[AppleTV] Is it possible to install Firefox on Apple TV?

fostewi Wrote:Are you able to control Firefox with the apple remote? Or the iPod Remote?

Your best choice here is mobileairmouse

babbe Wrote:Your best choice here is mobileairmouse

Thanks for the reply...I have a few year old Apple mouse but I believe it is Blue Tooth only so I suspect it can not be used with Apple TV, correct? Or are you referring to a different apple mouse? I can't seem to find any info. Also, you would not be able to type text, right? Thanks.

Edit : just searched again and it seems there is a iPhone app called "Mobile Air Mouse Pro"..I assume this is what you are referring too...will investigate further. This would be great if I could use it to stream sites that do not have woorking apps (e.g. CBC, Justin.TV, etc.)

I have Firefox installed on my ATV and just purchased and installed Rowmote on my iPod Touch/ATV (I chose this one because I did not want to install the Patchstick and could not figure out how to install Air Mouse otherwise). The remote works fine for ATV but for some reason when I run Firefox on the ATV I do not see any Mouse pointer on the screen...anyone seen this before or know what might be wrong? Thanks.

UPDATE : I was able to "find" the mouse by using a USB mouse. It seems the issue is actually that the iPhone Romote app keyboard/mouse mode is not working with ATV (it works on my mac) even though the normal ATV remote mode works fine. I emailed the developer to see if he can help me...I would use Air Mouse but now that I have almost everything I need working on the ATV (USB, SMB, XBMC, BOXEE) I do not want to buy the Patchstick or ATVFlash just to use a browser but I really want it for videos I can't get through XBMC. I can't seem to find a version of the server for Air Mouse for ATV anywhere else.

best option to control firefox on ATV is with iphone's VNC Light app

to install vnc on atv:

reboot your appletv and you will have vnc working.

dafranca Wrote:best option to control firefox on ATV is with iphone's VNC Light app

to install vnc on atv:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
echo "Downloading VNC Server: 0.2MB Password is frontrow"
wget -q http://www.brgranite.com/temp/OSXvnc.7z
echo "Instaling VNC Server"
sudo 7za x OSXvnc.7z
rm OSXvnc.7z
chmod -R 755 OSXvnc/
sudo chown -R root:wheel OSXvnc/
sudo mv OSXvnc/ /Library/StartupItems/OSXvnc/
exit 0

reboot your appletv and you will have vnc working.

Thanks for the tip...I had just tried using synergy as well so I could at least use my laptop to control the ATV but the client would not run on ATV for some reason. This worked but I wonder how much of the limited ATV resources it is using to synch back and forth all the UI info and it also has a little lag making control a little challenging. Can I just kill the OSXvnc-keepalive and OSXvnc-server processes if I want to stop it?

I think you need the full version to control scroll bars too though I need to play with it more. Definitely nice to have an option now though I think I would prefer a simple mouse/keyboard app if it worked. Thanks for your help.

Thank you very much for the VNC script.
But is it normal that I can only view the apple TV screen? I am using TightVNC, should I switch to another client in order to be able to use mouse (and keyboard perhaps)?

dafranca Wrote:this script will install firefox + plugins, but you need nitotv installed... after atv reboots you will find firefox on: nitotv > Applications > Firefox

Code:

#!/bin/bash
sudo mount -uw /
filedir=/Users/frontrow/Firefoxtemp/
appdir=/Users/frontrow/Applications/
plugdir=/Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/
if [ ! -d /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/PlugIns/nitoTV.frappliance ]; then
    echo "You do not have nitoTV installed..."
    exit 0
fi
if [ ! -d "$appdir" ]; then
        mkdir $appdir
    sudo chown -R frontrow:frontrow $appdir
fi
if [ ! -d "$plugdir" ]; then
        sudo mkdir /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/
fi
if [ ! -d "$filedir" ]; then
    mkdir $filedir
fi
sudo chown -R frontrow:frontrow $filedir
cd $filedir
if [ ! -f /usr/bin/7za ]; then
    echo -n "Downloading 7za: 1.1MB"
    wget -q http://atvusb-creator.googlecode.com/svn-history/r121/trunk/atvusb-creator/atvusb-creator-1.0.b8/tools/osx/7za &
    while ps |grep $! &>/dev/null; do
          echo -n "."
            sleep 2
    done
    chmod 755 7za
    sudo mv -f 7za /usr/bin/
    sudo chown root:wheel /usr/bin/7za
fi
#### FIREFOX ####
echo "Downloading Firefox 3.0.4: 17.2MB"
wget -q http://mozilla-mirror.3347.voxcdn.com/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/3.5.6/mac/en-US/Firefox%203.5.6.dmg &
while ps |grep $! &>/dev/null; do
    echo -n "."
      sleep 2
done
echo -e "Installing Firefox"
echo "Y" | sudo hdiutil mount Firefox\ 3.5.6.dmg
sudo cp -r /Volumes/Firefox/Firefox.app/ "$appdir"Firefox.app/
sudo hdiutil unmount /Volumes/Firefox/
rm Firefox\ 3.5.6.dmg

### FLASH PLUGIN ####
echo "Downloading Flash Plugin: 5.4MB"
wget http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player_osx_ub.dmg.zip
echo "Instaling Flash Plugin"
unzip install_flash_player_osx_ub.dmg.zip
sudo hdiutil mount Install\ Flash\ Player\ 10\ UB.dmg
pax -r -z -f /Volumes/Install\ Flash\ Player\ 10\ UB/Adobe\ Flash\ Player.pkg/Contents/Archive.pax.gz
sudo hdiutil unmount /Volumes/Install\ Flash\ Player\ 10\ UB/
rm -Rd Flash\ Player.plugin/Contents/Resources/{c,d,f,i,j,k,n,p,r,s,t,z}*.lproj
sudo mv Flash\ Player.plugin/ "$plugdir"Flash\ Player.plugin
sudo rm -rdf *

### COREAUDIOKIT ####
echo "Downloading COREAUDIOKIT: 64KB"
wget http://www.brgranite.com/temp/CoreAuioKit.framework.7z
echo "Instaling COREAUDIOKIT"
sudo 7za x- CoreAuioKit.framework.7z
rm CoreAuioKit.framework.7z
sudo cp -r CoreAuioKit.framework /System/Library/Frameworks/
sudo chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreAudioKit.framework/

cd ..
sudo rm -rdf $filedir
sudo chmod -R 755 /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/
sudo chown -R root:wheel /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/
echo "ATV is rebooting!"
sudo reboot

Ok, 2nd try

I copied and pasted the script into the putty console, but that did not work.
So could you please explain to me (as a newbie) file name and location of the script and anything else I should consider?
Anyone else feel free to clear things up for me

fostewi Wrote:I wonder how much of the limited ATV resources it is using to synch back and forth all the UI info and it also has a little lag making control a little challenging

to find out how much memory and CPU is taking:

fostewi Wrote:Can I just kill the OSXvnc-keepalive and OSXvnc-server processes if I want to stop it

That is it... but next time it will reboot it will start again... to permanent remove it type:
sudo rm -rdf /Library/StartupItems/OSXvnc/

Thanks dafranca. I tried using top to get an idea. Do you use the Lite version and if so did you figure out how to navigate the browser scroll bar?

I also heard back from the developer of rowmote and the ATV problem is a known issue that he hopes to fix in a week or so...will play with this some more until then and then decide what works best for me. Thanks again for your help.

Bobby Blixberg Wrote:Thank you very much for the VNC script.
But is it normal that I can only view the apple TV screen? I am using TightVNC, should I switch to another client in order to be able to use mouse (and keyboard perhaps)?

AppleTV frontrow Interface doesn't refresh the screen... but once you load an application it will refresh

Bobby Blixberg Wrote:Ok, 2nd try

I copied and pasted the script into the putty console, but that did not work.
So could you please explain to me (as a newbie) file name and location of the script and anything else I should consider?
Anyone else feel free to clear things up for me

http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/Firefox

fostewi Wrote:Thanks dafranca. I tried using top to get an idea. Do you use the Lite version and if so did you figure out how to navigate the browser scroll bar?

zoon in and click on the scroll bar! you have to play with it, because there is a learn curve.