Software update: LibreELEC 9.2.7

The developers behind the Libre Embedded Linux Entertainment Center released version 9.2.7 a few days ago. LibreELEC was created after a large number of developers left OpenELEC due to disagreement and started their own business. This Linux distribution is based on Kodi and can turn a computer into a full-fledged HTPC. It can also be installed on a Raspberry Pi or a separate media player. Version 9.2.7 of LibreELEC includes a newer version of Widevine, to ensure that the various streaming services continue to work after May 31.

LE 9.2 and LE10 fix for widevine

Today we are releasing a LibreELEC update to primarily fix Widevine, its that piece of software that allows playback of Netflix, Amazon Prime and other paid video services. The new version of widevine (4.10.2252.0 or newer) is mandatory to keep it working after May 31, 2021. With that new version (that is taken from ChromeOS) all ARM devices need additional libraries to make it work again. Sadly its not that simple and some not too nice workarounds came in place to keep it working due changes at ChromeOS. The Generic (PC / Intel / AMD / Nvidia) images need no changes.

Raspberry Pi 2, 3 and 4

For Raspberry Pi 2/3 and 4 we made the LE 9.2.7 images that work out of the box. Just update to it and it should work. We will not provide auto update to that version – you will need to manually update if you need widevine. No additional changes needed (check InputStream Helper add-on for widevine update 4.10.2252.0 or newer).

LibreELEC 10

Those changes are highly experimental and might causes problems. For LE10 we added the needed changes in a different way – if you don’t need widevine don’t do anything.
At least LibreELEC 10Beta4 or a more recent image is required. If you are using 9.2 for Rockchip devices please update to LE10, there are no 9.2 images with that fix included.

You need to create a kodi.conf manually and add a parameter to make it work. Currently there are no plans to implement it differently to make these manual changes unnecessary due the missing overall testing.

How to make it work:

• Edit the kodi.conf and add these change with the terminal
  echo “LD_PRELOAD = / usr / lib / libtcmalloc_minimal.so”> /storage/.config/kodi.conf
  reboot
• Edit the kodi.conf with the editor from Windows
  Go to the network share of your device and create the kodi.conf at the Configfiles folder with following content.
  Afterwards restart your device.