Mac OS X running on Apple TV

This kicks ass… now I just need to know if the MPEG2/4 hardware decoder (I assume this has one) is still functional.

I would love to run a mythfrontend on one of these, but only if it can handle playback of high def content.

Also, since it is a full OSX os, I assume it supports external DVD drives too?

an aTV on every TV.

nHOLY CRAP!! I knew this would happen but not so soon!!

Wow… this really opens the doors of what the appleTV can do…

I bet we will see Linux and *shudder* windows running on this box very soon…

Also, is the RAM solded onto the board? If is then there isnt much we can do to increase the memory but if it isnt then we can increase it alot depending on how many pins it is… say to 4GB with one chip…. however i will need a lot more spefics on the specs of the RAM to do it properly…

Could some one
please snap a screen of the RAM specs (System Profiler) so i can see what i can do.

Wow. I can just see someone putting this into their car for use as an auto-syncing jukebox (gotta love that 802.11n). The Mac TV has the perfect form factor. Main problems I see are getting the video converted into the proper form and getting a power source set up…

pretty sure he use the Grab function in preview to do the screenshot…could be fake but can’t say it is for sure just on that point.

This is a fairly useless hack.
It turns AppleTV into a crippled Mac Mini. Big Deal.
It has only one USB port, no firewire, a slow CPU, limited RAM.

That’s it. I’m getting an Apple TV.

@Santon

Dumbass,

Just because there is a picture1 on the desktop doesn’t mean that it’s the same screenshot as has been taken, it could be one not used on this site.

Not to mention they give you the guide on how to do it – if it was fake they wouldn’t show you how to make your appletv boot OSX!

Why?

Don’t forget about us, the PPC users. Waiting eagerly for the cure.

Happy april fools day!

http://www.appletvhacks.net/images/mac_os_x_on_apple_tv2.jpg

Wow, congratulations! I’m now more excited to purchase an Apple TV. I hope Apple does not step in to block these hacks as it is the reason why I would purchase this thing. Congrats again!

This is interesting just to satisfy your curiosity.
In all practicality what is the point of all this? How does it help people getting the most out of your mac?

if this works then has anyone tried to install bootcamp and see what happens?

Wow. I think that the iTv has a better chance with some people if they learn of an easy way to put X on it. I think people here are right though…linux would be a better choice on here…ubuntu or xubuntu. Oh, and I’m sure if adapters and such get made this will make it to the cars .

The freaky thing about this is the fact that there are 0 processors.

i think its a fake. anyone could have made that video and just have a mac conected to the screen, and the picture has preview running as the foregrounda app. its a faked image of system profiler to make it like its running on an aTV

Wow this is great, but heres what im thinking : get a cluster of them and put them as Xgrid nodes for processing, or load OS X server to them, connect a massive external hard disk or use it as a NAS, webserver or something else, or even look at what the asterix guys are doing

When I try to bless:
bless –folder=/Volumes/MacOSX/System/Library/CoreServices –file=/Volumes/MacOSX/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi –setBoot

…I only get “Authorization required”
What am I doing wrong???

joli poisson d’avril, en meme temps on vois pas trop l’interet de la bidouille vu la puissance limité de la machine.

Sorry for my english …

Can do all this with a PPC Mac? I only have a ibook G4 PPC

If this is real i´ll buy one, hope not a joke.

Thanks

Mod it into a car!

april fools days joke maybe?

Hi guys,
Since the video output goes through the HDMI port, is it possible to use the AppleTV running OSX as in-car media center? Or do you think it is possible to use the USB port with a USB hub etc?

Thanks

HDMI to the dell monitor… looks like a 2405… which doesn’t have hdmi inputs… hmmm

banana, haven’t you ever heard of a DVI – HDMI cable?

Congrats – you successfully made a very WEAK and CRIPPLED Mac Mini out of an AppleTV. Not sure why this is a big deal…

Do you think we might be able to upgrade the cpu or ram to utilize this? You guys should have a prize for who ever could do this first.

THE ATV MOD TO END ALL MODS!!!!
ATV + Internal USB Hub + Bluetooth + Wreless N + WiiMote + MythTV = AWESOMENESS
Cant wait till someone puts a little screen on this and makes it a tablet!!! It would be eaiser to make because it is smaller!!

Mac os 10.4 runs fine on 256 mb ram. I have a 5 years old g4 that it works on so this should be faster.

The EyeTV 250 uses hardware based encoding, delivering compressed video directly into your AppleTV:

EyeTV 250’s built-in hardware encoder compresses audio and video signals to MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 formats, freeing up your computer’s processor for other activities. This also means that you can record high quality video even with a less powerful Mac. MPEG-2 is a premium-quality video compression standard, which is the basis for DVD and digital television.

The EyeTV 250 means I can now buy an AppleTV,
mod it with real OS X, and use it to record TV.

Hey thats great stuff.
Digged for great post.

This is quite cool but I’m afraid the limited capacity of the TV won’t let you do much stuff on it. Still a cool hack if real. Congrats!

For me, the real nice hack for the TV would be to enable the airport card in it so we can use it as an airport base station while in the TV OS. That way, we can save the money on the additional airport base station. I’m sure this little device has everything it needs to act as a wireless router, it is just that Apple wants us to buy the base station too…

May be someone using Mac OS X on it can check if it can be used to create a wireless network, this will confirm my speculations…

In any case, love the site, thanks!

Now if only the memory could be upgraded!
Like most people I have plenty of spare parts laying around (bigger HDD, wireless keyboard and mouse.) If you could upgrade the memory, install OSX and hook up a wireless keyboard and mouse to it you could have a decent Email, websurf, itunes machine to keep around the house for around half the cost of a mac mini.

isn’t this going to be very very slow? i do however like the idea of a stripped down mac attached to my tv.

g.

http://www.cheapgreencar.com

i have the aTV os on an external HD and it works awesome but i cant seem to get the video out to my tv. I use the mini dvi to svideo but it just shows the appletv logo and my macbook screen shows the main display. When i boot from it i have two users to login from. 1 is Admin and the other says apple tv. When i log in as admin its just normal os x with dock and everything but under display properties its extending my desktop so i change it but its only for user Admin. I have no control of the user options for aTV. If someone knows how i can change the display options for another user without being logged in as that usr please let me know!

Anyone tried install Quicktime Mpeg2 codex from Apple which they sell for $19.99. Wonder if you install it if the Apple TV will outpost 5.1 audio or not.

Surprise! The real news is that the AppleTV on a clean 10.4.9 install on a blank drive rates on XBench at ~56% of the speed of a 2GHz dual processor PowerMacG5!!!!!!

And that’s no April Fools! Check my results!

http://db.xbench.com/merge.xhtml?doc2=220620

IT WILL NOT RUN POWERPC APPS! (Well, it will, but so slowly you’ll wish you hadn’t tried.).. The Rosetta engine to run PPC requires SSE3, but the Intel chip in the AppleTV does not have SSE3 instructions and the SSE3 has to be software emulated as part of this hack..

Intel apps run beautifully! I am typing this on Safari right now on my Apple TV!

Audio isn’t working (at least over the HDMI port, standard audio not tested yet). OpenGL apps don’t show graphics. Everything else seems to work fine. I’m sure those two minor issues will be resolved soon. $300 mac.. who knew? WOOHOO!

and install vista…
;D

This is a totally useless hack…

VERY nicely done, I thought this was an April Fool’s at first, but no! Makes me wonder about buying an Apple TV now.

Now it’s running, can anyone do a test for me? Does Rosetta work? Parallels? VMWare? Linux or Windows running virtual?

And (OK, noob talking here, but I don’t have time to look too hard to find the answer) is the RAM upgradeable? I’m guessing not, but it’d be cool if there was a mod to.

Pete

So is this bogus / April Fools day crap?

I wonder if you can upgrade or tweak the CPU, RAM or video or any other components (hd has been upgraded). Maybe it could also be interfaced with multiple tweaked ATV systems to run as one.

Honestly, ElGato needs to seize this opportunity and work with apple or some other software developers to make the EyeTV Hybrid be able to plug into the usb port, and use a plugin to BackRow to allow you to browse the channels or select shows for recording, then have the recordings available in a folder. Frappliance could handle this easily if it just puts drops the DVR content in the movies folder.
With this working, EyeTV, frappliance, perian, and the A52Codec would make this almost everything desired for a media center in the living room, all running on apple hardware. I think the only other feature needed would be itunes streaming content from the internet radio stations.

I actually thought it would do all this out of the Box, shame on you Apple.
This of course minus the EyeTV, but if it played content from our movies folder, we wouldnt have that problem anyhow would we?

Maybe AppleTV was way to far behind schedule originally, and they “Used us all” to finish up their research. We should all have jobs with Apple now. 8P

Enjoy yours as I have mine! My AppleTV still has not made it out of the computer project room, heh. At this rate I’ll be buying a widescreen TV before it makes it’s way into the living room.

Can the appletv play full 1080i or 1080p video now that it is running OS X, as this would make it a definite purchase for me.

So has anyone got vlc running on it yet? And is there any sound that can be possibly enabled in order to play movies thru VLC

Nice hack!
P|xeL

The instructions aren’t clear: can the OS be installed with an “erase and install”, or does it have to fit into the OSBoot partition?
Can the partition be resized, or will that prevent the system from booting?

Dear poster:

I’m writing to inform you that this article has been translated into Chinese by yours truly and was posted on Yeeyan.com:

http://www.yeeyan.com/articles/view/lawrence/684

You may have known about this via trackback, this is an official notice out of courtesy.

Yeeyan is an ‘open source/collaborative translation’ project dedicated to the free flow of information between different languages and cultures. It’s completely non-profit and we don’t have advertisement of any kind on the website. All translators work voluntarily.

The Chinese-to-English version of Yeeyan is here: en.yeeyan.com

You are given full credit as the author of the original article and a link to it is placed right below the title.

Thanks for your writing, I look forward to reading more of them.

best,
Lawrence

Hmm, seems I spoke too soon.

Though it does start booting OSX, it eventually just hangs with a grey no-entry sign in the middle of the screen.

Any idea what I can try?

HOW DO YOU UPGRADE APPLE-TV RAM?

256 MB is slim for OS X.

Is the AppleTV RAM socketed or hard wired into the circuit board?

A 2GB upgrade will make that 1.0 GHz CPU FLY!!!

Can´t I hack the Apple TV to run Linux instead ?? IT should be a better option for the hardware envolved… Right ??
On the other end ?? De we loose the TV ??
Or can we run both … Linux and TV ??

Is this another case of microsoft’s xbox suddenly being able to run things like the xbox media center, and pretty much running like anything from a media center to a computer for browsing the internet et cetera? (in that case ofcourse information was accidentally released from microsoft it self….) That pretty much helped sell a lot of microsoft’s consoles which would have stayed on shelves for a long time (unlike sony’s consoles). I think apple isnt going to shut these guys down, it wont aprove of them but it will simply benefit from the fact that many people will run out to buy their tv boxes and trying to run os x on it et cetera. It wont do wonders as it comes with 256 MB of ram and a 1 ghz processor from what the guys said.

Everyone here is a winner, apple sells more boxes, gets its products into more and more homes, home users get to play around with a gadget that is not a replacment for a mac, but probably runs mac os on it anyway giving a taste of the operating system for users on a more day-to-day basis. And i guess if it is based on intel’s processors and on the i86 platform it might even run windows or any other operating system if one wanted to do that.

It seems like everyone is a winner here, and apple the biggest. Well done guys!

This is great IF you have an Intel Mac. I don’t. How long till they show up on eBay?

Clean off your desk !!!

Apple TV won’t play HD videos.

I tried to play back HD-Video encoded as Quicktime without success. Neither ATV running Apple TV OS with probably hardware acceleration nor OS X with Quicktime could play back a 1080 video. The Apple TV under OS X with Quicktime is way to slow to playback 1080 HDV. The required performance will be probably twice as high. Eventually HDV can be played back on ATV with hardware decoding support.
The ATV I tested runs at 1080 screen resolution.

– N.

“This AppleTV box runs a Sigma Designs 8623 decoder which allows the decoding of H.264 and VC1 formats. The original AppleTV OS only supports 720p HD videos with maximum bitrate of 5mbps.

Does it possible to still use the Sigma 8623 hardware decoder under the Mac OS X 10 in order to play high resolution and high bitrate video files or only the CPU is doing the decoding when using the OS X 10 ?”

Great!

Has anyone tried bootcamp yet?

I am interested on whether the graphics is supported with hardware acceleration under windows xp (although 256mb is obviously pushing it a little).

Windows is a dog on a full blown computer. Why would you want to put it on this?

@Trevor:

Try PortableOSX to install a ‘light’ version of OS X: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/31970

This is pretty awesome. If I were going to hack the Apple TV i would go all the way and do this. I wonder how well this performs though.

Great work, everybody. I’m enjoing my OS X Enabled AppleTV and posting this comment. I haven’t been able to find anything on the Apple Tv image that will fix up the audio and video, so I look forward to seen what better minds come up with.

Hey,

I have to install Mac OS X on the hdd but on what partition i have to install it ?
on the media partition or could i just format the whole thing and only let the EFI partition intact ?

Thanks.

Mixpower

Has anyone tried using connect360 on the appletv seeming its cheaper than a new mini?

does anyone know whether you can add ram to the second slot
even if the first slot is soldered in?

wow. just get a mac mini for a few hundi more and get a computer you can actually use. 256MB doesn’t let you do much. My MacBook came with 512 and it was just good enough for web surfing and word /excel. I can’t imagine having 1/2 the ram at 256mb…

but pretty cool otherwise. just not a real computer solution.

I’ve tried the EyeTV Diversity under Mac OS X on the AppleTV and it works, kind of. I’m watching it using Chicken on the VNC and the ‘playback’ screen is just a black rectangle (I’m guessing either a missing codec or a CotVNC issue), but scheduled programmes get recorded perfectly. Point a separate copy of the EyeTV software, running on another Mac, at the EyeTV Archive folder on the AppleTV over a fileshare and it works pretty well. You need to relaunch the EyeTV software for the listings to update though.

The biggest bugbear is that the AppleTV doesn’t keep good time. The clock seems to run about half real-time, so although the software will record your programme at the appointed hour, chances are you’ve already missed it. There’s got to be a workaround, but I don’t know what it might be.

BTW, just in case anyone’s wondering, yes, I have two Mac OS licences and two EyeTV licences. Dunno about the legality of running Mac OS X on the AppleTV, but at least Apple and Elgato aren’t out of pocket.

Well, I have finally the 10.4.8 working on the Apple TV. A few things I have realized:
- THe 10.4.8 version is more hardware sensitive, it detects problems with the hard disk that the 10.4.5 doesn´t detect.
- The partition type should de GUID in order to boot in a Mac Intel machine, there are 3 types: one for Powe PC Mac, another for dual booting with Windows XP (Master Boot) and the GUID for Mac Intel. This was my first problem until I realized where to change the partition type: Disk Utility, Partition, OPTIONS.
- Once you have the GUID partition type the Mac Mini let me install the OSX in my USB drive. Second problem, I installed the 10.4.5 then update to 10.4.8 and the system never boot again. I tried a dozen times with the same results.
- I change the hard drive I was using and BINGO the update to 10.4.8 worked perfectly, I boot in the Mini Mac from my USB hard drive and installed all the updates to 10.4.8 from 10.4.5
- Then I installed the cracks, erased the Nvidia files and PRESTO I have the 10.4.8 running in the Apple TV

My problem now, I dont have SOUND!!!

Somebody could help me to get sound in the Apple TV with 10.4.8???

When I do bless:
bless –folder=/Volumes/OSBoot/System/Library/CoreServices –file=/Volumes/OSBoot/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi –setBoot

it says “Authorization required”
Can anyone help me please?? i tried everything i know

hey Kurt..
thanks a lot,, it’s worked…
now i found there is no audio driver and it’s completely impossible to mount and .dmg image… is it a known bug? something wrong from my side??!!!

Well, don´t forget it is a 256 MB RAM machine, you have to check the RAM requirements of the software you are planning to install!!!

There are some programs that need 384 MB of RAM or more in order to run.

There are 3 kinds of partition in Macs. The GUID for Intel based Macs, the one for for PowerPC based Macs, and the one for Windows partition, Master Boot. When you are in the partition window, click on OPTIONS and choose the right one for you.

Mac Intel has to be GUID.

Can I use Network Sharing to make my Mac OS X Apple TV (nano mac?) a wireless router? a NAT router? I’ve found Mac Mini to be much easier to use for a multimedia server, but I’d like to harness AppleTV’s wireless-n (pre-n?) Any succcessful or unsuccessful attempts?

What about sound and accelerated video for the OS X on the Apple TV, any news?????

HI,

I would need your help. I loaded my pictures on apple tv. My ibook hard drive crashed and the only backup for my pictures in in the apple tv iphoto sync. Can anyone tell me how I can copy it back to my I book g4

thanks

MIke Lim

Hi

”
3) Connect the drive to a regular Mac (use a Firewire or USB drive dock)

4) Install OS X (Intel version) to the drive (we suggest a slim install – no printer drivers etc.)
”

How is the actual install done ? Is the drive erased or is osx insalled on the largest patition ?

Regards

For all you people that need sound just buy a cheap usb sound card. Like so… http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829270004 I like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829126101 they will both work.

they worked with IOHDIXController.kext and PCGenRTL8139Ethernet.kext!

Hi guys.
Yesterday I installed Mac OS X on my new Apple TV. It all works great. BUT, there some points, which aren’t great:
-First of all, My HD Tv cut the top of the screen and a little bit of the bottom. So I can’t see the top taskbar, but ich can blind click some buttons… like spotlight, date&time and Apple Icon in the left corner…. HOW CAN I Solve this problem? In Displays, there is only one resolution and I cannot turn into PAL or NSTC…because I think the Apple TV sends NSTC signal, but my TV needs PAL.

-Second one: Youtube Video stucks, the first few seconds are playing and then it stops… The same with MyVideo

- Third: No 3D Graphics. I’ve testet Chess… but I cannot move figures… then I started xBechn, and GL Test Windows was black….

-Very stupid one, There is no turn off…. How do i get Apple TV on and off, without unpluggin the power cord everytime. Even when I didn’t install Mac OS X on it…. HOW DO I turn this off?? Apple should build in a power button

-The last one: There is a permanent blinkng light in the front. That sucks. Is this normal?

My Resumé is, that Apple Tv really cannot be used as a normal Mac. But that was THE REASON to buy one.

Please give me some tips! Imortant ist Youtube and Resolution and a way to turn off. Thanks a lot for help.

The reason why ATV does not run OSX at 100% is on the Pentium M processor, it only supports SSE2 instruction set, and you may need to install the SSE2 hack from the X86 community.

OSX needs both SSE2 and SSE3 instruction sets.

http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/HCL_10.4.6#Processors

Hi guys,

I want to plug a VGA monitor to an ATV, by pluging a HDMI-DVI adapter followed by a DVI-VGA one.

Is it possible to work?

Thanks.

Doesn’t anybody simply have a torrent or disk dmg download of the exact image ready to copy onto the USB thumbdrive?

Better yet, a disk image of the entire OSX image to Software Restore onto the new AppleTV hard drive to boot in Tiger/Leopard???

Please somebody! You could probly even sell access to the dmg!

Then it’s practically 1 step!!

Anybody willing to provide & share?

Hi,
is any Audio on Apple TV with Mac OS X working ? i have installed 10.4.11 and i have no sound.

THX
Maik

maiki,

Are you using the stereo (red/white) or optical audio connection?

I get no sound also, and I cannot see the menubar and half the dock is cut off. How can we enable sound and alter the dimensions of the screen size?

Which partition (OSBoot or Media) should I install the OSX in the ATV? I try to install it into the Media and finished all required steps but it still boot the ATV OS not the OSX. Can anyone help? Many thanks

Black-Screen,

If you are running through HDMI and get the black screen, just pull the cable (HDMI) from your Apple TV and wait for 10 seconds and connect it again, this works fro me anytime. Though the few times it does not work i reboot it with th eordinary AppleTV OSX, and then turn it off and reboot from the external drive.

Any news on getting sound to work?

/Maccer

Hi,

I’ve successfully installed 10.4.11 on my ATV.

But I would like to restore it back to the original OS.
(I don’t want to buy a USB soundcard to make it work) And I find the system quite slow.

Amd, of course, I haven’t made any HDD backup before formating the ATV hdd. I only made the OSBoot disk backup.

All the procedure I’ve found on the net explain how to do it with your backups.
How can I do it without hdd images ?
Or could someone send me a complete HDD backup via FTP ?

I got it working, works pretty good. i’m running 10.4.9.

Same for me not working is sound, and video, couldn’t get frontrow to go, also amp 1.4 didn’t work as well.

The airport is working, i connect wirelessly, but it shows as not configured. …

Also the system profiler doesn’t work. I see it for a second or two, then it quits.

oh yeah, for usb, i’m using a usb hub, i haven’t got anything to work but the keyboard and mouse.

This will be amazing if someone can figure out video, bluetooth.

Viewing web pages look amazing on the plazma, and pages like youtube…don’t work so well, the video works but only for 10 or so seconds then stops, and if you jump to a different part in the movie you see another 10 seconds.

Sooo close to being amazing.

I’m probably going to mount in car, once a few more things are fixed or enabled.

Has anyone got USB audio working on Apple TV by loading full OS X?

I’m somewhat of an audiophile and I’m looking for the simplest way to enable the USB for audio – I have a Benchmark DAC-1/USB and want to use USB audio rather than the supported TOSLINK (there’s a real audible difference.)

Any comments appreciated.

LeBoots-

I feel your pain. I decided to buy a ATV in November to throw OSX on, and only now, after countless hours of research and tweaking, have it 95% working like a real Mac. Luckily, the list of what is not working is llimited to only three items right now:

1. 3D acceleration (QE/CI) when using the HDMI port. This will work, however, when using component. Keep in mind, that even Chess will not run without QE/CI…

2. Status light always is blinking. However, you can “fix” that by opening the case up an cover the LED with tape.

3. VERY (emphasis on very) poor performance when running apps in Rosetta, as the processor lacks SSE3, and this is emulated in the hacked kernel. So limit yourself to Universal Apps only.

Things that will need to be patched/fixed after the OSX.4.11 install:

Audio (fully working, google AppleHDA patcher for info)

Graphics (only if you want 3D acceleration, and are using component. Otherwise, delete all nvidia kexts as instructed)

Ethernet – search for PCGenRTL8139Ethernet.kext

Apple System profiler will crash – Patch located here:
http://forum.osx86scene.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2240

System time has a bad drift due to hacked kernel. If you need (somewhat) accurate system time, you will need to set up a cron script to call the ntp update daemon at desired intervals (I have mine set at 2 minutes)

Disk Images do not load correctly. Need to call this terminal command to fix:
sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/IOHDIXController.kext
I have just created a executable script to run and placed it in my dock to avoid this process. It’s a good workaround.

As you can see, this is not for the time-limited or faint of heart. But with work, it makes a good machine. Words of warning:

Leopard does not work, and probably never will.

There is no power switch. Go buy yourself one of those remote light switches, and use that to power on and off the box.

The ATV runs hotter than you could ever imagine (almost too hot to touch). Give it lots of space and circulating air.

Well, I think that is all for now. Should you have any more questions, let me know.

If I remember correctly:

You will need to register an account at insanelymac.com before you can download.

Install AzaliaAudio.pkg, but don’t reboot when prompted.
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=19590

Unzip AppleHDAPatcher 1.20
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=18636

Drag codec to patcher.
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=10328

Then reboot.

You should now have complete support for ALC885. If not, let me know, as I have several other codec dumps to try.

i have a question … i want to do this, but i was wondering if it would be better to just get a mac mini and then dual boot with appletv. or do u think its best to do it this way? i figure mac mini has a dvd drive and such. that makes me wonder … will appletv pick up the dvd drive if boot the mac mini to the appletv os. any replies will be appreciated.

Matt-

download the update dmg from here. You will bind boot.efi inside.

mesu.apple.com/version.xml

Also, does the Apple Remote function?

Thanks KnowITAll for your tips.

Concerning your audio tutorial, the sound is unfortunately not working 100%. I got sound, but it pops and crackles. It looks like the CPU is too slow but the CPU is 80% idle. I tried mpg123 and it surprisingly just works continuously. VLC and Quicktime work for some seconds, then start crackling. I’m using the standard RCA outputs, Mac OS 10.4.11 and I have all newest updates installed.

Any help is of course appreciated.
Thanks,
Tony

Hi Nate,

Unfortunately, same problems as before, that is no codec is working 100%.

Here my findings:

ATVCodec() same problems
ALC889ADump not working at all
codec not working at all
ALC885 same problems
ALC_885_Codec same problems

Regards,
Tony

I downloaded Apple TV Updater 1.1 (179 mb) and I cannot find the boot.efi file inside. Can someone please tell me how to get it without having to open my ATV… Thanks!

Tony, did the remote work for you? I have a fresh install of 10.4.11 and have the same audio problems you do. In addition, the remote isn’t working. I’m wondering whether I missed a step or something.

gomi no sensei,
Yes, the remote doesn’t work too. Maybe OS X version 10.4.11 makes trouble. Bloody hell, so close to a cheap slim-sized MacMini!
Peter,
I uploaded for you the Boot.efi.
http://w15.easy-share.com/1699786929.html

And I uploaded the System/Library/Extensions folder of the original AppleTV image. Maybe somebody can use it. I experimented with the AudioIPCDriver.kext but no luck so far.
http://www.mediafire.com/?1sg2d3xenng

Hello!

Just installed the OS X on my ATV succesful, but there is a problem, it can´t play audio, it doesn´t recognize the hardware.

Can somebody help me? Thanks

I already posted the solution to the DMG problem…

Chris, does sound work for you in 10.4.11? If so, did you have to do anything special to make it work?

Any suggestions on how to do a minimal system load on startup? Lack of memory is killing me! I really just use the box to run dashboard widgets, but I have to restart frequently because of memory (probably some poorly written widgets with memory leaks). If I could turn off unused OS X features, it would help, but I’m not an OS X expert. Any suggestions would be helpful.

What we really need is to resurrect that old RAM DOUBLER utility. That would help overcome the RAM limitations of AppleTV!

for improving performance try Lingon 1.21 and Onyx

Lingon can enable/disable service that run on your Mac

http://lingon.sourceforge.net/

Onyx can change certain settings for finder, dashboard, dock and run various clean up scripts

http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs2/english/download.html

Is it possible to (an absolute newbie…was contemplating on getting an Imac Mini …thankfully i stumbled onto this site)

1. Upgrade the HDD of AppleTV to Say 500 Gigs Server grade
2. Then hack AppleTV and Install Boot Camp OSX ,
3. Dual boot into OSX & XP
4.Watch movies form the pre installed AppleTV interface
(which i presume is Front Row ……Frankensteining it into a Triple boot Beast)
5.Connect it directly to Time Capsule bypassing the need for any other Itunes Library and/or slap a Wireless Airport to it and connect a DSL Modem(eliminating the need of Time capsule for WIFI Internet access)

Or Just SimpliFLY my life & buy a Mac Mini And do all of the above to it

(am I asking for too much!!!!)

>>>>I will take my chances for God stopped keeping score>>>>>>>

KnowITAll Can you send me the other audio codecs, so I can make an attempt to get this audio working on my Apple TV? I tried exactly what you said with the AzaliaAudio package and then using that one codec you posted with it with the AppleHDAPatcher, and it didn’t work. I get no audio what-so-ever, but before I used the codec patch, I had no audio in/out in the System Preferences, now I actually have them listed. But still I’m getting no sound.

Currently I’m trying to get sound using a HDMI cable into the Apple TV.

Should I be use RCA audio ports ?

I’m a average newbie.
I must admit that I consider the here presented work as simply fantastic. Second life for a nice hardware project from apple too much limited by software restrictions (marketing convention no doubt)
As a joke, I would ask this question:
Is it possible to install Mac os X or whatever os directly in the remote control so that there would be no need for power cable plugg in and so on?
Hey stop it here this was a joke.
Hope you appreciate and thanks again for the effort done that make me eager to benefit from by buying an apple TV with the remote of course.

I had the same problem, the solution for me was:

11) Delete all the Nvidia kexts (all beginning with NVD, there should be 5) from the target drive (in /System/Library/Extensions).

and also all kexts beginning with “Ge”, remember to clear the kext caches (rm Extensions.* inside Library). If you have enabled remote access (SSH) then you can ssh to your ATV even with the black screen, and remove the files.

I am running OSX on an external USB drive, my only problem is that the plasma TV is not displaying the entire image (overscan), I think is more a lack of features on the TV than the OSX install, and no sound. Tried the Azalia but nothing. I need to know exactly which codec dump to be used with the HDA patcher, anybody?

check this:

http://www.hackint0sh.org/forum/showthread.php?t=634

Wonderfull
it works, i’m so happy with my hacked atv Thanks a lot

I have a problem does not work the network card … the wireless works perfectly but the ethernet no … help

OK, I got audio to work following KnowITALL’s guide. The instructions are however not very precise:

- Audio only works out of the analog output, so if you are using the HDMI for video you will need external speakers. If you are using the component video than you can use the TV’s speaker.

- In System Settings – Audio, select “Internal Speakers” (built-in speaker)

It took me a while, but it’s working now, thank you KnowITALL for the codec and instructions.

@ KnowItAll

i have one problem now:
i’ve downloaded the AppleHDA patcher (v1.16) but when i start it, i see this text:
“Please drag and drop your linux codec dump into the AppleHDA Patcher icon”

where can i get the linux codec??

thanks

Hello fellas I am new at this computer hacking business and I am having a little trouble with the whole thing so if anyone can give me a play by play on what the hell to do it would be dearly appreciated! thanks

Any chance a bluetooth card would work with this hack too? I would love to have a wireless keyboard and mouse with this.

Hello from Germany!

I’ve installed Mac OS X 10.4.8 on the 40GB HDD, copied the kernel to root and the boot.efi.
The ATV boots perfect, but the LED is always blinking yellow.

Is this normal?

Furthermore there is 1cm missing on the top and 1cm on the bottom. How can I see the whole picture?

Thx a lot

to sort out those rather small missing bars of display above and below (which some ladies still say size matters) try and use an auto detect setting on your screen (similar to the auto tune wizards on lcd monitors… work’d fine for me if one doesnt exist, try the alternative of just-fit settings (adjust through 4:3 – 16:9 – just fit and so on (like on dVd player display options for example to understand). hope it helps

Tried doing this, but everything I do yields the same result where it pops up “Before you begin… There is no keyboard connected to your computer. Please connect your keyboard” and no matter what I plug into the usb port it wont find it. One keyboard the lights flashed very fast on then back off, and no response. Any ideas? Im thinking its a usb driver issue

MichaelStanford-

I don’t know if my hacked ATV with 10.4.11 runs the fan either, but I have never had a problem with overheating.

Why don’t you try completely removing the rubber cover, remove the excess glue, and attach some rubber feet to raise it up off the floor. That should help…

After OSX installation, would this work with eyeTV?

Hi I was wondering how fast does the appleTV boot up after OSx install? Does it have a working “standby” mode? How does it cope with h.264 videos in HD?

I need help i get the kernel panic again, and i did every step using 10.4.8 on apple tv 1.1.

I need some help or direction. Please

Hi, I need help on how to install Mac OS X on USB External Drive that I have, I am having trouble with it. Thanks guys!

online roulette

@ Paul

look here:

http://www.hackint0sh.org/forum/showthread.php?t=741

i did this hack and running OSX but its buggy and can’t get sound working…im really sad now.

Hi.
I’m looking for a cheap (but pretty cool) mac, and i found ATV.
If i install osx on atv: can it show 1920×1080, does hdmi work and, does toslink work?
I want to use it for internet, listening music, watch movies (also mkv 720p&1080p) and sync my ipod?
does everything work?
please mail me: buzinezz@gmx.de
thanks

ps: sorry for my bad english ;(

A very interesting website. I plan to access it again when I get home and have more time. There is much I need to look into here.

So can this be modded into an media center that will support full screen flash? I’m guessing no because there’s no hardware support for flash, only h.264, which means Hulu is out of the question.
Thoughts?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm2jDMDyLrE

NEED HELP!!! I have AppleTV with MacOSX installed. How turn it back to normal ATV?

Hi,

i installed os x but after first successful boot i do only get a failure sign and no boot.
has anybody solved the problem? it is well known and i read about that some guys solved the problem…

Very cool guys! I just got an Apple TV today, does anyone know if OS X runs smoothly?

wow, this is really cool… I found this after trying to research how to get a MacMini to do full HDMI (ie, video & audio) and seeing that it would be totally whack. great job putting this together! i will now get an apple tv appliance for my tv and leave the mini on my desk

If anyone has a backup img of there AppleTV hard drive and could send it to me or upload it to the internet it would be greatly appreciated. If anyone could my email is wiredatros@gmail.com. Thanks.

Ye, that's really helps. My whole purpose of buying ATV was to use it's digital and analog outs, that i can connect it to my preamp or DAC and get somewhat dissent sound out of I-tunes radio. My reason for trying this hack was to have an independent media player without need to have my Mac Book pro powered all the time. Obviously after this hack nothing is working. Totally useless waste of time and money.

This is great. has any testing been done on putting Leopard or Snow Leopard on the APple TV?

very nice thanks http://www.yetmis.net

I have a Slingbox and want to watch it on my TV overseas. Should I get a Slingcatcher or an Apple TV? I also have a Macbook Pro here in the Philippines. Thanks.

This is cool and all, but I just have one question… WHAT IS THE POINT?! A mac mini starts out at $600 dollars and guess what, IT IS ACTUALLY A FULL FUNCTIONING MAC. I know I know, that is mind boggling and all, but think about it. You by an apple tv which was only meant for 1 thing, streaming/syncing media, hack it, and then want to know how you can spend more time and money attempting to make it into something resembing a pathetic Mac, and that is being generous. Instead of spending $250+ on an appletv, voiding the warranty by doing all this hacking, and still coming out with a device that is lacking in many areas, just buy a Mac Mini and run front row when you want to watch movies, or listen to music. You get a Mac and Apple tv in one, isn’t that what your all trying to create? Plus you don’t have to worry about how your going to upgrade the RAM, if the processor is fast enough to run whatever program, unsupported video or audio codecs and formats. Maybe its me, but it just seems like a whole bunch of unecessary time and frustration when there is already something on the market that does everything you all want it to out of the box.

Anyone try the install from a computer using Snow Leopard. Meaning…I’ve connected my upgraded external HD to my Macbook Pro and inserted my Tiger 10.4.3 install DVD but Snow Leopard is preventing me from launching the installer script. I can’t even choose a destination.

Wow. I think that the iTv has a better chance with some people if they learn of an easy way to put X on it. I think people here are right though…linux would be a better choice on here…ubuntu or xubuntu. Oh, and I'm sure if adapters and such get made this will make it to the cars .

Thank you for sharing this very useful tip.

Apple tv is 99$

does this hack work with the new Aplletv?

What about plex can the atv run that

when running bless it states “needs authorization” in terminal. I’m trying to get OS 10.6 on here and then when I load the drive through the Apple TV it says that it needs to be rebooted.

maybe apple should just drop the price of the mac mini. Till then shut up.

I’m sure by now, nobody is reading this, but I just wanted to say. back in 2007 or 08 when the apple tv came out, I couldn’t afford a computer, never mind a mac. So I Learned that this was possible (the way I did it was easier then this shows, and did not involve opening the thing up) So I bought one and loaded it up with Leopard that had recently come out at the time. I used it as my main computer for about a year. (it played Halo: CE Perfectly lol ) since then I have done better and now have a brand new iMac, But what I’m saying is that it is good for someone who cannot afford much and is very functional for the price considering that a used mac for the same price at the time would not have even been intel based.

You played Halo: CE on an Apple TV “perfectly”?  What version of OSX were you running? GIVE ME DETAILS MAN!!!

Most likely not. Apple TV 2 does not run on Intel and does not run Mac OS X, it runs iOS.

some one can tel me what is the step:
 10) RUN BLESS:
bless –folder=/Volumes/OSBoot/System/Library/CoreServices –file=/Volumes/OSBoot/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi –setBoot
WHAT THIS MEAN?
AND HOW TO REMOVE OR REPLACE mach_kernel ? I GET A MESSAGE, THAT CANNOT REPLACE BECAUSE FILE IS INVISIBLE.
PLEASE HELP ME IF SOMEONE KNOW. pamazgom@gmail.com

Has anyone gotten this to work. I have an old appleTV in a friends closet and I would like tot turn it into a simple web browsing hulu/netflix OS X machine.

any having sound issues. machine works great but no sound. any help would be appreciated.

*cough* install xbmc, make it launch on startup and copy media to a usb, plug that usb in and make it a source on xbmc *cough*

Wow, that was a long cough. I need to get my throat seen to.

Nope, it’s only for the aTV1, needs an internal hard disk (and an Intel-like processor)

is the boot efi step necessary? it confuses me… will i have it if I don’t need to backup my drive? can I just not?

Does Garage Band and a Midi Keyboard connected to the USB port work please?

yeah, i would like to know, if there is any simple way, or if someone try it, i would like to know how it was his xp.
Thanks