Installing Xbox Media Center (XBMC) On Ubuntu 8.04

Version 1.0
Author: Falko Timme <ft [at] falkotimme [dot] com>
Last edited 09/30/2008

The Xbox Media Center (XBMC) is a media center application for Linux, Mac, and Windows that allows you to manage/watch/listen to/view your videos, music, and pictures. It has a nice interface, can be controlled from the desktop or a remote control or via its built-in web interface, and it can be extended by custom scripts. This guide shows how you can install XBMC on an Ubuntu 8.04 desktop.

I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

1 Installing XBMC

First, open a terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal):

Open /etc/apt/sources.list...

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

... and add the following repositories to it:

[...]
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-hardy/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-hardy/ubuntu hardy main
[...]

Run

sudo apt-get update

afterwards to update the package database.

Afterwards, you can install XBMC as follows:

sudo apt-get install xbmc

(Optional) To install additional skins, run

sudo apt-get install xbmc-skin-*

(Optional) To add support for more remote controls, run

sudo apt-get install xbmc-eventclients-*

(Optional) To install a scripting example, run

sudo apt-get install xbmc-scripts-example

You can now start XBMC by going to Applications > Sound & Video > XBMC Media Center:

To learn how to use XBMC (especially how to use custom scripts, use remote controls, etc.), take a look at the XBMC online manual.