Forum

I will receive my Cubox i4pro in 2 days. XBian is basically my only choice since I want to run both XBMC, Flexget, Transmission and also BittorentSync on it.
Is there anything I need to know? Are there known issues with the current beta? Is it too outdated to use?

Prepare to enter a world of pain, the currently available image is not something that just works.

Try and update and you'll find out why. The thing gets tangled in it's own dependencies.

In that case I better use GeeXBoX for the one I will use every day. I thought GeeXBoX was limited to XBMC like OpenElec, but it is more like XBian.
I could do testing when my second Cubox arrives.

I have found the Xbian Image "XBian 2014-05-26" is very stable. However as mentioned before, don't try and upgrade it.

Geexbox is allright, I guess but doesn't have that many packages.

Openelec last version - OpenELEC-Cuboxi.arm-devel-20141030150311-r19491-ge7e7ba0.img.gz is stable and has bits of Kodi in it but you cannot do much else.

Indeed, I wish XBian would work on a Cubox-i as good as it runs on a Raspberry Pi.
GeeXBoX has perfect XBMC, but lacks in packages. Though Flexget can be installed, discovered how to do that last night. And RTorrent is installed by default.
Bittorrent Sync unofficial server package is only for Debian/Ubuntu based systems unfortunately. Same for Subliminal (subtitles). Those last two are an issue for me now.

Just discovered it is possible to install any Python based package like Flexget or Subliminal on GeeXBoX.
Also realize now that the unofficial BTSync Server package is not all that, it tries to solve the lack of user accounts in BTSync, by having multiple instances of BTSync, not good for performance. So GeeXBoX on a Cubox-i can replace my Raspberry Pi now. But I am still a bigger fan of XBian. GeeXBoX website looks like it has not been updated for over a year. The latest stable release is 4 XBMC versions ago.. forum is also not very alive. But Tomlohave is a very kind and smart guy. Hope he will continue the project.

http://ivka57.dyndns-ip.com/images/

---

@Sine

yep, choosing a "testing" variant of debian as base for imx6 was a bad decision. mostly completely broken debian jessie repo (until Betas) changed xbian imx6 from HPTC to fight for staying "runnable".

currently updates are still rolled daily, but versions upgrade phase is behind. it will stay at easy patching until final.

Of course actual kernel/xbmc/kodi packages are available and running on any solidrun model. although H1/512mb and WIFIusb + playing via XBMCtorrent full HD movie is running it on 105% keep your breath (and go to the theatre)

Is there hope for a version that just works?

I was thinking about getting a CuBox myself to replace the rather slow Pi. I hoped I could just do a crossgrade and keep all my settings and stuff.

(28th Nov, 2014 09:07 PM)Senseohasser Wrote: [ -> ]Is there hope for a version that just works?

I was thinking about getting a CuBox myself to replace the rather slow Pi. I hoped I could just do a crossgrade and keep all my settings and stuff.

See http://forum.xbian.org/thread-2100-post-25217.html#pid25217

That image is very stable. There are a few small issues, but nothing that is a show stopper.

(28th Nov, 2014 09:07 PM)Senseohasser Wrote: [ -> ]Is there hope for a version that just works?

I was thinking about getting a CuBox myself to replace the rather slow Pi. I hoped I could just do a crossgrade and keep all my settings and stuff.

@Senseohasser

yes, any of the images regenerated after Jessie progressed to Betas. here are fresh images from past two days http://ivka57.dyndns-ip.com/images/ . nightly has KODI-RC2 bundled in, otherwise it is XBMC 13.2 upstream.

with xbian-config -> "Backup /home to file" (option 7) you can easily get backup of all XBMC related stuff (libraries, settings, addons). then after booting CuBox and dropping that file into "xbmc-backup/put_here_to_restore" (accessible as SMB share on the related device) all the restore process will happen automatically and after XBMC is restarted, your settings should be back.

if you want to preserve system-wide settings and customisations, there is no auto process for that. but of course possible.

I've released a new XBian CuBox-i image (04-12-2014). After testing, this image is stable enough to replace the old onces. Please share your experiences with this version.

(8th Dec, 2014 07:28 PM)CurlyMo Wrote: [ -> ]I've released a new XBian CuBox-i image (04-12-2014). After testing, this image is stable enough to replace the old onces. Please share your experiences with this version.

I grabbed the image on friday from mk01's http://ivka57.dyndns-ip.com/images/, It seems much faster than the previous releases to me. I did also try the nightly from there as well but as soon as it tries to start Kodi/XBMC it goes into a loop and doesn't start

I uploaded the regular image, not the nightly.

(9th Dec, 2014 04:59 AM)eggeh1982 Wrote: [ -> ]I grabbed the image on friday from mk01's http://ivka57.dyndns-ip.com/images/, It seems much faster than the previous releases to me. I did also try the nightly from there as well but as soon as it tries to start Kodi/XBMC it goes into a loop and doesn't start

the nightly was generated as the other only with -nightly xbmc. I have not tested it and what you say might be true. can you maybe take snaps of home and root, install nightly xbmc (via apt) to the std image (if you are running it) and perhaps report what looks to be a problem - if xbmc problem or otherwise system?

you can then revert back easily. the whole run (max 5 min) would look like:


and you are back.

I have tested the url=http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/xbian/release/XBian_2014.12.04_CuBox-i.img.gz?r=http%3A%2F%2Fsourceforge.net%2Fprojects%2Fxbian%2Ffiles%2Frelease%2F&ts=1418030539&use_mirror=master]4-dec nightly [/url]and it worked last night but this morning my Cubox was dead. I have tested many things, new image, other SD card with Iginition installed, hardware reset. Nothing worked.
Then I tried this: http://www.solid-run.com/archive/mw/index.php/Flashing_U-Boot#Via_a_serial_connection
And I thought it did not work because there was no file transfer) my SD card with Ignition (the Solid Run installer) worked. I tried my XBIan SD card, no boot. Then I put the Ignition Image on that SD card and it booted succesfully. So my conclusion was that XBian image caused this trouble and now the Cubox cannot boot with XBian anymore.

I then installed Ignition again on both SD cards because I want to go back to GeeXBoX, but now it doesn't even boot with Ignition anymore.

This Cubox-i is going back to the store I don't want anyone to go through all this so for now I cannot recommend testing XBian.
EDIT: I would recommend people to test it. Maybe there is a risk but the only way to find out is by testing. Gadgetpark (the online shop) will send a new one for free if they confirm mine is dead. Once received I will install XBian and let it run for a few days.