[chippyteaforme]

Hi all, and apologies in advance for my not having a clue about XBMC

I've just received an ASRock ION 330 with Blu-Ray drive, and I'm intending to use this as my main source in my new home-theatre setup.

Unfortunately, this means that my old, slightly technophobic parents will be using it

I'll be transferring all the series that I previously had to burn onto DVD-R for them, onto the 320GB HDD in the ASRock, saving on discs and stuff - but need the whole 'setup' to be as easy as possible for them to use - while still retaining Windows functionality for when I can't be arsed using one of my other PCs, and fancy playing Peggle on the sofa

Is a Dual Boot possible? So that the system boots straight into XBMC, with minimal user interaction from the moment you turn the PC on - but with the option of loading Windows if required?

Or would I be better just using XBMC within the Windows environment?

Bear in mind - I'm trying to make it as *simple* as possible for my parents to use - I want them to be able to sit down, press 'on', and basically get into the XBMC interface - but still wanting to retain Windows as an operating system

Oh, I've also ordered an Emprex 3009URF remote control and wireless dongle - being a Media Centre remote I imagine it'll work great within Windows - but how about Linux?

Sorry if I'm asking these in the wrong place

[xantaus]

The remote is alright, on windows many of the buttons will trigger windows media center, I believe there's a thread kicking about to stop that.

With linux, you need to customise some of the buttons;

xmodmap -display :0 -e "keycode 127 = space"
xmodmap -display :0 -e "keycode 166 = BackSpace"
xmodmap -display :0 -e "keycode 175 = c"
xmodmap -display :0 -e "keycode 150 = s"

added to your ~/.xsessionrc or entered into the terminal will make the pause, back and power buttons work correctly, and make the record button activate the context menu.

I personally like Alaska as a simple easy to use skin, and remove all home menu items which don't need to be there like "settings".


For the dual booting, you have 2 options really. Simply have a dual boot system thats easy enough to set up. Or run windows and have xbmc load on start up. then just close xbmc when you need to play peggle, or check out some of the guides kicking about on how to launch applications from xbmc itself.