[supagold]

I've got to chime in favor of not making a total noob guide. My experience with linux was limited to installing it once every few years, and getting pissed off at how much it sucks. I spent probably probably the last 8 weekends learning how to get the thing up and running - and most of that was getting my hardware working with linux, not xbmc working. If people are so lost that they can't figure it out from the wiki, and the myriad helpful forum posts, then putting up a noob guide would just encourage them (us) to just ask a bunch of simple questions for which answers are already available.

I've been lurking in the forums for several months, and I've been happy to see the creation, then development of the xbmc-linux users forum into a real resource of people who are interested not only in helping each other, but in helping the developers. (No bug reports, I know, but it's nice that they monitor and respond in this forum too.) I feel like if we make this a place where "noobs" think they (we) can get up and running w/o hard work, we're asking for trouble.

[althekiller]

My views on this are that when we're ready for complete linux noobs to use the linux port there will be no need for a guide.

[BLKMGK]

Supagold it's funny you say that - I'm pretty much in the same boat with regards to Linux! In the past when I've installed it I've almost always run into something that pissed me off or shut me down. I did find that Ubuntu was pretty good and have it on a laptop but with no real "purpose" other than some quirky hacking tools it just sat.

When I learned that XBMC was being ported to Linux I was ecstatic having been one of those who had found my XBOX unable to handle HD video. Now I had a purpose! I loaded XBMC on that laptop first just as a test run for the install instructions I found in the Wiki - it was cake. Then I backed up a spare machine, blew the OS off of it, and loaded Ubuntu on it - again it wasn't bad and it ran fine. I then built a machine with parts I could reuse later for a new desktop and used some parts I had laying around. Plugged that into the TV and proceeded to watch 2 seasons of a TV show I really liked but the XBOX couldn't handle. The woman hated the big "PC" in the living room so that was torn down to make a desktop and my new HTPC was born using much of what I had used in my test build. That machine is doing well and is my XBMC machine today. I've blown away the OS on it more times than I can count and blown it up a few times too. Trashed the audio, hosed the video, beaten my head against the wall with X11 config files - you name it. Each time I learned something too - just like I did once upon a time with Windows.

I'm no expert but I am doggedly persistent, willing to take some chances (having made backups), and if it comes to it I can go from bare metal to built XBMC executable in under 2 hours. I learn through painful experience and it's as much about the journey as it is the ending. I also do not mind helping along others who are trying to do the same thing that might not have the same skills or time that I've invested. Helping "noobs" isn't too big a deal or even hard and I'll keep doing it as best I can.

That said - the Wiki page on compiling is about as simple as it can get right now. To make it simpler would turn it into a Linux tutorial and while that's noble there are plenty of other places to turn for that which are better equipped. No way should we be trying to fix audio issues or video issues in Ubuntu if XBMC isn't the one causing it (IMO). When my audio died the very first thing I did was check to see if it worked in Ubuntu - it didn't and thus I whined elsewhere:p That why I ask if it works in Ubuntu first thing when people have issues <shrug> IMHO the Wiki is fine so long as it's updated for new packages and the README link is prominent

My .05 cents anyway.

[Nick8888]

@BLKMGK

My thoughts exactly.

I hadnt tried linux before a couple of weeks ago when i built box for xbmc and mythtv but found it pretty easy apart from installing drivers etc.

Basically the point i was getting at is that while installing xbmc-linux is pretty easy, some drivers and things arent, hence unless people are willing to read tutorials and do abit of their own research, they probably shouldnt be rushing into making a xbmx-linux box just yet.

[BLKMGK]

I don't disagree Nick, some work has to be done on the part of the person interested. I can recommend ENVY for video and a few tweaks for sound or video config that might help but that's about it. If it's past that I'll point to the Ubuntu forums <shrug>

Myth I didn't have as good a luck with, possibly due to the networked tuner I use (HRHomerun). It looks like I'll just use Vista for that maybe and a plug in to commercial cut and transcode. My primary focus is my DVDs, HD content, music, and downloaded content. I'll try Myth again later maybe, especially with the kewl work the folks are doing adding control of it into XBMC. Now THAT is something I will probably need help with down the road. For now I'm content to watch and let the folks who know better what they are doing test it out...

[rodalpho]

Frankly, my opinion is that XBMC/linux is already good enough to mark a line in the sand, pull a branch off the trunk, test and massage it until relatively stable, package up a deb file complete with full dependencies so mere mortals can get it to install, and release it unsupported as beta 1. I really think a good chunk of the buzz around OSXBMC is that the developer packaged it up and made it easy to install for the masses.

But it's not my call.

[Nick8888]

abit offtopic.. but if your are giving it another go, I would get mythbuntu control centre and use it to set up mythtv (backend and frontend)

then follow this for setting it up with your hdhomerun
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Sil..._HDHomeRun

I've found mythbuntu alot easier and it even set up mythweb automatically for me.

I must admit though, I was just as imtimidated as you a couple of weeks ago when I first tried to set it up. Just abit of trial and error really.

Now I am very happy with my box and just awaiting further integration of it into xbmc.

[BLKMGK]

Frankly, my opinion is that XBMC/linux is already good enough to mark a line in the sand, pull a branch off the trunk, test and massage it until relatively stable, package up a deb file complete with full dependencies so mere mortals can get it to install, and release it unsupported as beta 1. I really think a good chunk of the buzz around OSXBMC is that the developer packaged it up and made it easy to install for the masses.

But it's not my call.

I almost agree I still cannot (properly) play back IFO\VOB DVD rips as of a few days ago and right now I cannot run the current version at full resolution. As of 11703 the resolution change that XBMC attempts crashes on me and I can only run current builds at like 720X512 resolution. Oddly it appears it was mostly OSX code aimed at resolution changes that seems to have introduced this for me. Why either of these seems to effect me and no one else posting here is odd but I'll bet others would see it if this were more widely tested since IMO my setup is fairly straightforward.

Actually the DVD playback is probably least of those two issues since it seems many rip ISO and I'm the oddball there. Mebbe' I'm just selfish and want my bugs fixed

Nick: I used Mythbuntu which I think had that control center. I had the HDHR working but it would sometimes tell me my tuners were "busy" and I couldn't watch anything. No biggie, I'll try Vista when I have time - oh and some splitters to hook it back up

[rodalpho]

Well like I said, you take a week or two to test and iron out the obvious bugs, and then you release beta 1. You don't just package up the build straight from SVN.

[Nick8888]

Yeh I think some sort of stable release is necessary at some time for a reference point but 'when' is definately upto the developers.

[althekiller]

If you can't copy and paste a svn link, copy and paste an apt-get line and run a script it's not ready for you yet. Just because XBMC for Linux seems stable to some users doesn't mean that it is. There are still plenty of pretty easy ways to crash it.

[rodalpho]

Agreed, but that doesn't seem to bother the osxbmc users, who are loving it even without remote control support. Shrug.

[ajje]

If you can't copy and paste a svn link, copy and paste an apt-get line and run a script it's not ready for you yet.

Agreed, a lot of users are to lazy to search and experiment on their own, if it doesn't work on the first try, post in the forum.
But we were all newbies in the beginning and it would be sad if anyone missed out on the awesome XBMC!
Maybe if there was a "sticky" here with a "checklist" something like:

"Before you post in the forum:
Follow the wiki and most importantly, read the readme.linux! Since XBMC is still in development, updates to the sourcecode happens frequently and the wiki is not always up-to-date.
Make sure you have a working Ubuntu installation with video and sound.
Check that you have "Direct rendering : Yes" when you run

Code:

glxinfo | grep "direct rendering

in a terminal.
If it says "no" you do not have your graphicscard setup correct, either the driver is not installed correctly or your card does not meet the requirements.
Search the Ubuntu forums for help on installing your graphicscard."

Maybe someone with better english and technical know-how can write something like this and make it a sticky?

[ajje]

Code:

glxinfo | grep "direct rendering"

..is the correct code...

[althekiller]

It doesn't matter, the kind of people who make these posts don't read stickies or IRC channel topics.