SlaXBMC Installation 101


There are two main methods to install any variety of SlaXBMC on a HTPC. For simplicity purposes we will refer to them as the CD/DVD or 1st and the USB or 2nd method.

The most appropriate method to be used depend on the HTPC you plan on installing SlaXBMC.
So, if your HTPC has a CD/DVD ROM and the BIOS allow booting from media in it (check your HTPC manual) then you should opt for the 1st installation method. On the other hand if your HTPC doesn't take CD/DVDs but does have USB sockets and the BIOS allow booting from devices attached to them (i.e. flash drives, pen drives etc.) then clearly you need to opt for the 2nd installation method.

For installation on Raspberry Pi please follow the instructions available here.  NOTE: Should you choose to perform a manual installation using the third method in the installation manual (INSTALL USING THE FAMILIAR SLAXBMC (SLACKWARE ARM) INSTALLER) you could use the video at the end of this page as reference when you reach step 8 ;)

CD/DVD Installation Method

Requirements: A blank CD/DVD, HTPC capable of booting via CD/DVD media
This method is by far the least troublesome; It involves the following steps:
  1. Download the 32bit or 64bit SlaXBMC ISO image file provided at the bottom of the SlaXBMC.blogspot.com front page on your computer
  2. "Burn" the ISO image file in an blank CD (64bit version) or DVD (32bit version) so as when the process is complete you can see various files and folders in the CD/DVD (like PACKAGES.TXT, BOOTING.TXT etc.)
  3. Insert the CD/DVD created on the previous step in your HTPC CD/DVD drive and boot in it
  4. Proceed by following the video instructions located at the bottom of this page

USB Installation Method

Requirements: A 2GB (minimum) USB stick, HTPC capable of booting via USB media, a Linux environment
The USB method is slightly more difficult because it require interaction with the linux console/terminal which can be a little bit overwhelming for a linux newbie. The concept of this method is to create a bootable USB  with the SlaXBMC data and use that instead of the CD/DVD to perform the installation.
There are two ways to approach this method and depend on the operating system you are on:
  • First - You are already in linux and have just download one of the ISO images from the SlaXBMC.blogspot.com front page on your hard drive. For simplicity we will refer to the ISO file as SlaXBMC.iso and the path it was downloaded as being the /home/user/Downloads/ folder
    1. Start up a linux console/terminal window
    2. Type the following commands one line at a time replacing the italic/bold parts with the correct values!
      cd /home/user/Downloads/
      mkdir /mnt/slaxbmc
      mount -t auto -o loop SlaXBMC.iso /mnt/slaxbmc
    3. Proceed to Step 4
  • Second - You are in linux /windows and have followed the CD/DVD Installation Method described earlier (minus the last step) so you have a nice SlaXBMC installation CD/DVD on your hands. Now, if the operation took place on Windows you need at this point to boot into a temporary linux environment that is capable of running in memory (RAM) like Parted Magic or RIP Linux to name few.
    1. Start up a linux console/terminal window
    2. Insert the SlaXBMC installation CD/DVD
    3. Type the following commands one line at a time
      mkdir /mnt/slaxbmc
      mount -t auto /dev/cdrom /mnt/slaxbmc
  1. Plug a USB stick/Pen drive greater than 2GB on the system
  2. On a new console/terminal window type the following command
    dmesg
    You should see a very similar output to the one shown below. What we are after is the usb stick/pen drive device name as it was identified by the system. In this case is shown in red circle.
  3. On a console/terminal window type the following command replacing the italic/bold part with the correct value for your setup from the previous step
    cp /mnt/slaxbmc/usb-and-pxe-installers/usbimg2disk.sh /mnt
    cd /mnt
    sh usbimg2disk.sh -f -s /mnt/slaxbmc -o /dev/sdb
    ** If your USB pen drive contain data you don't want to delete remove the "-f" trigger from the previous command
  4. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the transfer of the installation files from the CD/DVD/ISO into the new bootable usb stick/pen drive. You should see a similar output to the one shown below at the end of this step.
  5. Umount and eject the SlaXBMC CD/DVD or ISO image and delete the obsolete usbimg2disk.sh bash script using the next commands
    umount /mnt/slaxbmc
    rm /mnt/usbimg2disk.sh
    eject /dev/cdrom
  6. Keep the bootable USB created on the previous step plugged in your HTPC and boot in it
  7. Proceed by following the video instructions below


4 comments:

bam said...

Hi,
I wanted to add slaxbmc repo to the slapt-get on plain Slackware64 installation. I added repo to the slapt-get config, but when I try to retrieve pkg data, I've got the error:
root@darkstar:~# slapt-get -u
Retrieving package data [http://www.slackware.org.uk/slaxbmc/14.1/slaxbmc64-14.1/slackware64/]...regexec failed to parse size_c
regexec failed to parse size_c
..
regexec failed to parse size_c
Failed to parse package data from http://www.slackware.org.uk/slaxbmc/14.1/slaxbmc64-14.1/slackware64/
Sources failed to download, correct sources and rerun --update

I've tried set http://www.slackware.org.uk/slaxbmc/14.1/slaxbmc64-14.1/slackware64/ and http://www.slackware.org.uk/slaxbmc/14.1/slaxbmc64-14.1/ as a repo url with the same result

Analekto said...

Hi bam,

It appears our primary home slackware.org.uk is down! I would think Darren 'Tadgy' Austin is working on a solution as we speak.
Unfortunately FileWatcher has replicated only up to the previous SlaXBMC 14.0 release :(

When you get around to adding SlaXBMC to the slapt-get repo could you please drop me a line to play with it as well!

Analekto

Unknown said...

Still replicated to 14.0 release... will it be updated to 14.1?

Analekto said...

Hi Beroicho Beroichev,

I don't have control over what FileWatcher replicate.

The primary SlaXBMC home site however is up so please use that to get the latest SlaXBMC release. It's available on http://www.slackware.org.uk/slaxbmc/

Analekto