[User 34959]

Do you think linux newbie would run into problems when setting it up with XBMC? I've been thinking about switching from Ubuntu to Arch. It was surprisingly easy and well-documented process to get Arch running in Virtualbox.
Of course i can't test everything virtually, like Nvidia driver installation, suspending, lirc etc.

[Haggy]

Well, running xbmc in a virtual machine is no good idea I wonder if it even starts... As for Arch, there's both a stable version of xbmc (9.04 atm) as well as my svn-version in AUR, the Arch User Repository which builds from very recent svn sources. However, installing from AUR is a walk in the park with yaourt or makepkg, even for beginners. Basically you just say 'yaourt -S xbmc-svn', wait 20mins and you're done.

[User 34959]

Of course i didn't run it in Virtualbox, it's not possible afaik. :p
Installation of XBMC should be a breeze, i'm more worried about Arch side of things.. But there's a lot of detailed documentation in the wiki so i think i'm gonna try :cool2:

[Haggy]

The main problem for new Arch users might be that it is completely naked after installation. Every package requires you to install it, it doesn't even have X after installation. But if you have some time and are willing to dig deeper, Arch is a lot of fun and one may learn a lot about Linux in general. Give it a try...you could always come back to Ubuntu if it's not for you...

[User 34959]

That's the main reason i'd like to test it, to actually learn something instead of clicking through dialog boxes :p
Network, audio, xorg+xfce4 were quite easy to install from scratch. It's propably much easier with a "real" machine since there's no need to use crappy virtual video adapters and vga drivers etc.

[atkinsonr]

@Toiva
It sounds like you might be someone who will grow to really like Arch. As you've already looked in the wiki you'll have seen the beginners guide, which is really simple step-by-step walk you through setting up from scratch to a full system, with the desktop of your choice (or not, if you prefer).

I've yet to find a task that isn't either simple, or well documented in the wiki. The arch forums are a generally a helpful and friendly place too.

It's not an 'out of the box solution' like Ubuntu is. You do have to set everything up yourself, BUT the configuration has been simplified so that it is easy to understand, and very easy to find your way around - even for a linux beginner. If you can use aptitude, you can use pacman and yaourt.

I'd recommend anyone setting up Arch for the first time prints out the beginners guide - it really is good.

Let us know how you go!
- Richy

[arkay]

I have to agree. Arch really is superb. The beginners guide is also on the install CD so you can open it in vt3 and run the install step by step from vt1/5. The real beauty in it, aside from the simplicity, is the complete and utter understanding of your own build that you will gain after having done it. Gone are the pulse audio issues and trawling for fixes, after a while using Arch you can find and fix your own problems for the most part, should you have any. Also no need to update once you have a solid build and no annoying pop ups tempting you to install something you don't need at the risk of breaking your system. Packages can easily be held back so you can lock things known to work and upgrade everything else around them. You really are in the drivers seat.

I use Arch for everything except my XBMC machine but this thread has inspired me to finally get that build done. I also run a Myth frontend so I'll need to factor that in as well.

I'll probably configure a vnc server on there as well with openbox for remote admin.

Nothing is quite as much fun as rolling your own with this stuff

Would be nice to get splashy set up too to have that appliance feeling. Really tempted to grab an SSD for this as well.

Does anyone know if myth frontend will run without a WM. I already have a script to switch between Myth/XBMC. If they both run directly on X I'll be wrapped.

Cheers,

Arkay.

[atkinsonr]

@arkay,
Mythfrontend runs just fine without a WM. I have myth front+back+XBMC all on one machine, no problems.

If you have Nvidia graphics there's a mythtv-fixes-vdpau in the AUR that might suit you.

Cheers
Richy

[User 46219]

I'm glad to see this thread coming back to life and more people using Arch with xbmc.
Now if only my video card hadn't died about 3 days after getting my build completed...

I've since given up on it for now, after spending more than I should have on that damned refurbished machine. Now I'm just waiting until I can afford someting new to throw this on.

@arkay - I agree, getting splashy workig would be great. I didn't try it because of the problem with forced disk checks that is documented on the arch wiki.

Also, I never did get Lirc to work with suspend/hibernate so I'd be interested to know if anyone else gets that far.

[psipsi]

Wow! XBMC has come a long way. I'm a LinHES/KnoppMyth developer. LinHES is now based on Arch (which is a joy to develop for). I have just added xbmc-svn to our repo and it works great including VDPAU support. If you want an easy out-of-the-box install for MythTV and XBMC, you should give LinHES a try.

http://www.knoppmyth.net/ (no web site change yet)
ftp://knoppmyth.net/R6/Current/

I'm currently working on getting the MythBox script integrated.

[dakota34]

Psipsi, does this mean you don't have to add any extra repos to knoppmyth R6 to install xbmc now ie would it be as simple at pacman -Syu xbmc-svn?

[psipsi]

Psipsi, does this mean you don't have to add any extra repos to knoppmyth R6 to install xbmc now ie would it be as simple at pacman -Syu xbmc-svn?

Exactly.

[arkay]

@arkay,
Mythfrontend runs just fine without a WM. I have myth front+back+XBMC all on one machine, no problems.

If you have Nvidia graphics there's a mythtv-fixes-vdpau in the AUR that might suit you.

Cheers
Richy

Excellent. Thanks for the heads up.

Cheers,

Arkay.

[arkay]

@arkay - I agree, getting splashy workig would be great. I didn't try it because of the problem with forced disk checks that is documented on the arch wiki.

Also, I never did get Lirc to work with suspend/hibernate so I'd be interested to know if anyone else gets that far.

I'll give it a go when I start. I need suspend/resume for the frontend so it'll be in my build. I was thinking that if we get an Arch built frontend there's no reason why we couldn't just share it as a clonezilla image and drop it straight onto any machine. Would just have to adjust rc.conf for the IP if not using DHCP. I figure everyone would use NVidia gfx and the myth frontend should detect any backend on the network. Would only have to punch in a pin.

Pretty excited by the way LinHES is going too. Was on the IRC channel talking to Cecil for a little while the other day. Installed the current version in a vm and it worked with no issues so I might go that way on the frontend too. It's very well set up and laid out though I do enjoy building my own. The only downside that I can see with linHES is that mixing in the main Arch repo's is not recommended but I guess if you know what you're doing you could get away with it and for a frontend there isn't really much will need to be added to it that isn't already in the linHES repo (and I know I can request additions as well).

Incidentally splashy already works with linHES.

Cheers,

Arkay.

[arkay]

Made a start on this last night. Installed the 64bit version of Arch as I had the ftp disk lying around.

- Arch base installed.
- ssh configured so the rest could be done remotely. Hate working via wireless keyboard on the HTPC/plasma.
- X installed.
- Alsa installed/configured.
- Nvidia driver installed and configured for 1:1 on my plasma.
- XBMC installed (had to install pulse as a prereq), also had problems on 64 bit. Might have to rebuild this from SVN but it is working.. Sort of.
- Myth+vdpau compiled/installed
- Lirc installed.
- Copied all lirc conf etc from the mythbuntu partition. It just worked

All this in about an hour.. Great

So now I have Myth and XBMC running on top of X with a button on the remote to switch them. I'm having an issue that I've never encountered before though. The first time XBMC runs it's fine but on every subsequent switch I get a popup at the bottom of the screen that say "Joystick Plugged', then goes on to list that my wireless BTC keyboard is plugged in. It has a joystick on it so looks like it's being detected as a hotplug joystick. That's fine. But then it goes nuts. That popup continually flashes and makes a sound as if the joystick is being plugged in/removed continually. I have no idea how to stop it from doing that which is why I might go with SVN XBMC. The entire build so far is about 2.6GB. Want to fix the issue with XBMC before mucking with splashy and standby modes.

At the moment it seems a little flakey in that myth and XBMC have crashed a couple of times.

I might end up going back to 32bit as it doesn't really need to be 64.

Can anyone else that has this running let me know what version they used and if they are having any stability problems?

Incidentally and maybe psipsi can answer this question. I went to put LinHes on, booted from the live CD, but it didn't seem to allow we to define the installation partition but seemed to expect to repartition the entire drive? I couldn't see a way to force it to an existing partition with existing swap using mythvantage and wanted to keep a dual boot for the time being while testing.

Cheers,

Arkay.