Raspberry Pi as Media Center

Assalamualaikum, Hi,

My Raspberry Pi just get delivered this week, so here are some notes for future me if I ever need to use my Rpi as a media centre again.

Raspbmc in action

I'm not really gonna use my Rpi mainly as a media centre since it would be wasteful for me, however I'll try it this time so I can get some idea on how easy or difficult it can be.

So for TL;DR:
1. Setup Raspbmc  - Very easy
2. Getting TP-LINK WN725N V2 nano usb WiFi module working with Raspbmc* - Easy (relative to your Googling skill)
3. Configure XBMC - Very Easy

Edit: *Finally, support for 8188EU chipsets already added into the Raspbmc kernel after latest hotfix update ~ http://www.raspbmc.com/2013/10/raspbmc-hotfix/

1. Setup Raspbmc
First I need to prepare the OS for my media centre. So I chose Raspbmc with no specific reason. The image can be downloaded from Raspbmc homepage. I chose the network image as recommended.

To detect the SD card file-system path, this command is executed before and after mounting the SD card

haziq@haziq-desktop:~$dh -f

example:
Before mounting the SD card

haziq@haziq-desktop:~$ df -h

Filesystem               Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/vg00-lvroot   30G  5.9G   23G  21% /
udev                     3.9G  4.0K  3.9G   1% /dev
tmpfs                    1.6G  976K  1.6G   1% /run
none                     5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
none                     3.9G  1.9M  3.9G   1% /run/shm
none                     100M   20K  100M   1% /run/user
/dev/mapper/vg00-lvhome  278G   40G  224G  16% /home

After mounting the SD card

haziq@haziq-desktop:~$ df -h

Filesystem               Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/vg00-lvroot   30G  5.9G   23G  21% /
udev                     3.9G  4.0K  3.9G   1% /dev
tmpfs                    1.6G  976K  1.6G   1% /run
none                     5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
none                     3.9G  1.9M  3.9G   1% /run/shm
none                     100M   20K  100M   1% /run/user
/dev/mapper/vg00-lvhome  278G   40G  224G  16% /home
/dev/sdf1                7.4G   32K  7.4G   1% /media/haziq/9016-4EF8

Since the device in this example is mapped at /dev/sdf1 so the path that will be used for dd command is /dev/sdf (not sdf1!)

Edit: or just check dmesg after you plugged in the sd

Unmount the device

haziq@haziq-desktop:~$ sudo umount /dev/sdf1 

Copy the image to the device

haziq@haziq-desktop:~$sudo dd bs=4M if=installer.img of=/dev/sdf

To confirm it already finished writing to the SD card,

haziq@haziq-desktop:~$ sudo sync

Insert the SD card into Raspberry Pi and power it up. It will continue downloading and installing the complete system.

And that's it.


2. Getting TP-LINK WN725N V2 nano usb WiFi module working with Raspbmc
I bought this wifi usb adapter which cost only RM26 since it is confirmed working with Raspbian. Unfortunately I've found out that it didn't work out of the box in either Raspbian nor the Raspbmc. After searching around, I've found out my dongle actually a V2 version of WN725N, and it's using a different driver. Luckily, there are few helpful people over the internet that shared the compiled kernel module(.ko) for Raspbmc kernel version 3.6.11.

So what I need to do is just to grab the kernel module from attachment in this forum post (login is required) and after that SSH into my Raspbian.

haziq@haziq-desktop:~$ ssh pi@192.168.0.109 

Beside using SSH, it is possible to open up terminal by pressing escape during shutting down from Raspbmc XBMC exit.

I download the file (8188eu.ko) to Rpi by using wget from my dropbox:

pi@raspbmc:~$ wget --no-check-certificate https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/99979776/8188eu/september/8188eu.ko

(working for Raspbmc's September update)

Edit: You can also directly transfer the file to your pi by scp. Refer extra tips in the end of this guide.

Put the .ko file into your Rpi modules folder and probe the module

pi@raspbmc:~$ sudo mv 8188eu.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/

pi@raspbmc:~$ sudo depmod -a

pi@raspbmc:~$ sudo modprobe 8188eu

Add 8188eu in the module list so that it will be probed on each boot automatically

pi@raspbmc:~$ sudo vi /etc/modules

Edit: Just add '8188eu' in a new line

Edit: Please remember to configure your wireless setting in your Raspbmc setting!  [Programs > Raspbmc settings]

Take a note that I'm using powered USB hub when using this dongle since my Rpi failed to boot up when the dongle is plugged in to the main board USB port.

Edit: I don't have to use a powered hub if I'm not attaching my usb keyboard. Refer my next guide on enabling remote control use by ir/remote receiver if you don't have any XBMC supported remote like me.

And that's it.


3. Configure XBMC
I have no intention to cover these easy stuff in detail since it's not very technical, so here are some screenshots of some basic stuff you can change around in XBMC:

With internet connection, it is so easy to fetch contents
from internet. Here I'm downloading a new skin.

Switching to Quartz skin

Adding YouTube Plugin

Browsing YouTube by using string search

4. Some extra tips, to move stuff from Rpi to your machine

haziq@haziq-desktop:~/Downloads$ scp pi@192.168.0.116:/home/pi/* .

References:

Raspbmc download page
http://www.raspbmc.com/download/

Rpi verified peripherals - USB wifi adapter list
http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals#Working_USB_Wi-Fi_Adapters

Compiling kernel module/driver with RaspBMC release
http://forum.stmlabs.com/showthread.php?tid=7671&pid=61560

Copying Files To Or From The Pi and other Remote shell tips
http://www.raspbmc.com/wiki/user/using-ssh/