XBMC (Xbox Media Center) on Ubuntu

[jiminycricket]

If any of you have an original Xbox, I'm sure you've probably modded it and put XBMC ([Wikipedia]) on to play videos, music, and photos from your network; it's basically what the AppleTV is, but better, and from 2002. You could even access and control it from a remote web browser. Screenshots: [Yahoo Images] [Mc360 Skin]

And now...Running in Ubuntu

There have been lots of calls to port it to Linux, due to the Xbox's lack of CPU for HD, and the Xbox360 and PS3 being a dead end. So some team members eventually ported it to SDL and Linux, and now the whole XBMC team seems to be working on the port.

They're also looking for developers, according to today's news article on their [site], [forum], and [Digg].

So here's how to get it running on GNU/Linux, from their README:

This is an initial port of the skinning tool to Linux. Later on it will include
the remaining XBMC functionality.

I have tested this to work with Ubuntu.

Getting the source code
-----------------------
# sudo apt-get install subversion
# cd $HOME
# svn checkout https://xbmc.svn.sourceforge.net/svn...linuxport/XBMC

Installing the required ubuntu packages
---------------------------------------
# sudo apt-get install make g++-4.1 gcc-4.1 libsdl1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libsdl-gfx1.2-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-sound1.2-dev libsdl-stretch-dev libcdio6 libcdio-dev libfribidi0 libfribidi-dev liblzo1 liblzo-dev libfreetype6 libfreetype6-dev libsqlite3-0 libsqlite3-dev libogg-dev libsmbclient-dev libsmbclient libasound2-dev python2.4-dev python2.4

How to compile
--------------
OpenGL 3D version (requires gfx-adapter that has supported OpenGL hw acceleration, set bitdepth to 24bpp or 32bpp)
# cd $HOME/XBMC
# make

SDL 2D version (much much slower GUI rendering but works on all adapters and bitdepths)
# cd $HOME/XBMC
# make sdl_2d

How to run
----------
1. Take the T3CH Xbox distribution and extract it to your home directory.
2. Copy the XboxMediaCenter file that was generated by make and copy it
to the same directory as default.xbe (T3CH folder).
3. Copy the .so files under $HOME/XBMC/system to their respective directories
in the T3CH/system folder.
4. Rename the file under /XBMC/media/Fonts/arial.ttf to Arial.ttf
5. Change directory to where you copied the exceutable and type
# ./XboxMediaCenter
6. If you'd like to run the executable from another directory
(for debugging purposes), set XBMC_HOME to where you have XBMC dist:
# XBMC_HOME=/home/whatever/XBMC
# export XBMC_HOME

Don't expect too much, yet.

*no support from me for this guide; use at your own risk.
*tested on Feisty Fawn 32 bit
*to uninstall, delete the XBMC directory in your home directory
*since this is a live SVN, build may not work right now, try again at another time

[xeta]

This linked actually ended up helping me install it. Looks like you missed a few dependencies.

http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/wiki/...om_source_code

[honeydew]

works for me.. though none of the media players are working, I wonder if milkdrop is going to work.. that is going to be a big plus..

[ThomasNovin]

This is VERY cool. I have used a Xbox as media center now for two or three years with XBMC. I'm missing that I cannot use 1080p and cannot play x.264. Other than that, I think XBMC is the best mediacenter available.

I just donated some money at http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/info_contrib.htm, since I can use this instead of shelling out $500 on a commercial media player with half of the features that XMBC has

Way to go XBMC devs..

[geinux]

Visit http://www.lincudo.org

XBMC - Media Center Ubuntu

Deb package

[honeydew]

Visit http://www.lincudo.org

XBMC - Media Center Ubuntu

Deb package

tis in spanish.. can you translate here?

[spdaniel91]

tis in spanish.. can you translate here?

Me! ME!

Add to /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-hardy/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-hardy/ubuntu hardy main


Terminal:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xbmc

New Skins:
sudo apt-get install xbmc-piel-*


Remote controls:
sudo apt-get install xbmc-eventclients-*


Scripts:
sudo apt-get install-scripts xbmc





I didn't test it yet, I'm gonna do it now.

[j0vi]

I added repositories and made update but still apt-get nags: E: Couldn't find package xbmc

is it cos I'm having 64bit system? I read from somewhere that XBMC's support for 64bit systems is not very good.

[techno-wiz]

Have any recommendations for a small media center pc that can handle HD?

[Bdanger]

damn.. doesn't work with my via openchrome drivers..