2008-12-05, 13:36
XBMC can be run in Debian Lenny.
This is a quick and basic guide to the general steps not a detailed how-to, although one may follow as I have the time.
Basic Guide:
1) Install Debian Lenny- preferably using XFCE
2) Update the system fully: apt-get update, apt-get upgrade reboot (likely a new kernel version) and then upgrade again to ensure ALL updates are installed.
3) Edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file to add contrib and non-free
4) install 3d drivers for video, preferably the "Debian Way." Ensure that 3d is working properly.
4) Here comes one of the harder parts: find every codec and library related to multimedia that you can- ensure that you include related development code wherever possible (packages ending in "-dev" and beginning with "lib")
5) Test that you can actually playback media using a player already installed
6) Download XBMC from svn- (mkdir xbmc, then cd xbmc in a terminal first. then run svn to download)
svn co http://xbmc.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/...linuxport/
7) Open up the readme.LINUX file and install every dependency and associated "-dev" you can using apt. (NOTE that there were a couple that I was NOT able to find as listed.) If there is a "-dev" available for a file that is in the readme that doesn't SAY the -dev is required, I installed it anyway.
8) Start a terminal session in the linuxport/XBMC directory and run "./configure."
If this stops at any point something is missing: find it, install it and run configure again until it completes successfully.
9) After "./configure" run "make" - you should have no errors at this point, but if you do, install or configure whatever causes the error.
10) Change over to the root account- "su root" (Note that I did all steps IN the root account, but this should not be required for configure or make.)
10) Run "make install."
11) Once "make install" has completed successfully, exit the root account.
12) Start XBMC and enjoy!
Again, this is just a rough guide and I hope to improve on it soon.
The total time for my installation yesterday (after failed previous attempts) was about 4 hours to install Lenny, update it and then prepare to compile XBMC. 3 Hours of that was installing codecs, libraries and satisfying dependencies.
Configure ran fairly quickly, make ran while I was sleeping.
Make install ran this morning in just a minute or 3.
XBMC is currently playing a 1080i movie that I have been testing with pretty well.
Notes on this:
I have tested XBMC in Ubuntu (installed JUST for that purpose!) and while the install was easier, playback of this test film was not good on this same exact hardware.
I have tested other solutions as well- Elisa and MythTV for example, and while MythTV does fine, if a tuner card is not being used.... well, it is not optimal.
XBMC on Debian Lenny with a basic install (plus code required for XBMC) runs far better than XBMC and a basic install of Ubuntu.
The hardware I am using is a P4 2.4Ghz chip, 2GB of DDR and an AGP NVidia 6600GT video card.
Thanks to the developers of XBMC-
I am not a console fan, or user, but I am glad you folks are and that you have made your work available for architectures other than the XBox.
More to follow.
This is a quick and basic guide to the general steps not a detailed how-to, although one may follow as I have the time.
Basic Guide:
1) Install Debian Lenny- preferably using XFCE
2) Update the system fully: apt-get update, apt-get upgrade reboot (likely a new kernel version) and then upgrade again to ensure ALL updates are installed.
3) Edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file to add contrib and non-free
4) install 3d drivers for video, preferably the "Debian Way." Ensure that 3d is working properly.
4) Here comes one of the harder parts: find every codec and library related to multimedia that you can- ensure that you include related development code wherever possible (packages ending in "-dev" and beginning with "lib")
5) Test that you can actually playback media using a player already installed
6) Download XBMC from svn- (mkdir xbmc, then cd xbmc in a terminal first. then run svn to download)
svn co http://xbmc.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/...linuxport/
7) Open up the readme.LINUX file and install every dependency and associated "-dev" you can using apt. (NOTE that there were a couple that I was NOT able to find as listed.) If there is a "-dev" available for a file that is in the readme that doesn't SAY the -dev is required, I installed it anyway.
8) Start a terminal session in the linuxport/XBMC directory and run "./configure."
If this stops at any point something is missing: find it, install it and run configure again until it completes successfully.
9) After "./configure" run "make" - you should have no errors at this point, but if you do, install or configure whatever causes the error.
10) Change over to the root account- "su root" (Note that I did all steps IN the root account, but this should not be required for configure or make.)
10) Run "make install."
11) Once "make install" has completed successfully, exit the root account.
12) Start XBMC and enjoy!
Again, this is just a rough guide and I hope to improve on it soon.
The total time for my installation yesterday (after failed previous attempts) was about 4 hours to install Lenny, update it and then prepare to compile XBMC. 3 Hours of that was installing codecs, libraries and satisfying dependencies.
Configure ran fairly quickly, make ran while I was sleeping.
Make install ran this morning in just a minute or 3.
XBMC is currently playing a 1080i movie that I have been testing with pretty well.
Notes on this:
I have tested XBMC in Ubuntu (installed JUST for that purpose!) and while the install was easier, playback of this test film was not good on this same exact hardware.
I have tested other solutions as well- Elisa and MythTV for example, and while MythTV does fine, if a tuner card is not being used.... well, it is not optimal.
XBMC on Debian Lenny with a basic install (plus code required for XBMC) runs far better than XBMC and a basic install of Ubuntu.
The hardware I am using is a P4 2.4Ghz chip, 2GB of DDR and an AGP NVidia 6600GT video card.
Thanks to the developers of XBMC-
I am not a console fan, or user, but I am glad you folks are and that you have made your work available for architectures other than the XBox.
More to follow.