The open-source Libre Embedded Linux Entertainment Center

Feb 22, 2017 22:38 GMT  ·  By

The development team behind the open-source LibreELEC operating system for Raspberry Pi and other embedded devices proudly announced today, February 22, 2017, the release and general availability of LibreELEC 8.0.0.

Dubbed Krypton, LibreELEC 8.0.0 has been in development since early October last year, during which it received over 200 nightly builds, no less than ten official Alpha versions, and a total of three Beta releases. It's built around the recently released Kodi 17 "Krypton" open-source media center, so you'll enjoy all of its cool new features.

"LibreELEC (Krypton) 8.0.0 has arrived after a long gestation period," reads today's announcement. "Based upon Kodi v17.0, our 8.0.0 release contains many small refinements to our user experience and a complete overhaul of the underlying OS core to enhance stability and extend hardware support."

WeTek Play 2 support was greatly improved

Since the last development release, the developers managed to add a few improvements, especially for WeTek Play 2 support. For example, LibreELEC 8.0.0 fixes some TVheadend issues for the WeTek Play 2 DVB driver and updates the WeTek Play 2 remote keymap to present more buttons.

Other improvements include updated linux-amlogic kernels for ARM (version 3.10) and AArch64 (version 3.14) architectures, a new hexdump busybox applet that can be used to overclock ODROID-C2 boards, as well as various refinements for the repeat timing changes of LIRC (Linux Infrared Remote Control).

As expected, some other small issues have been addressed as well in the final release of LibreELEC 8.0.0, so check the release notes for more details. You can download LibreELEC 8.0.0 right now from the official website for the device(s) on which you want to install the OpenELEC fork designed to transform single-board computers into powerful HTPCs (Home theater PCs).