DynaFlash Tech

So as I alluded to in an earlier post I set out to try to enhance the use of the original AppleTV 1 since it has been replaced by the AppleTV 2 which is a fine unit but I am a big fan of having local storage available on the device … and this rules out the AppleTV2.

Now, adding a Broadcom Crystal HD card in place of the stock Wireless card (yes, you lose wireless) and installing a Linux partition that boots right up into XBMC turned out to be just the ticket! Given the rather lengthy process it requires to do this from the terminal manually I got to thinking why not just modify AtvCloner to do a special partition scheme using a premade XBMC / Linux image. Well it works, and has been pretty thoroughly tested.

You will need three things:

1. The new AtvCloner 0.1.8
2. A modified recovery.dmg
3. The XBMC / Linux image

Now the biggest issue is the size of the Linux image, its a full linux install modified for use on the AppleTV 1 including support for the Crystal HD card and boots directly into XBMC. However as such it is 3.64 GB which would kill my web server. Given the size I decided to use Bittorrent for both the XBMC / Linux image and the modified recovery.dmg. If you are not familiar with bit torrent you will need a bit torrent client. For the mac I strongly recommend Transmission its free and works great on a mac.

Edit: It is appreciated if you can continue to seed for a while after downloading the images. That way everyone can get it faster. Its normal etiquette for torrents to seed afterwards as much as you downloaded. If you can’t for some reason thats fine, but it would be appreciated!

Here is what you need to download:

After you get all three files go ahead and expand them (they are all zipped), you will use AtvCloner as before but instead of just using your backed up stock AppleTV OS files you will use the modified recovery.dmg for recovery and also add in the XBMC / Linux image for the linux parition that said use your stock backed up efi.dmg . Make sure to check the “ATV Linux XBMC w/ CHD Support” checkbox before preparing your new drive.

NOTE: the XBMC Linux partitioning does not use your boot.dmg as it is “single boot” this avoids having to manually perform a recovery boot via the atv remote as well saves about 900 mb of your hard drive space for the Media partition for local storage.

Also, this image will offer up a remote share on your mac once the atv boots called atv-xbmc. To mount it on your mac (and then be able to transfer media over to it) use login: atv , password: xbmc.

To ssh into the AppleTV its the same user name and password:

ssh atv@your.atvs.ipaddress

when asked for the password use ‘xbmc’.

Since the demise of the AppleTV 1 I went about several months ago to find new functionality for the semi maligned Apple product. I have an AppleTV 2 but frankly find the lack of local storage less than encouraging for my needs/wants. Knowing that the folks over at the XBMC project had managed to get much more performance out of the device via the Broadcom CrystalHD chip I decided to take the plunge and see what this software mod was all about. Now, as you may or may not know AtvCloner will let you upgrade your hard drive in your AppleTV 1 fairly easily to increase local hard drive space via re-imaging a newer larger hard drive with the AppleTvs original stock partition images. It occurred to me that if I could create a decent install of XBMC with the proper CrystalHD drivers on it that was reliable … well I just might have something.

Now, in all candor the folks at awkwardtv and xbmc have been doing this for the last few years but from what I have read it’s typically been booted off of a usb ‘patchstick’ stuck in the usb port. This is all fine and well but … not my cup o’ tea. So, I set out to pick up a couple of used atv 1s for around $50 US apiece. Then you can pick up a Broadcom Crystal HD chip which replaces the wireless card in the atv for about $48 or so US. So for about $100 US you have an AppleTV 1 that can theoretically decode 1080p blu ray! But, how easy is it to get it to work ? Frankly unless your a command line terminal geek, its a pain.

That said much like AtvCloner was designed to take the command line work out of imaging and re-partitioning a new AppleTV drive, I figure if I could get a useable XBMC + CHD (short for Crystal HD chip) install running … maybe I could make an image that I could use AtvCloner to work with. Well, it worked!. However I found after testing both xbmc (mac) and xbmc (linux) for the AppleTV 1 there are several differences at this time. One is that xbmc (mac) uses almost all of the AppleTV s ram. Meaning it leaves about 5 – 10 mb free while xbmc (linux) for AppleTV only uses half of the ram which leaves a much snappier interface. As well, xbmc (mac) is actually an app on top of the atvs os. While xbmc (linux) is in fact its own OS which is much leaner than the stock atv os plus can reside on its own partition. Given the hardware constraints of the AppleTV 1 the choice was clear in terms of performance. So yes, this mod will utilize Linux and XBMC.

Now, here is where I am at. I need some testers. It’s not required that you have knowledge of AtvCloner previously but it might help.

Please reply in the comments if your interested in this on your AppleTV 1.

Now what is required ? Three things:

1. The new version of AtvCloner
2. A modified recovery.dmg (to boot into the xbmc linux image).
3. The xbmc (linux) image.

The rest is done like normal with AtvCloner on your mac.