[feanorknd]

Hello...

I know it would be easy to imagine or to answer, but I cannot stop thinking about it...

I would like to run XBMC without Gnome, XFCE or anyone... my Hardware is not plenty of memory, and it would be great I can use mediacenter without wasting memory and CPU at Windows managers... I have had used Freevo running directly with -fs option, executing directly from tty at system start... without gnome, kde, or anyone of them... I am not an expert, but I think freevo uses to connect itself to X or something like that..

Do you think is possible for XBMC to run it this way?

Thanks.

[rrambo]

Hello...

I know it would be easy to imagine or to answer, but I cannot stop thinking about it...

I would like to run XBMC without Gnome, XFCE or anyone... my Hardware is not plenty of memory, and it would be great I can use mediacenter without wasting memory and CPU at Windows managers... I have had used Freevo running directly with -fs option, executing directly from tty at system start... without gnome, kde, or anyone of them... I am not an expert, but I think freevo uses to connect itself to X or something like that..

Do you think is possible for XBMC to run it this way?

Thanks.

Yes, you could do that.. I've built several digital picture frames from old laptops with a base install of debian and scripts to start a slideshow within its own x session..

Or you could do what I do.. instead of Ubuntu, I just installed xubuntu which I'm sure you know uses xfce.. it's much lighter than gnome and you still have a desktop if you need it.. I just set it to autologin and autostart xbmc at boot..

[feanorknd]

Yes, you could do that.. I've built several digital picture frames from old laptops with a base install of debian and scripts to start a slideshow within its own x session..

Or you could do what I do.. instead of Ubuntu, I just installed xubuntu which I'm sure you know uses xfce.. it's much lighter than gnome and you still have a desktop if you need it.. I just set it to autologin and autostart xbmc at boot..

Xfce would be the sollution at last, but I keep trying...

I disabled Gdm start at Ubuntu startup... at tty, logon as my xbmc user...

Tried then to run XboxMediaCenter and have:

Cannot get root display. Is X11 running and is your DISPLAY variable set?
etc..
etc..(errors)

If I run startx, would have gnome alive.... I think I need X, but without Gnome, and that way I dont know if xbmc would run...

Anyone experienced something related?

Thanks.

[Jezz_X]

you can run xbmc just fine without a desktop you just need an x server running then run XBMC

[feanorknd]

you can run xbmc just fine without a desktop you just need an x server running then run XBMC

Ok.. I did this one...

1) Disabled gdm at startup (by example using rcconf)
2) Modified (saving backup) /etc/X11/Xsession:

just typed: "exec /home/feanor/XboxMediaCenter -q"
into that file..

Now, if I start session at tty1 (at startup), and if I exec then "startx", X11 should be started, and also XBMC, so it can connect to X and display...

It is working great, so finally I only need to setup autologin at tty or a script at rc to do this for me automatically..

Memory and resources are now minimal... the only problem is if I shutdown XBMC, have a blank (black) screen without tty or anything else.. I cannot restart it.

[Grast]

feanorknd,

That is because you do not have a window manager running. My solution is that if gnome is too heavy for your sytems to choose another window manager such as fluxbox, openbox, and FVWM.

If you hit CTRL + Backspace, it will return you back to tty prompt.

I personally like fvwm and fluxbox.

Look here for some more options.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Instal...orySystems

later...

[althekiller]

# You'll have to figure out how to disable your display manager in Ubuntu, I don't run it. Other distros define this in /etc/inittab.

Autologin at terminal.

# Autostart X
# Assuming you use bash...
echo " if `pidof X` != '' (wiki); then startx; fi" >> ~/.bash_login

# Start XBMC
# You prolly wanna backup "~/.xinitrc" first if it exists
echo "path/to/XBMC/BUILD/XboxMediaCenter" > .xinitrc

# I wouldn't do any of this on a system that's not dedicated to XBMC

[feanorknd]

I think the sollution for my 7.10 gutsy would be something like this:

- Have mingetty
- Modify /etc/event.d/tty1

# tty1 - getty
#
# This service maintains a getty on tty1 from the point the system is
# started until it is shut down again.

start on runlevel-2
start on runlevel-3
start on runlevel-4
start on runlevel-5

stop on shutdown

respawn /sbin/mingetty --autologin <xbmcuser> tty1

- Add to /home/<xbmcuser>/.bash_profile file of the user doing autologin to execute XBMC... something like:

case "`tty`" in
/dev/tty1) clear && startxbmc &>/dev/null;;
esac

That way, you may login at SSH or others ttys without executing it once again.... ok...
why an startxbmc script? and where?? You can use it if you want, but you can also call to startx directly.

Let's put it at:

- /usr/bin/startxbmc

#!/bin/sh
#
# You can do whatever you would like here, backups, etc... and finally:

startx

# this would run X server, and X server should call XBMC up!

And the winner is.................

- /etc/X11/Xsession

Save an backup and simply add:

exec /<path_to_binaries>/XboxMediaCenter -q

OK.... now let's imagine XBMC freezes, or you exit and get blank screen... you can access via SSH through your network, and KILL -9 directly the TTY1 bash for the user running XBMC... in other words, X, xmbc, and any others would be sons of the PPID for the tty1 bash for the user you configured to run xbmc.. if you kill that process, all should clean, and Ubuntu should revive tty1 like if you restarted the system.. you do a kill, and ubuntu restores all automatically... I have had done this way when I used Freevo... if freevo was down or freezed, I simply accesed via SSH from the network and killed the PID for the tty1.. al the rest of proccess launched depends from it, so all should terminate and be restarted automatically by ubuntu events.

I really do not want to use any window manager running... what if I use one of them? If xbmc freezes, it freezes screen, so it is just the same (i think)

[rrambo]

I've built a VM using JeOS 7.10.. As you probably know, the distro is fairly small with not many packages added in, hence the name "Just enough Operating System"

No desktop environment of course, all I added was the x window system core and the required packages for xbmc. I created a script to start the x server and then xbmc, then added a script to init.d to call the script at startup so no login even occurs.

As a vm, of course it can only be used for development and testing, and comes in handy for doing that.. I can tinker with it and get it like I want and then know what I need to do to install on my htpc.

It boots fairly quick and I'm getting real close to an appliance type solution for xbmc.

If there is any interest, I will upload a torrent for the vm in a day or two for other people to tinker with.

[Grast]

rrambo,

I am insterested in your script for start x and xbmc with out a window manager.

Thanks.

[roeroe]

I've built a VM using JeOS 7.10.. As you probably know, the distro is fairly small with not many packages added in, hence the name "Just enough Operating System"

No desktop environment of course, all I added was the x window system core and the required packages for xbmc. I created a script to start the x server and then xbmc, then added a script to init.d to call the script at startup so no login even occurs.

As a vm, of course it can only be used for development and testing, and comes in handy for doing that.. I can tinker with it and get it like I want and then know what I need to do to install on my htpc.

It boots fairly quick and I'm getting real close to an appliance type solution for xbmc.

If there is any interest, I will upload a torrent for the vm in a day or two for other people to tinker with.

yeah put a torrent up :-), this is the first time I heard about JeOS and love the idea ... Linux becomes more and more bloat each day and something like this is what I need for a HTPC

[althekiller]

Linux doesn't bloat, distributions do.

[feanorknd]

interested too... thanks.

[Gamester17]

I've built a VM using JeOS 7.10.. As you probably know, the distro is fairly small with not many packages added in, hence the name "Just enough Operating System"

I think that Ubuntu Mobile Edition (without the desktop enviroment installed) will probably the best Linux distobution base for XBMC of tomorrow,

Ubuntu Mobile
http://www.ubuntu.com/products/mobile
and
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/MobileAndEmbedded

[rrambo]

Cool.. There wasn't much interest yesterday after I posted so I didn't create a torrent but I'll do it today.