Apple TV Booting off External USB

Yeah, great stuff, 'ey?

To add a little more specific details:

The AwkwardTV project is working on building a bootable image based on the Open Source Darwin kernel. If successful, booting the modified Darwin image via an external USB drive would would allow mounting and editing of the internal hard disk, and permit the various hacks, such as enabling SSH, to be installed/enabled without opening the case.

Apple TV Booting off External USB



After initial reports of hacking the Apple TV to play other formats such as XviD, work has continued surrounding the Something Awful forum thread about how to get further functionality out of the Apple TV.

Users have been able to run various apps (World of Warcraft, VLC, Firefox) remotely through VNC. Other efforts reveal that the Apple TV does respond to an external keyboard.

The most significant step at this stage has been the ability to boot the Apple TV from an external USB drive. A video demos the external USB drive on an (essentially) unmodified Apple TV.

so one computer, multiple locations of mac access around the house?

sweet.
r

Holy crap. This is cool. It's almost like Apple wanted us to snoop around and start hacking this thing.

Currently, this is the least inexpensive Mac you can buy.

I can't wait to see what people have in store for this odd little contraption.

Quick work, the more this thing gets "modded" the more i am thinking about buying one.


(At this stage i have no need at all to buy one, my current telly 14" CRT is a lot smaller than my iMac 20" with eyeTV and all my content already on the iMac)

So the usb port has more use than just maintenance by Apple.

Excellent. If done properly, then, one could, for all intents and purposes, make all sorts of mods to the Apple TV via external drive without even affecting the internal drive, so that, if booted without the external, it would revert to original behavior. No warranty issues at all. Cool.

and lets not forget about resolution independance in the next os...

the finder would not look so bad at hd video resolutions if for res independance...

every tv in the house is a head for your desktop with itv... i think thats cooler then booting off hd..

r.

Why on his AppleTV is he using the Yellow(composite) port(for vidoe)? AppleTV only support Red, Blue and Green(component) for Video(audio is the same on both)

He even say "use standard component" but the cord is 3(2 for audio) 1 yellow for vidoe, which is composite.


Here a pic if you don't want to watch the vidoe

I posted in a previous thread that I was surprised someone didn't figure out how to boot linux on it within one day. I'm a bit disappointed in all you hackers out there... and i thought you were making progress... it takes you guys about a week?

where is that melvin guy from War Games, he can do it...

Whatever sells more units for Apple is fine by me (maybe the halo effect will expand). I'm sure Apple Legal disagrees with me though...(ie torrenting the ATV OS)

zap2 said:

Why on his AppleTV is he using the Yellow(composite) port(for vidoe)? AppleTV only support Red, Blue and Green(component) for Video(audio is the same on both)

He even say "use standard component" but the cord is 3(2 for audio) 1 yellow for vidoe, which is composite.


Here a pic if you don't want to watch the vidoe

Click to expand...

the cable is the same inside...just a different color plastic on the outside

One more time...

Using "screen sharing" in iChat on Leopard you will be able to access your computer via AppleTV, checking email or surfing the web during commercial breaks; the same will be true with the iPhone (you will be able to access content on your computer throught your phone... video, music, etc.) The key is Leopard. June Baby!

zap2 said:

Why on his AppleTV is he using the Yellow(composite) port(for vidoe)? AppleTV only support Red, Blue and Green(component) for Video(audio is the same on both)

Click to expand...

I think he's just using a standard A/V cable instead of a differently-colored Component one. Same ports, though. Don't be misled by the colors.

Edit: N/M. See above.

zap2 said:

Why on his AppleTV is he using the Yellow(composite) port(for vidoe)? AppleTV only support Red, Blue and Green(component) for Video(audio is the same on both)

He even say "use standard component" but the cord is 3(2 for audio) 1 yellow for vidoe, which is composite.


Here a pic if you don't want to watch the vidoe

Click to expand...

He is just using a cheap composite cord instead of a component cord, just because the colors don't match on the cord ends doesn't mean it won't work.

job said:

Currently, this is the least inexpensive Mac you can buy.

Click to expand...

I think its the most inexpensive Mac you can buy...

fawlty said:

I think its the most inexpensive Mac you can buy...

Click to expand...

Whoops.

What you said.

zap2 said:

Why on his AppleTV is he using the Yellow(composite) port(for vidoe)? AppleTV only support Red, Blue and Green(component) for Video(audio is the same on both)

He even say "use standard component" but the cord is 3(2 for audio) 1 yellow for vidoe, which is composite.


Here a pic if you don't want to watch the vidoe

Click to expand...

My guess is he used a composite + RL audio cable (yellow + red and white) instead a component cable which would have been RGB and probably no audio at all. The cables are all simply RCA phono at the end of the day.

This is amazing: so I can buy a 500GB external USB and put the ?TV OS on it with the new codecs and boot from that and leave the original apple tv alone!! this is freaking amazing, and since it is always running it won't be a hassle!

these ne developments are becoming more and more promising.

If this takes off im seriously considering buying this!! I asked previously on the forums if modding apple products was aloud, and alot of ppl said it wasnt. But im happy it is! Its not like we're stealing anything from apple, just making there products better

Im wondering if modding iTunes might be a better solution then modding the ATV?

fawlty said:

I think its the most inexpensive Mac you can buy...

Click to expand...

I think its is it's.

diVX

ill get one as soon as they add diVX compatibility!!!!

I am missing something. I read the article but don't understand what this means about the benefit of the USB boot drive. Does this make the Apple TV a Apple computer that is controlled through your TV? Help me understand.