XBMC on Raspberry Pi - Wonder if this will work out? (Historical Discussion Thread)

(2012-05-25 18:20)mentazm Wrote:  I'm trying to get this up and running in virtualbox as my raspberry pi n accessories are coming in the next few weeks.

Can somone give me a quick step by step guide to vbox drive setup for the installer-testing iso?

Also does this iphone app work with the raspberry pi build? - http://collect3.com.au/xbmc-remote/

No need to waste time on vbox as it cannot emulate raspberry pi.

---

Just rebuild xbmc with the latest librtmp header files and it should work better with various video addons. Same download link so if you have downloaded before do it again.

(2012-05-25 11:11)s7mx1 Wrote:  Here is the link for the upstart script file and policy-kit script file

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12472664/xbmc.zip

extract the zip file and put them in the following locations as root:

Code:

/etc/init/xbmc.conf
/var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/custom-actions.pkla

You will need to install upstart and libcap2-bin (sudo apt-get install upstart libcap2-bin)

What's working:
* xbmc auto start at boot time
* respawn works. So if you exit xbmc or xbmc crashed it will automatically start itself
* xbmc now runs as unprivileged user pi with correct permission for plug and play storage (not tested yet) and permission to restart the box
* correct permission set for /dev/vchiq for user pi

If you want to have xbmc's webserver listening on port 80 you need
*) update xbmc with the following one http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12472664/xbmc-rbp.tar.gz
Hopefully patch can be accepted by the xbmc main branch: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/issues/1012

Here is the latest librtmp.so.0

http://db.tt/oXVYzoLA

which you need to put to

hi s7mx1

I like what you've done. I knew I only had to update policykit and write init script for XBMC auto launching, running as Pi, but your approach is better as it autorespawns it. I trust this still allows rc.local to fire first.

My only concern, is that we need to respect when the user exits XBMC of their own accord, and wishes to use the console. However, one could argue that they could just use SSH.

Not sure about btrfs vs ext4 debate yet, would stick with ext4. Reducing swap file because of a lack of swappiness. The latest librtmp is accessible from my download server, I assume you used my buildfs to make.

Sam,

I think the purpose of a project like raspbmc is to run xbmc on the pi all the time. For those that want to use pi like a more general purpose pc they can use debian and install xbmc via deb packages.

I have not timed which was executed first but due to the load time of xbmc it looks like the xbmc splash screen will only appear after the login prompt. One thing for sure is it will not block rc.local. If you want to make sure something was executed before xbmc was launched you could add it to the pre-start script section in xbmc.conf.

Your build root is very handy. With it I built xbmc, librtmp and the kernel. I would say use the file system gives less trouble.

One thing you may want to try is to use preempt kernel and check if things can get improved. You can try the one I just built today: http://db.tt/vXpCJpzT and there are already some discussions here
http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewto...=35&t=6627

(2012-05-26 20:46)Sam.Nazarko Wrote:  hi s7mx1

I like what you've done. I knew I only had to update policykit and write init script for XBMC auto launching, running as Pi, but your approach is better as it autorespawns it. I trust this still allows rc.local to fire first.

My only concern, is that we need to respect when the user exits XBMC of their own accord, and wishes to use the console. However, one could argue that they could just use SSH.

Not sure about btrfs vs ext4 debate yet, would stick with ext4. Reducing swap file because of a lack of swappiness. The latest librtmp is accessible from my download server, I assume you used my buildfs to make.

I am going to email you so we can coordinate better.

Hi All,

Trying to do my bit for the community. So where am I supposed to log issues and bugs for the rpi xbmc branch and check they haven't been raised/fixed already ?

I currently want to raise the following issue;

I have found the screen detection / calibration to have issues in xbmc and the same behaviour exists on other distributions. Here are my issues at the moment and workarounds;

- The Rpi doesn't detect my screen mode properly and sets it at 1080p when it should be 720p. So I have created the config.txt file in /boot (not sure if this is the same location on raspbmc but is the right location on standard debian image). This file contains the following and is picked up on boot;

overscan_left=5
overscan_right=5
overscan_top=-20
overscan_bottom=-20
hdmi_mode=4
hdmi_force_hotplug=1

This fixes the default base screen mode 720p and overscan settings as even with the right mode it is still off the screen.

- However xbmc still persists with being zoomed i.e. rpi overscan settings are being ignored and its outputting over the edges of the screen. To fix this I use the video calibration under settings - system. I then move the corner points to the correct point and it looks fine for that session. Upon reboot then I see the menu has shrunk and has black borders all around. The workaround for this is to set the video calibration at half of what it states. So if I had 60,30 for a corner I set it to 30,15, do this for both corners and reboot. The menu is then the right size.

- However when playing videos typically properly sized 16:9 files will actually overscan the edges of the screen thus xbmc is ignoring the Rpi overscan settings and even its own video calibration. I guess this might be an omxplayer issue and exists even on streaming services too. No workaround for this currently.

Anybody else experienced this?

Cheers
Rob

I do find the screen calibration a bit flaky. I am not sure its the video driver or problem with xbmc. Here are the git issues for these two projects:

Bugs go to trac: http://trac.xbmc.org
Patches via pull request on github: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc

https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/issues

(2012-05-29 14:02)welshblob Wrote:  Hi All,

Trying to do my bit for the community. So where am I supposed to log issues and bugs for the rpi xbmc branch and check they haven't been raised/fixed already ?

I currently want to raise the following issue;

I have found the screen detection / calibration to have issues in xbmc and the same behaviour exists on other distributions. Here are my issues at the moment and workarounds;

- The Rpi doesn't detect my screen mode properly and sets it at 1080p when it should be 720p. So I have created the config.txt file in /boot (not sure if this is the same location on raspbmc but is the right location on standard debian image). This file contains the following and is picked up on boot;

overscan_left=5
overscan_right=5
overscan_top=-20
overscan_bottom=-20
hdmi_mode=4
hdmi_force_hotplug=1

This fixes the default base screen mode 720p and overscan settings as even with the right mode it is still off the screen.

- However xbmc still persists with being zoomed i.e. rpi overscan settings are being ignored and its outputting over the edges of the screen. To fix this I use the video calibration under settings - system. I then move the corner points to the correct point and it looks fine for that session. Upon reboot then I see the menu has shrunk and has black borders all around. The workaround for this is to set the video calibration at half of what it states. So if I had 60,30 for a corner I set it to 30,15, do this for both corners and reboot. The menu is then the right size.

- However when playing videos typically properly sized 16:9 files will actually overscan the edges of the screen thus xbmc is ignoring the Rpi overscan settings and even its own video calibration. I guess this might be an omxplayer issue and exists even on streaming services too. No workaround for this currently.

Anybody else experienced this?

Cheers
Rob

(2012-05-29 14:02)welshblob Wrote:  Hi All,

Trying to do my bit for the community. So where am I supposed to log issues and bugs for the rpi xbmc branch and check they haven't been raised/fixed already ?

I currently want to raise the following issue;

I have found the screen detection / calibration to have issues in xbmc and the same behaviour exists on other distributions. Here are my issues at the moment and workarounds;

- The Rpi doesn't detect my screen mode properly and sets it at 1080p when it should be 720p. So I have created the config.txt file in /boot (not sure if this is the same location on raspbmc but is the right location on standard debian image). This file contains the following and is picked up on boot;

overscan_left=5
overscan_right=5
overscan_top=-20
overscan_bottom=-20
hdmi_mode=4
hdmi_force_hotplug=1

This fixes the default base screen mode 720p and overscan settings as even with the right mode it is still off the screen.

- However xbmc still persists with being zoomed i.e. rpi overscan settings are being ignored and its outputting over the edges of the screen. To fix this I use the video calibration under settings - system. I then move the corner points to the correct point and it looks fine for that session. Upon reboot then I see the menu has shrunk and has black borders all around. The workaround for this is to set the video calibration at half of what it states. So if I had 60,30 for a corner I set it to 30,15, do this for both corners and reboot. The menu is then the right size.

- However when playing videos typically properly sized 16:9 files will actually overscan the edges of the screen thus xbmc is ignoring the Rpi overscan settings and even its own video calibration. I guess this might be an omxplayer issue and exists even on streaming services too. No workaround for this currently.

Anybody else experienced this?

Cheers
Rob

I fixed this by "half-ing" So for instance say my current screen was 90, 60 and it looked right (in the calibration tool) at 70, 40. I would then take (90-70)/2+70 as my amount, so that would end as 80, 50. Reboot and perfect.

Also sam does the "3.1.9-test-12-05" kernel have the new rtmpdmp?

I think the RPi is a tinkering toy, not a serious home solution for the average joe to get XBMC.

(2012-06-01 23:36)e8hffff Wrote:  I think the RPi is a tinkering toy, not a serious home solution for the average joe to get XBMC.

I think I respect your opinion.

I also disagree but I respect it.