Download OpenELEC 8.0.4

Version 8.0.4 of the Open Embedded Linux Entertainment Center has been released. This Linux distribution is based on Kodi and can turn a computer into a full-fledged htpc. OpenELEC is easy to install, maintain and use, as well as being small and lightning fast. Incidentally, OpenELEC land is rumbling and a large number of developers have walked away from the project and have a fork under the name LibreELEC set up. In OpenELEC version 8, among other things, the switch to Kodi 17 has been made and a large number of components from the OS have been updated. A few minor issues have also been fixed in this update.

OpenELEC 8.0.4 released
OpenELEC 8.0.4 release has been published. Users running OpenELEC 8.0.0 or later with auto-update enabled will be prompted on-screen to reboot and apply the update once it has been downloaded and enabled in some hours. Users running older OpenELEC releases or with auto-update disabled will need to manually update. If you would like to update from an older OpenELEC release please read update instructions/advice on the Wiki before updating. Manual update files can be obtained from the download page.

Kodi 17 (Krypton) support
OpenELEC 8.0 release contain 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. OpenELEC 8.0.4 is a maintenance release for OpenELEC-8.0 series. The main fixes are:

• fix crash in WeTek DVB driver on WeTek Play (1st gen).
• enable Kernel NEON mode for RPi2 builds.
• enable some more SOC sound drivers for RPi/RPi2 builds.
• enable Regulator support on all builds.
• enable Extcon support on all builds.
• fix loading for some I2C sound modules on RPI/RPi2 builds.
• fix loading splash screen on systems with Nvidia GPUs.
• fix speed problems on Nvidia ION systems.
• fix problems loading dvbhdhomerun addons.
• fix using user created sleep scripts.
• build PNG support with SSE support for x86_64 builds.
• update to linux-4.9.30, mesa-17.0.7, alsa-lib-1.1.4.1, alsa-utils-1.1.4, kodi-17.3, mariadb-10.1.23, samba-4.6.4.

OpenELEC 8.0 series is a feature release. The main changes are:

Platform changes:

• New Platform WeTek Play 2 Play 2 supported with own build.
  WeTek Play 2 brings endless entertainment to your living room. Enjoy the latest movies and series in 4K UHD, play games, browse the internet, keep up with the news, or use the DVB modular tuner to watch thousands of TV channels via satellite, terrestrial and cable connections.
• New Platform WeTek Hub supported by own build.
  Taking advantage of the latest hardware advances, we’ve maximized performance and optimized design. Introducing, WeTek Hub, the smallest WeTek device yet, and one of the most powerful Android streaming devices on the market.
• Raspberry Pi Zero W supported by Raspberry Pi (1) builds.

Core OS updates and changes (old version in brackets):

• Pulseaudio updated to 10.0 (9.0)
• Binutils updated to 2.28 (2.26)
• GCC updated to 6.3 (5.4)
• glibc updated to 2.25 (2.23)
• LLVM updated to 4.0 (3.8)
• Linux kernel updated to 4.9 (4.4)
• Mesa updated to 17.0 (11.2)
• ffmpeg updated to 3.2 (2.8)
• libva updated to 1.8 (1.7)
• connman updated to 1.34 (1.31)
• libressl updated to 2.4 (2.2)
• systemd updated to 233 (229)
• xorg server updated to 1.19 (1.18)
• samba updated to 4.6 (3.6)
• MySQL replaced with MariaDB-10.1
• HFS and HFS+ Filesystem support removed.
• iSCSI support removed.
• NFS, NBD, iSCSI Network boot support removed.
• LIRC support removed, LIRC was always installed as an enhancenment to the Kernel RC drivers, and was only used for very old IR Hardware like classic XBox remote and others – which support is now dropped.
• Apple TV 1 IR remote driver driver removed.
• X11 AMDGPU, ATI (Radeon) and Intel GPU driver driver replaced by X11 Modesettings GPU driver.

Driver and firmware updates and changes:

• updated WLAN and DVB drivers and firmwares.
• updated Nvidia Legacy driver to xf86-video-nvidia-340, which removes support for legacy Nvidia GPUs not supporting VDPAU.

Kodi updates and changes (old version in brackets)

• Kodi updated to version 17 final (16)