14 DAY TRIAL // OpenELEC, an embedded operating system built specifically to run XBMC, the open source entertainment media hub, has advanced to version 4.0.5 and is now available for download.
The OpenELEC makers usually follow the XMBC releases, but from time to the time the devs make their own upgrades that are not taken from the other project. After all, XBMC is just a software and OpenELEC is in fact a Linux distribution, which means that there are a number of other components that need improvements and fixes.
“This release includes some bugfixes, security fixes and improvements since OpenELEC-4.0.4 . Besides the usual bugfixes and package updates we updated OpenSSL to fix some security issues, updated Kernel to 3.14.7, added support for some more WLAN chipsets and updated the RaspberryPi firmware to include the last fixes and features,” said the developers on the official website.
OpenELEC 4.0.5 is mostly a maintenance release and the devs have only upgraded a few packages and patched a few bugs. There’s nothing out of the ordinary, but if you have an older version it’s recommended that you upgrade to this one.
According to the developers, Mesa has been updated to version 10.1.5, wpa_supplicant is now at version 2.2, libICE has been updated to version 1.0.9, OpenSSL 1.0.1h has been implemented (with all the recent security fixes), the RPi support patch has been updated, the PR4838 driver has been added, and support has been added for more Edimax/Belkin WLAN sticks.
If you already have an older version of OpenELEC, you might consider upgrading the system instead of installing it from scratch. This can be done safely if the OS is at least at version 3.2.
“We will no longer be supplying specific builds for Arctic MC, Fusion, Intel and Ion devices – support for all of these devices has been rolled into the Generic builds. If you are using one of these builds, you will need to migrate to the Generic builds,” also said the devs.
XBMC 13.1 “Gotham,” the distribution used as a base, comes with Android hardware decoding, various Raspberry Pi and Android speed improvements, stereoscopic 3D Rendering, better touchscreen support, improved UPnP capabilities, lots of audio engine improvements, better subtitle searches, extended Python and JSON-RPC API for developers, FFMpeg 1.2, and much more.
Check out the official announcement for a complete list of changes and improvements. You can download the latest OpenELEC 4.0.5 right now from Softpedia. The update process can be triggered from inside the OS.