xbmc

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#1 Post by **bmike1** » Tue Apr 29, 2014 11:57 pm

My brother has a Sony VAIO computer from 2001ish that he wants to use as a television server with XBMC. I just downloaded AntiX-MX because I heard (and later read) that it is good with old hardware. Will I have difficulties installing and running XBMC? Could I have any pointers. I currently have XBMC running on an OS called Mint12 on an IBM NetVista (which is about the same age as the VAIO) but xbmc now requires at least Mint16 for it to work. What I have found is that computer pukes when I try to run Mint16 and XBMC crashes immedialtely upon start when run on any version of Mint that will run (including 12).

#2 Post by ko » Wed Apr 30, 2014 4:58 am

Why not install Openelec (which provides a dedicated environment for (included) XBMC) on your Sony ?
There are selectable flavors of Openelec for all kinds of hardware : http://www.openelec.tv
Openelec is an dedicated environment around XBMC - and nothing else.

#3 Post by **zarg2** » Wed Apr 30, 2014 7:32 am

I had choppy performance with XBMC in MX14 so went with just using VLC. If you want XBMC on something that old with a minimum of fuss i would go with (lowers head in anticipation of incoming fire)

Lubuntu 12.04 or if that is too heavy on resources try Antix 13.2 (if i have time this week I will try to install XBMC in Antix 13.2 on an old system and see how it performs. I have not tried Openelec but it looks interesting as well. One note: if you go with Lubuntu you can install Splashtop2 for Ubuntu and if you have a tablet you can then control the server and even watch video from the server on the tablet; I used to run that setup but got bored and now have MX14 with VLC to watch Vids (no fancy XBMC interface). To do the latter you do have to set up an account on splashtops server but it is free; theoretically you can stream video over the web to any splashtop enabled PC as long as your server is online. i have only streamed "in network" within my house and it worked very well even using a Kindle Fire which can be a hinky device to get working nice with some apps. Good luck!

#4 Post by **Stevo** » Wed Apr 30, 2014 9:50 am

XMBC also uses openGL for its fancy effects, so is going to need a good 3D driver that supports that.

Zarg2, was the poor performance with the stock xbmc 11 in wheezy, or the 12.3 version in wheezy-backports? We have a similar version in the CR, but it looks like backport's build shows up as a higher version because of the "+bpo"

#5 Post by **zarg2** » Wed Apr 30, 2014 11:00 am

Stevo wrote:XMBC also uses openGL for its fancy effects, so is going to need a good 3D driver that supports that.

Zarg2, was the poor performance with the stock xbmc 11 in wheezy, or the 12.3 version in wheezy-backports? We have a similar version in the CR, but it looks like backport's build shows up as a higher version because of the "+bpo"

I will have to check but i think it was frodo which is 12. i installed via synaptic so i assume that since backports are enabled in MX14 that 12 is what would have installed. for reference XBMC with Ubuntu or Lubuntu 12.04 ran smoothly on the same machine.

#6 Post by **bmike1** » Wed Apr 30, 2014 1:29 pm

Well... I would try ubuntu but that would be an effort in futility because the ubuntu equivalent to Mint 16 is ubuntu 13.10. [http://www.xbmchub.com/forums/threads/2 ... away/page2 (post 11)]

#7 Post by **zarg2** » Wed Apr 30, 2014 1:34 pm

well as i noted earlier Ubuntu 12.04 which is LTS ran XBMC fine.

#8 Post by **bmike1** » Wed Apr 30, 2014 3:09 pm

Okay.... I'll try it though I am told that new installs of XBMC won't run on less than 13.10

#9 Post by **zarg2** » Wed Apr 30, 2014 4:27 pm

either of the 12 XBMCbuntu's listed should be preset to install and configure both the os and xbmc. if it is too resource heavy then try Openelec.

link: http://mirrors.xbmc.org/releases/XBMCbuntu/

#10 Post by **bmike1** » Tue May 06, 2014 6:05 pm

the reason I think he needs another card is because (as my first post says) nouveau failed to load in his box while in the box that has an operating xbmc nouveau loaded:

inxi -G
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA NV5M64 [RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro]
Display Server: X.Org 1.12.4 drivers: vesa (unloaded: fbdev) FAILED: nouveau Resolution: 1024x768@0.0hz
GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 0x209) GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 8.0.5

Now I run xbmc on a net vista and it runs great inxi -G shows:

card nvidia nv34 [GeForce FX 5200]
X.org 1.10.4 drivers nouveau unloaded: fbdev,vesa tty size 128x48 and other settings that all say N/A

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mx14 loads quick and shuts down even quicker