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Give the TV profile the Kodi addons it needs - #156

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Give the TV profile the Kodi addons it needs#156
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@Yury-MonZon Yury-MonZon commented Aug 17, 2026

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Stock kodi plays local files and little else, and Debian splits the official addon repository out of the kodi package, so the UI has no way to reach an addon either. Eight package-list additions cover both halves for @TV-Media-Box.

What each brings

inputstream.adaptive and ffmpegdirect provide the streaming protocols nearly every video plugin expects, and iptvsimple turns an M3U playlist into live TV. The sftp and libarchive VFS backends read media straight off a remote share or out of an archive without unpacking it first. heif decodes the pictures phones now take by default, and peripheral.joystick lets a gamepad drive the UI from the sofa.

kodi-repository-kodi is repository.xbmc.org itself. Without it the only entry under Install from repository is Debian's language packs.

All verified present for trixie/arm64:

package candidate
kodi-imagedecoder-heif 21.0.2+ds-1+b1
kodi-inputstream-adaptive 21.5.9+ds-1
kodi-inputstream-ffmpegdirect 21.3.7+ds-2
kodi-peripheral-joystick 21.1.22+ds-1
kodi-pvr-iptvsimple 21.10.2+ds-1
kodi-repository-kodi 2:21.2+dfsg-4
kodi-vfs-libarchive 21.0.2+ds-1
kodi-vfs-sftp 21.0.2+ds-1

recommends stays false, as everywhere else in this recipe. kodi-inputstream-rtmp is not listed because iptvsimple depends on it, and heif brings libheif1 with the dav1d and libde265 plugins. Nothing else is pulled in.

Why the repository comes from apt

kodi-repository-kodi is built from the same source package as kodi, so it stays locked to whichever kodi the image carries. That matters because the repository declares the mirror branch it reads (omega for kodi 21): tracking it outside apt would mean refreshing it by hand on every major kodi bump, or serving addons built for the wrong version.

Verified on device

Installed by hand on @TV-Media-Box (kodi 2:21.2+dfsg-4) before committing. Kodi picked the repository up, fetched and checksummed the index, and enabled it with no UI step:

repo:    repository.xbmc.org  3.4.0  sha256 verified
addons indexed from the repo: 881
installed: ('repository.xbmc.org', 1)      <- enabled

Note on binary addons

Team Kodi filters binary addons by platform and publishes none for a Linux distro build: of the 881 addons indexed, zero declare a kodi.binary.* dependency. So nothing installed from the repository can collide with the Debian-built addons above, and conversely any binary addon Debian does not package has no route on this image. That is why the binary ones are named explicitly rather than left to the repository. Debian's arm64 coverage is 54 packages including 22 PVR backends, should another backend ever be wanted.

Testing

  • Every package name and candidate checked with apt-cache policy on trixie/arm64, and the dependency footprint with apt-get install -s.
  • Repository behaviour confirmed against Kodi's Addons33.db: index fetched, checksum verified, addon enabled without a prompt.
  • Not yet built. Package-list additions only, no recipe or overlay changes, so the remaining risk is package resolution at build time.

Stock kodi plays local files and little else, and Debian splits the
official addon repository out of the kodi package, so the UI has no way to
reach an addon either. Eight packages cover both halves.

inputstream.adaptive and ffmpegdirect provide the streaming protocols
nearly every video plugin expects, and iptvsimple turns an M3U playlist
into live TV. The sftp and libarchive VFS backends read media straight off
a remote share or out of an archive without unpacking it first. heif
decodes the pictures phones now take by default, and peripheral.joystick
lets a gamepad drive the UI from the sofa.

kodi-repository-kodi is repository.xbmc.org itself. Without it the only
entry under "Install from repository" is Debian's language packs. It comes
from the same source package as kodi, so it stays locked to whichever kodi
this image carries, which matters because the repository names the mirror
branch it reads: omega for kodi 21. Tracking that outside apt would mean
refreshing it by hand on every major kodi bump, or serving addons built
for the wrong version.

Only python addons are on offer there. Team Kodi filters binary addons by
platform and publishes none for a distro build, so nothing installed from
the repository can collide with the Debian-built addons above, and
anything binary that Debian does not package has no route at all. That is
why the binary ones are named here rather than left to the repository.
Debian carries 22 PVR backends should another one ever be wanted.

recommends stays false, as everywhere else here. kodi-inputstream-rtmp is
not listed because iptvsimple depends on it, and heif brings libheif1 with
the dav1d and libde265 plugins.
@Yury-MonZon Yury-MonZon changed the title Give the TV profile the Kodi addons it needs, and Kodi's own repository Give the TV profile the Kodi addons it needs Aug 17, 2026
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