Raspbmc’s April update is in and brings improvements to performance and stability. This update is the second monthly update since Raspbmc’s final release in February and demonstrates our long term support for XBMC on Raspberry Pi.

Here’s what this update brings:

• XBMC Frodo build updated to include new bug fixes and stability improvements
• Fixed issue where volume changes every time a new track begins (thanks Dom)
• Fixed issue with cache buffer size
• Fix a regression in Upstart in recent Raspbian root filesystem builds
• Ensure valid XML generation with non-standard characters (Windows Installer)
• Fixed an issue with xinet configuration in XBMC
• Improved handling of firewall settings in Raspbmc Settings
• Fix issue where LSB tags in init scripts were causing dependency problems when installing packages via apt-get
• Raspbmc’s installer (which runs on the device), is much improved, and will warn users when USB or NFS installation is unsuccessful, as well as warning users who are attempting a USB installation with two devices attached. We’re also looking into the possibility of allowing custom partioning right from the desktop installers at a later date.
• Faster boot time and improved performance due to quicker step up in CPU frequency
• Fix bug where Samba password default of pi:raspberry was not working

It’s almost been a year since Raspbmc for Pi hit beta, and as some of you have requested, here are some stats:

• Raspbmc has been installed over 1,000,000 times! This does however count repeat installs, and that definitely happened a lot during our earlier test stages. That’s a hair over 2,500 installs a day on average!
• Approximately 450TB of bandwidth has been used to serve new installs, updates and nightly builds.
• Given our usage statistics, we make the conservative estimate that one in five Raspberry Pi users have installed and used Raspbmc at some point.
• Of those one in five users, just over 20% are ‘daily users’ (based on unique IP addresses accessing the update servers), which implies a stable, daily user base of approximately 40,000 users. That’s astounding!

Thank you for such fantastic support!

To get the update, simply reboot your Raspberry Pi. Note that if you have disabled updates via Raspbmc Settings, you’ll need to enable them first, and if you’re running a nightly build, you’ll need to switch to ‘xbmc release’ in Raspbmc Settings to get back to the stable builds we ship as default.

If you enjoy Raspbmc, and this update, and would like to support continued development, you can make a donation here.

Filed under: general news, technical by Sam Nazarko
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Update: April fools!

It’s not everyday we get to announce something this awesome. A lot of you have been frustrated at the lack of hardware decoding support for DTS. If we announced that the Raspberry Pi foundation had made these codecs for sale, we’re sure you’d be delighted

Well, even better. It’s available for free, as are the other codecs: VC1 and MPEG2 that used to cost. Due to a trivial encryption attempt by the Raspberry Pi foundation, reversing the codec keys were easy. This is done by manipulation of the /proc filesystem.  All future installs of Raspbmc will automatically activate all codecs capable in firmware without any additional configuration.

Due to disputes with the Raspberry Pi Foundation, we’ve decided to no longer to sit on this crack, and simply release it for public consumption. While we wish them luck with the educational mission, we feel that the device is ours to do what we want with, and that this constitutes fair use.

If you’re already running Raspbmc, just reboot to grab the crack. You can check out the source code here.

Enjoy!

Filed under: general news by Sam Nazarko
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Raspbmc’s update this month offers a few fixes and features. Here’s what’s new:

XBMC 12.1 which brings:

• Improved AirPlay visibility for Mac OS and iOS 6.x devices.
• General OMXPlayer and performance patches

Also added:

• Audio popping via analogue is finally fixed (thanks Dom!)
• I understand a lot of you wish to build your own modules. This has been made easy as kernel headers have now been included.
• Pulse Eight’s libCEC library is upgraded to bring improvements to bring improved compatibility and bug fixes
• Fix a bug where disabling the firewall may not be working.
• Reduce stuttering when playing internet streams.
• Added additional DVB firmware.
• Fix for a security vulnerability that could allow users on the same network segment to gain control of the Raspberry Pi. Thanks to Justin Kelly for finding this. This does mean that you will now need to enter a username and password for Samba shares, which, by default, is pi:raspberry.
• Fix for some issues with apt-get (thanks to Alfredo Pironti)
• Improved libRTMP library compatibility for playback of Internet streams.

What we’re aware of:

• Issues with TvHeadend

To get this update, simply reboot your Raspberry Pi. You’ll need to be on the final (8th February or later) version of Raspbmc to get this update. Updating may take up to 15 minutes, so do be patient! If you enjoy Raspbmc, and this update, and would like to support continued development, you can make a donation here.

Enjoy!

Filed under: general news, technical, Uncategorized by Sam Nazarko
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