Compiling Kodi and building deb packages – Raspbian Jessie

There isn’t much information around the web on how to properly compile and build debian packages out of Kodi. Kodi is an awesome project and its media player capabilities are very much suitable to be used in a Raspberry Pi, I’m not going into much detail about Kodi’s capabilities, if you’re reading this post is because you already know what it is capable of and need to tweak it to your convenience.

I’ve decided to compile a list of things that are needed to be done in order to compile Kodi properly. Feel free to add your comments below if something is not working as expected, I’ll update the guide using your feedback.

This guide assumes that you start with a clean Raspbian Jessie installation, if that’s not your case feel free to skip some the initial steps.

Step 1: Install and Configure Raspbian Jessie

I’m not going to discuss on how you should install Raspbian Jessie on a SD Card, there are several places around the web so I’m assuming that you can google and find that information.

Once you boot your Pi with Raspbian, the first thing you should do is to resize its partition by selecting the “Resize Filesystem” option in raspi-config.

After this is done and you rebooted, configure network access and make sure you have internet access, this is mandatory for this guide to work 🙂

Alternative: You can use a chroot environment, please refer to the instructions on this website.

Step 2: Prepare environment

We will need a bunch of libraries installed in order to compile Kodi. They are not only Kodi’s dependencies, but system tools required to compile, download source code and to help us in our tasks.

First, upgrade Raspbian packages to the latest versions:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Let’s install a few utilities that will be useful to manage source code and to be able to compile and produce binaries:

sudo apt-get install git curl devscripts build-essential

Below are all the dependencies needed to build kodi. I separated them from the above so you can clearly identify what is a kodi dependency and what is not.

sudo apt-get install autoconf automake autotools-dev cmake ccache \
default-jre gawk gdc gperf libasound2-dev libass-dev \
libavahi-client-dev libavahi-common-dev libbluetooth-dev libbluray-dev \
libboost-dev libboost-thread-dev libbz2-dev libcdio-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev \
libcwiid-dev libdbus-1-dev libenca-dev libflac-dev libfontconfig-dev \
libfreetype6-dev libfribidi-dev libgcrypt-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libglew-dev \
libglu1-mesa-dev libgnutls28-dev libgpg-error-dev libiso9660-dev libjasper-dev \
libjpeg-dev libltdl-dev liblzo2-dev libmad0-dev libmicrohttpd-dev libmodplug-dev \
libmp3lame-dev libmpeg2-4-dev libmysqlclient-dev libnfs-dev libogg-dev libpcre3-dev \
libplist-dev libpng12-dev libpulse-dev librtmp-dev libsamplerate-dev libsdl2-dev \
libsmbclient-dev libsqlite3-dev libssh-dev libssl-dev libtag1-dev libtiff5-dev \
libtinyxml-dev libtool libudev-dev libva-dev libvdpau-dev libvorbis-dev libxmu-dev \
libxrandr-dev libxslt1-dev libxt-dev libyajl-dev nasm python-dev python-imaging swig \
uuid-dev yasm zip zlib1g-dev bluez libspeex-dev libspeexdsp-dev libdvdread-dev libdvdnav-dev

If you’re using a chroot environment, please run the following as well:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update
./rpi-update

Don’t run rpi-update unless you know what you’re doing. Check the end of this guide for more information.

Step 3: Compile and install dependencies

There are a few packages that are required by kodi but are not yet available on the raspbian repository, so we will have to compile and install them individually.
At this point in time, these dependencies include: libplatform-dev, libcec4-dev, libcrossguid-dev, libgif > 5.0, libbluray-dev and libshairplay-dev. I’ll detail them one by one.

Before doing this step it is advised that you create a directory where all source code will live and will be compiled. I’ll assume that all commands you run from this point forward are done on that place.

Alternative Step 3: An alternative method to this is to install these libraries already compiled and made available at pipplware’s repository.  Add this repository to your apt sources as described here and you can run sudo apt-get install libplatform-dev, libcec4-dev, libcrossguid-dev libgif-dev libbluray-dev libshairplay-dev .

Note that this repository also contains Kodi already compiled and optimised for your Pi’s architecture (armv6 or armv7) so technically you don’t need to continue further with this guide if what you want is just Kodi running on your raspbian installation. Follow the instructions on the link above and you’re done. The following steps are for those who want to know how to put everything together.

libplatform-dev

This is a pre requisite for building libcec4-dev, so we will need to start with this one. Follow the next steps to generate a deb package and install them.

git clone https://github.com/Pulse-Eight/platform
cd platform
sed "s/#DIST#/jessie/g" debian/changelog.in > debian/changelog
dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc
cd ..
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

libcec4-dev

This library provides support for HDMI-CEC protocol, it allows the usage of the TV remote to control Kodi. Follow the next steps to generate a deb package and install them.

sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev
git clone https://github.com/Pulse-Eight/libcec.git
cd libcec
sed "s/#DIST#/jessie/g" debian/changelog.in > debian/changelog
sed -i "s/cmake /cmake -DRPI_INCLUDE_DIR=\/opt\/vc\/include -DRPI_LIB_DIR=\/opt\/vc\/lib /" debian/rules
dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc
cd ..
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

libcrossguid-dev

This is not needed anymore, as we can use the built in crossguid from kodi. If you’d like to use your own, please set -DENABLE_INTERNAL_CROSSGUID=OFF in the cmake arguments below.

git clone https://github.com/graeme-hill/crossguid
cd crossguid

dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc
cd ..
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

libgif > 5

Kodi depends on a libgif greater than version 5, which is not provided by raspbian jessie. However it is available on some mirrors and it can be downloaded and installed.

wget http://mirrors.fe.up.pt/raspbian/raspbian/pool/main/g/giflib/libgif-dev_5.1.4-0.4_armhf.deb
wget http://mirrors.fe.up.pt/raspbian/raspbian/pool/main/g/giflib/libgif7_5.1.4-0.4_armhf.deb
sudo dpkg -i libgif7_5.1.4-0.4_armhf.deb libgif-dev_5.1.4-0.4_armhf.deb

libbluray-dev

Kodi needs a version of libbluray which is not available on stock raspbian jessie. So we’ll need to compile it, and we will also patch it with a patch provided by popcornmix to enable certain features needed by Kodi as well.

sudo apt-get install default-jdk javahelper ant doxygen graphviz texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-recommended \
texlive-latex-extra latex-xcolor texlive-fonts-recommended libasm4-java
wget http://archive.raspbian.org/raspbian/pool/main/libb/libbluray/libbluray_0.9.3.orig.tar.bz2
tar jxvf libbluray_0.9.3.orig.tar.bz2
rm libbluray_0.9.3.orig.tar.bz2
cd libbluray-0.9.3
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/popcornmix/xbmc/krypton_rbp_backports/tools/depends/target/libbluray/bump_to_Nevcairie_v0.9.2.patch
patch -p1 < bump_to_Nevcairie_v0.9.2.patch
rm bump_to_Nevcairie_v0.9.2.patch
tar -zcf ../libbluray_0.9.3.orig.tar.gz .
wget http://archive.raspbian.org/raspbian/pool/main/libb/libbluray/libbluray_0.9.3-3.debian.tar.xz
tar xf libbluray_0.9.3-3.debian.tar.xz
rm libbluray_0.9.3-3.debian.tar.xz
dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc
cd ..
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

libshairplay-dev

Shairplay provides Apple airplay and raop protocol support. This is then required to access such functionalities within Kodi.

First we need to install some dependencies:

sudo apt-get install libavahi-compat-libdnssd-dev libao-dev libao4

Afterwards we perform the following steps to generate the correct tar.gz file that the build system expects.

git clone https://github.com/juhovh/shairplay.git
cd shairplay
./autogen.sh
tar -zcf ../shairplay_0.9.0+git20151215.d8e9e32d.orig.tar.gz .

This lib also doesn’t provide the debian scripts needed to generate a deb package. So you can get the debian folder which is contained in this file. Once extracted you’ll be able to build the deb package by using the following steps.

dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc
cd ..
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Step 4: Compile and Install Kodi (finally)

With all the required dependencies installed, at this time we have what is needed to start with Kodi.

Finally, we are ready, let’s compile Kodi’s github repository (Krypton’s branch), that repository is not fully optimised for Raspberry Pi, but it is enough for the sake of this guide to understand how to compile it.

git clone https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc.git
cd xbmc
git checkout Krypton

At this point I strongly advise to read Kodi’s documentation on cmake building system. Specially the options section, because this is where you will define what Kodi will support. I’ll include the set I tested with while writing this guide, but be free to experiment with the available options and compile it to your likings.

The first thing to do is to create a build dir, for that purpose I’m going to create a build dir inside kodi’s repository directory:

mkdir build
cd build

Once inside let’s call cmake to configure our build tree. This is where all the options should be set. I’ll be using a set of options that I’ve concluded to be more or less default for a Raspberry Pi, feel free to play around with them.

IMPORTANT: Please note that CPU is not yet defined. You should replace ${CPU} with the target CPU you’d like to build Kodi’s for. Please use arm1176jzf-s for Raspberry Pi 0 or 1 and cortex-a7 for Raspberry Pi 2 or 3.

cmake \
-DVERBOSE=1 \
-DCORE_SYSTEM_NAME=rbpi \
-DENABLE_MMAL=ON \
-DENABLE_OPENGL=OFF \
-DWITH_CPU=${CPU} \
-DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/opt/vc \
-DENABLE_OPENGLES=ON \
-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr \
-DENABLE_AIRTUNES=ON \
-DENABLE_ALSA=ON \
-DENABLE_AVAHI=ON \
-DENABLE_BLURAY=ON \
-DENABLE_CEC=ON \
-DENABLE_DBUS=ON \
-DENABLE_DVDCSS=ON \
-DENABLE_EGL=ON \
-DENABLE_EVENTCLIENTS=ON \
-DENABLE_INTERNAL_FFMPEG=ON \
-DENABLE_INTERNAL_CROSSGUID=ON \
-DENABLE_MICROHTTPD=ON \
-DENABLE_MYSQLCLIENT=ON \
-DENABLE_NFS=ON \
-DENABLE_NONFREE=ON \
-DENABLE_OPENSSL=ON \
-DENABLE_OPTICAL=ON \
-DENABLE_PULSEAUDIO=ON \
-DENABLE_SMBCLIENT=ON \
-DENABLE_SSH=ON \
-DENABLE_UDEV=ON \
-DENABLE_UPNP=ON \
-DENABLE_VAAPI=OFF \
-DENABLE_VDPAU=OFF \
-DENABLE_X11=OFF \
-DENABLE_XSLT=ON \
-DENABLE_LIRC=ON \
-DCPACK_GENERATOR=DEB \
-DDEBIAN_PACKAGE_VERSION=1~ \
-DDEB_PACKAGE_ARCHITECTURE=armhf \
../project/cmake/

Note on Kodi 18: Replace ../project/cmake/ by ../cmake/. In Kodi 18, cmake project dir was moved to the repository root, so cmake needs to be adjusted as well.

This creates and generates the needed files to actually compile Kodi. If by any chance you need to repeat this reconfigure step, I’d advise you to delete cmake’s cache and auto generated files so they have to regenerate the build tree and reevaluate all options again. You can do that by doing:

rm -rf CMakeCache.txt CMakeFiles CPackConfig.cmake CTestTestfile.cmake cmake_install.cmake

Once the build tree is done, you can finally compile Kodi. Run the following command and get some refreshments because this is going to take a while 😀

cmake --build . -- VERBOSE=1 -j`nproc`

If everything went ok, SUCCESS!! Kodi is compiled. If not, please post in the comments the errors you got so I can try to provide some guidance.

Now, what is left is to generate the deb packages and have them installed. This is a simple procedure and shouldn’t take more than a couple of seconds. Just run:

cpack

And you’re done ! 😀 Generated debian packages are located in packages directory. To install them, install its dependencies before, then install the generated packages to have Kodi available in your system, type:

sudo apt-get install python-bluez mesa-utils python-lightblue python-simplejson libaacs0
sudo dpkg -i packages/*.deb

The generated debian packages can be installed on any raspbian, however depending on the CPU you’ve chosen before it may not work properly on all Raspberry PIs, due to the different architectures mentioned above.

Notes on repositories: Regarding Raspberry Pi optimisations, there is a substancial performance increase in playing videos encoded in h264 and h265 (hevc) with one of popcornmix’s branches (newclock5 – Leia – or krypton_rbp_backports) in his own fork of Kodi. For a better experience I strongly recommend that you use popcorn’s krypton_rbp_backports branch. However, this branch depends on an unstable version of the firmware and at the time of the writing of this guide (2017-03-26) it doesn’t compile with cmake unless some changes are made to the source code. So if you’re unexperienced with it, I strongly advice against doing so, proceed at your own risk if you decide to go forward with it.

Alternative method: You can use this script which will do all the work for you, and also generates packages for most of the binary addons, which I’ll cover in another guide.

Step 5: Set systemwide permissions

Thanks to Diogo Santos (Rascas), the maintainer of Pipplware, for figuring out the permissions needed for running Kodi.

Run the following commands for user pi (if you haven’t changed your user name):

sudo usermod -a -G tty pi
sudo printf 'SUBSYSTEM=="input", GROUP="input", MODE="0660"\n \ 
SUBSYSTEM=="tty", KERNEL=="tty[0-9]*", GROUP="tty", MODE="0660"' \
> /etc/udev/rules.d/99-input.rules

To enable systemwide automounts, create or edit the following file:

/etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/automount.pkla

with the following content:

[Allow Mount and Automount]
Identity=unix-group:plugdev
Action=org.freedesktop.udisks*
ResultAny=yes
ResultInactive=yes
ResultActive=yes

If by any reason Reboot and Shutdown options are not available within Kodi, you’ll need to create/edit the file:

cat /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/power.pkla

Which should have the following content:

[Allow consolekit]
Identity=unix-group:plugdev
Action=org.freedesktop.consolekit*
ResultAny=yes
ResultInactive=yes
ResultActive=yes
 
[Allow login1]
Identity=unix-group:plugdev
Action=org.freedesktop.login1*
ResultAny=yes
ResultInactive=yes
ResultActive=yes
 
[Allow Upower]
Identity=unix-group:plugdev
Action=org.freedesktop.upower*
ResultAny=yes
ResultInactive=yes
ResultActive=yes

Step 6: Run Kodi

This is the simplest step, if no errors while installing were detected, kodi binary should be in your path and you can run it directly.

Please note that binary addons such as PVRs will not be available, those are required to be built separately and it’s covered in this blog post.

That is all for now, I hope you enjoy it and please post in the comments if something didn’t go as expected.

Acknowledgement: I’d like to thank Diogo Santos (Rascas) for all the help and patience during the process of finding it all out. I strongly believe that this guide wouldn’t be available it if weren’t for all his help. Thanks 😀