Crystalbuntu Instalation Guide – Part 4 – The First Boot

Posted by Mark - December 2, 2011 - Crystalbuntu, How To

Part 4 – The First Boot

At this point you should have already modified the AppleTV hardware by removing the Hard Drive and fan as well as replacing the WiFi adapter with a Brodcom CryastalHD card. You should also have completed the steps to build a CrystalHD for AppleTV boot thumb-drive and modified the system files within to allow booting with no internal hard drive.

If all the above steps are complete, go ahead and attach your Apple TV to your TV with either the component cables or the HDMI connection, connect the LAN port to your network and insert the AppleTV bootable thumb-drive. Once it’s all connected, turn on your TV and plug in the power cord to the AppleTV. The AppleTV does not have proper ACPI support, so there is no power button or real suspend mode; if it’s plugged in, it’s turned on.

The First boot

Booting an AppleTV is not an instantaneous process, in fact it will normally take about two to five minutes to fully boot into XBMC. However the first boot will take significantly longer! The first time you power on the Apple TV you should expect the following:

30 seconds of blank screen, nothing at all
20 – 30 seconds of the ATV-Bootloader logo (An AppleTV with a Penguin)
10+ minutes of text as Ubuntu starts up for the first and updates files from the internet. At this time the AppleTV will download and install XBMC as well as any updates available from STMLabs.com. Currently this will include the May and June updates.
A few minutes of a totally blank screen and then a reboot.
30 seconds of blank screen, nothing at all
20 – 30 seconds of the ATV-Bootloader logo (An AppleTV with a Penguin)
5+ minutes of text as Ubuntu continues to update. This update will include an change to the XBMC file structure and takes only a few minutes.
1 – 2 minutes as X11 and XBMC start for the first time.

After about 15 minutes, the Apple TV should suddenly fill the screen with the XBMC user interface.

It’s all very interesting to watch, but you should not need to do anything during this process. It’s a good idea to watch for the first five or ten minutes just to be sure that there are no error messages, (like a bad IP address or the inability to resolve DNS addresses) but once the screen starts showing that Ubuntu is downloading and installing updates you can safely assume everything is setup correctly. Feel free to leave it alone and come back in fifteen minutes.

Running XBMC

If all went according to plan, the AppleTV will boot, the screen will flash and then you will be greeted with the XBMC home window. In the future, a typical power up will take about two minutes since there will be no need to update anything from the internet.

A typical power on from re-boot or cold start will look like this:

30 seconds of blank screen, nothing at all
20 – 30 seconds of the ATV-Bootloader logo (An AppleTV with a Penguin)
30 seconds as of scrolling text as Ubuntu starts up (Longer if an update is available)
15 seconds of blank screen (some flickering is normal as X11 starts)
After a total of 2 minutes, XBMC should be running

Pingback: Crystalbuntu Installation Guide – Part 3 – AppleTV Hardware Modification | QuixVenture.com
Andrew Morse

I’m excited to try this mod. I’ve been running XBMC on the stock ATV 40gb drive without the crystalhd decoder and am curious how you would compare the performance of XBMC running purely on the USB flash drive to running it on the hard drive. Is it generally faster, slower or about the same? Perhaps not video playback but menu effects, browsing media content, general navigation, and library operations? Thanks for your very comprehensive and easy to follow guide!

QuixVenture

@Andrew – I have never actually used Crystalbuntu on the hard drive, but I can assure you that running from USB is very responsive. The key for me was to get silent video player and the hard drive was just too loud for my taste.

Good luck with mod and let us know how it goes!

1Troy1

I did as you said then I go back and nothing but blue screen for almost an hour.. What went wrong? How do I fix it?

http://www.quixventure.com/ Mark (QuixVenture)

Hi 1Troy1 –

it looks like the most recent up date to Crystalbuntu has added new nVidia drivers that can cause this. If you can login to the ATV via SSH than try running this to downgrade the driver:

sudo wget http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/100.14.19/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.19-pkg1.run
sudo sh NVIDIA*.run
rm NVIDIA*

1Troy1

Thank You sir,

I tried that and received this error, how to I exit X server?

ERROR: You appear to be running an X server; please exit X before

installing. For further details, please see the section INSTALLING

THE NVIDIA DRIVER in the README available on the Linux driver

download page at http://www.nvidia.com.
1Troy1

I found out how to stop x server.. I loaded the file now just blue screen again.. I must have messed something up.. I just want to get my 1080i 50hz Mitsubishi to work with this.. I had it working in 720 somehow.. Now I have nothing again.. Can you please help me?

Thanks,

Troy

http://www.quixventure.com/ Mark (QuixVenture)

Hi Troy –

Generally the X session is actually XBMC running but in a mode that cannot be displayed on the TV.

My best advice at this point is to go to the STMLabs.com forum and post the question there. Give a description of your set-up and copy your xorg.conf file in the post so that we can all take a look. Chances are that you just need to tweak that file a little bit more.

Sorry this is ending up as such a complicated install!

Steve Platt

Hi, i’m getting stuck on first boot with a message installing XBMC dependencies. I thought it was trying to download something from the net but my netwrok is fine and all other downloads are OK. Just sits ont he XBMC depdencies indefinatley…not sure what I’m doing wrong here so any help would be much appreciated.

http://www.quixventure.com/ Mark (QuixVenture)

It was probably an issue with a particular repository. Has it cleared up now? I have been able to rebuild just fine this week.

Marc Bassett

I am getting stuck on my first boot. I see a load of text come up on screen, and then it goes black. But it stays black and I have left if over an hour, and nothing further happens. Any thoughts?

http://www.quixventure.com/ Mark (QuixVenture)

Its probably an nVidia driver issue. See if you can SSH into the ATV and run these commands:

sudo wget http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/100.14.19/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.19-pkg1.run
sudo sh NVIDIA*.run
rm NVIDIA*

1Troy1

Found my problem. The video drivers are for 60hz. and my TV is 1080_50hz.. ANyone know how to fix this? I modified the xorg.conf file which allowed 720, but am still unable to get 1080i.

http://www.quixventure.com/ Mark (QuixVenture)

Hi troy –

I have no experience with this, but I have seen others add this following to that Mode line in the xorg.conf:

Modes “1920x1080_60_0″ “1920x1080_50″ “1920x1080_24″ “1920x1080_60i” “1920x1080_50i”

So, I think you just need to change the resolution to 1080i and add the “1920x1080_50i” option to your mode line (in addition to the other modes in the guide.)

1Troy1

Still nothing. Now 720 doesnt worl. What to do?

dilink

first how do u have it set up..did u take the fan and hardrive out and runing it through a usb..

John Herman

Thanks for the great guide. I’m trying my first boot and I get nothing using the hdmi output. Is this normal? I did not do any of the mods for component outputs.

John Herman

I remade my usb and now I’m getting video out of the hdmi port. I also went directly to my tv rather than through my receiver. Maybe that was the issue.

Isaac Murillo

Hey Mark! I just bought a used ATV1 and did exactly as you said. Everything is PERFECT! BUT…I want to use this to play movies off an external hard drive. Can I do this? In other words, how are people able to watch their own movies on this if you had us take out the internal HD? Can I run a usb hub to the ATV1 and have the usb stick to boot off of and then plug in a external HD? Please help! I have NO idea how to watch my movies now. FYI-I have an iMac I would like to stream movies wirelessly to if that is possible cause my ATV1 is plugged via Ethernet to my Apple Airport Express. HELP!

http://www.quixventure.com/ Mark (QuixVenture)

Hi – Yes! You can use a USB Hub to add ports. Most will work, but be VERY careful since there is not much protection on the circuit and some hubs may pull too much power. I use a cheap hub myself and have no issues, but be sure to use a self powered USB hard drive.

As for streaming, this is the whole point of removing the drive! Just make sure that you have shared folders on your Mac and connect to them via FTP, SMB or AFP in XBMC.

http://www.facebook.com/isaacmurillo20 Isaac Murillo

Thanks for the quick reply Mark! So Im gonna go home tonight and try to do that. So all I need to do is literally go to my preferences on the Mac and click file sharing right? Add the folder with all my movies (my iTunes Directory)?? right? Then add that directory to XMBC?

Also, with regards to my External USB, is there a certain format? (Fat32, Mac Journaled/Case Sensitive) My External USB is powered and does not show up in XMBC…where can I find it? THANKS and sorry for all the questions. I hope others reading find this discussion useful since I just dropped $150 for this ATV1. lol

http://www.quixventure.com/ Mark (QuixVenture)

yes you can, just make sure that the drive is self powered as the USB port on the ATV is not well protected and you do not want to pull to much power off of it.
http://www.facebook.com/adam.p.carter Adam Patrick Carter

hello mark ive got a problem its driving me crazy i am tryin to install crytalbuntu and it always gets stuck on the black screen you say ssh into it how can i do this if its a fresh non jailbroken apple tv thanks…
http://twitter.com/readingsbyautmn Autumn

So I did the upgrade but kept in the hard drive & fan in the atv. Getting the following error message “Internet connection failed”. Used an ethernet cable too. Any ideas?
Tony E

I haven’t been successful yet and am reaching out for help. I get to the screen where you said “30 seconds as of scrolling text as Ubuntu starts up (Longer if an update is available)” then I get a flash then the ‘No Signal’ logo is dancing around my screen.
I have waited upwards a 30min at times then restarted the device. I am using component. I have made the appropriate edits to xorg.conf then restarted… same results. I have downgraded my Nvidia driver and am still having the same results.
http://www.facebook.com/austinisgroovy Austin Fiedler

I have been running crystalbuntu for months now and today I went to turn it on and after its usual stream of text I get a failure message, but if I unplug the Ethernet, it boots! What’s going on?