HOWTO: Installing XBMC on a Acer Revo R3600 with Ubuntu Jaunty/Karmic

Yesterday out of a sudden, the sound on my Acer Revo stopped working. Don’t ask me why, I didn’t update anything in between New Years eve and today. Just no sound. Tried removing my .asoundrc, tried rebooting, tried powering off; but nothing worked.

Since the Revo was running Jaunty Jackalope, I decided to reinstall the box (yeah, yet again) — but this time with Karmic Koala. Took this forums post and this blog entry as pointer (ie what needed to be installed), and started from there. And guess what … after finishing all that, changing the settings in XBMC — tada sound works. After finishing, I turned the box off and then back on, booted to the “old” installation — guess what .. Sound is working again. I really don’t have a single clue as to why the heck the sound stopped working and the started working without any doing, but I’m glad 😛

As a pointer to myself, here’s a complete list of commands that need to be done to get a working installation of XBMC. Requirement for this is a minimal installation of Jaunty Jackalope/Karmic Koala.

# I need to blacklist the internal WLAN device, since I'm using an external one
cat &lt;&lt; EOF | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-ath_pci.conf
blacklist ath5k
EOF
# Also need to blacklist the not working RAlink drivers
cat &lt;&lt; EOF | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-ralink.conf
# The below drivers don't work with the Atheros AR5001
# (Linksys WUSB600N)
blacklist rt2800usb
blacklist rt2x00usb
EOF

# Add the necessary PPA's
cat &lt;&lt; EOF | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xbmc.list
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/nvidia-vdpau/ppa/ubuntu karmic main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/nvidia-vdpau/ppa/ubuntu karmic main
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-svn/ppa/ubuntu karmic main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-svn/ppa/ubuntu karmic main
EOF
# Add the GPG keys to the APT keyring
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 
                 --recv-keys 64234534 40618B66 CEC06767 318C7509 
                             91E7EE5E 64234534
sudo aptitude update
# Install necessary prerequisites (like nvidia-glx
# for VDPAU rendering)
# debhelper needs to be added, otherwise dkms is gonna fail.
# I need nvidia-glx-180 because the -190 apparently brings
# a large framedrop (as in I'm getting 18 FPS instead of 24)
sudo aptitude install nvidia-glx-180 debhelper linux-sound-base 
                      alsa-base alsa-utils
# unmute the Master an PCM channels with alsamixer. Press ESC to quit
sudo alsamixer
sudo alsactl store 0
# Install XBMC as standalone (i.e. no desktop environment like GNOME)
sudo aptitude install xbmc-standalone

# Configure the Xserver
sudo nvidia-xconfig

# Add the init-script (no need for fancy tty login stuff)
cat &lt;/dev/null
        ;;
esac
exit 0
EOF
sudo update-rc.d xbmc defaults

# Install usplash, configure our resolution and
# regenerate the initramfs
sudo aptitude install usplash usplash-theme-ubuntu
cat &lt;&lt; EOF | sudo tee -a /etc/usplash.conf
resx=1920
resy=1080
EOF
sudo update-initramfs -u

# Install lirc
sudo aptitude install lirc inputlirc lirc-modules-source
cat &lt;&lt; EOF | sudo tee -a /etc/lirc/lircd.conf
#
# this config file was automatically generated
# using lirc-0.7.1pre2(any) on Mon Jul  4 22:11:52 2005
#
# contributed by
#
# brand:                       Technisat
# model no. of remote control: TTS35AI
# devices being controlled by this remote: Skystar 2.6D
#

begin remote

  name  Technisat_TTS35AI.conf
  bits           13
  flags RC5|CONST_LENGTH
  eps            30
  aeps          100

  one           882   803
  zero          882   803
  plead         905
  gap          112766
  toggle_bit      2


      begin codes
          Power                    0x1A8C
          Mute                     0x1A8D
          1                        0x1281
          2                        0x1A82
          3                        0x1283
          4                        0x1A84
          5                        0x1285
          6                        0x1A86
          7                        0x1287
          8                        0x1A88
          9                        0x1289
          0                        0x1A80
          -/--                     0x128A
          A/B                      0x1AA3
          Red                      0x0AAB
          Green                    0x02AC
          Yellow                   0x0AAD
          Blue                     0x02AE
          Ok                       0x0A97
          Up                       0x12A0
          Down                     0x1AA1
          Left                     0x1291
          Right                    0x1A90
          SFI                      0x12AF
          Back                     0x1AA2
          Info                     0x028F
#          Prog+                    0x1AA0
#          Prog-                    0x12A1
          TV/Radio                 0x0293
#          Volume+                  0x1A90
#          Volume-                  0x1291
          Menu                     0x0A92
          Hilfe                    0x1A8F
          TXT                      0x12BC
          STOP                     0x1AA9
          EXT                      0x12B8
          HILFE2                   0x0AB6
      end codes

end remote
EOF
sudo sed -i -e 's,REMOTE="",REMOTE="TechnoTrend USB IR receiver",' 
       -e 's,REMOTE_MODULES="",REMOTE_MODULES="lirc_serial",' 
       -e 's,REMOTE_DEVICE="",REMOTE_DEVICE="/dev/lirc0",' 
       -e 's,START_LIRCD="false",START_LIRCD="true",' 
       /etc/lirc/hardware.conf
sudo sed -i -e 's,EVENTS="",EVENTS="/dev/input/by-id/usb-Formosa21_USB_IR_Receiver-event-mouse",' 
       -e 's,OPTIONS="",OPTIONS="-g -m 0",' /etc/default/inputlirc

cat &lt;&lt; EOF | sudo tee /usr/share/xbmc/system/scrapers/video/nfo-file-scaper.xml

<!-- Forces XBMC to gather the settings, that are on disk
         (ie no downloading of content information -->

EOF

# Reboot the system
sudo reboot

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# I need to blacklist the internal WLAN device, since I'm using an external one

cat << EOF | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-ath_pci.conf

blacklist ath5k

EOF

# Also need to blacklist the not working RAlink drivers

cat << EOF | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-ralink.conf

# The below drivers don't work with the Atheros AR5001

# (Linksys WUSB600N)

blacklist rt2800usb

blacklist rt2x00usb

EOF

# Add the necessary PPA's

cat << EOF | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xbmc.list

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/nvidia-vdpau/ppa/ubuntu karmic main

deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/nvidia-vdpau/ppa/ubuntu karmic main

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-svn/ppa/ubuntu karmic main

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

EOF

# Add the GPG keys to the APT keyring

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com

--recv-keys 64234534 40618B66 CEC06767 318C7509

91E7EE5E 64234534

sudo aptitude update

# Install necessary prerequisites (like nvidia-glx

# for VDPAU rendering)

# debhelper needs to be added, otherwise dkms is gonna fail.

# I need nvidia-glx-180 because the -190 apparently brings

# a large framedrop (as in I'm getting 18 FPS instead of 24)

sudo aptitude install nvidia-glx-180 debhelper linux-sound-base

alsa-base alsa-utils

# unmute the Master an PCM channels with alsamixer. Press ESC to quit

sudo alsamixer

sudo alsactl store 0

# Install XBMC as standalone (i.e. no desktop environment like GNOME)

sudo aptitude install xbmc-standalone

# Configure the Xserver

sudo nvidia-xconfig

# Add the init-script (no need for fancy tty login stuff)

cat </dev/null

;;

esac

exit 0

EOF

sudo update-rc.d xbmc defaults

# Install usplash, configure our resolution and

# regenerate the initramfs

sudo aptitude install usplash usplash-theme-ubuntu

cat << EOF | sudo tee -a /etc/usplash.conf

resx=1920

resy=1080

EOF

sudo update-initramfs -u

# Install lirc

sudo aptitude install lirc inputlirc lirc-modules-source

cat << EOF | sudo tee -a /etc/lirc/lircd.conf

# this config file was automatically generated

# using lirc-0.7.1pre2(any) on Mon Jul 4 22:11:52 2005

# contributed by

# brand: Technisat

# model no. of remote control: TTS35AI

# devices being controlled by this remote: Skystar 2.6D

begin remote

name Technisat_TTS35AI.conf

bits 13

flags RC5|CONST_LENGTH

eps 30

aeps 100

one 882 803

zero 882 803

plead 905

gap 112766

toggle_bit 2

begin codes

Power 0x1A8C

Mute 0x1A8D

1 0x1281

2 0x1A82

3 0x1283

4 0x1A84

5 0x1285

6 0x1A86

7 0x1287

8 0x1A88

9 0x1289

0 0x1A80

-/-- 0x128A

A/B 0x1AA3

Red 0x0AAB

Green 0x02AC

Yellow 0x0AAD

Blue 0x02AE

Ok 0x0A97

Up 0x12A0

Down 0x1AA1

Left 0x1291

Right 0x1A90

SFI 0x12AF

Back 0x1AA2

Info 0x028F

# Prog+ 0x1AA0

# Prog- 0x12A1

TV/Radio 0x0293

# Volume+ 0x1A90

# Volume- 0x1291

Menu 0x0A92

Hilfe 0x1A8F

TXT 0x12BC

STOP 0x1AA9

EXT 0x12B8

HILFE2 0x0AB6

end codes

end remote

EOF

sudo sed -i -e 's,REMOTE="",REMOTE="TechnoTrend USB IR receiver",'

-e 's,REMOTE_MODULES="",REMOTE_MODULES="lirc_serial",'

-e 's,REMOTE_DEVICE="",REMOTE_DEVICE="/dev/lirc0",'

-e 's,START_LIRCD="false",START_LIRCD="true",'

/etc/lirc/hardware.conf

sudo sed -i -e 's,EVENTS="",EVENTS="/dev/input/by-id/usb-Formosa21_USB_IR_Receiver-event-mouse",'

-e 's,OPTIONS="",OPTIONS="-g -m 0",' /etc/default/inputlirc

cat << EOF | sudo tee /usr/share/xbmc/system/scrapers/video/nfo-file-scaper.xml

<!-- Forces XBMC to gather the settings, that are on disk

(ie no downloading of content information -->

EOF

# Reboot the system

sudo reboot

Now we just need to configure the audio output to pipe everything through HDMI. For that change the settings in Settings -> System -> Audio Output like this:

Or if you like messing with ~/.xbmc/userdata/guisettings.xml:

        false
        alsa:plug:hdmi
        
        
        true
        false
        1
        alsa:hdmi

false

alsa:plug:hdmi

true

false

alsa:hdmi

As for the changed device names of the input device (ie usb-Formosa21_USB_IR_Receiver-event-ir (Jaunty) vs. usb-Formosa21_USB_IR_Receiver-event-mouse (Karmic), just take the Lircmap.xml from here, and change the remote-Line accordingly.

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