Cuvedev.net | Klaas Cuvelier » Boxee

Boxee 1.2.2 on Ubuntu Oneiric Minimal

Klaas Cuvelier — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 22:44:15 +0000

Update: you can download Boxee 1.5 on their website now:
http://blog.boxee.tv/2011/12/26/boxee-1-5-fall-software-update/

Got @boxee 1.2.2 running on #ubuntu oneiroc minimal! Some playback issues. Altough I'm excited! http://t.co/M7Ph8gTM

December 21, 2011 23:23 via Twitter for iPhone ReplyRetweetFavorite

@klaascuvelier

Klaas Cuvelier

Looking to fix the playback errors, and I’ll post a walk-through later!

Boxee on Ubuntu Lucid Minimal on Asrock ION 330

Klaas Cuvelier — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:14:27 +0000

Yesterday I performed a clean install from Ubuntu Lucid Lynx Minimal on my Asrock Ion 330.
I followed this guide like I did last time (for an earlier version of Ubuntu Minimal) but I encountered some problems.

Here’s how I solved them.

In chapter “Updating the computer”, change in the sources.list hardy or intreprid or jaunty by “lucid”.
No problems in “Install sound”.

The real problems came in “Installing the graphical environment”.
When I wanted to install the latest driver for my ION graphics card I always got this error:

ERROR: Unable to load the kernel module ‘nvidia.ko’. This is most likely
because the kernel module was built using the wrong kernel source files.
Please make sure you have installed the kernel source files for your
kernel; on Red Hat Linux systems, for example, be sure you have the
‘kernel-source’ rpm installed. If you know the correct kernel source
files are installed, you may specify the kernel source path with the
‘–kernel-source-path’ commandline option.

It took me a while before I found this solution:
Make the file (or edit the file if it already exists) /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common
and add this content:

DISABLED_MODULES=”nv nvidia_new”

Now you should be able to run the installer without problems.

Another small problem was, logging in automatically. In earlier releases of Ubuntu you had to change some commands in /etc/event.d/tty1 (according to the guide mentioned earlier), but in Ubuntu Lucid, the event.d folder doesn’t exist anymore, and you have to put it in /etc/init/ instead.

Good Luck!

Vrt Internetradio Boxee plugin

Klaas Cuvelier — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:28:48 +0000

So, I finally finished my second Boxee plugin. This time I can call it a real plugin, there are options, lists and dialogs. Hooray!

The plugin is called “Vrt Internetradio”, and it basicly plays internet streams from the VRT (Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie).
The VRT ¬†owns several radio stations and they provide streams to listen to them via the internet. I took the opportunity to use those to make a Boxee plugin so we all can play them with our beloved Boxee.

There’s not that much functionality, but I tried to keep the layout simple and tried to give a good user experience (up/down buttons to right controls and such).

Screenshots (click for larger picture) and download link are below , don’t hesitate to comment ¬†and help me improve the plugin.

The main screen:

Info about a particular station and substations to play:

Starting a radiostation:

The options dialog:

The about dialog:

Download here

Boxee python dev

Klaas Cuvelier — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 15:33:05 +0000

Boxee may be “the best way to enjoy entertainment from the Internet and computer on your TV” (according tor their website), the developers documentation isn’t all that great. Not everything is well-documented and the (python) API doesn’t always do what’s expected, which makes developing own plugins not that easy.
It isn’t also always possible to find the right solution with Google. Maybe because not all that much people are developing plugins for Boxee (or the don’t care to share) or because Google doesn’t index it well.

So I decided to share the things I found. Let’s hope google indexes them well and I’m able to help some fellow developers.

Textbox + SetLabel:
If you have a textbox, it is not possible to change the label via python in an easy way.

mc.GetActiveWindow().GetLabel([id]).SetLabel('text')

and

mc.GetActiveWindow().GetControl([id]).SetLabel('text')

don’t work on a Textbox, and

GetTextbox([id])

doesn’t exist.
Setting the label can be done this way:

xbmc.executebuiltin('Control.SetLabel([id],[text])')

and you’ll have to replace every comma (,) with $COMMA

Onload-tag with a dialog
I’ve experienced some troubles with the onload-tag in windows with type=”dialog”. If you have a normal window, and load a dialog-window in a onclick method with this code, the onload of the dialog won’t work until you close the dialog:

The way to solve this is to dump the python code to load the dialog and just do this:

	ActivateWindow(14001)

Python import gives errors:

It took me a while to figure out, but this error:

18:54:51 T:2963869696 M:410439680  NOTICE: -->Python Interpreter Initialized<--
18:54:51 T:2963869696 M:410439680  NOTICE: Traceback (most recent call last):
18:54:51 T:2963869696 M:410439680  NOTICE:   File "", line 2, in ?
18:54:51 T:2963869696 M:410439680  NOTICE: ImportError
18:54:51 T:2963869696 M:410439680  NOTICE: :
18:54:51 T:2963869696 M:410439680  NOTICE: No module named xxxxxxx
18:54:51 T:2963869696 M:410439680   ERROR: Scriptresult: Error

Was caused by a bad window-id. Boxee window-id’s should be between 14000 and 14099

Close a window with type=”dialog”:
If you have opened a window with type=”dialog”, it isn’t possible to close the window with this code:

CloseWindow(14001)

Instead you have to do this:

Dialog.Close(14001)

You can also add the “force” option (True/False), adding this option will skip all animations.