boske

With this stick you can modify your Apple TV without opening the case and removing the hard disk. It contains files from OS X 10.4.8, and while I would prefer to see a completely free and Darwin based stick, this is what is currently available.

This stick is created using the guide on the AwkwardTV wiki (04/16/2007 version): [url deleted as its not public domain.. yet]- all credits go to the authors there (Mactijn, Dobedobedoh, Hblaschka, Bjdraw, Aholtzma, Mikew, Skoops and Jason). I just cobbled it together.

This stick will automatically install and activate the Mac OS X ssh server on your device and also install the Perian Quicktime component (the latter is pretty useless until you install the Files Plugin for Apple TV). After you activated ssh, you can simply copy files to your Apple TV and modify it using tools like WinSCP or PuTTY.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonohay...7600089189829/

bigRog

I posted a video of the loader here:
http://www.appletvbbs.com/general-discussion/105-awkwardtv-loader.html#post251

evox

Google truly is the greatest search engine...

Get your patchstick, no work required:
http://www.google.com/search?q=apple+tv+patchstick

mats@mac

Any one know when we can expect something public?

I have downloaded patchstick.img but havent been able to get it to work. Is it fake? Anyone know?

jpf55

Yes, the patchstick does work although the a52codec is not installed, I had to do that manualy on my non-Intel mac.

mats@mac

I have downloaded the patchstick.img file and i have an USB Thumbdrive called 'No Name'

What the should i do to get it over to the thumbdrive?

1. $ Mount
2. /dev/disk1s1 on /Volumes/UNTITLED (local, nodev, nosuid) ???????

Some one, Help!

jpf55

in my case, the usb device was disk5 and once mounted, the patchstick image was disk6. I'm not very good with Terminal and I didn't write down what actually worked but I think it was something like this:
cp /Volumes/disk6 /Volumes/disk5
Also you have to install both ATVfiles and a52codec.
In my case, I was able using fugu to install them at the root level and copy them to the correct folders but a copy of both was left at the root folder... for some reason I can write there but not delete???

mats@mac

Hey nice to hear some made it.

Your level of experience is a bit different from mine and most user´s. How about a step by step guide for us.

mats@mac

OK this is how far i have gotten:

1. Unmount the USB Thumbdrive
hdiutil unmount /dev/disk1s1

2. Now i am supposed to get the Patchstick over to the Thumbdrive.
cp /Volumes/disk3s2 /Volumes/disk1s1

This is where i get an error:
cp: /Volumes/disk3s2: No such file or directory

But the patchstick.img is opend and is named /dev/disk3s2 and the Thumbdrive is called disk1s1

I dont understand why i cant get the files over to the Thumdrive?

jpf55

I don't know why buy I believe it is because you are using the 's2' part in your command. Try cp /Volumes/disk3 /Volumes/disk1. You may find some explanation and help here:
http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/Patchstick/Testing

LiquidIce_ATV

I made a patch stick tonight and it worked once, but now when i boot it, it can not mount the OSBoot partition. The error I get is: 'volume on disk0s3 is read-only and journal is dirty. Any ideas?

__________________
-LiquidIce

LiquidIce's Apple TV Hacks
http://appletvhacks.blogspot.com

evox

Liquid,

Try doing an fsck then rebooting with the patchstick again, I think that should clean the journal and allow you to mount read/write.

jpf55

Liquid,
NOTES from(http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/Patchstick/Testing

* The installer gives a lot of "bootstrap_look_up() failed (ipc/send) invalid destination port" errors. Ignoring them is safe. This

is something launchd/mach_init specific which we cannot implement in a bash script.

* Sometimes the mounts go wrong. This means the journal on the filesystem it is trying to mount is dirty. Just reboot to the regular ATV OS, and retry.

* after booting to safe mode once, you don't need to do the menu & - trick again. Just plug in the USB drive, reboot by unplugging/replugging the power. Works fine here. - Mactijn 11:36, 14 April 2007 (CEST)

simonok

jpf55,evox

I have the same problem as liquid, says read only and dirty on my usb stick, trying what you said makes no difference.

Any more ideas? why does it matter if its read only?

Please help I'm nearly there.

Simon

simonok

I downloaded the image again, and did

sudo mount -uw /
sudo fsck_hfs -f /dev/disk0s3
sudo shutdown -r now

It then worked, I'm so happy I now have my 1tb drive installed, adding all my music to it now.

Thanks for your help I knew I'd do it eventually.

cheers
Simon

Ford

I'm stuck at the following point and wonder if anyone knows how to get past it.

With the patchstick written on the USB thumbstick, I put it in the Apple TV and press MENU and - for about 6 seconds and it reboots and gets to a point where is just says

"Still waiting for root device"

It scrolls this a number of times and then I figure its not going to complete on its own. Am I missing a step? I dunno.

I took the idiot approach since my Apple TV is new and I can exchange it if needed by just downloading the 'configured patchstick' from a site and writing it to the USB stick via 'DD' from Linux.

jpf55

If I remember correctly, just rebooting isn't enough. You have to unplug the AppleTV, then insert the USB and then replug the AppleTV.

simonok

I would suggest that you do it all on a mac, even download the torrent or image from a mac, i downloaded it on my pc and it didnt work properly until I downloaded from a mac and did everything on the mac.

Then do

sudo mount -uw /
sudo fsck_hfs -f /dev/disk0s3
sudo shutdown -r now

It wouldnt work until I did that, as it said it was dirty.


Just a suggestion, someone should sell pre-done usb sticks on ebay, you could make a killing

ss

simonok

Try pulling the power out of the back then insert the stick then push the power back in. If you get no black screen with lots of writing on it, then its not working.

Ford

I've tried it both ways.. Installing the patchstick both before and after power is removed. Unfortunately it just sticks at the same spot.

I get the kernal loading and then it displays

"Still waiting for boot device"

It does this repeatedly maybe a dozen or so identical lines after letting it attempt to boot that way for over an hour.

Unfortunately I have no access to a true MAC.

I've tried contacting Marshman mods to see about farming out my system to be modded, but no replies.

I may have to return the Apple TV and go the direction of a Hackintosh or a Mac Mini