Description:
Race condition with XBMC with files on external Samba server when using dhcpcd.service to configure network causes XBMC to report files as unavailable.

Additional info:
* xbmc 13.1-2
* Minimal Arch install with XBMC as media center pc
* XBMC started at boot time via supplied systemd service
* Shuttle XS35GT with SSD system disk
* Network configuration via dhcpcd.service
* Media files on external server, connected via wired network and accessed via Samba protocol (configured from within XBMC via the GUI)


Problem description:

The system partition is a SSD, therefore the boot process is very fast. When I cold start the system, XBMC seems to try to access the network to scan for new media before dhcpcd has finished configuring the network. Once XBMC has failed to scan the files in its first attempt after booting, it refuses to access any files on the external shares and reports them as unavailable, even if the network has been set up in the meantime.

On a machine with slow system disks and / or more service startups at boot, this bug probably does not occur.

The quick workaround is to restart the xbmc service (not the machine!), which always resolves the problem.

The slightly more complex work around is to assign a static ip address to the network interface, as this accelerates network configuration and prevents the race condition.

A correct solution would involve changing the xbmc service definition to allow start-up only strictly after the network configuration in the boot process has finished. Unfortunately I am not that much into systemd to provide a patch.

Many thanks for the great work in bringing us Arch and XBMC!

-- raylan4