3 ways to access the terminal on your XBMC Live box

There are a bunch of cool things that you can do with your XBMC Live install like set up games or install a browser but to do this you're going to need to get your hands dirty with a little command line work.  Don't worry though it's super easy so here are three ways you can access the terminal on your XBMC Live box.

1 - SSH
This is my preferred method as it can be done remotely and I can access XBMC Live on my laptop from the comfort of the couch.  Obviously your XBMC box will need to be connected to your network for this to work, you will also need the IP address of you XBMC box.  If you don't already know the IP address of you XBMC box you can find it under Settings->System Info->Summary

If you are in Linux or OSX open a Terminal and type:

ssh <xbmc live user>@<xbmc IP address>

Enter you password when prompted and that's it you're in.

*NOTE: if you did not do a HDD install of XBMC Live and are running it off a memory stick use the default XBMC Live credentials.
Username: xbmc
Password: xbmc

2 - Terminal
This is probably the easiest one to access.  Simply select "Exit" from the shutdown menu and you will drop into a Linux terminal.  Enter your XBMC Live username and password to login.

3 - Fluxbox
If you prefer a GUI you can also access Terminal emulators through Fluxbox which comes with the default install of XBMC Live.  To do this follow the steps outlined above(section 2) to access the terminal and after logging in type:

startx

and hit enter this will bring up the Fluxbox desktop.

Right click anywhere on the Fluxbox desktop to bring up the main menu the select:

Applications->Terminal Emulators->XTerm

If you found this helpful you might also like my guide to accessing files on XBMC Live.