The Other Software

Last night when I tried to boot up my Raspi it just wouldn’t. Some kind of VFS mounting error? Possibly a result of changing some of the Raspbmc settings to “super” from the “fast” default. I found the response was slow for my taste and that maybe changing the profile would help. I have heard that some people corrupt their SD cards by overclocking the Raspi. Overclocking is when you make the device perform at faster higher speeds then it is intended to. Raspbmc settings should not have caused this, only if the user defines settings that are outside the limits. In any case it seems my SD card was corrupted somehow and so I would have to reinstall it.

I took this opportunity to try out the competition. OpenELEC is an alternative software that can be installed to the SD card to run the Raspi and boot directly into XBMC. Where Raspbmc is a stripped down version of Debian with only the necessary bits to have XBMC running, OpenELEC is a stripped down version of linux with all the bits required to run XBMC. Apples and Microsofts (AKA apples and oranges). Basically the difference between Mac OSX and Windows. They both do the same thing, just in different ways.

OpenELEC requires for you to build the images yourself. This can be rather lengthy and confusing for beginners. I looked at the instructions when I first compared the different options (and subsequently decided to go with Raspbmc due to the easy installation) and thought it was overly complicated. However I have found that you can download prebuilt images from users. Of course you should trust the person who compiled the images! It would seem that Chris Swan is trusted by many in the community and releases daily prebuilt images for OpenELEC. So I downloaded today’s image, used Win32DiskImager which copies the image to your SD card and booted the Pi! All in all about 5 minutes time. Much quicker then Raspbmc.

So OpenELEC booted up no problem, my LG remote works without any setup, add-ons installed and worked and everything seems normal! Honestly I am not sure I would be able to tell the difference between the two if asked. I do however find it a little bit quicker between menus and whatnot.

Another software I could try out is XBian but from forum posts it seems to have a generally negative view in the Raspberry Pi / XBMC community.

I will probably end up reverting back to Raspbmc mostly since it self updates and is easier to manage. It also has a strong lead devlopper who knows what he is doing and constantly implements new features. More importantly though he only implements a new feature once it is ready and this is the kind of developer I like to think I am. Plus having to rely on other users to build images of OpenELEC is not my cup of tea. Yes, I could learn to compile them myself but I am lazy!

                                                                                                       

The Connectivity

The Raspberry Pi doesn’t come with integrated WiFi to keep costs of the board itself as low as possible. It does have an ethernet port but what fun is it having a media centre that needs a cable running from your computer room to the living room? For this reason I have purchased a USB WiFi dongle from ModMyPi. The advantage of course with this particular model is that it is tiny. Keeping the Raspi as small as possible is one of the reasons it makes for an ideal living room accessory.

Apart from size, another point to consider when purchasing a WiFi dongle is how power hungry it is. The Raspi needs a stable power supply and sometimes WiFi dongles can suck more power then they are suppose to, therefore pulling power away from the board and causing it to crash or corrupt your SD card. This dongle is (suppose) to be able to be plugged directly into the Pi without needing an externally powered USB hub.

A third but important factor in a WiFi dongle is what drivers it requires to be able to be used. This one uses the Realtek 8188CU Chipset. This chipset, among a few others, is compatible out of the box with most Raspberry Pi softwares including Raspbmc.

At a 15$ price point (yes 15$ exactly after exchange rates and shipping!) this makes for a pretty impressive wireless solution.

Cost to date: 84.76$

                                                                                                       

                                                               

I call it the iPi!

                                               

The Box

While I wait for my clear acrylic case to be shipped I have been keeping the Raspberry pi in the box it came in. This is (obviously) impractical as I have to disconnect and reconnect wires every time I use it. One thing with the Raspberry Pi is the huge community behind it doing all sorts of crazy things. Cases is one of the most popular mods that people are putting effort into. There are many official and unofficial manufacturers of cases designed specifically for the Raspi, but what about all those random items you have lying around? As I linked to in a previous post, people have made cases out of cigarette boxes and Lego. After some browsing a found a forum post where the OP was thinking about making a case out of the packaging his iPhone came in. That’s when it hit me. I always kept my iPhone boxes because I thought they were beautiful and I always wondered what I could do with them. So I dug up my old iPhone 3GS box and got to cutting it up. About an hour later I was finished (the cardboard is incredibly thick…) and I had a pretty decent looking housing for my media centre.

Bonus: you can use the piece of plastic that the iPhone comes in as a lid for the box, with the hole in the middle serving as airflow to prevent overheating!

                                                                                                       

                                                               

First boot of Raspbmc