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2010-09-21, 00:07
For some reason the hard drive on my appletv stopped. I tried a new one and downloaded a new os.... Nothing. Is it possible to get XBMC (linux pref) to boot off a usb. I tried Crystalbuntu (i have a chip), but it seems to want the HD. Is their a way to get it to boot without looking for the HD? Or any other suggestions?
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I can guarantee that the images posted on this forum don't require a hard drive. I have this weird issue where anytime I install a hard drive inside the ATV it causes it to short itself so I just took out the HD and popped a USB drive in the back, works flawlessly.
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If you put the image onto a harddrive and put it inside the ATV then you must edit the plist on the second partition or else the system looks for the root partition on an external USB and it'll just hang until something like busybox eventually comes up.
If you have moved and enlarged partitions from the original image, then you must compile Davilla's patched parted (available with instructions from the atv-bootloader project) to make sure the drive is bootable by the ATV
All this is in the massive thread (now 100+ pages!) but it can be a bit hard to find all the germane info...
For the record: I used pin's minimal image on a 40gb drive and installed it directly into my atv - ran all necessary updates and it works like a charm...
Jim
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I plugged it in another tv so I could read the lines better. The last line that show up when booting is something about " dev/sdb2 not found. dropping to shell" I get this with the HD installed and not. So is their something wrong with the image on the usb. I have a 8 gig cruzer. and all i did was burn the iso on it. If you could point me to a guide to put the crystalbuntu on a HD and edit what you are talking about i think that would be better than usb. Like i said im pretty new at this)
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2010-09-22, 20:54
(This post was last modified: 2010-09-22, 20:55 by Jimmer.)
As far as I know, you don't need to alter anything if you just burn the img to a USB stick - it should just boot. Some USB sticks don't work though - it has always been the same when creating patchsticks for the ATV. Someone used to have a list of sticks that were known to boot the ATV without problems...
I know from personal experience that some sticks come with that awful U3 partition system - in that case you must use the manufacturers tool to remove U3 before you try to make a patchstick - might be the same for this crystalbuntu img as well - Davilla's probably the one to ask about this kind of thing...
As for a tutorial, I haven't really seen one for a HDD install. Probably best to try and get a USB stick working first if you're a commandline novice. When you've got one of those booting successfully, then move on to patching and compiling parted, converting and resizing partitions and updating plists!
Jim