This guide has been tested with Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial) x86_64 and 18.04 (Bionic). It is meant to cross-compile Kodi for the Raspberry Pi using Kodi's unified depends build system. Please read it in full before you proceed to familiarize yourself with the build procedure.
If you're looking to build Kodi natively using Raspbian, you should follow the Ubuntu guide instead. Several other distributions have specific guides and a general Linux guide is also available.
- Document conventions
- Install the required packages
- Get the source code
3.1. Get Raspberry Pi tools and firmware - Build tools and dependencies
- Build Kodi
This guide assumes you are using terminal, also known as console, command-line or simply cli. Commands need to be run at the terminal, one at a time and in the provided order.
This is a comment that provides context:
this is a command
this is another command
and yet another one
Example: Clone Kodi's current master branch:
git clone https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc kodi
Commands that contain strings enclosed in angle brackets denote something you need to change to suit your needs.
git clone -b <branch-name> https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc kodi
Example: Clone Kodi's current Krypton branch:
git clone -b Krypton https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc kodi
Several different strategies are used to draw your attention to certain pieces of information. In order of how critical the information is, these items are marked as a note, tip, or warning. For example:
NOTE: Linux is user friendly... It's just very particular about who its friends are.
TIP: Algorithm is what developers call code they do not want to explain.
WARNING: Developers don't change light bulbs. It's a hardware problem.
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Install build dependencies needed to cross-compile Kodi for the Raspberry Pi:
sudo apt install autoconf bison build-essential curl default-jdk gawk git gperf libcurl4-openssl-dev zlib1g-dev
Change to your home directory:
cd $HOME
Clone Kodi's current master branch:
git clone https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc kodi
Clone Raspberry Pi tools:
git clone https://github.com/raspberrypi/tools --depth=1
Clone Raspberry Pi firmware:
git clone https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware --depth=1
Create target directory:
mkdir $HOME/kodi-rpi
Prepare to configure build:
cd $HOME/kodi/tools/depends
./bootstrap
TIP: Look for comments starting with Or ... and only execute the command(s) you need.
Configure build for Raspberry Pi 1:
./configure --host=arm-linux-gnueabihf --prefix=$HOME/kodi-rpi --with-toolchain=$HOME/tools/arm-bcm2708/arm-rpi-4.9.3-linux-gnueabihf --with-firmware=$HOME/firmware --with-platform=raspberry-pi --disable-debug
Or configure build for Raspberry Pi 2 and 3:
./configure --host=arm-linux-gnueabihf --prefix=$HOME/kodi-rpi --with-toolchain=$HOME/tools/arm-bcm2708/arm-rpi-4.9.3-linux-gnueabihf --with-firmware=$HOME/firmware --with-platform=raspberry-pi2 --disable-debug
Build tools and dependencies:
make -j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN)
TIP: By adding -j<number> to the make command, you can choose how many concurrent jobs will be used and expedite the build process. It is recommended to use -j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN) to compile on all available processor cores. The build machine can also be configured to do this automatically by adding export MAKEFLAGS="-j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN)" to your shell config (e.g. ~/.bashrc).
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Configure CMake build:
cd $HOME/kodi
make -C tools/depends/target/cmakebuildsys
Build Kodi:
cd $HOME/kodi/build
make -j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN)
Install to target directory:
make install
After the build process is finished, you can find the files ready to be installed inside $HOME/kodi-rpi. Look for a directory called raspberry-pi-release or raspberry-pi2-release.