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Full Version: [LINUX] Wife compatibility issues - Android Remote with No HDMI\TV
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I have been using XBMC for years and it is a great bit of software. In the last year I have migrated to Linux from the original XBOX to continue an appliance experience. Basically, this allows my wife to just turn it on and it just works etc (well in theory!).

However, when I start XBMC without the TV\Receiver on, XBMC does not load correctly and therefore my wife is getting very disheartened by the whole experience. She says it is too complicated to turn everything on in the right order before she can use it and having to reboot it all the time blah blah blah. Anyway, as she now owns an android tablet I thought that she could use the XBMC remote control without the need to have the TV\Receiver on – but I cannot get around the XBMC seeming to crash when the TV is not on.

Can anyone help me get around this... pretty please?

p.s. I am running Dharma with Ubuntu 10.04 with a Zotac Mag ND11 and HDMI into a Pioneer receiver and HDMI into the Zotac.
Sounds like you need a Logitech Harmony remote. It can control all of your equipment and you can set it to power on/off the devices in a specific order.

For example:

With my setup I press the Activities button and then choose what I want to do. I have it set up for TV, XBMC, Blueray and Xbox 360. I aslo have XBMC listed twice because the plane XBMC button plays sound over the tv speakers and XBMC/Stereo will play surround sound over the AV reviver. The Harmony remote will power on the tv, set the correct input, power off unneeded devices and after a few seconds I'm ready to go.
Second the Harmony - one device to control my TV, Acer Revo (XBMC), Roku, DirecTV DVR/receiver, and the crappy Panasonic "home theater in a box". Wife Acceptance Factor = 100%
We already have a Harmony 785 - unfortunately this is not the holy grail.

XBMC must do some checks or something because Linux is running as I can connect to the FTP server but XBMC is not running. Is there a way around this so that XBMC will run and just detect the HDMI when its connected?
hmmm... I'm not following.

So you are running Linux (what version and is it with or without a desktop)?
Are you asking how to get XBMC to start when the computer starts?

Please give us your system details so we can help.
Is this an HDMI handshake issue? On my receiver (Onkyo) I have to first make sure that receiver is on and set to the xbmc input, then turn on the xbmc htpc in order to get video to display properly. If I first turn on the xbmc htpc followed by my receiver changing inputs to the xbmc, it will not display.

The solution for me with everything turned off is to:
1. With my Harmony remote, select "Watch xbmc", which selects the correct input on my reciver
2. Startup the xbmc htpc

then I have to leave the htpc on. I can then shut down the tv/receiver (wth htpc running) and select "watch xbmc" on the Harmony remote and it will fire up fine.
I am using Ubuntu 10.04 desktop edition with a profile to automatically boot to an XBMC session.

With all my other devices including Sky+, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360 my universal remote works well and if i switch to another source and back again then its fine. But with the XBMC box I have to do what "SirBC" suggests and do it in a strict order but its not fool proof.

From experimenting if I was to start the XBMC box first with nothing running i.e. no TV\Receiver then linux boots fine and I can use FTP to connect to the box and rummage around, but XBMC does not run. In the past my wife gets frustraited that everything has to be just so and the harmony remote because its an IR pulse can miss beats etc thus meaning she has to start again with a comment saying nthis is too complicated, why can we not have the old system back (original XBOX running Xecuter and XBMC)

So what I am asking for is to see if it is possible that XBMC works like my other appliances and will detect the HDMI when its available and my wife can use the android remote without the TV being on.

Jay

p.s. Thanks for all your advice - much appreciated
That makes more sens. I'm sorry but I can't solve the issue of linux not showing a display on your tv. What I can tell you is that you might want to take a look at the logitech software. You can specify the order your devices power on and the delay between imputs. Maybe a combination of these settings will fix the issue.

I have heard of your issue but I have never experienced it. I'm pretty sure the Apple TV's suffer from the same thing. There is no canvas to render to so it shows a black screen. Maybe turn on debugging and then reboot with the tv off. Maybe a log will shed some more light.
Thanks for everyones advice on this. I think we are going away from my original question so can I ask another simple question...

Why can i not boot linux and run XBMC without a TV?
p.s. I could do it with the original Xbox running XBMC.

Jay
Enable debug log in your settings and restart xbmc with the tv off. Then pastebin your debug log and somebody will be able to figure it out.
I do it all the time. My XBMC Linux box is connected to my TV via a VGA cable.
Sometimes I forget to switch the TV on, but the Linux box boots up into Linux ok. Then I just turn on the TV, and double click on the XBMC Icon I have on the desktop.
I am running Linux 10.04 LTS and upgraded automatically to XBMC 10 yesterday.
If the tv is really off and not in standby, I get the default VGA display rather than the widescreen display. But I can live with that, if I am going straight into XBMC.
You may want to configure your Linux set up so it always goes to a certain display config, rather than have it on auto.
There is somewhere either on this forum or in the wiki that shows you how to set up a script so it boots directly into XBMC when you turn your Linux box on.