HOW-TO:Install XBMC for Linux

These are instructions for people who already have a Linux-based OS set up. If you have not installed a Linux-based OS yet, you might wish to try out XBMCbuntu which will install both the OS and XBMC with an easy installer.

Ubuntu

 * Simple Install Instructions


 * Before you run these comands type "sudo echo" into the terminal and hit Enter.
 * Then copy the area below up to sudo add...
 * Go back to the terminal, hit the middle mouse button and when it prompts hit Enter.
 * Copy the part after sudo add... and paste it to the terminal.
 * If it askes you if you want to install enter y and hit Enter


 * Repositories
 * https://launchpad.net/~team-xbmc/+archive/ppa ppa:team-xbmc/ppa
 * https://launchpad.net/~team-xbmc/+archive/unstable ppa:team-xbmc/unstable
 * https://launchpad.net/~team-xbmc/+archive/xbmc-nightly ppa:team-xbmc/xbmc-nightly

Frodo is available from Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) to 13.04 (Raring Ringtail), you can install from the team-xbmc PPA as follows or replace the ppa with the desired from above.

Autostarting XBMC
There's several ways to start automatically XBMC:
 * Upstart script xbmc.conf in /etc/init (short and sweet)
 * Modifying the inittab (log winded)
 * Add a new init script

Upstart init script
Create a   with following contents.

You may have to edit   and replace the last line that says:

to

XBMC will now auto-start on boot and restart/respawn if killed or crashed.

Modify the inittab
This was tested on Arch Linux.

To automatically start xbmc on your system, do the following:

First you need to make some changes to. Comment out (add a #) to this line:

id:3:initdefault

to


 * id:3:initdefault

and uncomment

id:5:initdefault

Then add this line to the bottom:

x:5:wait:login -f  /dev/tty7

Using wait instead of respawn means that you can exit out of xbmc into the console.


 * NOTE*: This is a security hole as it autologins a dedicated xbmc user without asking for a password!

Now that we have the user logged in we need it to auto start XBMC. In  add the following to the end of the file (after removing/commenting any other exec lines that start a windowmanager):

exec ck-launch-session xbmc

Add this line to your

$(tty) = "/dev/tty7" && exec startx /dev/null

And create a hushlogin file to suppress login messages.

touch ~/.hushlogin

Lastly, for the magic sauce that makes this work, add dbus to your daemons in.

DAEMONS=(... dbus ...)

You're finished. Next time you reboot you should be greeted with XBMC.

Add a new init script
This method works well under Debian. The current configuration is a HTPC running Debian Squeeze, with no window manager installed. The main goal here is to start an Xserver only for XBMC. It allows also to specify which user will start / own the XBMC process. This method will not work if you have a window manager installed (however, it should not be hard to modify the script to suit your needs)


 * Create a new script under /etc/init.d/. Call it xbmc
 * Change the rights, in order to allow it to be executable.
 * 1) chmod a+x /etc/init.d/xbmc
 * copy the code under in the file. Modify the variables to suit your configuration:
 * 1) ! /bin/sh


 * 1) BEGIN INIT INFO
 * 2) Provides:          xbmc
 * 3) Required-Start:    $all
 * 4) Required-Stop:     $all
 * 5) Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
 * 6) Default-Stop:      0 1 6
 * 7) Short-Description: starts instance of XBMC
 * 8) Description:       starts instance of XBMC using start-stop-daemon and xinit
 * 9) END INIT INFO


 * 1) EDIT ME ##################

DAEMON=/usr/bin/xinit
 * 1) path to xinit exec

DAEMON_OPTS=" /usr/local/bin/xbmc --standalone -- :0"
 * 1) startup args

NAME=xbmc
 * 1) script name

DESC=XBMC
 * 1) app name

RUN_AS=sterfield
 * 1) user

PID_FILE=/var/run/xbmc.pid
 * 1) Path of the PID file


 * 1) END EDIT ME ##################

test -x $DAEMON || exit 0

set -e

case "$1" in start)        echo "Starting $DESC"        start-stop-daemon --start -c $RUN_AS --background --pidfile $PID_FILE  --make-pidfile --exec $DAEMON -- $DAEMON_OPTS        ;;  stop) echo "Stopping $DESC" start-stop-daemon --stop --pidfile $PID_FILE ;;

restart|force-reload)       echo "Restarting $DESC"        start-stop-daemon --stop --pidfile $PID_FILE        sleep 5        start-stop-daemon --start -c $RUN_AS --background --pidfile $PID_FILE  --make-pidfile --exec $DAEMON -- $DAEMON_OPTS        ;;  *) N=/etc/init.d/$NAME echo "Usage: $N {start|stop|restart|force-reload}" >&2 exit 1 ;; esac

exit 0 ........ and choose "Anyone".
 * Test the script by trying to start / stop XBMC with it.
 * 1) /etc/init.d/xbmc start
 * 1) /etc/init.d/xbmc stop
 * If all is ok, you can add the script to your configuration, by issuing a "update-rc.d"
 * 1) update-rc.d xbmc defaults
 * If XBMC does not start, you may need to allow X to start from non-consoles. Under Debian/Ubuntu, run:
 * 1) dpkg-reconfigure x11-common
 * You can now reboot the server, XBMC should be started just after the boot sequence.

Installation from source
If distribution packages are not available, or you need a newer version, or specific features enabled, then you will most likely need to compile from source. While compiling from source does not differ very much between distributions (except for installation of build dependencies), a few different guides are available in this wiki.


 * HOW-TO compile XBMC for Linux from source code
 * HOW-TO compile XBMC for Linux on Debian/Ubuntu - This is a tutorial on how to compile and install XBMC on Debian and Ubuntu.
 * HOW-TO compile XBMC for Linux on Fedora Red Hat Enterprise Linux CentOS - This is a tutorial on how to install XBMC on Fedora 8/9/10, RHEL & CentOS 5.2.
 * HOW-TO install XBMC for Linux on Arch Linux, a Step-by-Step Guide