XBMC - barebone install on debian

This setup assumes a single user will automatically login and start XBMC - Windowmanager of choise will be fluxbox

Install prereq

apt-get install apt-transport-https

Add xbmc sources:

# cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xbmc.list
deb https://people.debian.org/~rbalint/ppa/xbmc-ffmpeg xbmc-ffmpeg-wheezy-backports/
deb http://http.debian.net/debian wheezy-backports main contrib non-free

# Add keyring
aptitude install debian-keyring
gpg --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/debian-keyring.gpg -a --export 21E764DF | apt-key add -

Prepare for XBMC 13.X

aptitude install libtag1c2a libtinyxml2.6.2 libva-glx1 libva1 libxslt1.1 libyajl2
aptitude -t wheezy-backports install libtag1c2a

Install audio/sound

aptitude install alsa

Install XBMC, xorg and fluxbox

aptitude install fluxbox xbmc fbpager

Verify you can start fluxbox by issuing:

startx

as the user who will run XBMC

Install proprietary gfx drivers

If needed, I'd recommend staying with opensource ones first if they work fine.

Otherwise, to install fglrx on debian:

# Append contrib non-free to all sources in /etc/apt/sources.list
aptitude update
aptitude -r install linux-headers-$(uname -r|sed 's,[^-]*-[^-]*-,,') fglrx-driver

# Create dummy xorg.config to utilize the new driver
aticonfig --initial

# reboot

Check /var/log/Xorg.0.log to find if your driver loaded correctly (should show up with lsmod/dmesg as well)

Setup xinit and rc.local startup

Setup X to allow automatic login (select any)

dpkg-reconfigure x11-common

Create ~/.xinitrc to autostart fluxbox:

exec startfluxbox

Add to /etc/rc.local to start without a loginmanager

su - <USERNAME> -c startx 

After everything works, make XBMC autostart on login:

# Add to ~/.fluxbox/startup before 'exec fluxbox'
xbmc &