HOW TO – Run AppleTV on a Mac mini

Phil @ Make writes: Here are a couple AppleTV hacks and a special how-to from Dave on running AppleTV on a stock Mac mini!

Here are the steps I took to get the Apple TV OS working on my Mac mini. Just so you know, I have a core solo Mac mini – stock configuration.

I started on this site – Link.

It mentions there is a hacked Finder app floating around the web.

I booted up the Mac mini. Copied the AppleTV OS disk image over to it. I also copied the new Finder file to it (note: don’t change the name of the finder file).

I didn’t reinstall the OS – I just took what I had. Before you do anything, I’d enable file sharing, remote access, ssh, the whole thing. That way you should have access to the box after the mod has been done.

I then followed the steps listed at the URL above. So the first two steps were:

cd /Volumes/OSBoot/System/Library/CoreServices/
sudo cp -pr ./Finder.app /Volume/FreshOSX/System/Library/CoreServices/.

The next step, which has you cd to the directory and overwrite the finder file within the Finder.app, I actally did this remotely

To do this, I killed the finder in the Activity Monitor.

I then Connected to the Mac Mini from my Mac pro and made the copy from there. I actually did this from the Mac Pro’s finder.

Then, I returned to the instructions and did:

sudo chown root:wheel Finder
sudo chmod 755 Finder

I finished with the final three terminal commands and rebooted. Works perfectly.

One minor thing, in the instructions, I changed ‘Volume’ to ‘Volumes’ anywhere it referenced the FreshOSX volume. I don’t know if that was an error on their part.

More:

• Apple TV running on a Macbook | Apple TV Hacks – [via] Link.
• Boot from a USB drive – Link.