boxee on Apple TV 2.3
we posted instructions on how to get boxee running on Apple TV 2.3 manually, but it was a bit hackish (you had to open a Terminal, ssh into your Apple TV and run a few commands), which means fun for some of us, and a serious no-go for most of us.
so it was great to see Scott Davilla and Stephan Diederich to act quickly and come up with a new version of the USB Creator. now it is as easy as before to get boxee/xbmc on the Apple TV. ~ 35,000 people have already done it! (maybe more). Scott and Stephan deserve all the credit for making it happen. and making it so easy.
a quick reminder, once you download the latest version of the USB Creator follow these steps:
- insert a bootable USB key (1GB) to one of your USB slots and run the USB Creator (disconnect any external USB drives connected to your laptop to avoid crying once you discovered you just formatted a 1TB drive with all your media..). see a video how-to guide.
- plug the patchstick into your Apple TV and reboot it (i.e. disconnect and reconnect power cord), you’ll see a penguin. this is good. now wait till it finishes the install.
- take out the patchstick and reboot
- you’ll see a new option in the Apple TV menu ‘xbmc/boxee’, go to Update and choose ‘Boxee’. let it do its thing.
that’s it. you’re done. now you can run boxee and start playing MKVs, streaming from last.fm, Hulu, etc.
known bug: sometimes when launching boxee you’ll see a blackscreen (instead of boxee’s login screen). click Menu (back) on your Apple Remote, and try again. Scott & Stephan are working on a new launcher that will eliminate this bug once and for all.
known bug 2: if freezing at boxee login screen, please see this forum thread. its a geeky solution, but beats factory restoring your atv.. our next release will take care of this, so the fix will no longer be necessary.
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any way to save existing boxee settings before upgrading appletv and copy them back over after boxee is reinstalled? I’m particularly interested in backing up sources that have been set up manually.
Updated using 1.08 and the manual ssh stuff. Any reason for me to do the 1.09 flash as well?
@Travis unless you’ve a Factory Restore, upgrading to 2.3 should not remove your boxee settings
@Tom nope. you’re good.
Thanks guys.
so… can’t get past that black screen unfortunately. I see the silver/white apple logo flash quickly and then all black – tried backing out and starting again, as instructed above, and no luck. Any tips?
Congrats on the fundraising and continued look with Boxee.
@jprocks are you running xbmc or boxee? did you run the Update Boxee?
please email tsella [at] boxee d0t tv with the details and he’ll help out
boxee. and yep, had updated. in the time since i posted I’ve updated again and just been persistent about getting it going. Finally, after about 6 attempts, have it up and running smoothly. thanks avner.
@jprocks sorry about the trouble. glad you were able to make it work.
This may be a dumb question… But, can I use the same USB Stick that I used to make the last USB Creator? The reason I ask is I don’t want to put that last USB stick in my computer and have it start installing it on my Mac Pro.? Would that happen?
Love having boxee on my AppleTV and cant wait to upgrade to 2.3! Thanks for all the hard work?
Nick
somehow post 2.3 + 10b updates, my atv got into a loop of restarts with nothing but the apple logo playing over and over. had to do a complete wipe as no restart or boot or diagnostic check fixed anything.
this all happened after i had added from boxee update menu.
this update worked flawlessly. it all worked like the first time without a hitch. it even seems a bit snappier. one thing i did notice was this new software menu. i would like to learn more about that and what to expect from it. it looks cool kinda like the jailbreak on iphone.
Strange… i’ve got Boxee back on AppleTV 2.3.. loads up.. but can’t get past the “login” screen. It show my user.. but then locks up?
XBMC seems to work. The only thing i can do is kill the proc’s from ssh to recover. I have Splunk installed on it and its forwarding all the logdata off. I don’t see any activity past this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelwilde/3054891329/sizes/o/
May I suggest that you also add all (22) 2008 Podcast Awards Winners (and nominees) to Boxee’s out-of-the-box included podcasts streams: http://podcastawards.com
I’m thinking about buying an AppleTV this holiday season just for running boxee on it. My biggest fear is buying the AppleTV then Apple somehow working to make boxee application non grata.
How much of a real risk is this?
Thanks
does anyone know if this erases other hacks (perian, sapphire, couch surfer) already on my atv?
I have a problem with the patchstick program: Every time I try to create a patchstick, it gets to the “Partition the target disk stage” (right after the “10 sec settling delay”), and then the progress bar just stops. It still looks active, but it never gets any further in the process. I’m using a slow computer with a slow USB interface, but even leaving it for a few days, it never finishes.
Is this a USB jump disk issue? I’ve tried both Kodak and Kingston drives to no avail, and don’t want to keep buying more thumbdrives if this is a software problem?
Any ideas?
I love it when idiotic companies waste so much effort crippling their products, only to see them be re-hacked immediately.
PSP, Apple TV, etc.
Great work.
LOL – yeah, I second the “disconnect any external USB drives connected to your laptop to avoid crying once you discovered you just formatted a 1TB drive with all your media..” comment. I did this once and was only able to recover 25% of my files. Not good.
I did not disconnect all my USB drives and reformatted one of them (exactly as warned in the instructions: “disconnect any external USB drives connected to your laptop to avoid crying once you discovered you just formatted a 1TB drive with all your media).
Any advice of how could I recuperate my files? Haven’t touched the HD since.
@gmt1010 i am really sorry to hear that… maybe you can check with davilla [ at ] xbmc d0t org for ideas regarding how to access the HD
maybe we should make t-shirts “real man don’t read instruction manuals, but they do cry” and offer them to casualties? could be a big progress towards figuring out our business model
@andreas will check it out. thanks!
@eric i don’t know whether Apple will ever prevent boxee from running on Apple TV. i hope not. will be a *very* uncool thing for them to do…
no guarantees. life without risks is less interesting.. go for it.
i’ve got Boxee back on AppleTV 2.3.. loads up.. but can’t get past the “login†screen. It show my user.. but then locks up just like Michael Wilde. XBMC works fine….
What did I do wrong?
i’ve got Boxee back on AppleTV 2.3.. loads up.. but can’t get past the “login†screen. It show my user.. but then locks up?
I’m with Boxee Luvr and Michael W… Boxee freezes up at the login screen.
I’ve updated the apple tv and now Boxee gets suck at the log in screen…please help
I miss boxee badly…
Thanks for the excelent tutorial and help!
One little question: I need to update first Apple TV to version 2.3 and then run the patchstick, yes?
Thanks in Advance,
cameti2
BTW, great APP!!!!
Thanks for this guys. Worked great. It was great to update to 2.3 just for the remote learning capability. Now i don’t have to scramble looking for the little apple remote.
Boxee is a necessity to anyone owning an Apple TV…
I updated tonight and I also can’t get past the login screen… I see the apple logo and a flash and then I see the login screen with my name but nothing happens… I can’t login and I can’t back out to the apple tv menus…. Yes, I have updated all 3 (boxee, installer, xbmc) of the updates in the boxee/xbmc menu item. I’ve even updated boxee twice, and still no luck. All I can do once I click on boxee is unplug the apple TV to get it to do anything… Help I need boxee!
I just bought a 40GB Apple TV explicitly to watch Hulu. I’m pretty sad at the results.
I updated to the newest version of AppleTV OS and (as far as I can tell) the newest version of boxee (0.9.4277). Hulu shows are unwatchable. Super choppy, and not worth it one iota. But this is different from what I’ve heard of other people. Did I mess something up? Does 2.2 work better than 2.3, in which case, can I downgrade?
Thanks much!
Attempting to install the latest boxee with atvusb-creator-1.0.b10 on an ATV 2.3. I’m able to create the patchstick using the XBMC/Boxee for Mac option on a Sandisk 512MB USB drive. Plug it in, reboot, and it boots to the penguin and scrolls the text then STOPS after displaying network settings. It’s unresponsive then eventually goes to a black screen. No longer even recognizes the remote. Have to reboot ATV after removing usb patchstick. No change on the ATV. No boxee. Help, what am I doing wrong? What step am I missing?
Thanks in advance.
I’m having the exact same problem. It’s attempting to use ethernet and wifi at 127.0.0.1 and 0 packets are going anywhere. Eventually the screen blacks out and I’m stuck. My theory is that the IP address is the problem; my ATV is connecting to the network as 192.168.1.38 with 255.255.255.0 subnet mask. Is there a workaround?
I created the most current patchstick using the USB Creator for Intel Mac (atvusb-creator-1.0.b10) and updated the ATV. It looks like it should be v2.3 since there is a Third Party Remote option but when I look at the Current Version of the ATV software it says it’s 2.2 and should be upgraded to 2.3. Did I do something wrong?
I’ve seen numerous posts here outlining the same exact problem i’m having, but nobody has addressed the issue at all. The update appeared to go perfectly (using the newest USB Creator). When i finally get to the Boxee login screen, i’m dead in the water. Can’t do anything but a hard reboot – my remote works fine on ATV, but doesn’t do a thing when i try to access boxee. Anyone going to suggest a fix for this plz???
WOW!!! Just discovered boxee, have had my ATV for 18mths. I cannot wait to finally get real value form my ATV. Now I just have to wait patiently for a log in
Congratulations Boxee and xbmc teams for creating another revolution
Have 2.3 + latest USB creator 10b. Got the black screen whenever I go into Boxee. The solution is just to go into Boxee, wait, press menu, then Boxee again. After a couple of times it will start working.
I have tried 3 different usb drives (including ipod shuffle). The usb creator works fine and the file structure is there on all of them. None will cold boot in my ATV. The atv OS always ends up loading. Have tried factory restore, unplug, insert usb, re-plug power, still boots into atv os. Any ideas?
Thanks!
Duh! figured it out. It helps to run the bootloader first.
I’m having the same problem you posted on 11/28/2008, my ATV always boots into the native ATV OS. What do you mean by “running the bootloader first” ?
Also, my freshly formatted usb stick only has about 15MB of data after the USB creator is done. Does that sound right? Sounds like a small amount of data to me.
thx
NOW you tell me to unplug all of my USB drives after I already formated my 1TB drive…how did you know that happened to me?
The instructions zip right by make a bootable flash memory stick. I will be damned if I can get that done.
Is it possible to BUY a bootable flash drive?
I have a patched ATV with loads of content on it, will the upgrade to 2.3 and/or the boxee stick delete that content?
Lost is atv space:
I seem to be in a lot of trouble installing XBMC/boxee on atv. Even though I think I have followed the instructions to the letter, I am simply unable to load boxee on atv.
The possible reasons as to why this has not worked for me are:
1. The USB Flash Drive has not been properly formatted and is not really bootable.
– Flash Drive was used to boot BartPE with no issues.
– Flash Drive has a GUID Partition Table to allow the disk to start up an Intel Mac.
2. The USB Flash Drive I have used is one of those that do not boot on atv.
– Flash Drive is a “Kingston DT Elite HS 2.0 Media”
3. Not sure about what should happen after I power on the atv and the press “Menu” + “-”
– I get the Language selection menu, Choose English, Given the options: 1. Restart, 2. Diagnostics, 3. Factory Default.
– Choose 1. Restart, see an apple on the screen three times and atv boots normally. Am I missing a step? Have I been too slow?
4. One additional question. My atv came at v2.1, should I:
i upgrade to v2.3 before I do anything else,
ii leave it as is or
iii upgrade to v2.3 after I add boxee (I think the last one is an absolute no no as it will erase any customizations)
Please advice and feel free to ask for any additional information you may need to help.
Regards
I have Boxee on my Apple TV and have been waiting since mid-November for an invite so that I can start to enjoy content. Any chance someone could send me one? syncboy@yahoo.com
If I install this new update and I try to run xbmc I can’t see my usb external hard drive, does it have to be formated osx standard or fat32?
ATV has v2.3 software. Ran ATV USB creator (verison: atvusb-creator-1.0.b10) no problem, but ATV wouldn’t boot off the USB stick, instead booting up into standard ATV environment. The USB stick I was using was Kingston 1GB, tried again with another manufacturer 1GB – still wouldn’t work. Finally tried a Kingston 1GB Compact Flash card connected via a Multi-card reader / USB adapter – the ATV booted off this first time. Moral of experience seems to be ATV is sensitive to specific USB cards – if no boot, then try with a variety of others (read somewhere that <1GB is recommended – don’t know if that’s is the case or not however). Hope this is of help. Having got it working I can say that ATV + Boxee now with BBC iPlayer is awesome BTW.
just installed on appletv. installed fine, but can’t get past black screen when choosing boxee
tried 10 times
Same this is happening to me.
How do I fix the “known bug” of a black screen instead of the log in? I can’t get to the Boxee login screen from the Apple Menu.
Ughh. Black screen for me as well. I can hear what sounds like clicks and responses to my input from the remote, but cannot see anything. Any help out there?
Same problem as earlier posters. Can’t get past the black screen. I’ve updated three times, and tried choosing Boxee over 10 times… Nothing. Any help would be much appeciated. Would love to try out what looks like a great product and addition to ATV.
ashafrir, did you figure it out? Where you able to get it working?
Just tried installing the latest patchstick and Boxee. Everything goes fine until i try to launch Boxee and get the black screen. Help.
Just had a very annoying afternoon trying to install boxee. Use a usb stick that had worked before. Factory reset my Apple TV and upgraded tp 2.4. Installed atvusb-creator-1-4.0.b10 on patch stick. The patchstick booted apple TV and appeared to install. Restarted Apple tv, it shows me the animation sequence and them I get an Apple logo that intermittently flashes at me. If i try and use the console I get get the following message:
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@ WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED! @
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING NASTY!
Someone could be eavesdropping on you right now (man-in-the-middle attack)!
It is also possible that the RSA host key has just been changed.
The fingerprint for the RSA key sent by the remote host is
c8:78:9b:ce:33:c9:7a:d5:94:4b:2c:27:3b:24:63:da.
Please contact your system administrator.
Add correct host key in /Users/jashley/.ssh/known_hosts to get rid of this message.
Offending key in /Users/jashley/.ssh/known_hosts:2
RSA host key for 10.0.1.191 has changed and you have requested strict checking.
Host key verification failed.
have no clue what to do next.
@patchstick, you need to delete /Users/jashley/.ssh/known_hosts
or you can vi the file and then delete the line with 10.0.1.191.
Message back if you still are stuck
just installed boxee and getting the black screen problem.. re-installed 3-4 times w.o. any improvement… any help will be appreciated.
Problem with black screen loading Boxee or XBMC, any news?
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