[GUIDE] Install Leopard on AppleTV

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Originally Posted by petralime

True, but that involves removing the physical disk from the appletv. I thought it was possible to clone a working image to the media partition of the internal drive without removing it, then blessing it, then disconnecting the USB drive and restarting...

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Hmm... look I don't know if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that there are two ways to do this:

1. Install to internal HDD; or
2. Install to a USB stick and boot from the usb stick.


From what I read, there was no copying from the USB to the media partition - but I'm not too sure, because I had a hard time following the instructions on the first page for some reason :P

I know you said you didn't want to open up the ATV, but - if it's just because you're nervous about screwing it up - don't be! I did it yesterday, and once you get the 'ready-to-go' images, it literally is just a copy and paste job. You copy the file to the internal HDD, connect it back up and you're good to go! No mess, no fuss. It really couldn't be easier. More than happy to help you get it working if you go down this route.

I'm also uploading a new 10.5.5 image as we speak which can get you around 110-120MB free on a fresh boot. Might take a while though (couple of days to get up) since I have a crappy upload speed.

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Originally Posted by Froxen

Not sure about the blinking light, personally I like it blinking orange on the black case, but you should be able to restore a working image to the hdd IF you had removed it. Once I got it working perfectly under my settings and mods I made a back up image for safe keeping later in case I messed it up and it works, but I had also removed the drive from the AppleTV. I strongly suggest making a back up of a working image and keeping it somewhere!!! I also suggest actually opening the unit cause that saves a lot of work later down the road!!!

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Made backup of original ATV image - check
Opened ATV to clone image to internal HDD - check


Although now that I've got 10.5.5 working nicely, I don't think there's any going back. I still can't believe I have Leopard on my ATV! It's amazing! And very exciting :D I was going to throw down around $600 for a 'cheap' Hackintosh to function as an iTunes server/head uni (for the Airplay and also other Mac apps), but now this will do quite nicely! And to think I picked it up for $80!

Where else would you get a working Leopard install for $80? Phenomenal. :D

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Originally Posted by joncgde2

Hmm... look I don't know if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that there are two ways to do this:

1. Install to internal HDD; or
2. Install to a USB stick and boot from the usb stick.


From what I read, there was no copying from the USB to the media partition - but I'm not too sure, because I had a hard time following the instructions on the first page for some reason :P

I know you said you didn't want to open up the ATV, but - if it's just because you're nervous about screwing it up - don't be! I did it yesterday, and once you get the 'ready-to-go' images, it literally is just a copy and paste job. You copy the file to the internal HDD, connect it back up and you're good to go! No mess, no fuss. It really couldn't be easier. More than happy to help you get it working if you go down this route.

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Thanks Jon... I don't have a problem with opening the atv up if necessary.... I'll take a look back at the various other postings, its not that they're not clear its just that some of it is a bit spaced apart, like the original instructions were for installing the partition on the usb disk, then about 10 pages later the original author talks about putting it on the media partition.... I'll take another trawl through anyway, thanks...

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Originally Posted by petralime

Thanks Jon... I don't have a problem with opening the atv up if necessary.... I'll take a look back at the various other postings, its not that they're not clear its just that some of it is a bit spaced apart, like the original instructions were for installing the partition on the usb disk, then about 10 pages later the original author talks about putting it on the media partition.... I'll take another trawl through anyway, thanks...

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No problem. Let me know if you get around to opening her up :)


In other news - in an extraordinary turn of events, my blinking LED has now stopped and is displaying a steady white! I don't know when this happened or how - I played around with it so much, trying different things, that I can no longer be sure what it was that got it working. But it does now, and that's all that matters! :D I had issues with wireless that required a few reboots, and seems like this blinking LED thing did too.

Seems like the ol' ATV is a steady workhorse that just needs to be coaxed into compliance with a few power cycles :p

RE: The blinking LED:

By default, it blinks orange. While messing around, I realised you can a couple of different effect (a very limited number - don't get too excited!):

Source: Osputil - AwkwardTV

In short, when you follow the instructions to fix the blinking LED, you will see the --setLED flag. From the link above, this is what you can do:

--setLED=<l>:<b>

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l is one of:
3: kOSPLEDAmber
4: kOSPLEDWhite
5: kOSPLEDBrightness
6: kOSPLEDError blink white and amber

b is one of:
0: kOSPOff
1: kOSPOn
2: kOSPBlink not supported for kOSPBrightness or kOSPLEDErro

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Don't ask me what 'Brightness' means (maybe a fade in/fade out type effect?). You might want to play around on your own and see what you get (if you get it to work at all, since I had a hard time trying to get my blinking LED problem fixed).

The instructions at the front of the thread use a setLED flag of 4:1, which, as you might deduce from the information above, provides a steady white glow.


Hopefully that's just a tiny something to make this project that little bit more interesting :)

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Originally Posted by joncgde2

Made backup of original ATV image - check
Opened ATV to clone image to internal HDD - check


Although now that I've got 10.5.5 working nicely, I don't think there's any going back. I still can't believe I have Leopard on my ATV! It's amazing! And very exciting :D I was going to throw down around $600 for a 'cheap' Hackintosh to function as an iTunes server/head uni (for the Airplay and also other Mac apps), but now this will do quite nicely! And to think I picked it up for $80!

Where else would you get a working Leopard install for $80? Phenomenal. :D

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You can always return to the original AppleTV OS with a little bit of work, but why would you? Lol! And you really do not need a backup of the original AppleTV OS I was referring to a running version of OS X running on the unit, but I guess it never hurts. Though you are right, it IS phenomenal that you can have a dedicated media server, or server in general, running OS X for $80!!! Sadly, I paid about $100 even for I ordered off eBay and had it with a 160gb hdd already installed. Still a great little piece of love to have running.

Forgot to update this thread; to anyone interested, there is a new thread up with comprehensive instructions/information for copying a pre-built disc image to the ATV1, as well as my minimal 10.5.5 image.

You can find it in the AppleTV 1 forum.


Cheers

Jon

Please forgive the pseudo cross post, but I felt this was newsworthy.

Everything I've read about audio on 10.5.8 is that it either doesn't work or the levels are extremely low. I've not read anywhere that anyone got audio to work through the optical port. If this is already common knowledge, please forgive my enthusiasm.

Open Audio MIDI Setup under Applications > Utilities. Under the Audio Devices tab, set the following:

• Default Output: Digital PCM #1
• System Output: Digital PCM #1
• Properties For: Digital PCM #1
• Audio Output > Format: 48000.0 Hz 2ch-16bit

Optical audio should now work. ;)

I briefly tried adjusting similar settings for Analog PCM #0 (the only analog output to show up on my system), but was unable to get similar results from the RCA jacks.

Good good good to see interest is still around for this :)

Fantastic News about the Audio I would love to see someone seed the torrent, trying this as soon as I can get it!