Hacking the Boxee Box to run XBMC?

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teaguecl Offline
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2011-10-05 17:41 Post: #471
Getting root is nice - but until there is a exploit for the signed bootloader the BoxeeBox is not a viable platform. If/when that happens, Team XBMC has been very clear that they don't have any interest in supporting closed platforms (though they would take patches).
The question always comes back to: Why?
BoxeeBox is an outdated hardware platform. It can't do anything that can't be done with a cheap Ion system.
Netflix you say? Nope, XBMC on BoxeeBox still won't play Netflix unless you illegally use the signed library from the Boxee firmware.
But BoxeeBox is cheap, right? Nope. It's subsidized, which is why it's cheap. If people buy the subsidized hardware and not the services - then the hardware will disappear after one generation.
Hack the bootloader, then resurrect this topic.
Habey BIS-6561 silent fanless HTPC + 2GB DDR2 RAM + Intel X25-V 40GB SSD + XBMCbuntu Eden + Tivo Slide qwerty remote | My latest XBMC patch
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boogerjim Offline
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2011-10-13 01:12 Post: #472
teaguecl, I have to kindly ask you... what the hell are you talking about?!?

The Boxee Box being outdated... it was released last year my friend! I would hardly call that outdated. The performance is lacking, but that doesn't make it "outdated".

Yes... there is a python sandbox on it preventing you from modding it, but that never stopped real hackers before. Big Grin Time is on our side my friend and it's only a matter of that before it happens... period.

Netflix is a whole different ballgame. They introduce their own problems by simply existing... not to mention the authentication troubles their app brings.

teaguecl Wrote:But BoxeeBox is cheap, right? Nope. It's subsidized, which is why it's cheap. If people buy the subsidized hardware and not the services - then the hardware will disappear after one generation.

Uhhhh no! Where the hell did you hear this from?? Nobody is "subsidizing" the cost of the hardware whatsoever... not the customers, not D-Link, not Boxee, not Netflix... so if you have hard proof of this from a formal business announcement, please share it with us. This would be news to the world if this were the case. Cost is controlled by supply and demand and seeing as how Boxee has had alot of troubles in it's first year, price went down... plain and simple.
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lacosta Offline
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Joined: Jan 2011
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2011-11-19 18:37 Post: #473
google translate .. sry

I tried XBMC and lib from openelec project and result ist :

Code:
Unknown parameter encountered: "debug"
Ignoring unknown parameter "debug"
sh: lsb_release: not found
Could not init logging classes. Permission errors on ~/.xbmc?
ERROR: Unable to create application. Exiting

with strace

Code:
readlink("/proc/2087/exe", "/tmp/mnt/B270-86CC/usr/lib/xbmc/xbmc.bin", 4096) = 40
mkdir("//.xbmc/", 0755)                 = -1 EROFS (Read-only file system)
mkdir("//.xbmc/addons/", 0755)          = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
mkdir("//.xbmc/addons/", 0755)          = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
mkdir("//.xbmc/addons/packages/", 0755) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
mkdir("//.xbmc/addons/packages/", 0755) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
mkdir("//.xbmc/media/", 0755)           = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
mkdir("//.xbmc/media/", 0755)           = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
mkdir("//.xbmc/sounds/", 0755)          = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
....

and portable mode
Code:
readlink("/proc/2097/exe", "/tmp/mnt/B270-86CC/usr/lib/xbmc/xbmc.bin", 4096) = 40
mkdir("/opt/boxee/portable_data/", 0755) = -1 EROFS (Read-only file system)
mkdir("/opt/boxee/portable_data/addons/", 0755) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
mkdir("/opt/boxee/portable_data/addons/", 0755) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
mkdir("/opt/boxee/portable_data/addons/packages/", 0755) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
mkdir("/opt/boxee/portable_data/addons/packages/", 0755) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
mkdir("/opt/boxee/portable_data/media/", 0755) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
mkdir("/opt/boxee/portable_data/media/", 0755) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
mkdir("/opt/boxee/portable_data/sounds/", 0755) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
mkdir("/opt/boxee/portable_data/sounds/", 0755) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
mkdir("/opt/boxee/portable_data/system/", 0755) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
....

I modified the following LD export:

remove /lib coz error with stdc++ and add lib dir with libs from openelec from sdcard
Code:
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH='/opt/local/lib:/opt/local/qt-4.7/lib:/opt/local/qt/lib:/usr/lib:/usr/local/lib:/opt/boxee/system/players/flashplayer:/mnt/B270-86CC/usr/lib'
(Dir in /mnt is sdcard)

This is by far all I know ...
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riconster Offline
Junior Member
 Posts: 4
Joined: Apr 2011
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2012-04-09 10:46 Post: #474
D-Link and Boxee violate the GPL by Tivoization of the Boxee Box!

The Boxee Box was shipped containing GPLv3 software, but D-Link and Boxee refuse to permit installation of custom software. Go to http://infinityoverzero.com/bbox/ for the whole story.

Open this platform and put XBMC on it!
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war59312 Offline
Junior Member
 Posts: 23
Joined: May 2011
Reputation: 0
Location: SC
2012-08-03 05:02 Post: #475
A little good news.

Latest Boxee Box firmware 1.5 has been rooted: http://www.gtvhacker.com/index.php/Boxee
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Ned Scott Offline
Team-XBMC Wiki Guy
 Posts: 11,928
Joined: Jan 2011
Reputation: 131
Location: Arizona, USA
2012-08-03 10:00 Post: #476
(2012-04-09 10:46)riconster Wrote:  D-Link and Boxee violate the GPL by Tivoization of the Boxee Box!

The Boxee Box was shipped containing GPLv3 software, but D-Link and Boxee refuse to permit installation of custom software. Go to http://infinityoverzero.com/bbox/ for the whole story.

Open this platform and put XBMC on it!

Personally, I believe GPL v3 is a horrible cancer on the open source movement, restricts more than it frees, and needs to die in a fire. But that's just me.
You can make easy links to the XBMC wiki using double brackets around words: [[debug log]] = debug log, [[Add-on:YouTube]] = Add-on:YouTube, [[Adding videos to the library]] = Adding videos to the library, [[userdata]] = userdata, etc
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