[grajea]

Installing the nvidia drivers
Let's get to installing as ION drivers

First were going to need to open up a terminal window, yer sorry no more nice GUI from now on it's command line all the way.

Is it necessary to install this driver from nvidia.com? Is not the same the propietary driver provides by ubuntu when detects your GPU (NVIDIA driver version 180).
You only have to go to "System > Administration > Restricted Hardware Drivers" and enable the appropriate driver.

This would do this how-to easier.

[hexland]

When I used the Live CD, the GPU was reported as being UNKNOWN.

If I installed the drivers from NVIDIA (185.18.14), the GPU was correctly displayed as ION.

So, yes... its probably worth installing the NVIDIA drivers.

[henrikyo]

great guide mate, been a long time windows user and u helped me out alot.

one question though, ive tried for quite some time now to install aeon aurgia theme on linux with ubuntu. But i just cant get to work. I dont know even where to begin, googled and searched but no "noob" guides out there.

Could u help me out, u would be a life savior

[Denner]

Hi been having MAD problems with my Zotac board and Ubuntu

Followed your guide, and when it Ubuntu was finished installing the NVIDIA drivers and it rebooted, it came up whit this massage:

Ubuntu is running in low graphics mode

The following error was encountered
You my need to update your configuration to solve this.

(EE) Failed to lad module "glx" ( module does not exist. 0)
(EE) Failed to lad module "nvidia" ( module does not exist. 0)
(EE) No drivers available.

I have NO idea what to do and why I am getting this error, tried to re install Ubuntu 3 times and followed your guide, and no matter what I do I get the same error, after the install of the NVIDIA drivers

Hope some one can help me out

Best Regards
Dennis

EDIT:
Tried envyNG ( http://www.albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html ) and it works as it should installs old NVIDIA drivers and reboots, and then Ubuntu is up an running on NVIDIA drivers. The problem is that this is old drivers 180.xxx and not the new 185.xxx and they are creating some problems and they are not identifying the ION platform GPU, among other things.
I would really like to have Ubuntu + XBMC running on the latest NVIDIA drivers, but I am about to give up

[Starstream]

Fantastic guide medicineuk very helpful for beginners like myself.

I dont suppose you would do one for XBMC Live or could someone point in the right direction ?

Audio over HDMI doesn't work but this may be the solution however it says make dependencies are not installed when I try to run it from XBMC live command prompt.

I also tried my hand at updating the nvidia driver using your guide but it says the X server is still running & I don't know how to shut it down, the command you used it says doesn't exist on XBMC Live.

[Hannes The Hun]

I dont suppose you would do one for XBMC Live or could someone point in the right direction ?

for XBMC live I'd suggest you either install the live distro directly with the integrated textmode installer or you follow the XBMCbuntu guide that's sticky on top of this forum. I tried both ways and ended up with more or less the same basic ubuntu installation with XBMC on top. the only benefits of the XBMCbuntu guide are that you are more flexibel with the partitioning and installation of the base system and that it is easier (for me) to cleanly install new graphics drivers from nvidia which screwed up my previous XBMC live system.

when you want an easy installation with a fully fledged ubuntu and graphical desktop, go for this excellent guide here; when you just want a basic HTPC with set-top style XBMC accessibility, go directly for the live system or try XBMCbuntu.

[medicineuk]

good guide, very clear....

just one question and i am really trying to not sound like an ass but cant think of a better way of writing this:

Why not just instal abmc live?

thats what i did, took 5-10mins and it worked out of the box the only thing i had to do was switch on VDPAU.

but as i said good guide if for some reason you dont want to use xbmc live.

It really depends on what you want to get out of your system. XBMC live really makes you feel like your using a true HTPC but if you want a complete OS with GUI it's not really perfect. I need to run utorrent along side XBMC which can't really be done with Live.

Is it necessary to install this driver from nvidia.com? Is not the same the propietary driver provides by ubuntu when detects your GPU (NVIDIA driver version 180).
You only have to go to "System > Administration > Restricted Hardware Drivers" and enable the appropriate driver.

This would do this how-to easier.

It would be but Linux doesn't show any updates so it can't be done.

When I used the Live CD, the GPU was reported as being UNKNOWN.

If I installed the drivers from NVIDIA (185.18.14), the GPU was correctly displayed as ION.

So, yes... its probably worth installing the NVIDIA drivers.

I experienced the same issue. Maybe in the next Live update this will be fixed

[Icey]

Hi Medicineuk - quick question I just wanted to double check with you since I am planning to have the exact same configuration - Ubuntu 9.04 install with XBMC. Does audio over HDMI work correctly for you?
Thanks!

[Starstream]

Hi Medicineuk - quick question I just wanted to double check with you since I am planning to have the exact same configuration - Ubuntu 9.04 install with XBMC. Does audio over HDMI work correctly for you?
Thanks!

Didn't for me when I tried it, have the same unit as medicineuk Asrock Ion 330.

Ubuntu saw the HDMI audio in the sound control panel but no audio would play only from the analogue output would it work.

[prae5]

Didn't for me when I tried it, have the same unit as medicineuk Asrock Ion 330.

Ubuntu saw the HDMI audio in the sound control panel but no audio would play only from the analogue output would it work.

I had no problem with the Asrock Ion 330 and hdmi audio. As long as you set the correct outputs in xbmc it works fine.

[Icey]

I had no problem with the Asrock Ion 330 and hdmi audio. As long as you set the correct outputs in xbmc it works fine.

That's good to hear. I assume you are also using a 9.04 install.

Did you have to tweak any settings in the BIOS or post Ubuntu install to get audio over HDMI working?

Perhaps your feedback could help Starstream - and me once I get one of these.

[Starstream]

Yeah any settings you can share prae5 either for XBMC Live or XBMC on Ubuntu would be helpful

[medicineuk]

Hi Medicineuk - quick question I just wanted to double check with you since I am planning to have the exact same configuration - Ubuntu 9.04 install with XBMC. Does audio over HDMI work correctly for you?
Thanks!

Sorry haven't tried it I have my audio working over S/PDIF. Maybe we should start a RSRock IONSTAR thread so that we can help each other out with hardware/XBMC issues.

[prae5]

I don't i have ASrock here, i helped a friend set it up. Will try and get the settings i used and will post them.

I used the XBMC Live installer and had audio downmixing to his tv over hdmi and also full passthrough when using his amp.

He had a few odd issues with his amp and video settings, but that was due to the edid data.

What settings are you using for you audio, and are you connecting to an amp or downmixing to a tv?

[Starstream]

I'm connecting to a sony rht-g900 sound system (5.1 system + HDMI repeater built in) with XBMC Live audio works over SPDIF but not over HDMI

Tried using iec958 for both in audio section or combo of hdmi/iec958 but could never get anything.

The test system I built prior to getting the Asrock Ion 330 had audio working over HDMI with both audio settings set at iec958, I figured the audio not working is a driver issue but if its just a configuration issue thats good news as wont have to wait for updated drivers.