[MaestroDD]

With XBMC/BoxeeLauncher 0.8 there comes a brand new advertisement for XBMC on ATV - Thanks to Modhack!
On ATV 2.3 few things were changed that pushed us into another direction for launching XBMC/Boxee. As this new version isn't ready yet, here's Launcher 0.8 with preliminary ATV 2.3 support. So if you are not on ATV r2.3 yet and don't need the new features, stay with 2.2.
What can you expect on ATV 2.3:
- if not in 720/1080p mode, everythings works as with <=2.3
- on 720/1080p launching XBMC or Boxee can result in a black screen. The apps are working, but Finder is in front so you can't see them. This happens probably in 1 out of 5 launches. If this happens you can try a few things to get back to frontrow:
With Boxee:
1) hit 2 times menu and you should see FrontRow again
With XBMC:
1) right, right, select, select
2) menu, menu,play,play (<- you need to be really fast for that one)

A new version with proper support for ATV 2.3 (and hopefully all later versions) is in the works. As a sneak preview: Davilla brought up a pretty slick design which will even give the ability to boot directly into XBMC.

Features:
+universal-remote support
+enable/disable ATV autoupdate in settings

Fixes:
+ 2.3 compatibility fixes

Howto update:
-If you don't have XBMCLauncher already installed, please see
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=XBMC_for_Mac_on_Apple_TV for details.

-If XBMCLauncher or BoxeeLauncher is already installed, the update should be present now in Update menu. The update will install the combined version and remove the old launchers.

If there are any issues with XBMClauncher, those 2 files are pretty interesting to see (pastebin or http://www.rafb.net/paste)
/Users/Frontrow/Library/Logs/xbmc.log
/mnt/Scratch/Library/Logs/Console/501/console.log

Also released is a new version of atvusb-creator/atv-win that includes XBMC/BoxeeLauncher 0.8 see (http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/downloads/list) for the latest version.


Please report issues you find with XBMC/Boxee Launcher to:
http://code.google.com/p/atv-xbmc-launcher/issues/list
Thanks!

[SecretSquirrel]

A new version with proper support for ATV 2.3 (and hopefully all later versions) is in the works. As a sneak preview: Davilla brought up a pretty slick design which will even give the ability to boot directly into XBMC.

Thanks for all the hard work - booting directly to XBMC will be a fantastic option.

[XBMC4Ever]

I 2nd & 3rd all that !
Bugfixes and convenience options like booting into XBMC directly are definitely welcome
What else does one use an AppleTV for anyway
As for the "weird little 1 of 5 bug", me thinks I shall avoid the "wrath de wife" , stick with the 2.2 setup and wait for the final release for the world of AppleTV v2.3

But all you developers give me hope ... the hope that I will never need to replace the AppleTV with a more expensive MacMini solution. Unless of course Apple releases a rip-roarin' MacMini with Wireless N and HDMI out in 2009 .. then I might need to re-consider the hardware options.

Until then .. rock on !

[^tWiSt^]

So I'll stick with the 2.2 till Atlantis 8.11 for ATV will be out.

Thanks for the hard work

[KevinSartori]

I'm just not having any luck since the AppleTV upgrade to 2.3. I did a factory restore, which reset my AppleTV to 2.0. I upgraded the firmware to 2.3. I created a new patchstick using atv-win-1.0.b9. Everything boots up fine. I now have my familiar XBMC/Boxee option in AppleTV. I open the Update menu and click on XBMC Atlantis. The screen goes black. If I hit the Menu button, it'll come back, but I let it go because I figure it could be downloading XBMC even though it doesn't say it is. After several minutes, the screen comes back on its own, but I can't launch XBMC. If I try, the screen just goes black until I hit the Menu button, which brings me back to the main AppleTV menu.

If I open up WinSCP and head over to /mnt/Scratch/Users/frontrow/Library/Caches/XBMCLauncherDownloads I can see two directories: XBMC_for_Mac-8.10.download and xbmc-8.10_update.download. Inside the XBMC_for_Mac-8.10.download directory is a file called XBMC_for_Mac-8.10.dmg. Inside the xbmc-8.10_update.download directory is a file called xbmc-8.10_update.sh.

From the directions in another thread, I opened up PuTTY and tried:

sudo /mnt/Scratch/Users/frontrow/Library/Caches/XBMCLauncherDownloads/xbmc-8.10_update.download/xbmc-8.10_update.sh /mnt/Scratch/Users/frontrow/Library/Caches/XBMCLauncherDownloads/XBMC_for_Mac-8.10.download/XBMC_for_Mac-8.10.dmg

But I get sudo: /mnt/Scratch/Users/frontrow/Library/Caches/XBMCLauncherDownloads/xbmc-8.10_update.download/xbmc-8.10_update.sh: command not found as a response.

There is no Logs folder in /Users/Frontrow/Library/, so I can't give you xbmc.log and there is no Console folder in /mnt/Scratch/Library/Logs/ so I can't give you console.log.

I know that I could make an older patchstick and do a factory restore back to 2.0, but I would really like to get XBMC under AppleTV 2.3 working as I use I universal remote and I'm hopeful that more keypresses will become available soon.

Any ideas?

[^tWiSt^]

"So if you are not on ATV r2.3 yet and don't need the new features, stay with 2.2."

[KevinSartori]

Well, that's probably true ^tWiSt^, but I figure I'm probably most of the way there and I'm sure the devs want to work out any problems that folks may be having. Most of all, I'm sure they want XBMC to work with the latest firmware.

I guess my hope is that my posting is a useful bug report and that there will be some simple fix to get XBMC up and running on AppleTV 2.3. Maybe I missed something really obvious?

[voggers]

This worked for me: (and i went from a factory restore as well, just like you)

wget http://atv-xbmc-launcher.googlecode.com/...-debug.run
wget http://atv-xbmc-launcher.googlecode.com/...ate-0.8.sh
sh launcher-update-0.8.sh XBMCLauncher-0.8-debug.run
sudo reboot

After that you can install XBMC from the menu.

I'm just not having any luck since the AppleTV upgrade to 2.3. I did a factory restore, which reset my AppleTV to 2.0. I upgraded the firmware to 2.3. I created a new patchstick using atv-win-1.0.b9. Everything boots up fine. I now have my familiar XBMC/Boxee option in AppleTV. I open the Update menu and click on XBMC Atlantis. The screen goes black. If I hit the Menu button, it'll come back, but I let it go because I figure it could be downloading XBMC even though it doesn't say it is. After several minutes, the screen comes back on its own, but I can't launch XBMC. If I try, the screen just goes black until I hit the Menu button, which brings me back to the main AppleTV menu.

If I open up WinSCP and head over to /mnt/Scratch/Users/frontrow/Library/Caches/XBMCLauncherDownloads I can see two directories: XBMC_for_Mac-8.10.download and xbmc-8.10_update.download. Inside the XBMC_for_Mac-8.10.download directory is a file called XBMC_for_Mac-8.10.dmg. Inside the xbmc-8.10_update.download directory is a file called xbmc-8.10_update.sh.

From the directions in another thread, I opened up PuTTY and tried:

sudo /mnt/Scratch/Users/frontrow/Library/Caches/XBMCLauncherDownloads/xbmc-8.10_update.download/xbmc-8.10_update.sh /mnt/Scratch/Users/frontrow/Library/Caches/XBMCLauncherDownloads/XBMC_for_Mac-8.10.download/XBMC_for_Mac-8.10.dmg

But I get sudo: /mnt/Scratch/Users/frontrow/Library/Caches/XBMCLauncherDownloads/xbmc-8.10_update.download/xbmc-8.10_update.sh: command not found as a response.

There is no Logs folder in /Users/Frontrow/Library/, so I can't give you xbmc.log and there is no Console folder in /mnt/Scratch/Library/Logs/ so I can't give you console.log.

I know that I could make an older patchstick and do a factory restore back to 2.0, but I would really like to get XBMC under AppleTV 2.3 working as I use I universal remote and I'm hopeful that more keypresses will become available soon.

Any ideas?

[MaestroDD]

I'm just not having any luck since the AppleTV upgrade to 2.3. I did a factory restore, which reset my AppleTV to 2.0. I upgraded the firmware to 2.3. I created a new patchstick using atv-win-1.0.b9. Everything boots up fine. I now have my familiar XBMC/Boxee option in AppleTV. I open the Update menu and click on XBMC Atlantis. The screen goes black.

This sounds like it's Launcher < 0.8.
Please check the version of XBMCLauncher in About menu.
If it's not 0.8, use voggers intructions to install it.

There is no Logs folder in /Users/Frontrow/Library/, so I can't give you xbmc.log and there is no Console folder in /mnt/Scratch/Library/Logs/ so I can't give you console.log

please try to create that folder:

Code:

mkdir -p/mnt/Scratch/Library/Logs/Console/501/

and the log file in it:

Code:

touch /mnt/Scratch/Library/Logs/Console/501/console.log

Probably this helps to get logs back.

thanks for the report!

[KevinSartori]

Thanks for the help, voggers. I followed your directions. But when I try to launch XBMC, I get the following error:

Error: Cannot launch XBMC/Boxee from path:
/Applications/XBMC.app/Contents/MacOS/XBMC

So I launched WinSCP and navigated to the root and then the Applications folder. There are no folders there, just a zero-byte .localized file. I think my problem at this point is that XBMC_for_Mac-8.10.dmg hasn't extracted yet, but I don't know how to make it do so...

[KevinSartori]

I started my last post before your post popped up, MaestroDD. I just checked the About menu and it states XBMCLauncher 0.8. Do you still want me to create that folder and file or has the information in my last post changed anything?

[KevinSartori]

Okay, I wasn't able to create the folders in PuTTY (illegal option -- /), but was able to do so with WinSCP. I was able to create console.log with PuTTY.

[MaestroDD]

Thanks for the help, voggers. I followed your directions. But when I try to launch XBMC, I get the following error:

Error: Cannot launch XBMC/Boxee from path:
/Applications/XBMC.app/Contents/MacOS/XBMC

XBMC.app isn't present. Please try to update again (Launcher->Update->XBMC), and hopefully console.log will show some info this time (reboot atv before updating).

short cut is to manually install it:

Code:

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/xbmc/XBMC_for_Mac-8.10.dmg
wget http://atv-xbmc-launcher.googlecode.com/svn/tags/xbmc-info/scripts/xbmc-8.10_update.sh
sh xbmc-8.10_update.sh XBMC_for_Mac-8.10.dmg

[KevinSartori]

Thanks for the help, guys. Once I had followed voggers directions, I was able to update to XBMC fine. It went to a black screen twice when launching, but finally stuck the third time. I know I'm going slightly off-topic, but I'm not able to update MediaStream because I keep getting permission denied when I try to write anything to the root. Previously I followed davilla's advice:

The root partition on the AppleTV is read only by default, "sudo mount -uw /" will make it read/write. "touch /.readwrite" will make it permanent.

Unfortunately, when I try touch /.readwrite I get permission denied in PuTTY. It accepts sudo touch /.readwrite without error, but I can't move the updated Mediastream folder over to <root>/Applications/XBMC.app/Contents/Resources/XBMC/skin/ without getting a permission denied error with WinSCP.

Did something change with AppleTV firmware 2.3 that prevents this?

[tyche]

Unfortunately, when I try touch /.readwrite I get permission denied in PuTTY. It accepts sudo touch /.readwrite without error, but I can't move the updated Mediastream folder over to <root>/Applications/XBMC.app/Contents/Resources/XBMC/skin/ without getting a permission denied error with WinSCP.

Did something change with AppleTV firmware 2.3 that prevents this?

I'm still on 2.2 but the commands I used were:

sudo -s
mount -uw /
touch /.readwrite

This switches you to the root account, sets the / volume as rw and then makes the file to tell atv to leave it rw. Which command fails for you?

If you go to /Applications/XBMC.app/Contents/Resources/XBMC/skin/ what are the permissions for the Mediastream directory and files? frontrow probably isn't it

As another tangent, what I do is put a link in the skin directory for my UI's and actually store all the files on /Users/frontrow/ since I have more disk space there.

eg. Unpack your skin, say Mediastream under your home directory somewhere and then create a link:

sitting at: /Applications/XBMC.app/Contents/Resources/XBMC/skin/
create the link

ln -s /Users/frontrow/xbmc_skins/Mediastream MediaStream.099

which points to your skin stored in a directory xbmc_skins. This was you can store multiple versions or as many as you want without filling up the / volume.