Proper Kodi version-SOLVED

[WHVW]

Trying to set up kodi is truly the most frustrating computer experience I've had in years. A big part of the problem is that my version, which is listed as 18.0 is entirely different from the version used in all of the tutorials; so the pathways to the various functions are completely different and impossible to suss out. Additionally, it has a bizarre system of menus that fly away from you when you try to move the pointer their way!
Yes, I've tried updating and also upgrading..
Would someone PLEASE tell me what's up with this piece of crap?

[greerd]

According to kodi.tv, Kodi ver17.0 and Kodi ver18 are beta's, the current stable release is Kodi ver16.1 (jarvis). See here to set up a PPA. You should probably uninstall v18 first.

[WHVW]

O.K. So my real problem seems to be that no matter what I do, I keep getting Version 18 from the Kodi ppa. They give some "downgrade" instructions, but they don't seem to work. A better approach: what is a trustworthy site to get version 16.1 from?

EDIT: I have since tried a few other sources, even though they say "Version 16.1" I still get the unstable version 18. I can't figure out how or why this would happen, but it does.

[Penn]

It sounds like you are using the wrong ppa. ppa:team-xbmc/ppa is the stable version which is 16 and I believe that is what you want. Uninstall kodi and purge all configuration files afterwards (sudo apt-get purge kodi). Go to software sources and delete the nightly builds ppa (2 lines) and replace it with the stable. That will give you 16. If you really want 17 you could go with the unstable ppa but it might be unusable also. Obviously 18 isn't working for you and if you aren't a developer ANY nightly build ppa is a bad idea. As far as that goes unstable might be a bad idea for "regular" users.

Maybe with 16 you won't need to use that special launch command in your other thread (I doubt it). By the way, you didn't mark that as solved or respond back to say if it worked. That is helpful in case someone else runs into the same problem they will know it worked for at least 1 person and Mint and Kodi versions it worked with.

[WHVW]

Penn:
By mentioning that I haven't responded, I presume that you mean to the idea of incorporating the "special" command into it's own little launcher. I have not yet tried that because of the other difficulties I've been facing with Kodi. I will get to that once I can see that the thing will actually work, i.e. stream video.
Here's how I've been downloading it:

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kodi

The other repositories have /unstable or /nightly after them and I haven't used those. I have been using sudo apt-get --purge remove kodi between attempts. But, checking "software sources" as per your advice, I found all three, and sure enough, the unstable and nightly came before the stable one. I suspect that this will cure the problem, and I'll try it now.
EDIT: Well. Kodi is a programme that just keeps on giving, this is what I now get: (these are the last lines)

Reading package lists... Done
x@x ~ $ sudo apt-get install kodi
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
kodi : Depends: kodi-bin (< 2:16.1~git20160424.1410-final-0trusty.1~) but 2:18.0~git20170120.0200-c665974-0trusty is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
x@x ~ $

So haw do I read this? Am I being punished for having held "broken packages"?
Last, but not least, since I got it to install on another computer, can I "lift" it from there? Better yet, is there another, better and friendlier programme I could use in its stead?

[Penn]

If this were my situation I would first go further to make sure fragments of the nightly and unstable are gone.

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get autoremove

And to make sure the previous downloads are gone even though they shouldn't cause problems.

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get autoclean

Then open Synaptic Package Manager and choose the "Fix broken packages" option under "Edit".

It really isn't Kodi that is the issue. It is the fact that somehow you ended up with a developmental install that may have installed additional dependencies then not fully removed them. I've been there with some of my Debian Sid experiments but fortunately that wasn't installs on my primary Mint distro.

[WHVW]

Re: KODI not running


Postby WHVW » 21 Jan 2017, 14:02
Penn: Thanks. THAT did it. It really works. I still need to use that command line to launch it however, (a minor inconvenience to be sure), but I will now work on the solution you gave me for that.

REMEMBER FOLKS: Lesson learned! If there are any snippets of previous bad installs left on your machine, it can really screw you up!