2010-08-14, 21:32
A few days ago, I received my new AsRock Core 100 HT which I intend to use as an HTPC. Since then, I have tried installing different versions of Ubuntu, XBMC, Boxee, etc to get something that works but to no avail. There is a lot of information out there but no single place that contains everything that I need. So I decided to start a new thread in the hope that I will eventually get my HTPC working and saving time for others trying to do likewise.
Ubuntu 10.04
===========
1st, I installed Ubuntu 10.4. This was painless. Then I followed the steps from http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW...Step_Guide to install XBMC. It started going wrong at this step:
sudo apt-get install xbmc xbmc-standalone
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package xbmc
As you can see, there does not appear to be a package called XBMC.
I decided to the follow the steps detailed in the "Adding the XBMC Repo" section replacing "jaunty" by "lucid". In the Synpatic Package Manager, xbmc & xbmc-standalone still do not show up. I only see xbmc-ppa_keyring.
Boxee
Next, I decided to try Boxee. I downloaded Boxee and installed it. Installation went just fine. However I cannot start Boxee. This is what I get at the end of the log:
CApplication::Create: Unable to init rendering system
Flash:
Last but not least, I have problem running flash content on Ubuntu 10.04. YouTube videos for example start fine but as soon as I go into fullscreen, flash crashes. I could not find a fix for that one. I tried uninstalling flash and reinstalling it but that did not fix the problem.
Movie play back:
The movie player seems to work just fine, although I did not test sound as I don't have any speakers plugged in. Playback is nice and smooth which is not the case in another version of Ubuntu as you will see later.
Suspend & Hibernate:
Suspend & Hibernate don't seem to work. Both options only seem to lock the screen and bring a black screen. As soon as I move the mouse, the log-on window shows up.
Remote Control:
The remote control that comes with the computer does not seem to be recognized by Ubuntu. I can use it to start the computer but there is nothing else I can do with it. Honestly, this is the least of my problems.
Ubuntu 9.10
===========
I then decided to try another version of Ubuntu so I installed Ubuntu 9.04 (Karmic). I created a different partition so that I can either boot in Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid) or Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic). Installation of Karmic was painless. However, I still could not install XBMC. It fails in exactly the same manner described above.
I installed Boxee and this time Boxee was able to start. It brings up a screen where I am supposed to enter my credentials. Initially, I thought that it crashed right there as the screen appears to be completely frozen. Using Ctrl-C, I was eventually able to kill the application. Eventually, I figured that it was not frozen but atrociously slow. It seems that I get about 1 frame every 5 seconds or so.
Flash:
I installed the flash plugin for Firefox and hold and behold, flash content plays without crashing even when I go fullscreen. Not everything is perfect as I noticed some stuttering in the playback of the videos.
Movie play back:
Movies play in this version of Ubuntu as well but there are clearly choppy. This is not happening in Ubuntu 10.04. I tried to disable Compiz as this was suggested elsewhere but that made no difference.
Suspend & Hibernate:
Suspend & Hibernate don't seem to work either. I just seem to lock the screen and I get a black screen until I move the mouse.
Remote Control:
The remote control does not work either, as expected to be honest.
Conclusion:
This is where I am at right now. I will do more googling and try suggestions that I come across but it does not look too good to be honest. I really don't want to have to shell $200 to get Windows 7. If you have any suggestion, I will defintely try them out.
Thx,
S.
Ubuntu 10.04
===========
1st, I installed Ubuntu 10.4. This was painless. Then I followed the steps from http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW...Step_Guide to install XBMC. It started going wrong at this step:
sudo apt-get install xbmc xbmc-standalone
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package xbmc
As you can see, there does not appear to be a package called XBMC.
I decided to the follow the steps detailed in the "Adding the XBMC Repo" section replacing "jaunty" by "lucid". In the Synpatic Package Manager, xbmc & xbmc-standalone still do not show up. I only see xbmc-ppa_keyring.
Boxee
Next, I decided to try Boxee. I downloaded Boxee and installed it. Installation went just fine. However I cannot start Boxee. This is what I get at the end of the log:
CApplication::Create: Unable to init rendering system
Flash:
Last but not least, I have problem running flash content on Ubuntu 10.04. YouTube videos for example start fine but as soon as I go into fullscreen, flash crashes. I could not find a fix for that one. I tried uninstalling flash and reinstalling it but that did not fix the problem.
Movie play back:
The movie player seems to work just fine, although I did not test sound as I don't have any speakers plugged in. Playback is nice and smooth which is not the case in another version of Ubuntu as you will see later.
Suspend & Hibernate:
Suspend & Hibernate don't seem to work. Both options only seem to lock the screen and bring a black screen. As soon as I move the mouse, the log-on window shows up.
Remote Control:
The remote control that comes with the computer does not seem to be recognized by Ubuntu. I can use it to start the computer but there is nothing else I can do with it. Honestly, this is the least of my problems.
Ubuntu 9.10
===========
I then decided to try another version of Ubuntu so I installed Ubuntu 9.04 (Karmic). I created a different partition so that I can either boot in Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid) or Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic). Installation of Karmic was painless. However, I still could not install XBMC. It fails in exactly the same manner described above.
I installed Boxee and this time Boxee was able to start. It brings up a screen where I am supposed to enter my credentials. Initially, I thought that it crashed right there as the screen appears to be completely frozen. Using Ctrl-C, I was eventually able to kill the application. Eventually, I figured that it was not frozen but atrociously slow. It seems that I get about 1 frame every 5 seconds or so.
Flash:
I installed the flash plugin for Firefox and hold and behold, flash content plays without crashing even when I go fullscreen. Not everything is perfect as I noticed some stuttering in the playback of the videos.
Movie play back:
Movies play in this version of Ubuntu as well but there are clearly choppy. This is not happening in Ubuntu 10.04. I tried to disable Compiz as this was suggested elsewhere but that made no difference.
Suspend & Hibernate:
Suspend & Hibernate don't seem to work either. I just seem to lock the screen and I get a black screen until I move the mouse.
Remote Control:
The remote control does not work either, as expected to be honest.
Conclusion:
This is where I am at right now. I will do more googling and try suggestions that I come across but it does not look too good to be honest. I really don't want to have to shell $200 to get Windows 7. If you have any suggestion, I will defintely try them out.
Thx,
S.
