boxee for Linux, by-invitation-alpha 0.9.2492 has been released!

**tsella** · July 22nd, 2008, 09:21 AM

this is the first boxee for Linux public release.

boxee for Linux has the following software requirements:

ubuntu 7.10 (gutsy gibbon) or 8.04 (hardy heron) x86 (not x86_64) operating system
for nvidia gpus, latest nvidia proprietary drivers from http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
for ati gpus, latest ati proprietary drivers from http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html
if you have a lirc compatible remote, for example, windows MCE remote, install lirc using sudo apt-get install lirc command. we also support direct hardware mapping for supporting Apple IR and other usb based devices usually not supported under lirc, and can be contacted via support@boxee.tv or http://forum.boxee.tv to set those up.
visual effects (compiz fusion) should be disabled. this is done by System > Preferences > Appearance > Visual Effects, set to None

to get boxee for Linux, go to http://app.boxee.tv/download, and follow the instructions.

hardware requirements (this is hardware we tested with, other hardware may be supported as well)

gpu
nvidia 6150le igp, go7300 mobile, 8600m gt mobile and 7,8 series desktop gpus
intel 945*, 965, X3000, X3100 igp
ati x1600 mobile gpu

* see known issues below

cpu
current intel and amd processors

audio
intel hda

if using any other hardware, please post at this forum thread for other hardware tested with, mileage and tips.

known issues

this is prerelease alpha software. 'nuff said.
at times, boxee may cause elevated cpu usage, and become sluggish, requiring an application restart. this is related to texture memory available in your gpu, and boxee (im)properly managing that memory. if you're using an intel 945, you're gonna hit this issue pretty quickly, sorry. we are working on resolving this.
some dvd titles may not play. this has already been fixed in internal builds, and should be made available in the next version.
doesn't go back from window mode to full screen. workaround: disable compiz visual effects as above.

**Gamester17** · July 22nd, 2008, 10:44 AM

It should maybe be mentioned that you need a fairly fast CPU to be able to ‘garantee’ playback under Linux of all 1080p H.264 videos that are available to download from the internet these days. Either a Intel Core 2 Duo running at 2.6Ghz or an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ 2.8Ghz (or an even faster processor, Intel Core 2 Duo processors are currently though more efficient than anything that AMD got to offer). This is because there is not yet a method of of-loading the video decoding process to the GPU so the CPU has to practically handle the whole load itself, (in 6-months from now this might no longer be the case).

For playback of 720p H264 videos you can go with a slower processor, but it should still really at least be a 1.8Ghz dual-core CPU.

**nickv2002** · July 23rd, 2008, 12:04 AM

I get the following error when trying to refresh the boxy repository:

Code:

Failed to fetch http://apt.boxee.tv/dists/hardy/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz  404 Not Found
Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

Anyone else getting this one?

**marcel** · July 23rd, 2008, 02:48 AM

Hi nickv2002

please note our software requirements:
ubuntu 7.10 (gutsy gibbon) or 8.04 (hardy heron) x86 (not x86_64) operating system

**nickv2002** · July 23rd, 2008, 12:25 PM

My mistake... missed the no 64-bit bit...

In any case, are you guys going to compile a 64-bit version?

**tsella** · July 23rd, 2008, 02:58 PM

eventually yes, but not in the next few weeks. you can try your luck building from source, and let us know the results. the supporting decoding libraries are available in 64bit, so it may just work.

**joanmarie** · August 1st, 2008, 07:45 PM

Originally Posted by tsella

eventually yes, but not in the next few weeks. you can try your luck building from source, and let us know the results. the supporting decoding libraries are available in 64bit, so it may just work.

It won't build from me:

Code:

make -C guilib
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/jd/Desktop/trunk/guilib'
rm -f GUIAudioManager.o
/usr/bin/ccache g++ -c -g -D_DEBUG -Wall -DDBUS_API_SUBJECT_TO_CHANGE -I/usr/include/dbus-1.0 -I/usr/lib/dbus-1.0/include -I/usr/include/hal -I/usr/include/lzo -D_LINUX -D_FILE_DEFINED -D_REENTRANT -D_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -DTIXML_USE_STL  -DHAS_SDL_JOYSTICK -DHAS_MMS -DHAS_PCRE -D'SVN_REV="exported"' -DINSTALL_PATH="\"/usr/share/xbmc\"" -I. -Icommon -I../xbmc -I../xbmc/cores -I../xbmc/linux -I../xbmc/utils -I/usr/include/freetype2 -I/usr/include/SDL  GUIAudioManager.cpp -o GUIAudioManager.o
In file included from GUIAudioManager.cpp:31:
../xbmc/Util.h: In function ‘int MathUtils::ceil_int(double)’:
../xbmc/Util.h:132: error: ‘INT_MIN’ was not declared in this scope
../xbmc/Util.h:133: error: ‘INT_MAX’ was not declared in this scope
../xbmc/Util.h: In function ‘int MathUtils::truncate_int(double)’:
../xbmc/Util.h:153: error: ‘INT_MIN’ was not declared in this scope
../xbmc/Util.h:154: error: ‘INT_MAX’ was not declared in this scope
make[1]: *** [GUIAudioManager.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/jd/Desktop/trunk/guilib'
make: *** [guilib] Error 2

However, I just built xbmc from trunk without any problems. 64-bit Ubuntu Intrepid (yeah, I know it's unsupported. ;-) )