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[LINUX] Apple TV Crystalbuntu (Ubuntu Linux and Crystal HD) Disk Image for Apple TV - Printable Version

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- feikenberg - 2010-06-06

Sam.Nazarko Wrote:When I get time I may make a minimal install and tweak it nice (with new XBMC)

I will be waiting patiently ... Wink


- xbmc old school - 2010-06-06

Killer work Sam!

Is anyone working on making an img with a minimal and/or custom ubuntu?


- pin87a - 2010-06-06

I've been through a bunch of media streamers over the past few years and as far as I can tell there is no 'perfect' device.
The Sigma chipset boxes I owned (WDTV, Popcorn Hour) suffered from an annoying color decoding bug (hd files are decoded with Rec 601 instead of 709 which results in everything having a red tint to it), Zotac Ion mini-itx box running linux/xbmc can't output the 16-235 rgb colorspace required by my TV over HDMI (massively crushed blacks -- xbmc has a fix for video playback, but the UI never looks right -- Nvidia can fix this with their driver, but not counting on that happening soon), etc... The forums for just about all of the media streaming options are filled with bug reports, issues, and promises of firmware fixes that may or may not ever come.

For my needs that Apple TV + Crystal HD + XBMC (linux or atv os) is as close to perfect as I've found. Stuttering rarely happens with sensibly encoded files and when it does stopping and starting playback fixes it. I can live with that. Especially since the Crystal HD stuff is in it's infancy and I'm sure that things will only get better from here.


- JDizzy - 2010-06-06

Sam.Nazarko Wrote:When I get time I may make a minimal install and tweak it nice (with new XBMC)

It's nice now!
With this first release, it is surprising how well it works without much tweaking on the user's part. (and well worth getting a larger capacity USB stick)..... Again, great job.


- Doood - 2010-06-07

Nice work! Managed to get most everything functional without too much fuss.

One question, I don't have the option for 1080p, just 720 max. Is there a switch/option to enable that? I have HDMI connected, and hooked to a 1080p capable receiver.

Thanks!


- bolle - 2010-06-07

Sam.Nazarko Wrote:When I get time I may make a minimal install and tweak it nice (with new XBMC)

Thanks! Appreciate all the hard work by Davilla and you in this project!


- brock_gonad - 2010-06-07

Sam.Nazarko Wrote:I recommend you use the following workflow for a reliable restoration and backup.

1. Boot atv bootloader - fire up telnetd
2. Telnet in and backup hdd see atv bootloader page for more info. Transfer disk image to your computer.
3. wget the Linux disk image onto USB or save it on payloads partition
4. Run dd ( same command as mentioned in first post but of=/dev/sda
5. Edit com.apple.boot.plist changing kernel argument reference to /dev/sda2 from /dev/sdb2
6. Fire up Linux

I'm trying to get this working on the internal hard drive, and I have a couple of questions.

I'm able to create the USB stick and boot from the USB. XBMC runs as expected. Now I want to set it up permanently.

Logged in via Telnet and copied USB image over to internal hard drive via this;

Code:
sudo dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sda bs=4096

Please correct me if wrong, but it appears to have worked correctly.

If I understand, next step is to edit com.apple.boot.plist so it boots from hard drive instead of USB. I can't find this file. Do we have to create it from scratch and drop it onto the hard drive ourselves? Where?

Does anyone have a good tutorial to widen out the partitioning on the 40GB once you have copied the Linux image directly over (thus making the hard drive look like a 4GB)?

Once I have this nailed, I'll be happy to consolidate a tutorial for noobs (like me).

Thanks!


- xbmc old school - 2010-06-07

@ brock_gonad

Thanks man, us noobs are keen but some stuff goes over our heads.

The tutorial i posted up for the first bootable usb and crystal instructions was form gonads.

XBMC OS


- JDizzy - 2010-06-07

brock_gonad Wrote:Once I have this nailed, I'll be happy to consolidate a tutorial for noobs (like me).

Thanks!
Even the instructions by Sam quoted in your post are fairly cryptic to me....

I am pretty much sold on running Linux on my ATV and have been thinking about how things will get updated with new releases, ie, what will get written over, etc. For this reason, it might be better to install to HD??!


- tuckbodi - 2010-06-07

Sam.Nazarko Wrote:@tuckbodi: Add sources thru sources.xml, the UI can lock up browsing network sources on r28256 anyway, so it's best to do it the CLI way with nano

So it turned out to be the Snow Leopard SMB bug rearing its head once again. I was having this same issue on the ATV OS XBMC where/when it just started working again a few months ago (it seems to be an smb timeout issue). I fired up an old computer with 10.5 Leopard on it and I can connect no problem, but not to my 10.6 SL box. I'll be curious to see how a later XBMC build will work and will have to try that out.

My impressions so far:
- 1080/720 movies working very well
- I have Dolby Digital surround sound (never had it on the ATV OS version)
- 1080p screensize
- very responsive...nice

Thank you Sam, Davilla and the rest of the XBMC team!


- defiler - 2010-06-07

A quick update on the heat issue. Forcing the processor T-state doesn't seem to have made any difference. I've set the screensaver to black (dim when playing movies), set the video to be switched off altogether after 20 mins, and poked the laptop_mode.conf file to spin down the hard disc after 10 mins. Sam's installation already autothrottles the CPU down to 600MHz when idle.

The net result is that it's still warm to the touch, but seems no warmer than sitting at "standby" on Frontrow. Not too horrible then. I think the biggest difference there was actually the "black" screensaver.

If anyone has further adjustments that have yielded positive results I'd still like to hear about them!


- Zeppo - 2010-06-07

Probably a silly (much answered) question but Im gonna go ahead anyway. Can I use this on a USB stick in a USB-hub so I can also use an external HDD?


- crashnburn - 2010-06-07

We should torrent this.. Great stuff Smile


- Riderzzz - 2010-06-07

@ brock_gonad

In the same boat. i see the main steps but i dont wanna brick my atv. And i know i wanna go further with the linux os. so why need a usb Smile


ps. from wich xml is linux pulling the remote if i use the ATV original remote?


- pkolkkal - 2010-06-07

reddeath Wrote:Sometime it happens that XBMC crashes and an Ubuntu login screen is presented. Is there a way to start XBMC from ssh without rebooting the whole system?

You need a mouse and a USB keyboard connected to the ATV using a USB hub. This way you can login using username xbmc and password xbmc. You want to first click Options in the lower left corner and choose Gnome desktop as a temporary login option. This way you will actually see the Ubuntu desktop after logging in.

Enjoy some pretty responsive web browsing on your big screen TV for a moment before going on Cool

Now change Login options so that "Timed login" is activated, you must specify a value in seconds, put a small value (I have 5 seconds) there which quickly logs you in automatically.

Now whenever XBMC crashes and you are taken to the login screen, you will be automatically logged in as xbmc user, which consequently starts XBMC in foreground. So no reboot or usb keyboard needed to get XBMC back up and running.

Quote:Probably a silly (much answered) question but Im gonna go ahead anyway. Can I use this on a USB stick in a USB-hub so I can also use an external HDD?

Yeap. I needed to power my usb hub with an adapter, since the port on the ATV cannot give enough power for both the HDD and bootloader usb stick. I guess this depends on hub and HDD model.