Transforming Raspberry Pi into a TV Box: Detailed Steps to Install LibreELEC

Original article: https://www.labno3.com/2021/04/18/installing-libreelec-on-the-raspberry-pi/

This guide details how to install the media center software LibreELEC on a Raspberry Pi, transforming it into a multimedia TV box.

LibreELEC is an open-source Linux distribution, with its core software being Kodi and includes a sufficient number of packages. This project is a fork of the now-abandoned OpenELEC project. LibreELEC aims to provide an operating system with the essentials to run the Kodi media center software. By running a minimal distribution, LibreELEC maximizes Kodi’s performance on the Raspberry Pi. LibreELEC is considered one of the best operating systems for running Kodi on the Raspberry Pi. If you want to run other software on Kodi, you need to use a full operating system distribution like OSMC or XBian. Alternatively, you can install Kodi on the Raspberry Pi operating system yourself.

Device List

Below is the device list required to install LibreELEC on the Raspberry Pi. Click the link for special offers.

Optional

? Raspberry Pi case
? USB mouse
? USB keyboard

I tested this on a Raspberry Pi 4 running the latest version of Raspbian Buster.

Download LibreELEC for Raspberry Pi

In this section, download the LibreELEC image suitable for Raspberry Pi, making sure you know which Raspberry Pi you will be using LibreELEC on. LibreELEC supports all currently released versions of Raspberry Pi, from Pi Zero to Pi 4.

1. There are currently 5 versions of LibreELEC releases for Raspberry Pi.

Each version of the operating system is tailored for a specific set of hardware, and you can download them from their official website.

2. In the next section, we will show how to write the LibreELEC image to the SD card for Raspberry Pi.

Installing LibreELEC on Raspberry Pi

In this section, ensure that you have prepared an SD card for Raspberry Pi. In this section, we will write the LibreELEC image to this SD card.

1. To write the LibreELEC image to the SD card, you need to use software called Etcher.

Etcher is a handy tool that can write images to SD cards and USB drives. The software is compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux. After downloading and installing Etcher, you can proceed with the following steps.

2. To burn the image, you need to click the “Select image” button.

Using the file dialog, find and select the LibreELEC image downloaded in the previous section.

3. The next step is to select the drive to which you will write the LibreELEC image. You can click the “Select target” button to bring up a list of available devices.

Ensure that the selected drive is the same as the one you intend to use for the Raspberry Pi. If you only have one compatible device connected, the Etcher software will automatically select it.

4. Finally, it’s time to start burning; click the “Flash!” button.

This process may take some time as it writes the LibreELEC image to the SD card and verifies its content.

5. Once the burning is complete, you can continue using LibreELEC on the Raspberry Pi.

First Setup of LibreELEC on Raspberry Pi

In this section, we will run LibreELEC on the Raspberry Pi for the first time. During the first run, various components of the LibreELEC operating system need to be configured.

1. Every time you start LibreELEC on the Raspberry Pi, you will see the large Kodi icon.

This splash screen may vary slightly depending on the version of Kodi used by LibreELEC.

2. After LibreELEC starts, a simple configuration is needed.

The first option is the language setting. You can change the language by clicking on the currently selected language (1.). After selecting the language, click the “Next” button to continue.

3. On the next setup page, you will be asked what hostname you want the Raspberry Pi to use.

By default, the hostname used by the Pi will be set to “LibreELEC”. You can click “LibreELEC” (1.) to change the hostname. After setting it up, click the “Next” button.

4. On this page, set up the network.

This interface shows all available networks and allows you to easily connect to them (1. Any wired connection will connect automatically. For wireless connections, just click to connect and follow the prompts. After configuring the network settings for the Raspberry Pi, click the “Next” button (2.).

5. The last setting to configure is the additional services provided by LibreELEC.

The two services provided by the LibreELEC operating system are SSH and Samba.

(1. SSH allows external access to the Raspberry Pi’s terminal. This service is only useful when you need to configure details of the LibreELEC operating system. For most users, it is safer to disable this option unless you need it. If you decide to use SSH, it is recommended to change the account password as prompted.

Enabling Samba service will help LibreELEC communicate with Windows devices. If there are Windows devices on the network, I recommend enabling this option.

After enabling the desired services, click the “Next” button to complete the LibreELEC setup on the Raspberry Pi.

6. At this point, you will see an information box thanking you for completing the setup of LibreELEC.

This screen also points to the Kodi Wikipedia for guides on setting up and configuring Kodi on the Raspberry Pi.

7. You can now continue configuring LibreELEC on the Raspberry Pi.

The first step to take is to add all media libraries to Kodi.

Adding IPTV Play Sources

After installing LibreELEC, there is nothing inside. To really get it running, you need to set up IPTV to watch live TV.

1. Install the PVR IPTV Simple Client plugin

Open plugin -> My Plugins -> PVR Client -> PVR IPTV Simple Client, click install

2. Configure the IPTV play source

Click Settings > General > Location (Remote Path) > M3U Playlist Path, enter the following IPTV M3U play source path:

https://iptv-org.github.io/iptv/index.m3u

After setting it up, restart the system by unplugging the power. Once restarted, you can find the IPTV program list in the TV menu. This list contains over 8000 domestic and foreign TV channels, which is very rich. For specific updates, you can check this GitHub repository.

I hope that by now, you have established and run LibreELEC on the Raspberry Pi. If you encounter any issues during the installation of LibreELEC, feel free to leave a message below.