$25 Raspberry Pi running XBMC

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#684746 12-Sep-2012 09:13

rvangelder: I bought a Raspberry Pi with great expectations. Had thoughts about having fun configuring it and running Rasbian and unlocking all the great features. It actually got me pretty excited.
I even splashed out on a cool case!

It worked ok, but it wasn't straight-forward. I had heaps of problems getting an image onto my SDCard (Not the Pi's fault!).
Lots of fiddling and configuration. Once I did get it running, it ran well, but shutdown was a problem. I couldn't iron out the remaining problems, mainly because I had like a couple of hours per week and in the end I realised I'm not the at-home geek I once was. I just don't have the time *sigh*.

I've put my Raspberry on trademe. Maybe I'll break even.

I know what you are saying - not the killer machine but there is enough to make it very useful. Sharing a USB drive with SMB is one of them DLNA server is another.

Even if the GUI is not very fast (try different skins - some are faster than others) it still has some neat features and I've been a fan of XBMC since it first came out on XBOX1 - I just love the library function. This is intened as a replacement for the XBOX - which it may still do - I've not decided yet but I'm definately going to keep it.

As for the remote - I use my SGS2 or the iPad - the iPad remote interface is very good.

Procrastination eventually pays off.

lchiu7

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#684804 12-Sep-2012 10:40

I didn't find it hard to setup at all and actually Darkelec2 easier only because I didn't have to wait for the Raspbmc installer to download all the components and install them. That being said I am sure there is a prebuilt image for Raspbmc also and then you only need to use windiskimager32 to make the bootable image.

It was fun building the Pi and I even knocked up a case using a cassette tape box and a Dremel. But since it provides no functionality over my Popcorn Hours and is much slower, it's probably going on a shelf.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

rvangelder

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#684876 12-Sep-2012 12:03

reven: huh, download the installer for raspbmc, click "install" (one button install) plug SD into pi connected to network, turn pi on, walk away and come back 30mins later and you're done.

I used a *.img file using win32diskimager. This tool failed most of the time, so I suppose that popped my bubble.
Once I got the sdcard imaged, the thing booted up fine first time. It played media perfectly, and the interface felt quite smooth. Only things that built lists really caused delays, but I felt it was still acceptable performance. After a bit of configuration tweaking, I pulled the power cable out and left it for the night.

The next time I went to boot up, it wouldn't. Something about couldn't find root on ext4. After several tries against the same error, I re-imaged the sdcard (win32diskimager still failing most of the time), but when I did eventually get it imaged, it booted up fine again... that is, until I pulled the power again.

It could be hardware, it could be software, it could be my level of skill. I guess I'll never know because I've given up - I don't have the time that I thought I would.

reven

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#684898 12-Sep-2012 12:18

rvangelder:
reven: huh, download the installer for raspbmc, click "install" (one button install) plug SD into pi connected to network, turn pi on, walk away and come back 30mins later and you're done.

I used a *.img file using win32diskimager. This tool failed most of the time, so I suppose that popped my bubble.
Once I got the sdcard imaged, the thing booted up fine first time. It played media perfectly, and the interface felt quite smooth. Only things that built lists really caused delays, but I felt it was still acceptable performance. After a bit of configuration tweaking, I pulled the power cable out and left it for the night.

The next time I went to boot up, it wouldn't. Something about couldn't find root on ext4. After several tries against the same error, I re-imaged the sdcard (win32diskimager still failing most of the time), but when I did eventually get it imaged, it booted up fine again... that is, until I pulled the power again.

It could be hardware, it could be software, it could be my level of skill. I guess I'll never know because I've given up - I don't have the time that I thought I would.

fair enough, just didnt want other people reading this and thinking the same without trying it. sounds like a bad SD card.

gzt

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#684901 12-Sep-2012 12:27

rvangelder: After a bit of configuration tweaking, I pulled the power cable out and left it for the night.

The next time I went to boot up, it wouldn't. Something about couldn't find root on ext4. After several tries against the same error, I re-imaged the sdcard (win32diskimager still failing most of the time), but when I did eventually get it imaged, it booted up fine again... that is, until I pulled the power again.

Pi does recommend a good quality SD card, but in any case power pull is never a good idea. The OS could probably be optimised with cache flush and safe sleep timeout type stuff but in the meantime use shutdown correctly:

http://raspi.tv/2012/how-to-safely-shutdown-or-reboot-your-raspberry-pi

timmmay

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#684991 12-Sep-2012 14:48

I'm reconsidering the R Pi as a media streamer and Skype player for my lounge. I initially bought something more powerful, a Mele A2000, but that has a GPU that isn't supported by XBMC so is slower in practice.

Will Xbian/XBMC on the R Pi:
- Play random avi, mp4, and mkv files that are standard dev and 720p across my 100Mbps wired network from the Win7 PC (after purchase of a codec license)?
- Run Skype at a reasonable resolution with my logitech webcam, or another brand?
- Play blu ray across my 100Mbps network from a drive in my PC?
- Pass through 5.1 sound to my receiver?

Sorry for taking the lazy approach asking here rather than researching myself, but I bet someone here knows this stuff like the back of their hand :-)

reven

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#685014 12-Sep-2012 15:39

timmmay: I'm reconsidering the R Pi as a media streamer and Skype player for my lounge. I initially bought something more powerful, a Mele A2000, but that has a GPU that isn't supported by XBMC so is slower in practice.

Will Xbian/XBMC on the R Pi:
- Play random avi, mp4, and mkv files that are standard dev and 720p across my 100Mbps wired network from the Win7 PC (after purchase of a codec license)?
- Run Skype at a reasonable resolution with my logitech webcam, or another brand?
- Play blu ray across my 100Mbps network from a drive in my PC?
- Pass through 5.1 sound to my receiver?

Sorry for taking the lazy approach asking here rather than researching myself, but I bet someone here knows this stuff like the back of their hand :-)

yes to all except for skype. you will not be able to do skype through xbmc. i doubt this will ever run well on the pi and xbmc together (maybe with android on the pi and switch between xbmc and android, but wont ever be perfect).

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timmmay

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#685019 12-Sep-2012 15:44

reven:
yes to all except for skype. you will not be able to do skype through xbmc. i doubt this will ever run well on the pi and xbmc together (maybe with android on the pi and switch between xbmc and android, but wont ever be perfect).

Thanks Reven. I figured since R Pi can run Linux there would be generic Linux client, but that doesn't seem to be the case, not yet anyway. I guess it's still very early days, and it may turn up eventually. We just want to be able to sit in the lounge and use skype :-)

I may look into a Intel Atom type PC, unfortunately it's much more expensive at more like $300+. That can run Ubuntu, Skype, XBMC, etc, without breaking a sweat I'm sure.

reven

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#685023 12-Sep-2012 15:47

skype isnt an open protocol, so thats why there isnt a linux client for video.

also that client would have to work on ARM cpus.

thats why android is your best bet, but still a long shot.

gzt

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#685142 12-Sep-2012 18:37

Users are doing things with audio on Pi/ARM.

http://elinux.org/RPi_Using_Skypekit

On the video side, the same kit does provide ARM video and I have seen discussions (not about pi) from developers trying things with it.

timmmay

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#685153 12-Sep-2012 19:23

I just assumed since there was Skype for Linux it'd work on ARM. Guess I was wrong. Maybe I need a windows HTPC.

lchiu7

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#685158 12-Sep-2012 19:40

reven:
rvangelder:
reven: huh, download the installer for raspbmc, click "install" (one button install) plug SD into pi connected to network, turn pi on, walk away and come back 30mins later and you're done.

I used a *.img file using win32diskimager. This tool failed most of the time, so I suppose that popped my bubble.
Once I got the sdcard imaged, the thing booted up fine first time. It played media perfectly, and the interface felt quite smooth. Only things that built lists really caused delays, but I felt it was still acceptable performance. After a bit of configuration tweaking, I pulled the power cable out and left it for the night.

The next time I went to boot up, it wouldn't. Something about couldn't find root on ext4. After several tries against the same error, I re-imaged the sdcard (win32diskimager still failing most of the time), but when I did eventually get it imaged, it booted up fine again... that is, until I pulled the power again.

It could be hardware, it could be software, it could be my level of skill. I guess I'll never know because I've given up - I don't have the time that I thought I would.

fair enough, just didnt want other people reading this and thinking the same without trying it. sounds like a bad SD card.

Most likely. I only ever had one boot failure after I imaged a card and powering off and on fixed that. I noted earlier I made a case from a cassette box. To tell the truth it took me longer to make that case then it did to build and configure XBMC on the Pi. I am really impressed at what the developers have done.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

timmmay

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#685425 13-Sep-2012 10:43

I'm going to order a R Pi soon, anyone want to piggyback off my order? I'll probably go to Element14 as their website seems much better than RS.

StarBlazer

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#685452 13-Sep-2012 11:10

timmmay: I'm going to order a R Pi soon, anyone want to piggyback off my order? I'll probably go to Element14 as their website seems much better than RS.

Element14 had the Pi and SD card shipped same day and I received it next day - pretty awesome considering is comes from AU. The case arrived yesterday around 1 week but it was listed as out of stock and with 6 day delivery - all things considered very good service.

The three items cost $98NZD delivered. The only extra I spent was for a 3m HDMI cable from Ascent for $18. You'll need a keyboard and mouse initially to help navigate and ease of setting up.

If you have a spare 4gig SD card lying around (I think class 4 or higher) then don't buy the one from Element14. Just download your chosen flavour from the net and use the SD utility to write the img to the card. I've tried Wheezy, Raspbmc and Xbian without any major issue.

The Raspbmc img only installs an installer on the SD card so when you boot up it needs to be connected to the internet to download the actual OS/Software - this takes around 20mins to download and install.

You will probably have a working system in 30-45 minutes - fine tuning and playing with the options depends on how much a geek you are.

I'm on Xbian and have configured auto mount of the USB, auto share on SMB and last night got the CEC working - the last thing means that when connected via HDMI to some TV's the remote control signal is sent back to the Pi - meaning no other remote control required.

I've also used my SGS2, and iPad as a remote control (both free and in the respective stores). You will also want to install putty somewhere to access the command line easily.

Good luck - it's not a killer machine, but it is functional and it's great fun if you want a diversion from the hum drum days.

Procrastination eventually pays off.

timmmay

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#685458 13-Sep-2012 11:15

Thanks SB. Did you get charged shipping separately on the case? If so I may just buy another one off ebay or something.

Any tips or guides you used to help with the setup would be good. I read on this thread xbian is better, so I'll try that. I've never done this before, though I've installed Ubuntu and other OS's before, but I've never done much in Linux. I have putty installed for administering my server.

I have a spare SD card, HDMI cable, and power supply lying around. I may need a USB hub, though hopefully I can get away without one initially for the mouse and keyboard.

I plan to use my Android tablet as a remote, and maybe the harmony if I get an IR receiver.

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