Users can build ARMv6 and ARMv7 binaries on AArch64 devices

May 8, 2017 14:26 GMT  ·  By

The OSMC (formerly RaspBMC) Linux Media Center operating system based on Debian GNU/Linux received a new major update that brings a great number of improvements and bug fixes.

For those unfamiliar with OSMC, it's an open-source and free GNU/Linux distro for embedded devices, based on the popular Kodi Media Center. Its main design goal is to be one of the best solutions for transforming small appliances into low-cost HTPC (Home Theatre Personal Computer) systems.

The latest release, OSMC 2017.04-1, is here with UUID support and better boot times for OSMC installations based on Raspberry Pi Foundation's NOOBS images, better HEVC playback performance on Raspberry Pi SBCs, Live TV audio passthrough support on Vero 2, as well as Btrfs file system improvements for Vero 4K.

Introducing user-space cryptographic API for Raspberry Pi

Among other improvements implemented in the OSMC 2017.04-1 release, we can mention USB-only boot support for Raspberry Pi single-board computers when using a NOOBS image, a better user experience when installing OSMC via NOOBS, new icons for the default OSMC skin, and the ConnMan 1.34 network manager.

A user-space cryptographic API (Application Programming Interface) was also introduced in this new OSMC update for Raspberry Pi SBCs, along with the ability to build ARMv6 and ARMv7 binaries on devices powered by an ARM64 (AArch64) kernel, such as Vero 4K.

Improvements for the built-in Wi-Fi adapter of Apple TV devices are present as well in OSMC 2017.04-1, which ships with a new option that lets users reboot the system when NFS (Network File System) root is present. Additionally, the inputstream add-ons were enabled by default to make the installation of various add-ons a breeze.

Last but not least, HTTPS (Secure HTTP) support was enabled by default for log uploading and additional logging information was added to make debugging of various issues easier for some devices. A bunch of bugs were squashed as well, so check the full changelog attached below for more details.

The OSMC 2017.04-1 Live ISO image is now available for download from our website if you're new to the OSMC Linux Media Center and you want to take it for a test drive, but existing users can get the latest version of OSMC by accessing the My OSMC -> Updater tool and manually checking for updates.

OSMC 2017.04-1 Changelog