The CoreELEC “build-system” simplifies the complex task of cross-compiling hundreds of inter-dependent source packages into a working CoreELEC image with a few simple commands.

• Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. It is possible to use other Linux distrutions but Ubuntu 20.04 LTS is the distribution recommended by Team CoreELEC
• 50GB free disk space
• Active Internet Connection
• Time, a build can take several hours

Prior to building CoreELEC, ensure the build environment is up to date

• Update Ubuntu

sudo apt update

The build-essential meta-package contains everything required for compiling basic software written in C and C++, while the git tool is needed to obtain the CoreELEC sources.

• Install build-essenstials and git

sudo apt install build-essential git python3

For those who don't want to install build-essentials or preserve space, the bare minimum tools required for building CoreELEC are: make, gcc and git

sudo apt install make gcc git python3

From a terminal, use the git command to obtain the CoreELEC sources from Github. This requires about 350 MB of free space.

• ensure being in the user home folder

cd ~

• to clone the CoreELEC sources type

git clone https://github.com/CoreELEC/CoreELEC.git

• to access the CoreELEC folder type

cd CoreELEC

The git checkout command is used to switch between branches in a repository.

It checks the branches and updates the files in the working directory to match the version already available in that branch.

Ensure to be in the CoreELEC folder.

• enter the latest build

git checkout coreelec-19

To switch to an older build, specify the build tag eq: git checkout 19.2-Matrix_rc2

• create .tar update file

make

• create image file

make image

The build file will be located in ~/CoreELEC/target/

NOTE: The above steps can also be used to select (and build) CoreELEC 20 by replacing coreelec-19 with coreelec-20.

For coreelec-20 there are two devices. Default one is amlogic-ne (new era with Linux 5.4). To build Amlogic-ng DEVICE=Amlogic-ng must be used like

DEVICE=Amlogic-ng make

Ensure to be in the CoreELEC folder.

• enter the latest build

git checkout coreelec-9.2

To switch to an older build, specify the build tag eq: git checkout 9.2.5

• create .tar update file

PROJECT=Amlogic-ng make

or

PROJECT=Amlogic make

• create image file

PROJECT=Amlogic-ng make image

or

PROJECT=Amlogic make image

The build file will be located in ~/CoreELEC/target/

To build the corresponding addons

Ensure to be in the CoreELEC folder

• enter

./scripts/create_addon addon_name

The build file(s) will be located in ~/CoreELEC/target/addons/

• ensure being in the user home folder

cd ~

• to remove the CoreELEC files enter

rm -rf CoreELEC

To build CoreELEC in a docker container, please follow these instructions.

By default, WSL includes Windows path names the PATH variable. This can cause the CoreELEC build to fail. To prevent this from happening, 2 solutions are available:

Prior to starting the build enter:

export PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/usr/lib/wsl/lib

Create an advanced configuration settings file called wsl.conf with following content:

# Setting this key to 'True', or removing this entry, will add Windows path elements to the $PATH environment variable.
[interop]
appendWindowsPath=False

save the file to the \etc folder of the Ubuntu VM

eq: \\wsl$\Ubuntu\etc

exit WSL & wait at least 8 seconds before relaunching.

More information can be found here

WSL is maintained by and supported by Team Microsoft.