Includes ALSA 1.1 and Linux kernel 4.4 LTS

Dec 29, 2016 15:42 GMT  ·  By

Today, December 29, 2016, the OpenELEC development team proudly announced the release of a new stable build of their HTPC (Home Theater PC) Linux-based operating system for embedded devices.

OpenELEC 7.0.0 is now the latest stable version of the GNU/Linux distribution built around the well-known open-source and cross-platform Kodi 16.1 (formerly XBMC) media center. It's powered by the long-term supported Linux 4.4 kernel and comes with support for Bluetooth Audio and VPN (Virtual Private Network) through OpenVPN.

This is also the first release of the HTPC-oriented OS to add new AMDGPU video driver for newer AMD Radeon GPUs, but it also updates the graphics drivers for Intel and Nvidia cards, the latter being provided as a mix between Nvidia and Nvidia Legacy drivers, thus supporting old and new Nvidia GPUs.

The WLAN drivers and firmware have been updated, too, and the graphics stack is now based on the X.Org Server 1.18 and Mesa 11.2 3D Graphics Library. Other updated components include ALSA 1.1, FFMpeg 2.8, libva 1.7, systemd 229, connman 1.31, libnfs 1.11, libressl 2.2, GNU Binutils 2.26, GCC 5.3, Python 2.7.13, LLVM 3.8, and Glibc 2.23.

WeTek Core platform now officially supported with a separate build

Being a major release and all that, OpenELEC 7.0.0 introduces official support for the WeTek Core platform by creating a separate build of the OS for this type of Android TV boxes. Other than that, users of OpenELEC 6.0 series are urged to use the Generic build of the distribution if they used the Nvidia_Legacy build before.

"Users running OpenELEC 6.95.1 or later with auto-update enabled will be prompted on-screen to reboot and apply the update once it has been downloaded and enabled in some hours. Users running older OpenELEC releases or with auto-update disabled will need to manually update," reads today's announcement.

If you're using OpenELEC from the 6.x series, you are encouraged to perform a full backup of your installation before attempting to upgrade to OpenELEC 7.0.0, which you can download right now from our web portal or directly from the official homepage of the project, where you'll find all the information you need to get started with using OpenELEC on your device(s).