This guide has been tested with Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial) x86_64 and 18.04 (Bionic). It is meant to cross-compile Kodi for the Raspberry Pi using Kodi's unified depends build system. Please read it in full before you proceed to familiarize yourself with the build procedure.
If you're looking to build Kodi natively using Raspbian, you should follow the Ubuntu guide instead. Several other distributions have specific guides and a general Linux guide is also available.
- Document conventions
- Install the required packages
- Get the source code
3.1. Get Raspberry Pi tools and firmware - Build tools and dependencies
- Build Kodi
- Docker
- Troubleshooting
7.1. ImportError: No module named _sysconfigdata_nd
7.2. Errors connecting to any internet (TLS) service
This guide assumes you are using terminal, also known as console, command-line or simply cli. Commands need to be run at the terminal, one at a time and in the provided order.
This is a comment that provides context:
this is a command
this is another command
and yet another one
Example: Clone Kodi's current master branch:
git clone https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc kodi
Commands that contain strings enclosed in angle brackets denote something you need to change to suit your needs.
git clone -b <branch-name> https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc kodi
Example: Clone Kodi's current Krypton branch:
git clone -b Krypton https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc kodi
Several different strategies are used to draw your attention to certain pieces of information. In order of how critical the information is, these items are marked as a note, tip, or warning. For example:
NOTE: Linux is user friendly... It's just very particular about who its friends are.
TIP: Algorithm is what developers call code they do not want to explain.
WARNING: Developers don't change light bulbs. It's a hardware problem.
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NOTE: Kodi requires a compiler with C++14 support, i.e. gcc >= 4.9 or clang >= 3.4
Install build dependencies needed to cross-compile Kodi for the Raspberry Pi:
sudo apt install autoconf bison build-essential curl default-jdk gawk git gperf libcurl4-openssl-dev zlib1g-dev
Change to your home directory:
cd $HOME
Clone Kodi's current master branch:
git clone https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc kodi
Clone Raspberry Pi tools:
git clone https://github.com/raspberrypi/tools --depth=1
Clone Raspberry Pi firmware:
git clone https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware --depth=1
Create target directory:
mkdir $HOME/kodi-rpi
Prepare to configure build:
cd $HOME/kodi/tools/depends
./bootstrap
TIP: Look for comments starting with Or ... and only execute the command(s) you need.
Configure build for Raspberry Pi 1:
./configure --host=arm-linux-gnueabihf --prefix=$HOME/kodi-rpi --with-toolchain=$HOME/tools/arm-bcm2708/arm-rpi-4.9.3-linux-gnueabihf --with-firmware=$HOME/firmware --with-platform=raspberry-pi --disable-debug
Or configure build for Raspberry Pi 2 and 3:
./configure --host=arm-linux-gnueabihf --prefix=$HOME/kodi-rpi --with-toolchain=$HOME/tools/arm-bcm2708/arm-rpi-4.9.3-linux-gnueabihf --with-firmware=$HOME/firmware --with-platform=raspberry-pi2 --disable-debug
Build tools and dependencies:
make -j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN)
TIP: By adding -j<number> to the make command, you can choose how many concurrent jobs will be used and expedite the build process. It is recommended to use -j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN) to compile on all available processor cores. The build machine can also be configured to do this automatically by adding export MAKEFLAGS="-j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN)" to your shell config (e.g. ~/.bashrc).
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Configure CMake build:
cd $HOME/kodi
make -C tools/depends/target/cmakebuildsys
TIP: BUILD_DIR can be provided as an argument to cmakebuildsys. This allows you to provide an alternate build location. Change all paths onwards as required if BUILD_DIR option used.
mkdir $HOME/kodi-build
make -C tools/depends/target/cmakebuildsys BUILD_DIR=$HOME/kodi-build
Build Kodi:
cd $HOME/kodi/build
make -j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN)
Install to target directory:
make install
After the build process is finished, you can find the files ready to be installed inside $HOME/kodi-rpi. Look for a directory called raspberry-pi-release or raspberry-pi2-release.
If you encounter issues with the previous instructions, or if you don't have a proper system for cross-compiling Kodi, it's also possible to use a Docker image to perform the build. This method, although it should work just like the build instructions mentioned above, is not supported. Therefore, issues related specifically to Docker should not be opened.
Here is an example Dockerfile, summarizing basically all the instructions described above (/!\ may not be up to date with the actual instructions!). Please read the comments as they describe things you NEED to change and/or consider before building.
# Change 'latest' to the officially supported version of Ubuntu for cross-compilation
FROM ubuntu:latest
RUN apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y
RUN apt-get -y install autoconf bison build-essential curl default-jdk gawk git gperf libcurl4-openssl-dev zlib1g-dev file
# The 'HOME' variable doesn't really matter - it is only the location of the files within the image
ARG HOME=/home/pi
# This is the location kodi will be built for, that means you will have to put the built files in
# this directory afterwards. It is important because many paths end up hardcoded during the build.
ARG PREFIX=/opt/kodi
RUN mkdir $PREFIX
WORKDIR $HOME
# Replace 'master' with whichever branch/tag you wish to build - be careful with nightly builds!
RUN git clone -b master https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc kodi --depth 1
RUN git clone https://github.com/raspberrypi/tools --depth=1
RUN git clone https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware --depth=1
WORKDIR $HOME/kodi/tools/depends
RUN ./bootstrap
# Change this if you're building on a RPi1, as described above
RUN ./configure --host=arm-linux-gnueabihf --prefix=$PREFIX --with-toolchain=$HOME/tools/arm-bcm2708/arm-rpi-4.9.3-linux-gnueabihf --with-firmware=$HOME/firmware --with-platform=raspberry-pi2 --disable-debug
RUN make -j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN)
WORKDIR $HOME/kodi
# This step builds all the binary addons.
# Kodi - at its core - works fine without them, however they are used by many other addons.
# Therefore, it is recommended to simply compile all of them.
RUN make -j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN) -C tools/depends/target/binary-addons
RUN make -C tools/depends/target/cmakebuildsys
WORKDIR $HOME/kodi/build
RUN make -j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN)
RUN make install
RUN tar zfc /kodi.tar.gz $PREFIXYou can then build the image, and afterwards retrieve the build files from a dummy container:
docker build -t kodi_build .
docker run --name some-temp-container-name kodi_build /bin/bash
docker cp some-temp-container-name:/kodi.tar.gz ./
docker rm some-temp-container-nameYou should now have a file kodi.tar.gz in your current directory. Now you need to uncompress this file in the $PREFIX directory (as mentioned in the Dockerfile) of your Raspberry. Note that the archive contains multiple directories in its root, but only the raspberry-pi2-release (or raspberry-pi-release) is needed, so you can delete the others safely. If you encounter problems, please take a look at the Troubleshooting section below before filing an issue.
This is caused by an issue with a python package. The solution is to simply add a missing symlink so the library can be found, i.e.:
ln -s /usr/lib/python2.7/plat-arm-linux-gnueabihf/_sysconfigdata_nd.py /usr/lib/python2.7/First, you should enable debug logging (instructions here). Then you need to check the logs and find what the source of your problem is. If, when trying to access TLS services (e.g. when installing an addon), the connection fails and your log contains entries such as:
# note that those logs appear when enabling component-specific logs -> libcurl
2019-05-19 17:18:39.570 T:1854288832 DEBUG: Curl::Debug - TEXT: SSL certificate problem: unable to get local issuer certificate
2019-05-19 17:18:39.570 T:1854288832 DEBUG: Curl::Debug - TEXT: Closing connection 0
# this is part of the regular Kodi logs
2019-05-19 17:18:39.570 T:1854288832 ERROR: CCurlFile::FillBuffer - Failed: Peer certificate cannot be authenticated with given CA certificates(60)
Then, you need to define the environment variable SSL_CERT_FILE so it points to your system's certificate file. Depending on how you start Kodi, putting this line in your in your .profile file should fix this issue:
export SSL_CERT_FILE=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crtNote that you need to define this variable before starting Kodi. For example, if you start Kodi on startup through a crontab, your .profile will not be sourced.