FAQ
Q: After 8 seconds, the display moves away from the PiBUS/Kodi, how do I stop that?A: This is a normal BMW radio behaviour. Press the "display" button and then it will stick:
Q: My Pi/Kodi video signal is a bit fuzzy, can it be improved?
A: Make sure you've installed and activated a low-res skin suitable for car use. The BMW monitor has a reslution of only 400x234, so a large font will be needed. Replacing the 3-pin video cable with a shielded composite video cable might improve the signal slightly, but note that it's only NTSC and never going to rival HDMI or even RGB. You may also enter the Television screen and adjust your Brightness and Contrast.
Q: How do I modify the PiBUS command line parameters?
A: Login to your Pi to get a command prompt. If you don't know how to do that, search the web for using PuTTY with a Pi.
Then start the nano text editor:
nano /storage/.config/autostart.sh
Change which ever flags you want and press CTRL-x to exit.
Q: Do I have to use OpenELEC, can I use Raspbian or OSMC instead?
A: Yes, other Pi operating systems should work, but setup might be more involved and no instructions are provided. The install script has provision for OSMC, so that might work easily, but it is not as well tested as OpenELEC.
Q: I have an X3 or Z4 and the cables looks different, can I still install it?
A: Yes it's compatible, but instructions or photos are not available yet.
Q: After around 5 minutes, the Pi shuts down or crashes, what is wrong?
A: This is a normal feature of the pibus software. If there are no messages from the car for 300 seconds, it will shutdown to save battery power. Once you install the unit in the car, this won't be a problem. You can temporarily disable this by stopping the pibus software with the command:
killall pibus
Q: Can I use Bluetooth with a Raspberry Pi 3?
A: The Pi3 doesn't have enough serial ports to use the Bluebooth and IBUS functions at the same time. This means you need to buy a USB dongle to use bluetooth. However, the on-board WiFi will work fine with a PiBUS board.
Contact
Contact by EMail: pete@pibus.infoI cannot answer general questions about Kodi/XBMC, Raspberry Pi, Linux etc.
There's also an on-going discussion on the E46Fanatics forum: http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=940693&goto=newpost