Windows Portable Mode Fixes

I'm fully au fait with the portable mode of XBMC (which I use) but I'd like to offer two suggestions - one of which might be considered a bug correction:

1) Offer XBMC in a zip format release for portable mode
The current package format is exe only, which of course creates an install log and is not strictly in keeping with 'portable' mode.

2) On a 100% clean Windows 7 install (and one assumes Vista also), XBMC in 'portable' mode will not open due to the missing D3DX9_43.dll. If this dll were shipped with xbmc and placed side by side with xbmc.exe, the portable mode is corrected and it will run fine.

Many thanks

Hi,

I use portable too and I agree with your comments. Here is what I do:

1 - Setup XBMC under D:\SOFT\PORTABLE\XBMC\Setup (without C++ Runtime and DirectX)
2 - Copy to D:\SOFT\PORTABLE\XBMC\Current
3 - Uninstall XBMC
4 - Start xmbc -p from the Current directory

For DirectX, I usually download the Jun 2010 package and install it. If you don't want to install it, you can copy the necessary DLLs from the package (is a self-extracting) to your program directory and it works very well.

I hope this help.

to me, XBMC should only be portable
everything confined in the same folder!!
thats how apps should be made

that being said, i agree with you AnalogKid on your suggestions! +1
dll's should ship with xbmc and placed side by side with xbmc.exe!

(2012-04-01 22:52)serieofilo Wrote:  Hi,

I use portable too and I agree with your comments. Here is what I do:

1 - Setup XBMC under D:\SOFT\PORTABLE\XBMC\Setup (without C++ Runtime and DirectX)
2 - Copy to D:\SOFT\PORTABLE\XBMC\Current
3 - Uninstall XBMC
4 - Start xmbc -p from the Current directory

For DirectX, I usually download the Jun 2010 package and install it. If you don't want to install it, you can copy the necessary DLLs from the package (is a self-extracting) to your program directory and it works very well.

I hope this help.

I already know all this - that's why I'm suggesting the improvement :-)

You should not have to install and uninstall on a portable setup (not even for the very first time). Same for DirectX (although this can be trickier). No installation should be necessary AT ALL (if possible)

(2012-04-01 23:01)eskro Wrote:  to me, XBMC should only be portable
everything confined in the same folder!!
thats how apps should be made

that being said, i agree with you AnalogKid on your suggestions! +1
dll's should ship with xbmc and placed side by side with xbmc.exe!

And the problem with that these days is Multi user logins on the one computer and each wanting their own stuff on it

We shouldn't get off topic regarding the pros and cons of portable apps and per user data stores... that's a thread in it's own right! :-)

The issue remains, whilst XBMC offers a portable mode, it makes sense to make it work as well as possible, ergo a) without installation b) including required DirectX components

It simply isn't truly portable if you can't stick it on a USB stick and move it to another PC without 'issues'.

For me, personally, I manage to overcome the problems by hand... it's fairly trivial and well documented above, but I wouldn't expect a novice user to grasp it.

While I agree that a portable option in installer (or a .zip download) should be possible, but I guess that "D3DX9_43.dll" is copyrighted.

(2012-04-02 18:25)sphere Wrote:  While I agree that a portable option in installer (or a .zip download) should be possible, but I guess that "D3DX9_43.dll" is copyrighted.

This is indeed correct. It violates the agreement to distribute DLL files from DirectX within applications, without including the entire installer.

Even with the DirectX distribution issue, it would still be possible to 'make' a portable install having moved the directX files side by side, leaving the end user with the choice to move their 'portable' install to where they will.

But I agree as the OP suggests, it's a dual issue, and one of them (zip) is easy to implement, the DirectX issue slightly more troublesome (although not necessarily insurmountable)

Correct me if I'm wrong but I suspect you would be able to build a non-exe packaged version directly from GIT yourself?

That said, I use xbmc in Portable mode strictly for ease of DR and maintenance. The extra few seconds to run the exe is no big deal.

My understanding is a pure portable package, zip/rar, would not work for windo see due to the dependencies. Unless you already have them installed, then it it not truly portable anyway.