Filed under: OS, Hacks, Apple TV
Over at the #awkwardtv IRC channel, poster "Beyond" just announced that he's gotten Gentoo installed and running on his Apple TV. He used the mach_linux_kernel maker from mactel_linux (aka Gimli's loader). The OS (2.6.20.6 with the AppleTV patch) seems to be up and working after a few initial problems (now solved) with repeating characters. He sent over these screen shots for your viewing pleasure. More as this develops.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ioannus de Verani said 10:36PM on 4-10-2007
But why? Why? Why, when there is a way to install an operating system on it that beats the living craps out of Linux? I mean, I know linux is great (I use linux, because I can't afford a mac), but what good does linux do on an Apple TV?
--Ioannus de Verani
http://blog.verani.net
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Colin said 10:45PM on 4-10-2007
Excellent! Finally someone has figured out how to take the simple, elegant interface of the AppleTV and combine it with the terrifying startup messages of Linux. I am seriously considering modding my loginwindow message to read "Activating (possible) swap". I think it's hilarious!
I love the hackitude of this. It's so completely useless, but at least it can be done!
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CyBeR said 10:49PM on 4-10-2007
Excellent. These things are like half the hight of a mac mini, so you can send two to a macmini colo facility for the same price!
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Beyond said 10:51PM on 4-10-2007
For those questioning the usefulness of this, I did it because it is a perfect mythtv frontend. And the actual appletv interface is not very useful, and really doesnt do the hardware justice.
That and my roommates wont have a problem with this beside the tv!
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JeffDM said 11:14PM on 4-10-2007
It's definitely an interesting hacker platform. You get a very compact device that's cheaper than going with miniITX. I think that a miniITX board + CPU + memory was about as much as AppleTV, and that didn't include the case, power supply or hard drive. A decent looking case is pretty expensive. A typical miniITX system is larger in volume too, they are thicker because of the rear connector block and heat sink.
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vahtryn said 12:03AM on 4-11-2007
Well I'm glad that it's gentoo that was hacked onto it first. At work all of our servers are gentoo (because of me). It's really the strongest form of linux out there. Makes life a hell of a lot easier when you need to build packages across multiple platforms. Just a /etc/make.conf change and you're good to go.
I currently run gentoo on my linksys NSLU2 for my only linux box at home.
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Roye said 12:04AM on 4-11-2007
The MythTV comment above is spot on. I love my Macs, but Mythtv kicks all kinds of ass with the various modules. As far as MiniITX comparisons, the AppleTV also has component out and built in IR. Once all of this can be harnessed with the power of Myth, this will make an excellent frontend that looks a lot sexier than an xbox. GentooTV FTW!
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Todd said 12:52AM on 4-11-2007
So does anyone actually hook one of these things up to a TV and watch a movie? :)
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mike said 2:02AM on 4-11-2007
I have an idea -- why doesn't TUAW change it's name to TUATVW? Every freaking story is about apple TV hacks.
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bruno said 2:48AM on 4-11-2007
im kinda over the apple tv hacks
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David said 4:06AM on 4-11-2007
Mike...Bruno....relax. There are a lot of posts about the Apple TV because that is what's current right now. There are plenty of readers who are interested in these articles, so if you don't like it, don't complain. Just feel free to move on to the next article, or another weblog.
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codigoeon.blog said 2:21PM on 4-14-2007
It's a definitive hack.
The Apple TV is the best home server.
[More in]
[http://codigoeon.wordpress.com]
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mike said 5:30AM on 4-11-2007
i'm not moving to another weblog until i get the cookies and milk i was promised.
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Adrian vG said 6:09AM on 4-11-2007
Oh, that's so interesting! Pictures of text on a screen....
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CAIN said 7:57AM on 4-11-2007
If the sound works this is a worth while hack. If not I will stick with OSX.
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Edsel said 7:59AM on 4-11-2007
Beyond (#4),
Ignore the snickers and jokes, and never give up exploring. This is how Jobs/Gates/Ellesron made it work for them. Leaders explore, everyone else spectates.
Nice work.
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Reg Muffet said 8:30PM on 4-11-2007
@Todd> "So does anyone actually hook one of these things up to a TV and watch a movie? :)"
Far too obvious. Next you'll be saying people who buy a Prius should drive it down the street instead of using it to power their house.
http://uneasysilence.com/archive/2006/01/4939/
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Matt Carrell said 2:59AM on 4-12-2007
Look, I know some of you don't understand why anyone would want something as unautomatic and unrefined as Linux, however, I want to put it on my Apple TV for one reason.. to be able to run a Linux client of Stanford's Folding@Home app. Since Stanford doesn't have a Mac OS X client for Intel that works on single core (requires dual Intel or PPC), this unit can't run the Mac client. Also, it won't work with Boot Camp. Therefore, Linux is the last solution that can be made to work right now. I suspect there are many reasons for many different people to use Linux on it. It's clearly not for everyone. But it has its uses.. Don't knock what you don't know about!
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The Belgain said 5:35PM on 5-03-2007
So has anyone managed to use one of these as a MythTV frontend yet?
What's the status of Linux hardware support for the Apple TV (eg. do all the outputs (HDMI, component video, optical audio out, ...)) work, is accelerated hardware decoding working, is the box fast enough for HD decoding, ...
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