Arch Linux

xer01ne

Member

Registered: 2011-02-28

Posts: 46

Arch power HTPC problems....

I am trying to build a server/HTPC.  The server aspect (LAMP, webmin, etc...) is working just fine, but what I can't seem to figure out is how to set up the XBMC portion.  My goal is to have XBMC automatically login when I power the machine on.  However, when I try to start xbmc, I get complaints and if I try to start the systemctl xbmc service, it freezes the machine and I have to hard reboot.

The unit was headless for a while, and I just ssh'd into it or used webmin to manage it, but recently I connected it to my TV with HDMI.  The video works just fine, additionally, I can start slim, but if I try to configure autostart with slim and the user, setting the .xinitrc to 'exec xbmc-standalone', it freezes the machine.

Here are some of my problems:

xbmc

# xbmc
Error: unable to open display 
XBMC needs hardware accelerated OpenGL rendering.
Install an appropriate graphics driver.

Please consult XBMC Wiki for supported hardware
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Supported_hardware

xbmc-standalone

# xbmc-standalone 
which: no start-pulseaudio-x11 in (/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/bin/core_perl)
which: no pulse-session in (/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/bin/core_perl)
Error: unable to open display 
XBMC needs hardware accelerated OpenGL rendering.
Install an appropriate graphics driver.

Please consult XBMC Wiki for supported hardware
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Supported_hardware
Error: unable to open display 
XBMC needs hardware accelerated OpenGL rendering.
Install an appropriate graphics driver.

Please consult XBMC Wiki for supported hardware
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Supported_hardware
Error: unable to open display 
XBMC needs hardware accelerated OpenGL rendering.
Install an appropriate graphics driver.

Please consult XBMC Wiki for supported hardware
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Supported_hardware
XBMC has exited uncleanly 3 times in the last 0 seconds.
Something is probably wrong

I understand that the problem is the video card not initiating accelerated graphics, but I am trying to figure out why.

Here is my stats:

Motherboard:  http://www.gigabyte.com/products/produc … id=3783#ov
Processor: Core i5-2300 2.8ghz (with Intel HD 2000 Graphics)

uname -a

[root@demon ~]# uname -a
Linux demon 3.6.6-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Nov 5 13:14:42 CET 2012 i686 GNU/Linux

lsmod |grep i915

[root@demon ~]# lsmod |grep i915
i915                  440634  1 
video                   9884  1 i915
button                  3710  1 i915
i2c_algo_bit            4583  1 i915
intel_agp               8592  1 i915
intel_gtt              12173  2 i915,intel_agp
drm_kms_helper         28941  1 i915
drm                   180042  2 i915,drm_kms_helper
i2c_core               16943  5 drm,i915,i2c_i801,drm_kms_helper,i2c_algo_bit

pacman -Ss intel |grep installed

[root@demon ~]# pacman -Ss intel |grep installed
extra/intel-dri 9.0-1 [installed]
extra/libva-intel-driver 1.0.19-1 [installed]
extra/xf86-video-i740 1.3.4-2 [installed]
extra/xf86-video-intel 2.20.12-1 (xorg-drivers xorg) [installed]

pacman -Ss xorg |grep installed

[root@demon ~]# pacman -Ss xorg|grep installed
extra/xf86-input-evdev 2.7.3-2 (xorg-drivers xorg) [installed]
extra/xf86-video-intel 2.20.12-1 (xorg-drivers xorg) [installed]
extra/xorg-bdftopcf 1.0.3-2 (xorg xorg-apps) [installed]
extra/xorg-font-util 1.3.0-1 (xorg-fonts xorg) [installed]
extra/xorg-font-utils 7.6-3 [installed]
extra/xorg-fonts-alias 1.0.2-2 [installed]
extra/xorg-fonts-encodings 1.0.4-3 (xorg-fonts xorg) [installed]
extra/xorg-fonts-misc 1.0.1-2 [installed]
extra/xorg-iceauth 1.0.5-1 (xorg-apps xorg) [installed]
extra/xorg-luit 1.1.1-1 (xorg xorg-apps) [installed]
extra/xorg-mkfontdir 1.0.7-1 (xorg xorg-apps) [installed]
extra/xorg-mkfontscale 1.1.0-1 (xorg-apps xorg) [installed]
extra/xorg-server 1.13.0-4 (xorg) [installed]
extra/xorg-server-common 1.13.0-4 [installed]
extra/xorg-server-utils 7.6-3 [installed]
extra/xorg-sessreg 1.0.7-1 (xorg-apps xorg) [installed]
extra/xorg-setxkbmap 1.3.0-1 (xorg-apps xorg) [installed]
extra/xorg-twm 1.0.7-1 [installed]
extra/xorg-xauth 1.0.7-1 (xorg-apps xorg) [installed]
extra/xorg-xbacklight 1.2.0-1 (xorg-apps xorg) [installed]
extra/xorg-xclock 1.0.6-1 [installed]
extra/xorg-xcmsdb 1.0.4-1 (xorg-apps xorg) [installed]
extra/xorg-xdpyinfo 1.3.0-1 (xorg-apps xorg) [installed]
extra/xorg-xgamma 1.0.5-1 (xorg-apps xorg) [installed]
extra/xorg-xhost 1.0.5-1 (xorg-apps xorg) [installed]
extra/xorg-xinit 1.3.2-3 [installed]
extra/xorg-xinput 1.6.0-1 (xorg-apps xorg) [installed]
extra/xorg-xkbcomp 1.2.4-1 (xorg-apps xorg) [installed]
extra/xorg-xmodmap 1.0.7-1 (xorg-apps xorg) [installed]
extra/xorg-xrandr 1.3.5-1 (xorg-apps xorg) [installed]
extra/xorg-xrdb 1.0.9-2 (xorg-apps xorg) [installed]
extra/xorg-xrefresh 1.0.4-3 (xorg-apps xorg) [installed]
extra/xorg-xset 1.2.2-1 (xorg-apps xorg) [installed]
extra/xorg-xsetroot 1.1.0-3 (xorg-apps xorg) [installed]

pacman -Ss mesa |grep installed

[root@demon ~]# pacman -Ss mesa |grep installed
extra/glu 9.0.0-1 [installed]
extra/intel-dri 9.0-1 [installed]
extra/libegl 9.0-1 [installed]
extra/libgbm 9.0-1 [installed]
extra/libgl 9.0-1 [installed]
extra/libglapi 9.0-1 [installed]
extra/mesa 9.0-1 [installed]
extra/mesa-demos 8.0.1-2 [installed]

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

[root@demon ~]# cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf 
Section "Device"
   Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
   Driver      "intel"
   Option      "AccelMethod"  "sna"
EndSection

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Last edited by xer01ne (2012-11-13 00:35:41)

ould

Member

Registered: 2007-05-22

Posts: 124

Re: Arch power HTPC problems....

From what I recall trying to run XBMC on anything other the an Nvidia card is a pita(on linux). slap a cheap fanless nvidia card in there and be done with it. It just works. I have a GT210(I think that is the model, hard to remember) which is fanless and has hdmi output(with audio). Works great and no fan make it silent.

65kid

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2011-01-26

Posts: 663

Re: Arch power HTPC problems....

hah, awesome (kind of)!

I have the exact same problem and thought I was going insane because it doesn't make any sense whatsoever - the machine only freezes when I use autologin (display manager doesn't even matter) and I start an OpenGL application. Glad to see someone with the same problem.

This problem is somehow related to Mesa and I opened a bug report about this a few days ago: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=56684

Please try to confirm what I've described in the bug report and comment on it. The more people confirm this, the sooner it gets fixed.

and btw, don't use the xbmc service file, it sucks because it doesn't create a proper logind session.

65kid

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2011-01-26

Posts: 663

Re: Arch power HTPC problems....

From what I recall trying to run XBMC on anything other the an Nvidia card is a pita(on linux). slap a cheap fanless nvidia card in there and be done with it. It just works. I have a GT210(I think that is the model, hard to remember) which is fanless and has hdmi output(with audio). Works great and no fan make it silent.

That's imho not true (anymore). Intel Graphics and the VAAPI hardware acceleration has been working great for me since well over a year. The best thing about it is that you don't have to deal with the crappy nvidia binary drivers.

xer01ne

Member

Registered: 2011-02-28

Posts: 46

Re: Arch power HTPC problems....

65kid,

Well, that does put my mine at ease a little.  I burnt the latest version of XBMCbuntu to my USB stick and fired it up, it ran everything just fine (xbmc auto loaded, no lockups or failures, etc...).  So, I know that what I am looking for can be done with the equipment that I have, I am just trying to figure out why.  If the bug doesn't get resolved soon, I might just downgrade some packages and see if that  is a good temporary solution.  I did just build the xbmc-eden-git version from the AUR, hopefully it renders better results.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to test it out until I get back home in 2 weeks.  Please let me know what is happening with the bug. 

Ould,
I could agree with your judgement if it was ATI, but I have had little to no problems with Intel or nVidia.  With that said, the case that I am using doesn't support the use of an additional card.  The case it a  very small ITX NAS case by Chenbro.  I would sooner downgrade myself to Ubuntu before going out and having to get another case.  Not that there is anything wrong with Arch, but this  is  just a media server, and it will never be used as a desktop.  With that said, I will exhaust all  efforts on Arch before making a mistake.

65kid

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2011-01-26

Posts: 663

Re: Arch power HTPC problems....

65kid,

Well, that does put my mine at ease a little.  I burnt the latest version of XBMCbuntu to my USB stick and fired it up, it ran everything just fine (xbmc auto loaded, no lockups or failures, etc...).  So, I know that what I am looking for can be done with the equipment that I have, I am just trying to figure out why.  If the bug doesn't get resolved soon, I might just downgrade some packages and see if that  is a good temporary solution.  I did just build the xbmc-eden-git version from the AUR, hopefully it renders better results.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to test it out until I get back home in 2 weeks.  Please let me know what is happening with the bug.

You don't have to waste your time trying xbmc-git, I'm running it as well. As mentioned, this is not an XBMC specific problem, I can just as well reproduce the system freeze by starting glxgears.

xer01ne

Member

Registered: 2011-02-28

Posts: 46

Re: Arch power HTPC problems....

Did the latest version of mesa fix this problem?  I haven't tried it out yet because I am still traveling.  However, if it now works, then I can remote update and start.

65kid

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2011-01-26

Posts: 663

Re: Arch power HTPC problems....

Did the latest version of mesa fix this problem?  I haven't tried it out yet because I am still traveling.  However, if it now works, then I can remote update and start.

nope, machine still freezes with 9.0.1.

xer01ne

Member

Registered: 2011-02-28

Posts: 46

Re: Arch power HTPC problems....

Thanks.  Did you have to downgrade any other packages aside from mesa?  I realized that when I did yaourt -Syua, it updated everything again.  (I thought I added mesa to the ignore list).  Anyway, just curious if there was anything else that needed to  be downgraded besides mesa. 

Thanks again 65kid.

65kid

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2011-01-26

Posts: 663

Re: Arch power HTPC problems....

Thanks.  Did you have to downgrade any other packages aside from mesa?  I realized that when I did yaourt -Syua, it updated everything again.  (I thought I added mesa to the ignore list).  Anyway, just curious if there was anything else that needed to  be downgraded besides mesa. 

Thanks again 65kid.

I'm not sure, since I found the workaround by simply not using autologin I haven't downgraded them anymore. mesa consists of multiple packages which and I assume you can't mix versions with. I'm pretty sure those were the following:
intel-dri
mesa
libgl
libglapi
libgles

What makes this even more messy is that starting with mesa 9.0 there is a new dependency "glu" which conflicts with the old mesa packages and is needed by glew and jasper, so you have to dowgrade those as well. I hope I didn't miss any.