I recently did and update on PC Linux using Synaptic and one of the upgrades was KODI to the newest release. Update went fine but now I can't load Kodi, it starts but then crashes. When started from the command line same thing. The old version tries to start with it opening screen but then crashes. When I start it using SU The new version 17 starts ok... Everything works for the little time I was in it. Not wanting to be in Kodi as Root. Can someone tell what's going on and how to fix this so I can use the new version????

Thanks in advance....

Maybe post how it crashes? What are the errors? You mentioned kodi got updated, maybe there's something from older version causing a problem?
When I find software misbehaves I completely remove it and install clean.

That's whats strange, they're is no errors when I run it from the command line. I have removed and reinstall with the same results.
[rich@localhost ~]$ kodi
[rich@localhost ~]$

Maybe do here

I have slackware current vbox vm with kodi installed, outside of kde I tried kodi, it produced crash log in my home folder, kodi_crashlog-20170226_094949.log.

I also see in .kodi/temp/kodi.log, looks like this has a bit of info.

Investigate any of these logs?

Thanks I will give it a look

Actually it was pretty easy to fix. Just rename .kodi file in the home folder to .kodi1 and the new folder took over. Not sure how to mark this solved!!