[dickalan]

As you can see from this thread here: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=130945
I'm brand new to ATV as of this week! However, I've been running XBMC on Xbox for about 3 years now. I'm also currently running XBMC on a Windows 7 laptop, which works perfectly. I do NOT have a Mac, which made the whole setup a little more complicated by I got through it.

I'm proud to have gotten as far as I have in my initial setup, within one day's time. However, I've run into some snags and will probably continue to run into issues as long as I continue to customize things just the way I like. My goals is to completely replace my Xbox with the ATV 1st generation. I'm hoping for it to be a completely independent HTPC.

Setup:
-Hardware: ATV 1st gen. NO upgraded graphics card
-OS: I Used http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/ as my operating system w/ (XBMC & BOXEE & SSH) installed
-Installed NitoTV to enable USB, followed instructions from here: http://www.todaywasawesome.com/enable-us...-apple-tv/

TWO PROBLEMS SO FAR...
(with my ATV1 setup)

1) My 2tb external hard drive (where all my media is) is plugged into the ATV's USB. The hard drive is formatted to NTFS. Supposedly it should just show up within XBMC. And it also should under the NitoTV "File" menu. The actual location it is supposed to show up under is /mnt/Scratch/Volumes/my hard drive. But it's not there.

Since it's not showing up automatically I've tried setting it up myself. Tried manually adding the source; Add source>Add network location>Protocol. From here, I don't know how to point it to the above "location" or what protocol to use?!

I did experiment with a jump drive, I formatted it to FAT32 (cause I read you're supposed to), and it DID show up in XBMC and within the OS X>NitoTV File menu. However, I don't want to reformat my hard drive to FAT32. I highly doubt FAT32 is what people meant when they say you can hook external hard drives to the ATV1, ...right?!

2) I can't get the hulu plugin to work..? I downloaded bluecop repository, transfered the zip onto the ATV hard drive, installed from zip. Bluecop installs no problem. When I try to download hulu it sometimes won't even download. When it does download (after rebooting and uninstalling & reinstalling bluecop) the hulu plugin gets installed. But when I try to run it, it gives me an HTTP Error 401: Unauthorized.

If these things can't be resolved than I will be very disappointed, these features are two of the main reasons I caved and bought the ATV. *yikes*

Thanks for taking the time to read this guys, I really appreciate it.
Please help!!

[davilla]

dump atv1(osx) and install linux on it. you will be much happier. there are several custom distros to choose from.

[dickalan]

(1) Will it solve the above problems?

(2) Which one is considered the best distro?
(3) And what are the runner-ups?

I read that you need a 4gb jump drive for crystalbuntu. I only have a 2gb jump drive. That's why I just went ahead with OS X.
(4) Are there any work-arounds for the 4gb jump drive?

(5) Can you launch firefox from a linux XBMC OS?
I haven't got firefox working on my current setup yet either, I haven't even tried. But that's my next step...

*phew* that was a lot of questions...

[dickalan]

Holy. Crap.

So far Crystalbuntu has been the biggest hassle of my life and put a sour taste of Linux in mouth.

Nothing works out of the box. Keep in mind, I know nothing about Linux. Now my component cables don't work, my sound doesn't work, the internal wireless card for the ATV doesn't work, my universal remote doesn't want to seem to "read the id" of ATV's IR. My hard drive still isn't showing up. ATV OSX did almost all of these without a hitch.

What the heck is going on?!?! Why does everybody love this?

[Ned Scott]

Component video out needs a custom file. If you're still interested in giving Crystalbuntu a shot, I'll see if I can dig out an example file, though I think there is one on http://stmlabs.com

Most people on Crystalbuntu don't use the internal wireless because they've replaced it with a Broadcom Crystal HD (wiki) card, which gives the ATV1 all new life. I hear there is a GUI utility in the works, but no ETA.

To fix sound you'll have to SSH into the ATV1 (username/password: atv) and type in:

./configure

and use the sound options. Press "space" to set an output and then follow the instructions for what to set in XBMC.

Remotes learned by the ATV1 won't work in Crystalbuntu as that's a feature that wasn't ported over. Universal remotes that are seen as Apple remotes will work.

Not sure why the internal drive wouldn't be showing up at this point.

For most people, especially those who've replaced the wifi card with a BCHD (wiki), Crystalbuntu (wiki) is a great fit. However, yeah, it can drive you insane if you have to set some things up in a slightly-different way than most.

If you need any help getting the original ATV OS back on there, shoot me a message. I probably have a link somewhere. If not, I have a saved disk image that should help.

I should note, Sam, the guy who makes the Crystalbuntu package, is working hard on a big update that should help many of these areas. For now you might want to just go back to the original ATV OS and then just try out Crystalbuntu 2.0 on a USB drive when it comes out sometime in the near future.