This is the general Linux build guide. Please read it in full before you proceed to familiarize yourself with the build procedure.
Several distribution specific build guides are available.
- Document conventions
- Get the source code
- Install the required packages
3.1. Build missing dependencies
3.2. Enable internal dependencies - Build Kodi
4.1. Configure build
4.2. Build - Build binary add-ons
5.1. In-tree building of binary add-ons
5.2. Out-of-tree building of binary add-ons - Run Kodi
- Uninstall Kodi
- Test suite
This guide assumes you are using terminal, also known as console, command-line or simply cli. Commands need to be run at the terminal, one at a time and in the provided order.
This is a comment that provides context:
this is a command
this is another command
and yet another one
Example: Clone Kodi's current master branch:
git clone https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc kodi
Commands that contain strings enclosed in angle brackets denote something you need to change to suit your needs.
git clone -b <branch-name> https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc kodi
Example: Clone Kodi's current Krypton branch:
git clone -b Krypton https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc kodi
Several different strategies are used to draw your attention to certain pieces of information. In order of how critical the information is, these items are marked as a note, tip, or warning. For example:
NOTE: Linux is user friendly... It's just very particular about who its friends are.
TIP: Algorithm is what developers call code they do not want to explain.
WARNING: Developers don't change light bulbs. It's a hardware problem.
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First install the git package provided by your distribution. How to do it can be found with a quick search in your favorite search engine.
Change to your home directory:
cd $HOME
Clone Kodi's current master branch:
git clone https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc kodi
The following is the list of packages that are used to build Kodi on Debian/Ubuntu (with all supported external libraries enabled).
NOTE: Kodi requires a compiler with C++17 support, i.e. gcc >= 7 or clang >= 5
- autoconf, automake, autopoint, gettext, autotools-dev, cmake, curl, default-jre | openjdk-6-jre | openjdk-7-jre, gawk, gcc (>= 7) | gcc-7, g++ (>= 7) | g++-7, cpp (>= 7) | cpp-7, flatbuffers, gdc, gperf, libasound2-dev | libasound-dev, libass-dev (>= 0.9.8), libavahi-client-dev, libavahi-common-dev, libbluetooth-dev, libbluray-dev, libbz2-dev, libcdio-dev, libcec4-dev | libcec-dev, libp8-platform-dev, libcrossguid-dev, libcurl4-openssl-dev | libcurl4-gnutls-dev | libcurl-dev, libcwiid-dev, libdbus-1-dev, libegl1-mesa-dev, libenca-dev, libflac-dev, libfontconfig-dev, libfmt3-dev | libfmt-dev, libfreetype6-dev, libfribidi-dev, libfstrcmp-dev, libgcrypt-dev, libgif-dev (>= 5.0.5), libgles2-mesa-dev [armel] | libgl1-mesa-dev | libgl-dev, libglew-dev, libglu1-mesa-dev | libglu-dev, libgnutls-dev | libgnutls28-dev, libgpg-error-dev, libgtest-dev, libiso9660-dev, libjpeg-dev, liblcms2-dev, liblirc-dev, libltdl-dev, liblzo2-dev, libmicrohttpd-dev, libmysqlclient-dev, libnfs-dev, libogg-dev, libomxil-bellagio-dev [armel], libpcre3-dev, libplist-dev, libpng12-dev | libpng-dev, libpulse-dev, libshairplay-dev, libsmbclient-dev, libspdlog-dev, libsqlite3-dev, libssl-dev, libtag1-dev (>= 1.8) | libtag1x8, libtiff5-dev | libtiff-dev | libtiff4-dev, libtinyxml-dev, libtool, libudev-dev, libunistring-dev, libva-dev, libvdpau-dev, libvorbis-dev, libxkbcommon-dev, libxmu-dev, libxrandr-dev, libxslt1-dev | libxslt-dev, libxt-dev, waylandpp-dev | netcat, wayland-protocols | wipe, lsb-release, meson (>= 0.47.0), nasm (>= 2.14), ninja-build, python3-dev, python3-pil | python-imaging, python-support | python3-minimal, rapidjson-dev, swig, unzip, uuid-dev, zip, zlib1g-dev
Some packages may be missing or outdated in older distributions. Notably crossguid, libfmt, libspdlog, waylandpp, wayland-protocols, etc. are known to be outdated or missing. Fortunately there is an easy way to build individual dependencies with Kodi's unified depends build system.
Change to Kodi's source code directory:
cd $HOME/kodi
Build and install crossguid:
sudo make -C tools/depends/target/crossguid PREFIX=/usr/local
Build and install flatbuffers:
sudo make -C tools/depends/target/flatbuffers PREFIX=/usr/local
Build and install libfmt:
sudo make -C tools/depends/target/fmt PREFIX=/usr/local
Build and install libspdlog:
sudo make -C tools/depends/target/spdlog PREFIX=/usr/local
Build and install wayland-protocols:
sudo make -C tools/depends/target/wayland-protocols PREFIX=/usr/local
Build and install waylandpp:
sudo make -C tools/depends/target/waylandpp PREFIX=/usr/local
WARNING: Building waylandpp has some dependencies of its own, namely scons, libwayland-dev (>= 1.11.0) and libwayland-egl1-mesa
TIP: Complete list of dependencies is available here.
Some dependencies can be configured to build before Kodi. That's the case with flatbuffers, crossguid, fmt, spdlog, rapidjson, fstrcmp and dav1d. To enable the internal build of a dependency, append -DENABLE_INTERNAL_<DEPENDENCY_NAME>=ON to the configure command below. For example, configuring an X11 build with internal fmt would become cmake ../kodi -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local -DENABLE_INTERNAL_FMT=ON instead of cmake ../kodi -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local.
Internal dependencies that are based on cmake upstream (currently crossguid, ffmpeg, fmt, spdlog) can have their build type overridden by defining -D<DEPENDENCY_NAME>_BUILD_TYPE=<buildtype>. Build Type can be one of Release, RelWithDebInfo, Debug, MinSizeRel. eg -DFFMPEG_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo. If not provided, the build type will be the same as the core Kodi project.
Note: fstrcmp requires libtool
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If you get a Could NOT find... error message during CMake configuration step, take a note of the missing dependencies and either install them from repositories (if available) or build the missing dependencies manually.
Create an out-of-source build directory:
mkdir $HOME/kodi-build
TIP: Look for comments starting with Or ... and only execute the command(s) you need.
Change to build directory:
cd $HOME/kodi-build
Configure build for X11:
cmake ../kodi -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local -DCORE_PLATFORM_NAME=x11 -DAPP_RENDER_SYSTEM=gl
NOTE: You can use gles instead of gl if you want to build with GLES.
Or configure build for Wayland:
cmake ../kodi -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local -DCORE_PLATFORM_NAME=wayland -DAPP_RENDER_SYSTEM=gl
NOTE: You can use gles instead of gl if you want to build with GLES.
Or configure build for GBM:
cmake ../kodi -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local -DCORE_PLATFORM_NAME=gbm -DAPP_RENDER_SYSTEM=gles
NOTE: You can use gl instead of gles if you want to build with GL.
Or configure build with any combination of the three (default is "x11 wayland gbm"):
cmake ../kodi -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local -DCORE_PLATFORM_NAME="x11 wayland gbm" -DAPP_RENDER_SYSTEM=gl
NOTE: You can use gles instead of gl if you want to build with GLES.
NOTE: You can use several alternative linkers if available on your system: gnu gold (default), llvm lld or mold
To use an alternative linker, enable it with -DENABLE_GOLD=ON or -DENABLE_LLD=ON or -DENABLE_MOLD=ON
cmake --build . -- VERBOSE=1 -j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN)
TIP: By adding -j<number> to the make command, you can choose how many concurrent jobs will be used and expedite the build process. It is recommended to use -j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN) to compile on all available processor cores. The build machine can also be configured to do this automatically by adding export MAKEFLAGS="-j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN)" to your shell config (e.g. ~/.bashrc).
After the build process completes successfully you can test your shiny new Kodi build while in the build directory:
./kodi-x11
Or if you built for Wayland:
./kodi-wayland
Or if you built for GBM:
./kodi-gbm
WARNING: User running kodi-gbm needs to be part of input and video groups. Otherwise you'll have to use sudo.
Add user to input and video groups:
sudo usermod -a -G input,video <username>
You will need to log out and log back in to see the new groups added to your user. Check groups your user belongs to with:
groups
If everything was OK during your test you can now install the binaries to their place, in this example /usr/local.
sudo make install
This will install Kodi in the prefix provided in section 4.1.
TIP: To override Kodi's install location, use DESTDIR=<path>. For example:
sudo make install DESTDIR=$HOME/kodi
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You can find a complete list of available binary add-ons here.
In the following, two approaches to building binary add-ons are described.
While the workflow of in-tree building is more automated,
it is only supported as long as -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local is not changed from it's default of /usr/local.
Thus when changing DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX, you must follow the out-of-tree building instructions.
Change to Kodi's source code directory:
cd $HOME/kodi
Build all add-ons:
sudo make -j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN) -C tools/depends/target/binary-addons PREFIX=/usr/local
Build specific add-ons:
sudo make -j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN) -C tools/depends/target/binary-addons PREFIX=/usr/local ADDONS="audioencoder.flac pvr.vdr.vnsi audiodecoder.snesapu"
Build a specific group of add-ons:
sudo make -j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN) -C tools/depends/target/binary-addons PREFIX=/usr/local ADDONS="pvr.*"
Clean-up binary add-ons:
sudo make -C tools/depends/target/binary-addons clean
For additional information on regular expression usage for ADDONS_TO_BUILD, view ADDONS_TO_BUILD section located here Kodi add-ons CMake based buildsystem
NOTE: PREFIX=/usr/local should match Kodi's -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX= prefix used in section 4.1.
You can find a complete list of available binary add-ons here.
Exemplary, to install pvr.demo, follow below steps.
For other addons, simply adapt the repository based on the information found in the .txt associated with the respective addon here
Some addons have dependencies.
You must install all required dependencies of an addon before installing the addon.
Required dependencies can be found by checking the depends folder and
it's subdirectories in the repository of the respective addons.
A number of addons require the the p8-platform and kodi-platform add-ons.
Note that dependencies on p8-platform and kodi-platform are typically not declared in the depends folder.
They are only declared in the CMakeLists.txt file of the respective addon (e.g. via find_package(p8-platform REQUIRED)).
Below we demonstrate how to build these two.
First, the platform addon:
cd ~/src/
git clone https://github.com/xbmc/platform.git
cd ~/src/platform/
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local
make && make install
Then the kodi-platform add-on:
cd ~/src/
git clone https://github.com/xbmc/kodi-platform.git
cd ~/src/kodi-platform/
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local
make && make install
Finally, to install pvr.demo
cd ~/src
git clone https://github.com/kodi-pvr/pvr.demo.git
cd ~/src/pvr.demo/
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local
make && make install
NOTE: -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX= should match Kodi's -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX= prefix used in section 4.1.
If you chose to install Kodi using /usr or /usr/local as the -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=, you can just issue kodi in a terminal session.
If you changed -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX= to install Kodi into some non-standard location, you will have to run Kodi directly:
<CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX>/bin/kodi
To run Kodi in portable mode (useful for testing):
<CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX>/bin/kodi -p
sudo make uninstall
WARNING:: If you reran CMakes' configure step with a different -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=, you will need to rerun configure with the correct path for this step to work correctly.
If you would like to also remove any settings and third-party addons (skins, scripts, etc.) and Kodi configuration files, you should also run:
rm -rf ~/.kodi
Kodi has a test suite which uses the Google C++ Testing Framework. This framework is provided directly in Kodi's source tree.
Build and run Kodi's test suite:
make check
Build Kodi's test suite without running it:
make kodi-test
Run Kodi's test suite manually:
./kodi-test
Show Kodi's test suite help notes:
./kodi-test --gtest_help
Useful options:
--gtest_list_tests
List the names of all tests instead of running them.
The name of TEST(Foo, Bar) is "Foo.Bar".
--gtest_filter=POSITIVE_PATTERNS[-NEGATIVE_PATTERNS]
Run only the tests whose name matches one of the positive patterns but
none of the negative patterns. '?' matches any single character; '*'
matches any substring; ':' separates two patterns.