How to install OpenELEC (Official) in a VM


johnodon

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I haven't had any problems with bitstream when I tested it.

The only thing I remember from setting it up was that I had to change audio device after enabling passthrough.

 

What did you change?  I have no options to change anything.

 

After poking around a bit more today, I did realize that OE is showing that I am using Gallium 0.4 which it seems has no drivers on OE.  So, not sure what and why this would happen, but in the Arch forums I saw that seeing gallium means it is using the HW accelerated driver...

 

I am willing to try anything you may suggest.  My only thought was that it is an issue with the passthrough, but now it may not seem the case any more.

I'll look at it later today when I get some time.

 

I still have no success here.  Even after enabling audio passthrough, I have only one audio card listed:  HDA ATI,@@@  All 3 of my VMs (all Radeon HD6450s) display the same behavior.

 

My understanding is that after enabling passthrough you should now have multiple selections...one includes the A/V receiver + audio card.  From what I read, this is a linux specific issue and I have seen the same thing on Ubuntu + Kodi VM.  Windows 10 + Kodi = passthrough works without issue on same hardware (VM).

 

John

From looking at your pictures you have not chosen the formats that the AV Receiver supports.

I just tested here and I have no problem with pass through, but it's on an GT730. I have 6450 also, but it's no space in my server for this, and I'm to lazy to move the PC it's in for testing it in the cinema.

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It's a shame because the HD6450's do the job really well and at a good price.

 

Oh well...I'm done trying to make it work.  I just ordered a GT720 for use in my theater room which has the A/V receiver.  The other 2 6450's are connected directly to TVs so no need for HD audio.

 

John

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I haven't had any problems with bitstream when I tested it.

The only thing I remember from setting it up was that I had to change audio device after enabling passthrough.

 

What did you change?  I have no options to change anything.

 

After poking around a bit more today, I did realize that OE is showing that I am using Gallium 0.4 which it seems has no drivers on OE.  So, not sure what and why this would happen, but in the Arch forums I saw that seeing gallium means it is using the HW accelerated driver...

 

I am willing to try anything you may suggest.  My only thought was that it is an issue with the passthrough, but now it may not seem the case any more.

I'll look at it later today when I get some time.

 

I still have no success here.  Even after enabling audio passthrough, I have only one audio card listed:  HDA ATI,@@@  All 3 of my VMs (all Radeon HD6450s) display the same behavior.

 

My understanding is that after enabling passthrough you should now have multiple selections...one includes the A/V receiver + audio card.  From what I read, this is a linux specific issue and I have seen the same thing on Ubuntu + Kodi VM.  Windows 10 + Kodi = passthrough works without issue on same hardware (VM).

 

John

From looking at your pictures you have not chosen the formats that the AV Receiver supports.

I just tested here and I have no problem with pass through, but it's on an GT730. I have 6450 also, but it's no space in my server for this, and I'm to lazy to move the PC it's in for testing it in the cinema.

 

Yeah...sorry for that.  I was going back and forth between turning formats on and off.  When I test I turn them all on including TrueHD and DTS HD.  I just took that screenshot at the wrong time.

 

 

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Yeah...sorry for that.  I was going back and forth between turning formats on and off.  When I test I turn them all on including TrueHD and DTS HD.  I just took that screenshot at the wrong time.

That was what I thought, but I just had to ask :)

I remembered that I have a loooooong HDMI cable, so I'm testing the 6450 card now.

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Yeah...sorry for that.  I was going back and forth between turning formats on and off.  When I test I turn them all on including TrueHD and DTS HD.  I just took that screenshot at the wrong time.

I remembered that I have a loooooong HDMI cable, so I'm testing the 6450 card now.

 

You sir are a gentleman!  :D

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Thanks for the write up. I got it up and running but having one issue. I cannot get passthrough DTS HD or TrueHD to output any sound. It works fine with the built-in Unraid template but not the generic img. I'm not sure what tweaks if any were made for sound on the Unraid version. I'm using a AMD 6450.

 

I have this exact issue with all forms of install of OE (LT template, the method above, PXE booting OE, etc.).  In fact, I have never been able to get HD audio passthrough to work with any flavor of Linux+Kodi.  Windows works fine.

 

Thats strange, im passing through an old AMD radeon HD 5450 with DP and DVI out to my OE VM. Its Lenovo branded i think, but i cant find any info on the FRU number.

 

Using a DP to HDMI adapter, 10m HDMI cable to reciever. And it works with booth DTS HDMA and Dolby TrueHD. In both unRAID OE Template, and generic 6.0.0

 

OE recognizes it as a  "gallium 0.4 on amd cedar" Audio is recognized as "HDA ATI,@@@" And its greyed out, i cant change audio device.

 

Are you sure you are getting the passthrough audio stream and not just audio?  Is your receiver reporting it as trueHD, etc?

 

I ask because I went through this setup last night, I get audio, but it is not the bitstream passthrough audio signal, it is just audio.  As soon as I go in and set the audio settings to passthrough, dts HD capable receiver etc, I suddenly get no audio.  If I disable passthrough then I get audio again.  So, I guess I am just curious if you are really getting the right audio signal at your receiver.

 

I just converted from a standalone OE install that was using this exact video card where I know things were working perfectly, so I know it should work.  I guess what I am curious to is if it is and unraid sided issue or something in the VM config.  I should install the template version to test it to see if the result is any different, but installing like this, currently does not appear to work correctly.

 

Sorry, havnt had the time to be here over the holidays.

 

The Reciever lights up the TRUE HD or DTS HD-MA logo so yes its passing through the signal.

 

Im using it in Win10 now, and it says its a 7350 card. Lenovo branded, and not much info on the web...

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Yeah...sorry for that.  I was going back and forth between turning formats on and off.  When I test I turn them all on including TrueHD and DTS HD.  I just took that screenshot at the wrong time.

I remembered that I have a loooooong HDMI cable, so I'm testing the 6450 card now.

 

You sir are a gentleman!  :D

Well.. I tried to get both the LT template, piotarsd image and a VM to work, but they all fail with a kernel panic when I try to boot.

The error was from snd_hda_intel and if I blacklisted it, Openelec started, but no sound device.

I tried the template in another unraid box with a R9 280X, but no sound and changing from PCM to DTS every 5 second.

 

So it seems like the nvidia cards are the ones to use for bitstreaming.

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Yeah...sorry for that.  I was going back and forth between turning formats on and off.  When I test I turn them all on including TrueHD and DTS HD.  I just took that screenshot at the wrong time.

I remembered that I have a loooooong HDMI cable, so I'm testing the 6450 card now.

 

You sir are a gentleman!  :D

Well.. I tried to get both the LT template, piotarsd image and a VM to work, but they all fail with a kernel panic when I try to boot.

The error was from snd_hda_intel and if I blacklisted it, Openelec started, but no sound device.

I tried the template in another unraid box with a R9 280X, but no sound and changing from PCM to DTS every 5 second.

 

So it seems like the nvidia cards are the ones to use for bitstreaming.

 

The kernel panic must be for a particular reason.  We should be able to figure that one out.

 

Did you create a new VM or assign that GPU to an already existing VM?

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It comes on both the openelec template by LT and following your guide. Not passing through the sound of the GPU solves the problem. But of course that stops me from testing audio pass through.

That card works fine in other VMs, so its probably something in openelec that triggers it.

I haven't tried 5.0.8 though.

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It comes on both the openelec template by LT and following your guide. Not passing through the sound of the GPU solves the problem. But of course that stops me from testing audio pass through.

That card works fine in other VMs, so its probably something in openelec that triggers it.

I haven't tried 5.0.8 though.

 

If that GPU was assigned to another VM prior to assigning to the new VM, I would reboot the server.  I have had issues in the past moving AMD GPUs betwwen VMs without first rebooting.  Without rebooting I would see kernel panics.  It is almost as if the old VM would not release the GPU until a reboot occurred (without the old VM restarting also obviously).

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Being on win10 tells me it is certainly a driver issue and one not easily fixed on openelec.

 

Wonder how it would be to install arch and the right driver,  then kodi on top of it. This would be lightweight and eliminates the need for a Windows license and a fat client

 

I completely agree.  I did try Ubuntu 15.10 + Kodi 14.2 (at the time) and had the same result.  Only Win10 + Kodi ever showed success for me.

 

I may try Mint + Kodi just to see.  I have had success in the pastr with Mint for some other things that Ubuntu choked on.

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It comes on both the openelec template by LT and following your guide. Not passing through the sound of the GPU solves the problem. But of course that stops me from testing audio pass through.

That card works fine in other VMs, so its probably something in openelec that triggers it.

I haven't tried 5.0.8 though.

 

If that GPU was assigned to another VM prior to assigning to the new VM, I would reboot the server.  I have had issues in the past moving AMD GPUs betwwen VMs without first rebooting.  Without rebooting I would see kernel panics.  It is almost as if the old VM would not release the GPU until a reboot occurred (without the old VM restarting also obviously).

It wasn't used by any VM before assigning it, so that's not the problem. What triggered my mind with your suggestion is that it's the card used for the unraid console and that might be the problem. I'll move the card to another slot later today and try again  :)

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Being on win10 tells me it is certainly a driver issue and one not easily fixed on openelec.

 

Wonder how it would be to install arch and the right driver,  then kodi on top of it. This would be lightweight and eliminates the need for a Windows license and a fat client

 

I completely agree.  I did try Ubuntu 15.10 + Kodi 14.2 (at the time) and had the same result.  Only Win10 + Kodi ever showed success for me.

 

I may try Mint + Kodi just to see.  I have had success in the pastr with Mint for some other things that Ubuntu choked on.

Have you tried the test builds from Milhouse with kernel 4.4?

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=238393

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Being on win10 tells me it is certainly a driver issue and one not easily fixed on openelec.

 

Wonder how it would be to install arch and the right driver,  then kodi on top of it. This would be lightweight and eliminates the need for a Windows license and a fat client

 

I completely agree.  I did try Ubuntu 15.10 + Kodi 14.2 (at the time) and had the same result.  Only Win10 + Kodi ever showed success for me.

 

I may try Mint + Kodi just to see.  I have had success in the pastr with Mint for some other things that Ubuntu choked on.

Have you tried the test builds from Milhouse with kernel 4.4?

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=238393

 

HAHA...funny you should mention that.  :)  I just tried his latest this morning and had the same result (other than I had two audio devices...Pulse and my AMD).

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Being on win10 tells me it is certainly a driver issue and one not easily fixed on openelec.

 

Wonder how it would be to install arch and the right driver,  then kodi on top of it. This would be lightweight and eliminates the need for a Windows license and a fat client

 

I completely agree.  I did try Ubuntu 15.10 + Kodi 14.2 (at the time) and had the same result.  Only Win10 + Kodi ever showed success for me.

 

I may try Mint + Kodi just to see.  I have had success in the pastr with Mint for some other things that Ubuntu choked on.

When in Linux do you know if lib32-ati-dri and lib32-libtxc_dxtn are/were installed ?

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Being on win10 tells me it is certainly a driver issue and one not easily fixed on openelec.

 

Wonder how it would be to install arch and the right driver,  then kodi on top of it. This would be lightweight and eliminates the need for a Windows license and a fat client

 

I completely agree.  I did try Ubuntu 15.10 + Kodi 14.2 (at the time) and had the same result.  Only Win10 + Kodi ever showed success for me.

 

I may try Mint + Kodi just to see.  I have had success in the pastr with Mint for some other things that Ubuntu choked on.

Have you tried the test builds from Milhouse with kernel 4.4?

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=238393

 

HAHA...funny you should mention that.  :)  I just tried his latest this morning and had the same result (other than I had two audio devices...Pulse and my AMD).

Too bad it didn't work  >:(

I have now tested again and got Openelec to boot. Swapped the placement of the Nvidia and the AMD card and problem solved :)

I did not get pass through to work with DTS HD and True HD. My processor (AV, not CPU  ;) ) switched between PCM and the HD codec showing 7/5.1 PCM or DTS/True HD 0.0. I tried different combinations of acceleration, but nothing worked. Playing a DD 2.0 track worked though.

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Well.. I tried to get both the LT template, piotarsd image and a VM to work, but they all fail with a kernel panic when I try to boot.

 

I release yesterday new OE 6.0 final - eveything in default settings like from LT

https://www.sendspace.com/file/srdslj

 

Im also made OE 7 with kernel 4.4 and new mesa ... but i must test before put here (also with default settings)

Are you saying that your image has the gallium 0.4 driver to support Bitstreaming on the 6450?

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hopefully someone can confirm, but may have found potential cause for failure on Arch linux.

 

Installed Arch VM and then kodi.  During the install, kodi installs the dependency for Mesa and appears to pull "mesa 11.1.0-2", but I do not think this includes lib32-ati-dri and lib32-libtxc_dxtn, but I cannot tell, so I hope someone can confirm.

 

Instead, it would need lib32-mesa 11.1.0-1

 

 

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Hi

i made pull request for add modules with driver of KVM in Kernel Openelec (then we dont will must emulate LAN, or SATA driver)

also we dont will be must wait for LimeTech for new compilation ....

 

please add few words under this pull request (my english is not good enough) we must convince then to merge changes

(or just put "+1")

 

https://github.com/OpenELEC/OpenELEC.tv/pull/4564

 

Thanks all ! and special @johnodon for make this progress :)

 

btw. i made many test of speed 9p and read articles, and thats true is slow, mostly becuase many people say this solution is not finished yet ....

i belive this is true.

 

Some more discussion on github about this.  It looks to me like they are considering adding virtio.  :)

 

I do agree with the devs...leave 9p out of it for now.  It is just too experimental at this point.

 

John

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