[Polyamid]

After some great experience with XBMC on Windows 7, I decided to start a new project:

I want to build a small Linux Based XBMC System with Ubuntu. The Hardware will be something like an Atom/Ion that would be a little slow with Windows 7.

My problem is that I am not very experienced with Linux systems. I tried Suse and Red Hat a few years ago.

I decided to give ubuntu a try because I read that it is something like a favorite Linux distribution for XBMC developers.

Before I will buy the Hardware for my new HTPC System, I want to check if I am able to configure the "Software Side" of the System. To do this I use my main PC. I disconnected the Windows 7 hard drives because I don´t want to harm this installation an wanted to install the Ubuntu on a 16GB USB2.0 Stick.

I downloaded Ubuntu 11.04 which should be the latest release.
The installation on the stick took about half an hour. this USB thing seems to be a little slow.

At first after the installation i got a crash. I think the reason was the nvidia accelerated drivers that were not yet included from the beginning.

The second time the system started with low graphic support and tells me that an accelerated driver can be installed from the internet now. I installed this driver and made automated updates for ubuntu. The installation works without errors.

After that I restarted the system and it works with nvidia acceleration.

In the Step-by-Step Guide I read that nvidia video acceleration (VDPAU) has to be installed

So I used

Code:

sudo apt-get install libvdpau1 nvidia-185-libvdpau

before installing XBMC

After that i used

Code:

sudo -s

and then i tried to add the repos and start the installation with:

Code:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xbmc
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Step 1 (Adding the repository) works

Step 2 (apt-get update) shows me some file not found errors 404

Step 3 (installing XBMC) didn´t work then because missing package

I don´t know if this is an error of the repository or if i have a wrong setting and my ubuntu is not able to get all files in cause of this.


To solve the problem I added dushmaniacs rep and installed his pvr Eden Version. Installation worked fine with this source.

Now i was able to do a little testing.

I have to start the XBMC with root and it shows some Errors:

XBMC could not find 2 Config files in the directory .smb.

Do I have to install Samba packages myself?


Also xbmc reports that a soundcard could be found. Anyhow sound seems to work.

Adding my movie sources works fine the way I knew It from Win7. Video Playback seemed to work at the beginning but it is a little unstable. Playing a DVD from .iso causes a crash of the Player. This happens while skipping chapters and sometimes within the normal playback.
Don´t know why and i will look the Crash logs tonight.

Also I had problems configuring my second Display (Plasma TV). The Ubuntu Display manager is not able to find the TV. Nvidia X Server finds it. I was able to start it and configure it a twin view or 2 different displays. I tried both:

Twin view cuts Fullscreen XBMC in two parts. One is displayed on the TFT an one is shown on the TV. I can choose 2 real displays in Xserver and tried to bring the XBMC window to the TV. Drag and drop is not possible (only the mouse pointer is shown on the plasma) and also the setting of XBMC does not list a Display #2 (Under Win 7 I can choose it there).

An other problem is that i was not able to get my digital SPDIF to work. Ubuntu only shows me analog audio devices.

As you saw I´m a real Linux beginner but I really want to get it two work. Can someone give me a few hints to help me a little bit?

[Hudson_Hawk04]

You are getting the errors because you need to change the repo a bit, start the update manager, click on other, then select the other software tab, you should see

http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc/ppa... (main and source code) for a total of 2 entries. You then need to edit the ppa by changing the distribution from natty to maverick. As far as I know the smb stuff is working otb, with video drives try looking under system--admin--additional drivers doing this will let you install unassigned drivers (like the nvidia on my revo 1600)

You may also want to check out the NVIDIA Vdpau team repo:
https://edge.launchpad.net/%7Envidia-vdpau/+archive/ppa

The first link is not complete hopefully it gives enough for it to be found on your system.

[X3lectric]

@ hudson Hawk04

the op is using NATTY

that nvidia ppa is no longer maintained... ( and theres no official nvidia ppas )

If anything the x-swat has the natty latest stable drivers which I dont bother building just yet,

[Hudson_Hawk04]

@ hudson Hawk04

the op is using NATTY

that nvidia ppa is no longer maintained... ( and theres no official nvidia ppas )

If anything the x-swat has the natty latest stable drivers which I dont bother building just yet,

but it still IS a way of getting it to work, see:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1...ostcount=2

[X3lectric]

I think if you READ it says about no XBMC ppa existing for natty which NOW DOES. Also the nvidia drivers that ppa you posted has zero todo with XBMC current or even maverick (which stopped being updated at karmic)

The Natty XBMC ppa its called xbmc unstable

https://launchpad.net/~team-xbmc/+archive/unstable

so the info you provided is based on people trying to install Dharma on natty which doesn't exist.

is it not better to install natty packages both xbmc and nvidia on a natty system?

Im not sure if perpetuating ancient workarounds is ideal. The Git XBMC is not that bad its actually many times better and more "stable" than dharma.

There are many many fixes that still work for various OS's that are still worth digging up, this, well is just asking for trouble.

[Hudson_Hawk04]

changing the distribution from natty to maverick works, that is how I am set up now, as I want to stay with stable builds atm, all I am trying to say is that there is more than one way to skin a cat that's all .

[X3lectric]

I still dont see what the OLD and no longer updated nvidia ppa had anything to do with this. Which incidentally is what I pointed out originally, if you had a valid reason to recommend a deprecated ppa, please share, so Im more informed and so is the users that come across your post.

//Edit

in the end no one is perfect I just happen to look at it and though that ppa will never work in a million years