Kodi on an Intel NUC5i5RYK with Arch Linux

NUC Preparation

Firmware update

Update the firmware on the NUC to the latest version (fixes bugs with the IR receiver)

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25228/BIOS-Update-RYBDWi35-86A-

• Download the .BIO file and copy it to a FAT32 formatted USB drive (mkfs.fat -F32)
• Plug in th USB drive, power on the NUC and press F7
• Follow the instructions to update the firmware

Slow down the fan

In stock settings, the NUC's fan is running at 3000RPM even if the system is idle. I switched to Quiet mode in the fan settings and lowered the minimum fan speed to 2000 RPM (select 20%).

Boot mode

If you don't want UEFI boot, disable UEFI boot in the NUC's BIOS. If you don't disable UEFI boot, the Arch Linux installation media will boot a system in UEFI mode. You have to make sure you can boot from the SSD in UEFI mode as well which didn't work for me.

Arch Linux ISO on an USB stick

dd bs=4M if=/tmp/archlinux-2015.09.01-dual.iso of=/dev/sdf && sync

Arch Linux installation

SSH

I performed the installation via SSH:

• boot from the USB drive
• set a root password with passwd
• find the NUC's IP address with ip addr
• permit root login with password by setting PermitRootLogin yes in /etc/ssh/sshd_config
• start sshd with systemctl start sshd

Preparations

Follow the Arch Linux installation guide

• Prepare the disks: partition and format
• Mount the partitions at /mnt (and at /mnt/boot if you have a separate /boot partition)
• Configure mirrors (Mirrorlist)[https://www.archlinux.org/mirrorlist/]
• pacstrap /mnt base
• genfstab -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
• chroot with a bash: arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash

In the chroot

• echo "nuc" > /etc/hostname
• ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Zurich /etc/localtime
• vi /etc/locale.gen
• locale-gen
• echo "LANG=en_US.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf
• passwd
• pacman -S grub
• grub-install --recheck /dev/sda
• grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Additional packages and configurations before you reboot

Make sure to install dhclient if you want to configure your network with DHCP. I installed the following packages prior to rebooting:

• dhclient
• openssh
• sudo
• vim
• vimpager
• wget

Exiting the chroot and rebooting

• Exit the chroot exit
• Unmount disks: umount /mnt/boot && umount /mnt
• reboot

System configuration

Configure DHCP networking with systemd:

• systemctl enable systemd-networkd.service
• systemctl start systemd-networkd.service

Create a kodi user for everyday use:

useradd -d /home/kodi -m -G wheel,network,audio,video,users kodi

Enable and start the sshd

• systemctl enable sshd
• systemctl start sshd

Login with the kodi user and switch user to root.

If you want to allow the kodi user to execute commands with sudo without a password, append the following line with visudo:

kodi ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

I added the following to /etc/inputrc, but that is personal preference

# map "page up" and "page down" to search history based on current cmdline
"\e[5~": history-search-backward
"\e[6~": history-search-forward
# fix Home and End for German users
"\e[7~": beginning-of-line
"\e[8~": end-of-line
# konsole (alt + arrow key)
"\e[1;3C": forward-word
"\e[1;3D": backward-word

Kodi installation

xorg

Check if there are system updates:

pacman -Syu --confirm

Install xorg and intel driver, select mesa-libgl for libgl and some tools

# xorg
pacman -S xorg-server xorg-server-utils xf86-video-intel mesa libva-intel-driver
# blackbox to check xorg installation
pacman -S blackbox xorg-xinit xterm

Check if xorg starts fine (as kodi user):

echo "/usr/bin/blackbox" > ~/.xinitrc
startx

Remove .xinitrc if everything is fine

kodi

pacman -S kodi libnfs libplist shairplay udisks unrar unzip upower lsb-release libbluray

Autostart kodi kodi-standalone-service

pacman -S base-devel

As kodi user

mkdir ~/aur && cd ~/aur
wget https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/snapshot/kodi-standalone-service.tar.gz
cd kodi-standalone-service
makepkg -sri
sudo systemctl enable kodi.service
reboot

VRC-1100 remote (AKA Hama Remote)

The NUC's IR receiver doesn't play well with a VRC-1100 remote (or the other way around). I am currently using the IR receiver bundled with the VRC-1100 until I replace the remote.

I don't use the receiver with LIRC, but use inputlircd instead, which emulates a LIRC daemon. The source repository for inputlircd doesn't seem to exist anymore. However, you can download a tarball from one of gentoo's mirrors:

http://mirror.switch.ch/ftp/mirror/gentoo/distfiles/inputlircd-0.0.1_pre15.tar.gz

wget http://mirror.switch.ch/ftp/mirror/gentoo/distfiles/inputlircd-0.0.1_pre15.tar.gz
tar xvzf inputlircd-0.0.1_pre15.tar.gz
cd inputlircd-0.0.1_pre15
make && sudo make install
sudo systemctl disable kodi.service

Create a file /usr/local/bin/create-remote-symlinks.sh with the following content:

#!/bin/bash
lines=$(grep -n "Vendor=05a4 Product=9881" /proc/bus/input/devices | awk -F : '{print $1}')
count=0;

for line in $lines; do
    let relevantLine=$line+5;
    event=$(head -n $relevantLine /proc/bus/input/devices | tail -n1 | sed -e 's:=: :' | sed -e 's:\ :\n:g' | grep event);
    ln -sf /dev/input/$event /dev/input/irremote$count;
    let count=$count+1
done

Create a file /usr/local/bin/create-lircd-symlinks.sh with the following content:

#!/bin/bash
if [ ! -e /var/run/lirc ]; then
  mkdir -p /var/run/lirc
fi
if [ ! -e /var/run/lirc/lircd ]; then
  ln -s /dev/lircd /var/run/lirc/lircd
fi

Create a systemd unit for inputlircd (/etc/systemd/system/inputlircd.service):

[Unit]
Description=inputlircd lirc daemon
After=systemd-udevd.service

[Service]
ExecStartPre=/bin/bash /usr/local/bin/create-remote-symlinks.sh
ExecStartPre=/bin/bash /usr/local/bin/create-lircd-symlinks.sh
ExecStart=/usr/local/sbin/inputlircd -f -u root -g -m0 -c /dev/input/irremote0 /dev/input/irremote1

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable the unit systemctl enable inputlircd.service

Create a modified version of kodi.service:

[Unit]
Description = Starts instance of Kodi using xinit
After = systemd-user-sessions.service network.target sound.target mysqld.service inputlircd.service
Requires = inputlircd.service
Conflicts=getty@tty7.service

[Service]
User = kodi
Group = kodi
PAMName=login
Type = simple
TTYPath=/dev/tty7
ExecStart = /usr/bin/xinit /usr/bin/dbus-launch --exit-with-session /usr/bin/kodi-standalone -- :0 -nolisten tcp vt7
Restart = on-abort
StandardInput = tty

[Install]
WantedBy = multi-user.target

Configure a kodi Lircmap.xml in /home/kodi/.kodi/userdata/Lircmap.xml

<lircmap>
    <remote device="irremote1">
        <start>KEY_HOMEPAGE</start>
        <pause>KEY_PLAYPAUSE</pause>
        <stop>KEY_STOPCD</stop>
        <info>BTN_RIGHT</info>
        <title>BTN_MOUSE</title>
        <skipplus>KEY_NEXTSONG</skipplus>
        <skipminus>KEY_PREVIOUSSONG</skipminus>
    </remote>
    <remote device="irremote0">
          <myTV>CTRL_SHIFT_KEY_T</myTV>
          <mymusic>CTRL_KEY_M</mymusic>
          <mypictures>CTRL_KEY_I</mypictures>
          <myvideo>CTRL_KEY_E</myvideo>
          <reverse>CTRL_SHIFT_KEY_B</reverse>
          <forward>CTRL_SHIFT_KEY_F</forward>
          <menu>CTRL_SHIFT_KEY_M</menu>
          <record>CTRL_KEY_R</record>
          <back>KEY_BACKSPACE</back>
          <left>KEY_LEFT</left>
          <right>KEY_RIGHT</right>
          <up>KEY_UP</up>
          <down>KEY_DOWN</down>
          <select>KEY_ENTER</select>
          <pageplus>KEY_PAGEUP</pageplus>
          <pageminus>KEY_PAGEDOWN</pageminus>
          <one>KEY_KP1</one>
          <two>KEY_KP2</two>
          <three>KEY_KP3</three>
          <four>KEY_KP4</four>
          <five>KEY_KP5</five>
          <six>KEY_KP6</six>
          <seven>KEY_KP7</seven>
          <eight>KEY_KP8</eight>
          <nine>KEY_KP9</nine>
          <zero>KEY_KP0</zero>
          <display>KEY_KPASTERISK</display>
          <clear>KEY_ESC</clear>
          <eject>ALT_META_KEY_ENTER</eject>        
    </remote>
</lircmap>

Reboot