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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 Fri, 2013/06/14 - 18:07.

autostart in xbmc

Hello and first of all, thanks for your job!!!

I installed right now the package on my "2 hours life" raspberry, genuine raspian. i've set ENABLED=1 in the xbmc file but on reboot the screen start in the desktop mode, what's wrong??? I made useradd xbmc with password "xbmc".

thanks
#2Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2013/06/11 - 20:07.

No video?

Im not getting any video when playing a video file. xbmc shows the audio equalizer bar graph thingy, and the audio is also choppy.

If I use the standard 'omxplayer' from a console, it plays all my video files fine.

Any ideas?
#3Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2013/06/11 - 20:15.

and im an idiot, make sure

and im an idiot, make sure you have at least 128 megs associated to the gpu.

Works great now, thanks for all your work!
#4Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 2013/06/10 - 16:34.

desktop unreachable in xbmc 12.0 version

I have tried the version that come with xbmc 12.0

You should enter the user and password withing 3 seconds to get into wheezy desktop.

but thats technicly almost impossible. The Log in bar on a tv screen is cutted of. so i dont even see it... So Smart ass me, connected a pc monitor, and entered the user log in, but xbmc loads before i even have the chance to enter the pw. So i never made into desktop. when i leave xbmc after this and enter user and pw "startx" dont work.

i am not a linux user so i dont have a clue to change to what dir or what to do.

Is this fixed in the version that comes with xbmc 12.2 ?

Can you easily boot into wheezy now , or xbmc still boots after 3 seconds ?
#5Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2013/06/07 - 12:44.

DVB-T

Hello, can you tell me how I can use my DVB-T tuner with XBMC? The driver should be installed but I can't find any option for a channel search or something. Thanks!
#6Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2013/06/07 - 01:50.

total noob.

"To do this, store the following in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mene.list" I don't know what this means. This is the first computer with linux system that I've ever used. I actually tried to do this with confusing results. Could you be more specific please? I want to make this Raspberry a browsing and media machine to take with me.
#7Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2013/06/06 - 22:58.

Can you install to a USB Flash drive?

Hey,

I have a Raspberry pi. Is it possible to install this or other images to a USB drive instead of an SD card? I am new to this but just curious why the majority of people use an SD card instead of USB drive?

Any reason?

Thanks.
#8Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2013/06/07 - 19:45.

Guide for moving existing raspbian installation to usb drive

Follow this guide...

http://zeroset.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/move-an-existing-raspbian-instal...

...to move your existing raspbian installation to usb drive

I moved raspbian to usb3.0 HD (read/writespeeds 30Mbps) and using raspbian got really much faster!
#9Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2013/06/04 - 05:56.

Can't be installed

After installing updates - I get this ....

Any ideas?

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo apt-get install xbmc Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable distribution that some required packages have not yet been created or been moved out of Incoming. The following information may help to resolve the situation:

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. pi@raspberrypi ~ $
#10Submitted by mgorven on Tue, 2013/06/04 - 18:33.

Did you run sudo apt-get

Did you run sudo apt-get update before trying to install the xbmc package?
#11Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2013/06/06 - 10:31.

Same error here

I have the same error. Plus not mentioned: when doing an apt-get update I get the following error (typed by hand so excuse the typos):

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.meme.za.net/raspbian/dists/wheezy/Release.gpg Could not resolve 'archive.meme.za.net'

W: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
#12Submitted by mgorven on Thu, 2013/06/06 - 18:33.

You have a typo, it's "mene"

You have a typo, it's "mene" not "meme". Copy/paste is your friend ;-)
#13Submitted by Raspbian + XBMC 설치방법 | (not verified) on Sun, 2013/06/02 - 23:45.

Pingback

[...] o http://michael.gorven.za.net/raspberrypi/xbmc [...]
#14Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2013/06/02 - 01:21.

PVR / TVHeadend

ok, i`ve found this:

o cotejando por web http://archive.mene.za.net/raspbian/pool/contrib/x/xbmc-pvr-addons/ que es un repositorio no-oficial. Lo añado

nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mene.list y pongo la línea:

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

Guardo y cierro.

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

apt-get update

apt-get upgrade

aptitude install xbmc-pvr-tvheadend-hts (para servidor tvheadend)

aptitude install xbmc-pvr-vdr-vnsi (para servidor vdr)
#15Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2013/05/30 - 17:07.

PVR / TVHeadend

Hello,

is there a way to install the Live-TV option with a TVHeadend-Stream?

Couldn`t find the PVR add-on in the settings.

regards rookee
#16Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2013/05/29 - 19:56.

404 error

I'm getting the following 404 error. I've read through most of the comments and tried those that seem relevant to no avail. I'm real new at this so if you could point our my errors as if you're talking to a simpleton, I'd appreciate it. Thanks

Failed to fetch http://archive.mene.za.net/rasbian/dists/wheezy/contrib/binary-armhf/Pac... 404 Not Found

E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead. pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo apt-get install xbmc Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable distribution that some required packages have not yet been created or been moved out of Incoming. The following information may help to resolve the situation:

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.
#17Submitted by mgorven on Wed, 2013/05/29 - 20:19.

You misspelt "raspbian";

You misspelt "raspbian"; correct your apt source list.
#18Submitted 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.
#19Submitted by mgorven on Fri, 2013/05/24 - 22:38.

I've built and uploaded the

I've built and uploaded the latest PVR addons to my archive. They're completely untested however :-)
#20Submitted by mgorven on Fri, 2013/05/24 - 18:32.

My archive does contain

My archive does contain version 1.0.0 of the PVR addons. I'll look at compiling a later version. I don't have any backends setup however, so I can't really test them.
#21Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 2013/05/27 - 10:06.

At the moment, if you try to

At the moment, if you try to use a later version than the frodo branch, XBMC 12.x will crash on trying to use them. So stick to compiling from the frodo branch.
#22Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 2013/05/11 - 07:04.

black screen

Any fix for the black screen on exit?
#23Submitted 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
#24Submitted 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!
#25Submitted 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.
#26Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2013/05/24 - 13:25.

Thank you for your help

Thank you very much explaining Ctrl+Alt+F1 and Ctrl+Alt+F7 combinations.

I updated my script:

sudo /usr/bin/xbmc
sudo chvt 1
sudo chvt 7

...and now script automatically does Ctrl+Alt+F1 and Ctrl+Alt+F7 after exiting xbmc, and the problem is solved!
#27Submitted 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?
#28Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2013/05/24 - 13:48.

Creating script

Steps to creating script on Raspbian desktop:

On raspbian desktop:

*right-mouse button -> create new -> blank file

*Open file with leafpad or other text-editing program, write script and save

*Right-click file on desktop -> properties -> permissions -> make the file executable -> ok

*Double-click file on desktop and choose "execute" to execute script
#29Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 2013/05/13 - 07:19.

edit

sudo nano
#30Submitted 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
#31Submitted 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.
#32Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2013/05/10 - 16:22.

nevermind it was me

!
#33Submitted 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 :)
#34Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 2013/06/03 - 05:53.

Wrong architecture

The 'armel' means you're using a soft-float debian image, not raspbian. Michael seems to have only built the hard-float (raspbian) image.

You probably want hard-float anyway if you want to use XBMC; hard-float is going to perform better generally, but in particular when it comes to decoding audio/video.
#35Submitted 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!
#36Submitted 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
#37Submitted 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
#38Submitted 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....
#39Submitted 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).
#40Submitted 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.
#41Submitted 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.
#42Submitted 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
#43Submitted 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 :-)
#44Submitted 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 :-))
#45Submitted 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!
#46Submitted 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
#47Submitted 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!!!!
#48Submitted 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...
#49Submitted 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
#50Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2013/05/02 - 23:05.

try sudo apt-get install

try sudo apt-get install avahi-daemon