XBMC 9.11 Alpha in Kubuntu And Ubuntu Karmic Repositories! Hurray.
Previously I posted about how to get XBMC installed in Kubuntu Karmic 9.10 using the Jaunty repositories and a small work around (here). Today I noticed a update to XBMC in the Jaunty repositories for XBMC 9.11 Alpha (xbmc_9.11~alpha1-jaunty1_amd64.deb to be exact). So I thought, hey … on XBMC’s blog they said a new release won’t be out for Karmic until 9.11 comes, well … 9.11 alpha is out so I thought: what the heck. Might as well try.
Update 2: XBMC 9.11 Camelot FINAL is out now. Download information and news is here.
Update: New XBMC PPA install instructions here.
Edit: Update: XBMC Beta 2 is now out in the Karmic PPA’s. You can read about it here.
So I changed the repository to:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc/ppa/ubuntu/ karmic main
The only change was “jaunty” to “karmic”. The updated my repo list:
sudo apt-get update
And for kicks did a dist-upgrade to see if anything changed. To my pleasant surprise it did!
$ sudo apt-get -u dist-upgrade
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Calculating upgrade… Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
xbmc xbmc-common xbmc-scripts-example xbmc-skin-pm3 xbmc-skin-pm3-hd xbmc-standalone xbmc-web-pm3
7 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 46.3MB of archives.
After this operation, 53.2kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
The updated packages are as follows:
http://ppa.launchpad.net karmic/main xbmc-scripts-example 9.11~alpha1-karmic1 [410kB]
http://ppa.launchpad.net karmic/main xbmc 9.11~alpha1-karmic1 [15.3kB]
http://ppa.launchpad.net karmic/main xbmc-standalone 9.11~alpha1-karmic1 [2,734B]
http://ppa.launchpad.net karmic/main xbmc-skin-pm3-hd 9.11~alpha1-karmic1 [9,960kB]
http://ppa.launchpad.net karmic/main xbmc-web-pm3 9.11~alpha1-karmic1 [1,524kB]
http://ppa.launchpad.net karmic/main xbmc-skin-pm3 9.11~alpha1-karmic1 [14.0MB]
http://ppa.launchpad.net karmic/main xbmc-common 9.11~alpha1-karmic1 [20.3MB]
So there you have it, the XMBC Alpha release for Karmic. Not a final stable version yet, it still have a few issues with it:
- Windows: DirectX runtime and Visual C++ 2008 runtime(x86/x64) are required. The installer will be updated to check for these.
- Windows: ‘Windowed’ shortcut opens in full screen
- Windows: Non-functional brightness/contrast
- Windows: Discs inserted before XBMC is launched may not appear correctly
- Windows: Some videos may not play back as smoothly as on other platforms
- Linux: VDPAU de-interlacing is known to be broken
A few small issues and “Many of these problems have already been fixed since the alpha1 tag and should be resolved in the next testing release” states the blog.
Hope to see a nice new XBMC soon! Can barely wait; now if we could only get vdpau working 100% correctly and get more videos which required it, I’d be happy 
No Stable Offical XBMC on Karmic Until A New Version Of XBMC Comes Out
Filed under: Computers, Media, Ranting, Software, Technology, Websites
XBMC is a beloved application by many. It is cross-platform, running on a multitude of systems ranging from the original Xbox to computers with graphic card processing enhancements. The application is a huge success, going toe to toe with the best that the commercial applications have to offer! One of the great reasons is due to it’s open source nature and mentality. Any and everyone can contribute. With this people are free to design for it, code for it and make it their own. And for a home entertainment center it is extremely important how your entrainment center looks when we bring over guests. It must have the right mood for you and your party.
Edit: Update: XBMC Beta 2 is now out in the Karmic PPA’s. You can read about it here.
One of the best things to do with XBMC is to run it as application ontop of Linux, particularly Kubuntu (or Ubuntu if you’re one of those ‘weird’ Gnome lovers ). Up until Kubuntu Jaunty we’ve been able to enjoy XBMC with ease, with Karmic 9.10 it’s a bit more difficult. It’s do-able but takes a little extra work. You can read by post here on how to install XBMC on Karmic.
Now why do I post something everyone knows already? Because not everyone knows this information from the XBMC blog:
Rather than wasting the time and effort required to update the current stable release of XBMC (Babylon) to work with Karmic, we’ve decided to focus on getting a new version out the door. This means that until the next XBMC release, it is recommended that most users stick with Jaunty. But there’s no need to panic; despite the fact that it’s taking a bit longer than we had hoped, development is shaping up nicely and the first 9.11 alphas should be rolling out very soon.
Reads: No XBMC in Karmic until new version is out. Darn … So we’ll have to wait a bit. How long? Dunno. We’ll have to wait and see. Hopefully their new version which they claim will have a plethora of new toys and joys will be out soon in Karmic for us to party to very soon.
Happy Partying!
No XBMC in Karmic Yet via the XBMC blog
Sphere: Related ContentHow To Update And Install Amarok 2.2 in Ubuntu Jaunty
Amarok 2.x changed things up for the Linux community. It sported a very new interface which in and of itself sparked huge contreversy. There are many things people complain about in the 2.x series, though it is steadily getting better and better.
The 2.2 series brings many much needed updates and fixed to the line. Thus, anyone using Amarok, I highly reccommend going to Amarok 2.2. For those of you who do not know what Amarok is …
Amarok is the heavy weight champion on Linux (notably K/Ubuntu) for music management and player. Mac’s have iTunes, Linux has Amarok. It can connect to almost any device that Linux recognizes, from iPods to iPhones to Zunes … a lot really.
To update to Amarok 2.2 in Ubuntu Jaunty, you’ll need to get access to the PPA archives, particularly the Neon project: the nightly builds of Amarok . This is how you do it step by step (steps originally from the webupd8 blog):
1) Add repository through command line (Easiest way) sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/project-neon/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"2) add GPG key(s) sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 0F7992B03) Update and install amarok-nightly sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install amarok-nightly4) Run Neon Amarok
amarok-nightly
Important Note: Amarok-nightly is installed along side of Amarok. So to run the new Amarok, run “amarok-nightly” or click “Amarok Nightly” from the menu
The offical Project Neon page is here: Project Neon
Sphere: Related Content