Robotica Wrote:The major fusion issues should be fixed with this patch:
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=8aeb96f80232e9a701b5c4715504f4c9173978bd

It's in 2.6.39 now and will be showing up in the stable trees soon.

tuxfool Wrote:That patch should only be for radeon (i.e. the opensource driver); Absolutely nothing to do with fglrx. You can of course use radeon for xbmc but do don't get any video acceleration.

Robotica Wrote:This topic is a follow-up to this topic: AMD Fusion based hardware for a HTPC?

Since team-xbmc PPA are not compiled with VAAPI enabled (and the needed dependencies are missing in most Linux distro's), we need a thread for Zacate based hardware to get XBMC running. A user did all this work and posted a precompiled version overhere (custom xbmc-live ubuntu 10.10 x64 build). There also is a precompiled VAAPI XBMC (including PVR). Since openelec.tv and XBMC(Freak)Live aren't supporting this hardware either, the only other way to get this hardware running with XBMC, is to compile xbmc yourself. (With Windows this platform works like a charm already and it beats ATOM/ION on price, performance and features)

So now we have this nice list of available motherboards:

• ASrock: http://en.ocworkbench.com/tech/asroc...-board-e350m1/: Probably around €100 and with UEFI!
• Gigabyte: http://en.ocworkbench.com/tech/gigab...3-at-ces-2011/ $150 US
• Zotac: http://pden.zotac.com/index.php?page...emart&Itemid=1
• A passive asus with wifi-N: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/mot...ards-preview/3 €150
• Sapphire Pure Fusion Mini-ITX Board: http://www.sapphiretech.com/presenta...00102&pid=1034 €129,-
• MSI
• http://news.softpedia.com/news/ECS-S...d-180936.shtml
• And the lowsegment jetway: http://www.connectionpros.com/amd-br...oard-by-jetway
  

Those boards aren't available all over the world. I bought mine in the UK.
I think it would be sensible to buy the cheap ASRock board or the expensive ASUS board.

Some usage figures from above MSI-topic (won't be much different for the other boards):

Code:

Sleep mode - 1w draw
Windows idle - 0-1% cpu usage/17w draw
XBMC idle - 20-26% CPU usage/25-26w draw
480p MKV h.264 - 8-11% CPU usage/18w draw
720p MKV h.264 - 10-15% CPU usage/18-19w draw
1080p MKV h.264 - 13-15% CPU usage/19-20w draw

This is on Win with a quality 90w picoPSU, 2* low voltage memory and an SSD.

There is lots of information about all the problems related to VAAPI, AMD, drivers and hardware accelaration in Linux. In the meanwhile, nice developments happened and the platform is ready for a HTPC with Linux. What happened?

• AMD added support for their Fusion Platform with their closed source catylist drivers from day one the products hit the market.
• Open Source drivers are updated and getting better and better
• Problems related to VAAPI and XBMC are fixed.
• VAAPI is not enabled in XBMC 10.0 and 10.1. and the nightly builds. I assume this will happen very soon.
• Genereal Linux developments (like ALSA, MESA, kernel, etc.). It is waiting for an updated kernel to get easy access to all those developments.
  

Here you can find most info to compile XBMC for yourself. But this topic is to make it easy for you untill the needed stuff gets into Linux distributions like Ubuntu.

Here we go....

We will need an 64-bit 10.10 Ubuntu Maverick install (mini or full) to start with. (11.04 will be tested later) This guide is based on the mini version.

If you have a minimal install, start with installing basic packages and add you to the video group.( this is actually important, because without this xserver can not access your gpu directly and falls back to software rasterizer)

Code:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install udisks upower xorg alsa-utils mesa-utils
sudo adduser YourUserName video
sudo adduser YourUserName audio
sudo reboot

Basically what you have to do is:
1. install va-api stuff (3 libs [libva & libva-dev & xvba-video] from splitted-desktop.com)
2. install catalyst
3. confirm if everything is ok (run vainfo) - if its reporting an error its probably missing linkage
4. compile patched xbmc with va-api enable

Step 1:


Step 2: install catalyst 11.4
http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Maverick_Installation_Guide

Step 3:

1. Start xbmc in safe mode (or kill xbmc with xserver)
2. type: startx - enter (to start Xorg)
3. left mouse click -> applications -> shells -> bash
4. here u may check vainfo etc

Output should be something like this:

Code:

vainfo: VA API version: 0.32
vainfo: Driver version: i965 Driver 0.1
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
      VAProfileMPEG2Simple            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileMPEG2Main              : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264Baseline           : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264Main               : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264High               : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Simple              : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Main                : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Advanced            : VAEntrypointVLD

SDM2011 Wrote:ASUS E35M1-I Deluxe on Ubuntu Natty x64, with team-xbmc ppa here.