After spending quite a bit of time trying to get a headless XBMC server set up i finally succeeded, I am using ESXi with Xpenology, PfSense and Ubuntu. So here is a guide on getting XBMC running headless, Enjoy.

Preparation

Install your debian based linux distribution.

Type the following commands in to the shell/SSH terminal.

sudo apt-get install python-software-properties

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/unstable

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/xbmc-ppa-build-depends

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get build-dep xbmc

sudo apt-get install libtag1-de

Installation

• Now we can begin with the XBMC building.
• First we need to clone the github repo.

git clone git://github.com/xbmc/xbmc.git

cd xbmc

• Now we can checkout and patch the cloned source.

git checkout 13.0-Gotham

wget https://gist.github.com/docmeth02/bcd237...rver.patch

git checkout -b local

git apply xbmc-server.patch

Next we run some more commands.

./bootstrap

./configure --enable-shared-lib --disable-debug --disable-vdpau --disable-vaapi --disable-crystalhd --disable-vtbdecoder --disable-vtbdecoder --disable-openmax --disable-joystick --disable-xrandr --disable-rsxs --disable-projectm --disable-rtmp --disable-airplay --disable-airtunes --disable-dvdcss --disable-optical-drive --disable-libbluray --disable-libusb --disable-libcec --disable-libmp3lame --disable-libcap --disable-pulse --disable-alsa

Next we need to make and make install (REPLACE “X” with number of cpu cores in system.)

make -jX

make install

cp libxbmc.so /lib/libxbmc.so

ldconfig

cd xbmc

make -f make_xbmc-server all

make -f make_xbmcVideoLibraryScan all

sudo cp xbmc-server /usr/local/lib/xbmc/xbmc-server.bin

sudo cp xbmcVideoLibraryScan /usr/local/lib/xbmc/

Next we create a service and add it to the startup.

cd /etc/init.d

sudo wget https://cyanlabs.net/uploads/xbm

sudo nano xbmc

Replace the username with your username then press CTRL + X to save.

sudo chmod 744 xbmc

sudo update-rc.d xbmc defaults

Sorted, Now we can start the server and sort the remaining things out.

sudo service xbmc start

Wait around 10 seconds then stop the server.

sudo service xbmc stop

Now we need to enable the web server, feel free to use a different port if you prefer and change the password to whatever you wish (nano ~/.xbmc/userdata/guisettings.xml)

cd ~/.xbmc/userdata/

sudo rm -rf ~/.xbmc/userdata/guisettings.xml

sudo wget https://cyanlabs.net/uploads/guisettings.xml

Now we set up the advancedsettings.xml file, used to configure mysql DB settings etc. XBMC Wiki for more information

sudo nano ~/.xbmc/userdata/advancedsettings.xml

Now we can just start the server again and it will connect to the existing DB (This guide assumes you have the DB all set up using a non-headless XBMC install and are just adding this headless XBMC to it).

sudo service xbmc-server start

That’s it all done, You can check the log by entering the following command.

sudo tail -f ~/.xbmc/temp/xbmc.log

Credits

• XBMC Team ofcourse
• XBMC Forum Member sparklyballs
• XBMC Forum Member brownbear1984
• XBMC Forum Member marshcroft
• XBMC Forum Member KRavEN
• XBMC Forum Member docmeth02
• XBMC Forum Member gutz-pilz
• All others who have supported this project.
• Original Thread where most information came from can be found here – http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=132919