[TC!!]

First post so please be gentle.

I've run XBMC on a n xbox for a few years but wanted to move over to running it on Ubuntu to get HD playback.

Don't ask me why but i decided to install the 64 bit version of ubuntu heron and now I'm suffering. I got the 64 bit version of XBMC to run quite well apart from one fault, no passthrough of digital audio so no surround sound.

I finally gave up on the 64 bit version and set up a 32 bit chroot. I got that working yesterday and digital audio passthrough was working fine so I finally connected my computer to my plasma to enjoy some HD. Problem I have now is that video playback in the 32 bit chroot version isn't as good as the 64 bit version!! On HD material you can see it 'stick' sometimes and even on standard res xvids I'm getting a strange tearing effect on the screen. If I try these videos in the 64 bit version they work fine, but no digital audio for the 6 channel movie.

Can someone help me out. (Or if there is an easy way for me to replace my 64 bit installation with a 32 bit please let me know.)

[papaf]

I'm not really sure what you mean by an "easy way" to replace your install. Simply download the 32 bit version and install it. Unless I'm missing something?

[TC!!]

by easy way I mean without losing all the data I have in the home directories of my 64 bit installation. Easy as in not having to back up everything onto another disk and then copy it all back over after doing a fresh installation of ubuntu.

[TC!!]

Looks like I've just made the situation worse for myself. I read somewhere that I need to install the drivers for my video card in the 32 bit chroot, so I used envy to do this. Now my 64 bit system is screwed, boots up in low graphics mode + I cannot get it to use the nvidia drivers, it shows them selected in the hardware drivers but says 'not in use'.

Great, looks like I may have to start from scratch.

[papaf]

If your home directory is on a separate partition, you can install the new version and simply reuse the home fs. Otherwise, you are forced to backup things.

[TC!!]

If your home directory is on a separate partition, you can install the new version and simply reuse the home fs. Otherwise, you are forced to backup things.

Thanks for the reply.
Right now everything is on the same partition but I was thinking of doing a new installation on a newly created partition. Then I was planning on telling the new installation to use the home folders from my original parition.
Would that work?

[althekiller]

A better solution would be to install on a new partition then copy the home folders to the new install and wipe out the old partition. There's no sense keeping an OS installed you won't use.

[malloc]

Since we do have a 64-bit binary there's no reason to support the chroot environment. So you can either reinstall Ubuntu32 or try to get help with 6 channel output. Are you able to get 6 channel output in other players? Have you tried the Ubuntu forums?

[TC!!]

I got 6 channel working with xine and vlc but not with mplayer or XBMC, but after two weeks of trying and two different sound cards from eBay I'm going with 32 bit.

In the end I managed to set up a new partition + did a new install there. Then I linked the home folder of the new installation to the one on my original partition. I've moved all the old system files into a folder for now so I can check if there are any config files I need to use and then I'll delete it.

I haven't got around to installing XBMC on this new install yet, but things haven't started well on the new system as I can't even get it to take a static ip address, networking only works in roaming mode! But that's for another forum.

Thanks again for the replies and keep up the good work!!

[malloc]

since it works in other players it sounds like this could be an XBMC bug. Could you please post a bug report to trac?