any solutions?

 

I saw a new build is up.  I'll try with that and with 6.13 kernel when it's out.  I'll keep trying.

Edited February 11 by ArmBoy1988

[royk]

@ArmBoy1988 I gave you already the answer if you want full hardware decoding support. Maybe you don't like it, but it's the only way. So a Flatpak won't work unless it's specifically built with rkmpp support. At this moment using the vendor kernel and build Kodi with FFmpeg with rkmpp support it the way to go.

Edited February 11 by royk
Typo