My team met earlier today to discuss possible bug-fixes for XBMC. There are dozens, if not hundreds of active tickets, but there are relatively few specific to Linux. Some of the more interesting bug reports that we came across were for different systems, such as Apple TV and iOS. While several users report similar problems, we cannot duplicate these errors without access to similar systems and testing possible fixes would be a nightmare due to this limitation. Many of the Linux-specific bug reports mention the bug and provide a possible solution either in the report or in the comments. It would be possible to implement these fixes and submit a patch, but I am not sure that is what our professor had in mind with this assignment. Still, if the report is listed as open and the fix is in plain sight, perhaps the community is just waiting for someone to make the extra effort.
I noticed that a lot of the reports were self-reported, as in a developer noticed the bug and posted it for other developers to see. In these cases, the reports were quickly assigned to the developers with the skills or the knowledge required to fix the bug. These reports mainly deal with problems that were introduced by the beta release or problems that are extremely important.
However, all hope is not lost. In the midst of assignment-irrelevant reports, I found a possible gem. Ticket #12124 mentions a missing dependency (libltdl-dev) and asks for someone to add this package to the build-dep list and to the README.ubuntu file. This missing dependency could explain why I had trouble installing XBMC on Ubuntu 11.10. This bug might seem a little simple, but there is not much else out there at the moment. A new beta release is on the way soon, so I expect more bug reports here shortly.
Another issue that I noticed is, for lack of a better term, bug responsibility. In some reports, community members traced the bug to a conflict between XBMC and 3rd-party applications or add-ons. If finding a bug in the core functionality of XBMC does not yield any promising results, it is possible to look for bugs in these popular add-ons.
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