[Support] Linuxserver.io - Kodi-Headless


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10 minutes ago, allanp81 said:

Well then in theory it'll work "standalone", don't see why not and then you can just browse via the web interface but if you have another client they'll show different results the next time you do a library scan on either. It's fairly easy to set up an SQL docker and then use a shared library.

 

Yeah, I know I could use an SQL setup it is just not needed for my use case and I can't see any benefit. I only have 1 kodi box that I care about. 

 

I have also heard that SQL dockers can put a lot of writes on the drives unnecessarily.

 

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On 1/30/2021 at 11:06 AM, allanp81 said:

Well then in theory it'll work "standalone", don't see why not and then you can just browse via the web interface but if you have another client they'll show different results the next time you do a library scan on either. It's fairly easy to set up an SQL docker and then use a shared library.

 

Ok, I finally had time to copy over the sources.xml file but it doesn't seem to of worked, I tried to browse but it just hangs at the spinning circle.

 

I even tried to copy over the whole userdata folder but then the web interface would not come up at all?

 

I did try connecting to the TV media box web interface and worst case that will work, just annoying as it either has to stay on or be turned on and it won't boot up without the TV on for some reason. Be real cool to have it running on the server instead.

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u should consider that this is really meant for 1 purpose, keep kodi's sync and have a updater kodi on a server without keeping a client awake, if you want todo so, setup a local kodi, setup media folders as network shares (pathes will be a hard time ...), etc etc ... and it works nice, but actually not really your usecase ...

 

look for emby, plex, or even tiny media manager therefore just for watching your library ...

like advised before here, easier for you now to hndle and even a better user experience for your case

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How do you update the library from the webui? It is possible that would work but I can't find this option?

 

How would you setup a local kodi on unraid? I can't find any dockers that allow this? That is what I wanted to do when I started this lol.

 

Ideally I would just have kodi running in a VNC environment in a docker.

 

I seem to remember there being a VNC template floating around someplace for projects like this but can't find hide nor hair of it now. I have no clue how to setup a docker from scratch, all the tutorials I find start from a fairly advanced stage talking about dockerhub and the like. I don't want or care about that, I just want a local docker for my own use if I did this.

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5 hours ago, TexasUnraid said:

How do you update the library from the webui? It is possible that would work but I can't find this option?

 

How would you setup a local kodi on unraid? I can't find any dockers that allow this? That is what I wanted to do when I started this lol.

 

Ideally I would just have kodi running in a VNC environment in a docker.

 

I seem to remember there being a VNC template floating around someplace for projects like this but can't find hide nor hair of it now. I have no clue how to setup a docker from scratch, all the tutorials I find start from a fairly advanced stage talking about dockerhub and the like. I don't want or care about that, I just want a local docker for my own use if I did this.

 

Why do you need to set up Kodi on unraid? If you want to watch the content, then set up a VM and add a GPU to the VM and connect it to the display.

There is nothing ideal about running Kodi I'm side a container through vnc/RDP.

 

What exactly are you looking for?

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5 minutes ago, saarg said:

 

Why do you need to set up Kodi on unraid? If you want to watch the content, then set up a VM and add a GPU to the VM and connect it to the display.

There is nothing ideal about running Kodi I'm side a container through vnc/RDP.

 

What exactly are you looking for?

All I need is a way to see the kodi library from any networked computer. Don't really care how it is done, webui works as well but you can't add or scan for media from the webui, so I can't figure out how to make it usable.

 

This is purely to keep the kids from endlessly looking through options on the TV and burning it in. This way they can browse on the computer and watch on the TV.

 

It would also be nice for sorting out issues with kodi, I have naming issues from time to time that will prevent a show/movie from scanning in correctly and re-scanning on the TV box takes forever with unraid due to the exceedingly slow latency of small files.

Edited by TexasUnraid
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7 hours ago, TexasUnraid said:

All I need is a way to see the kodi library from any networked computer. Don't really care how it is done, webui works as well but you can't add or scan for media from the webui, so I can't figure out how to make it usable.

 

This is purely to keep the kids from endlessly looking through options on the TV and burning it in. This way they can browse on the computer and watch on the TV.

 

It would also be nice for sorting out issues with kodi, I have naming issues from time to time that will prevent a show/movie from scanning in correctly and re-scanning on the TV box takes forever with unraid due to the exceedingly slow latency of small files.

As we have said earlier, Kodi headless is not doing that. Read what alturismo wrote.

Set up Jellyfin/Emby and you will get what you want.

 

For the naming issues, just follow the naming that is the "industry" standard and you will rarely have issues getting movies/TV shows correctly identified.

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Yes I have to agree with others, I'm not really sure what you're trying to achieve. If you just want a simple way of browsing your collection then Emby or Jellyfish is a much easier (and nicer) way to do this.

 

Whatever you use though will be "out of sync" with your clients if the clients have their own local libraries.

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I don't see what is so complicated really, I just want a dockertized version of kodi that can be accessed over the network by either the webui or vnc.

 

I am thinking I will use one of the ubuntu VNC desktop dockers and simply install kodi on it, that will get what I want but if the docker is updated it will wipe the kodi install, so was trying to see if there was a pre-made docker that would work.

 

I don't want another media player, people already know how to use kodi and those other options tend to be resources heavy. Plex in particular was causing terabytes of writes daily to the cache drive unnecessarily.

 

I do use industry standard naming, using Tinymediamanager to name things. The issue is that if just one episode of a show has an issue, kodi will not import anything that comes after that episode. So I have to find it manually and re-scrape that episode. Happens a lot if the IMDB and ThetvDB have different opinions.

 

No worries, I can make something work, was just hoping to use a pre-made option. This webui docker would work fine if there was a way to add media to it.

 

People keep saying that they use it to update an SQL library. How are they doing this? The same update process should work for a local library I would think.

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I gave up using the Kodi docker as a server.  When it worked it worked ok but every once in a while something would happen and I'd have to troubleshoot the setup, recreate, the configs, etc.
I still use Kodi for the client but I run a Emby docker for the server piece.
 

With the Emby docker setup, you simply install the EmbyCon addon on the clients, supply the IP of the Emby docker and your done.

I've been running this setup for about 8 months and haven't had any issues.

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  • 4 weeks later...

My Nvidia Shield auto-updated to Kodi 19.  I noticed this because when I launched Kodi the launch screen is different and at the bottom of the screen there's the message "Database migration in progress - please wait."   I guess I have to uninstall 19 and manually install 18.9 until there's a headless update to support Kodi 19?  Or maybe Kodi isn't stuck I'm just not waiting long enough.   But the current compatibility notes for headless don't mention compatibility beyond 18.   

Edited by oh-tomo
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4 hours ago, oh-tomo said:

My Nvidia Shield auto-updated to Kodi 19.  I noticed this because when I launched Kodi the launch screen is different and at the bottom of the screen there's the message "Database migration in progress - please wait."   I guess I have to uninstall 19 and manually install 18.9 until there's a headless update to support Kodi 19?  Or maybe Kodi isn't stuck I'm just not waiting long enough.   But the current compatibility notes for headless don't mention compatibility beyond 18.   

Yes you need to roll back to Kodi 18 on the Shield.. different version databases are not compatible.  This headless will continue to update the v18 database while the Shield will be looking at the v19 database.

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  • 3 weeks later...
52 minutes ago, [email protected] said:

I cannot see how to add sources in the web interface..  Obviously I'm missing something.     

You can't.  You copy over the sources.xml from a working kodi install, update the advancedsettings.xml  to point the appropriate sql database, and point your d/l clients to this container to have it update the library

Quote

Mysql/mariadb settings are entered by editing the file advancedsettings.xml which is found in the userdata folder of your /config/.kodi mapping. Many other settings are within this file also.

The default user/password for the web interface and for apps like couchpotato etc to send updates is kodi/kodi.

If you intend to use this kodi instance to perform library tasks other than merely updating, eg. library cleaning etc, it is important to copy over the sources.xml from the host machine that you performed the initial library scan on to the userdata folder of this instance, otherwise database loss can and most likely will occur.

Rar integration with the Leia branch is now handled by an addon, it is compiled with this build, but you will need to enable it, if required, in the settings section of the webui.

 

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  • 2 months later...

Would appreciate some help.  I've been running kodi library via MySQL for a few years now, with sickchill pushing updates on shows to kodi on a firestick (thats powered on constantly).

 

Want to move to headless kodi (didn't know this existed until recently) but its not working when trying to test connection from sickchill.  Steps taken:-

 

1. Installed kodi-headless from Apps (latest version as I'm using Leia), using port 8085 (as already running sabnzb docker on 8080) , bridge network, mapping Container Path: /config/.kodi to /mnt/user/appdata/kodi/.  Copied contents of PC folder \AppData\Roaming\Kodi  (which includes \userdata) to /mnt/user/appdata/kodi/, which includes the \userdata\advancedsettings.xml with correct reference to mysql

2. Docker runs ok

3. Tried updating sickchill repointing from Kodi on firestick to new docker container, but test never competes

 

image.png.ffe33e4fcd35f345231163635b67bd00.png

 

There's mention of making the PUID&PGID for the docker the same as that from the 'data volume directory' but I'm not sure who owns that (assuming root?), and using this instruction 'id dockeruser' does work for me.

 

 

 

 

 

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On 2/3/2021 at 1:15 AM, TexasUnraid said:

I don't see what is so complicated really, I just want a dockertized version of kodi that can be accessed over the network by either the webui or vnc.

 

I am thinking I will use one of the ubuntu VNC desktop dockers and simply install kodi on it, that will get what I want but if the docker is updated it will wipe the kodi install, so was trying to see if there was a pre-made docker that would work.

 

I don't want another media player, people already know how to use kodi and those other options tend to be resources heavy. Plex in particular was causing terabytes of writes daily to the cache drive unnecessarily.

 

I do use industry standard naming, using Tinymediamanager to name things. The issue is that if just one episode of a show has an issue, kodi will not import anything that comes after that episode. So I have to find it manually and re-scrape that episode. Happens a lot if the IMDB and ThetvDB have different opinions.

 

No worries, I can make something work, was just hoping to use a pre-made option. This webui docker would work fine if there was a way to add media to it.

 

People keep saying that they use it to update an SQL library. How are they doing this? The same update process should work for a local library I would think.

Perhaps libreelec in a VM? If you use kore on an android phone, hit the 3 dots in the top right hand corner and go to library maintenance to update your library

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8 hours ago, IamDan said:

Perhaps libreelec in a VM? If you use kore on an android phone, hit the 3 dots in the top right hand corner and go to library maintenance to update your library

 

Interesting idea, I have not considered that option as I just assumed liberelec was arm only but come to think of it, it might support x86 as well. I was running liberelec until I recently switched to coreelec.

 

Ok, thanks for the tip on the kore app, so this docker only works when used in tandom with the app, makes sense now why I could not figure out how to do anything on it directly! Might have to look into it a bit closer knowing that now.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 6/17/2021 at 4:15 PM, Johnyb62 said:

Would appreciate some help.  I've been running kodi library via MySQL for a few years now, with sickchill pushing updates on shows to kodi on a firestick (thats powered on constantly).

 

Want to move to headless kodi (didn't know this existed until recently) but its not working when trying to test connection from sickchill.  Steps taken:-

 

1. Installed kodi-headless from Apps (latest version as I'm using Leia), using port 8085 (as already running sabnzb docker on 8080) , bridge network, mapping Container Path: /config/.kodi to /mnt/user/appdata/kodi/.  Copied contents of PC folder \AppData\Roaming\Kodi  (which includes \userdata) to /mnt/user/appdata/kodi/, which includes the \userdata\advancedsettings.xml with correct reference to mysql

2. Docker runs ok

3. Tried updating sickchill repointing from Kodi on firestick to new docker container, but test never competes

 

image.png.ffe33e4fcd35f345231163635b67bd00.png

 

There's mention of making the PUID&PGID for the docker the same as that from the 'data volume directory' but I'm not sure who owns that (assuming root?), and using this instruction 'id dockeruser' does work for me.

 

 

 

 

 

Any ideas on this please?

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's a shame it seems we won't see a version of this that works with Matrix (19) as I've finally upgraded all of my clients to 19 and rely on the headless docker for DB updating. It's not critical per se, but it's very very useful and beyond my ability to create my own docker for 19.

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1 minute ago, allanp81 said:

How easy is that to migrate what I have in my DB already though?

i didn't migrate mine.  I just let Emby rescan my library.
you can try this and setup a separate Kodi on another machine and point that to the Emby server to see how it looks before scrapping the other method.  I did this so I could manually sync up my watched and unwatched items.

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  • 5 months later...
1 hour ago, TDWhbp said:

help-- how do I get headless kodi to scan my media share on unraid?image.png.bb79f30f127c97589c0d5d9e91ce057b.png

Pretty sure that linuxserver no longer supports this app at all.

 

BUT, from what I remember years ago you had to initially set up how the library gets scanned etc on another "real" Kodi instance and then copy over advancedsettings.xml and sources.xml from that instance to the headless one and then you use the headless app as the target when you tell radarr etc to update the library.  You're also going to odds on use MySQL / MariaDB to hold the database

 

More info here on that app thats currently in CA  https://github.com/matthuisman/docker-kodi-headless

 

But to be honest unless things have changed Kodi-Headless was always a "hack" that mostly worked and you're better off just having your Kodi boxes set to rescan the library when starting and the library is stored on a MariaDB docker instead of internally.

 

 

 

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