I tried to run the "normal" Kodi in a VM with Win7. Unfortunately, I cannot start Kodi as it gives me the error message "Error: Unable to create GUI. Exiting". I had this problem in the past without VM when accessing a headless server, but this could be fixed by running Kodi in a window rather than full-screen.

 

Has anyone succeeded to run Kodi in a Win7 VM on Unraid?

Have you passed through a GPU or do you use VNC?

 

using VNC. I only have one GPU, so that's my only choice if I understand it right?

You will not get a good picture quality using VNC. It will tear and stutter.

I tried here in windows 10 and vnc, and kodi starts, but it might be that it uses different video drivers for windows 7 and windows 10.

Are you actually using VNC, or have you opened up an RDP to the VM?  As I recall last time I tried this with XBMC couple years ago, RDP would not work to start the program, because XBMC / Kodi require a video card.  I could however start XBMC using Teamviewer (completely different method of operation than RDP), and then connect to the VM with RDP and everything would still be working.

 

But, beyond that its a bit pointless to run Kodi through a headless VM (ie no passthrough GPU).  You experience will suffer badly.

yes, tried noVNC and it doesn't work. it used to work via RDC when I used to run a headless win7 (but not VM), but only as window (not full screen).

 

I don't plan to watch videos, but use it to update the library and use upnp sever. I know I could go this with headless kodi, but I prefer to always use the latest version and it's easier with a VM with screen to tinker.

yes, tried noVNC and it doesn't work. it used to work via RDC when I used to run a headless win7 (but not VM), but only as window (not full screen).

 

I don't plan to watch videos, but use it to update the library and use upnp sever. I know I could go this with headless kodi, but I prefer to always use the latest version and it's easier with a VM with screen to tinker.

Difference with the VM vs headless was that there was still (most likely) a video card actually in the machine.

 

Try installing teamviewer and see what happens.

that's right, there was a GPU though obviously not used.

 

one weird thing is that it used to work on unraid VM when I ran win8.1, but does not work when using win7. not sure whether anything else different, by definitely not the GPU. I only have one GPU, so unraid VM cannot access it.

 

I can try team viewer on the weekend, but wouldn't really be what I want as it requires another software to install.

I'm confused… Why not use sparkly's headless Kodi docker container?

 

I prefer to use everything in the VM rather than using dockers. Same for sabnzbd and the other things. Feels all-in-one-place. Also, this allows me to use Kodi nightlies and stay up to date on some of the recent great development (retroplayer, etc).