[LINUX] HOW-TO install XBMC for Linux on Arch Linux (Unofficial Step-by-Step Guide)
#1
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I wanted to give back to the XBMC community and since I am not a coder I saw an opportunity to give back. After seeing some interest in XBMC on Arch Linux I have written a step by step guide. This is obviously unofficial and unsupported by the XBMC authors.

There very well may be some grammatical and spelling errors, so if you see any please let me know. Also if you would like to see something added or changed also let me know. Due to my job that entails a lot of travel I have a lot of free time to add/change things and plan to do so.

I would like to think of this as community effort so let me know what you would like to see!

http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=XBMC_on_Arch...nofficial)
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#2
Surely 2 and 3 are well documented/maintained on some arch wiki? I don't see much point in duplicating efforts and possibly being dangerously out of sync with an official guide. Replace with links?

Perhaps break the HW config stuff that isn't arch specific to their own pages so others can benefit.

Other than that, looks great. Thanks for contributing. Smile
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#3
althekiller Wrote:Surely 2 and 3 are well documented/maintained on some arch wiki? I don't see much point in duplicating efforts and possibly being dangerously out of sync with an official guide. Replace with links?

Perhaps break the HW config stuff that isn't arch specific to their own pages so others can benefit.

Other than that, looks great. Thanks for contributing. Smile

Makes sense. I removed the how to install Arch Linux bits and just linked to the Arch install guide.
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#4
Damn it, You beat me to it Smile I was current making an Arch wiki page(3/4 done) . A few suggestions/comments if I may....

1. Although its nice to explain the in's and out's of installing the base system of arch, why not just point people to the beginners guide on the arch wiki. Once the base system is installed, start from there. If someone cant get past the beginners guide, I'd suggest they continue using ubuntu / live until they get more confident with linux in general.

2. Include optional openssh. First thing I tend to do is install openssh so I can login remotely to finish the install. I've created a number of install scripts so I can upload them, sit back, and watch the magic. Also helps when you may want to cut and paste commands from guides.

3. Creating a users and appropriate groups. I use..

Code:
# useradd -m -G users,audio,optical,disk,storage,video,power -s /bin/bash xbmc
then set a password

Code:
# passwd xbmc

4. Alsa. I've found with my harware I get the dreaded PCM sound loss occasionally.

Adding the following line to /etc/rc.local fixes this

Code:
iecset audio on

5. Shut down (Power Button) taken from http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Shut...wer_button

Installing acpid
Code:
# pacman -Sy acpid
Then create the file /etc/acpi/events/power with the contents
Code:
# nano /etc/acpi/events/power

# /etc/acpi/events/power
# This is called when the user presses the power button

event=button/power (PWR.||PBTN)
action=/sbin/poweroff
To finish up just add acpid to you daemons list unless your already using hal

I could continue with more but I'll save it for later or as the guide progresses. Hope this helps a little and fantastic work. Im really impressed.

Zepp
HW : Multiple Asrock 330HT + NAS
SYS: xbmc-live 10.0
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#5
Woops, sorry for repeating althekiller about the base install I took 15min to edit he post (on and off).
HW : Multiple Asrock 330HT + NAS
SYS: xbmc-live 10.0
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#6
Zeppstar Wrote:Damn it, You beat me to it Smile I was current making an Arch wiki page(3/4 done) . A few suggestions/comments if I may....

1. Although its nice to explain the in's and out's of installing the base system of arch, why not just point people to the beginners guide on the arch wiki. Once the base system is installed, start from there. If someone cant get past the beginners guide, I'd suggest they continue using ubuntu / live until they get more confident with linux in general.

2. Include optional openssh. First thing I tend to do is install openssh so I can login remotely to finish the install. I've created a number of install scripts so I can upload them, sit back, and watch the magic. Also helps when you may want to cut and paste commands from guides.

3. Creating a users and appropriate groups. I use..

Code:
# useradd -m -G users,audio,optical,disk,storage,video,power -s /bin/bash xbmc
then set a password

Code:
# passwd xbmc

4. Alsa. I've found with my harware I get the dreaded PCM sound loss occasionally.

Adding the following line to /etc/rc.local fixes this

Code:
iecset audio on

5. Shut down (Power Button) taken from http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Shut...wer_button

Installing acpid
Code:
# pacman -Sy acpid
Then create the file /etc/acpi/events/power with the contents
Code:
# nano /etc/acpi/events/power

# /etc/acpi/events/power
# This is called when the user presses the power button

event=button/power (PWR.||PBTN)
action=/sbin/poweroff
To finish up just add acpid to you daemons list unless your already using hal

I could continue with more but I'll save it for later or as the guide progresses. Hope this helps a little and fantastic work. Im really impressed.

Zepp

Thank you for the suggestions. All of them have been added to the guide. If you have any other ideas just let me know.
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#7
To allow users to login remotely via ssh you'll also need to add the following line to /etc/hosts.allow

Code:
sshd: ALL

Caution : This allows access from anywhere. Optional lines to restrict access.

Code:
# let everyone connect to you
sshd: ALL

# OR you can restrict it to a certain ip
sshd: 192.168.0.1

# OR restrict for an IP range
sshd: 10.0.0.0/255.255.255.0

# OR restrict for an IP match
sshd: 192.168.1.

Refer to Arch Wiki for more advanced options. http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SSH

Zepp
HW : Multiple Asrock 330HT + NAS
SYS: xbmc-live 10.0
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#8
Zeppstar Wrote:To allow users to login remotely via ssh you'll also need to add the following line to /etc/hosts.allow

Code:
sshd: ALL

Caution : This allows access from anywhere. Optional lines to restrict access.

Code:
# let everyone connect to you
sshd: ALL

# OR you can restrict it to a certain ip
sshd: 192.168.0.1

# OR restrict for an IP range
sshd: 10.0.0.0/255.255.255.0

# OR restrict for an IP match
sshd: 192.168.1.

Refer to Arch Wiki for more advanced options. http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SSH

Zepp

Good catch, forgot about hosts.allow. I spent an hour on a support call with a client who couldnt connect via snmp. Ill let you guess what the problem was.
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#9
Smile Gr8 Work Smile
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#10
jskube Wrote:I wanted to give back to the XBMC community and since I am not a coder I saw an opportunity to give back. After seeing some interest in XBMC on Arch Linux I have written a step by step guide. This is obviously unofficial and unsupported by the XBMC authors.

There very well may be some grammatical and spelling errors, so if you see any please let me know. Also if you would like to see something added or changed also let me know. Due to my job that entails a lot of travel I have a lot of free time to add/change things and plan to do so.

I would like to think of this as community effort so let me know what you would like to see!

http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=XBMC_on_Arch...nofficial)

Well, I think you forget to mention something..... But this is how it is going in current days...
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#11
Currently I prefer to do a manual PKBUILD of the (AUR) xbmc-svn instead of using yaourt, why ?
1. Setting up yaourt to compile as a normal user requires sudo which is another level of installation.
2. I like to keep my previously built packages for a little time incase unacceptable bugs creep into to code ( not that it happens Wink )

To PKGBUILD you will need fakeroot (root user)
Code:
# pacman -Sy fakeroot

Next, download the xbmc-svn tarball from aur. (normal user)
Code:
# wget http://aur.archlinux.org/packages/xbmc-svn/xbmc-svn.tar.gz
Extract the contents an cd to Directory (normal user)
Code:
# tar zxvf xbmc-svn.tar.gz
# cd xbmc-svn
Now we start the build. (normal user)
Code:
# makepkg PKGBUILD
If all dependancies are met the build will take a little while to complete. If you missing anything, It will be reported and you simply (root user)
Code:
pacman -S [missingpack1] [missingpack2] etc....
And then start the build again..

Once completed you will have a shiney new xbmc-svn-xxxxx-x.pkg.tar.gz to install. note: the 'xx-x's are svn number and AUR revision.

Install it (root user)
Code:
# pacman -U xbmc-svn-xxxxx-x.pkg.tar.gz

Now you can store that package for keepsake. At a later date, you may want to create another later svn package. Simply navigate back to the location of the downloaded tarball. delete it, and start again at the download tarball stage. Dont delete your xbmc-svn dir otherwise you will have to download it all again. Subversion will download only the needed updates which is usually quite quick.
You might also wonder, can i install this package on another machine? Sure can! I have a second xbmc machine for the kids that only has the xbmc's requirements(no build deps). Couldn't the xbmc team adopt archlinux as its twiced removed brother and house an archlinux package for us please :p

This method takes a little more effort but I think its worth it.

Zepp
HW : Multiple Asrock 330HT + NAS
SYS: xbmc-live 10.0
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#12
Zeppstar Wrote:Now we start the build. (normal user)
Code:
# makepkg PKGBUILD
If all dependancies are met the build will take a little while to complete. If you missing anything, It will be reported and you simply (root user)
Code:
pacman -S [missingpack1] [missingpack2] etc....
And then start the build again..

I'm an arch newbie, so forgive me if I'm mistaken, but couldn't you just run this command instead of the 2 commands above to get all listed dependencies and build the package in one command?

Code:
makepkg -s PKGBUILD

Edit: I think even the PKGBUILD part is unnecessary, so you could actually just enter this...
Code:
makepkg -s
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#13
To successfully run makepkg -s you need to be super user so it can download and install. I tend to prefer to only compile packages as a 'normal user' . But if people dont mind creating packages as a superuser, makepkg -s PKGBUILD surely is simpler. Many experienced developers recommend compiling programs as a normal user due to sercurity risks. Its personal preference really. And you are correct about not needing PKGBUILD. From what I could gather, The method I use is the only way to "build" the package without sudo, su, superuser rights.

Just looked into makepkg a little deeper. Seems using the -o flag will prevent the build. So I'm guessing
Code:
# makepkg -so
will download and install the dependancies without the build avoiding the need for a long winded pacman -S . I'll try this out later.

Thanks for that. I learnt something today Smile

I noticed two threads about this topic are running. Where are we calling home?

Zepp
HW : Multiple Asrock 330HT + NAS
SYS: xbmc-live 10.0
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#14
Thought I would share my 3/4 finished Arch Wiki page that I was editing and bringing to competion. If I feel it competes against the xbmc wiki version I may not move it to its own page. I may also just leave it where it is and use it as a scratch pad rather than put up long winded posts in this thread.

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/User:Zepp

Zepp
HW : Multiple Asrock 330HT + NAS
SYS: xbmc-live 10.0
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#15
Thanks for all your efforts, though i doubt there's much point in having two seperate pages. I think both places (xbmc.org/archlinux.org) are important but let's combine efforts and keep'em in sync.

@jskube: Please have a look at the xbmc-svn discussion page over here: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?p...87#p563387
There are some typos / hints to fix and integrate.

Thanks, Haggy
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[LINUX] HOW-TO install XBMC for Linux on Arch Linux (Unofficial Step-by-Step Guide)0