Install Kodi 14 Stable (Formerly ‘XBMC’) in Ubuntu 14.04/12.04

Last updated: December 24, 2014

Kodi Media Center (XBMC)

The first stable release of Kodi Media Center, formerly known as XBMC, has been released the day before Christmas Eve. The code name of Kodi 14.0 is ‘Helix Unwinds’.

Besides changing names, Kodi 14.0 uses FFmpeg 2.4.4 which means it’s now able to play back h.265 and VP9 video codecs. Also there are improvements on Kodi Library and audio playback, crashes on Linux and audio-related bug-fixes, more user controls.

More details, see the Kodi release page.

Install Kodi 14 via PPA in Ubuntu:

Kodi 14 available in its official PPA for Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 and derivatives.

Open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run the commands below one by one:

1. First install the required packages to manage repository:

sudo apt-get install python-software-properties pkg-config software-properties-common

2. Then add the Kodi PPA by running:

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

3. Reload the system package lists:

sudo apt-get update

4. Finally install Kodi as well as the encode, addon:

sudo apt-get install kodi kodi-audioencoder-* kodi-pvr-*

When done, run kodi in terminal to start the media center. For me, I need a restart to make the Kodi icon available in the Dash.

Twitter

I'm a freelance blogger who started using Ubuntu in 2007 and wishes to share my experiences and some useful tips with Ubuntu beginners and lovers. Please comment to let me know if the tutorial is outdated! And, notify me if you find any typo/grammar/language mistakes. English is not my native language. Contact me via ubuntuhandbook1@gmail.com Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/ubuntuhandbook1

13 responses to Install Kodi 14 Stable (Formerly ‘XBMC’) in Ubuntu 14.04/12.04

  1. Hello,

    Thank you for the excellent instructions! I had Kodi installed and running but it recently began crashing on startup. I tried to reinstall it with no luck. I tried to include a crash log but it’s too big to upload to pastebin.

    Here’s a snippet:

    ############## Kodi CRASH LOG ###############

    ################ SYSTEM INFO ################
    Date: Wed Dec 31 14:52:16 PST 2014
    Kodi Options:
    Arch: x86_64
    Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-23-generic #36-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 10 20:39:51 UTC 2012
    Release:
    Distributor ID: LinuxMint
    Description: Linux Mint 13 Maya
    Release: 13
    Codename: maya
    ############## END SYSTEM INFO ##############

    ############### STACK TRACE #################
    =====> Core file: /home/paul/core (2014-12-31 14:52:16.094243091 -0800)
    =========================================
    [New LWP 17506]
    [New LWP 17472]
    [New LWP 17471]
    [New LWP 17469]
    [New LWP 17476]
    [New LWP 17468]
    [New LWP 17497]
    [New LWP 17514]
    [New LWP 17500]
    [New LWP 17512]
    [New LWP 17501]
    [New LWP 17489]
    [New LWP 17475]
    [New LWP 17502]
    [New LWP 17490]
    [New LWP 17504]
    [New LWP 17491]
    [New LWP 17505]
    [New LWP 17495]
    [New LWP 17498]
    [New LWP 17503]
    [New LWP 17470]
    [New LWP 17458]
    [Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
    Using host libthread_db library “/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libthread_db.so.1”.
    Core was generated by `/usr/lib/kodi/kodi.bin’.
    Program terminated with signal 11, Segmentation fault.
    #0 0x00007f63a82a170b in vfprintf () from /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6

    Any help would be appreciated.

    Thank you!

  2. Dear Mr.
    After you instruction for installation I received below error:
    The following packages have unmet dependencies:
    kodi : Depends: kodi-bin (>= 2:15.0~git20150412.0200-2dd0e8f-0precise) but it is not installable
    Depends: kodi-bin (= 2.2.0) but it is not installable
    Recommends: libvdpau1 but it is not going to be installed
    Recommends: libva-intel-vaapi-driver but it is not going to be installed
    Recommends: libva1 but it is not going to be installed
    E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

    Could you explain please what is my problem and how I can progress with this issue.
    Thanks and regards, Stas.

  3. E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

    This seems to be your problem.

    maybe this helps:

    sudo apt-get clean && sudo apt-get update

    After that do:

    sudo apt-get upgrade

    and see if you can install the kodi package

  4. Not working….

    The following packages have unmet dependencies.
    kodi-pvr-wmc : Conflicts: kodi-pvr-tvheadend-hts
    E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

  5. I’m having the same issue. Haven’t found a solution that works, either.

  6. Had the same issue on ubuntu 14.04 and that worked for me. Thanx Ji M

  7. this did not work for me either. i get a please check the ppa name or format is correct

  8. Kodi v16.0 “Jarvis” in Lubuntu 14.04.4

    Install

    sudo apt-get install python-software-properties pkg-config software-properties-common

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

    sudo apt-get update

    sudo apt-get install kodi

    Working correctly

  9. Same problem for me… i have installed xfce on my Arm Chromebook Samsung and kodi don’t want to be installed… Help