XBMCFreak

If anyone is interested in posting news or writing articles, please let me know!

The xbmcfreak livecd isn’t affected by the nvidia bug which causes overheating. Xbmcfreak contains 190.53 stable. You’re only affected when you installed 195.xx by your own!

The recent NVIDIA UNIX graphics drivers, 195.36.08 and 195.36.03, are affected a serious bug. The bug causes the fan to run slower and might overheat your card. Until the problem is resolved, UNIX users are recommend to revert to the 190.53 web release or the 195.30 public beta. Nvidia ION users should also watch out: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1422970

If you’re interested to play with Alsa and XBMC these are the scripts you’ll need. The both will redirect the audio signal to hdmi and spdif/digital at the same time. The triple also does analoog! The dmix scripts filter the signal and prevented load pops on my reciever. Let me know when you changed anything and found something interesting!

www.xbmcfreak.nl/wp-content/uploads/2010/asoundrc-dmix-both

http://www.xbmcfreak.nl/wp-content/uploads/2010/asoundrc-dmix-spdif

http://www.xbmcfreak.nl/wp-content/uploads/2010/asoundrc-dual

http://www.xbmcfreak.nl/wp-content/uploads/2010/asoundrc-triple

The Ubuntu developers changed some things on the live installer side. Because of this I’m no longer able to produce new livecd’s. As soon as the live installer issues are solved new livecd’s will pop-up! Keep you updated!

This new XBMCFreak livecd is a generic livecd which can be used for all platforms. Intel, AMD, Nvidia are all supported. The optimalizations on this livecd are splitted up into different sections for each kind of hardware or platform. The livecd also contains many programs which should be configured to work out of the box. The XBMC 9.11 binaries remain the same. The use of the livecd is at your own risk! The xbmcfreak generic version contains the following changes when comparing against the original xbmc 9.11 livecd:

Nvidia ION optimalizations:
- advancedsettings.xml added to show cpu and gpu temperature
- .asoundrc with triple audio output (nvidia ion)
- coretemp.ko compiled and added to show cpu temperature

Nvidia optimalizations:
- Nvidia ext3 packages uses 20% less space on the livecd
- nvclock added

CrystalHD optimalizations:
- CrystalHD drivers added which will be loaded when a CrystalHD is found. CrystalHD can only be used with XBMC SVN, so in order to use the CrystalHD you have to upgrade manually to SVN.

Other changes:
- Created with the latest package versions, for example kernel 2.6.31-19 is added.
- lm-sensors, wget, lynx, lftp, ftp, zip, wireless-tools, wpasupplicant, added.
- Predefined user folders added after the boot or installation.
- Samba added multiple shares to the predefined user folders.
- Proftpd added
- sabnzbdplus added, port 9090
- transmission added, port 9091
- mt-daapd added, port 9092
- apache2 added with redirects to sabnzb, transmission and mt-daapd
username and password combinations for sabnzb, transmission and mt-daapd: xbmc / xbmc

http://ipaddresshtpc/sabnzbd/

http://ipaddresshtpc/transmission/web/

http://ipaddresshtpc/mt-daapd/

- Sources.xml added with references to SMB shares and paths
- Added Blu-Ray script and makemkv v1.4.11: http://www.xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=67420
- USB0 added to /proc/acpi/wakeup, which will allow Microsoft USB compatible to wake up from stand-by
- Alaska and Rapier skin added
- Permissions /usr/share/xbmc/web fixed, this should allow XBMC Music Streamer to stream
- hourly script added which sets SetResponseFormat(), fix for album pictures XBMCRemote (iPhone)
- python-software-properties added: http://www.xbmc.org/trac/ticket/8304
- Boot fix added: http://www.xbmc.org/trac/ticket/8579
- Launcher added: http://code.google.com/p/xbmc-launcher/downloads/list

Download: http://xbmcfreak.smetana.nl/xbmcfreakgenericv02.zip

Known issues:
* Reloading /etc/samba/smb/conf smbd only
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/samba/+bug/435061
* could not access PID file for nmbd
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/samba/+bug/462169
* [ 13.144390] nForce2_smbus 0000:00:0a.1: Error probing SMB1.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/440470

Tonight the code for the add-ons has been merged to the current development branch. The add-ons code allows you to go into your box to add skins, scrapers, plugins, PVR Backends, etc, without the need of using ssh or ftp. Everything can be managed from XBMC. Revision 28276 is the revision before the add-ons code merge. The XBMC devs asked that users of nightly builds take a break, and that third-party builders please suspend your releases for now. Builds at this time only make things harder for us.

More info: http://xbmc.org/theuni/2010/03/01/impending-merge-addons/

MediaPortal 1.1.0 rc1 has been released. Major changes are the tv-engine TVE2 that is no longer used and that SQL Server has been replaced by Mysql. If don’t want to experiment with the XBMC nightly version MediaPortal might be something for you. MediaPortal has DXVA support out of the box. DXVA support will also be added to XBMC when 10.05 will be released. More info: http://www.team-mediaportal.com/news/global/mediaportal_1.1.0_rc1_released!.html

I’m a happy owner of the ASUS AT3N7A-1 Nvidia ION motherbord. If you want to start using the wake on lan feature you have to enable this manually. The option is hidden in the bios menu and is called “Wake on PCIe event” (power management section). I think other Nvidia ION related motherbords will work on the same way.

A visitor suggested to use the improved version of the dmix script to use both hdmi and spdif/digital at the same time. Previous thread: http://www.xbmcfreak.nl/en/geluid-spdif-via-dmix/

The script is posted on the xbmc forum. If you’re interested it’s over here:

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=62165&page=4

We’ve made it to revision 3’s hd nation. Our livecd’s were discussed in Episode 33. If you’re interested to watch it move on to http://revision3.com/hdnation/ and move forward to 22:00 min.

Finally completing the circle again after the beta launch last month, Boxee has made its latest version available for the Apple TV. Available via an updated Launcher for those already running the Alpha version or ATVUSB-Creator for everyone else it should bring the facelifted UI and features Windows, OS X and Ubuntu users have been enjoying. Getting some 1080p oomph out of your set-top box will be difficult however, with no support for the Broadcom Crystal HD add-on “yet” and while performance has improved h.264 playback may still be limited even in this new version. Mash the read link and follow instructions to get moving, but feel free to bounce any thanks or issues towards the forum posters, XBMC coders and the rest of the posse who made this update possible.

http://blog.boxee.tv/2010/02/25/get-a-bite-of-this-–-boxee-beta-on-appletv/

I came across the topic listed below. It has some very interesting thoughts when configuring X11 and xorg.conf. Worth a read when you are a Linux or XBMC Live user!

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=71144

For a very long time my receiver gave load pops and statics when switching from one song to another. I fixed this issue by passing the sound to spdif or digital thru dmix (Alsa). The hdmi sound signal remains untouched. If you’re interested in this solution you should try the following asounrc configuration file. Save it as .asoundrc and put it into the xbmc live user home folder:

http://www.xbmcfreak.nl/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/asoundrc.txt

The best results can be reached when you combine this solution with alsa 1.0.22.1. To upgrade, follow this guide:

http://monespaceperso.org/blog-en/2009/12/17/upgrade-alsa-1-0-22-on-ubuntu-karmic-koala-9-10/

If you’re interested in Plex. The following is worth reading: http://ryan.plexapp.com/?p=34