[N00bB0y]

Hi, ok here goes; I have a oldish box I am trying to use as a media center/occasional test server. You should probably disregard the later part for now, it's mostly irrelevant to this discussion (I will probably just use live cds on the occasions I need it for that).

Previously I was using GeexBox, which worked pretty well, but doesn't have the functionality I'm looking for; and is just a little bland.

So I installed Linux Mint (basically Unbuntu with a bunch of user-friendly crap added) and got XBMC installed and running just fine under that, however it didn't have the "set-top feel" I was going for, and I suspected it was probably a bit more sluggish and bloated than need be.

So it seemed XBMC live is what I've been looking for.

I downloaded and burned the ISO and installed it onto the first of two HD's in the box, no big deal, no data on there and it installed ok..(in retrospect I probably should have tested the live cd version first.)

XBMC boots from the HD and everything but after the splash screen displays normally for awhile, the screen starts to flicker and has double images overlapping.

When I try booting the live cd now, it gets a little past the slpash, and then seems to get caught in some kind of loop somewhere in the boot process. The screen will just flash and then it will go back to the "terminal", then screen flash, then "terminal" etc.

I have several suspects:
1) The most likely one; my graphics card, it some crappy integrated card and I half suspected I wouldn't be able to use XBMC, but I got it running fine under Linux Mint, and it's worked with a bunch of other relatively straining uses. I know it's capable of running DX9, but I'm not sure about some of the other requirements.

2) Less likely, but I'm not entirely ruling it out: I am using a VGA to RCA scan converter...I suppose it's possible that it is the culprit, but all adjustments I make don't make any discernible difference and it doesn't give me any trouble with other uses, but I suppose XBMC Live could have a default refresh rate or something it doesn't like. I'm planning on hooking a monitor up instead to be sure, but ATM it's not available(I'm on a laptop right now) and that will have to wait.

3)The CD is corrupt in some way, I've had vaguely similar problems with Live CD's in the past due to this issue, usually there are options to check the ISO when downloaded, and when booting it will have a "check cd" option, but I don't recall seeing an option like that for XBMC Live.

So any ideas? Am I just SOL?

Is there some distinction between the versions of XBMC I am missing? Why would it work under Linux, but not as XBMC Live (which is basically just a stripped down linux environment, right)?

I read over the instructions for creating a slimmed down Unbuntu/XBMC and I'm wondering if this may be the route to go since when I installed it before under Linux Mint it worked fine, and this might also provide some of the test server functionality I wanted as well.

I'm familiar with all the concepts and techniques contained in the tutorial, I feel comfortable attempting it and confident I could do it without any problems...Actually I was planning on doing this if the XBMC live install went well/worked... but I don't want to bother unless there's a decent chance it will eliminate my problem.

So anyone who's kung fu is greater than mine with have any insight/advice?

The system is a 2.something ghz celeron with half a gig of ram. I'm not sure of the type of integrated graphics but I intend to find out. Unfortunately the Mobo only has PCI slots...when I decided on this project I wanted to upgrade the card, but in my browsing all the PCI cards I found either sucked, or were priced out of what I'm willing to spend (about 20$).

I realize I've skipped some important info/steps...but it's semi late, I've had a really bad day, and still have much to do. I'm planning on attacking this again tomorrow fresh, and hopefully in the mean-time you nice people will provide some advice/insight.

If I don't get it fixed or if it's requested I'll post more info tomorrow.

P.S. I searched a few times to find if anyone had similar problems, but found nothing. If there is an existing thread on this topic, kindly point me to it.

P.P.S Thanks in advance.

P.P.P.S hehe I said "P.P."

Update: After testing and fooling around a bit, I find I get the same problem with Geexbox when I choose the "Start GeexBox for HD TV option" rather than "Start GeexBox" option at boot.

[Clumsy]

Sounds like a graphic card issue, but in spite of the enormous amount of text you didn't give enough information We would need a debug log, or at the very least need to know what kind of graphic chip that is you have there. Oh yeah, and less text

[N00bB0y]

How would I go about getting the debug log with the live cd?

As I said I would provide the rest of the info when possible.

Mostly I was just hoping someone could explain (or speculate) why it would work installed under Linux Mint and not as a Live Cd...not smarty pants replies! :p

Once I have some idea of that I can probably figure out the rest from there.

Obviously when I install XBMC under Mint it is "taking some cues" from Mint so to speak in terms of settings etc, but I'm not sure what those are. The Linux Mint install was basically fresh, I did very little in terms of configuring it before installing XBMC, and most of that was unrelated stuff.

I believe I recall somewhere in the XBMC documentation saying you can get access to the underlying OS, so once I figure out what is different in my Linux Mint environment versus the XBMC Linux environment, I can just copy the settings over.

I guess I'll try that or maybe I'll just go ahead and try rolling my own Unbuntu/XBMC setup.

I'm pretty positive it's the graphics card at this point.

For reference this is the system:
http://www2.dealtime.com/xPF-Hewlett-Pac...Desktop-Pc

It has a "Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900"
http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/gma900/index.htm

Currently I've set up a temporary fix by using GeexBox and TVersity...this has provided a lot of the functionality I wanted but it's not as elegant and simple as I would like.

[Maxim]

A reasoning behind Mint working and Live not might be that Mint has newer software, mainly drivers and a newer kernel. The Mint your using is probably the one that came out just last month or so, and XBMC Live was built a couple of months before that.

Not much can be done without logs though. You can access the logs by switching to a terminal, and inserting a USB drive, mounting it and writing the logs to that. As well as accessing while using XBMC Live accessing it using the SFTP protocol.

Since it seems to be a problem with X, the /var/log/Xorg.log would be most helpful at this point.

Also you could try and do an update:

Code:

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

[N00bB0y]

Maxim, thank you for the helpful reply ( you too Clumsy).

I will get the debug log and check back.

At this point I'm pretty sure I just want to go ahead and set up my own XBMCbuntu rather than get the live version working, but I really want to (and it's probably neccesary) to understand what's going on here first.

I think you're right that it's an X issue, because initially the boot screen is fine, but then the doubling and flicker starts, and that's probably when X is loading.

It could possibly be the fact that Linux Mint is newer, but Linux Mint is basically Unbuntu with a bunch of user-friendly stuff installed mostly configuration/administration scripts/software and UI tweaks. AFAIK in terms of drivers and low level stuff like that, it should be basically the same as Jaunty (unless of course it's proprietary or closed source stuff which i think Unbuntu doesn't include for philosophical reasons)

Mint always lags a few months behind Unbuntu so depending on what you mean by "a couple months" they are probably basically the same, but I could be wrong.

I have some ideas to try, and like I said I'll get the log and check back in.