AppleTV Notes

Just some quick notes on how I got this running on mine:

Follow the instructions for installing ssh, disabling watchdog, etc from one of the hacking sites, then:

download the latest nightly built for appletv here
Gunzip the tarball, then copy it over to the appletv
Mount root read/write
Untar the tarball in the root directory
Start the server!

ron@mac:~$ gunzip appletv-svn-1528.tar.gz
ron@mac:~$ scp appletv-svn-1528.tar frontrow@appletv:~
Password:
appletv-svn-1528.tar                          100% 2190KB   2.1MB/s   00:01    
ron@mac:~$ ssh frontrow@appletv
Password:
Last login: Mon Apr  9 23:08:37 2007 from mac
-bash-2.05b$ sudo -s
Password:
bash-2.05b# tar -C / -xvf appletv-svn-1528.tar
etc/
etc/mt-daapd.conf
mnt/

... snip ...

bash-2.05b# /usr/sbin/mt-daapd -c /mnt/Scratch/Users/frontrow/mt-daapd/mt-daapd.conf

Now just *wait a bit* and it should pop up in iTunes.

If you want to autostart it, something like:

-bash-2.05b$ sudo -s
Password:
bash-2.05b# echo "/usr/sbin/mt-daapd -c /mnt/Scratch/Users/frontrow/mt-daapd/mt-daapd.conf" >> /etc/rc.local

Should probably do it. Some notes:

The config as shipped puts the database, logfile, and configuration files in /mnt/Scratch/Users/frontrow/mt-daapd, so you can leave the root partition read-only if you want -- the media volume comes up read/write by default, so it's good. Default admin password is "mt-daapd", and it's listening on port 9999. You can edit the config via the web interface, of course. Questions to the Firefly forums.

Share and enjoy.

OBTW: You can compile it yourself, of course. I compiled it with "./configure --with-static-libs=/sw/lib --with-id3tag=/sw --enable-sqlite", using fink in /sw on an Intel 10.4.9 Mac.

-- Ron