This page describes how to install XBMC on a Raspberry Pi running Raspbian. You can either install packages on an existing Raspbian installation, or you can download a prebuilt image and flash it to an SD card.

Installing packages on an existing installation

I've published a Debian archive containing packages for Kodi/XBMC and some dependencies which it requires. This can be setup on an existing Raspbian installation (including the foundation image).

Installing

The easiest way to install the package is to add my archive to your system. To do this, store the following in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mene.list:

deb http://archive.mene.za.net/raspbian wheezy contrib

and import the archive signing key:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-key 5243CDED

Then update the package lists:

sudo apt-get update

You can then install it as you would with any other package, for example, with apt-get:

sudo apt-get install kodi

The user which you're going to run Kodi as needs to be a member of the following groups:

audio video input dialout plugdev tty

If the input group doesn't exist, you need to create it:

addgroup --system input

and setup some udev rules to grant it ownership of input devices (otherwise the keyboard won't work in Kodi), by placing the following in /etc/udev/rules.d/99-input.rules:

SUBSYSTEM=="input", GROUP="input", MODE="0660"
KERNEL=="tty[0-9]*", GROUP="tty", MODE="0660"

The GPU needs at least 96M of RAM in order for XBMC to run. To configure this add or change this line in /boot/config.txt:

gpu_mem=128

You will need to reboot if you changed this value.

Running

To run XBMC, run kodi-standalone from a VT (i.e. not under X). XBMC accesses the display directly and not via Xorg.

If you want Kodi to automatically start when the system boots, edit /etc/default/kodi and change ENABLED to 1:

ENABLED=1

Run sudo service kodi start to test this.

Release history

• 15.2-2: Isengard 15.2 release, and most PVR addons.
• 14.2-1: Helix 14.2 release.
• 14.1-1: Helix 14.1 release.
• 14.0-1: Helix 14.0 release.
• 13.1-2: Link to libshairplay for better AirPlay support.
• 13.1-1: Gotham 13.1 release.
• 12.3-1: Frodo 12.3 release.
• 12.2-1: Frodo 12.2 release.
• 12.1-1: Frodo 12.1 release. Requires newer libcec (also in my archive).
• 12.0-1: Frodo 12.0 release. This build requires newer firmware than the raspberrypi.org archive or image contains. Either install the packages from the raspberrypi.org untested archive, the twolife archive or use rpi-update. (Not necessary as of 2013/02/11.)

Flashing an SD card with a prebuilt image

I've built an image containing a Raspbian system with the XBMC packages which you can download and flash to an SD card. You'll need a 1G SD card (which will be completely wiped).

Flashing

Decompress the image using unx:

% unxz raspbian-xbmc-20121029.img.xz

And then copy the image to the SD card device (make sure that you pick the correct device name!)

% sudo cp xbmc-20121029-1.img /dev/sdb

Customising

The image uses the same credentials as the foundation image, username "pi" and password "raspberry". You can use the raspi-config tool to expand the root filesystem, enable overclocking, and various other configuration tasks.

Updating

Both Raspbian and Kodi can be updated using normal Debian mechanisms such as apt-get:

# sudo apt-get update
# sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Release history

• 20160924: jessie: torrent magnet Contains 16.1-1.
• 20151230: jessie: torrent magnet wheezy: torrent magnet Contains 15.2-2.
• 20150208: torrent magnet Contains 14.1-1, and should work on Raspberry Pi 2.
• 20150112: torrent magnet Contains 14.0-1.
• 20140614: torrent magnet Contains 13.1-2.
• 20131228: torrent magnet Contains 12.3-1.
• 20130708: torrent magnet Fixes alphanumeric keyboard input.
• 20130528: torrent magnet Contains 12.2-1.
• 20130212: torrent magnet Contains 12.0-1.
• 20130106: torrent magnet Contains 12.0~git20130102.7a6cb7f-1, and wireless support.
• 20130101: torrent magnet Contains 12.0~git20121219.74b907c-1: Frodo RC2.
• 20121121: torrent magnet Contains 11.0~git20121114.25bb46a-1: Frodo Beta 1.
• 20121029: torrent magnet
• 20121021: torrent magnet

Unstable versions

I've started building packages for the upcoming Jarvis release. These are in the new unstable section of the archive. To install these packages update your source list to look like this:

deb http://archive.mene.za.net/raspbian wheezy contrib unstable

Release history

• 16.1-1: Jarvis 16.1
• 16.0-1: Jarvis 16.0
• 16.0~git20151213.a724f29-1: Jarvis 16.0 Beta 4
• 15.2-2: Isengard 15.2 with packaging changes to support PVR addons, and most PVR addons.
• 15.2-1: Isengard 15.2
• 15.1-1: Isengard 15.1
• 15.0-1: Isengard 15.0
• 15.0~git20150702.9ff25f8-1: Isengard 15.0 RC 1.
• 15.0~git20150501.d1a2c33-1: Isengard 15.0 Beta 1.
• 14.2-1: Helix 14.2 release.
• 14.1-1: Helix 14.1 release.
• 14.0-1: Helix 14.0 release.
• 14.0~git20141203.35b4f38-1: Helix 14.0 RC 2
• 14.0~git20141130.ea20b83-1: Helix 14.0 RC 1
• 14.0~git20141125.4465fbf-1: Helix 14.0 Beta 5
• 14.0~git20141124.ec361ca-1: Helix 14.0 Beta 4
• 14.0~git20141116.88a9a44-1: Helix 14.0 Beta 3
• 14.0~git20141103.d6947be-1: Helix 14.0 Beta 1. This requires firmware as of 2014/10/06 and libcec 2.2.0 (both included in the archive). There are also builds for Jessie but I haven't tested them. PVR addons are also updated.
• 14.0~git20141002.d2a4ee9-1: Helix 14.0 Alpha 4