[discmeister]

Right, I've done yet more Googling and found some helpful folks on the Ubuntu forums who offer assistance with chrooting. As such, I'm now looking at XBMCBuntu Frodo on my TV set.

Basically there are two things you have to overcome, assuming you've managed to get a LIve CD up and running and working. The first problem is that the /media/ubuntu folder won't be created correctly (don't ask why) so you won't be able to mount your install drive. You can fix this by opening a terminal and typing:
sudo mkdir /media/ubuntu
Then the drive will mount, and you'll at least stand a chance of editing the /etc/defaults/grub file as outlined in this thread.

The next challenge is to chroot to the drive so you can update-grub. This is not particularly easy, but I did find some useful instructions on the Ubuntu forums. You'll need to do open a terminal, then do an fdisk -l to find out what the precise name of your install disk is (in my case, sda1). Then the instructions below will do the trick... All within terminal, naturally.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo -i
root@ubuntu:~# mkdir /mnt/chroot
root@ubuntu:~# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/chroot
root@ubuntu:~# mount -o bind /dev /mnt/chroot/dev
root@ubuntu:~# mount -o bind /sys /mnt/chroot/sys
root@ubuntu:~# mount -o bind /proc /mnt/chroot/proc
root@ubuntu:~# chroot /mnt/chroot
root@ubuntu:/# update-grub

This worked for me. I hope it's of some use to those in this thread who aren't linux experts and who are, like me, desperate to keep using XBMCBuntu on hardware they specifically chose for its 'under-television' suitability (such as a near-silent Sandy Bridge CPU/Integrated GPU combo).

Regards, to all,

Discy

[discmeister]

Further to my post above, XBMCBuntu itself appears to be working fine, but it's not allowing me to access it via ssh from my Mountain Lion Macbook. This may be something to do with permissions in the .ssh folder. I'll play around with it some more this evening and report back.

Just to clarify, this is meant to be the 'easier all-in-one' XBMC, right?! ;-)

Discy

[discmeister]

As a further thought on this, would installing the Eden version of XBMCBuntu and then doing the upgrade to Frodo from there be any more successful or stable? Different kernel, perhaps?

Just a thought. I'm all for a clean install, and all that, but if it gets round these problems then maybe it's worth publicising?

I'll give it a try this evening if nobody comes on here to warn me off it in the meantime. Will report back.

Discy

[discmeister]

Hi everyone.

Okay, someone might find this useful, so here goes.

Last night I did a clean install of XBMCBuntu Eden 11.0 on my player. All went fine.

Then I ssh'ed into it and did the following:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

I was hoping that, as per another thread, this would upgrade Eden to Frodo. It didn't.

HOWEVER, I then ssh'ed back in and did the following:

sudo apt-get remove xbmc xbmc-bin
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install xbmc xbmc-bin

This DID install Frodo, and it boots up fine. No black cursor, no RC6 crash etc. And a relatively easy process for a linux newbie (certainly easier than chroot, which I'm sure ends up causing problems with permissions elsewhere).

If someone is looking for a relatively straightforward way to get an Intel-based box to run Frodo, here it is...

Hope this helps,

Discy

[un1versal]

@discmeister

Enough with the cross-posting already. A link to your post-solution suffices.

uNi

[ikarampa]

This sounds a bit like the problem I had on my Sandy Bridge system. Are you really sure is has nothing to do with rc6? Mine had/has, see bug report here:

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=54964 [snb rc6 regression] RC6 black screen / freeze on autologin

@tseller It says that the bug was fixed. Is it now part of the xbmcbuntu iso?

[InsaneFool]

I am a complete newbie when it comes to installing Linux and I'm trying to get XBMC 12 working.

This thread describes my issue perfectly, as soon as it finishes booting the system hangs on a black screen with a cursor in the middle of the screen.

Now out of curiosity I tried the LiveCD which actually worked without issue. Is this RC6 fix still the issue even though the LiveCD worked?

*edit*
My system specs:
Gigabyte GA-H67N-USB-B3
Intel Celeron G540
2GB 1333 MHz RAM
1TB HDD

[un1versal]

Welcome

Assume it has an issue and apply fix, if it works after fix you will know it had issue. Live CD is not the same as installing it.

uNi

[InsaneFool]

Okay, so I tried installing it fresh again - but it was weird, I don't know how I did it but I ended up at a different install interface that asked if I wanted to install a Sandy Bridge version, so I did that but the issue persists.

I also did notice an error when I was watching the boot process go by that said:
"Unable to load LIRC Kernel Modules"

[InsaneFool]

Good news everyone!

The problem is solved after making the necessary modifications to GRUB.

However I have a new issue, the XBMC Media Center is crashing on startup.

[un1versal]

@InsaneFool

Im going to go out on a limb here and say you need to install a proper video driver.

uNi

[InsaneFool]

I'm not sure where to get a a proper video driver for this board.

I ran the lspci command and found that it was an "Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller" but no other noticeably useful information is present. Any ideas on what I should do next? Feel free to reply in my other thread that I made regarding this issue.

[soonerlater]

I have two Intel NUCs ("Next Unit of Computing") powered by a Celeron 847 CPU (official model: "DCCP847DYE"). With one of them, I was able to press ESC during boot up, which would give me a Ubuntu command prompt, at which point I modified GRUB as detailed at the end of this post. However, on my other NUC (which is identical model), pressing ESC does not get me a command prompt. It always boots to a black screen with a mouse cursor in the middle.

I decided to try to install XBMCbuntu Eden as described by Discmeister in this thread. However, I still get the dark screen.

Is there another way to get a command prompt during boot up?

Is there a way to modify the installation USB so that Grub is modified at the time of installation?

Is there a way to modify the installation USB so that SSH is enabled automatically?

My router shows that it is live and attached to the network, but I can't ping it and I can't connect by SSH or WinSCP.

=============================
How I fixed ONE of my NUCs (with the excellent guidance of XBMC user Fersken)

This guide assumes that you have already installed XBMCbuntu onto your NUC (either onto a USB flash drive or internal mSATA drive), but found that after installation it does not seem to boot up for you. You either get a black screen with only a mouse cursor in the middle (assuming you have a mouse installed) or only a black screen (if you have no mouse). This guide explains how to fix your problem.

1. Unplug your NUC, count to 5, plug it back in and turn it on.

2. As soon as you turn it on, start pressing ESC every few seconds. One press of ESC should be enough, but it’s hard to tell exactly when to press ESC to get a command prompt, so just do it several times until you see a command prompt.

3. After you do this, you will be presented with two choices that will resemble these:

Ubuntu, with Linux 3.5.0-22-generic
Ubuntu, with Linux 3.5.0-22-generic (recovery mode)

4. Select the first option from the above choices.

5. Press “E” to edit your bootloader setup.

6. After you do this, you’ll see a screen which resembles these two screenshots (my apologies for the poor quality of the screenshots.




7. Look for a line that begins something like, “linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-22-generic…” and then move your cursor to the end of that line.

8. At the end of the “linux…../boot/vmlinuz…” line, add a space and then “i915.i915_enable_rc6=0”.

9. Press F10 after you have done the above. This will reboot your NUC. When it reboots, you should see a regular XBMC home screen.

10. Press Ctrl-Alt-F1 in XBMC. This will take you back to a Ubuntu command prompt.

11. Type “sudo nano /etc/default/grub”. This will open the Grub file for editing.

12. Look for a line in this file which reads:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

and change it to read:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash i915.i915_enable_rc6=0".

13. Press Ctrl-X (then confirm “Y” for yes) to save your edits to the Grub file.

14. Type the command, “sudo update-grub” and press enter.

15. Type the command, “sudo shutdown -r now” and press enter. This will shutdown your NUC.

16. After rebooting your NUC again, it should go straight to XBMCbuntu. Now you need to change the video settings.

17. Press Ctrl-Alt-F1 in XBMC to go to a Ubuntu command prompt.

18. Type this command, “sudo apt-get install intel-gpu-tools libva-intel-vaapi-driver” and press enter.

19. Press Ctrl-Alt-F7 to return to XBMC.

20. Reboot your NUC.


A FEW COMMANDS TO REMEMBER

CTRL-ALT-F1 – when in XBMCbuntu, pressing ctrl-alt-f1 will take you to a Ubuntu command prompt.

SUDO APT-GET UPDATE – typing sudo apt-get update (and pressing enter) at a Ubuntu command prompt will download all available updates for your installation.

SUDO APT-GET UPGRADE – typing sudo apt-get upgrade (and pressing enter) at a Ubuntu command prompt will install the available updates for your installation. Run this command after you run sudo apt-get update.

CTRL-ALT-F7 – Returns you to XBMC from the Ubuntu command prompt.

[richsmif]

I have a Sandy Bridge i5 and I get the same problem with Frodo 12.2. Boots up, changes to 60hz, the mouse freezes and no hdd activity at all. Complete lock up.

I can confirm the bug has not been fixed. All installed with defaults. I have a NVIDIA graphics card I can install as a test to see if it makes a difference as I think the Intel driver is what is causing the problems.

[un1versal]

@richsmif

Welcome.

If the instructions on this thread dont help thers not much else to tell you except this http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=164274

uNi