I'm not sure forcing the install is feasible. The packages are stopping the system until the broken packages are removed.

I don't know if my experience is convenient to do in your case, but I will explain it:

In a few boxes with Devuan Beowulf 64 bits I used a --force-all to install a deb file for an old printer. All the package management programs complained from this point on about not met dependencies. I edited by hand the file /var/lib/dpkg/status and removed the claimed dependencies. So far, so good.

Not that I have kodi setup yet, but I managed to install these debian packages with,

dpkg -i --force-depends (packages location and name)

Does the plugin actually work with the Debian version of Kodi?

Looks like the add-on can be installed from Kodi without relying on the DMO package: https://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:InputStream_Adaptive

dpkg -i --force-depends (packages location and name)

edit..this one needed "--force-depends". /home/glenn/Downloads/kodi-inputstream-adaptive_2.4.5-dmo0+deb10u1_amd64.deb

hope this helps

regards Glenn

I recreated the output...

root@GamesBox:~# dpkg -i --force-depends /home/glenn/Downloads/*.deb
Selecting previously unselected package kodi-inputstream-adaptive.
(Reading database ... 421747 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../kodi-inputstream-adaptive_2.4.5-dmo0+deb10u1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking kodi-inputstream-adaptive (2.4.5-dmo0+deb10u1) ...
Preparing to unpack .../kodi-inputstream-rtmp_2.0.9-dmo0+deb10u1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking kodi-inputstream-rtmp (2.0.9-dmo0+deb10u1) over (2.0.9-dmo0+deb10u1) ...
dpkg: kodi-inputstream-adaptive: dependency problems, but configuring anyway as you requested:
 kodi-inputstream-adaptive depends on kodi (>= 5:18~); however:
  Version of kodi on system is 2:17.6+dfsg1-4+b1.

Setting up kodi-inputstream-adaptive (2.4.5-dmo0+deb10u1) ...
dpkg: kodi-inputstream-rtmp: dependency problems, but configuring anyway as you requested:
 kodi-inputstream-rtmp depends on kodi (>= 5:18~); however:
  Version of kodi on system is 2:17.6+dfsg1-4+b1.

Setting up kodi-inputstream-rtmp (2.0.9-dmo0+deb10u1) ...
root@GamesBox:~# 

erdos@htpc-devuan:~/Downloads$ sudo apt install ./kodi-inputstream-adaptive_2.4.5-dmo0+deb10u1_amd64.deb
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting 'kodi-inputstream-adaptive' instead of './kodi-inputstream-adaptive_2.4.5-dmo0+deb10u1_amd64.deb'
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
kodi-inputstream-adaptive : Depends: kodi (>= 5:18~) but 2:17.6+dfsg1-4+b1 is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
erdos@htpc-devuan:~/Downloads$

o0+deb10u1_amd64.deb
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting 'kodi-inputstream-rtmp' instead of './kodi-inputstream-rtmp_2.0.9-dmo0+deb10u1_amd64.deb'
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
kodi-inputstream-rtmp : Depends: kodi (>= 5:18~) but 2:17.6+dfsg1-4+b1 is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Those package aren't available in the official repositories (AFAICT). The deb-multimedia repositories have them but we've had lots of problem threads over at forums.debian.net about dependency hell caused by those repositories so perhaps just install the .debs individually instead of adding the repositories.

https://www.deb-multimedia.org/pool/mai … _amd64.deb

https://www.deb-multimedia.org/pool/mai … _amd64.deb

EDIT: or add the deb-multimedia repositories then pin them to 100 (the same as backports) to prevent inadvertent upgrades.

Thanks for the reply!  This is what I need.

https://batocera.org/ is a retro gaming os and has kodi preinstalled.

Have a look at https://wiki.batocera.org/kodi

https://www.deb-multimedia.org/pool/mai … _amd64.deb

https://www.deb-multimedia.org/pool/mai … _amd64.deb

EDIT: or add the deb-multimedia repositories then pin them to 100 (the same as backports) to prevent inadvertent upgrades.

but some live channels aren't playing and it seems i need to have enable rtmp support from 'VideoPlayer InputStream', but the latter doesn't appear in menu,  so i searched online and run the following commands :

sudo apt-get install kodi-inputstream-adaptive

sudo apt-get install kodi-inputstream-rtmp

it came back saying 'unable to locate package...'

question is how to install the packages needed to play live IPTV in kodi?