ASRock ION 3D 152B/152D with Ubuntu Linux and XBMC. Remote control / HDMI audio

ASrock ION 3D 152B

I landed on this little computer as my mediacenter for my living room. It's small, looks nice and has all the features you would like to run a mediacenter. I wanted to write about my experience with setting it up with Ubuntu Linux and XBMC. I don't want to describe every detail of it because most of it works quite nicely. So I will focus on the harder parts, which is basically making the remote control work with the XBMC interface and getting the audio through the HDMI cable.

I also would like to add that I switched the default harddrive which is a normal HDD 5400 rpm and works quite slow.

-I installed the latest version of Ubuntu Desktop and made sure that the audio and video drivers works as they should, which they do. I then removed software afterwards which I don't need. You can also do this the other way round by installing a minimal installation like LXDE.

-I then installed XBMC by following these steps. Which is simply adding the repository and installing from the terminal window.

-I then created an user in ubuntu called 'xbmc' and selected this to log on automatically. In the log on screen for Ubuntu you can select which environment the selected user should log in to. After you have installed XBMC standalone you can opt to log into XBMC. The next time you boot it will automatically log in as user 'xbmc' and into XBMC standalone.

Then, over to the harder parts

The remote control

The CIR device is based on MCE and the hardware in the ASRock HTPCs are called Nuvoton.
I have tried a lot, but what you should NOT do is to install the LIRC Nuvoton drivers from ASRock. They do not work. They only collide with everything else.

I've found 2 ways to make this work, one with Lirc and one with Ir-keytable. I recommend the Ir-keytable since it seems far more responsive and stable than I ever experienced with Lirc.

1. with Ir-keytable:

This thread from XBMC forum says it all things work without LIRC.
Just follow this right through and you should be there!

I only want to add a little bit of information, this is where you find default files of those you are about to edit or create if you go for this solution:

Default rc6_mce: /lib/udev/rc_keymaps/
default keyboard.xml : /usr/share/xbmc/system/keymaps

2. with Lirc:
I found this great guide for the ASRock 330 HT, and it works perfectly for ION 3D as well.

It also seems you have to add a custom Lircmap.xml to make things work in Ubuntu 11.10:

<lircmap>
<remote device="mceusb">
<PLAY>KEY_PLAY</PLAY>
<PAUSE>KEY_PAUSE</PAUSE>
<STOP>KEY_STOP</STOP>
<FORWARD>KEY_FORWARD</FORWARD>
<REVERSE>KEY_REWIND</REVERSE>
<LEFT>KEY_LEFT</LEFT>
<RIGHT>KEY_RIGHT</RIGHT>
<UP>KEY_UP</UP>
<DOWN>KEY_DOWN</DOWN>
<SELECT>KEY_OK</SELECT>
<PAGEPLUS>KEY_CHANNELUP</PAGEPLUS>
<PAGEMINUS>KEY_CHANNELDOWN</PAGEMINUS>
<BACK>KEY_BACK</BACK>
<MENU>KEY_PREVIOUSMENU</MENU>
<TITLE>KEY_RECORD</TITLE>
<INFO>More</INFO>
<SKIPPLUS>KEY_SKIP</SKIPPLUS>
<SKIPMINUS>KEY_REPLAY</SKIPMINUS>
<DISPLAY>Teletext</DISPLAY>
<START>KEY_HOME</START>
<RECORD>Guide</RECORD>
<VOLUMEPLUS>KEY_VOLUP</VOLUMEPLUS>
<VOLUMEMINUS>KEY_VOLDOWN</VOLUMEMINUS>
<MUTE>KEY_MUTE</MUTE>
<POWER>KEY_POWER</POWER>
<MYVIDEO>KEY_VIDEOS</MYVIDEO>
<MYMUSIC>KEY_MUSIC</MYMUSIC>
<MYPICTURES>KEY_PICTURES</MYPICTURES>
<MYTV>KEY_TV</MYTV>
<ONE>KEY_1</ONE>
<TWO>KEY_2</TWO>
<THREE>KEY_3</THREE>
<FOUR>KEY_4</FOUR>
<FIVE>KEY_5</FIVE>
<SIX>KEY_6</SIX>
<SEVEN>KEY_7</SEVEN>
<EIGHT>KEY_8</EIGHT>
<NINE>KEY_9</NINE>
<ZERO>KEY_0</ZERO>
<STAR>Star</STAR>
<HASH>Hash</HASH>
<CLEAR>KEY_CLEAR</CLEAR>
<ENTER>KEY_ENTER</ENTER>
<RED>KEY_RED</RED>
<GREEN>KEY_GREEN</GREEN>
<YELLOW>KEY_YELLOW</YELLOW>
<BLUE>KEY_BLUE</BLUE>
</remote>
</lircmap>

Audio through HDMI

Assuming you are using ALSA, if not you can install this and remove whatever sound system you are using now.

I'll get right to the point, open terminal and go sudo su.

Type this command : aplay -l

For my ASRock Ion 3D it gives me this list:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****

card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC892 Analog [ALC892 Analog]

  Subdevices: 0/1

  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC892 Digital [ALC892 Digital]

  Subdevices: 1/1

  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]

  Subdevices: 1/1

  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]

  Subdevices: 1/1

  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]

  Subdevices: 1/1

  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]

  Subdevices: 1/1

  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Now notice the ones that says NVidia and HDMI. Then notice the card number and the device number for these. You could try more of them.

So now start XBMC and go to Settings-System-Audio output.

Of course you have selected HDMI in the top?

Under sound device you select custom, a textbox opens up.

Type "plughw:1,7" here 

Under passthrough device you select ALSA (iec958).

That should be it!
NB! 1,7 means card 1, device 7. You can also try device 3,8 or 9 on card 1. They represent different set ups, like 5 speakers, 7 speakers, stereo...

My config-file guisettings.xml looks like this under the audiooutput section:

<audiooutput>

   <ac3passthrough>false</ac3passthrough>

   <audiodevice>custom</audiodevice>

   <channellayout>0</channellayout>

   <customdevice>plughw:1,7</customdevice>

   <custompassthrough></custompassthrough>

   <dontnormalizelevels>false</dontnormalizelevels>

   <dtspassthrough>false</dtspassthrough>

   <mode>2</mode>

   <passthroughaac>false</passthroughaac>

   <passthroughdevice>alsa:iec958</passthroughdevice>

   <passthroughmp1>false</passthroughmp1>

   <passthroughmp2>false</passthroughmp2>

   <passthroughmp3>false</passthroughmp3>

</audiooutput>


And finally a screenshot, I use only a stereo speaker system at the moment.

Hope that'll help ya out!

Atle