Starting Kodi automatically on Raspbian Jessie and Stretch

README.txt

So you were able to install Kodi via "sudo apt-get install kodi" but have no idea how to force it to autostart on boot?

You have tried all those googled solutions such as adding kodi-standalone to .bashrc, creating init.d script but nothing worked?

This is the right place to get the answer.

For some reason, the current version of Kodi doesnt provide 2 important files:
/etc/init.d/kodi
/etc/default/kodi

They are required to start kodi on boot. Also, for some unknown reason, I haven't found a single place in the whole internet, where those files would be available.

To fix the problem you need to create /etc/init.d/kodi first:
$ sudo touch /etc/init.d/kodi
The content for this file is provided in etc_init.d_kodi file attached to this gist. Use your favourite editor to paste the code into the file.

The second file to create is /etc/default/kodi. 
$ sudo touch /etc/default/kodi
Use the content from etc_default_kodi file attached to this gist:

We are almost done. The last thing is to is to make /etc/default/kodi executable:
$ sudo chmod a+x /etc/init.d/kodi

and add the init.d script to the startup scripts:
sudo update-rc.d kodi defaults
and thats it :)

etc_default_kodi

# Set this to 1 to enable startup
ENABLED=1

# The user to run Kodi as
USER=pi

# Adjust niceness of Kodi (decrease for higher priority)
NICE=-5

etc_init.d_kodi

#! /bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          kodi
# Required-Start:    $remote_fs $syslog
# Required-Stop:     $remote_fs $syslog
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: XBMC media centre
# Description:       Starts the XBMC media centre in standalone mode
### END INIT INFO

# Author: Michael Gorven <[email protected]>

# PATH should only include /usr/* if it runs after the mountnfs.sh script
PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin
DESC="media centre"
NAME=kodi
STARTAS=/usr/bin/kodi-standalone
DAEMON=/bin/sh
DAEMON_ARGS=""
PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
SCRIPTNAME=/etc/init.d/$NAME
GEOMETRY=/var/run/kodi.fbset

# Defaults
ENABLED=0
USER=kodi
NICE=0

# Exit if the package is not installed
[ -x "$STARTAS" ] || exit 0

# Read configuration variable file if it is present
[ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME

# Backwards compatibility with previous package name
[ -r /etc/default/xbmc ] && . /etc/default/xbmc

# Exit if service is not enabled
[ "$ENABLED" = "1" ] || exit 0

# Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
. /lib/init/vars.sh

# Define LSB log_* functions.
# Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
# and status_of_proc is working.
. /lib/lsb/init-functions

#
# Function that starts the daemon/service
#
do_start()
{
        fbset --show | grep geometry | cut -d' ' -f 6- > $GEOMETRY
        # Return
        #   0 if daemon has been started
        #   1 if daemon was already running
        #   2 if daemon could not be started
        start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --user $USER --exec $DAEMON --startas $STARTAS --test > /dev/null \
                || return 1
        start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --nicelevel $NICE --chuid $USER --background --make-pidfile --exec $DAEMON --startas $STARTAS -- \
                $DAEMON_ARGS \
                || return 2
        # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
        # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
        # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
        sleep 10
        start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --user $USER --exec $DAEMON --startas $STARTAS --test > /dev/null \
                || return 2
}

#
# Function that stops the daemon/service
#
do_stop()
{
        # Return
        #   0 if daemon has been stopped
        #   1 if daemon was already stopped
        #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
        #   other if a failure occurred
        start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --user $USER --exec $DAEMON --startas $STARTAS

        # Kodi doesn't actually handle signals, so we have to send an RPC request to ask it to exit
        if [ -x /usr/bin/wget ]; then
                wget --post-data '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "Application.Quit", "params": [], "id": 0}' --header 'Content-Type: application/json' -O /dev/null --quiet http://localhost:8080/jsonrpc
        fi
        # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
        # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
        # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
        # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
        # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
        # sleep for some time.
        start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --user $USER --name $NAME.bin
        RETVAL="$?"
        [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2

        # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
        rm -f $PIDFILE

        # Try to fix the display
        VT="$(fgconsole)"
        if [ "$VT" ]; then
                chvt 7
                chvt "$VT"
        fi

        if [ -e $GEOMETRY ]; then
                fbset --geometry $(cat $GEOMETRY)
        fi

        return "$RETVAL"
}

case "$1" in
  start)
        [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
        do_start
        case "$?" in
                0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
                2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
        esac
        ;;
  stop)
        [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
        do_stop
        case "$?" in
                0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
                2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
        esac
        ;;
  status)
        status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
        ;;
  restart|force-reload)
        #
        # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
        # 'force-reload' alias
        #
        log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
        do_stop
        case "$?" in
          0|1)
                do_start
                case "$?" in
                        0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
                        1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
                        *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
                esac
                ;;
          *)
                # Failed to stop
                log_end_msg 1
                ;;
        esac
        ;;
  *)
        echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
        exit 3
        ;;
esac

:

Thank you! I needed the /etc/init.d/kodi script. Much appreciated.

Yes its better because in will run only the kodi without desktop

…

Sent from my iPhone

On 20 Feb 2020, at 21:12, danieljoy ***@***.***> wrote:  Thank you! I needed the /etc/init.d/kodi script. Much appreciated. — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.