[mandrake]

Hello

This is my first post on the forum. I am sad to say, that even though I am quite embedded in computers software, bit of programming etc, xbmc has flown me by,,until a few days ago.

I read lifehackers guide to a silent xbmc dedicated pc, and ordered the same day.

My setup:

Acer Revo 1600 1GB Ram, 160 GB Harddisk version
I installed the XBMC Live onto it..the machine is now running ONLY the XBMC, as everything else is deleted. Ps, I chose the ubuntu and 10.4 live when setting up my usb iso thingy.

Also, I haven't transfered my movies to the Acer machine, but I have connected my external hd.

My question is:

I have no experience with linux,xbmc or anything..and now I wonder how you copy an emulator and roms to it? As I understand, I have only xbmc,and no operating system, so how? I have read many forums and threads,,talking about codes,scripting addons, etc..but in general,,I cant make sense of the guides.

Also, how do I directly copy, say a movie, from my external hd to the acer machine? (by not using internet, but just from plugging in the external hd into the acer)

Any help would be greatly appreciated =) What should I do with all the coding I read on the threads? Where to write it? I really want NES on my machine =) Where do I install the emulators? ROMS?

Any information is greatly appreciated =)

Mandrake

[danz0l]

OK Mandrake i think you might be running before you can walk here my friend.

Linux is a beast to learn and can be very unforgiving to us that are just starting out. You'll constantly make mistakes, i do all the time, but its powerful and great fun.

What i would suggest is starting small and building on knowledge, we've all been there

To install an Emulator in linux (thats what your xbmc is running under, a ubuntu linux stripped down to save space and load up times, its still a full OS) means you will use the command line.

I will make a few assumptions here in that your revo is connected to your network and you have another PC probably running windows.

First and foremost you will need to find the local ip of your xbmc computer. Easiest way to do this is go to system > system info > summary and look at that page (it states ip address: write down the numbers after that).

Now to connect to your revo from your homepc you'll need a ssh/telnet client. Go get putty from

http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/late.../putty.exe

click and run that and enter the ip address you copied above into the host address box then click open.

You will be greeted with a prompt for your username and password (i assume you used xbmc for both of these when you set it all up). Enter that and your at a shell prompt.

From here you can pretty much do most things with your system.

Installing a nes emulator is pretty straightforward but getting it to work under xbmc a little less so. So as not to re-invent the wheel i would suggest looking at this guide

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=73428

The guide there will tell you what to write in the command prompt and what addons you'll likely need (launcher or rom collection browser, although the former is easier to set up).

So to install nes you will use the mednafen program

sudo apt-get install mednafen

Hope that gets your started.

[mandrake]

Thank you so much for your help =)

I spent lotsa hours on this today - but failed so far - here is what I did :

(psystem specs in first post)

I downloaded filezilla..set up the link between my nettop and my laptop. Worked like a charm. I then followed your tips to download the patched launcher. This worked I think, it is now in my program, and plugins - right next to the installer.

When I clicked the launcher, I choose the file application(i think it was-the one for emulation anyways) and I chose jnes.exe file as the startup(i downloaded jnes as the emulation), then I selected the Rom folder. I set nes as the file extension. Then i manually put over my one test rom. Which works, when i tested on my other computer anyways.

Now, nothing happened. Then I realized the thread you sent me to used the mednafen 0.8.9 program. Well, I copied this program to my home folder. Then I tried the same launcher method, but I cannot find any exe file for the mednafen program ?

Then there is some talk about the launcher.xml file?

There is something I am not quite getting here..would you please elaborate on some of the steps presented from your link? I am interested in the Nes solution.

Also: Quote:
sudo apt-get install mednafen where do I type this??


Best regards,
Mandrake

[mandrake]

Edit- this command is for the terminal? How do i open/access it ?:-)

[mandrake]

Tried running it in the terminal now..the mednafen line..but it says : couldn't find package mednafen

Where should I put the mednafen package? and how does the launcher interact with the mednafen thingy?? aww :/

any help is greatly appreciated

Mandrake

[MacGyver]

Using Launcher right now on Dharma is going to be a bit more tricky, you are going to have to create missing folders and create a Launcher.xml in there, using all kinds of terminal based commands and utilities. After all that, you will need to dial in your video, tweak your controller to not work in XBMC, and deal with the sound issues. I would wait on using emulators with XBMC until Dharma is final. (Otherwise you are going to have to redo it all over again) Just get used to tweaking XBMC first, and then try emulators, but if you are determined to do it, all the above instructions are in these forums.

Tried running it in the terminal now..the mednafen line..but it says : couldn't find package mednafen

Where should I put the mednafen package? and how does the launcher interact with the mednafen thingy?? aww :/

any help is greatly appreciated

Mandrake

Try

sudo apt-get update

first, then

sudo apt-get install mednafen

Good luck.

[mandrake]

thank you for your reply. However, I am not running the Dharma one..I think atleast :p I have 10.4live ubuntu - xbmc live , the one with confluence as default skin. So does your answer differ then? =)

Mandrake

[mandrake]

Does anyone know where to place the mednafen program? I tried the commands above, but it says it couldnt find mednafen