Installing XBMC on Ubuntu Server 11 for Beginners

Hi Guys.

I have a headless install of Ubuntu Server 11, although it does have a screen and GUI I can enable when I'm using it directly for tasks more easily
done in a GUI, but by default the GUI is off.

I'm still quite a Noob though, and have only had the server going for about 4 weeks, and it being my first real linux experience.

I see there are two streams that can be used ... 1 being a headless server version where you execute xbmc --server and the other being a separate executable being xbmc_headless.

Now I have no idea how to install either one, nor how to use those GIT repositories ... I've tried my best, even following some basic instruction on another thread. I would really appreciate if someone could help me out ... I assume the xbmc_headless version is the way to go, as that I believe is being done by the main xbmc team?

I must also throw out there I've never used XBMC before ... so this is really from scratch for me.

Otherwise I don't mind installing standard XBMC as long as I can leave the GUI switched off, but I'm guessing that can't be done.

Regards

Itai

XBMC plays media. I don't think you want to use it to serve media... unless you wanted that to host centralised settings for more than one XBMC install (http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW...ibraries).

Just set-up ubuntu to share files using SMB/NFS/AFP (should be fairly easy) then XBMC that is connected to TV/computer etc can get files from the server.

Sorry for highjacking the thread but i suppose i have a follow-up question anyway

I'm thinking about setting up a central library for my xbmc-setup at home like this:

Installing a headless xbmc on the central server (headless ubuntu server, so far mostly only serving the media files) to move the scrapping and media-library there. So the other xmbc-installations (currently just one and not really expecting more to come) just need to start up and always have a fresh and updated library at hand.

Does this kind of setup make any sense? I've been googling for quite a while now but dont really seem to find much about it, except some older how-tos for headless install (which all still seem to install quite a bit of gui stuff).

Essentially i just would like to use the central media-library (as would work without xbmc on the server) but also have the server do all the work when new medias are added.

I'm also open for pointers to other possible solutions getting me as close as it makes sense to the desired outcome

(2012-05-27 11:17)maxigs Wrote:  Sorry for highjacking the thread but i suppose i have a follow-up question anyway

I'm thinking about setting up a central library for my xbmc-setup at home like this:

Installing a headless xbmc on the central server (headless ubuntu server, so far mostly only serving the media files) to move the scrapping and media-library there. So the other xmbc-installations (currently just one and not really expecting more to come) just need to start up and always have a fresh and updated library at hand.

Does this kind of setup make any sense? I've been googling for quite a while now but dont really seem to find much about it, except some older how-tos for headless install (which all still seem to install quite a bit of gui stuff).

Essentially i just would like to use the central media-library (as would work without xbmc on the server) but also have the server do all the work when new medias are added.

I'm also open for pointers to other possible solutions getting me as close as it makes sense to the desired outcome

What you are trying to achieve can be accomplished using this wiki HOW-TO:Sync multiple libraries...

You don't need a headless XBMC to serve files or share the library.

Thanks for the replies. I already read the sync-how-to prior to my post and asked anyway because there is one little key-component missing: I would like to have the scrapper or other media-library updates handled by the (headless) server. And not just use the server for storage of the library updated by the other clients.

As far as i see this would require a installation of xbmc on the server and then sync that library to the clients.

But i guess the tiny little bit of comfort plus is not worth the work to accomplish it. At least i could not find anyone describing a similar setup with success.

I agree with maxgis. This is something I've always wanted to do.

It's also true that XBMC is the best UPNP server out there. A headless version for servers would be great.

(2012-06-05 00:12)kettal Wrote:  It's also true that XBMC is the best UPNP server out there.

I've been reading about UPNP quite a bit now, checking if it was a substitute for the headless install of xbmc. But as far as i see everyone is suggesting not to use UPNP as source for XBMC, and that its mostly a waste of time trying to set it up (experiences in forums).
This is quite dissapointing since it seems to be the only alternative option for the central XBMC (preferably headless). But the more reason to figure out how to get the headless installation to work, so we can also use the UPNP server from it for non-XBMC devices

I almost cant believe that this is such a exotic way of setting it up that there is no information to be found of how to do it (or even that its just not possible).

(2012-06-04 16:45)maxigs Wrote:  Thanks for the replies. I already read the sync-how-to prior to my post and asked anyway because there is one little key-component missing: I would like to have the scrapper or other media-library updates handled by the (headless) server. And not just use the server for storage of the library updated by the other clients.

As far as i see this would require a installation of xbmc on the server and then sync that library to the clients.

But i guess the tiny little bit of comfort plus is not worth the work to accomplish it. At least i could not find anyone describing a similar setup with success.

The update can be handled by other means... eg. SickBeard can be configured to send an update command to XBMC (using HTTP commands) when a TV show download has completed.

If you are not using software on the server like SickBeard then you could create a cron job on your server to send the update command to one of your XBMC clients periodically...

For example, the following will issue an update video library command to XBMC:

curl --user xbmc_web_user:xbmc_web_password "http://xbmc_ip_address:8080/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=ExecBuiltIn(XBMC.updatelibrary(video))"

Note: You need to enable HTTP access in XBMC and xbmc_web_user, xbmc_web_password, xbmc_ip_address will be specific to your setup