HTPC Guide

nazar

HTPC Guide

With this guide you get Solus based HTPC for your living room. You'll be
able to watch local/LAN videos, stream e.g. from youtube, play native,
proton and console games. This guide requires PC with solus, a gamepad
and a TV. Let's go!

eopkg install kodi

this installs kodi onto your system. Kodi is your HTPC default desktop,
it's perfect for navigating media library on local or network drive as
it has media scraper capability to show detailed info about the media in
your library

Kodi has 10feet user interface and is controlled with a gamepad. Extra
features like youtube streaming or launching steam is provided by
addons. Addons are downloaded from kodi's own online repository, similar
to your Friday Solus updates. Some addons hasn't got official status and
authors publish it with their own repositories. We'll use both official
repo and non-official.

Open kodi and navigate to Addons page then select "open box" icon at the
top. From there select Install from repository > Kodi Add-on repository
> Video add-ons and scroll to the bottom where you'll find Youtube.
Select it and press install. Once done, press Backspace until you get
to Kodi main page and look into Addons: you got youtube streaming
feature with new addon you had installed. Search for some good channels
you like to binge watch. When selected, press C and select add to
favorites, it'll show up in Favorites page for quick and easy streaming
access.

It's been some time that Google requires API key for the addon to
work. Select addon and press C to open its settings page, there's an
input if you have a key and help on how to get one if you haven't got
it

We'll be adding Steam, another kodi addon, but since it's not official
we need to tell kodi about its repository. Download repository
configuration file from @teeedubb the addon author

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/teeedubb/teeedubb-xbmc-repo/master/repository.teeedubb/repository.teeedubb-1.0.2.zip

Now navigate to "open box" like you did before and select install from zip file Kodi'll ask if you want to enable unofficial addons, so
confirm with Yes and Browse to zip file you had just downladed, select
it and press Enter. Navigate back with Backspace untill you see
Install from repository click it and this time select teeedubb's
repo. Install new steam add-on going into Game Add-ons > Standalone
games > Steam. Now you've got Steam app in kodi's Game page and it's
right time to install steam itself!

eopkg install steam

this installs steam onto your system. Its 10feet user interface is
called BigPicture. Start steam from your desktop and on its first launch
it'll ask you to sign in, sign up if you don't have an account with it,
there are plenty of games available in steam Store, but we'll focus on
importing games you already own into Steam Library

I had to disable 'check for program wmctl' option in Steam addon
setting before I was able to launch steam BigPicture. Open addon
settings with C to uncheck

Checked, all good? Close steam and kodi for now as we'll be importing
local games into steam Library. I'll use Gameboy Advance as I own few of
ROM files for this console and few GOG games I've been gifted to import
all of it into steam Library.

eopkg install mgba

this installs emulation software mGBA.

eopkg install steamtinkerlaunch

above install steam cli tool which deserves its own guide.

stl ansg

Now open terminal and run command above for every game you're going to
import into steam Lirary. When asked provide game title and pick its
main file.

If you have game posters locally select image file when adding game.
If you don't but need posters badly there's optional step below

Optional step. First get API key available from account
preferences at https://www.steamgriddb.com. Fortunately you can sign
in with steam account you sign up for at the start of the guide.

stl settings

Copy and paste the string from steamgriddb.com account preferences into
steamgriddb API key input at Global page of stl settings, opened with
cli command above. Then press save button.

stl update grid

cli command above will update steam Library with game posters from
steamgriddb.com. End of optinal step.

Start steam, local games will show up in steam Library now and steam
Store purchases don't need any specific action. Now you should be able
to start local games with the green Play button and control it with game
pad, it'll push you saves into your steam online account too.

Turning HTPC on gets you to Solus regular login window and that requires
a keyboard entry to login every time. My own HTPC set up ends here, as
my HTPC is always on, I didn't have to bother about kiosk mode.

Optional step. Proceed with Setting up auto
login
if and only if HTPC is the only function for your setup and you'd like
to boot it into kiosk mode as this mode will effectively replace your
Budgie desktop with ~~Lutris~~ kodi. end of optional step.

The way we did it gets us 10 feet interface for browsing and playing
media and game libraries and an easy way to switch back and forth with a
gamepad.

Now's the time to have some fun

EDIT:

replaced steam-rom-manager with steamtinkerlaunch
replaced retroarch cores with official emulators
added streaming with youtube