[animersmasta]

It'll be arriving at my house in 5 days.
Any tips on what I should do.
Xbmclive?
I have never used ubuntu in my life. Im so unknowledgable i dont even know whats the difference from linux and ubuntu.
I use mac and windows xp, 7
So when people talk about the ssh stuff. I'm like O.o
I've seen videos of ubuntu.
So if i put xbmclive will i be able to go on ubuntu (the os that looks like mac)
and set everything up for xbmc like the nvidia updated drives and all that nice stuff.
I want this acer revo to be purely xbmc after its set up.
So when i turn on the pc it'll be xbmc in the start.
People say that xbmc runs the best when its ubuntu which i would want it at its best. .
Sorry that I'm a total noob.

[Kirky99]

openELEC.tv

It'll take a bit of reading, etc, but not bad for a linux noob to get it buzzing along...

[animersmasta]

Hmmm not bad .

[Piston Broke]

I bought a Revo 3700 a few months ago installed openelec from a usb stick to the hard drive then just added the nas shares and changed skin to transparency and not had to look at the Revo since just use it

[seand]

Also remember for either XBMC Live or Open Elec you can run them off of a flash drive or SD card because they are so small and leave the HD or a larger partition on your computer for the occassional times you want a real OS and browser. So you can mix and match to suit your preference.

I chose a full Ubuntu including a basic gnome desktop interface with XBMC starting automatically just after it boots because even though it is a dedicated HTPC, I do occassionally look things up in Firefox, check on whats going on with SAB downloads, see whats available on NZB land, etc. I do also sometimes fire up Hulu Desktop for Linux. Also FWIW I still find XBMC's music scrapers a bit buggy, personally, (maybe its me) so if I want to just play some music, I often fire up Rhythm Box (ubuntu's barebones built in music app) instead. I guess since it was my first Ubuntu computer it was also a learning experience that I wasn't ready to go solo without a GUI desktop interface yet.

Here's how to have XBMC autoboot with Ubuntu's gnome GUI in the background if you go that route, second option, bottom of the page.
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW...Step_Guide

[animersmasta]

Also remember for either XBMC Live or Open Elec you can run them off of a flash drive or SD card because they are so small and leave the HD or a larger partition on your computer for the occassional times you want a real OS and browser. So you can mix and match to suit your preference.

I chose a full Ubuntu including a basic gnome desktop interface with XBMC starting automatically just after it boots because even though it is a dedicated HTPC

This is what I'm trying to decide.
In my previous thread.

"If your fairly competent with computers you should be fine. I was just like you, had no idea about Linux when I got my zotac mag (I'm assuming the acer is also an ion, so it should be pretty much the same experience). There were some things that I found out later that were supposed to be easy to figure out but I didn't find that way. For exampe if you follow the guide to installing xbmc on ubuntu it tells you how to make it auto start into xbmc. What I didnt know was how to get back into ubuntu. Apparently wht it does is makes a new "session" where ubuntu only loads xbmc and related tools. It won't load up thte ubuntu gui. To get back to that you need to quit (not shut down) xbmc and then wait for the login page to come up. After that on the bottom, before logging in again you can pick a session.

Are you planning on using xbmc live or xbmc in ubuntu? Both can do 1080p just fine, but with a ubuntu instillation it makes it easier to configure things for the computer. Are you also planning on getting sound out through hdmi? If you are don't install xbmc live, its way easier to get hdmi sound to work from ubuntu. There are lots of guides out there for hdmi sound, but the only thing that worked for me in the end was removing pulse audio. Just keep that in mind. If you get any more questions feel free to pm me, I think I know exactly how overwhelmed you might be feeling switching to ubuntu, but it's worth it! "
Now that I have it coming in 3 days (my acer revo)
I'm still undecisive.
I'm thinking of doing this.
How would I go about in doing this.
And any comments on it?
If this is a good idea.

[seand]

On the 3610 I run gnome in the background all the time. I use a mini Lenovo keyboard. When we are watching something and we pause XBMC for a minute to answer the phone or run to kitchen or what have you, I use the backlash key to toggle XBMC in and out of full screen/windowed. I often leave Firefox open to my SAB daemon page open. It does not adversely effect XBMC performance that I can tell.

Some people prefer the total appliance experience. Its more preference than anything else.

[seand]

I'm realizing i was a bit cryptiC.

There are many flavors of Linux. A lot of them are pretty industrial in flavor with no graphic interface at all. XBMC Live and Open Elec are both designed to be super minimal installs in terms of OS with everything you need to run XBMC and nothing else.

Since you are unsure about jumping feet first into that kind of environment where in case something doesn't work you have to log into terminal and adjust things with Linux line commands why not install one of those two on a USB thumb drive or SD card. Then on your Revo install Ubuntu or get fancy and partition the drive to have both a Windows 7 and Linux partition.

Thats what i did. Basically I think your 3700 will come like my 3610 - preinstalled with a version of Windows 7 with a bunch of bloatware you won't want to run. So I "found" an OEM Windows iso on the internet used my Mac to burn a Windows 7 install CD. I had a USB DVD drive to boot the Revo from but you can use a tool called win to flash I think to make a Windows install image on a thumb drive also. Its generally easier to first resintall Windows leaving blank unpartitioned space for Ubuntu than to install Ubuntu first so whats what I recommend doing.For me at this point I opened it up and put in a blank SSD drive to increase speed and reduce heat.

I used the Bios to boot Windows from USB and then from the installer reformatted the HD to leave a big chunk unformatted for Ubuntu. Windows 7 and its hidden "restore" partition want a minimum of about 30gig, Ubuntu probably deserves at least 20. How you split it beyond that is up to you. Install Windows 7 from the OEM image (either disc or the flash drive you just made) and use the serial number on the side of the Revo for Windows's serial number. You can download Ubuntu from Ubuntu.com and either make a CD or thumbdrive installer and again boot from the installer to format the empty space you left from the Windows 7 reinstall. Ubuntu installer is smart enough to leave both the main Windows 7 and its hidden "restore" partition alone and will install Grub to help you in multi-booting. It will guide you through partitioning your blank portion of your HD for Ubuntu, formatting the Linux partition and installing Ubuntu.

If you are careful in your steps you can reformat the same flash drive 3 times - once to reinstall Windows, once to install ubuntu and once to be your XBMC Live/Open Elec boot drive. That way you can try XBMC all 3 ways - in Windows, in Ubuntu, and stand alone as a self-contained apliance with no desktop GUI.

I have found I like Ubuntu with a basic gnome (not the extra desktop animations) and Firefox and Hulu Desktop for Linux (in case the icefilms plug-in for XBMC is acting up). Rather than having having to launch gnome after XBMC quits I use the bottom option to auto load XBMC right after gnome loads with gnome running in the background always. That way I can as I said use the backslash to toggle XBMC into windowed mode, minimize the window and go fiddle with my various file downloading web daemons whenever I pause XBMC viewing without totally shutting down XBMC basically ever. With SSD drive the heat build up in the Revo is not so bad and energy consumption is less than with a conventional HD. After you install ubuntu you will want update VDPAU and NVIDIA drivers, also Flash if you plan to use it, for example with Hulu desktop.

I know folks say that running this extra stuff slows down XBMC but honestly with the SSD the only time I could tell apps were slowing each other down was the time, just to see what would happen, when I tried running XBMC and Hulu Desktop at the same time. I've often left SAB and Sickbeard tabs open in Firefox for days at a time I'm afraid to admit and it hasn't, from what i could tell, affect XBMC playback, though I probably would not recommend it.

YMMV.