SysAdmin Adventures

I’ve had a number of requests for the SlackBuild I used for XBMC on Slackware 13.0.

Personally I used Larry Hajali’s SlackBuild for v9.04.1 (with patches). His post to the Slackbuilds-users Mailing list is here:
http://www.mail-archive.com/slackbuilds-users@slackbuilds.org/msg02041.html

Just in case, I’m hosting the SlackBuild here too:
XBMC v9.04.1 SlackBuild

Hopefully Larry’s will eventually make it onto SlackBuilds.Org so you can install it from there or with sbopkg but until then, this will have to do.

If you want the subversion head, then you can either modify Larry’s or head over to http://xbmc.strangled.net/source/xbmc-svn/ where there’s a SlackBuild script written specifically for the purpose.

DISCLAIMERS:

• I have only personally used Larry’s SlackBuild exactly as provided by Larry.
• Your Mileage May Vary.
• I provide absolutely no guarantee that anything will work as described.
• I take no responsibility if the above information breaks your computer, ends your marriage or otherwise destroys your life.
• Read the README before doing ANYTHING.

UPDATE:
Larry has updated the SlackBuild a little:

I’ve made a couple of changes to the slackbuild. Fixed some
hard coded “lib/python2.5″ paths in the EventClients Makefile. The
Nvidia hack in no longer an option and is now done by default. Now
the the xbmc slackbuild will compile on Slackware64. XBMC is 64 bit
compatible but by default is not completely lib64 compatible. Mesa
7.5.1 is now needed from a slackware mirror as it has the required
glxinfo for direct rendering detection.

Thanks to fire|bird from ##slackware for helping me troubleshoot
Slackware64 compilation and to pprkut for additional script cleanup
and testing on Slackware64.

The updated version (that I have personally not used or tested) is here:
Updated XBMC SlackBuild

UPDATE 20100222:
Larry has been kind enough to update it to XBMC v9.11 (Camelot) and upload it to SlackBuilds.Org. Thank him vociferously!

Thank you, Larry.

Although I like to get people to read through the documentation properly so that they understand what they’re doing properly before they do it, basic package management is one of those things you really need to be able to pick up and run with even if you’re just playing about with a new OS, or perhaps especially if you’re just playing about. This page has a very good quick and screenshotted summary of the basics for Slackware:

http://beginlinux.com/desktop_training/168-slackware/1427-slackware-package-management

This is a simple one.

Pidgin uses GStreamer for producing sound (don’t ask me why.. I think it’s a bit daft too). GStreamer relies on plugins for pretty much all sound formats.

GStreamer plugins come in three categories:

• gst-plugins-good (high-quality LGPL plugins)
• gst-plugins-bad (reasonable-quality plugins with free distribution licences)
• gst-plugins-ugly (good-quality plugins that have licence/distribution issues)

Pidgin’s default sound scheme uses WAV files and therefore needs the GStreamer WAV plugin which is available in gst-plugins-good. I have absolutely no idea whatsoever why Slackware 13.0 ships with GStreamer but without gst-plugins-good, however this is not a problem because SlackBuilds.org solves everything:

(you do use sbopkg don’t you?)