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XBMC for Raspberry Pi

Submitted by mgorven on Wed, 2012/10/31 - 00:32

This page describes how to install XBMC on a Raspberry Pi running Raspbian. You can either install packages on an existing Raspbian installation, or you can download a prebuilt image and flash it to an SD card.

Installing packages on an existing installation

I've published a Debian archive containing packages for XBMC and some dependencies which it requires. This can be setup on an existing Raspbian installation (including the foundation image).

Installing

The easiest way to install the package is to add my archive to your system. To do this, store the following in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mene.list:

deb http://archive.mene.za.net/raspbian wheezy contrib

and import the archive signing key:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-key 5243CDED

Then update the package lists:

sudo apt-get update

You can then install it as you would with any other package, for example, with apt-get:

sudo apt-get install xbmc

The user which you're going to run XBMC as needs to be a member of the following groups:

audio video input dialout plugdev

If the input group doesn't exist, you need to create it:

addgroup --system input

and setup some udev rules to grant it ownership of input devices (otherwise the keyboard won't work in XBMC), by placing the following in /etc/udev/rules.d/99-input.rules:

SUBSYSTEM=="input", GROUP="input", MODE="0660"

Running

To run XBMC, run xbmc-standalone from a VT (i.e. not under X). XBMC accesses the display directly and not via Xorg.

If you want XBMC to automatically start when the system boots, edit /etc/default/xbmc and change ENABLED to 1:

ENABLED=1

You also need to set the user which XBMC should run as (the xbmc user is not automatically created at the moment). Run sudo service xbmc start to test this.

Release history

  • 12.2-1: Frodo 12.2 release.
  • 12.1-1: Frodo 12.1 release. Requires newer libcec (also in my archive).
  • 12.0-1: Frodo 12.0 release. This build requires newer firmware than the raspberrypi.org archive or image contains. Either install the packages from the raspberrypi.org untested archive, the twolife archive or use rpi-update. (Not necessary as of 2013/02/11.)
  • 12.0~git20130102.7a6cb7f-1: Frodo RC 3.
  • 12.0~git20121219.74b907c-1: Frodo RC 2.
  • 11.0~git20121114.25bb46a-1: Frodo Beta 1. This includes a database schema upgrade, so make sure to backup your userdata folder before upgrading.
  • 11.0~git20121027.99da926-1: Fixes the issue of the last few seconds of video being cut off.
  • 11.0~git20121018.ff434fe-1: Upgrading to this version will probably result in the GUI resolution being zoomed as described in this forum post. To fix this edit userdata/guisettings.xml and remove the contents of the <resolutions> element.
  • 11.0~git20120804.efef226f-1
  • 11.0~git20120728.365953fb-4: Initial release

Flashing an SD card with a prebuilt image

I've built an image containing a Raspbian system with the XBMC packages which you can download and flash to an SD card. You'll need a 1G SD card (which will be completely wiped).

Flashing

Decompress the image using unx:

% unxz raspbian-xbmc-20121029.img.xz

And then copy the image to the SD card device (make sure that you pick the correct device name!)

% sudo cp xbmc-20121029-1.img /dev/sdb

Customising

The image uses the same credentials as the foundation image, username "pi" and password "raspberry". You can use the raspi-config tool to expand the root filesystem, enable overclocking, and various other configuration tasks.

Updating

Both Raspbian and XBMC can be updated using normal Debian mechanisms such as apt-get:

# sudo apt-get update
# sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Release history

Trackback URL for this post:

http://michael.gorven.za.net/trackback/1498
#1Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2013/05/22 - 17:03.

PVR Addons

Any chance you could include a package with compiled pvr plugins? They need to be compiled from the frodo branch of opdenkamo's xbmc-pvr-addons git

https://github.com/opdenkamp/xbmc-pvr-addons/tree/frodo

I can provide you with the binaries I've compiled, but I've only tested the cmyth addon.
#2Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 2013/05/11 - 07:04.

black screen

Any fix for the black screen on exit?
#3Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2013/05/12 - 01:08.

black after exit,,,and cant airplay from ipad3

i have the same issue,,,,black after exit,now always

and cant airplay video from ipad3

how nexttime,,not just update version,,,hope solve these promblem
#4Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 2013/05/11 - 14:04.

black screen after exit

Nice to hear that I'm not the only one having this problem.

I have used "DIY fix-script" I mentioned before, which runs startx after xbmc. This way other desktop session opens automatically and is visible. Then I logout from that session and original session is visible again.

This is lousy fix, but best I can imagine and this way I don't have to SSH to pi using another computer.

If someone knows better way, I'm still most interested!
#5Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 2013/05/20 - 15:19.

The only way i've ever gotten

The only way i've ever gotten the black screen at exit is by starting from within X. Even then, if you press Ctrl+Alt+F1, it should go back to your first tty and you should be good. If you had started in X, after going to tty, press Ctrl+Alt+F7 to go back to X.
#6Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 2013/05/13 - 07:18.

black screen

I'm new to Linux so I'm sorry for my lack of knowledge but I'm assuming just do "sudo bank /usr/bin/xbmc startx" to create this script?
#7Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 2013/05/13 - 07:19.

edit

sudo nano
#8Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2013/05/10 - 16:08.

torrent magnets

is it just me or are the torrent magnet links down? and is there one with xbmc 12.2
#9Submitted by mgorven on Fri, 2013/05/10 - 19:55.

I haven't built a new image

I haven't built a new image with 12.2, but you can install the latest image and then run sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get dist-upgrade to update to it.
#10Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2013/05/10 - 16:22.

nevermind it was me

!
#11Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2013/05/07 - 17:17.

problem with update

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mene.list deb http://archive.mene.za.net/raspbian wheezy contrib

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo apt-get update Get:1 http://archive.mene.za.net wheezy Release.gpg [198 B] Hit http://archive.raspberrypi.org wheezy Release.gpg Get:2 http://archive.mene.za.net wheezy Release [1631 B] Hit http://archive.raspberrypi.org wheezy Release Hit http://http.debian.net wheezy Release.gpg Hit http://http.debian.net wheezy Release Hit http://archive.raspberrypi.org wheezy/main armel Packages Hit http://http.debian.net wheezy/main armel Packages Ign http://archive.raspberrypi.org wheezy/main Translation-en Hit http://http.debian.net wheezy/contrib armel Packages Hit http://http.debian.net wheezy/non-free armel Packages Hit http://http.debian.net wheezy/contrib Translation-en Hit http://http.debian.net wheezy/main Translation-en Hit http://http.debian.net wheezy/non-free Translation-en Fetched 1829 B in 0s (2034 B/s) W: Failed to fetch http://archive.mene.za.net/raspbian/dists/wheezy/Release Unable to find expected entry 'contrib/binary-armel/Packages' in Release file (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)

E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

Please help me :)
#12Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2013/05/05 - 23:18.

Stupid Question

Hello, I am planning on istalling XBMC on my Pi, but I don't understand the last part:

The user which you're going to run XBMC as needs to be a member of the following groups:

audio video input dialout plugdev

If the input group doesn't exist, you need to create it:

addgroup --system input

and setup some udev rules to grant it ownership of input devices (otherwise the keyboard won't work in XBMC), by placing the following in /etc/udev/rules.d/99-input.rules:

SUBSYSTEM=="input", GROUP="input", MODE="0660"

Can anyone please help me?

Thanks!
#13Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2013/05/07 - 23:07.

Re: Stupid Question

It means that you have to check if user that you use (pi for example) is a member of those groups.

To check that you can use this command line (replace "pi" by your user name) :

id pi

and it should return something like that :

uid=1000(pi) gid=1000(pi) groupes=1000(pi),4(adm),20(dialout),24(cdrom),27(sudo),29(audio),44(video),46(plugdev),60(games),100(users),105(netdev),999(input)

best
#14Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2013/05/05 - 14:10.

Hi! - I have a problem with the install instruction ...

Hi!

I follow your install instruction but when I run the apt-get update I get this:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo apt-get update E: Type 'deb http://archive.mene.za.net/raspbian/' is not known on line 1 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mene.list E: The list of sources could not be read.

What is wrong?

The content of the mene.list file: deb http://archive.mene.za.net/raspbian/ wheezy contrib

BR,

Thomas H
#15Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2013/05/05 - 14:49.

Hi! - I have a problem with the install instruction ...

Hi, also read carefully, you have a final / in your path, maybe that's the fault....

Edit your mene.list again and remove the / after raspian, for me the instructions worked perfect, but i did it by c&p, so no type mismatching possible....
#16Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2013/05/05 - 08:49.

Black screen after exit

12.2-1 works really smooth and seems more responsive than before.

Only problem that I found is that when exiting xbmc, black screen is shown.

I can see the desktop again after using SSH & "startx".

Is there any way to fix this behavior?

Before after exiting xbmc, desktop was shown automatically (at least after moving mouse to get screensaver off).
#17Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2013/05/05 - 12:36.

Black screen after exit - DIY fix using script

I made following script myself to fix the behavior...

sudo /usr/bin/xbmc startx

...this starts the desktop again with error message "GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed: An authentication agent already exists for the given subject".

Then I logout from this new LXDE-session and first one comes active from the bottom.

I know this fix is guite lousy, but it's best that I can come across with my little knowledge. And this way I don't have to SSH to pi using another computer.

If anyone knows better way to handle the situation, I'm most interested.
#18Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2013/05/05 - 12:39.

Black screen after exit - DIY fix using script

I made following script myself to fix the behavior...

sudo /usr/bin/xbmc startx

...this starts the desktop again with error message "GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed: An authentication agent already exists for the given subject".

Then I logout from this new LXDE-session and first one comes active from the bottom.

I know this fix is guite lousy, but it's best that I can come across with my little knowledge. And this way I don't have to SSH to pi using another computer.

If anyone knows better way to handle the situation, I'm most interested.
#19Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 2013/05/04 - 10:29.

New Frodo release

Dear Michael,

thanks a lot for your great work on XBMC running on a RPi, i use it a lot and it works like a charm. Do you plan to upgrade your package to the current release 12.2. also? ...just wondering, because i'm using it with an MySQL-database and so all my XBMC installations should have the same release. For my other PC and linux machines the 12.2. already is avaliable, but i want to update them all together with the Pi release in one rush.

Kind regards and thanks for your time...

Andreas
#20Submitted by mgorven on Sat, 2013/05/04 - 21:22.

I've just published 12.2 to

I've just published 12.2 to the archive. Enjoy :-)
#21Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 2013/05/04 - 22:26.

Frodo 12.2

Woa, that was pretty fast...

Works even smoother on my PI, great job!

...will buy you a beer, if you drop by :-))
#22Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2013/05/03 - 22:12.

Idiot problem

Hello! I want to thank for putting all this up, and I want to make it, but i0, having an initial problem...how do I do this:

" To do this, store the following in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mene.list:

deb http://archive.mene.za.net/raspbian wheezy contrib"

?? eheh thank you!
#23Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 2013/05/04 - 10:33.

Idiot problem

Hi there,

open a terminal on your RPi and type:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mene.list

In the editor you need to type in the second line from above:

deb http://archive.mene.za.net/raspbian wheezy contrib

Then hit 'Cntrl-O' and then 'Return' to confirm the new file and then hit 'Cntrl-X' for leaving the editor. From that point follow the other instructions....

Kind regard Andreas
#24Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 2013/05/04 - 13:38.

Stiill idiot problem

Hey !! thank you so much for your answer...I've done it as you said but now I'm stuck when making "sudo apt-get update"

it says: failed to fetch: http://archive.meme.za.net/raspbian/dists/wheezy/Release.gpg Could not resolve 'archive.meme.za.net'

and when I make "sudo apt-get install xbmc" it says that have unmet dependencies and doesn't install anything...what can I do?

Thank you!!!!
#25Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 2013/05/04 - 22:30.

Type mismatch

Read carefully, it says me_n_e and not me_m_e!

Correct your file path and it will do.

Just my 2 cent: Better C&P...
#26Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2013/05/01 - 06:06.

Airplay via XBMC possible

Hello

i have installed this binary without problems... but airplay seems not to work. i have activated it in the settings but my ios devices do not recognize it.

yours christoph
#27Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2013/05/02 - 23:05.

try sudo apt-get install

try sudo apt-get install avahi-daemon
#28Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2013/04/30 - 20:49.

Error

I keep getting: N: Ignoring file 'mene.list:' in directory '/etc/apt/sources.list.d/' as it has an invalid filename extension
#29Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2013/05/01 - 18:34.

Corrected the problem,

Corrected the problem, sausage fingers, but I cannot install xbmc: The following packages have unmet dependencies: xbmc : Depends: xbmc-bin (>= 2:11.0~git20120510.82388d5-1) but it is not installable Depends: xbmc-bin (< 2:11.0~git20120510.82388d5-1.1~) but it is not installable Recommends: python-qt3 but it is not going to be installed E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
#30Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2013/05/01 - 18:33.

Corrected the problem,

Corrected the problem, sausage fingers, but I cannot install xbmc: The following packages have unmet dependencies: xbmc : Depends: xbmc-bin (>= 2:11.0~git20120510.82388d5-1) but it is not installable Depends: xbmc-bin (< 2:11.0~git20120510.82388d5-1.1~) but it is not installable Recommends: python-qt3 but it is not going to be installed E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
#31Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2013/05/15 - 23:37.

Type: sudo apt-get update

Type: sudo apt-get update
#32Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2013/05/21 - 14:19.

Same problem

Same problem here, doesnt fix by using sudo apt-get update before. Thanks for the help anyway!
#33Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2013/04/28 - 20:59.

Correction

Nice How-To! Thanks a lot!

Found one little mistake:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-key 5243CDED

should be:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 5243CDED
#34Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2013/04/25 - 10:09.

how to disable PVR pop-up-tip-window

everytime when pressed "B" "E" "H" "J" or "K" on the keyboard, it will pop-up tips about PVR, how to turn off these tip-window, i use keyboard frequently，i very much hope to know how to disable this PVR
#35Submitted by Raspberry Pi X Arduino e os Microcontroladores AVR e PIC 2 & (not verified) on Tue, 2013/04/23 - 21:15.

Pingback

[...] O XBMC já está instalado e funcionando. Para executá-lo, na console digite: “xbmc-standalone” e no ambiente gráfico, clique no menu: “Multimídia –> XBMC Media Center”. Ok, é só aproveitar! OBS: Link para o site: “http://michael.gorven.za.net/raspberrypi/xbmc“. [...]
#36Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2013/04/23 - 12:57.

Where is the link ?

Hello,

Thank you for sharing your work. I'd like to try but i can't find the link to download the file raspbian-xbmc-20121029.img.xz

Can you tell me where to find it?
#37Submitted by mgorven on Tue, 2013/04/23 - 22:34.

There are torrent links under

There are torrent links under the "Release history" section above.
#38Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2013/04/21 - 10:55.

XBMC cant start

Every time i try to start xbmc i get the following message:

terminate called after throwing an instance of 'dbiplus::DbErrors' Aborted (core dumped) Crash report available at /root/xbmc_crashlog-20130421_082633.log

Is there anyone there can help me. Thanks
#39Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 2013/04/20 - 18:01.

Video playback only with hdmi_safe=1

Hi,

I am struggling with weird problem... First of all I tried many images with xbmc: OpenElec, raspbmc, Xbian... xbmc worked well but it wasn't "Debian" i am used to...

So here I am, all is nice but I have this weird problem. Videos ( and I know R-Pi can handle them because I was watching them before... ) plays from xbmc only with hdmi_safe=1 ( in other words only when I set hdmi_mode=1 which is VGA resolution ) I have full HD Panasonic viera. If I set output to native 1080p 50Hz... xbmc menu looks normal all is good but when I try to play that very same video it starts but I hear only sound and all I see is menu of xbmc.

I am thankful for any ideas... If you need more information pleas ask for them and I will provide them gladly :)

Cheers, Maros.
#40Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 2013/04/22 - 21:29.

[SOLVED] Video playback only with hdmi_safe=1

So I will answer to myself :D hope this will help someone ... All i had to do was add gpu_mem=256 to /boot/config.txt Yea simple but it wasn't mentioned anywhere as far as i know...
#41Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2013/04/28 - 22:57.

video playback problem

Thanks, I was having the same probem. Had to waste one day until found this post.
#42Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2013/04/18 - 21:38.

Instant freeze

Hey Guys,

After starting xbmc-standalone and switching through the menus a bit the system freezes. There's nothing in the xbmc logs (I've enabled the debug log level). Any ideas?
#43Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2013/04/18 - 21:52.

exactly my problem

see the comment below
#44Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2013/04/18 - 21:37.

Thanks for that nice ADDon - one Problem for me left (Freeze)

Hy,

following all of your instructions I made it to install XBMC (y, sorry, i may be the classical DAU^^). But it freezes after starting (maybe 2 seconds), Keyboard and mouse stop to work.

I startet it as root from the Terminal and directly from the Desktop, i also tried the biggest overclock and with more RAM for the GPU.

Any Ideas or hints for me?

Thank you very much!
#45Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2013/04/17 - 14:57.

Thanks!

Thanks. Up until now I used a version that I compiled (using the instructions on raspbian.org website). I want to switch to your version. Do I have to uninstall my version? If yes - How? Thanks again!
#46Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2013/05/09 - 10:44.

Reply to comment | Michael Gorven - cocooncrash

Every weekend i used to visit this web site, because i wish for enjoyment, since this this site conations genuinely good funny stuff too.

my site Marcy
#47Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2013/04/17 - 18:38.

It works

I'll just update that I just tried to install your package without removing mine and it works.
#48Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2013/04/17 - 09:27.

Building instructions

Thanks for the package! Could you also post your building instructions somewhere (the ones at http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianXBMC seem to be have got out of date)?
#49Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2013/04/16 - 05:22.

Unable to Install

New to Raspberry Pi/xbmc/all of this, so please forgive my lack of knowledge.

I've followed the instructions above to a T and still get this when try to install xbmc:

The following packages have unmet dependencies: xbmc : Depends: xbmc-bin (>= 2:11.0~git20120510.82388d5-1) but it is not installable Depends: xbmc-bin (< 2:11.0~git20120510.82388d5-1.1~) but it is not installable E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

I've updated and rebooted as suggested in the comments, but I keep running up against this. Any suggestions?

Thanks!
#50Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2013/04/28 - 17:40.

Unable to install

I have the same Problem. Were you able to fix it?