[LIVE] HOW-TO install XBMC Live on Acer Aspire Revo - The Complete Guide for Newbies

[LIVE] HOW-TO install XBMC Live on Acer Aspire Revo - The Complete Guide for Newbies - Printable Version

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- michael37 - 2010-01-24

I honestly haven't read all 44 pages of this thread, but here is a list of actions that I found to get xbmc really working on my revo. The only major difference is I used version 9.11 which is based on Karmic 9.10 and it provides Nvidia 190 drivers.

I assume you have read OP and the first page, got the USB image, installed XBMC on your Revo, and booted into a working session.

BUT your wireless network is not working, your resolution is measly 1360x768 on your gorgeous HDTV, and your XBMC is somewhat beyond the screen margins.

I will assume your wireless network uses WPA/WPA2 security.

(PREP)
1. On a different 32-bit ubuntu system, download several packages needed for wireless connectivity.
$ aptitude download wpasupplicant
$ aptitude download libpcsclite1
$ aptitude download libnl1

Otherwise, browse http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/ and download files libnl1_1.1-5_i386.deb, libpcsclite1_1.5.3-1ubuntu1_i386.deb and wpasupplicant_0.6.9-3ubuntu1_i386.deb

2. Copy these three files on your USB stick in a directory Downloads

3. Check XBMC resolution in system->system->video output. Continue unless your resolution is 1920x1080.

(END OF PREP)
(REAL WORK)
4. Turn XBMC off by clicking on an icon on the bottom left. When prompted with a question, choose red icon Exit XBMC.

5. Login with your username and password in the text prompt.

(DANGEROUS) Do not try other commands from now on until I tell you, or you will break stuff badly. You will be the superuser.

6. Become a superuser: sudo su -

7. Start windows session: startx.
You may be greeted by a black screen. Do not panic. If you get a stray window, click Okay.

8. Right click, and choose Applications->Terminal Emulators->Xterm

9. Since you can't see part of the window, move it by pointing to the middle of the window and holding Alt-Left Click while moving it.

(GET WIRELESS NETWORK WORKING)
10. Mount your flash drive manually: mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt

11. Install 3 files that you copied to Downloads:
dpkg -i /mnt/Downloads/*.deb

12. wpa_passphrase your_ssid your_psk > /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
where your_psk is the security passkey that you use for your wireless

13. nano /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
Using Ctrl-K, delete a line that has your password in plaintext, e.g.

Code:
#psk your_psk

Leave the other lines, and add a few more as shown below

Code:
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

network={

       ssid="your_ssid"

       scan_ssid=1

       psk="mumbo_jumbo_which_is_your_psk_encrypted"

}

Exit using Ctrl-X. Save by answering Yes. (Yes, you need to exit in order to save).

14. nano /etc/network/interfaces
Add the following 4 lines at the bottom:

Code:
iface wlan0 inet dhcp

wireless-essid "your_ssid"

pre-up wpa_supplicant -B -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

post-down killall -q wpa_supplicant

15. Start network by /etc/init.d/networking start

16. Use ifconfig, ping or your favorite networking command to check that you are actually on the network.

(WIRELESS NETWORKING STUFF DONE)

(PERFORM SECURITY UPDATE)

17. apt-get update
Make sure you get no errors here.

18. apt-get upgrade
Make sure you get no errors here.

Stop if you are getting errors.

UPDATE: Courtesy of a fix to a security update to Xorg, this upgrade will break your XBMC. Fix the damage while you are at it.

Another option is not to perform security upgrade, but IMHO that's unsafe and not particularly smart.

(FIX BUG INTRODUCED BY XORG SECURITY FIX)

Code:
cd /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions

mv libglx.so libglx.so.default

ln -s libglx.so.1 libglx.so

(END OF SECURITY UPDATE AND FIXING WHATS BROKEN)

(FIX RESOLUTION)

19. apt-get install nvidia-settings pkg-config

20. Run command nvidia-settings

Bets are you can't see anything because your font is too small. If so, exit and use the following optional workaround.

(OPTIONAL)
20a. apt-get install gtk-chtheme

20b. gtk-chtheme
Click on icon with "ABC"
Pick something visible on the most right hand panel.
For me, the text is selected Sans 40 (that means font size 40)
Exit. (it will save settings automatically)
(END OF OPTIONAL)

20. Run command nvidia-settings

In X Server Dispaly Configuration, select Resolution 1920x1080.
Select Apply and make sure it works.
If it does, select Save to X Configuration File.

This is an elegant and relatively user-friendly method of picking right resolution as opposed to a brute force method described in http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=54685

(END OF RESOLUTION FIX)

21. Exit super-user session by clicking outside of your terminal and selecting Exit. Then, type exit again.

(END OF DANGEROUS STUFF)

22. Reboot: reboot.

Xbmc should come up with proper 1920x1080 resolution and wireless network working. Weather information should be there too, takes ~5 minutes to update.

Comments/suggestions?

Blank Screen When Booting from USB Stick - expatdiver - 2010-01-24

I'm have an issue that I think some people were seeing in some of the early versions of Camelot. I can load from the live cd just fine, but when I install it to a USB stick and then try and boot from that, the xbmc logo will show for a few seconds then go blank.

I have a Revo 3610, and this has happened on both BIOS P01.A2 and P01.A4.

Any thoughts?

- SweetS2K - 2010-01-25

jmagilto Wrote:Hello all,

Is anyone in this thread successfully using the Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro USB Sound Card with their Revo 1600?

I have the micro audio advantage and the spdif works (nav, DD and DTS). Take a look at the following thread:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?p=469982#post469982

PM if you need any help.

- cardiffman - 2010-01-25

I built my USB stick using unetbootin, and ran into this same thing today. You have to change the syslinux.cfg file so that all the boot=cd settings are boot=usb. I read it here:

http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=359341&postcount=4

Just open the file in a text editor (notepad, vim, whatever).

expatdiver Wrote:I'm have an issue that I think some people were seeing in some of the early versions of Camelot. I can load from the live cd just fine, but when I install it to a USB stick and then try and boot from that, the xbmc logo will show for a few seconds then go blank.

I have a Revo 3610, and this has happened on both BIOS P01.A2 and P01.A4.

Any thoughts?

Working fine for 4 days then performance/video issue! - ringman - 2010-01-28

Hi All,
I did my install as this thread describes, and my revo was working perfectly. HD/SD Movies/TV shows, Music all playing perfectly. Last night started up a movie and the playback seems to hesitate. Starts, pauses for a split second, then starts for 1 or 2 seconds, then pauses etc. Audio is unaffected.

Went back and tried a movie I previously viewed without problems, and it too is hesitating.

Tried a full reinstall, again following the instructions in this thread, no luck.

Did I develop a hardware problem? Even the ticker on the home page is hesitating, as does the menu selections etc.

Any Ideas? (I am gathering the debug log, and will post it a little later, just wanted to see if anyone has experienced a similar issue)

- Scott R - 2010-01-28

Have you been powering off/on completely, using Standby mode, or leaving it on all the time? If one of the latter two, I would try rebooting it, if you haven't already. If that doesn't help, your problem sounds more like a networking issue.

- revlimiter - 2010-01-29

First of all, thanks for the detailed instructions on installing XBMC on Acer Aspire Revo!

I purchased the Acer Aspire Revo AR1600-U910H model and managed to get XBMC installed easily enough on it. I set up the BIOS as instructed, however I'm gonna do a swap with RAM because I am noticing a bit of lag here and there with full resolution 1080p video... and also with the menus, especially in cover flow... I am hoping to get it running silky smooth in the near future but my question is: will more RAM actually fix these issues? Or is this have to do with the CPU/GPU? (Note: I did purchase the low-end Aspire Revo)

My other question is, how do I set permission for me to upload skins into /usr/share/xbmc/skin ? I see the skins in there, but I cannot upload. I would like to get Aeon running (and I understand it's an intensive skin, so hopefully 2GB of DDR3 RAM will fix this?) Anyways, I've tried setting the permissions to the folder in Cyberduck to be 777 but it's telling me I don't have the permissions to do so. Also, please note that I am not a Mac expert by any means with Terminal, so if Terminal is the only way to do this please be as specific as possible.

Thanks!

- gabbott - 2010-01-29

revlimiter Wrote:My other question is, how do I set permission for me to upload skins into /usr/share/xbmc/skin ? I see the skins in there, but I cannot upload. I would like to get Aeon running (and I understand it's an intensive skin, so hopefully 2GB of DDR3 RAM will fix this?) Anyways, I've tried setting the permissions to the folder in Cyberduck to be 777 but it's telling me I don't have the permissions to do so. Also, please note that I am not a Mac expert by any means with Terminal, so if Terminal is the only way to do this please be as specific as possible.

Thanks!

Put the skins in your home directory instead. It is something like .xbmc/skins from the home directory. Then you dont have to worry about permissions.

- revlimiter - 2010-01-29

I am also hearing static noise (very loud!) with some movies when I set my audio to Digital. When I set it to Analogue the noise seems to work, but the noise in some TV shows seems to be a little bit distorted (high pitch). Any ideas?

And one more thing: It won't let me mark the entire TV show as watched when I right click on the show "mark as watched", I need mark each show as watched individually. Is this an issue with XBMC Live? It works on XBMC for Mac.

Thanks!

- revlimiter - 2010-01-29

gabbott Wrote:Put the skins in your home directory instead. It is something like .xbmc/skins from the home directory. Then you dont have to worry about permissions.

Thanks, Gabbot. How do I navigate to the .xbmc directory? I am not seeing it anywhere in Cyberduck
Edit: oops, nevermind - I had to View Hidden Files

- revlimiter - 2010-01-29

OK, now I've ran into another problem.. And it wasn't doing this before
But every time I launch a video, it shows 1 second of the film and then goes back to the home screen. What could have caused this? Pretty sure I didn't mess with any of the settings..

- revlimiter - 2010-01-29

Hmm, sorry about the repost - not too sure why that happened either lol
I'm gonna try installing XBMC Live 9.11 with updated ION drivers to see if this fixes it

- jas722 - 2010-01-29

I just got my Revo and installed xbmc Live on to the Main Hard Drive, I got everything just about working including Sound through HDMI, SMB Shares etc.

One thing I just can't seem to figure out thou, how do I get 1080P resolution out of this thing?

The highest resolution available is 720 x 480. I changed the line in xorg.conf to "DynamicTwinView" "False" but the only thing that did was make 60 hz available and not 50 hz. The highest resolution is still only 720 x 480 :-(

I have the xbmc going through my Yamaha RX-V3900, I don't see why that would be an issue but might hook it directly to the TV to see if that solves anything.

Any help would be great

- revlimiter - 2010-01-29

Ok in the first post it says

Quote:3) Addings Nvidia Drivers to the XBMC-Live Installer:
First you need to download XBMC-Live and then add the Nvidia drivers to the ISO. You can either do this yourself with an iso editer (UltraISO) or download this ISO of XBMC Live 9.04.1 with the updated NVIDIA.185_18_14 drivers allready added: http://www.fusedimages.com/xbmc.zip (thanks Duplo)

But I'm looking at the release for XBMC Live 9.11 Camelot http://xbmc.org/team-xbmc/2009/12/24/xbmc-9-11-camelot/ and it says "NVIDIA drivers: 190.53 (VDPAU included on supported GPUs)"

Does that mean I won't need to add the ION driver to the Camelot distro?