[jonm42]

Smart79
Can you post a step by step guide for your mac mini setup. I would like to try the VDPAU and am a little over whelmed with command line mods but can follow instructions.

Not overwhelmed with command lines myself, but a step by step would still a great contribution. Thanks!

[Z3rO]

I'm tempted to install Ubuntu on my 09 MacMini (2ghz, 4Gig ram) and its nice to hear that vdpau works like a charm.

There are only some things that hold me off, it would be nice if someone could clear things up for me:

1. Does sleep and resume work?
2. Is WiFi working?
3. Does the optical audio output work?

It would be nice if someone running ubuntu could clear those things up.

TY

Z3rO

[Smart79]

Hi Drifty, hi jonm42 and hi Z3rO

Before you start:

1. Upgrade to at least 2 GB of RAM (I use 4 GB)

2. Do NOT use Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit. I tried this but XBMC is not ready for 64 bit yet. Use Ubuntu 9.04 32 bit instead. I used the Ubuntu 9.04 32 bit Desktop Edition as you could also e.g. surf with the Mac Mini. At the moment I use it for XBMC only and I LOVE IT!!!

Now you can begin:

1. To set up Ubuntu use this guide:
http://blog.costan.us/2009/03/ubuntu-810...-mini.html

2. More detailed stuff about the bootmanager: I left Mac OS X on the poor thing just to be able to get firmware updates
http://refit.sourceforge.net/

3. fix the Sound
To get the sound working, add the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

Code:

options snd-hda-intel model=imac24

4. Install XBMC through the repository. I personally use the SVN Repository but for a more stable release use this link:
https://launchpad.net/~team-xbmc/+archive/jaunty-ppa
Details here: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=33327

5. I then set up my Ubuntu to auto startup XBMC after booting which is fairly easy.
You’ll find the tool on the System \ Preferences\ Sessions menu item: Click the Add button, and type in “xbmc”. That was it.

6. If you have an IR remote control use this:

Code:

sudo apt-get install lirc lirc-modules-source module-assistant
sudo dpkg-reconfigure lirc-modules-source

Or use this guide: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Ubuntu_lirc_install

I use the original Apple remote but at some point I will probably switch to a bluetooth remote with more buttons. At the moment I have to use the Apple bluetooth Keyboard for some of the XBMC functions.

7. As a skin I use MiniMeedia
http://forum.xbmc.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=114

8. XBMC ROCKS!!!! And thanks to “motd2k” HD content plays like a charm through VPAUD.

Problems I sadly still have:
-Sound will not mute all the way in XBMC
-Reboot does NOT work (Ubuntu problem which is not fixed yet, maybe in Ubuntu 9.10)
-Apple Remote does not have enough buttons for a XBMC remote (my opinion)
-the power consumption is 10 W higher than under MacOS X which is sad.
-Wi-Fi does not work out of the box. I do not use it anyway. But i am sure you could get it to work with the right guide.

[Z3rO]

Thanks for your reply. I used the weekend to install a minimal ubuntu and fiddle around a bit with it.
I got pretty much everything working except the reboot. But as you said thats an ubuntu issue.

Standby/Resume works fine, though not with the Apple remote.
I have to use my keyboard to wake the mini up.
Another issue is that the Apple Remote doesnt recognize the long button press, so the already limited capabilitys are now even more limited.

Wifi and optical sound work fine too. I used wicd under fluxbox to set the Wifi up. For sound I had to unmute all devices in alsamixer.

I'm pretty much happy with the result. Only a little more tweaking here and there and it will be awesome.

By the way. Could you post your Lircmap.xml and Keymap.xml? And what xbmc revision are you running?

[phrehdd]

I thought I would take an opportunity to just post some thoughts here after reading all the contributions to this particular thread.

It appears that the Mac Mini running OSX can handle 1080p but with some limitations. For most they may not be much but for some (like me) I want to never worry about stutter/jutter/jitter/pauses/audio issues et al. Both XBMC and Plex have come a long way and kudos to the teams involved in their efforts.

The biggest flaw with the Mac Mini is the lack of HDMI. This is less about video but more about audio. As time marches on, we'll probably see higher end audio available and the Mini wont be able to handle it (under present standards).

If* you can live with traditional audio over HDef Audio formats, then the Mac Mini with Linux version of XBMC seems to be extremely promising. In fact, since everything is somewhat "built in" to the Mini, it could be an ideal box (sans HD Audio). It would be nice if a complete package was made for the Mini that covered the remote and a few other items right from the start.

Plex has opted to include some "settings" that relate to the video to get around some of the issues with high bit rate. It is a good idea for OSX users to investigate. For me, sad to say, it is flawed. One size (setting) doesn't fit all.

Ideally, as there is a db associated with the app, another tool should be offered to analyze movie files for bit rate peaks, frequency of peaks and so forth and allow the end user to select a setting PER a movie. The db would house the value which could be associated with the file upon lookup. Things of this sort are far more important to folks like me than some bells and whistles which can be added most any time. I gather with the Linux XBMC offering that exploits the GPU there would be no need to measure bitrates for movie files but with OSX, its a damn good idea to help get the very best play one can get out of a movie before altering settings to run smooth (at a price of fidelity).

As others are discovering, Ion Boxes are popping up everywhere with some excellent results. While perhaps not as full featured as the Mini, one could make it come very close at a lower cost and just as sleek. (Items such as firewire 800 come to mind for adding hd files that are large in size etc...convenience factor as it were etc.)

The ideal for me would be
CPU/GPU plays all normal hd media files well
ability to handle hd audio formats
Friendly GUI to handle changes in XML files etc.
IO that includes USB 2 and Firewire 800/400 and if lucky eSATA.
Wireless N
HDMI out that could handle potentially HD audio formats in the future.
and
downloadable baseline templates/settings for various Univ Remotes including Apple's
Setting controls PER a movie via user setting and additional tools for colour, constrast, bitrate etc. People in turn can put their settings up in a forum thread as baselines for others. This might include settings by movies and by type of screen.

All the other items like Hulu and such are great..but I think ease of set up and ability to truly optimize a system for each users "library" is first and foremost. It is great when people say it was easy to set up and - it just work - I have no real problems.

- Phrehdd

[DonJ]

Did someone manage to get a Bluetooth working with the mac mini 3,1? It sounds like IR is the only working option for remotes.

Also see: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sourc...bug/344559

[jsahlen]

I'm very tempted to try this on my 09 Mac Mini. However; does anyone know if it's possible to use a Harmony remote in Linux on a Mac Mini? I have a good thing going with the Harmony 'emulation' in recent SVN builds in Mac OS X, and I'd need to have something similar on Linux.

[anothergene]

I'm very tempted to try this on my 09 Mac Mini. However; does anyone know if it's possible to use a Harmony remote in Linux on a Mac Mini? I have a good thing going with the Harmony 'emulation' in recent SVN builds in Mac OS X, and I'd need to have something similar on Linux.

I would assume it would be and I'm looking to do the exact same thing. If some one can post a procedure they went through to get it working that would be great.

[jsahlen]

I would assume it would be and I'm looking to do the exact same thing. If some one can post a procedure they went through to get it working that would be great.

I tried it during the weekend. I set everything up with LIRC, and had no problems getting irrecord to recognize all the commands from my Harmony (using the "macmini" driver, and the "Plex" device from the Harmony database). However, when the remote is used in XBMC, the button presses are recognized waaay too frequently (each press is registered as 2 or more, regardless of how short it is). This has been discussed in the forums before, and as far as I've been able to gather, there's currently no solution for it… For me, this is unfortunately a dealbreaker (the over-zealous repeat rate makes the GUI pretty much unusable), so I'll have to go back to OS X for now.
Does anyone know of a solution for this? I'm not averse to changing the source code if that's what needs to be done, but I don't have the know-how to find exactly what to change by myself

[fredaroony]

I tried it during the weekend. I set everything up with LIRC, and had no problems getting irrecord to recognize all the commands from my Harmony (using the "macmini" driver, and the "Plex" device from the Harmony database). However, when the remote is used in XBMC, the button presses are recognized waaay too frequently (each press is registered as 2 or more, regardless of how short it is). This has been discussed in the forums before, and as far as I've been able to gather, there's currently no solution for it… For me, this is unfortunately a dealbreaker (the over-zealous repeat rate makes the GUI pretty much unusable), so I'll have to go back to OS X for now.
Does anyone know of a solution for this? I'm not averse to changing the source code if that's what needs to be done, but I don't have the know-how to find exactly what to change by myself

Try the follow. It worked for me on a similar issue with a different device.

1. Click on the Devices tab
2. Click "Settings" for the Plex
3. Select "Troubleshoot"
4. Select "Show me more problems"
5. Then choose "My Device doesn't appear to receive every command correctly"
6. Choose " My Device responds too much to some commands"
7. Modify the number of repeats. The default is 3. Lower the number to 2, and if that doesn't work try 1.

[jsahlen]

Try the follow. It worked for me on a similar issue with a different device.

1. Click on the Devices tab
2. Click "Settings" for the Plex
3. Select "Troubleshoot"
4. Select "Show me more problems"
5. Then choose "My Device doesn't appear to receive every command correctly"
6. Choose " My Device responds too much to some commands"
7. Modify the number of repeats. The default is 3. Lower the number to 2, and if that doesn't work try 1.

Thanks, but I actually already had mine set at 0 from my OS X XBMC setup. LIRC seems to be really sensitive.

[BDPNA]

Can Linux running XBMC on the Mac Mini still output audio from MKV streams in true DTS or DD5.1 formats? That's my biggest concern. I thought I remembered reading somewhere it had to downmix due to driver limitations...is that true?

[stonebat]

did anyone figure out how to boot up xbmc-live from the usb flash drive? my macbook wont boot from the usb at all...

the macbook has linux partition and xbmc/vdpau is working good. but i wanna clean out the partition and use the usb stick instead.

[BDPNA]

Thanks for the great step by step on getting Ubuntu to work on the mini.

Alas, while I got everything working, I have no sound, despite doing the fix.

With the sound fix you did, what do you have your Mini hooked up to as far as testing? I have mine running to my stereo receiver via toslink to mac mini.

Anyone else actually have this working?

For the life of me no matter what I do, I can't get sound to come out of this thing despite doing the fix listed here and a TON of other searching on the web for other fixes.

Frustrating. Just one step away from having this working too.

[cydine]

Have you tried to see if you can get just stereo audio?

Can anyone confirm that digital audio is actually working?