View Full Version : XBMC Linux-OS port?
hi all,
wouldn't it be cool if xbmc could be installed on linux?
i have setup a htpc with mythtv which is pretty cool. but xmbc simply is so much better and better looking in various areas. i really prefer the user interface. i just think it would be great if i could use it on my linux environment.
i don't know how xbmx is created exactly but it seems it uses a lot of open-source software anyway. it runs on python and uses mplayer if i'm correct. would it be difficult to make it run on linux? or to create a port for linux? as the xbox ages it seems to me that it will be needing a new platform anyway.
or are there ways xbmc could work together with mythtv. that xbmc skins would work on mythtv and vise versa? to be the leader of some standards in this area could make these projects become big players on the market.
oh and, if anyone is reading this and would also like to see xbmc on linux. just post a small reply so we get a small idea how many people would be interested in this.
ah i see now that it is programmed with assembly, c and c++... i thought python as well?...
is the code portable? or is it tightly written for the xbox?... i have no experience in porting c code or anything... i'm just a php developer who's very interested in xbmc... :)...
talking to yourself? please don't bump like this, understand it's holidays across the globe and reply times may be longer than usual.
xbmc is dependant on microsoft xbox sdk, you figure the rest out...
for me to find out if xbmc is portable to linux would mean i would have to research the complete code library of xbmc. that's a pretty humongous undertaking to answer just a few questions. i'm sure there are people out here that know how the code is structured and can say something about the portability.
so you say that it is based on the xbox sdk. so how much of xbmc is programmed with the sdk? or is xbmc something that sits on top of some kind of xbox abstraction layer programmed with the sdk?
i think it will be easier to port mediaportal
taking mediaportal as the base sounds good as well i guess. at least that has the tv recording features already.
i think it would be pretty cool if there would be some sort of abstraction layer for windows, the xbox and linux. and that development of the (xbox)mediacentre could somehow be independant of the os it runs on. i guess that depends on how much xbmc or mediaportal are integrated with microsofts environment. does xbmc make use of the msxml libraries for example?
is there documentation somewhere about the code structure of xbmc and/or mediaportal?
i just read that mediaportal is programmed in c#. so unless this code runs with mono i guess the c++ code is more portable for linux?
jmarshall
2005-01-03, 01:17
both xbmc and mediaportal depend heavily on directx.
hmmm... and what if we could use a directx opengl wrapper (http://sourceforge.net/projects/dxglwrap/) to solve that problem? wine (http://www.winehq.com/) also has interfaces for directx...
or an abstraction layer that works with opengl and directx like simple directmedia layer (http://www.libsdl.org/)...
jmarshall
2005-01-03, 12:06
if you do it, then fine - go ahead.
xbmc devs are not going to do it.
well, maybe i will start such a project... :)...
i didn't ask you to do it... i just asked if it would be possible... and if it's difficult or not... i'm trying to "discuss" the subject since there's absolutely no information about this anywhere and i'm sure there are a lot of people that would be interested...
and what makes you think you can speak for all the xbmc devs?... 2005 will be the year of the mediacenter and the xbox simply doesn't have enough power to do the job... isn't it time to start start looking at new platforms??...
mythtv is very good. i've been using it for a couple of months now on my home network - so far it's not messed up, it hasn't crashed & really is excellent, even without considering that it's free!
it's completely open source, so you can fiddle with it as much as you like.
mythtv is very feature rich and great in simply getting the job done. i use it at home too. but compared to xbmc it's a bit rough around the edges. xbmc is much more polished and seems to have gotten a lot more attention for the little details (in looks and functionality).
i think it would be cool if we could have all the good from both worlds... but i'm getting the impression that you guys aren't very excited about it?...
xbmc is about making the best media "solution" for xbox, not for linux and not for pc's. that's just the way it is.
dude... the xbox is a pc... which microsoft tried to disguise by putting it in a black box with an x on it so that they could make money selling games for it...
... the xbox is one piece of hardware with a sdk to it.
it's a world of difference writing stuff for one platform, pc isnt a platform in the same way (lots of different chipsets, with lots of different audio and graphics chipsets), it's a bloody mess is what it is...
it's probably true it's easier when you know exactly what kind of hardware you're working on. but this also has its downsides. the more the code depends on specific hardware the less portable it will be. the code will be stuck on xbox hardware.
luckely it has been proven that xbmc isn't that tightly written with xbox hardware. for starters. it uses directx which is a hardware abstraction layer. secondly, it has already been successfully ported to windows. this means it runs fine on pc hardware.
the only problem remains is the environment. my guess is xbmc doesn't have it's own hardware (directx) abstraction layer that can be converted to opengl. this means that all the code directly talks with directx. to make it cross-platform would mean that everything would need to be reprogrammed so that it could talk with sdl, opengl or something else. this is probably a pretty big undertaking.
just one more thing. maybe now is not the time to port it to linux. but maybe it is a good idea to slowly start working towards something that can be ported to something else in the future.