[mk01]

I would still appreciate the original output you got from apt - why the dependencies chain ended up on config-shell (dialog).

It is probably due to package-cec which is replacing xbian-update below beta 1 what is triggering the problem.

But otherwise the newer xbmc should run even on alpha (so if you have 20 minutes, clone files with git for packxage-xbmc, package-cec and simply write it over to your alpha5).