[User 46219]

I've been working on an extremely lightweight install for my xbmc dedicated htpc, and since I'm an Arch user I decided to base it on that rather than the much more common Ubuntu.

I'm not saying either is better, only that I use Arch and "the arch way" is generally much more streamlined (for better and worse).

Anyhow, there are posts on how to get ubuntu to boot directly into xbmc so I thought I'd post my steps and success with Arch.

These steps may be a bit vague as they are meant more for someone with at least a little experience with Arch, but if you're interested please don't let that discourage you, the Arch wiki and forums should be able to answer any questions you may have.

1) Install Arch using the beginner's guide
2) Install yaourt using AUR
3) Install xbmc. using Yaourt [yaourt -S xbmc] or [yaourt -S xbmc-svn]
4) Install mingetty using Yaourt [yaourt -S mingetty]
5) edit /etc/inittab to use mingetty to autologin (see arch wiki here)
6) edit /home/USER/.xinitrc - add "/usr/bin/xbmc --standalone" without quotes.
7) edit /home/USER/.bashrc - add "startx" without quotes to the end
*optional steps*
8) Install lirc to use your MCE remote [pacman -S lirc] check the arch wiki and mythtv wiki and this post for good info on configuring your remote.
9) Suspend should work from within xbmc, if not, try adding this to /etc/PolicyKit/PolicyKit.conf


That's it. You will have a dedicated htpc that boots directly into xbmc. My p4 machine boots in about 18 seconds without any sort of optimization being done yet.

I'll add further steps later as I customize my install. I plan on configuring rtorrent to use rss and to autoboot in the background as well (and eventually find a webgui for it so I can control the torrents from my main computer) but I've never used rtorrent before and I'm waiting on my new power supply since the one I was using for this build has been generously donated to a friend in need.

I also plan on installing openbox under a second user so that I can login and access a full desktop if I desire.

I hope this helps with anyone else looking for a very lightweight alternative.

[Kazuka]

Thanks, I'll sure check this out! Already using Arch Linux on my notebook. The great thing about Arch is its basic install is even more basic then Ubuntu and it's a rolling release. So you can update your entire system with newest kernel, drivers etc simply by running pacman -Syu

Be sure to check out the Beginners Guide, because it will let you understand a bit more about the way Linux works.

[mots]

I've done pretty much the same except I modded inittab instead of using mingetty

[atkinsonr]

...I personally had problems compiling the SVN so I stuck with 10. for now...

Yeah the xbmc-svn in AUR is broken.

I use my own Arch PKGBUILD, which you are welcome to use until the main one is fixed:
http://pastebin.com/m2b28f28a

just do:
mkdir ~/xbmc-build
cd ~/xbmc-build
wget http://pastebin.com/pastebin.php?dl=m2b28f28a
makepkg -s

if all goes well it'll create a package something like: xbmc-nnnnnn-arch.tar.gz

remove your olde xbmc before installing: (yaourt -R xbmc)
then install (sudo pacman -U xbmc-<whatever it called itself>.tar.gz)

Don't forget you'll probably need to delete your ~/.xbmc to avoid any funny business.

Arch rocks.

Rich

[User 46219]

Awesome, thanks for the PKGBUILD!

Since I have an ATI card and not an Nvidia the VDPAU support is useless for me...any idea if there's any other reason to run the SVN instead of the current stable release?

[atkinsonr]

Awesome, thanks for the PKGBUILD!
Since I have an ATI card and not an Nvidia the VDPAU support is useless for me...any idea if there's any other reason to run the SVN instead of the current stable release?

If you don't care about VDPAU then AFAIK no overwhelming reason to upgrade until 9.04 is released.

There are thousands of minor fixes, but at the moment I'd recommend you stick with the 8.10. As of today xbmc doesn't seem to build on Arch.

Haggy has filed one bug, but I'm pretty sure there is another introduced by some Arch updates in the last 48 hours (maybe to do with x-org 1.6.0?). I'm compiling OK but getting segfaults a few seconds after start-up even using a previous libcdio. No logs to show.

Building with debug enabled at the moment....

EDIT: Seems to be fixed? May have been something in my .xbmc folder??

[Haggy]

Haggy has filed one bug, but I'm pretty sure there is another introduced by some Arch updates in the last 48 hours (maybe to do with x-org 1.6.0?). I'm compiling OK but getting segfaults a few seconds after start-up even using a previous libcdio. No logs to show.

Building with debug enabled at the moment....

EDIT: Seems to be fixed? May have been something in my .xbmc folder??

I have the same issues with recent builds, but i blamed Aeon Stark for that. I also get those segfaults randomly after a few secs (with a clean ~/.xbmc). I'll investigate the core dump and report back. xorg-server 1.6 is fine for me, those segfaults also happened with 1.5.

/Haggy

[Clumsy]

Oh, they upgraded to 1.6 now ?
For anybody who uses ATI cards - be careful with upgrading. The new x-server requires a new catalyst version (9.4). This version is available in AUR (so for one thing, you should use yaourt instead of pacman to get it easily) but it is the ubuntu version of that driver (an early alpha/beta version) - and for me it was very buggy. The biggest annoyance was, that in combination with the new x-server (and new xrandr) it complete ignored my custom modeline in xorg.conf - so in effect it was unusable for me because my projector needs a special modeline if I want to drive it a native resolution to circumvent the internal scaler.

[Haggy]

yup - yesterday xorg-server 1.6 made its way into extra and it runs fine on both my laptop and htpc. iirc there weren't that much changes to 1.5 regarding new features / behaviour change. just a less 'bastard' version of the old and new xorg world.

[atkinsonr]

I'm running with an SVN HEAD built today using an up-to-date Arch 64, including the suspect version libcdio.

We just watched a movie and all is good. Am using Nvidia 180.44-1 (pacman version number).

If I can help you test in any way, let me know.

R

[decaturguy]

I have no problem with the latest arch updates I use revision 19232 with vdr patch, it only complained about gnome lib version and recompiled xbmc and the problem is gone.

I ran xbmc on small Dell SFF optiplex GX620 Pentium D 2,8GHZ with Intel 940,
with latest xorg-server and Intel driver update everything runs like 10 times faster i couldn't even run Aeon Stark, and now is my default skin, I used have 30-50% cpu load just running xbmc and watching SD videos 70-90%. Now watching SD videos 5-15% cpu load, i tested 1080p video around 70% with 20 fps, damn it even played killer sample with 11 fps.

And compiz-fusion wow super fast on this old computer, faster than my main Desktop with 2,4GHZ Quad core with Nvidia geforce 8600 <-- KDE not running compiz.

[Haggy]

It seems like the libcdio issue is only happening on rigs that don't have an optical drive installed (i could verify that on 2 machines with different architectures). Trac ticket has been updated with this info.

As for the random segfaults: It seems like media scanning is responsible for that, not Aeon. I'll backtrace and have a look at it.

[Bagger]

My p4 machine boots in about 18 seconds without any sort of optimization being done yet.

Is that from powered off. i.e. button press to usable XBMC

Or from " starting up " text to usable XBMC

[Zeppstar]

Would it be too much to ask for a 9.04 AUR as xbmc is getting into beta/RC?

[Haggy]

Hmm, i don't think it is necessary. The SVN version is always some revisions ahead of 9.04 as there is only a 'frozen' 9.04 tag in svn, but not an actively used branch. I suppose the xbmc devs commit into xbmc-linuxport mainly and if all known bugs are fixed, they'll simply tag that explicit revision as 9.04 stable.