⚠️ EXPERIMENTAL · UNSUPPORTED · USE AT YOUR OWN RISK

This is an unofficial, experimental CoreELEC 22 build. It is NOT an official
CoreELEC release and it is NOT a supported CE22 port. I am not a CoreELEC 22
port maintainer, and I will not be providing support, bug fixes, updates, or
ongoing maintenance for this build.

The only purpose of this build is to give Amlogic AM9 Pro-class users a more
complete Dolby Vision experience than stock CoreELEC 22, by carrying a set of
custom Kodi features I built for my own device. That is the entire scope.

READ THIS BEFORE YOU FLASH ANYTHING

• USE ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. There is no warranty of any kind, express
  or implied. It may fail to boot, misbehave, break Dolby Vision, or do nothing
  useful on your hardware.
• BACK UP YOUR CURRENT INSTALLATION FIRST. Take a full CoreELEC backup
  (Settings → CoreELEC → Backup) and/or image your existing boot media before
  you install anything from here. Assume you may have to restore it.
• Prefer a SEPARATE SD card or USB stick you can boot from, instead of
  overwriting a working internal (eMMC) install.
• Do NOT report problems with this build to the CoreELEC team or forums.
  This is not their build; it is not their responsibility. Do not ask them to
  support it.
• I am also not offering support. If it breaks, you keep both pieces.

By downloading or using any file in this release you accept all of the above.

Install

• Clean install (recommended): flash the *.img.gz to an SD card or USB with
  balenaEtcher (or the Amlogic USB Burning Tool for eMMC), then boot from it.
• In-place update: copy the *.tar to the /storage/.update folder on an
  existing CoreELEC install and reboot. (Back up first — see above.)
• Verify your download against the SHA256 sums below before flashing.

What's changed in this update

This update follows
v22.0-samurihl-20260924125343.
It adds a built‑in update checker, so the box can tell you when a new build is out
and install it for you if you want. Dolby Vision discs now start with one TV mode
switch instead of two. The build also moves onto the latest upstream CoreELEC 22
code.

⚠️ Still experimental and completely unsupported. See the disclaimer above.
Back up your current install before flashing.

Dolby Vision still requires dovi.ko (the CE22 5.15 build) installed on your
device. It is not bundled; install it yourself as on stock CoreELEC 22. You do
not need to modify it. This build corrects it automatically at boot.

✨ New: built‑in update checker (by bokkoman)

Thanks to bokkoman, who wrote the
SamuriHL CoreELEC Update Checker
add‑on. It now comes with the build and is switched on the first time you boot.

Out of the box it only notifies you. It checks for new releases a couple of
minutes after boot and every 12 hours after that. When there's a newer build, you get
a notification. Nothing is downloaded or installed unless you ask for it.

To change what it does, go to Add‑ons → My add‑ons → Services → SamuriHL CoreELEC
Update Checker → Configure:

• Automatically download new builds. It puts the update in place, and CoreELEC
  installs it on the next reboot.
• Reboot automatically after download. It never reboots while something is
  playing. It waits for playback to stop.
• Check interval, notify only once per build, and verify checksum (on by
  default).

Running the add‑on from the Programs menu gives you two options. Check for latest
update checks now. Browse releases… lets you pick and install any recent build,
including an older one if you want to go back.

This version (1.3.0) adds a few safety changes to bokkoman's add‑on. They have been
sent back to him as well.

• Nothing happens during playback. It never downloads, asks or reboots while
  something is playing. A download stops if you start a film and tries again later.
• A waiting update is kept until the new one is complete. If a download fails,
  the update that was already waiting is not lost.
• Every download is checked. If the build's checksum can't be found, nothing is
  installed.
• It only updates this build. It won't offer a samurihl build to a box running
  official CoreELEC, or a build for a different chip family.

If you installed bokkoman's add‑on yourself, you can uninstall your copy. The built‑in
one replaces it. You can switch the add‑on off at any time under My add‑ons.

🛠️ Changed: Dolby Vision discs start with one TV mode switch, not two

When a Dolby Vision disc started, the box switched the TV into Dolby Vision at the
menu's refresh rate. About a second later it switched again to the film's rate
(usually 24 Hz). Each switch makes the TV go blank while it re‑locks. With two in a
row, a short intro like Halo's could lose part of its opening to a blank screen.

Dolby Vision is now switched on together with the film's refresh rate, so the TV
re‑locks once.

Still depends on your TV. The box still turns Dolby Vision on a couple of frames
before the mode switch, because the TV needs that to choose the right signal. How
long the blank lasts is up to your TV.

🔄 Updated: latest upstream CoreELEC 22

This build moves onto the current upstream CoreELEC 22 code. It brings in:

• systemd 262, Samba 4.25 (SMB shares), libnfs 8 (NFS through Kodi) and
  other LibreELEC package updates.
• A CoreELEC settings fix. On stock CoreELEC, the power, performance and
  hard‑disk settings could fail to load. That bug never showed on this build, and the
  fix is included anyway.
• Two Kodi mainline fixes. Page Up/Down in fixed lists now respects the skin's
  focus position (xbmc/xbmc #28898). Skins get a new Player.SeekStepValue label
  (xbmc/xbmc #29140).

Not taken from upstream:

• A change to how long the picture waits while paused. This build's pause and
  resume timing is already tuned and hasn't shown the problem it fixes.
• Upstream's Dolby Vision GUI state and its matching kernel driver update. This
  build keeps its own HDR/Dolby Vision GUI handling. The kernel update's Dolby Vision
  fix has been in this build since 20260917.
• A refresh‑rate rounding change. It fixes a stutter that this build's clock sync
  doesn't have.

⚠️ Still wanted

• Dolby Vision disc starts on your TV. Does the first picture appear faster than
  before? Tell us your TV model and the disc.
• SDR output. The tone‑mapped route for subtitles and menus on SDR TVs still has
  not been checked on screen. Reports welcome.

Under the hood

• Update checker. It is service.samurihl.coreelec.update 1.3.0, in the new
  package samurihl-update. It is installed to /usr/share/kodi/addons and listed as
  <addon optional="true"> in addon-manifest.xml (enabled on first sight,
  user‑disableable).
  • Automatic checks require BUILDER_NAME="samurihl". Tars are filtered by
    DISTRO_ARCH.
  • Checksum source: the release notes, falling back to the .tar.sha256 asset. With
    verification on and no checksum, it fails closed.
  • Staged tars are replaced only after size, fsync and sha256 checks pass.
  • Deferred checks retry after 600 s.
  • bokkoman's 1.2.0 is kept as a separate commit for attribution.
• 48f6549e18. aml_dv_pre_engage_disc_session() now only sets a pending
  request. CWinSystemAmlogicGLESContext::CreateNewWindow applies it after the mode
  set, when the window shows a DV picture and the resolved output is DV. Menu‑only
  BD‑J starts clear a pending request.
• Rebase. CoreELEC was rebased onto upstream cb01a8989c. common_drivers stays
  at f9af0b41: upstream's 23b23cb6 = dc8d2939 (reverted here; it conflicts with
  patch 0016) plus the VSVDB v2 PQ decode, which duplicates patch 0014. The kodi
  package points at our xbmc fork.
• xbmc. Not rebased this time; upstream force‑rewrote again. Cherry‑picked
  a508b5642f (#28898) and 495c12af82 (#29140). Skipped 97eeb9ca3c,
  41023cac16, c7e195e035, c1788cae80 and b099b15afa (the last is this build's
  own 7b668055c7). The register is in docs/rebase_20260925.md.

Source

• CoreELEC (distro): SamuriHL/CoreELEC tag v22.0-samurihl-20260925161620
• Kodi: SamuriHL/coreelec-xbmc tag v22.0-samurihl-20260925161620

Checksums (SHA256)

a12c35ad49f81edfd7efb97d77f50cf5a1877213774af6df2dbece39fe7b75e6  CoreELEC-Amlogic-no.aarch64-22.0-Piers-samurihl-EXPERIMENTAL_20260925161620.tar
21993d1d7297a1961c8286687eb674e4344f8a4849bb5ff4bbd0d1a176c32799  CoreELEC-Amlogic-no.aarch64-22.0-Piers-samurihl-EXPERIMENTAL_20260925161620-Generic.img.gz