Boot into openelec

[Graham]

I have been a member of this forum a while but not been active for some time. I had an x7 ultimate but people who rent the studio in Spain and had never used a android box before found it difficult to operate android. I moved to mx open electric which was much easier as you press one button and openelec boots up followed automatically by the TV guide ( simple for anyone yes ) . I have two questions you may be able to answer please. 1. Can the T8 be booted straight into openelec so I can set it to boot TV guide. 2. Can the T8 be turned off with the standby button on the remote without stopping the stream, this may sound like a daft question but people find it difficult to exit everything before shutting down hence they turn off the TV but leave the box streaming.

Hope someone can help
Graham

 

[Nigelar]

Hi Graham, I would like to answer your question back to front as the answer may help explain things better (or not).

The general advice is to always exit Kodi cleanly. Quitting while in the middle of a stream by shutting down the box (or switching the power off) is over time likely to leave kodi in an unstable state. A normal exit from kodi cleans up any temp files. In the case of an Openelec session with the current version of openelec, a clean exit from Kodi does involve the "return to android" option.

Which brings me to your first question about booting straight into Openelec.
Given that you should always return to android, the boot up path on power up will always be via Android.
Now, if you were to power down from Openelec e.g. using the remote or switching off the box, then, indeed, you would reboot back into Openelec on power up. But as i have said, not exiting Kodi properly can cause future problems so this method is not recommended.

It may be other users know of a method to boot directly into Openelec and can advise differently.

Now a bit of partial good news. The next version of Openelec (with kodi 16.1) does offer a proper shut down exit route. I'm assuming that in this case, the reboot would be back into Openelec. But and a big but, this is a beta version, still under test, and it does not appear to work (both dave savage and me have tried it). I've reported the bug back to droidbox and we'll see if it is fixable. That may well provide a solution to your questions.

Sorry for the rambling reply but thought some background info would be useful.

 

[Graham]

Thank you for your fast reply, I do understand the answer sometimes is more technical and is not easy to break down to layman terms but you did very well. My problem is no matter how much I explain the importance of the shutdown method is people will still press standby on both the TV and the BOX. One of the main advantages of openelec is its boot time but is this not lost if you have to boot android first. To keep Kids clean I clear cash and purge packages when they leave. I will watch to see what progress is made in future devs. Here in Spain this is now the only way we get UK TV and I have to make it as simple as possible but I do like the duel boot idea and think it will be great if you don't have to boot android to get to openelec say from an sd card which you remove when you need android.
Thanks again and I will keep an eye on the forum. Some boxes won't even power down using the remote so I hope you don't mind me asking these questions before I order any box as I have to make them idiot proof for the many people that have never heard of Kodi although some of the ones who have are harder as the always feel the can go into settings and make the box better haha.
Thanks again

Graham

 

[Nigelar]

Just to clarify, dual boot droidboxes already have an icon in android to boot into openelec ("droidbox switch") so no sd card.

The remote that comes with droidboxes does power off their boxes. But I would recommend buying one of the better remotes with a full keypad (e.g. like the vip remote - see droidbox accessories list) and airmouse capability. Quite often these remotes don't shut down the boxes but can be programmed to do so by a simple procedure outlined in the droidbox how-to pages.

Ask away, people on the forum are always willing to help.

 

[Graham]

I have a vip remote from my x7 days but that used to power off but not on you had to press the switch on the box. I do understand about the droit box switch but that seems to defeat the object for my purpose, if they have to boot android and then openelec then they could just boot Kodi from there. I thought if it where possible then the box could default to sd card on boot and go direct to openelec to avoid having to boot android and no background apps running. I'm sure the tech guys are much more clever than me in this and it's not possible and if it was it wouldn't be worth it for the amount of people with my specific problem.

Thanks for your time anyway

 

[David Savage]

Hi, I've had in the past a imx6 box which was the Media version and this only had a Linux based version of kodi on it. To power off you just clicked on the power icon on screen and it was off.
With the T8-S, T8-S plus and T8mini in openelec running 15.2 you are given the option to reboot or switch to android side.
Now I'm sure I was told I while back that it was OK to use the power off in openelec, on remote or box. I'm just waiting to here back from droidbox on this. Like Nigelar said closing down kodi is important as it can cause errors and I aways go back to android myself. But as openelec is only a small operating system compared to android so I do think you can just power off.
Let's see what support says about it.

 

[David Savage]

It's is not recommended to shut down ever while watching something. You need to back out of the add-on and go to the main kodi menu and in Android side use the power off icon so it shuts down properly.

Hope this helps.

 

[thegazsheard]

I use openelec all the time on my t8. And all this time I just use the power button on the remote to switch the box off. Since November I've never had an issue.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using DroidBOX Forums mobile app

 

[Nigelar]

Good advice gaz based on your experience.
That should allow Graham to boot up back into openelec without passing through android.

 

[Graham]

Thanks for all the info guys, seems the consensus is it will do it but you shouldn't . I have to say at the moment I have an old mx running openelec and set up to boot TV guide automatically so all they do is press red button and wait until the guide is on the screen then choose a program. It can't get any more simple than that, when they go out they just press the red button and it shuts down but there is no android on this box. Maybe droidbox could offer an option as to which o/s you require. Don't see the point of booting android to boot openelec.
Sounds like you have answered my questions perfectly and will probably go for the T8 when my personal box is finished
Many thanks

 

[Nigelar]

I think I mentioned that the next version of openelec has a power off option which will allow a restart directly into Openelec (but it doesn't work yet in the version under test)

 

[Graham]

Yes you did but sounds like the standby button on the remote does the same thing according to gaz so maybe it's the box I need.

 

[David Savage]

Hi, just had it confirmed from droidbox support and only in openelec is it ok to power off using the remote or power button.
Android kodi should be closed down properly so it doesn't cause issues with files.
So like thegazsheard said "he's been doing it from November".......powering off the box that is.

 

[Graham]

Thanks for that. As I hoped my guests can power on and off in openelec and I can switch back to android as and when I need to for my own use. I take it that when you shut down in openelec and reboot the box it will boot back to openelec quite quickly without having to boot android.
Sorry for all these questions but I have to buy a box that is simple to use but it would be nice to have the flexibility of android as well which the T8 seems to give. I was looking at the T8 mini so is this the same with less storage.
Thanks again

 

[ChrisM]

Yes, if you're in OpenELEC and power off, next time you boot, it should go straight back to OpenELEC as well.

 

[stylecouncil]

Just bought a t8 mini I hit. Button it the app menu think it was open elec switch or something like that. And it rebooted into a blue screen and I have no idea how to exit it have tried powering down but just boots back to blue screen. Please help
Thanks

 

[ChrisM]

Is this the case where the HDMI cable needed to be removed and reinserted? Where it only happened on a specific make/model of TV?

 

[stylecouncil]

yes that was the problem took out hdmi and reinserted and hey presto.... only happens on my tv oldish sony bravia... on my sons tv its perfect