[kees667]

I just installed Ubuntu and XBMC. I used the minimal ubuntu as described here: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=55282

I guess I owe a lot of people thanks for getting this far! The system connects to my tv using hdmi (picture is perfect) and I used the optical cable to connect to my amplifier. The thing works but I need help with some stuff

-During install I got an alsamixer screen. I escpaed through it as I didnt know what to do. Now in XBMC my movies have 5.1 sound, but simple mp3 files give no audio at all. I guess I should have done something here?
Couldn't find any other relevant settings in XBMC. Is there a volume somewhere?

-I played an HD movie and wanted to see cpu usage and framedrops. I googled that I had to press I, but that only shows filename and duration?

-next challenge is to get files on the asrock harddisk. I went to network settinggs but ftp server is missing. Yikes! what do I do next? I did install samba with ubuntu but not a clue where to start.

[vikjon0]

-During install I got an alsamixer screen. I escpaed through it as I didnt know what to do. Now in XBMC my movies have 5.1 sound, but simple mp3 files give no audio at all. I guess I should have done something here?
Couldn't find any other relevant settings in XBMC. Is there a volume somewhere?

I am not sure exactly where you went wrong. I have the exaxt same setup and I get mp3 witout changing anyting except from analog => digital in the sound HW settings.
The settings I have are:
Digital
on
on
default
iec958
on (downmix)

Check the alsa settings and make sure you turn the volume up and unmute the correct (or all) channel. Press m to toggle mute. ESC to exit
then type
sudo alsactl store
to save the settings.

-I played an HD movie and wanted to see cpu usage and framedrops. I googled that I had to press I, but that only shows filename and duration?

press o

-next challenge is to get files on the asrock harddisk. I went to network settinggs but ftp server is missing. Yikes! what do I do next? I did install samba with ubuntu but not a clue where to start.

There are a few alternatives, I think sftp is recommended to the liveCD, or install samba. It can be done from command line, just google it. I have a minimal gnome desktop installed and setup samba from there (nautilus-share)