Archive talk:Install Ubuntu and XBMC on Asus EeeBox PC EB1501

EB1501 German / Asian Edition

System: Linux HTPC 2.6.31-17-generic #54-Ubuntu SMP Thu Dec 10 16:20:31 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux Remote (see battery slots): RC1974502/00

No MCE USB IR Receiver

There seem to be some specifics with this version of the eeeBox. There was no any MCE USB IR Receiver packaged, instead there was a notice that states:

"The EeeBox PC has a built-in IR receiver designed for the remote control. When you install the EeeBox PC to the back of the monitor and thus block the IR receiver, the remote control may be less sensitive. The USB IR receiver is not included in the product package."

Notes to get build-in IR receiver to work with the remote control

1) rebuild the ITE modules

sudo apt-get install lirc lirc-modules-source module-assistant
sudo dpkg-reconfigure lirc-modules-source

2) edit the following lines in /etc/hardware/hardware.conf

REMOTE_MODULES="lirc_dev lirc_it87"
REMOTE_DEVICE="/dev/lirc0"
REMOTE_LIRCD_CONF="mceusb/lircd.conf.mceusb"
REMOTE_LIRCD_ARGS="--output=/dev/lircd"

LOAD_MODULES="true"

START_LIRCD="true"

3) create /etc/modprobe.d/lirc.conf and add the two lines

alias char-major-61 lirc_dev
options lirc_it87 irq=05 io=0x2f8

4) add a start-up script to activate the receiver (as suggested by amno6)

i) place the script start_ite8713.sh at somewhere convenient, /home/xbmc

#!/bin/bash
/etc/init.d/lirc stop
rmmod lirc_it87
echo activate > /sys/devices/pnp0/00:09/resources
modprobe lirc_it87
/etc/init.d/lirc start

ii) activate the script at startup. edit /etc/rc.local and add

/bin/sh /home/xbmc/start_ite8713.sh 

5) you may need to copy the LIRC over to the XBMC directory

cp /usr/share/xbmc/system/Lircmap.xml ~/.xbmc/userdata

Enabling the Play DVD Button on the Remote Control

1) The original Lircmap.xml and remote.xml does not cater for the DVD button. To rectify that, add an additional entry in ~/.xbmc/userdata/Lircmap.xml under the <remote device="mceusb"> section

 <obc1>DVD</obc1>

2) In the remote.xml file (for my case, this is located at /home/xbmc/.xbmc/userdata/keymaps), add the following outside the <remote> </remote> group

   <universalremote>
      <obc1>PlayDVD</obc1>
   </universalremote>

3) A CD or DVD can now be played with using the DVD button (located just above number 3) 4) Other keys can be remapped according to individual preferences

Startup error

On startup i got the following error message:

nforce2_smbus [...] conflichts with ACPI [...]

I got it fixed by

sudo vi /etc/default/grub

and editing the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX according to this bugreport

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_enforce_resources=lax"

and update the grub again with

sudo update-grub

Wifi / Wireless setup with WPA2

I had a hassle enabling WPA2 access, connections breaking up every 10-60s for multple minutes, so i kept a note on the steps how to get it working anyway.

The given wireless adapter on the EB1501 is

Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

according to

lspci -v | grep Network 

Disabling the blacklisted atheros module as mentioned here

sudo vi /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-ath_pci.conf

Commenting the following line out

ath_pci blacklist

Install all tools:

sudo apt-get install wpasupplicant linux-backports-modules-karmic linux-backports-modules-wireless-karmic-generic

the following steps are based on the guide found here. Then we generate our psk-key we need later by executing

wpa_passphrase <your_essid> <your_ascii_key>

In the result we need to copy value found under the "psk" key. Next we edit

sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces

and add the following lines to the bottom

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-driver wext
wpa-ssid <your_essid>
wpa-ap-scan 1
wpa-proto RSN
wpa-pairwise CCMP
wpa-group CCMP
wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK
wpa-psk <psk_key_from_wpa_passphrase>

we could also disable the following line to disable automatic startup of the ethernet interface

auto eth0

then restart the whole networking stuff with

/etc/init.d/networking restart

then everything went fine, a dhcp ip was given and so on. Maybe there is an easier way but im not that into linux :)

Merging with XBMCbuntu page

I feel this page should be merged with the XBMCbuntu page, which tries to accomplish the same thing. Any thoughts? Cancan101 05:11, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

I dont feel it should, I created this for people who have EB1501, a lot of this stuff is specific to our HW.