LibreELEC 9.0 (Leia) Beta 1 has finally arrived after a long gestation period. Based upon Kodi v18 RC3, the 9.0 Beta 1 release contains many changes and refinements to user experience and a complete overhaul of the underlying OS core to improve stability and extend hardware support. Kodi v18 also brings new features like Kodi Retroplayer and DRM support that (equipped with an appropriate add-on) allows Kodi to unofficially stream content from services like Netflix and Amazon.

Compared to 8.2, major changes are:

Settings Add-on:

Changeable SSH passwords!

Default firewall (iptables) with simple configurations for Home/Public networks

Updates are moved to their own menu, other options are cleaned up a little

Safe Mode boot when Kodi experiences startup problems

Changeable SSH passwords and a default firewall configuration have been added to combat the increasing number of HTPC installs that can be found on the public internet. The increase is partly due to simple maths; our userbase has grown so the number of users inappropriately exposing their HTPC to the internet has also grown. The static password for libreelec is present on most/all password dictionary lists so it’s important we start encouraging users to change it (the first-run wizard will prompt when SSH is enabled).

More people are using VPN services for privacy without realising this exposes SSH/SMB/Web services. To combat this problem we have added simple firewall configurations for Home/Public networks; the Home configuration blocks inbound connections from non-private networks, e.g. traffic from the Internet to the public IP address used with the VPN connection.

As the Kodi piracy scene continues to decline we have seen an increase in users with outdated add-ons that cause problems during upgrades so “Safe Mode” counts Kodi startup crashes. After five startup failures it intervenes with a default (clean) configuration and prominent warning so users know there is a problem – but still have a working GUI to troubleshoot from.

Retroplayer:

Kodi v18 brings initial support for retro gaming and the ability to play hundreds of retro games directly from within Kodi. We provide a large number of emulator cores from our add-on repo, but no games (bring your own) although there are a couple of open source test game add-ons (2048 etc.) in our repo. In this first iteration of Kodi retro gaming support the user interface can be a little confusing and we still need to write-up some HOWTO guides for the wiki. Kodi developers are working on a game database (for Kodi v19) which will make the process of managing and using game ROMs easier in the future.

DVB Drivers:

We now offer a larger range of DVB drivers (depending on your platform) to choose from. The “DVB drivers from the latest kernel” option also includes the majority of Hauppage drivers which have been recently upstreamed into the kernel, which is great to see!

Rockchip:

Despite the 8.95.1 release number our Rockchip releases remain in an Alpha state with limited support. The Kodi version is updated but there are no significant video/audio improvements to the Rockchip 4.4 kernel codebase – and none planned. Our work on Rockchip support has refocussed onto the Linux 4.20 kernel to use the modern kernel frameworks needed for the next-generation Kodi video pipeline. This work is progressing nicely, but it means the 4.4 codebase “is what it is” until a future kernel bump.

New Devices:

Amlogic

Khadas VIM(1) – requires a clean install if using current community images

Libre Computer Le Potato

Rockchip

96rocks ROCK960

ASUS Tinker Board

Firefly ROC-RK3328-CC

Khadas Edge

PINE64 ROCK64

PINE64 RockPro64

Popcorn Hour RockBox

Popcorn Hour Transformer

Rockchip Sapphire Board

Mqmaker MiQi

If you experience problems, please open an thread at our forum. You can also open an ticket at our issue tracker.

Downloads:

RPi 2/3 LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

RPi 0/1 LibreELEC-RPi.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

Generic LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

Odroid_C2 LibreELEC-Odroid_C2.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

KVIM LibreELEC-KVIM.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

LePotato LibreELEC-LePotato.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

Slice LibreELEC-Slice.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

Slice3 LibreELEC-Slice3.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Core LibreELEC-WeTek_Core.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Hub LibreELEC-WeTek_Hub.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

Warning: Update at WP1 is broken if you use img.gz – please use .tar to update:

WeTek_Play LibreELEC-WeTek_Play.arm-8.95.001.tar (info)

WeTek_Play LibreELEC-WeTek_Play.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Play_2 LibreELEC-WeTek_Play_2.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

*** IMPORTANT ***

Rockchip images are not available via the USB/SD Creator App (we’re working on a fix)

Please download them manually!

Rockchip RK3328

Firefly ROC-RK3328-CC LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.010-roc-cc.img.gz (info)

Generic Rockchip Box LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.010-box.img.gz (info)

PINE64 ROCK64 / Popcorn Hour Transformer LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.010-rock64.img.gz (info)

Popcorn Hour RockBox LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.010-rockbox.img.gz (info)

MVR9 LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.010-box-trn9.img.gz (info)

Z28 LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.010-box-z28.img.gz (info)

Rockchip RK3399

96rocks ROCK960 LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.010-rock960.img.gz (info)

PINE64 RockPro64 LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.010-rockpro64.img.gz (info)

Rockchip Sapphire Board LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.010-sapphire.img.gz (info)



Rockchip RK3288

ASUS Tinker Board LibreELEC-TinkerBoard.arm-8.90.010-rk3288.img.gz (info)

mqmaker MiQi LibreELEC-MiQi.arm-8.90.010-rk3288.img.gz (info)