Linux installing xbmc on zotac ad10 using ubuntu 12.10 (quantal)
#1
hi,

just wanted to share my 1 day journey on setting up xbmc on my zotac ad10

what i wanted to achive: just use standard tools for being able to play full hd 1080p movies

note: since it took me the whole day to get everything up and running i'm not sure if a few things i did are optional or helped to solve the problems
i also try to write down few problems/error messages i had
also worth mentioning is that openelec has been able to play full hd content since i bought the ad10 1 or 2 years ago

o) first try using a standard ubuntu install
the very first thing i did was using standard ubuntu distribution (12.10 with unity) and installing xbmc from the standard repo's
next i installed the proprietary ati drivers shiped by ubuntu for the ad10 - a raedon hd 6310
using pulseaudio volume control (pavucontrol) i changed the audio output to hdmi - worked out of the box for my monitor

starting xbmc, testing the first few movies from my nas using smb seemd working
but playing a full hd movie caused slow playback/stuttering and the sound doesnt match video

the next steps may be optional, so i don't know which one did the trick but maybe everything

o) xbmc and vaapi
the ubuntu ati binary guide
suggested to install xvba using

sudo apt-get install xvba-va-driver libva-glx1 libva-egl1 vainfo

for hardware acceleration
after this the fullhd videos caused a freeze of xbmc
at this point i didnt know that the xbmc option for enabling vaapi dont seem to match my installed xvba driver - i think ubuntu ships xbmc 11 which is not working out of the box for this setup

o) bios update [maybe optional]
next tip i found was that the graphics card only get's 256mb ram as default setting from the bios - or such
my bios was too old so i didnt have the bios menu entry to change this value
it should be in
chipset -> onboard device config -> uma frame buffer size

to update the bios using my linux tools i did the following:
1) download bios from zotac's download site - mine was pa191.zip from http://www.zotac.com/index.php?option=co...itstart=10
2) using unetbootin create a freedos usb bootable drive
3) create a new folder on the usb drive e.g. called 'bios'
4) copy everything from pa191.zip into bios folder
5) check the readme txt or pdf provided by zotac (within pa191.zip)
6) reboot from usb drive
NOTE: don't boot freedos with highmem and em386
i just used the "freedos safe mode (don't load any drivers)" option
WHY: i tried with highmem and em386 at first and got an "illegal instruction occurred" error - cool message during a bios update
7) switch to c:
and cd bios
8) create backup
afu301 backup.rom /o
9) flash bios
afu301 a1910620.rom /p /n /b /r
10) turn power off and on again
11) hold the 'del' key during boot to get into bios and set the uma frame buffer size to 1gb (if you have enough ram - i have 2gb afaik)

o) install ubuntu
then i reinstalled ubuntu again, again install proprietary drivers, change to hdmi audio output
in the terminal i enter:
sudo su
aticonfig --initial
aticonfig --set-pcs-u32=MCIL,HWUVD_H264Level51Support,1
# cause of i got black borders
aticonfig --set-pcs-val=MCIL,DigitalHDTVDefaultUnderscan,0

# reboot
apt-get install xvba-va-driver libva-glx1 libva-egl1 vainfo

#reboot - here comes the next trick for the setup: using xbmc from non standard repos
add-apt-repository ppa:wsnipex/xbmc-xvba
apt-get update
apt-get install xbmc xbmc-bin

# finished
xbmc12 should now be installed and already be configured for using xvba for hardware acceleration
---------------------------------

at the end my problem seemd to be
1) old bios
2) not knowing that hardware acceleration with vaapi don't seem to be the same as with xvba
xvba is working with xbmc12

hth
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#2
Quote:note: since it took me the whole day to get everything up and running

You should have searched the forum: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=116996
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#3
your thinking assumes that i already knew that xvba exists or what it means or what it doesnt mean, what vaapi is and how it relates to current brand new xbmc - i knew none of this, which is ok
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