Need some pointers on CrystalBuntu on ATV1

(2012-05-02 06:20)primus11 Wrote:  Here is another question for an aspiring Crystalbuntu user.

I currently have ATV flash "firecore" installed on my ATV1. I want to install Crystalbuntu to the HDD so I can use the USB for a portable hard drive until I get a NAS in place. So I am assuming the proper steps would be to uninstall ATV flash "firecore" to the stock ATV settings, update to the latest firmware, switch to RGB High AV settings, install the CrystalHD card, then install Crystalbuntu to the internal drive. Does it make any sense to deviate from these steps? I was thinking of booting up in between the Crystal HD card install and the Crystalbuntu install just to make sure everything still works.

Also, I can't seem to find much on using a USB drive with Crystalbuntu, is it pretty much plug and play through XBMC or are there other configuration steps I need to take through the command line? Will a USB attached Mac OS Extended partitioned portable HDD work with Crystalbuntu or do I need to reformat?

In the Wiki for installing Crystalbuntu, step 2. is "Open Terminal, navigate to the downloaded file, and enter the following command followed by return:" So I understand how to enter gunzip USB.img.gz command after I have navigated to the file, but how do I navigate to the file? Perhaps I need to just go read up on the basics of using terminal. Is it like DOS? CD C:\downloaded file.exe? Something like that? Sorry for such a newbie question.

Once I start to install Crystalbuntu, I need to plug in a USB hub, jumpdrive and keyboard. Does this ever give anyone problems? It says in the wiki to log in using atv as both username and password, is there any navigation required to get to this point? Are there any Linux basics I will need to know other than what is written down in the wiki?

And since it asks you to log in as atv for username and password, I am also assuming this replaces the 'frontrow' username and password I currently use to FTP files to the ATV using Cyberduck. When using Cyberduck, I probably won't be able to connect to appletv.local after installing Crystalbuntu anymore either. What is the method for FTP'ing files to the Linux based ATV?

Again, thanks for all the help, this is a awesome community! Any tips and tricks people have used would be helpful as I am really hoping to plan in out ahead of time to get this done in a few hours and not end up troubleshooting for hours on end when it doesn't work.

You can install the BCHD at any time, since it works both under the original modded OS and Crystalbuntu. It doesn't matter when that happens. You also don't have to uninstall ATV Flash, just make sure you are on ATV OS 3.0.2 (the act of updating will flash the HDMI controller chip with new firmware) and do the RGB settings.

USB on Crystalbuntu is plug and play. It will read HFS+ (Mac formatted) drives just fine. When in XBMC, USB HDDs even auto-mount in Files.

Pretty much that (even the cd command is the same).

I use a USB hub on mine and it works out just fine. Never had any issues with it.

For the most part you won't need to really know or deal with anything in Linux. Crystalbuntu will boot right into XBMC, and updates are handled automatically.

You can keep using Cyberduck, but you will use SFTP instead of FTP. Replace "appletv.local" with the IP address the ATV1 gets (you can see this in XBMC's system info, or from your router's settings on your network).

Thank you Ned!

I keep drifting over to the Crystalbuntu forum and with every problem encountered, the solution is generally something like this "Just ssh in, sudo ~chmod blah blah blah" So I am just trying to do a little bit of preparation on my part so I don't hit any serious roadblocks when I install.

So do you use SFTP for all file transfers or just when you ssh in for troubleshooting?

Do you recommend any other mods to the stock Crystalbuntu install? There is a interesting thread talking about adding code to support a Logitech Harmony One remote I was thinking about trying out.

Thanks again!

One warning about using SFTP, make sure the permissions are set up the way you need them before transferring any files. You cannot elevate permissions via SFTP. Other than that it works fine. I use it from time to time, you can also use SCP from a CLI prompt if necessary.

Thx Ned, for flash contents do you have any suggestions? Usually, like i stumbled upon with wifi, guides are for different versions of linux nothing specific to apple tv. Any luck with rowmote and remote hd ?

Btw in /usr/local/share/xbmc, addon folder i don't see the addons i installed from zipfile, are they installed in another directory?

XBMC addons would be stored in, assuming Crystalbuntu, /root/.xbmc/addons

(2012-05-03 03:30)pumkinut Wrote:  XBMC addons would be stored in, assuming Crystalbuntu, /root/.xbmc/addons

If memory serves me well there is no such folder for me. But as soon as i can ssh back into it i will check. Lost SSH ability when trying to enable wifi card, trying to figure out how to get back SSH.

(2012-05-03 02:08)monrealli Wrote:  Thx Ned, for flash contents do you have any suggestions? Usually, like i stumbled upon with wifi, guides are for different versions of linux nothing specific to apple tv. Any luck with rowmote and remote hd ?

Btw in /usr/local/share/xbmc, addon folder i don't see the addons i installed from zipfile, are they installed in another directory?

I'm not sure if Sam (the guy who makes Crystalbuntu) has put up the archive from the old Crystalbuntu forums yet, but there were a bunch of guides for various things in there.

Crystalbuntu uses a pretty old version of Ubuntu, which limits us to older browsers (unless you want to compile them yourselves) and other various limits. However, the latest chatter is that Sam is working hard on Crystalbuntu 2, which is built on a much newer version of Ubuntu, which will make things a lot easier to set up. IIRC, this includes wifi, browsers, emulators, and more. I think because of Crystalbuntu 2 will be out sometime soon (not sure when) that a lot of people aren't bothering making any new guides, since things will be easier (and a little different).

Rowmote and Remote HD appear to only have helper apps for Mac OS X (which includes the original ATV OS), but other XBMC-specific remotes work, and you can even use VNC for over-all system control.

Crystalbuntu2 would be great then, coz i'm starting to lose it. When trying to fix one thing, i mess another. How do i get ssh capability back? Stmlabs is a mess, you are right i think people are just expectig buntu2 info is scattered all over. Btw is xbmcbuntu is good? Coz it's pretty new compared to crystalbuntu

For getting back ssh, iound this, but what then, after doing that how do i revert things back to get ssh back?

Be careful when editing configuration files in the /etc directory. If you do not know what you are doing, you may cause your machine's network interfaces to stay down after a reboot. In that case, you will need to physically log into one of the machine's ttys using a keyboard, and revert your changes because you have no network access.
Ctrl+Alt+F<1-6>

XBMCbuntu won't run out-of-the-box on an ATV1 due to various driver tweaks needed (IIRC). I believe that was the reason Crystalbuntu used an older Ubuntu for so long, because newer versions didn't play nicely with the ATV1 hardware. Crystalbuntu is tailored to run specifically on an ATV1, so the various hardware components (GPU, etc) and drivers for them will always be the focus for it.

Not sure why SSH would stop working or not. Best bet would be to ask on the Crystalbuntu forums.

(2012-05-03 04:59)Ned Scott Wrote:  Not sure why SSH would stop working or not. Best bet would be to ask on the Crystalbuntu forums.

Ned i think i found why it stopped, after a fresh install i had the same issue after tried to change folder permission for etc.

I wanted to move wpa_supplicant.conf file to /etc, it denied me access so i tried to set permission like i did for xbmc. See below. Now i can't login with cyberduck.

lbuntu:~$ sudo chmod 755 -R /etc
sudo: /etc/sudoers is mode 0755, should be 0440
atv@Crystalbuntu:~$ atv@Crystalbuntu:~$ sudo chmod 755 -R /etc/sudoers


What a painful linux experiment, all i wanted to do is enable my internal wifi card.