Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472, and today, I am giving my day one review of LibreELEC running on the Raspberry Pi 4. Let’s get started!
Installation
Depending on how I divide this up, LibreELEC was one of the most painless distros to install, or one that’s taken me the longest to date. I believe my first attempt months ago failed because the download from their website was actually a small program to help download and install an image and I tried flashing it directly.
As per my custom for flashing SD cards, I made the download and tried installing on an actual Pi because it minimizes the chance for accidentally overwriting the wrong drive. This installer though, refused to work. I figure it was only compiled for desktop-style computers. It was a case of my own experience getting in my way.
Once I used their downloader to select the correct image and flash the chip, it worked. I did the usual new install setup procedures: establishing language, keyboard layout, time zone, etc. and spent a few hours poking around.
Kodi
The whole point of LibreELEC is to run one program and run it well: Kodi. I’ve never used it before, so I couldn’t tell you where the OS stops and the media program begins. Functionally, it feels like any media player sold in stores since DVD players were computerized for streaming content off the web, only it comes with a bunch of interface options.
I did have one problem after installation that stumped me enough to research. I had something all ready to play for the family, but the sound came up a no-go. A brief search quickly landed me in a community forum, where someone stated that for some reason, by default, LibreELEC on the Pi 4 only gives HDMI sound to the jack beside the micro USB C power plug. Otherwise, I was looking at possibly getting in there and messing around with things at the command line level over SSH; I have not yet found how to access a local terminal.
Future Work
There are a precious few keyboards in the home, and even fewer wired keyboards. Also of note is that my Pi 4 has been tied up for a while now, plugged into the TV. My endgame goal was never to leave this one tied up forever.
The Raspberry Pi 400 is largely equivalent to a Pi 4 (4 GB RAM) rearranged to fit inside a keyboard a la the Commodore 64. We put one on order, though suppliers are any combination of backordered, out of stock, or limiting how many each person can buy.
My plan has always been to make the SD card and put it in an appropriately specced host machine. Phase 2 of this project can proceed when I have an IR sensor to experiment with. When the keyboard is rendered unnecessary, I can think about moving the card over to a low end Pi 4 and see if it runs on 1 GB RAM.
Takeaway
No Linux experience is required to use LibreELEC. It is aimed at people who want more control over their home entertainment experience than is afforded by a commercial media player. It walks you through the scariest parts of installation, and the one problem I needed to research externally was trivial to find the answer for. Everything I can think of that someone might want in a basic home entertainment center is laid out plainly, but more advanced options exist for expert users.
Final Question
Have you ever been in a situation where your own experience got in the way of solving a relatively simple problem?