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I have a box with kodi installed from default repositories. This works great. However, when kodi starts, it is covers only a fraction of the screen.

Kodi covers fraction of screen (Movie posters are pixelized by me, and not an artifact).

If I go to Systems settings in Kodi and change Monitor it scales properly to full screen. The Monitor settings available is Default and HDMI-1. Kodi running in full screen properly

I do not use a window manager when running kodi, instead selecting it as the desktop on login.

This is, to put it mildly, somewhat irritating. How do I make kodi start in full screen every time?

The video card is a GeForce 210, using the nouveau open source driver.

The monitor is a LG TV, at 1920x1080. The resolution is correct on the login screen and after Kodi starts. Screenshots dimensions are actual dimensions of picture. Monitor is connected via HDMI cable.

The content of /usr/share/xsessions/kodi.desktop is the default:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Kodi
Comment=This session will start Kodi media center
Exec=kodi-standalone
TryExec=kodi-standalone
Type=Application

I could probably modify this script, but that would be overwritten on upgrade, and this is certainly not intended behaviour for kodi.

Kodi was starting correctly up until recently. I previously had the same problem with 16.04.

vidarlo
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3 Answers3

0

A recent article (January 2019) suggests the default repository will not give you all features and recommends Kodi 18 from stable PPA:

  • First remove older versions of Kodi:

    sudo apt remove --autoremove kodi kodi-data kodi-bin

  • Then install from Kodi repository:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/ppa

    sudo apt update && sudo apt install kodi

Personally I would simply run Kodi within Ubuntu 16.04 Unity Desktop but I have a GeForce GTX 970M. I guess with a GeForce 210 card that would be too much overhead.

Option 2

Inspired from comments under this new question: How to make Kodi something you can run from Ubuntu login screen without password?

You could create a new user ID called TV that auto starts Kodi in full-screen mode and does nothing else. It would not load up unnecessary apps that come with a regular user auto start after signon.

Community
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WinEunuuchs2Unix
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  • The thing is that fullscreen worked previously, with the default repository. It works when enabling it manually. It may be a bug, but I should not have to switch repositories to get it. – vidarlo Apr 13 '19 at 08:36
  • sudo apt remove --autoremove kodi will do as the first command. I tried the version from the PPA, but in my system (GeForce 9400M by nvidia-340 340.107-0ubuntu0.18.04.2) version 17 of Kodi plays smoother. So it seems they have "fixed" something that was not broken. – jarno Apr 13 '19 at 10:33
  • But if I run Kodi 18 from Ubuntu login screen, it will playback smoothly. – jarno Apr 13 '19 at 11:00
  • @jarno You've written lots of great answers here in AU. With your Kodi experience and decade old GPU, hopefully you write an answer for vidarlo in the same boat. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Apr 13 '19 at 11:20
  • When I tried again in separate account, it was not working well with either versions. Version 17 on my main account on DE seems to work ok. It must be about finding right settings. – jarno Apr 13 '19 at 14:54
  • @jarno The first link I found just said to remove old Kodi install. It didn't say how. Then Ubuntu Handbook Kodi 18 Released: How to Install it on Ubuntu & Linux Mint said to use: sudo apt remove --autoremove kodi kodi-data kodi-bin. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Apr 13 '19 at 19:05
  • The latter two packages will be removed automatically (because of --autoremove) as they are dependencies of kodi (unless you installed them directly). – jarno Apr 14 '19 at 05:21
  • @WinEunuuchs2Unix installed from PPA. Same behaviour as before. And my setup is essentially that which you describe in #2; a user named media with DE set to kodi. – vidarlo Apr 14 '19 at 12:41
0

In my experience proprietary Nvidia driver could work better and could probably use VDPAU functions of your graphics adapter. Even then, Kodi 17.6 works better in Xubuntu session than in Kodi session in my experience. In Kodi session where Kodi runs standalone, it can not find as good graphics settings, I think. I do not know which settings that I set in Xubuntu session affect in Kodi session. For example I have enabled "Sync to VBlank" to disable screen tearing in OpenGL Settings of "NVIDIA X Server Settings" utility in Xubuntu session. Newer Kodi installed from PPA shown in another answer seems to work better in Kodi session (than the old one).

jarno
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  • My problem has been figuring which driver version to use. For the last year I've stuck to 384.10 and my GTX 970M has been extremely stable and fast. Can you briefly explain benefits of VDPAU?(+1) – WinEunuuchs2Unix Apr 13 '19 at 15:04
  • @WinEunuuchs2Unix It can give good graphics performance with low CPU usage. It is good for HDTV playback, as it offers some hardware decoding and deinterlacing depending on feature set, e.g. GeForce 210 has feature set C. I don't know, if you can configure e.g. which deinterlace method to use in Kodi, but in Myhtfronted and in VLC you can do that. Not all modes work well. – jarno Apr 13 '19 at 16:19
  • However, I have noticed a serious bug with the nvidia-340 driver for Xubuntu 18.04. Maybe someone can confirm it? I do not know, if it happens with default Ubuntu; IIRC it uses different shortcut keys for TTY's and the DE. – jarno Apr 13 '19 at 16:30
  • On the other hand nvidia-340 seems to be supported no longer than through the end of this year: reference – jarno Apr 13 '19 at 16:39
  • I don't really see how changing the driver would affect the geometry of kodi? And it has worked previously, with nouveau – vidarlo Apr 14 '19 at 12:46
-1

I had the same issue I just changed the scaling to 100% in display settings and the issue was fixed

rDX
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