[The-Boxhead]

For anyone that wants to run a nightly build of XBMC i have made a simple
how to. Since i didn't find any info that clearly says how to do this and the
sticky post about ppa's isn't updated for a while with a clear way on how
to upgrade to nightly.

I think this will work on most standard xbmc live installs as long as you
run an officially supported linux build and doesent have any special configs.

First of all yo need to log into your xbmc box trough a terminal. If you are doing it
locally on the box just hit CTRL ALT F2 to bring up a console window or do it
remotely from your laptop/pc by using a terminal program.

For this to work you need at least Ubuntu natty, lucid or mavercik!
To check what you are running you can issue following command from terminal:

Code:

cat /etc/*-release

This gives me:

Code:

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=10.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=lucid
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 10.04.2 LTS - XBMCLive Dharma"

WARNING ! WARNING ! WARNING !
If you are new to linux and XBMC and don't want to use allot of time tinkering
with your system do not use nightly builds. They are considered unstable and
might render your mediacenter useless !

I have only tested this on my system running the version given above so
i don't guarantee that this will work on any system out there. Would
be nice to get feedback of systems that work...

Let's start upgrading from stable to unstable then

Make sure you have the latest python-software-properties package:

Code:

sudo apt-get install python-software-properties -y

Then add the official XBMC unstable repo to your system:

Code:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/unstable

Note:

Code:

The official team xbmc ppa does currently not provide blueray
dvd playback. If you need this you could try marios ppa which has
blueray support in it. However there are reported some other problems
with this ppa so please try the official first ! If you want to try marios
ppa just do:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mario-sitz/ppa

Update your newly added repo:

Code:

sudo apt-get update

Then install the new xbmc nigthly build:

Code:

sudo apt-get install xbmc

Thanks to forum user hudo for this process, link to original post:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=803...count=1272

You should now have the latest possible xbmc build on your linux box.
You can test this by running the following commands from terminal:

Code:

sudo service xbmc start

To kill xbmc:

Code:

sudo service xbmc stop

A problem that happened to me after i did this was that after a reboot on
my box xbmc no longer autostarted and it just gave me a tty login prompt.

To fix this you need to setup autostart again.

Create a xbmc.conf file:

Code:

sudo nano /etc/init/xbmc.conf

Paste the following into the xbmc.conf file:

Code:

# xbmc-standalone
description "Autostart XBMC"

start on (filesystem and stopped udevtrigger)
stop on runlevel [06]

task
console output
emits starting-x

exec /bin/su xbmc -c "/usr/bin/startx /etc/X11/Xsession /usr/bin/xbmc-standalone"

Thanks to forum user BurningSky for the nice script. The original
post can be found here:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=793...stcount=12
The script was changed due to inputs from darkscout and should now
be better and improved. thanks darkscout !

You should now have xbmc autostart !

To update/upgrade your nightly build later just do:

Code:

sudo apt-get update

Code:

sudo apt-get install xbmc

Please give me feedback if you find any serious errors in my post.

[Henkske]

Thanks for your work
I luckily dont need it anymore cause i have been ******* with ubuntu + xbmc all week and know most of the commands out of my head right now

sudo apt-get install python-software-properties -y
is maybe easier

[kalhua]

Thanks for taking the time to post this. I have been trying to get nightlies up and running again but have been having issues getting them to install properly. I removed XBMC and installed stable, verified it was working well then followed your guide. I was hoping that it would install and work OK but I continue to have the same problem I posted here:

http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=825...count=1305

Do you have any idea how to fix it?

Thanks

[The-Boxhead]

That seems like a pretty hard issue, i am not a linux guru but somehow
your configs are not right. Unless you dont have any insane amount
of config done to your system i would just download a new official
xbmc live distro and wipe old sw and install a new one to your harddisk.

Then follow my advice to get nightly's.

Thats obviously the fastest way to fix it, unless you are dead set on
hacking out your current setup

You could try to completely remove your libdvdnav and depends, be warned though this can fubar your install more !

To se details about packages:

Code:

sudo apt-cache showpkg libdvdcss | less

use q to quit

To remove a package and all depends:

Code:

sudo apt-get --purge remove libdvdcss

U could also try to wipe xbmc:

Code:

sudo apt-get --purge remove xbmc

Code:

sudo apt-get --purge remove xbmc-live

You could also install deborphan to see if you have any orphans and clean em out:

Code:

sudo apt-get install deborphan debfoster

Then get a list of possible orphans:

Code:

sudo deborphan --guess-all

then remove all orphans by using:

Code:

sudo deborphan | xargs apt-get -y remove purge

In the end cleanup:
Also you should clean your /var :

Code:

sudo apt-get autoclean

Code:

sudo dpkg --purge

Be warned though, by doing this you might need to reinstall completely
but it might be worth a shot before you decide to reinstall completely

It's also important that you run all these commands as sudo user
or else you will not have correct permisions. !

[gabbott]

Tried this on a test box but xbmc won't start:

Code:

xbmc@xbmc01:~$ sudo service xbmc start
start: Unknown job: xbmc

[gabbott]

OK, it seems to be something with the xbmc.conf you have. I removed it and rebooted. This time when I try to start the xbmc service it tells me that it is an unrecognized service. However if I just run the line:

Code:

su xbmc -c "startx /etc/X11/Xsession /usr/bin/xbmc-standalone"

then xbmc starts right up now

[Henkske]

OK, it seems to be something with the xbmc.conf you have. I removed it and rebooted. This time when I try to start the xbmc service it tells me that it is an unrecognized service. However if I just run the line:

Code:

su xbmc -c "startx /etc/X11/Xsession /usr/bin/xbmc-standalone"

then xbmc starts right up now

Hmm i see a small mistake in the .conf

end scripT

[gabbott]

Hmm i see a small mistake in the .conf

end scripT

good eyes

That seemed to do the trick!

[The-Boxhead]

Ok i have fixed the script. it was missing a script

Thanks for pointing it out Henkske !

[darkscout]

"script" makes no sense if you're not going to actually script.

Just use an exec.
http://upstart.ubuntu.com/getting-started.html

[The-Boxhead]

Darkscout please give a better solution than a script
to autostart xbmc if you think that this script is not the
optimal solution.

However the current script works just fine so until someone
chips in and post a complete sollution, step by step to replace
this script it will stay this way

[darkscout]

Code:

# xbmc-standalone
description "Autostart XBMC"

start on (filesystem and stopped udevtrigger)
stop on runlevel [06]

task
console output
emits starting-x

exec /bin/su xbmc -c "/usr/bin/startx /etc/X11/Xsession /usr/bin/xbmc-standalone"

It's also just a style thing, but you should never assume anything about $PATH when writing cron or init scripts.

[The-Boxhead]

Thank you so much for your valuable input, i have
changed the post with your advice to use exec. Thanks !

[The-Boxhead]

If any experienced linux user/xbmc user sees anything in my guide
that is not correct or ig you have improvment suggestions please do
inform me and i will update the guide !

[bostoneric]

could use a little help.

followed all your steps in your first posts BUT cant get auto login to happen.
edited /etc/init/xbmc.conf with the instructions and verified after reboot.

still no auto login.
possibly because it was an xbmclive version that got updated/upgraded?

even tried manual start.

Code:

boston@XBMCLive:~$ sudo service xbmc start
start: Job failed to start

edit: for now my way around it is to startx then start xbmc from there.