[lcapriotti]

New XBMC Live release: XBMC Live 9.11 Alpha1

This release marks the beginnign of a new cycle of XBMCLive. Both the SDK and the initial boot process have been completely changed, taking advantage of tools developed for Debian systems (check live-helper and live-initramfs for some more technical insight). This will not only bring additional functionalities to the boot process, but also easing the image creation. More on these in due time.

Before going on, check the Wiki FAQ on XBMC Live.

Details about the release:

* Based on Ubuntu Karmic
* NVIDIA drivers: 190.42 (VDPAU included on supported GPUs)
* ATI/AMD drivers: Catalyst 9.10
* Intel drivers: default xorg
* Natively supports MCEUSB remotes
* Uses duduke's great "spinner black" usplash theme!
* Boot script automatically increasing the system audio volume
* Install to HDD method: the installer creates a standard Ubuntu system on the target disk
* The installer can now treat fixed disks as removable disks, vital for systems where compact flash disks are used. (New in this release)

The XBMC repositories sources are already configured and topfs2's cool script "Aptitude" is included, so updating XBMC to follow the new releases will hopefully be easy!
The plugin "SVN Repo Installer" is also included, thus installing new scripts/plugins/skins will be easier.

NEW: this release already includes the magic tvheadend package, which brings live TV in XBMCLive. The PVR branch of XBMC is not yet ready, but read this thread to understand how to interact with tvh. The default credentials for the web interface are xbmc/xbmc.

Wiki references:

Building the ISO image -
Configuring XBMC Live -
Building restricted drivers for XBMC Live

A quick TOC of what has been already asked; note that these posts are related to previous releases so instructions are not 100% accurate

Login to underlining OS: here
XBMC Live with ATI/AMD graphics controller boots to black screen?: here
Live (HDD install) - Resume from Standby: here
AutoBoot settings for XBMC Live USB?: here
Backup XBMC Live USB in windows: here
FTP access to Live: here
XBMC live volume output too low: here
Disable CPU throttling: here
Building a XBMC Live USB without burning a CD on Windows: here
Manually updating an existing XBMC Live on HDD: here
How do I save alsamixer settings on XBMC Live?: here
How to mount hard disk drives on XBMC Live: here

[Geeba]

Top stuff! - as I'm pretty green when it comes to Linux this is great. Thank you!

Any chance Xbox remote will ever be written in? it would make my transition from Xbox to Live easier... WAF etc..

[theuni]

Worked perfectly out of the box here. Great job!

TheUni

[BritBloke]

Great, looking forward to testing this. Just using UNetbootin now to create my USB drive install.

[pajretX]

Hi there,
everything but streaming video through plugins works fine
here's the logfile: http://pastebin.com/m68863849

Kermic Koala with all avaible updates and the lates xbmc from svn

Regards,

[Kazuka]

Installed fine on my ASRock 330 ION system. Looks great so far!

[Token78]

Seems to be working on my Zotac 9300-A-E.

Two questions though, where this xbmcLive seems to be at odds with the quick TOC items listed in the first post...

1) Is menu.lst gone from /boot/grub/ ?
So how then should I automount my drives?

2) I've got my USB stick open right now on another Ubuntu machine,
and there definitely is no syslinux.cfg file showing in the root directory?
So how would I now go about autobooting with the Nvidia settings?


Any assistance would be appreciated!
Thanks for all the amazing work!

[harryzimm]

Seems to be working on my Zotac 9300-A-E.

Two questions though, where this xbmcLive seems to be at odds with the quick TOC items listed in the first post...

1) Is menu.lst gone from /boot/grub/ ?
So how then should I automount my drives?

2) I've got my USB stick open right now on another Ubuntu machine,
and there definitely is no syslinux.cfg file showing in the root directory?
So how would I now go about autobooting with the Nvidia settings?


Any assistance would be appreciated!
Thanks for all the amazing work!

edit /boot/grub/grub.cfg

cheers

[Token78]

edit /boot/grub/grub.cfg

cheers

Cool - Thanks a lot man! I have to admit I was at a loss until you answered!

[Scott R]

* Install to HDD method: the installer creates a standard Ubuntu system on the target disk

I don't suppose this means that we can now specify partition info during the install (e.g., to keep an existing Windows XP partition intact)?

[dogotcat]

Am i doing something wrong because I install the xbmc live version a usb on my asrock. When it goes to boot into it after all is done installing after reboot.I get is a blank screen. there is also no xbmc folder on the usb.

[Token78]

Just discovered that XBMClive doesn't recognise HFS+ (mac) partitions.

I had been usinng XBMC thru a normal Ubuntu Jaunty install & using HFS formated USB sticks to move files accross or watch movies.
What's even more awesome is that Snow Leopard doesnt seem to want to play with ext2. Bugger.

UPDATE: NTFS formatted USB stick also NOT recognised...
argle!

HELP!

[vikjon0]

I have tested the Live alpha on my Asrock ION 330 BIOS 1.60.
Playback works pretty great out of the box! See below what I have tested.

I have a few technical problem though.

Problems
1) Mount does not work. (I removed nodiskmount)

2) Long pause after NVIDIA is selected until boot splash is shown.
The total boot time is longer than full ubuntu gdm + xbmc.

3) Auto adjust refresh rate does not work. I assume xorg.conf has to be edited with the 2 magic lines.

4) Wakeup from suspend does not work with remote nor BT keyboard. Have to press power button. It worked fine on xbmcbuntu setup with 9.04.1.

Clearification needed in FAQ?
It is not clear to me from the FAQ how to edit the grub.
syslinux.cfg does not exist(?) and grub.cfg I could only see if I access the usb when booted from another disk.
nano /boot/grub/grub.cfg gives me a new empty file.


Installation process
I would like to be able to install to USB as if fixed disk.
Maybe not a common request but shouldn't be a problem to implement?
The reason is that I only use the USB as a test system to test new stuff before I imlement it on the fixed disk. To do this I need both systems to be the same.


Working directly:
1) sound spdif working
2) VDPAU working (killa sample playes fine)
3) MCE remote working
4) MP3 plays in correct speed

[topfs2]

Just discovered that XBMClive doesn't recognise HFS+ (mac) partitions.

I had been usinng XBMC thru a normal Ubuntu Jaunty install & using HFS formated USB sticks to move files accross or watch movies.
What's even more awesome is that Snow Leopard doesnt seem to want to play with ext2. Bugger.

UPDATE: NTFS formatted USB stick also NOT recognised...
argle!

HELP!

Logs would be appreciated, it should work but the devicekit implementation (ubuntu switched to it in karmic) is still not perfected.

I have tested the Live alpha on my Asrock ION 330 BIOS 1.60.
Playback works pretty great out of the box! See below what I have tested.

I have a few technical problem though.

Problems
1) Mount does not work. (I removed nodiskmount)

2) Long pause after NVIDIA is selected until boot splash is shown.
The total boot time is longer than full ubuntu gdm + xbmc.

3) Auto adjust refresh rate does not work. I assume xorg.conf has to be edited with the 2 magic lines.

4) Wakeup from suspend does not work with remote nor BT keyboard. Have to press power button. It worked fine on xbmcbuntu setup with 9.04.1.

1) read the other answer.

4) Resume from USB isn't default on linux plattform, same on all linux based distros. We are working on a tool to make this be autoconfigured though, but it's not a trivial process.

[Token78]

Logs would be appreciated, it should work but the devicekit implementation (ubuntu switched to it in karmic) is still not perfected.

Ok, tomorrow I'll try work out how to provide you some logs. At the moment I've managed to get my bios to register the USB stick as a hard drive upon boot, and am able access its NTFS partition that way.

RE: vikjon0's Ion & his inability to mount - I don't know if this helps, but I believe that ION boards use the same chipset as my Zotac 9300-A-E, only pre-packaged with an atom CPU? Anyhow I've had no problem's mounting my ext4 drive, all it took was removing nodiskmount, and the drive shows up no worries when I go to add sources.


I just want to say though, that I am WELL impressed with 9.11 - bloody good work! You wouldn't even believe that this is only the alpha. Man, the proper release is going to blow the socks off any other Media center experience out there!

So to all the developers and contributors out there, I just want to say NICE WORK and thank you all very very much!