n3wt0n!

I’m going to make this as simple as possible. I’ll even stay away from the “command line” until it makes sense to use it.

First, add the repository to your software sources file. The repository can be found at Launchpad, I found it by searching for PPA XBMC jaunty from the site’s search function. The two XBMC repositories for Jaunty are

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc/jaunty-ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc/jaunty-ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

But we’re mostly interested in that first one (repository). Highlight and copy the first line so we can add it to our repositories. Open up the Sources manager

System > Administration > Software Sources

Then click the Third-Party Software tab. Click Add at the bottom left of the window and paste in the repository that you copied previously.

Next we need to Authenticate the repository so that it shows up in the system’s list of software that we can install. To do this, click the Authentication tab in that software sources window.

In order to authenticate, we need to import the XBMC key file for Jaunty. The public key, like the link to the repository itself, can be found on Launchpad. You might notice on the XBMC-Jaunty launchpad page the following line:

This repository is signed with 1024R/9317790E OpenPGP key.

The public key is found by first clicking that link. You’ll be presented with another link on a line like the following:

sig  sig3  9317790E 2009-04-04 ...

Click the first link to be taken to the repository’s public key. You need to copy everything below the heading. Everything includes

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

and the block of characters in the middle, all the way to the end of

-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

After that has been copied, create a file and paste the block into it. The name of the file doesn’t matter as you only need the file for another minute.

After the key has been pasted into the file, go back to Authentication tab of the Software Sources window. At the bottom left of the window is the Import Key File… button. Click it. Navigate to and select the key file you just created. Click OK.

You should now see the XBMC key information in the Trusted software providers window. That’s it for setting up the repository. Just click Close and you’ll be prompted to update the system’s available software listing.

To install, just go through the steps you would regularly to install software. Personally, I prefer to run the command from a shell.

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install xbmc

If you haven’t already done so, you can now delete the XBMC launchpad key.

Note: If you are using an ATI video card, you may need to install the ATI video card drivers from the ATI site. This is evident when you go to run XBMC and a window flashes and disappears.
It appears now that, in the updates leading up to but not necessarily including today, ATI video cards will now work properly with XBMC and no longer cause it to crash.

There’s not a whole lot of coverage on how to get your XBMC working with a remote control. Here’s the short of it. If you’ve followed my guide for installing MCE remote control using LIRC with Ubuntu 8.10, and assuming that worked, then this may very well work for you.

Open up a terminal and start irw. We want to echo the keypresses from the IR remote. Mine does something like this for the Play, Left Arrow and Power buttons (just for example).

USER@PC:~$ irw
000000037ff07be9 00 KEY_PLAY mceusb2
000000037ff07bdf 00 KEY_LEFT mceusb2
000000037ff07bf3 00 KEY_POWER mceusb2

Which means when I press the Play button, XBMC is going to want to know that it should be looking for the “KEY_PLAY” message. Here’s how we do that.

First, back up your XBMC Lircmap.xml file. Mine was found in /usr/share/xbmc/system/

sudo cp /usr/share/xbmc/system/Lircmap.xml /usr/share/xbmc/system/Lircmap.xml.orig

That’s just so you’ve got an original to fall back on if things really mess up. Next, download my Lircmap.xml configuration.

wget http://n3wt0n.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/lircmap.xml

Stick the Lircmap.xml file in /usr/share/xbmc/system/

sudo mv lircmap.xml /usr/share/xbmc/system/Lircmap.xml

NOTE: Keep a copy of your configured Lircmap.xml handy. I just turned on XBMC today and found that my remote wasn’t working. My customized Lircmap.xml was overwritten (possibly through an update) so I had to find my configured Lircmap.xml and overwrite the default one again.

irw should show you that your keys map the same way mine did (KEY_PLAY, etc). If they don’t, open up the /usr/share/xbmc/system/Lircmap.xml and replace the KEY_X with whatever irw tells you it is.

Here’s a snippet of what my Lircmap.xml looks like:

<lircmap>
    <remote device="mceusb2">
        <pause>KEY_PAUSE</pause>
        <stop>KEY_STOP</stop>
        <forward>KEY_FORWARD</forward>
        <reverse>KEY_REWIND</reverse>
        <left>KEY_LEFT</left>
         ...
        <zero>KEY_0</zero>
        <mytv>KEY_RED</mytv>
        <mymusic>KEY_GREEN</mymusic>
        <mypictures>KEY_YELLOW</mypictures>
        <myvideo>KEY_BLUE</myvideo>
    </remote>

One thing you may notice, and this is very important, is the <remote device=”mceusb2″> part. Remember irw told me that my Play button echos

000000037ff07be9 00 KEY_PLAY mceusb2

Well, pay attention to that mceusb2 part there. If yours does not say mceusb2 then change <remote device=”mceusb2″> to reflect whatever yours may be (perhaps just mceusb).

And contrary to other tutorials out there, you do not need a Keymap.xml file in your ~/.xbmc/userdata directory for this to work.