Notes on Q10 upgrade from 1.09 to 2.04

[eccles]

Notes on Q10 upgrade from 1.09 to 2.04

These notes assume some knowledge of running a Q10 with Android 5 such as loading addons and populating a library using scrapers.

I have been using Android 5.1 Q10 1.09 also using the Hicontrol app on my tablet.

My media consists of an internal 2tb HDD plus two USB drives of 8TB and 4TB

I keep 3D movies on the internal drive, 2D movies and TV shows on the 8TB and documentaries on the 4TB. The larger USB drive was connected to the USB3 socket. Android 5.1 mounted the media USB3, HDD, USB2. As this was mostly consistent I was able to populate the library without problem. Although I played with P. Cristi's mount app I didn't really need it.

My tablet then decided to update from Android 6 to Android 7. This was irreversible, and I found that the Hicontrol app no longer worked. There is a new version of the app for phones and tablets running Android 7 but it will only work with the Q10 also running Android 7.
As a result the only way I could get the Hicontrol app back was to upgrade to Android 7/Q10 2.04
The upgrade path was 1.09 to 2.01, 2.01 to 2.03, then 2.03 to 2.04, tedious but it went without a hitch except that all addons and media library were lost.

Then I was stuck. I was able to reload the backup Kodi app but reloading a backup from 1.09 didn't work so I was resigned to repopulating the library from scratch.
I reloaded the univeral scraper. I was able to find the setup menu by selecting the star icon at the top of the screen but the menu button on the remote control no longer worked - the buttons had been reconfigured. How on earth could I add content to my libraries?

After a lot of frustration and careful browsing the online details of Kodi 17 I found a single line that said that holding the OK button for a few seconds would give the menu. Bingo! I was able then to select the 'Set content' option and start downloading library details. I find that TMDB is far quicker than the universal scraper so I used that first then switched to the universal scraper and did another scan to pick up any movies that were missed.

The 'return' remote button has also been reassigned and is switched to the 'del' button.
However, when playing media with the wrapper the buttons switch to the old setup. Come on Himedia! This is stupid.

I played with P Cristi's fixed mount utility. UUID mounts appear to work ok but the Volume Label option doesn't. It finds all three volumes but the one in the USB3 socket appears to be empty. Having said that, The UID mounts can be relabeled to whatever you want when assigning the disk numbers to content so it's not a huge problem. You can find the addon mounts by selecting add video content from the setup
After running the bat util from your PC and selecting option 2, go to the Q10, kick off Kodi 17 and select the 'star' symbol at the top of the screen.
Then Media settings/Manage sources - Videos/Add videos/browse/External storage/Media_rw
You will find your disk UUID labels. Select them as required and assign you own label. You will now have new volumes to populate. Ignore the ones added by Kodi and set the content for these instead.
Repeat for other media types such as music or pictures.
Thereafter, however you mount your media, so long as the mount addon is present and running it will always assign your library correctly.

I found that the default order of mount for Android 7 is different to 5.1. It now always mounts the internal HDD first, followed by the centre USB2, USB3, then front USB2. Version 2 firmware is reputed to have some form of fixed mount system similar to P. Cristi's addon. It certainly finds the HDD and USB drive labels and shows these labels as mounted media but as far as I could tell, it appears to be irrelevant. Switching USB drives causes library content already loaded on those drives not to be found. I have experimented adding a third USB drive and found that if I leave the front USB socket free for that eventuality I will not need to refresh the media library should I need to add a third USB drive at a later date. I recall reading that there is a delay in the operation of P. Cristi's addon after booting, and since the default mounts appear to be consistent, I have decided not to use the addon.

I have loaded the new Hicontrol app to my tablet and it works fine, with less lag than the Android 5 version.

Please note these are my personal experiences. You may say "Oh you should have done it this way." or whatever. When upgrading, I found a dearth of information available and if these notes are of any help to anyone, please feel free to read or ignore them as you think fit.

Regards,
Mike.

[eccles]

Update: It's there in the 2.04 notes but I missed it:

Remote control button assignments revert to correct ones if the joystick addon is disabled:
Addons/My addons/peripheral libraries/joystick support/disable

Mike.

[eccles]

Update 2:
Samba shares are acting up. This one popped up in an earlier release, where any PC folder name that contained spaces could not be opened from HImedia Media Centre using the LAN option. The workaround, as previously, is to rename these folders so as not to contain spaces. Substituting underscore "_" for the space works. e.g. change "My Files" to "My_Files". You will need to set PC sharing again for any renamed folder, then reboot the PC and Q10.

[Mount81]

Hello!

I'm planning to update from 1.0.9 fw and KODI 16.1 to CFW 2.0.4 and KODI 17.4 (I guess it's the version installed at default). What I will need is to Back-Up my KODI 16.1 as and transfer it to KODI 17.4 as much as possible. I would use the Back-Up add-on for that purpose. I have read some warnings regarding that 16.1->17 Back-Up isn't working like it should. What are my chances and alternatives?

What I want to Backup and restore by all means: my scrapper settings (imdb, tvdb) and scrapped info database (also covers and fanart). And my SMB settings/paths and added Libraries along. (So actually my complete Jukebox in KODI).

All other KODI settings importance wold be subsidiary.
 
Would this be possible somehow, or do I have to restart everything from 0 with KODI 17.4?! :

Thanks!

[DancesWithChickens]

Backup is working fine from KODI 16 to 17.
There are some differences with the video and audio libraries,
but after you upgraded to 17 and restore your backup files,
KODI will automatically create new library files out of your old ones on the next boot.

So your steps will be:
On KODI 16 - backup your stuff.
Go to Backup addon settings and make sure this is selected:

(in your case, including thumbnails)

If you use a specific playercorefactory.xml you have to change it,
since" DVDplayer" from KODI 16 is now "VideoPlayer" in Kodi 17.
So open playercorefactory.xml on your pc and manually change every instance of DVDplayer to VideoPlayer.
(the file is at YEARMONTHDAYTIME/userdata)


Install latest Kodi 17 from here:
http://mirrors.kodi.tv/releases/android/arm/

Start Kodi 17, let it do its updates.
Disable Joystick Support in Kodi 17 to make sure your remote keep sworking:
Add-ons / My add-ons / Peripheral libraries / Joystick Support / Disable

Install Backup addon, restore files, using same settings as before.
On KODI home screen, hit "Back" on remote, chose "Exit" to close down KODI completely.

Restart KODI.
It will transfer Jarvis libraries to make them Krypton compatible.
Done.