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DarkELEC – Raspberry Pi optimised OpenELEC fork

NEW VERSION! http://darkimmortal.com/2012/08/darkelec-release-2/

None of the currently available solutions do a perfect job with running XBMC on the Pi, however OpenELEC comes by far the closest, in spite of its locked down nature.

This fork aims to remedy the very few flaws in its implementation and to focus 100% on the Pi, while also sticking to the upstream and incorporating its updates.

Features:

  • Low idle CPU usage (< 15%)
  • Smoother and more responsive
  • Built in XBMC addons: iPlayer, custom fixed version of Demand 5, various unofficial repos
  • iPlayer, 4oD, Demand 5, ITV Player, SportsDevil all fully tested+working
  • Improved wifi connectivity
  • Added test-connman scripts for easy wifi setup (see here)
  • Added wireless_tools (iwconfig etc.)
  • Added rndis_wlan wifi driver (broadcom 4320 chipset)
  • Easy SD card installation script for building from source (./install [block device])

Download pre-built SD Card image: darkelec1.zip (~75MB)
(Fixed partition size at just under 2GB total, you can expand manually with GParted if necessary)

Source: https://github.com/darkimmortal/DarkELEC
(Refer to Building and Installing OpenELEC for Raspberry Pi - expect build issues on anything but a stock debian squeeze i686 install)

Comments

Vasia says:

is this project dead?

mache says:

is this project dead?

brettser says:

thanks for this, best version of XBMC for Pi i have used. I haven’t had to restart my PI once to access my shares since i installed it ! very stable

wchpikus says:

I have windows:)

wchpikus says:

Hello
Could you tell me, that version can play dts sound music file via hdmi pass?
And, how to put it in sd card. I gave windows.
I try win32diskimager, but pi not boot.

jd says:

Can we have an others xfce4 session with it too? Nice work

yaba says:

My Pi CPU idle usage is 94% !?

Fred Stratford says:

Hi All,

Just downloaded the image and I am most impressed. It even connected to my WPA2 WiFi but only after I unhid the SSID. Anyone know the tweak required to work with a hidden SSID?

Thanks.

Nir Shezifi says:

@Rebbeca

This one is on WordPress

Copyright © 2009-2013 Dark’s Code Dump
Theme by NeoEase. Valid XHTML 1.1 and CSS 3

Is the linked zip kept in sync with github updates?

Please consider some hints how to identify ‘block device’ for source install. (GParted shows this).

Consider changing the “expand” language near GParted and zip. It implies GParted can unpack this ZIP into a partition.

Rebbeca says:

I really like your blog.. very nice colors & theme.
Did you design this website yourself or did you hire someone to do
it for you? Plz answer back as I’m looking to create my own blog and would like to find out where u got this from. appreciate it

charlie says:

Can you include the bluez-utils software and working GUI for within openelec would like to get my bluetooth keyboard and mouse supported

Quihico says:

Official XBMC remote doesn’t fully work. You can navigate but it can’t reach/openelec doesn’t use eventserver so no library browsing. Use a fork of the remote instead (google it) and if necessary; open up the appropriate port on your router.

Also the no video problem is probably related to the missing mpeg2/vc-1 license. You can buy the license on the RPi site for just a couple of quid.

In order to get Iplayer working Darkelec probably uses something similar to tunlr. Using a static IP will conflict with that.

Christopher Pepper (@RudeMatrix) says:

@chrispepper1989
I tried deleting the .db files and rebooting. this did not seem to solve it. I tried a fresh install and everything was working, I slowly started to re-apply the settings that I had before and remembered that previously i set up a “static IP” via the openElec settings.

I added that again and the scrapers, add ons etc stopped working. I removed the static IP and it all worked again. Strange as it could access BBCiplayer etc and I could access the PI via WIFI so I had assumed I had set it up correctly.

I set it up with the IP address 192.168.1.99
the gateway address it already had before being static
the DNS address it already had before being static.

One other issue I am having is with the XBMC remote fails to find the event server despite me turning on the port 9799 for the PI. However thats not really affecting me.

Hi,

I have been using DarkElec 2.0 for a couple of days now and I am very impressed however there is something very strange going on.

I keep getting the error “Unable to connect to remote server” whenever I boot up and whenever i try and get addons, scrape etc

However I can use IPlayer no problem as well as use the XBMC remote and Imediaplayer, so it doesnt seem to be an internet issue.

Changes to default:
-I set up a static I.P address
-I enabled Upnp, webserver,remote control and airplay.

I am willing to provide more info but i did not want to spam this page (is there a forum or something i could use). Below is a grep of errors from the log

“07:31:14 T:1201665120 ERROR: IsAddonDisabled failed on addon metadata.common.hdtrailers.net
07:31:14 T:1201665120 ERROR: SQL: SQL error or missing database
07:31:14 T:1201665120 ERROR: IsAddonDisabled failed on addon metadata.common.imdb.com
07:31:15 T:1201665120 ERROR: SQL: SQL error or missing database
07:31:15 T:1201665120 ERROR: IsAddonDisabled failed on addon metadata.common.themoviedb.org
07:31:15 T:1201665120 ERROR: CCurlFile::CReadState::Open, didn’t get any data from stream.
07:31:15 T:1201665120 ERROR: Run: Unable to parse web site

hakbjo03 says:

Hello everybody

Can i use DarkElec on extramer ultra?? i Want to stream live football on my Xtreamer. Today i use openelec.

Best reguards

hakbjo03

Andries says:

@Tron1275
Yes, i did try the config.txt route. But it does not work.
As soon as it boots up it takes the default settings/resolution.

Tron1275 says:

@Andries….. I too have the same problem as you.. have you created a config.txt with sdtv_mode=2 in???… you then get a booting screen… but then the software takes over and seems to select NTSC instead of PAL…. .. i just get lines like there is no sync…???

Andries says:

Hi, im currently using an old version of openelec and would love to use this smoother version. But i dont have a tv with HDMI output. I still use the rca video output on the pi. When i use the newer bug fixed versions it just give me a black screen. Because the output is not supported. Can anyone please help. Thanks!

Alex says:

Mine is wired and I don’t have a wireless dongle to test with. Not sure if you have seen this, but if you haven’t, perhaps it can help you. http://openelec.tv/forum/12-guides-tips-and-tricks/7503-wireless-networking-101

redlightsaber says:

Not to date that I know of. I have indeed tried it, but I couldn’t for the life of me find the option to configure a wireless network.

Alex says:

Ok I can confirm this works 100%. I followed the steps and got it booking fine. I haven’t had a chance to test it however, but it booted fine. Are there any plans for these to auto-update – or is there a way to update these withought doing the full installation from scratch every time?

Alex says:

Oh FFS, sorry for not even looking at that file. Thank you for the reply, I will give it a go when I get home.

redlightsaber says:

Akek: the files don’t work like that. You have to extract the .tar.gz file as if it were a zip file, and inside you’ll find an instructions file called “installation”. There it gives the instructions on how to install to the SD card.

Akex says:

Can anybody help with somehow converting the tar files to the img files – all the OpeneElec guides use IMG files. I am not sure what to do with the tar.gz files. Ideas?

redlightsaber says:

OK, I uploaded to a torrent those 2 files M3D compiled from the other thread. I did so because it’s hell trying to get them from the filesharing sites.

The magnet link is magnet:?xt=urn:btih:f8fde1f0c25fef0f63ab2d2c359aacd01e0cf5ce&dn=Open%20%26%20DarkElec

redlightsaber says:

Oh, thanks!

Julian says:

looks like he continued the thread in the raspberrypi forums and forgot to mention it here!

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=11546&p=126174

redlightsaber says:

@M3D_Compil0r

We’re all waiting for you to throw us a bone, mate!

M3D_Compil0r says:

Download links:
Either Build: http://www.sendspace.com/filegroup/qj6dRQx69Kz6ZuzdQ1o0yQ

DarkElec-R11505.tar.gz (76.09 MB)
http://www.multiupload.nl/0WMS75BV31
OpenElec-R11542.tar.gz (68.37 MB)
http://www.multiupload.nl/0P2CY4P6GN

M3D_Compil0r says:

Yay! will be sharing the latest git compile shortly 🙂

M3D_Compil0r says:

Success building the git! preparing an SD and testing now.

M3D_Compil0r says:

M3D_Compil0r :
Alright!
was -werror flag, line 34, in DarkELEC/build.DarkELEC-RPi.arm-devel/acpid-2.0.7/kacpimon
Made it this, and its going!
CFLAGS = -W -Wall -Wundef -Wshadow -D_GNU_SOURCE $(OPT) \

Should say it was located in the makefile!

M3D_Compil0r says:

Alright!

was -werror flag, line 34, in DarkELEC/build.DarkELEC-RPi.arm-devel/acpid-2.0.7/kacpimon
Made it this, and its going!

CFLAGS = -W -Wall -Wundef -Wshadow -D_GNU_SOURCE $(OPT) \

M3D_Compil0r says:

Fixed error at line 521; well, it compiled. now to figure out line 444.

if ((int)NLMSG_ALIGN(n->nlmsg_len) + (int)NLMSG_ALIGN(len) > maxlen) {

M3D_Compil0r says:

found it in openelec, its in OpenELEC.tv/build.OpenELEC-RPi.arm-devel/busybox-1.20.2/networking/libiproute and its 400 lines long. Maybe that Dark is still using busybox 1.20.1?

M3D_Compil0r says:

Built the files for DarkElec which went fine, but as it was compiling:

libnetlink.c: In function ‘rtnl_from_file’:
libnetlink.c:444:17: error: variable ‘type’ set but not used [-Werror=unused-but-set-variable]
libnetlink.c: In function ‘addraw_l’:
libnetlink.c:521:80: error: comparison between signed and unsigned integer expressions [-Werror=sign-compare]
cc1: all warnings being treated as errors
make[1]: *** [libnetlink.o] Error 1

I tried to locate the libnetlink.c file, and theres 3 in Dark source. Open has no occurances of this file. Can anyone help point a finger in the right direction on what could be causing it?

Darkimmortal says:

Still trying and failing to get the latest code from OpenELEC upstream to compile – as soon as I get something working I’ll fire out a v2 🙂

M3D_Compil0r says:

I am currently attempting to compile, using ubuntu and the OpenElec environment/compiling instructions despite the squeeze warning. Should I have success and prove it working on my Pi, I will gladly share with the community so we can R&D out more bugs. Its quite a large program to compile on older gear. I had success compiling OpenElec from the git in just over 2hr. An SSD makes a huge difference.

declan says:

HI,

I tried to wite this to sd with iage writer in linux, and I get a mount issue while its booting, the initial boot screen comes up then It warns that it halted because of a mount issue. any ideas trying to look at the sd card now with gpart to see if there is anything wrong with how ts written but doubt aything is going to come of that i’m bit out of practice with linux

IlyaB says:

Same problem for me – I no video at all (connected via HDMI).
I can’t find any explanation for this issue. I tried OpenELEC and DarkELEC, googled and it seems only me and Richard have this problem, is it possible? 🙂

MrB says:

@Darkimmortal
Yes, i get blank/black video playback too. Otherwise looking good.
Any thoughts on when we will get the next img?

joe says:

Hey Dark,

Glad to see you’re working on v2. I’m still using DarkELEC and will continue to do so, just hoping you can fix the Xvid thing 😀

Julian says:

Thanks DI!

Another precompiled img would be amazing – I’ve got no clue where to start with Github!

Darkimmortal says:

@Justin

Working on the next build now, I’ve been delaying a bit to see if Sony/LG HDMI CEC support starts working, no joy so far.

Justin says:

@Julian
Sadly i switched back to OpenElec and RaspBMC because of that, though The Github for DarkELEC seems very frequently updated, we can prolly compile or update our DarkELEC images, i am a tad clueless though.

Julian says:

Anyone found a solution to the xvid issue? It really is a major problem for a media center!

joe says:

@Blaine
Hi Blaine,
script failed I believe is usually caused by a network issue. Are you using a wireless card? If so are you powering it from the port or externally via a hub or y cable?
Don’t hold me to this but I believe the single frame crash issue (all of us are having i believe) is caused by the xvid issue.

joe says:

@Nick
Hi Nick,
Yes and no. Class 6 arguably yes, but Class 10 very much arguably no.

Class 10 cards have a huge sequential write speeds; great for digital cameras, video cameras etc, however they often have poor random r/w. An OS will rarely perform large sequential writes, however small random disk writes are a fairly common part of operating systems. Logging, storing settings, user data etc. So I question whether Class 10 is ideal.

Class 6 I agree, is very much ideal as it’s the juxtaposition of both fast sequential (although not as fast as class 10) and fast random. However class 6 is still unsupported and therefore you can only hope they work. Class 4 is the recommended card at the moment and you can get some class 4 with excellent speeds.
That said, when someone performed an experiment on the pi forums with sd cards, booting, usability etc, he used class 4, 6 and 10 cards, he noted almost NO difference in speed between all three. Bear that in mind. I’ve got a tonne of SD cards. Almost immediately after buying the Pi, I went into a frenzy and bought about 6 cards. A 32GB SanDisk, 2 8GB PNY, a 8GB Medion (from ALDI 4.99), a 4GB Lexar and a 8GB MicroSD by Nokia. In all honesty, none of them have particularly outperformed each other (maybe the odd second or two difference), although I found the MicroSD got slightly hotter than the others. The cheap one from Aldi is surprisingly good actually as it has a very high read speed!

Richard says:

This is great – much smoother than the OpenELEC generic build that I have been using. A full HD 1080p 5.1 surround MKV file plays perfectly, with video through HDMI and analog sound through the HiFi.
But, I’m having trouble playing AVI files – I get audio but no video.
Plus, music will not output audio at all. I’ve checked the System / Audio Output setting (analog, 2.1, play stereo through all speakers).
Any other ideas?

Blaine says:

I’m having issues with the video add-ons: 4oD says script failed, Demand5 sometimes says script failed, sometimes plays some frames of a movie, and iPlayer sometimes gets as far as a list of episodes within a category but then says something like Network Error, Failed to fetch URL http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/playlist/b01k2pff (then says script failed)

any ideas?

Blaine

Nick says:

@joe

Also depends on what type of SD you have, type 4 is the normal transfer rate of most anymore but you generally wanna have at least a type 6 or 10 when running something like an OS smoothly.

xdefiantx says:

Any chance of adding in lirc support as per this site? http://aron.ws/projects/lirc_rpi/

Cheers,
xdefiantx.

joe says:

Hi Tim,

Ultimately, every SD card provides a slightly different performance factor. Class 10 cards are known to be problematic booting, but the fact you’ve got yours to boot means it’s not that. However, class 10 cards are slow for random r/w which is why their performance benefits are not necessarily experienced on the Pi. In fact, you’ll find people with old class 2 cards that easily outperform class 10, because older class 2 cards have super high r/w and slow sequential write. Go on google, type CrystalDiskMark. That’s the ultimate benchtest tool for this. Leave it on default settings, 5 tests, 1000mb. Report back with your scores. With a class 10 card, you should be popping very high sequential read and write speeds, and somewhat high 512kb speeds, however your random r/w (4kb) could be low.

post your results here if you want and i’ll let you know how they stack up against others.

If I’m honest, people are still recommending class 4 cards (and class 6 if you feel a bit lucky), simply because they aren’t fast, but they aren’t slow and most importantly, they’re stable and fairly error free in the Pi’s operation. Their sequential r/w are usually modest, however their random r/w are usually modest to good. Whereas class 10 may have super high sequential and poor random, and class 2 have super low sequential and super high random.

Tim Joler says:

Joe

I have a class 10 Kingston 16gb card…
I havent partitioned it, its showing as a 2gb card.

Is that th issue you reckon?
The pi is hardwired into my router but th playback is very stuttery, almost 1 frame per second 🙁

joe says:

Tim – I noticed a rather large performance improvement when I switched from a crappy no make SD card to a low end class 4 SanDisk. Brands aren’t everything in life, but it seems if you have anything but SanDisk, Transcend or Lexar, expect erratic performance.

rothers – Damn!!! I’m now completely at odds end. Do I buy the hub, knowing full well it might not work or do I opt for an alternative adapter :'( I’ve heard that some wi-fi adapters are low powered and work directly in the port, but I don’t want to buy one that is cutting out when it gets a little warm. I sacrificed a real remote for the Android app and that was always my intention so that I didn’t require a hub, but two adapters down the line and I’m still nowhere 🙁 🙁
Unfortunately, nobody is willing to put their kneck on the line on Pi forums and say, oi, this wi-fi adapter is safe. Especially with all the reports of wifi cutting out!! As you say, the alternative is set up a wireless repeater. What a ballache.

rothers says:

joe ive tried wifi adapter in hub it doesnt connect at all looking at dmesg when i plug in hub with nothing connected it looks ok but usb errors start to occur when things are plugged in which slows up the pi and craps the wifi out, ive given up on the hub, im going to wire it into an old router which im trying to connect it using WDS to my main router, which is also a ballache to setup.

had no probs with sports devil when i first tried it on a wired network.

Tim Joler says:

Hi
Ive dwnloaded and installed this perfectly but sportsdevil and 1channel are very stuttery, to the point of freezing.
CPU usage always ends up being 100%

Any fixes? Or is it just one of those things lilely to be fixed later?

Thanks

joe says:

rothers, have you tried using the wi-fi through the hub? The problem is in the foundations attempt to keep the device low powered, the max the USB ports can support is 100mA, 140mA tops before they blow the polyfuses. That’s the issue I believe I’ve been having. My 3Com adapter uses 150mA in idle. The Sweex adapter cuts out when under stress which makes me think it’s again drawing too much power. If there was a lower powered adapter that I could rely on, I could live with it. I’m intending on using a Wi-Fi remote, so really, it’s just the Wi-Fi adapter I need working 🙁 But I need it to work without cutting out under stress like the Sweex.

rothers says:

tried loads of combinations with wifi , i tend to have it plugged in pi’s top usb, bottom one the hub connects. i even cut the red wire on the usb cable from hub to pi’s usb as it was sending voltage down . still no joy. if i just have usb wifi plugged into the pi, and using the hub to power it , the wifi connects fine, plug hub into second pi usb and then the connection dies, thats with nothing else on the hub !

joe says:

I guess i’m going to have to take a chance on the pluscomm hub. Might work. Might not. Mixed reviews on the internet it seems but unfortunately, others like the expensive belkins have mixed reviews too, so you could shell out £30 and have absolutely no luck whatsoever :'(

joe says:

damn rothers, makes me wonder whether i should even bother if you’re having that much of an issue :'( I really want wi-fi and hdd access at least, but I can’t understand what all these problems are caused by. Do you plug the wi-fi into the hub?

rothers says:

made a y splitter from some leftover usb leads, still no joy with wifi, powered external drive and remote , can only ever get 2 out of the 3 working, the usb wifi is pulling the most power, all this faffing wouldve have been easier to run a wired cable into the lounge.

rothers says:

got the pluscom today still no joy with powering usb wifi, if i leave it out i can power pi from hub with hard disk and remote working, 5 volts across tp1 and tp2, plug in wifi volts drop to 4.95 then i cant see external drive??? might need a y splitter to power pi from hub!!!

joe says:

hey rothers,
Im going to have a pop at the pluscomm one with a 3a PSU too. Can only hope it works 🙂 ive heard good reviews elsewhere!

joe says:

Well, apparently the maximum amp draw from any USB port on the r-pi is 100mA. Pretty low when you think about it. They suggest using a powered hub. This might be where my problems are coming from. Will let you know.

joe says:

okay, got it working with security but there seems to be another issue. Now it disconnects quite sporadically. So, you’ll be using it one moment, then it’ll just cut out the wi-fi adapter and that’s it, it’s gone. I’ve noticed this happening under heavy load. Is there an issue when the pi gets hot? It was working beautifully after a few hours of the pi being switched off, but now it cuts out every 5 minutes.

rothers says:

ordered the pluscomm 3a 7 hub from ebay looks like its been working with the pi on other sites.

rothers says:

Darkimmor thats the problem im having with cheapo powered usb hub , it sort of powers the pi but not enough until i plug in power supply but you have to be quick leave it too long ansd it wont boot looks like i will get a decent powered hub and just have one supply

joe says:

Unfortunately, the power supply made no difference damn. Using a different adapter did. I can now connect at least when the wi-fi is open, which is a good start (couldn’t before). Now I just need to work out how I can get it to connect when it’s secure.

I wish I’d tried the other adapter BEFORE I shelled out 13 pounds for a new power supply lol! Oh well, will keep you guys updated!

Darkimmortal says:

My power problems were all fixed by using a powered hub, though be careful to get one with a diode or similar to stop power flowing the wrong direction (i.e. get an expensive one). Otherwise as I discovered, cycling power to the pi becomes incredibly cumbersome (have to unplug absolutely everything, then restore power, then quickly plug everything back in).

joe says:

I tried with a Samsung charger too and had mixed results. I’ll find out now if I was right or wrong as I’ve gone and bought a Maplins own power supply with a regulated output of 2.1 amps. It might not fix the issue with the wireless whatsoever, but it’ll definitely fix the problems I’ve been having with the mouse and keyboard cutting out sporadically I reckon. Well, I hope so, I ended up shelling out 13 quid for it lol!

rothers says:

ive been using a sansung phone charger 0.7 amps which powers the pi and usb wifi ok, just having problems now with powered hubs

joe says:

apparently, my 3com wireless draws 150mA in idle and 200mA in use.

850+150 = 1A, and that’s just idle. That’s my problem here. I need a solid power supply. I’m looking at this off Amazon but I just don’t know. Unfortunately, there’s no decent phone shops round here for me to go and simply pick one up, otherwise I would. I might have a ring around.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/CHARGER-SAMSUNG-GALAXY-QUBITS-ACCESSORIES/dp/B0065JCIPU

dpsharp says:

@karap

I get exactly the same problem, no xvids play but h264 seems fine. The same xvids with the pi running using the same sd card work fine under raspbmc so I’ve had to revert to that. Shame as the menus etc are a lot smoother on darkelec.

joe says:

@rothers
hi rothers,
I’m certain it’s my power supply. I bought a second one today and I’ve noticed it acts differently, but still not perfect. The mouse is drawing 150mA. The power supply is a 1Amp but if thats up to 850mA already, it wouldn’t take much for my wireless card to be over. I can’t find the exact specification, but I think I’m going to need a higher rating PSU. Do you have any recommendations?

Cheers,
Joe

karap says:

Here are a few sample XVID which don’t work: (any one of them)

http://thud.us/videos/misc/xvid-samples/

karap says:

@karap

For example XVID MPEG-4 640×480, FR 25 is not playing (black screen, audio playing).

karap says:

My divx and xvid SD files which played well Openelec no longer play in DarkELEC (shows black video – only sound works).

Can someone try these on their side?

rothers says:

i think i set my type to wlan. once you have put in all the parameters its worth checking them via the system.conf, just ssh in again and type cd /var/config then cat system.conf . The values u put in shpuld be in the list. if they look ok just disconnect lan and it should switch to wifi

Ive got problems with a cheapo hub im using i cant use it with the remote and external drive , it starts off ok then it becomes sluggish then locks up , loads of usb errors in dmesg. i may have to get another powered hub, or run a wired connection into lounge ditiching wifi 🙁

joe says:

OK, I feel like I’m getting close but I haven’t quite got it working yet. A bit of playing I think will get this working in no time though. I’m wondering if my power supply is perhaps not helping the situation either, but I can’t really tell as I don’t have any others to test with.

wlan0 does appear in iwconfig over ssh, which is a good start, it means my usb card is detected.

Under the programs part under Network 1, I added a static ip, a gateway, a DNS, and of course the ssid and password. No luck.
I wasn’t sure what to set the type as because although I selected wlan0 for the adapter, there was a choice of wlan and lan. I tried both. Neither worked. The adapter flashes link which means it’s sort of trying but not connecting. Any other tips? Is WPA supported?

I’ll keep going and we’ll see where i get to. It would be amazing if I could get this working though 😀

rothers says:

@joe

Once you have ssd in type iwconfig to see if wlan0 is present , if this is in the list, think its at the bottom after eth0 etc, you should be able to add the ip adress etc in the programs part of xbmc in the first network . I added the passphrase first then rebooted then added everything else. I might have been entering the passphrase incorrectly this morning. If theres no wlan0 present in iwconfig then i think you will need the drivers for the usb wifi .
Next hassle is getting a powered hub to work ok with the remote and external drive full of movies, think mine need a bigger power supply, it actually powers the pi when i plug it in but not enough to fully power it.

joe says:

Hey rothers, would you mind throwing together a quick step by step, because I’m not 100% on this. I’ve ssh’d in just trying that way first. The wifi only needs to be entered once for me as it won’t be going anywhere. Good to see we’re getting there though, has this fork being posted on the official forums because I highly recommend it 😀

rothers says:

@rothers
got wireless working from xbmc–programs–openelec settings im not sure what is was doing wrong this morn but it now recognises the passphrase, i entered this first then rebooted then added all the static ip address , essid etc. rebooted then checked the var config file then disconnected the lan and it automatically switched to wifi brill!

rothers says:

@rothers
the kernel panic is caused when i enter the passphrase in programs openelec settings, i get a syntax error in the /var/config/settings.conf not sure why im just putting in the wpa key pass im going to try and enter value into the system conf file from a terminal.

rothers says:

ive edited network 1 under programs in xbmc , seems to save settings but has no effect on the usb wifi. You have to remotely log onto the pi so connect it to a wired network using the pi’s lan , boot it up then in xbmc settings, network look for its ip address, then from a terminal on a linux pc/laptop type ssh root@ipdaddress passwords openelec, then u can type iwconfig to see your wlan0 settings.

Ive changed network2 settings in programs and now it doesnt boot caused a kernel panic, looks like its a fresh install

joe says:

Hey rothers, how do you do this? Does this save after reboot ? I’ve not been able to get a terminal up on XBMC.

rothers says:

@Darkimmortal
Yes adding the connection under programs doesn’t seem to do anything, settings are saved after reboot but no wifi connection, can only get it to work by manually editing iwconfig and connman. Iwconfig is always missing essid and passphrase

joe says:

Didn’t get chance to try dark’s tip (will have a crack tomorrow morning) but just want to say I ran a very very high bitrate 1080p movie trailer from my phones internal memory through USB and this baby ran it beautifully… was literally like being in a cinema. Much much smoother than my actual mobile phone tbh which supposedly supports HD Decoding. Even had working seeking which is apparently broken on Raspbmc!!

I hope you stick with DarkELEC and continue to develop it, (time allowing of course) because for a first build, or alpha or whatever, this is already epic!! 🙂 🙂

Darkimmortal says:

@rothers

I take it that it doesn’t work if you add the wifi connection settings under Programs in the GUI?

rothers says:

@Darkimmortal
Hi im in a similar situation as joe, with setting up wifi, i can get it to work by setting up iwconfig essid and passphrase from ssh, then setting test-connman ,(passphrase etc) then using test-connman to connect which works , but after a reboot its all lost , where do i put all the iwconfig and test-connman stuff so it runs through setting it up on boot. The wifi dongle is an edimax711U. Its the best raspxbmc build so far been playing with raspbmc today but its a pain to install and seems slower on gui.

Darkimmortal says:

@joe
If you’re lucky, just go to Programs in the main menu and add the appropriate ssid/passphrase in the openelec settings, then reboot.

Failing that, you’ll have to SSH in via ethernet and play with the test-connman script and/or iwconfig etc.

joe says:

Put it on a better SD card and this thing really does run nicely.

one question though, how do you install a USB Wifi card? Any ideas?

The one I have is a 3COM 3CRUSB10075. It lights up but it doesn’t show anywhere as far as I can see on the UI, unless I’m missing it.

Cheers

Mark says:

This things pretty amazing… I`m really impressed with this build. thanks a lot mate.!!

Nathan says:

Thanks Joe that worked a treat.

joe says:

Hi Nathan,

I try to avoid USB Image Tool, I find it inconsistent at best. I use Win32DiskImager link (https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer/0.6/0.6/+download/win32diskimager-binary.zip)

It’s very good, but it only writes .img files, so you will have to unzip this which did take a couple of minutes. It will also structure your sd card correctly which USB Image Tool doesn’t always do. 🙂

Nathan says:

Joe. What process did you use to get the image on the SD card. I used USB Image tool but my PI doesnt do anything.

joe says:

weird, 4od and iplayer are knackered but 5 on Demand is great. Works everytime, great picture too. hmmmmmmmmmmmmm the plot thickens.

joe says:

Nope, iPlayer is much the same. I get a single frame, maybe 2 if I’m lucky, then the whole thing just dies. I haven’t tried any of the others, raspbmc or anything, so i don’t know if it’s still teething problems or just my setup.

joe says:

okay, no luck with 4oD, get script failed now. The speed and smoothness massively increased after a restart after first boot, so perhaps I borked it up by not giving it a quick restart lol. Will let you know.

joe says:

wouldn’t say it was quite smooth enough just yet, 4oD video is a bit rough. maybe my settings are wrong though, also, I am not sure how well this SD Card helps so it’s all a bit of a new experience for me 😀

joe says:

good start. Keep going. Loving all the already installed plugins 😀

How easy is it to install a proper web browser to XBMC?

Thanks,

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