Install SSH with a Take 2 Patchstick for the AppleTV

POST

MAIL

Posted February 22, 2008 at 6:40pm by iClarified

These are detailed instructions on how to create a Take 2 Patchstick to install SSH onto your AppleTV.

In order to perform this tutorial you need a usb stick that has been freshly formated in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.

UPDATE***: I have posted an EASIER version of this tutorial HERE.

Step One
Connect your USB Stick to the computer.

Step Two
Insert your OSX Tiger Install CD into the computer.

Step Three
Download the Patchstick 2.0 prep files from here:
Small USB Stick (~1GB, 512MB)
Large USB Stick (~4GB)

Step Four
Extract the folder Patchstick from Patchstick2.0.zip onto the Desktop

Install SSH with a Take 2 Patchstick for the AppleTV

Step Five
Download and install Pacifist from here

Step Eight
Launch Pacifist from your Applications folder.

Step Nine
Click the large Open Package... button.

Step Ten
Navigate to the /System/Installation/Packages directory on your OS X Tiger Install CD and select Essentials.pkg. The click the Open button.

Step Eleven
On your desktop, open the Patchstick folder and navigate to the Files/System/Library/Extensions directory. Do this by double clicking on Files, then double click System, then double click Library, then double click Extensions.

Step Twelve
Now we will copy a list of files from the Pacifist to your Extensions folder you have open. Use the Find bar in Pacifist to search for the name of the file and then once found simply drag it to the open Extensions folder.

AppleACPIPlatform.kext
AppleAPIC.kext
AppleEFIRuntime.kext
AppleFileSystemDriver.kext
AppleFlashNVRAM.kext
AppleHDA.kext
AppleHPET.kext
AppleIRController.kext
AppleRTC.kext
AppleSMBIOS.kext
AppleSMC.kext
AudioIPCDriver.kext
BootCache.kext
GeForce.kext
IO80211Family.kext
IOACPIFamily.kext
IOATAFamily.kext
IOAudioFamily.kext
IOGraphicsFamily.kext
IOHIDFamily.kext
IONDRVSupport.kext
IONetworkingFamily.kext
IOPCIFamily.kext
IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext
IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily.kext
IOStorageFamily.kext
IOUSBFamily.kext
IOUSBMassStorageClass.kext
NVDANV40Hal.kext
NVDAResman.kext
OSvKernDSPLib.kext
System.kext

As an example I will do the first one. Enter AppleACPIPlatform.kext into the find bar.

Pacifist will locate the file and highlight it.

Drag the file to the open Extensions folder. You will be prompted to confirm the extraction. Click the Extract button.

You may be asked for your Administrator Name and Password. Enter these then click the Ok button.

You should now see the file in your Extensions folder.

Do this for every extension in the list above until you have 32 files in the Extensions folder.

Step Thirteen
Now open the Patchstick folder from your desktop again. This time navigate to Files/System/Library/Frameworks.

Step Fourteen
Search for Kerberos.framework and copy it to the Frameworks folder...

Step Fifteen
Now in Pacifist open BaseSystem.pkg from the Mac OS X Install CD.

Step Sixteen
Search for and copy CoreFoundation.framework and IOKit.framework to your Frameworks folder.

Step Seventeen
From your Patchstick folder on the Desktop navigate to Files/usr/lib. Find these files and copy them to the lib folder.
dyld
libgcc_s.1.dylib
libncurses.5.4.dylib
libSystem.B.dylib

Step Eighteen
From your Patchstick folder on the Desktop navigate to Files/usr/lib/system. Find libmathCommon.A.dylib and copy it to the system folder.

Step Nineteen
Download the Mac OS X 10.4.9 Combo Updater from here

Open the download with Pacifist. You will find a file called AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext in the /System/Library/Extensions folder.

Open the Patchstick folder on the desktop again and navigate to the System/Library/Extensions folder. Drag the AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext file from the Pacifist into here.

Step Twenty
Download the AppleTV 1.1 Updater from here

Open the download with Pacifist. You will find a file called boot.efi in the Files/usr/standalone/i386 folder

Open the Patchstick folder on the desktop again and open the Files folder. Drag the boot.efi file from pacifist into this folder.

Step Twenty One
Open a new Terminal window by launching it from Applications:Utilities.

Step Twenty Two
Execute the following commands into the Terminal window:

cd ~/Desktop/Patchstick

chmod 755 /Files/boot.efi

sudo ./createPatchstick. If prompted for a password enter your Administrator password.

Notice the last command listed the different disks present. You must figure out which disk is for your usb stick. Mine was /dev/disk2. Now enter sudo ./createPatchstick /dev/disk2. (Make sure to remember to replace /dev/disk2 with your usb stick location).

You will now be prompted to confirm the partitioning of your usb stick. Type yes then hit enter.

The script will partition your usb stick and copy over the necessary files. This will take about five minutes. When done you will be told that your disk is now unmounted and ready to patch your AppleTV!!!!

THANKS***: Just want to say thanks to everyone who helped me out with this, especially ton, who was a great help!

Follow iClarified

Matt Browne - September 18, 2008 at 6:40pm

The Apple TV 1.1 Updater link no longer works. Does anyone know where I can find this?

Reply · Like

Cousincocaine - June 9, 2008 at 9:40am

chmod 755 /Files/boot.efi is wrong (somewere around step 20) and needs to be chmod 755 Files/boot.efi or chmod 755 ~/Desktop/PatchStick/Files/boot.efi nice tutorial. cc

crazyastro - March 12, 2008 at 12:55pm

There is an error with the steps outlined above
I had no problem creating the patchstick on a 4GB USB drive following these instructions. However, each time there was a kernel panic before it would install SSH, so I could never get into the ATV. For me, I had to use the instructions at atv4windows, to get the patchstick working. but the files are the same, so there is probably a small error in the scripts or something. after I got SSH installed, it was easy to get all the codecs installed.
I am currently uploading 720p movies at podtropolis.com if you want to play 720p resolution movies on your Take 2 unit.

jupil - March 12, 2008 at 12:46pm

hmmm, great tutorial but it doesn't work here. My tv is almost 1 year and i made the patchstick with tiger shipped with my imac 1,5 year ago. I made my first on a 1Gb stick and got kernel panic's. I made then a new one on a 4 Gb stick and then i saw couple times apple logo and then i had to choose language, then asked to reboot, intro movie and then all was normal like before but no ssh enabled. What is the problem please i'm already busy tried 3 days. help greetzz Jupil

jam_uk - March 12, 2008 at 5:28am

iClarifed - my take as a newbie on the subject. If this helps with your new tutoiral: This morning I have successfully patched my ATV. Thanks to the Riddler for nudging me in the right direction. The Patchstick I created has worked. I used this tutorial on Leopard with Tiger install disk and ATV 2.0: https://www.iclarified.com/708/install-ssh-with-a-take-2-patchstick-for-the-appletv Note, step 22: chmod 755 /Files/boot.efi should be chmod 755 Files/boot.efi If you get any errors about cannot change directory then just reformat the USB drive a few times, make sure it's named correctly. Once the patchstick is created, TURN OFF your ATV, unplug and leave it for 5mins. Plug is the USB patchstick, switch on the ATV, wait to boot then press menu + '-'. It will now restart and boot from the patchsitck, you should see lines of code showing you the install. Mine at this point stopped mentioning the Kernel, I wasn't sure if it had completed or failed. After a few mins I then again pressed menu + '-' to restart the ATV and removed the USB patchsitck. The restart, repair, restore menu came up and I selected restart. The ATV rebooted as normal, then on the Mac I successfully connected via SSH using: ssh frontrow@AppleTV.local and password frontrow This is far as I have got so far. I hope that helps anyone with the same issue.

iClarified - March 12, 2008 at 1:34am

I will be posting a new easier tutorial for creating a PatchStick tomorrow. Please stay tuned...

jam_uk - March 11, 2008 at 6:27pm

Sorry: then I CANT

jam_uk - March 11, 2008 at 6:26pm

I am having the same issues as: kakkalla Patch stick created, but installing, running the patcstick seems to be fruitless. Just goes to the restart restore screen, then I can connect via SSH. Same config also, Mac Book Pro on leopard, ATV 2.0. Any helpers?

Vikash - March 9, 2008 at 9:48pm

I am having the same problem Adam has, please help out :(

kakkalla - March 8, 2008 at 10:12pm

I thought I would give this installation another go but got stuck at Step Twelve. The instructions state to use the OSX Tiger Install CD (note CD). However, I have the original disk that I purchased when Tiger was released. This is a DVD and this is where I run into problems. For example, the first file I have to find using Pacifist is AppleACPIPlatform.kext. The author also demonstrates this in one of the screenshots. However, this file does NOT exist on my DVD. What am I doing wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated

kakkalla - March 8, 2008 at 12:49pm

Please excuse all my queries. Although computer literate to a great extent, unix, codes etc. are not my cup of tea. I have tried this three times now. I plug in the usb drive into the back of the atv. I hold down the menu and '-' buttons and the atv restarts from the usb stick (it has a large light and is 4GB) and within about 10 secs, I am asked to select the language. Then I am asked whether I want to restart, run diagnostics or restore. I select restart. One other time, I ran diagnostics and everything checked out fine. I had followed another tutorial where the atv display a whole bunch of line of code (but that method failed as well). Should I be seeing the same thing with this method? Now, I remove the usb stick, unplug the power cord to the atv, plug the power back in and the atv starts up again. However, I keep getting connect to host AppleTV.local port 22: Connection refused when I try to ssh into the atv. My questions, as a newbie are: 1. Should I insert the usb stick into the atv while the atv is powered or should I remove the power first and then insert it? 2. When I remove the usb stick, should I disconnect the power to the atv first and then unplug it or am I meant to unplug it while the atv is on, then disconnect the power, wait a while, and reconnect the power. 3. I carried out the instructions in this guide on a 2.16 GHz Inten Core Duo laptop running Verions 10.4.11. Does this matter? 4. I received my Apple TV just 3 days ago. Is there something new in the hardware that makes a difference? I even tried the guide shown at http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/Take2patch on the machine mentioned above and got the same results. So maybe it is the hardware? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for any advice. By the way, the guide is absolutely brilliant. The instructions are clear and the diagrams are outstanding. I don't know who set this, but I am very impressed. Excellent work.

jlemus - March 5, 2008 at 3:18pm

In the example the author of this article gave, there is a clear error in the script where it fails to add a gpt partition. If this does not succeed, you will not have a valid bootable usb drive. What I have encountered is that for whatever reason, the resource may be busy and executing a gpt add may fail. I simply just inserted a simple echo statement right before that instruction and that has proven to be enough of a delay to allow the resource to free up and do the gpt add successfully. I was able to get ssh working using the methods outlined in the awkward site with some simple modifications and not needing to use Pacifist by simply: adding some missing files to the patchstick-root and patchstick partition (/usr/bin/sed, and all ssh and gen-key files as well as those in libexec) , copying over the master.passwd file, making sure the files in installer.d directory where executable, and fixing the sed path of the ssh installer script. This got rid of many errors that showed up on the console, and I can easily ssh into ATV either using ssh -1 or just ssh frontrow@appetv.local. On execution of all the patch files, it has been widely reported that the system will panic. This is ok, since the patchstick has already done it's work and installed all files. Just hold down the menu and "-" keys together for a few secs and apple tv should reboot (but make sure you remove the usb dongle). Hope this helps.

crazyastro - March 4, 2008 at 9:25am

so after days of trying and re-trying to get the patchstick working thru my Mac (I tried this method under Leopard, then installed Tiger on an external drive using the original method on awkwardtv), nothing worked.

I finally tried the guide and video at atv4windows and it worked like a charm on the first try. i'm not sure where the disconnect is between these two methods, because they do exactly the same thing, with exactly the same files. *NOTE* I only used windows to make the patchstick. it got further than the Mac patchstick, installed ssh, which I was then able to connect to from my Mac.

copied the numerous codecs over and got AFP installed. easy, easy. the hard step is truly the patchstick. going to try to get the usb drive working tonight.

Adam - March 1, 2008 at 7:57pm

I plug in the patchstick and everything goes fine until I get this "failed load extension com.apple.driver.appleACPIPlatform. Anyone have a solution to this problem? Thanks

crazyastro - March 1, 2008 at 4:41pm

i tried connecting after every reboot and it still says connection refused.
i'm not sure where to go from here.

Jakob - March 1, 2008 at 2:45pm

I had the same result as crazyastro, where it reads All Done, then does a kernel panic, after reboot, it asks to start again, run diagnostics or recreate. I chose start again. And HURRAY, SSH working. I now have everything running: Media Cloud, AFP, ATVFILES, WMV and much much more... THANX a million.... So just ignore the kernel panic and try to type following from within terminal: ssh -1 frontrow@AppleTV.local (If prompted for password type frontrow) If the above works SSH is enabled...

crazyastro - March 1, 2008 at 11:50am

i should have also mentioned after the ---AppleTV Patchstick--- section, there is a --- /stuff/installer.d/* --- section where it does says invalid destination port, but it also says No such file or directory , flushing the buffer cache, then... All Done!.... etc.....

crazyastro - March 1, 2008 at 11:42am

okay, so i went out and got a 4GB SanDisk Cruzer.

Used the larger patchstick download, followed all the instructions.

This time, the ATV booted from the patchstick, loaded drivers, ran through a bunch of things...

However, it looks like a kernel panic right at the end?

Here's the last few lines of what I can see on my screen, tho the left edge is cut off and I can't reposition the screen to see any more:

(After ---AppleTV Patchstick--- section, it says:) All Done! 1 exited (signal 0, exit 0)panic(cpu 0 caller 0x00338BC7): init died at last Exception:

gger called: trace, Format - Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack) ....this is followed by a bunch of numbers , the first line goes like this:

bbec8 : 0x128d1f (0x3c9474 0x6fbbeec 0x131ed4 0x0)....

the last 3 lines look like this: trace terminated-invalid frame pointer 0xbffffdf8 el version: in Kernel Version 8.8.1: Thu Mar 29 20:43:21 CEST 2007; senthex:/AppleTVSSE3/BUILD/obj/RELEASE_I386

any idea what my next steps should be? thanks for any help! :)

Seth - March 1, 2008 at 2:19am

I can confirm that this guide does not work with AppleTV Take 2s that were bought recently. At least, not on mine bought today, using two different methods. My patchstick successfully was created, but when using it, I had the Apple logo show up on screen twice, then it asked me for language settings. Finally, it asked me if I wanted to reset or restore. SSH did not work. Desperate for an updated tutorial.

Seth - February 29, 2008 at 11:04pm

Any news on how it'll work with a new AppleTV? I created the Patchstick as laid out and it didn't work. Any help would be greatly appreciated.