Archive:Kodibuntu

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Emblem-important-yellow.png XBMCBuntu V13 testing builds:
Test builds are available, - you wont need AMD/Nvidia/Intel specific iso, its a generic 64bit XBMCbuntu iso Download now from [beta] Xbmcbuntu 13 Testing Thread

XBMCbuntu is a boot-USB drive/LiveCD image with XBMC pre-configured to work directly out-of-the-box for a dedicated set-top-box style installation of XBMC. Users can either demo XBMC without touching the internal HDD, or use it to install XBMCbuntu on the HDD, without any pre-installed operating systems. XBMCbuntu is based on a light weight version of Ubuntu.

XBMCbuntu currently supports MCE (Media Center Edition) Remotes with USB IR-receiver receivers directly out-of-the-box. Installation only requires 8GB (or larger) USB drive or internal HDD.

When installed onto a USB flash drive or hard disk drive XBMCbuntu has the ability to save settings and make updates to XBMC Media Center and the operating-system back onto the USB flash drive or hard disk drive that it is installed onto, this is not possible when running XBMCbuntu from a Live CD booting from a CD-ROM disc as they are read-only and any changes settings are only temporarily saved until the system is rebooted.

XBMCbuntu FAQ

See also: XBMCbuntu FAQ

Connect to XBMCbuntu via SFTP/SSH

See also: Connecting to XBMCbuntu via SFTP and Connecting to XBMCbuntu via SSH

XBMCbuntu minimum and recommended hardware requirements

XBMCbuntu starting with v13 is only available as a 64bit base.

Minimum Required Hardware for XBMCbuntu
CPU GPU RAM OpenGL SSE HDD/SSD/USB Optical Drive
Intel Pentium 4 | Intel Pentium M AMD Athlon XP/64 AMD Opteron ATI/AMD Intel NVIDIA 1GB OpenGL 1.4
or newer
(2.0 recommended)
Yes
SSE
Internal
or External
8GB or larger
Optional
Fast modern dual-core processor is required
to decode H.264 videos in FullHD (1080p)
Where GPU acceleration isn't supported.
HD 4300/4500 Series supported
ATI Radeon R700 (HD 5000)
supported and recommended
Intel GMA 950 (945G)
or newer supported
Intel GMA X4500HD (G45)
or newer recommended.
NVIDIA GeForce 6-Series
and newer supported
GeForce 8-Series
and newer recommended.
  • x86_64 (Intel/AMD) processor computer capable of booting from CD-ROM/USB drive.
  • Optional is to install to a 8GB (or larger) USB-flash-drive or internal harddrive.
  • Larger than 8GB is required, if you have a lot of media as thumbs and art are cached on it.

Note: If you like to install XBMCbuntu to USB and it still has U3 software on it (uninstall that first).
Note: ATI Radeon cards lower than UVD2.2, are not supported with Ubuntu & variants 12.10 base system, using fglrx, due to changes in ATI's drivers. Legacy cards that support the minimum OpenGL requirements still can be installed, but you wont get any hardware acceleration playback in XBMC with fglrx and must remain at a specific version to work without bugs..

Get and Install XBMCbuntu

Download from http://xbmc.org/download/

Note: XBMCbuntu v13 will not have flavours its a generic 64bit ISO

XBMCbuntu comes in an ISO form that can be burned to an optical disc. It can also be formatted to a USB drive, as mentioned in the next section.

Via USB drive

For instructions on how to acquire, create a bootable usb flash drive, boot or install to/from

See: Create and install from/to a bootable USB flash drive

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Resolving problematic installs

  1. Boot your system with the installer thumbdrive and select the "Try Ubuntu" option. This should boot into XBMC.
  2. Click the Shutdown menu in XBMC (lower-left corner) and select "Exit"
  3. You should be presented with a log-in screen. Click "Other..." and enter xbmc as the login and select XBMCbuntu from the dropdown menu (below the Login field).
  4. Click "Login" and you will be prompted for the Password; just leave it blank.
  5. Click "Login" again and the XBMCbuntu desktop should be displayed.
  6. On the top-left corner of the desktop should be an icon to install Ubuntu. Double-click the icon and, hopefully, you'll get the installation wizard this time.

Upgrading XBMC via ppa in XBMCbuntu

You dont have to necessarily wipe your current install to try a new Version of XBMC, like a nightly version or beta for example, you can just fire up Putty or a shell in Linux/OS X.

For up-to-date information on how to upgrade and install and manage Team XBMC ppa's:

Note: Given the substantial changes that v13 has audio wise, due to redesigned engine, you are recommended to do a fresh install of XBMCbuntu or remove any user configuration files for alsa and or alsa drivers

If you wondering where to type commands
See also: Connecting to XBMCbuntu via SSH

XBMCbuntu no audio devices

Note: XBMC V13 will likely not need these changes this are is tagged for removal.

For some reason there is a problem with lightdm that affects audio devices detection. A workaround was posted here. Modify the /etc/init/lightdm.conf

sudo nano /etc/init/lightdm.conf
Input use this configuration
start on ((filesystem
           and runlevel [!06]
           and started dbus
           and started udev-finish
           and stopped udevtrigger
           and (drm-device-added card0 PRIMARY_DEVICE_FOR_DISPLAY=1
                or stopped udev-fallback-graphics))
          or runlevel PREVLEVEL=S)

Upgrading NVidia drivers in Ubuntu and variants

see also: Upgrading NVidia drivers in Ubuntu and variants

Username and password to the underlying live OS environment

Username and password to the underlying OS environment are not needed by average users of XBMCbuntu, but here they are just in case you want to dig into the (very) advanced possibilities that are available. The default username and password on the live CD are listed below, but during installation, you will be able to change these to your own username and password. We recommend that you write down the username and password you have chosen, and store it away in a safe place;

Username: xbmc
Password: (none)

XBMCbuntu running as Live CD

  • Since a live CD is booted from read-only media, it requires either installation to rewriteable media (i.e. a USB flash drive or hard disk drive) or complete remastering to install additional software or modify the existing files.

XBMCbuntu installed on USB or HDD

See also: HOW-TO: Install XBMCbuntu from a USB thumbdrive
  • Some computers, particularly older ones, may not have a BIOS that supports USB booting. Many which do support USB booting may still be unable to boot the device in question. In these cases a computer can often be "redirected" to boot from a USB device through use of an initial bootable CD or floppy disk for live USB installs.
  • In contrast to the live CD, the data contained on the booting device can be changed and additional data stored on the same device. This allows for XBMCbuntu USB/HDD to be used as personal storage, as it allows a user to carry their preferred operating system, applications, and configuration as well as personal files with them, making it easy to share a single system between multiple users.
  • The absence of moving parts in USB flash devices allows for faster seek time than is possible with hard drives or optical media, meaning all programs will start faster from a USB flash drive than from a local hard disk or XBMCbuntu CD.
  • Due to the additional write cycles that occur on a full-blown installation to a USB flash drive, the life of the USB flash drive may be slightly reduced. This usually does not apply to systems particularly designed for live systems which keep all changes in RAM until the user logs off, and XBMCbuntu developers have done their best to try to prevent this from happening.

XBMC Media Center

XBMCbuntu contains XBMC for Linux compiled with the 'standalone' mode, this enabled certain functions that are not available in normal XBMC installations (Windows, Mac Linux), these functions include Power Management, and Network Management.

Upgrading XBMCbuntu

To actually update XBMCbuntu, which is a full customised Linux distro, best look at fresh install, unless you are experienced with Linux dist-upgrades. The underlying OS is Lubuntu 14.04LTS. It is possible (in order to preserve systems tweaks not recommended unless you are experienced user) to just update XBMC itself by treating it as a normal Linux install and going to: Upgrading XBMC via ppa in XBMCbuntu