I bought an AppleTV 2 (ATV2) this weekend to replace my Xbox Gold subscription since I’ve only been using the subscription to watch Netflix. Since the ATV2 cost only $100, one time purchase and the Xbox Gold subscription cost around $70 annually, I’m easily saving money.
Now I’m setting up my Linux server, which hosts all of my music and movies, to serve my ATV2 this content to make a great home entertainment system. I’ll have a post later on with instructions on how to set this server up but let’s start with jail breaking the ATV2 with a Mac (I don’t think the Windows method is much different).
Jailbreak the ATV2
This is a really simple process. First, download the jailbreaking software from firecore.
Second, follow their instructions at the aforementioned link.
The process takes about 3 minutes.
The next step is to get XBMC on the ATV2
Here’s the fun part. Now that you’ve jailbroken your ATV2, go ahead and hook it back up to your TV and network, etc.
Next, you get to SSH into your device. If you aren’t familiar or comfortable with using the terminal to connect to another device, don’t fret. You can follow these simple steps and you’ll be running XBMC in no time. Though I claim no fault for anything that may go wrong for you, I found these steps to work perfectly for me.
Open your terminal. I use Spotlight (command+space) and type terminal, press enter. Time to connect to your ATV2:
Enter
ssh root@apple-tv.local
The device will ask you to accept an RSA key fingerprint. Type yes and press enter. You will now be prompted for a password. Enter alpine.
The next step is to copy and paste each of the following codes, one at a time with pressing enter/return after each one, into the terminal.
apt-get install wget
wget -O- http://apt.awkwardtv.org/awkwardtv.pub | apt-key add -
echo "deb http://apt.awkwardtv.org/ stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/awkwardtv.list
echo "deb http://mirrors.xbmc.org/apt/atv2 ./" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xbmc.list
apt-get update
apt-get install org.xbmc.xbmc-atv2
You should be good to go! Your ATV2 might restart but simply press a button on your remote and you should see XBMC on the interface now!
Coming soon: A post on how to set up XBMC on your Linux Server to stream to your XBMC enabled ATV2.
