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cracksloth · (This post was last modified: 2009-11-01, 01:23 by cracksloth.)

yeah, just figured out portable mode doesn't use relative paths as i had expected. i can't see any harm in XBMC using relative paths for any path targeted to the same drive as the installation. if any dev runs across this, please consider it for a future revision. not only was it unexpected but i kinda was relying on it to work when i transplanted my portable xbmc in another computer.

AnalogKid · (This post was last modified: 2010-12-14, 22:38 by AnalogKid.)

Now I do realise it's already 'supported'... but...

I'm a bit of a Portable Apps fan (x86 Windows) and wonder if more and more folks are of a similar mind to me...
That XBMC may as well be 'Portable' by default, and require no installer, just a zip file, or extractor.

I also realise there can be a holy war on the debate of user data being stored in a profile, under xbmc, or side by side with xbmc (but not under a user profile)... but all in all, isn't XBMC portable a much cleaner experience?, and what's more... easier to backup, or move, or mirror.

What hope for making portable mode the de facto?

What's more, perhaps there could then be a merge of 'Live' and 'Portable' so they are the same thing (if XBMC resided on R/W media, then userdata resides there, otherwise, it resides on a diff drive.

jmarshall · 2010-12-14, 23:50

The hope would be zero. For the extremely small subset of folk that wish to run things portable, then you can do so easily enough - just install to your USB stick, tack the -p onto a shortcut and you're done.

For the vast majority of folk that just want to install XBMC on their machine, it just works the way all windows apps should work.

IMO the "best" way to cover both would be to use an installer that didn't use a silly format that you can't extract easily. That way you could just extract things directly to your USB stick rather than "install" it there. One wonders whether it's worth the hassle though - there's really no difference.

Cheers,
Jonathan

topfs2 · 2010-12-15, 00:11

Majority of people don't care for moving and what they want is to install the app and having it available in the session. so it will never be the de facto. Most sane operating systems doesn't support writing in the installation directory so you need to have the configurations in a per user placement, which is what we do have.

Supporting it on the other hand is a good thing and its terribly useful during development or testing.

AnalogKid · 2010-12-15, 01:45

I'd settle for an installer that could be extracted!

Some of us loathe the way Windows registry doesn't clean up properly and over time becomes a mess, plus it's nice to run XBMC on company laptops when traveling without some spotty IT young geek noting "it's not in line with company policy to install additional software" blah blah blah.

I run in portable mode every time... I don't think most users know it exists or the benefits of it.

I slightly disagree with the assertion that most O/S's object to writing user data to application folders... whilst that is true, the point of portable apps is to run 'anywhere' and so not in the traditional install folder.

Oh well ... nothing ventured, nothing gained ;-)

jmarshall · 2010-12-15, 02:33

Other than whatever is stuffed in the registry by the installer (somewhat out of our control), XBMC doesn't touch it.

Zodler · 2010-12-15, 04:09

Wow, you just read my mind. I was thinking about this and was about to write this.

This is very useful. Imagine this, having a USB drive with all your media on it. If XBMC is present on the same USB drive, you can go to another computer and plug your drive and have all your media and the player ready to go.

And the most important part would be to have all the watch tags and the resume points along with your portable media.

lightshow12 · 2010-12-15, 05:05

Zodler,

If you interested in that you can try out a trial version of VMWare Thin App. Get a fresh install of Windows, install XBMC, tweak it and configure all your plugins as you need.

Once you're done, you can complie that into a single .exe file and specify that it will go onto a USB (allowing the application to write additional files and not be 100% sandboxed). Then you just point XBMC to the media you have and you'll have XBMC on the go with all your settings/skins/etc.

Zodler · 2010-12-15, 05:52

I have tried thinapp before. There is no need for all that trouble. If as they say, XBMC doesn't write to registry, it should be already portable in theory.

You just need to set the user profile folder on the USB drive which I don't know how to.

jmarshall · 2010-12-15, 06:19

It already IS portable. Just use the -p flag.

jhsrennie · 2010-12-15, 11:27

The XBMC installer is little more than an intelligent unzipper (plus installing a few support files like the VC libs and DirectX). You can just copy your C:\Program Files\XBMC directory anywhere you want and run xbmc.exe (optionally with -p) and it will work. I wish all Windows apps were as civilised.

I just don't see that it's an issue.

JR

Zodler · 2010-12-15, 13:30

That's great.

jpoul · 2011-03-25, 14:52

Hey everybody...

I have recently created an installer in PortableApps paf format for xbmc - I am kind of a portableapps freak, so I needed a better platform integration for XBMC than just copy-paste. It is actually a compiled launcher based on the PAF 2.0 Format Specification, which lanches XBMC with the -p parameter. So, XBMC runs completely from a portable drive, either a usb stick or your media hdd.

Up to date, it is only the launcher wrapped up with the PortableApps installer, but I would like to provide further integration with the new version of the platform - like updating etc. The thing is, I don't know whether I can redistribute - yeap, I am quite unaware of the licencing details, so for now, I am just keeping it for myself...

Anyway, I am posting this here. If there is any interest - or guidance about the redistribution - plz let me know.

Hope I am being usefull

**spiff** · 2011-03-25, 15:07

just make sure that whatever specs are used to build the PAF is available... and that you have a link to xbmc.org in there (so peeps using it can find instructions on how to obtain the source).

jpoul · 2011-03-25, 19:30

thanx spiff....

So, u are saying that it is ok to redistribute the launcher - probably publish it in the portable apps site along with the rest applications for downloading, as long as I include the "basics" (source, links etc.) ?

(Being a developer myself, I try always to be absolutely sure that my actions are in accordance with one publisher's license - that's why I kept the launcher for myself.)