Hi Everyone - just a quick clarification about booting live from USB. My system has no CDRom or optical drive, and I'm going to be booting from USB. I was able to create a bootable USB image using unetbootin. Is that all I need to do? I mean, when it boots up, I get a menu where it asks me if I want to load XBMC or install it. Do I need to install it to another USB where the OS will ultimately live, or is that first image all I need? Of course I want to be able to write to the USB, save settings, etc. just as if it were a HD.
I tried clicking install, but the install program was looking for a CD-ROM and didn't seem to be able to find either the install files or the destination USB stick on its own.
Thanks,
H
hominamad Wrote:Do I need to install it to another USB where the OS will ultimately live?
Yup! The first one is basically your "install cd" where you can also test the program out. You now need to find another USB with 2 or more gigs to install it onto.
You don't have to install it. In most cases booting from "live usb" (ie not installing) should be fine. XBMC will save all your configurations etc on usb so is not as bad as "live cd" (Changes made to your OS are not saved - ie if u will for example install firefox, after reboot u will have to install it again BUT you may create live-rw partition to store such things)
Thanks for the info. I don't mind installing it - I already have another USB for this purpose - but how do I get past the check where it's looking for a CD-ROM?
Can anyone help me with an answer to this? Hoping to give it another shot tonight. In summary, I'm trying to install XBMC Live from one USB stick to another but the install program won't let me proceed because its looking for a CD-ROM which I don't have. Do I have to do something special to get it to install off the USB?
Thanks in advance.
H
Hmm.. I'm SUPER new at this, but when I did it, I chose an option to install onto a "hard drive" and from there found my USB.. I don't remember it ever looking for a cd..
I'm tackling this again now. When I click install XBMC, it takes me to an Ubuntu installer (main menu). First asks to choose language, configure keyboard, then the next step is "Detect and Mount CD-ROM". I have no CD-ROM - only USB, and this step is failing and causing me to not go through installation. Am I doing something wrong here?
hominamad Wrote:I'm tackling this again now. When I click install XBMC, it takes me to an Ubuntu installer (main menu). First asks to choose language, configure keyboard, then the next step is "Detect and Mount CD-ROM". I have no CD-ROM - only USB, and this step is failing and causing me to not go through installation. Am I doing something wrong here?
Your best bet is to boot the live cd from a computer that has a CDROM and use the bootable disk wizzard to make a correct bootable USB. You can install from that or use it with persistance. Anything else and you will just get frustrated.
Thanks FishOil - I will try that now. Now, is that going to make me a bootable USB that IS the OS? Or is that going to make a bootable USB to install to another USB?
I also found the USB creation to be slightly annoying the first time I did it... this is another reason I recommend trying OpenELEC
Lightweight, fast, great for booting from USB (or disk)... just what I like!
hominamad Wrote:Thanks FishOil - I will try that now. Now, is that going to make me a bootable USB that IS the OS? Or is that going to make a bootable USB to install to another USB?
Both
You can use it with persistence and can reboot with settings remembered.
Or
You can use it to install the full OS to a HD.
You wont need to install to some other USB drive. This
IS the USB drive that will boot for install to a Hard Drive or just to use over and over again simulating an actual install with settings remembered. A USB boot will be slow to boot up. Maybe a min or two.
Got it working guys. Was a bit nervous that I was going to accidentally wipe out my desktop OS but it worked out. I installed to the usb and it booted up fine. Actually takes under a minute which I was pleased about.
One last question - when I was going through the setup it had trouble at the step where it set up the network connection, so I told it to skip that step figuring I could set it up later. Now XBMC seems to not be detecting the network. How can I configure that post-install? I assume I need to go into the Ubuntu shell and issue a command or two?
Re: OpenElec, I'm definitely going to try that out as well on another USB stick and see how it measures up. This is my first experience with XBMC.
bmcclure937 Wrote:I also found the USB creation to be slightly annoying the first time I did it... this is another reason I recommend trying OpenELEC
Lightweight, fast, great for booting from USB (or disk)... just what I like!
IMO openelec is lacking even rudimentary stuff. It defeats the purpose if I have to install the basic commands just to get a look at or configure some hardware. Hope it works out of the box for you otherwise its not worth the effort. You will spend far too much time getting it the way it "Should be" Not to mention the only ssh user is root. Poor practice IMO.
Its a waste of time IMO. Live is a much better solution for me. YMMV
FishOil Wrote:IMO openelec is lacking even rudimentary stuff. It defeats the purpose if I have to install the basic commands just to get a look at or configure some hardware. Hope it works out of the box for you otherwise its not worth the effort. You will spend far too much time getting it the way it "Should be" Not to mention the only ssh user is root. Poor practice IMO.
Its a waste of time IMO. Live is a much better solution for me. YMMV
Nice comment, but you look a bit disappointed.
OpenELEC is just build for install and use, not to be customized in every way. Most boxes are supported now out of the box, with some exceptions for audio that are simply configurable. Downloading, installing and using will take less then 5 minutes for the most users. If a problem occurs, the forum and chat will provide almost 24/7 support. And SSH is only used for some debugging and problem solving, the parts that are critical to run the system are protected by read-only. You can call it everything, but poor just doesn't fit here.
therionate Wrote:OpenELEC is just build for install and use. SSH is only used for some debugging and problem solving
Not for me. I routinely interface with XBMC via SSH. It doesn't even have a shell built in. I had to drag the computer 100 feet just to login via SSH on a wired connection because there is no built in shell. I wanted to configure a few things via the shell and it cant be done without installations / modifications. I was surprised Nano was installed. IMO its not worth the effort. LIVE is the way to go.