Filed under: Hacks, Found Footage, Apple TV
Found Footage: Apple TV booted from external USB HD
The Apple TV has now been hacked to boot off of an external USB HD. This means, simply, that we're well on the way to seeing full access without cracking the case and thus obviously voiding the warranty. Apparently, this is done by booting into recovery mode using a modified disc image on the external drive. Now this is not a completely worked out hack yet, and there's still much left to do, but this is a significant milestone as it shows that, in principle, the Apple TV is bootable from an external hard drive. Further it shows that the USB port which Apple claimed "is only used for service and diagnostics" and unable to recognize USB devices is, in fact, live and can be used.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
YankInOz said 9:58PM on 3-26-2007
OK so I have a 1.5 Tb HD connected to my new Airport Extreme - which allows me to send this to any location in my house as a shared drive. I can also connect my Apple TV to my network via an ethernet cable (I have my whole wired and hubbed to 1000).
So why do I have to 1) hack my Apple TV nad put in a larger drive or 2) directly connect a HG to the USB port?
I know the thrill of being a maker and all but is there any really good reason?
Let the discussion begin. :)
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pathetik said 9:59PM on 3-26-2007
Is anybody actually using the tv
or just hacking the bloody thing
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Ondra Soukup said 10:59PM on 3-26-2007
To clear things up, the USB is there, working...you can hold S to boot to single user mode, but the real problem are the drivers, crippled, so even in the single user mode, keyboard does not work :)
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artifex said 2:08AM on 3-27-2007
Anyone think a similar platform will be the foundation for the Mac Book Mini? The rumored flash-based sub-micro notebook?
A 1GHz CPU like this one is probably fine for such a product.
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grayskyz said 2:21AM on 3-27-2007
I'm really exicted about the tv as a media hub and hacking is fun too! I can't wait til I get one in 2 weeks. Birthdays rule!
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wim said 3:56AM on 3-27-2007
i'm with #1 here,
i have got an itunes server capable NAS and i would like to know if anybody manages to get it running with that library to stream from.
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mungler said 6:03AM on 3-27-2007
to #1 and #6 :
not everyone can afford both an Airport Extreme and an AppleTV. if i can buy an appletv and hack it to work as an Airport Extreme, then i'd be happy ;)
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eric said 6:25AM on 3-27-2007
If someone manage to put windows / linux / Mac OS X 10.3 on it, i will buy...
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quixotik said 8:14AM on 3-27-2007
How do we know that they 'actually' did this? he enver boots off of the non-external drive to show that the logo is correct. In fact he even admits that the drive inside the APPLTV is not the original one. Sure we see the blinking lights on the external drive but is it really booting from it or just accessing it as part of a normal bootstrap? IE: looking for upgrade files etc... Why whenever someone make a video like this does the camera always pan around, be our of focus etc. Why not place the components together in such a way that everything could be seen and then no questions will arise?
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Kyle Brown said 10:04AM on 3-27-2007
How many people checked their Mail when the message tone went off in the video? LOL
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SubGenius said 10:09AM on 3-27-2007
I'm currently working on attaching an iSight to my Roomba which I control with a Wiimote and watch the video stream on my AppleTV.
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Bryan said 10:23AM on 3-27-2007
I share the skepticism of #9, but for different reasons.
The iTV may be designed to search for an external HDD when booting into recovery mode, and boot off the recovery partition on said external drive (in case someone manages to mung up their whole drive, the geniuses can still restore).
I would be more impressed if they turned on the iTV normally and still managed to boot off the external drive, using the external drive's normal partition, not the recovery partition as stated in the video.
Still, this is one step closer, as they say.
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john russell said 6:13PM on 3-27-2007
I checked my mail, even when Quicksilver didn't pop up to tell me that I had a new message.
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Bobby said 7:47PM on 3-27-2007
So let me get this right, when the Mini came out, it was used as an AppleTV-like device in home theaters. Now that the AppleTV is out, it is being modified to be a Mini?
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Frank said 12:37AM on 3-28-2007
I am just wondering how to do this without linux and with mac os x, can it be done in vista or xp to copy
the drive
It seems that Apple TV does not perform well on some SD TVs which should be fixed, because not everyone has
bought a HD TV at home.
Best appkle tv converter
My apple tv converter
http://www.apple-tv-converter.com
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