How to Install Kodi on Ubuntu-based Linux Distributions

Ravi SaiveLast Updated: April 29, 2024 Read Time: 1 minLinux Players 10 Comments

Kodi is a free and open-source media server application that transforms your Linux system into a full-fledged entertainment center.

It lets you organize, play, and view your entire collection of movies, music, TV shows, and even photos, all from one user-friendly interface.

In addition to your videos and music, you can also use Kodi to watch YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, and more.

Whether you’re a movie buff, a music enthusiast, or just someone who enjoys having all their media neatly organized, Kodi is a great option for Linux users.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of installing Kodi on Ubuntu-based Linux distributions.

Installing Kodi on Linux

Before installing Kodi, it’s a good idea to update your Linux system to ensure you have the latest software packages.

sudo apt update -y
sudo apt upgrade -y

Once your system is up to date, you can install Kodi from the official software repositories using the following apt command.

Note: The version of Kodi found in the official software repositories isn’t the newest, which means you won’t get the latest and best features if you use this version of Kodi.

sudo apt install kodi

To get the latest version of Kodi, you can use the official PPA repository of Kodi as shown.

sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:team-xbmc/ppa
sudo apt install kodi

Keep in mind that if you have any add-ons (like PVR clients), you’ll need to update them separately as shown.

sudo apt install kodi-pvr-mythtv

After the installation is complete, you can launch Kodi from the applications menu or by running the following command in the terminal.

kodi

Removing Kodi from Ubuntu

To remove Kodi from Ubuntu, you can use the following command in the terminal.

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

The above commands, will uninstall Kodi and remove PPA from your system.

Conclusion

Kodi is a handy media center tool that turns your Linux computer into an all-in-one entertainment hub. It’s easy to install, has a user-friendly interface, and offers lots of features.

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Ravi Saive

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10 Comments

Leave a Reply

Franz Braun

January 30, 2016 at 5:53 pm

hi Ravi, would you please be so kind to comment on my post?
Reply
- Ravi Saive
  
  February 1, 2016 at 11:01 am
  
  @Franz,
  
  Sorry for delay, but have you gone through this article for installing Kodi on Fedora 23.
  
  http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Install_Kodi_on_Fedora_23_using_RPMFusion_packages
  Reply
Franz Braun

January 26, 2016 at 6:36 pm

hi Ravi
I have an old HP TC1100 tablet PC with Fedora 23 and I tried to install Kodi w/o success. So I was searching for an alternative and I thought I had found it coming across you page.
However the command: sudo dnf install kffmpegthumbnailer
I got this:
Error: nothing provides kdsbase-workspace needed by kffmpegthumbnailer-1.1.0-8.fcc.1686
(try to add ‘–allowerasing’ t command line to replace conflicting packages)
so I tried: sudo dnf install kffmpegthumbnailer –allowerasing
but it came back with the same error message

so I decided to ignore that step and continue. Everything worked fine until I tried:
cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=`kde4-config –prefix`
I got this:
— The CXX compiler identification is unknown
CMake Error at CMakeList.txt:l (project):
No CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER could be found

here’s the content of the files CMakeError.log and CMakeOutput.log

CMakeOutput.log——————————————
The system is: Linux – 4.2.3-300.fc23.i686 – i686
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Compiler: /usr/bin/cc
Build flags:
Id flags:

The output was:
0

Compilation of the C compiler identification source “CMakeCCompilerId.c” produced “a.out”

The C compiler identification is GNU, found in “/home/Franz/plasma-mediacenter/build/CMakeFiles/3.4.1/CompilerIdC/a.out”

Determining if the C compiler works passed with the following output:
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Reply
paul

January 31, 2014 at 5:17 am

hi ravi, i did the install on ubuntu 13.10 as you described. there isnt an icon in the launcher, i found the executable in the plasma media centre newshell folder but it comes up with the error “there was an error launching the aplication” with no details.
Reply
doesn't work

December 22, 2013 at 10:22 am

hi, i’m sorry but it doesn’t work on my computer with fedora 19 .
Reply
- Ravi Saive
  
  December 22, 2013 at 2:12 pm
  
  Is there any error messages you getting on the screen?
  Reply
kash

August 23, 2013 at 7:34 am

would like to know can we install the same on gnome ? or any other similar software is there for gnome ?
Reply
- Ravi Saive
  
  August 23, 2013 at 4:09 pm
  
  Yes! you can install on GNOME too and other alternative is XBMC.
  Reply
david liu

August 22, 2013 at 2:36 pm

XBMC vs PMC
Reply
Gentoo

March 28, 2013 at 11:41 pm

Only Fedora and Ubuntu?

LMGTFY http://software.opensuse.org/package/plasma-mediacenter
Reply

Installing Kodi on Linux

Removing Kodi from Ubuntu

Conclusion

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