Archive talk:Install Ubuntu and XBMC on Asus EeeBox PC EB1501
EB1501 German / Asian Edition
System: Linux HTPC 2.6.31-17-generic #54-Ubuntu SMP Thu Dec 10 16:20:31 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux Remote (see battery slots): RC1974502/00
No MCE USB IR Receiver
There seem to be some specifics with this version of the eeeBox. There was no any MCE USB IR Receiver packaged, instead there was a notice that states:
"The EeeBox PC has a built-in IR receiver designed for the remote control. When you install the EeeBox PC to the back of the monitor and thus block the IR receiver, the remote control may be less sensitive. The USB IR receiver is not included in the product package."
Notes to get build-in IR receiver to work with the remote control
1) rebuild the ITE modules
sudo apt-get install lirc lirc-modules-source module-assistant sudo dpkg-reconfigure lirc-modules-source
2) edit the following lines in /etc/hardware/hardware.conf
REMOTE_MODULES="lirc_dev lirc_it87" REMOTE_DEVICE="/dev/lirc0" REMOTE_LIRCD_CONF="mceusb/lircd.conf.mceusb" REMOTE_LIRCD_ARGS="--output=/dev/lircd"
LOAD_MODULES="true" START_LIRCD="true"
3) create /etc/modprobe.d/lirc.conf and add the two lines
alias char-major-61 lirc_dev options lirc_it87 irq=05 io=0x2f8
4) add a start-up script to activate the receiver (as suggested by amno6)
i) place the script start_ite8713.sh at somewhere convenient, /home/xbmc
#!/bin/bash /etc/init.d/lirc stop rmmod lirc_it87 echo activate > /sys/devices/pnp0/00:09/resources modprobe lirc_it87 /etc/init.d/lirc start
ii) activate the script at startup. edit /etc/rc.local and add
/bin/sh /home/xbmc/start_ite8713.sh
5) you may need to copy the LIRC over to the XBMC directory
cp /usr/share/xbmc/system/Lircmap.xml ~/.xbmc/userdata
Enabling the Play DVD Button on the Remote Control
1) The original Lircmap.xml and remote.xml does not cater for the DVD button. To rectify that, add an additional entry in ~/.xbmc/userdata/Lircmap.xml under the <remote device="mceusb"> section
<obc1>DVD</obc1>
2) In the remote.xml file (for my case, this is located at /home/xbmc/.xbmc/userdata/keymaps), add the following outside the <remote> </remote> group
<universalremote> <obc1>PlayDVD</obc1> </universalremote>
3) A CD or DVD can now be played with using the DVD button (located just above number 3) 4) Other keys can be remapped according to individual preferences
Startup error
On startup i got the following error message:
nforce2_smbus [...] conflichts with ACPI [...]
I got it fixed by
sudo vi /etc/default/grub
and editing the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX according to this bugreport
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_enforce_resources=lax"
and update the grub again with
sudo update-grub
Wifi / Wireless setup with WPA2
I had a hassle enabling WPA2 access, connections breaking up every 10-60s for multple minutes, so i kept a note on the steps how to get it working anyway.
The given wireless adapter on the EB1501 is
Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
according to
lspci -v | grep Network
Disabling the blacklisted atheros module as mentioned here
sudo vi /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-ath_pci.conf
Commenting the following line out
ath_pci blacklist
Install all tools:
sudo apt-get install wpasupplicant linux-backports-modules-karmic linux-backports-modules-wireless-karmic-generic
the following steps are based on the guide found here. Then we generate our psk-key we need later by executing
wpa_passphrase <your_essid> <your_ascii_key>
In the result we need to copy value found under the "psk" key. Next we edit
sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces
and add the following lines to the bottom
auto wlan0 iface wlan0 inet dhcp wpa-driver wext wpa-ssid <your_essid> wpa-ap-scan 1 wpa-proto RSN wpa-pairwise CCMP wpa-group CCMP wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK wpa-psk <psk_key_from_wpa_passphrase>
we could also disable the following line to disable automatic startup of the ethernet interface
auto eth0
then restart the whole networking stuff with
/etc/init.d/networking restart
then everything went fine, a dhcp ip was given and so on. Maybe there is an easier way but im not that into linux :)
Wifi setup alternative
The above didn't work for me (wireless kept disconnecting or would freeze when transfering large files at anything over 500Kbps).
However, I did get everything working by using the latest Linux Wireless drivers available here - http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Download
Just follow the steps for downloading the latest package, extract it and then use the following commands (repeated on that web page, but this is all you need):
1) Select just the Atheros driver components:
xbmc:$ ./scripts/driver-select ath9k
2) Build them
xbmc:$ make
3) Install them
xbmc:$ sudo make install
4) Reboot
xbmc:$ sudo reboot
FYI, the wireless drivers in Ubuntu Lucid Lynx beta worked for me out of the box, but I couldn't get XBMC working due to nVidia driver issues, so best wait until 10.04 is released.
Merging with XBMCbuntu page
I feel this page should be merged with the XBMCbuntu page, which tries to accomplish the same thing. Any thoughts? Cancan101 05:11, 12 February 2010 (UTC)
I dont feel it should, I created this for people who have EB1501, a lot of this stuff is specific to our HW.