Comments on: How to fix an upsized Apple TV stuck in 1.0 software

By: Joe McReynolds

Joe McReynolds — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:46:19 +0000

I upgraded my 160 HD to a 320 HD from TechRestore last December, 2009. Apple issued a recent update to Software 3.0.1, I think, and the upgrade failed. Nothing has worked. Will the process you describe here for Apple's latest upgrade? And can I do it using Windows 7. I don't have a Mac? Any suggestions would be helpful.

By: Marcus

Marcus — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:21:45 +0000

Is the AppleTV OS Update to be placed in the PATCHSTICK mounted partition in the finder?

By: jcmendez

jcmendez — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:32:20 +0000

I actually upgraded the AppleTV recently to 3.0.1 with this method and it works. For some reason, ATVFlash expects a partition scheme slightly different to what my ATV currently has. So the script that worked for me was

012 fsck.hfsplus -f /dev/sda1
013 mount -t hfsplus -o rw,force /dev/sda1 /OSBoot
014 sleep 1
015
016 # if we successfully mount /OSBoot
017 if [ -f "/OSBoot/OS.dmg" ]; then
018 echo " * updating restore partition"
019 cp -f /mnt/rootfs/2Z694-6004-003.dmg /OSBoot/OS.dmg
020 umount /OSBoot
021 else
022 echo " * error updating restore partition"
023 fi

The dmg was downloaded from http://mesu.apple.com/data/OS/061-7491.20091107.T...

By: Marcus

Marcus — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:09:58 +0000

David, I cannot update my once 40GB ATV. I installed a 160GB HD in it long ago & have never had a problem Restoring till OS 3.0 came along.
I use Disk Utility to restore the AppleTV3.0.1 image to the OSBoot partition, but I cannot get any patchstick or ATVFlash to work.
I may have to print this guide & try to cobble it back together to a working hacked ATV.
??

By: Juan Carlos Méndez-García

Juan Carlos Méndez-García — Sat, 23 May 2009 12:49:28 +0000

@david – I’ve been swamped with work and just now saw your comments. I think upgrading to 2.3.1 using this method should work, and I may even try it this week. If I do and have success, I’ll report the experience. If you beat me, please comment with your results. Thanks again!

By: ??????? ????? Apple TV, ??? ???? ??????? ????????? ??????????? — MacRadar

??????? ????? Apple TV, ??? ???? ??????? ????????? ??????????? — MacRadar — Fri, 22 May 2009 14:11:07 +0000

[...] ????????? ??????? ?????????? (????? ??????????? ???? ?????). ????? ?????? ???????????? ? ???????? ???????: ?? [...]

By: david

david — Sat, 09 May 2009 05:25:55 +0000

OK, updating from 2.3 to 2.3.1 fails. Unit is still open. I wonder, should I take it to 2.3.1 using the same method; manually downloading it from Apple and using DiskUtility to clone it to the OSBoot partition?

Thanks for any feedback.

By: david

david — Fri, 08 May 2009 04:55:06 +0000

OK, I see what you mean about the script failing. Anyway, I plugged it into the Mac, and just cloned the downloaded .dmg to the partition and it is fine. Syncing now, but I have not tried to upgrade to 2.3.1. Any idea what will happen?

Thanks again for your write-up and responses.

By: Juan Carlos Méndez-García

Juan Carlos Méndez-García — Fri, 08 May 2009 03:17:31 +0000

@david – If the case is already open, perhaps connecting to a Mac with an external HD enclosure or cable is perhaps a good route. Can’t say it works because I have not tried it myself, but conceptually it should work.

But during the Patchstick script it errors “error updating restore partition”. And the next line “mounting /dev/sda3 on /OSBoot failed: Invalid argument

When you say mounting failed, I’m assuming you refer to line 024 of the modified script, not to line 013 of the original script… right?

If line 024 is what failed, it is OK. As I mentioned in the post, the script was made for upgrading from 2.x firmware, so this error happens when you upgrade from 1.x

By: david

david — Fri, 08 May 2009 00:13:40 +0000

I’m trying to go from 1.0, hoping this will solve my issue resulting from upgrading to a larger HD. Anyway, this looks like it should work. But during the Patchstick script it errors “error updating restore partition”. And the next line “mounting /dev/sda3 on /OSBoot failed: Invalid argument”.

Any ideas on how to resolve? Alternatively, the case is open now, should I connect to a Mac and just restore the dmg you linked to into the “restore” partition?

Thanks!

By: Kilian

Kilian — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 00:17:28 +0000

anybody ? =)

By: jcmendez

jcmendez — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 09:00:29 +0000

There were comments on this post, and now that I migrated to Disqus they are not showing up…
Will have to look into this problem

By: Kilian

Kilian — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 02:18:35 +0000

I have the SAME problem, but i noticed that even in the frozen language menu all of the “special” IR commands work, like video mode, reset, pair/unpair.
Does anybody have an idea what to do?

By: Juan Carlos Méndez-García

Juan Carlos Méndez-García — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 01:38:01 +0000

@Anthony, @Daniel
Try powering off the unit (unplug it). Plug it back in, and while it boots, press the up arrow on the remote. It should recover from the recovery partition to whatever version you have there. At this point hopefully your remote works again. Then unpair and pair the remote (tip from http://blog.boxee.tv/2008/10/06/apple-tv-remote-woes/). Recover to factory settings using the menu. Retry the upgrade. Hope it helps.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:07:20 +0000

I have exactly the same problem. The Apple logo appears and then shows the language selection screen, but the screen seems to be frozen. When I press buttons on the remote, the litte light on the front of the Apple TV blinks so it’s obviously not a remote/battery problem.

I’ll try going back to 2.1 and then upgrading like normal.

By: Anthony Wolfenden

Anthony Wolfenden — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:59:49 +0000

Updated an ATV2 (2.0.2 on recovery partition) to 2.3. After recovery, on reboot, the unit flashes at apple logo and the seems to freeze at the Language selection.
Can’t use the remote to set the language or proceed but can access the unit via ssh.

By: Anthony Wolfenden

Anthony Wolfenden — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:20:21 +0000

When used to update an ATV2 (2.0.2 Recovery Partition) the unit powers up and flashes at the language selection page. At this point can’t do anything with the remote. Is this an HDMI firmware issue?