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I would like to use XBMC in Ubuntu without installing it (portable). Under Windows it can be done. I tried many things in Ubuntu, but none of them worked.

I am using Ubuntu 13.10 x64.

THX. XBMCuser

Jacob Vlijm
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XBMCuser
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1 Answers1

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Portable installations of applications isn't something that is usually done under Linux. The main reason being is dependencies. In Windows most programmes ship with every library you need for that programme. As such you will generally have multiple versions of the same library under Windows.

Under Linux the library is installed once through the package manager and that library would be listed as a dependency. Many different applications will then use that same version of the library. To get a portable version you would need to make sure that each host contains all the dependencies required or to have all the dependencies on the USB stick as well. This is, of course, not a very good option.

Instead, what I personally suggest, is that you get a Live USB that has support for persistent storage. This means that any changes you make will be saved. In the Live USB you would then be able to install XBMC and boot up the Live USB on any PC that you require to have XBMC on. For maximum compatibility may I suggest installing a 32-bit version of the operating system instead? This should work on nearly any computer that you require it to then. Ubuntu has support for persistent storage and the USB can be easily made from Ubuntu. The following link should help you get it set up.

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-ubuntu

EDIT: Depending on how the live USB is set up (if a full install to the USB stick was done this is definitely possible) you could chroot into the USB and then use the host system to run the version of XBMC that is on the USB version of a Linux distribution. For more on this you should research how a chroot works.

Brad J
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