From a756ef5e521e5bbb75dabfa28a702a927eac90dc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Sam Hadow <sam.hadow@inbox.lv>
Date: Sat, 27 Dec 2025 16:03:29 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] pi 5 kodi post

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+---
+layout: post
+author: Sam Hadow
+tags: sysadmin
+---
+
+I recently got a raspberry Pi 5 with 8GB of RAM and wanted to install Kodi on it. OSMC isn't available for the Pi 5, and I didn't want to use LibreELEC to still have a debian base and be able to run other scripts and services from the Pi. In this blog post I'll show you how I did this installation.
+
+# steps
+
+## 1. Preparing the base system
+
+I decided to go with a minimal install of debian 13. In raspberry Pi imager it's in the "Raspberry Pi OS (other)" category. 
+
+![1]( /assets/img/2025-12-27-installing-kodi-on-a-raspberry-pi-5/1.png )
+
+![2]( /assets/img/2025-12-27-installing-kodi-on-a-raspberry-pi-5/2.png )
+
+Unfortunately with the Pi 5, the configuration from the imager letting you configure a user and the SSH when flashing the micro SD card seems to be broken so I configured it manually after flashing the Pi 5 when booting it for the first time. It asks for the user creation and password and then I just enabled SSH with:
+```bash
+systemctl enable --now ssh
+```
+(the service is ssh and not sshd on the Pi, it's not a typo)
+
+## 2. installing the required packages
+
+First we need to install kodi and some packages to have sound and a minimal GUI support.
+
+```bash
+sudo apt install kodi weston mesa-utils mesa-vulkan-drivers pipewire wireplumber pulseaudio-utils
+```
+
+## 3. running Kodi
+
+1. I first created a dedicated user and added it to the required groups to run Kodi as a systemd service:
+```bash
+sudo useradd -m kodi
+sudo usermod -aG video,audio,input,render kodi
+```
+
+2. Then I enabled autologin for kodi on TTY1
+```bash
+sudo mkdir -p /etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d
+```
+and in this folder I created this file:
+```ini
+#/etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d/autologin.conf
+[Service]
+ExecStart=
+ExecStart=-/sbin/agetty --autologin kodi --noclear %I $TERM
+```
+
+3. Then I enabled lingering for Kodi (which is needed to start user systemd services even without a shell session)
+```bash
+sudo loginctl enable-linger kodi
+```
+
+4. Finally I created and enabled the service to start Kodi on boot:
+
+First creating the folder:
+```bash
+sudo mkdir -p /home/kodi/.config/systemd/user
+```
+And then a service unit file:
+```ini
+#/home/kodi/.config/systemd/user/kodi.service
+[Unit]
+Description=Kodi Media Center (DRM/GBM)
+After=systemd-user-sessions.service
+Wants=systemd-user-sessions.service
+
+[Service]
+ExecStart=/usr/bin/kodi \
+  --standalone \
+  --drm \
+  --tty=/dev/tty1
+
+Restart=on-failure
+RestartSec=3
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=default.target
+```
+
+After this making sure the ownership is correct:
+```bash
+sudo chown -R kodi:kodi /home/kodi
+```
+
+And then to enable the service:
+```bash
+sudo systemctl --user --machine=kodi@.host daemon-reload
+sudo systemctl --user --machine=kodi@.host enable kodi
+```
+
+And Finally:
+```bash
+sudo reboot
+```
+
+## 4. checking logs
+
+To check Kodi related logs, we can use the following command:
+```bash
+sudo journalctl _UID=$(id -u kodi)
+```
+It'll show all the journalctl logs from the kodi user.