I received my Raspberry Pi at the end of November 2012 from Farnell - Element 14, 3 weeks after ordering. The RS components order has not yet arrived after (6 weeks and counting.

The first project I have planned is to get xbmc running on Pi as a client for my TV to stream data from the internet and my ubuntu home server.

1. Raspberry Pi Model B (35€, 5€ shipping from Farnell)
2. 1A Power supply (from old HTC Desire phone)
3. Logitech wireless Keyboard (34€ from Amazon)
4. USB Wifi adapter (EDIMAX EW-7811UN Wireless USB Adapter, 150 Mbit/s, IEEE802.11b/g/n - 9,70€ from Amazon)
5. Samsung 82cm TV (bought ~2008)
6. 2GB SD Card (from old Palm PDA)

New parts bought: ~85€

The progress so far…

To backup and restore images to the SD card:

sudo dd if=/dev/sdb of=/home/dobrien/<imageName>.img bs=1M

Run backwards to restore

sudo dd if=/home/dobrien/<imageName>.img of=/dev/sdb bs=1M

Complete linux system available and works out of the box with display & Wifi adapter. I attempt to install XBMC but the system replied that this was not possible due to missing dependencies. Iinstalled Gnash (gnu flash) plugin and plugin for browser in Midori to play youtube video in the browser. This, however, is not usable - about 1 frame ever 10 minutes comes through… I suspect that too many of the Pi's limited resouces are taken up running the full linux OS and GUI – so started looking at software developed specifically for PI and XBMC - Openelc and Raspbmc

Problem with HDMI display & TV. After install, on 1st boot I get the openelec logo, but then the screen turns black with the message “mode not supported”.

This is a little bit more complex as the install needs ethernet cable.

1. Download install.py script from www.raspbmc.com/download/
2. run script which write intall data to SD Card on computer
3. Boot PI with SD card — here you need ethernet cable to download the system
4. Boot into Raspbmc …

… and I get the same “Mode not supported” error. After some googling, came accross someone advising adding 2 lines to “config.txt”:

hdmi_group=2 
hdmi_mode=85

Tried it - and this works! Now have system up on screen. Wireless keyboard working. WIFI - not working. Here you again need ethernet cable attached and need to download under “Programs” the “Networking Tool” addon. Installed this addon and then things WIFI is up. To get the PI to talk to my server I “Add files” under Music and use “add network location” together with SSH/SFTP option.

All goes well - BUT no sound on HDMI. Problems is caused by PI being forced to use HDMI but initially not detecting display, at which point it turns of the HDMI audio out for some reason. Adding line to config.txt to force it to do HDMI audio out always

hdmi_drive=2

Other possible problem that may come - complete HDMI turned off - then need additional line in config.txt

hdmi_force_hotplug=1

–> http://choorucode.wordpress.com/2012/10/13/forcing-raspbmc-to-turn-on-hdmi-at-boot/

Now have audio - can play mp3 over network. Video is still a problem. Starts playing file (audio in background but no video)