[GUIDE] Simplified Guide for a perfect minimal HTPC on INTEL platforms

thanks for the guide very handy!

Just one question have you tried running zsnes or any other type of emulators on it yet?

generious Wrote:thanks for the guide very handy!

Just one question have you tried running zsnes or any other type of emulators on it yet?

Not at all. Sorry. Everything should work, which works in ubuntu.

Allan,
I followed your guide to install on my Gigabyte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 motherboard. Thanks!


It's working, but I'm having some driver problems that are driving me nuts. First, I couldn't install Ubuntu 11.10 directly, because it would hang on the dhcp request... eventually I figured out that I could do a bare 11.04 install and an immediate upgrade to 11.10 which worked!

now I'm having a framebuffer issue or something. immediately after the plymouth splash screen, the system goes to a blank screen with a cursor in the top left corner... It still works, however... ctrl-alt-F1 takes me over to the console terminal where I can log in. this was occuring before I installed xbmc and xorg, btw.

after logging into the console (or ssh), ps ax shows me that x and xbmc are running, but I get no output on tty7 or 8. however, if I perform a "sudo stop xbmc" to kill the running process, I can then do a "startx" and xbmc cranks right up...

Anyone with a Z68 motherboard experiencing any of these symptoms?

any insight would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks,

digitalAir

Why does XBMC dont allow to adjust brightness and contrast when it uses VAAPI? I checked source and it explicitly disabled there.

rossmohax Wrote:Why does XBMC dont allow to adjust brightness and contrast when it uses VAAPI? I checked source and it explicitly disabled there.

That is post processing. Along with deinterlacing it is just being lmplemented in va api. Anyway has the guide worked for you?

Hack_kid Wrote:how do i go about compiling them?

Just make it the way I made at my old guide. Just note that you both have to compile libva (first) than the Intel driver since they are now separated. It is very experimental for the h264 codec with the old Intel G45 but you can try it.

alanwww1, thank you very much for this guide. It is exactly what I want to achieve, however I am having no end of trouble trying to get the minimal install cd to work properly.

Each attempt to install the OS fails/freezes. I've been choosing command-line install and I progress past all the initial stages successfully (language, location, keyboard, network, etc) until it tries to download additional components from the net. Each time it will progress a little before having an error and asks me to retry, select new mirror, or cancel. I have tried choosing different mirror countries, manually inputing details of a specific mirror, reconfiguring the network settings automatically and manually, and have even tried the 11.04 minimal install disc. Regardless I always seem to have errors downloading from the mirror. I either get an error message or the installer will just freeze with the progress bar on screen.

Persevering and using a combination of different mirrors and telling it to 'retry', has gotten me past partitioning and to installing base system, but I haven't been able to get past about 6% here. I either get similar error messages about choosing a different mirror, error messages about not being able to download a specific component (which gives me the options to continue or go back; both of which seem to do the same thing of going back the progress bar) or the system freezes.

Has anyone else had difficulties installing with the minimal cd? Anyone got some suggestions that may help? This is getting really annoying.

I an located in Australia, have a stable, fast internet connect and my system specs are:
CPU: Intel Core i5 2500
RAM: G Skill 8G(2x4G) DDR3 1600MHZ PC3-12800
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3
HDD: OCZ Vertex 2 SSD

I have installed the complete 11.10 OS on this system but have problems getting my plasma HDTV (not full HD, only 720p/1080i) working; it shows 'out of range' on screen. I was hoping to follow this guide and adjusting the etc/X11/xorg.conf to include the resolution and frequency of my tv.

I would greatly appreciate any help/suggestions.

@Drip: I had such problems at alpha and beta stages of Ubuntu 11.11 but not with the final one.

What I did to make it work, was that I used the US mirror. That was always containing all the packages.

Or if that is not working just use either the server or the alternate install disks which don't need an inernet connection at install time:

http://releases.ubuntu.com/11.10/

Hope it helps.

Is VC-1 decoding working fine for everyone else (with VAAPI enabled)? I just reinstalled and gave this a whirl and it's still failing to decode (purple, green, multi-coloured blocky screen). This is on a Pentium G620T - not an i3/i5/i7 - I wonder if that's the difference. Though the SB Pentium's are supposed to be using a cut-down version of the HD2000 core (without some of the extra "niceties").

I also tried the latest git version of the 3.2 kernel (which includes the EDID changes - least it appears to). Still do not get multichannel audio recognised, just L/R stereo. It did seem to pick up on the available TV modes tho. For example it happily switched between 50Hz and 60Hz without any modeline info - but then it may have always done that

Anyway - back to the nvidia card it seems, sigh.

Drae Wrote:Is VC-1 decoding working fine for everyone else (with VAAPI enabled)? I just reinstalled and gave this a whirl and it's still failing to decode (purple, green, multi-coloured blocky screen).

VC1 seems to be still broken. I don't have too much test files, but they don't play ok.

I report this to the devs.