Software update: OpenELEC 4.2 beta 5

Development of version 4.2 of the Open Embedded Linux Entertainment Center has reached the fifth beta release. This Linux distribution is based on XBMC Media Center and can turn a computer into a full-fledged HTPC. OpenELEC is easy to install, maintain and use, as well as being small and lightning fast. Version 4.2 runs on Linux kernel 3.15, Mesa-10.2, and Xorg-1.16, and includes newer Nvidia drivers. XBMC Gotham 13.2 is used as a base. The main changes in this version, internally referred to as 4.1.5, are as follows:

OpenELEC 4.2 Beta 5 released

This release includes some bug fixes, security fixes and improvements since OpenELEC-4.1.4. Besides the usual bug fixes and package updates we updated XBMC to XBMC Gotham 13.2 Final, FFmpeg to ffmpeg-2.3.3, Mesa to Mesa-10.3-rc1and systemd to systemd-216. We fixed crashes while playing FLAC files with ID3v2 tags, optimized some software packages and updated the RaspberryPi firmware to include the last fixes and features.

Updated core Components (summary)

• update to bcm2835-bootloader-fb3e439
• update to bcm2835-driver-fb3e439
• update to Mesa-10.3.0-rc1
• update to elfutils-0.159
• update to connman-1.25
• update to systemd-216
• update to xbmc-13-0f3db05
• update to boost-1.56.0
• update to ffmpeg-2.3.3
• update to xf86-video-nvidia-340.32
• update to sqlite-autoconf-3080600
• downgrade to taglib-1.8, this should solve crashes on flac files with IDv2 tags (more info)
• projects/RPi/patches/linux: update RPi support patch, this adds Hifiberry DAC+ support
• projects/RPi/patches/xbmc: update RPi support patch
• libxcb: disable unused extensions
• samba: link with -fwhole-program
• xbmc: change the way tz setup is called
• boost: added –ignore-site-config to ignore external site-config.jam
• libX11: build without loadable-i18n/loadable-xcursor
• busybox: remove CIFS/SMB boot support
• create_installstick: update mbr for Debian Jessie

For a full changelog on what’s new, follow this link.