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XBMC on newer Macbook Pro, any way to close lid with second screen? - Printable Version

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XBMC on newer Macbook Pro, any way to close lid with second screen? - pumkinut - 2013-09-18

My work laptop is a Macbook Pro with Retina screen. I usually use my personal laptop when traveling to use XBMC, but I was hoping to get things working on my Macbook so I didn't have to lug around 2 computers. Everything seems to work fine with a HDMI attached TV on the Macbook, except I have to leave the lid opened when running XBMC. If I close the lid, the notebook goes to sleep and kills the secondary display along with it.

I got used to using either Linux or Windows where you're given a lot of options regarding power and what the screen does. Therefore, I could fire up XBMC, and then close the lid on my laptop and just have the connected TV as the only output device. Is there any way of doing this on the OSX side? I'm running OSX 10.8.5 if that helps.

I'm pretty much an OSX noob. I can use it for day to day functions, but anything greater than that, and I'm at a loss. I'm no stranger to the CLI, so if there' something I can do on that end, it's not a problem.

As an aside, and this can be ignored:
Has anyone gotten a USB thumbdrive to be able to boot on a newer Macbook with something other than an OSX install image? I was hoping I could boot an XBMCBuntu live USB drive and just run things that way, but I've not been able to get it to boot to Linux after trying several different methods I found online.


RE: XBMC on newer Macbook Pro, any way to close lid with second screen? - lrusak - 2013-09-18

Usually with OSX you have to sleep the computer, then close the computer, then plug in the external display, then wake it using a mouse or keyboard.

If using a bluetooth mouse or keyboard make sure that the option "allow bluetooth devices to wake computer" is checked


RE: XBMC on newer Macbook Pro, any way to close lid with second screen? - pumkinut - 2013-09-19

Thanks, i'll give that a try tonight in the hotel.

Although, I'm finding the Mac to be more work than it's worth when it comes to this. I'm actually looking at something like the Intel NUC or the Brix for my road warrior HTPC. I'm thinking it's just going to be easier that way.


RE: XBMC on newer Macbook Pro, any way to close lid with second screen? - wgstarks - 2013-09-19

Caffeine claims to also stop your laptop from sleeping when you close it. I haven't tried it though, just seen a few reviews.


RE: XBMC on newer Macbook Pro, any way to close lid with second screen? - Ned Scott - 2013-09-19

There's a lot of ways around this, but yeah, what Irusak said. Though I normally just keep the lid open and then turn the brightness all the way down on the laptop screen, which will turn off the backlight completely.


XBMC on newer Macbook Pro, any way to close lid with second screen? - Canyaya - 2013-09-19

I'm running snow leopard on an older MacBook and I also do what irusak mentioned. The only difference is that I have xbmc set up to launch with the silver apple remote by long pressing menu. So after closing the lid, long press menu and it will launch xbmc. Another option is to install rowmote on another iOS device and launch xbmc from there


RE: XBMC on newer Macbook Pro, any way to close lid with second screen? - pumkinut - 2013-09-19

I don't have any IOS devices, just my Macbook work laptop. I'll play around with it to see what works best. Thanks for all the responses.


RE: XBMC on newer Macbook Pro, any way to close lid with second screen? - ryandesign - 2013-10-04

OS X behavior with regard to running a Mac laptop with the clamshell closed changed in OS X 10.7.

On 10.7 and later, when you close the display, the computer will go to sleep, unless you have connected AC power, an external display, and an input device, where an input device is a USB or Bluetooth keyboard or mouse or trackpad.

Before 10.7, closing the display always sleeps the computer. To run the computer with only an external display, you must wake the computer while the display is closed, by using an external input device.


RE: XBMC on newer Macbook Pro, any way to close lid with second screen? - JesusChrist - 2013-10-04

Nosleep i think its called works wonders. Free too or at least easily crackable yourself...


RE: XBMC on newer Macbook Pro, any way to close lid with second screen? - pumkinut - 2013-10-05

And this is why I don't like the Mac. On a Windows or Linux laptop, I'd have options as to what to do in this situation. I'm not knocking the hardware, the Macbook is a beautiful piece of engineering, it's the idiosyncrasies of OSX that drive me up the frikkin' wall. I have a BT mouse and tried the wake trick with that, but couldn't get it to work. I'll try some other workarounds to see if I can reach some kind of resolution. Thanks for all the suggestions.