2009-12-21, 15:19
Hello,
Acer Aspire Revo 3610 ?!
The Acer Aspire Revo is a nettop computer based on the Nvidia ION platform. The 3610 is different from the 3600 as it adds an SPDIF optical output. This makes it perfect for a dedicated XBMC use.
Note that the computer comes charged with 2Go RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium and lacks opticial drive (CD/DVD/BD).
Why Ubuntu desktop version ?
You may be aware that the interesting thing about ION is the video hardware acceleration it provides. Regarding XBMC today, only the Linux version enables it.
I found it also quite sad to buy that 300€ computer and not install a desktop environnement to enjoy the its use on my 40" LCD !
What are the goals of that thread?
Describe the steps to install Ubuntu and XBMC, and tune it.
Get a working optical output for AC3/DTS passthrough and PCM, perfect SD and HD video playback.
I will not go in to many details as many how-tos and threads exists that already do.
Let's go !!
XBMC release used is XBMC 9.11 RC1
Step 1 : Bios Settings
- increase the video memory up to 512 Mo (not sure it's usefull ...)
- set the boot devices to start with USB, then HD
Step 2 : Windows 7
The Revo comes charged with Windows 7 and for an unknown reason, it uses the 4 principal partitions available on the HD.
If you want to install Ubuntu on a partition (my choice), you'll have to delete the last partition named "Data" or something close. No problem, it's empty !
Step 3 : Install Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop
- download the ISO
- use unetbootin to put it on a USB flash disk
- you should have made some room on the disk to install to a new partition (cf. previous step)
- boot ubuntu with the flash disk and install (the user created during install should be named "xbmc"). The boot selector "Grub" will be installed (it auto selects Ubuntu at boot time if no there is input during 10s)
Step 4 : install XBMC and Nvidia drivers
cf. http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=HOW-TO_insta...ep-by-step
- once booted on your brand new Ubuntu, run this to install current xbmc release :
- ubuntu should propose you automatically to install the Nvidia drivers
Step 5 : tuning
- you need to disable the interface sounds in Ubuntu. A problem exists with PulseAudio (Ubuntu component) preventing passthrough to work correctly.
- follow that walkthrough and save that file as ~/.asoundrc. This sets up the sound mixer to redirect sound to SPDIF and HDMI.
- unmute the two iec958 channels using alsamixer : launch alsamixer, navigate to the "IEC958" column using arrow keys and press "m" ("00" is unmute / "mm" is mute). The first IEC958 is for SPDIF, the second one for HDMI (don't know what is the use of "IEC958 Default PCM").
- in XBMC audio setup, define output and passthrough as "custom" named "plug:both" ; and "downmix multichannel audio to stereo" to off
- in XBMC video setup, set "render" to "VDPAU"
- you also need to tune the xorg.conf to get appropriate modelines setup. Back up yout xorg.conf and rebuild one :
and then add the missing lines from that one
Step 6 : other ...
- remote desktop : if you enable remote desktop, please note that a bug makes it unusable. The workaround is to use x11vnc with noxdamage option and connect to "xbmc_pc:1" instead of "xbmc_pc" (exemple : x11vnc -usepw -forever -noxdamage -scale 4/5 -avahi -timeout 60 -nolookup -q)
... done !
Conclusion
I will upgrade this post until I'm satisfied with the result.
The following links concerns the bugs/features requests I've ran into when using XBMC or Ubuntu :
- no ac3 passthrough on .ac3 files in audio player
- Compiz / vnc screen refresh with nvidia-restricted driver/VirtualBox/ATI fglrx driver using X.org prior to release 7.5
- [Patch] Realtime AC3 encoding to non encoded output
- AC3/DTS Passthrough does not work anymore
Acer Aspire Revo 3610 ?!
The Acer Aspire Revo is a nettop computer based on the Nvidia ION platform. The 3610 is different from the 3600 as it adds an SPDIF optical output. This makes it perfect for a dedicated XBMC use.
Note that the computer comes charged with 2Go RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium and lacks opticial drive (CD/DVD/BD).
Why Ubuntu desktop version ?
You may be aware that the interesting thing about ION is the video hardware acceleration it provides. Regarding XBMC today, only the Linux version enables it.
I found it also quite sad to buy that 300€ computer and not install a desktop environnement to enjoy the its use on my 40" LCD !
What are the goals of that thread?
Describe the steps to install Ubuntu and XBMC, and tune it.
Get a working optical output for AC3/DTS passthrough and PCM, perfect SD and HD video playback.
I will not go in to many details as many how-tos and threads exists that already do.
I was helped by those threads to realise that :
http://www.xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=53812
http://www.xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=53888
http://flx.me/xbmscript/
http://www.xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=53812
http://www.xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=53888
http://flx.me/xbmscript/
Let's go !!
XBMC release used is XBMC 9.11 RC1
Step 1 : Bios Settings
- increase the video memory up to 512 Mo (not sure it's usefull ...)
- set the boot devices to start with USB, then HD
Step 2 : Windows 7
The Revo comes charged with Windows 7 and for an unknown reason, it uses the 4 principal partitions available on the HD.
If you want to install Ubuntu on a partition (my choice), you'll have to delete the last partition named "Data" or something close. No problem, it's empty !
Step 3 : Install Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop
- download the ISO
- use unetbootin to put it on a USB flash disk
- you should have made some room on the disk to install to a new partition (cf. previous step)
- boot ubuntu with the flash disk and install (the user created during install should be named "xbmc"). The boot selector "Grub" will be installed (it auto selects Ubuntu at boot time if no there is input during 10s)
Step 4 : install XBMC and Nvidia drivers
cf. http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=HOW-TO_insta...ep-by-step
- once booted on your brand new Ubuntu, run this to install current xbmc release :
Code:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xbmc
sudo apt-get updateStep 5 : tuning
- you need to disable the interface sounds in Ubuntu. A problem exists with PulseAudio (Ubuntu component) preventing passthrough to work correctly.
- follow that walkthrough and save that file as ~/.asoundrc. This sets up the sound mixer to redirect sound to SPDIF and HDMI.
- unmute the two iec958 channels using alsamixer : launch alsamixer, navigate to the "IEC958" column using arrow keys and press "m" ("00" is unmute / "mm" is mute). The first IEC958 is for SPDIF, the second one for HDMI (don't know what is the use of "IEC958 Default PCM").
Code:
┌──────────────────[AlsaMixer v1.0.20 (Press Escape to quit)]──────────────────┐
│ Card: HDA NVidia │
│ Chip: Nvidia MCP7A HDMI │
│ View: [Playback] Capture All │
│ Item: IEC958 │
│ │
│ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │ │ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │ │ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │ │ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │ │ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │ │ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │ │ >
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │▒▒│ │ │ │ │ │
│ ├──┤ └──┘ ├──┤ ├──┤ └──┘ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ │
│ │OO│ │OO│ │MM│ │[color=red]OO[/color]│ │MM│ │[color=red]OO[/color]│ │
│ └──┘ └──┘ └──┘ └──┘ └──┘ └──┘ │
│ 91 100<>100 81<>81 0<>0 0<>0 │
│ Master PCM Front Mic Mic Boos < IEC958 >IEC958 D IEC958 1 │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘- in XBMC video setup, set "render" to "VDPAU"
- you also need to tune the xorg.conf to get appropriate modelines setup. Back up yout xorg.conf and rebuild one :
Code:
sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup.originalsetup
sudo nvidia-xconfigStep 6 : other ...
- remote desktop : if you enable remote desktop, please note that a bug makes it unusable. The workaround is to use x11vnc with noxdamage option and connect to "xbmc_pc:1" instead of "xbmc_pc" (exemple : x11vnc -usepw -forever -noxdamage -scale 4/5 -avahi -timeout 60 -nolookup -q)
... done !
Conclusion
I will upgrade this post until I'm satisfied with the result.
The following links concerns the bugs/features requests I've ran into when using XBMC or Ubuntu :
- no ac3 passthrough on .ac3 files in audio player
- Compiz / vnc screen refresh with nvidia-restricted driver/VirtualBox/ATI fglrx driver using X.org prior to release 7.5
- [Patch] Realtime AC3 encoding to non encoded output
- AC3/DTS Passthrough does not work anymore
