In May, we released test builds of Debian Bullseye for all supported OSMC devices. For the next four months, we've been working hard on a number of improvements and fixes to ensure that OSMC is released on the latest version of Debian with the best experience possible.

We are still shipping Kodi v19.4, as a 19.5 point release has not yet been finalised. However we have updated the version we ship to the latest commit on the Kodi Matrix branch.

Update: some users of the official Plex add-on have reported some issues. A solution has been made available here.

Here's what's new:

Debian changes

There are some significant changes to the Debian base as a result of this upgrade, which we would like to highlight here:

• The default and only Python interpreter is Python 3.x. Previously, we included Python 2 as this was needed for the Samba server package. As a result, a significant amount of space is saved on the root filesystem and initial installation. If you have your own scripts which use Python 2, you’ll need to upgrade these to use Python 3.
• New installations of OSMC will contain the usrmerge package. This means that /{bin,sbin,lib}/ directories become symbolic links to /usr/{bin,sbin,lib}/. Debian 12 (Bookworm) will only support the merged usr-root filesystem layout.

Bug fixes

• Fixed an issue which caused some devices (notably FLIRC) to behave badly and have repeat presses.
• Fixed an issue which could cause green screens when playing HEVC content on Vero 4K/4K+
• Fixed an issue when pairing and remembering devices that used a Bluetooth PIN
• Fixed an issue which could cause exFAT formatted drives to be mounted with prohibitive permissions
• Fix CRDA configuration in My OSMC so that it now works as expected
• Fixed an issue playing VP9 content on Vero 4K/4K+
• Fixed an issue where seeking could cause a green screen on Vero 4K/4K+
• Fixed an issue where there can be a single green pixel in the top corner on Vero 4K/4K+ during playback
• Fixed an issue where some Bluetooth devices would not automatically reconnect
• Fixed a number of issues which could cause problems with CEC on Vero 4K/4K+
• Fixed an issue which prevented Raspberry Pi Model 3A+ from booting

Improving the user experience

• Added support for HD audio passthrough on Raspberry Pi 4 / 400
• Improved VC-1 playback quality on Vero 4K/4K+
• Updated Vero 4K/4K+ to new video stack with a number of playback improvements
• Improved tethering logging in My OSMC
• Added a Disconnect option in My OSMC's Bluetooth settings window
• Home screen adjustments and minor improvements for the OSMC skin
• Remove EDID 3D parsing limitation, improving 3D compatibility for some projectors with Vero 4K/4K+.
• Disabled interlaced mode selection on Vero 4K/4K+, so that they cannot be selected in Kodi which can lead to a suboptimal experience
• Backported support for CIFS3 support to Vero 4K/4K+
• Mask sensitive information when generating logs via My OSMC
• Prevent a user from changing in to Windowed mode in Kodi which may cause them to lose the screen
• Improve the TTY terminal by allowing a user a longer time to login
• Improve the TTY terminal by using a larger, more readable font.
• Reduce log size in My OSMC by limiting system journal output
• Add support for retreiving EDID in logs on Raspberry Pi
• Optimise video thumbnails in Kodi to reduce size significantly without a noticeable reduction in quality
• Added ZRAM kernel support for Raspberry Pi models
• Added SCSI Generic kernel support for Vero 4K/4K+
• Warn a user if they try and set a GUI resolution above 1080p on Vero 4K/4K+
• Improve detection of frame rate for specific streams on Vero 4K/4K+
• Re-worked right-eye first detection to improve playback of some MVC content on Vero 4K/4K+
• Refactored amcodec video decoder for Vero 4K/4K+ with a number of improvements

Miscellaneous

• Re-factor My OSMC with numerous improvements
• Updated website URL in MOTD
• Ensured that default password check can also handle the yescrypt hash which is now used by default
• Updated Transmission torrent client to version 3.0.0

Wrap up

To get the latest and greatest version of OSMC, simply head to My OSMC -> Updater and check for updates manually on your exising OSMC set up. Of course — if you have updates scheduled automatically you should receive an update notification shortly.

If you enjoy OSMC, please follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook and consider making a donation if you would like to support further development.

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