Here goes: the how-to for using Broadcom Crystal HD card (BCM70012) on mini-PCIe mobo with Ubuntu Karmic 64 bit.
- Install Ubuntu Karmic 64 bit on your favorite motherboard with a mini-PCIe slot containing a Broadcom Crystal HD video decoding acceleration card. Or use a mini-PCIe to PCIe converter card if you only have PCIe. Make sure you have OpenGL drivers installed. Intel graphics will probably work out of the box.
- Download and unpack broadcom driver
Code:
cd ~
wget -O crystalhd.tar.gz http://git.wilsonet.com//crystalhd.git?a=snapshot;h=82bb6578c4e7cafdbbfb898e2eddea5116969e8d;sf=tgz
tar zxvf chrystalhd.tar.gz
- Install needed packages
Code:
sudo apt-get update
apt-get install autoconf g++ subversion
- Create the configure script
Code:
cd ~/crystalhd/driver/linux
autoconf
- Run configure script
- Compile driver
Note that 'make clean' is to make sure no files from failed attempts are messing things up. It is not always needed, but does no harm.
- Install driver
- Load driver
Code:
sudo modprobe crystalhd
- Compile crystalhd libraries
Code:
cd ~/linux_lib/libcrystalhd
make clean
make
- Install libraries
- Add XBMC SVN binary and source repositories by adding the following two lines to your sources:
Code:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc/ppa/ubuntu karmic main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc/ppa/ubuntu karmic main
Please note that 'add ppa:team-xbmc/ppa' won't work because it doesn't add the source code repository!
- Update package list
- Install the following package separately.
Code:
sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev
This is done to avoid the following step from failing.
- Install all dependancies for compiling XBMC
Code:
sudo apt-get build-dep xbmc
- Download the latest XBMC code to the XBMC folder
Code:
cd ~
svn co https://xbmc.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/xbmc/trunk/ XBMC
This will take a while. Be patient, drink some coffee. Or two.
- If you want to download a specific revision number, you can do that. The next command would download revision 26614 for example.
Code:
svn co https://xbmc.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/xbmc/trunk/@26614 XBMC
- Create the configure script.
Don't use 'autoconf'. That won't work.
- Run the configure script.
- Compile XBMC
This will take a long time. Bake a cake to go with that coffee.
- Now you're done. You can run XBMC from your home directory by running:
Code:
cd ~
./XBMC/xbmc.bin
We're not going to install XBMC because it runs fine from your home directory, and you're likely to try out new revisions now and again. Please note that sometimes XBMC crashes immediately. Just start it again, and it will be fine.
- From within XBMC you need to select Broadcom Crystal HD as your video renderer under system->video. Also select 'Use pixel buffer objects' to make video playback start with less delay.
- Check if it's working by downloading a
h264 encoded video and press 'o' during playback. It should show bcm-h264 being used as video renderer.
- To get sound working properly you might consider removing pulseaudio.
Code:
apt-get purge pulseaudio
This is not specific to the Broadcom Card.
- Also make sure you have disabled display effects under appearance preferences in Gnome. This reduces artifacts.
- Lastly you might want to disable that annoying pop-up that tells you there are updates during the best parts of the movie by unchecking Update Notifier under System -> Preferences -> Sessions -> Startup Programs (tab).
Enjoy!