EXTRA NOTE: This assumes you have hacked your Apple TV with aTV Flash or some other Apple TV USB hack and have NitoTV installed. This also assumes you know how to connect to your Apple TV with a program like Fugu or CyberDuck as well as ssh via Terminal.
Hey all, this is just kind of a fun thing for those who want to try it out. You can install the iStat Server on the Apple TV and use the iPhone app ($1.99) to monitor the Apple TV’s memory, hard disk space, CPU usage, etc. See picture below:
Download iStat server here and the iPhone app here.
Install the server on your Mac.
Open up Fugu or CyberDuck and connect to the Apple TV.
Open up the root of you Mac’s hard drive and go to Applications.
Copy iStat Server into the Applications folder found inside the frontrow folder on the Apple TV.
Go back to the root of the Apple TV and your Mac and then to Library > Application Support on both.
Drag the iStat Server folder into the Application Support folder on the Apple TV.
Go to the LaunchDaemons folder in the Library folder on your Mac and move the com.bjango.istatserver.plist file to the frontrow folder on the Apple TV. You can not move it directly to the LaunchDaemons folder on the Apple TV due to permissions on that folder.
Open up Terminal on the Mac and ssh into the Apple TV. Run the following commands:
Once the AppleTV is rebooted, go to NitoTV in the Apple TV menu and then to Applications.
Open up the iStat Server application and then open up the iStat application on the iPhone. You will see your Apple TV listed and then type in the code on the Apple TV.
You are all set!
This is how I did it, but if you have a quicker way or better way, please feel free to post it.
How about shared credit? I twittered it to @bjango when I posted it. But I do appreciate everyone who let them know (and especially oceans777), I know @bjango is very happy about it. More eyes for him and more eyes for aTV Flash.
Whoa, I can’t believe I am just finding this. Do you know how many times I have wanted to better understand what’s going on inside the ATV while running a new program, or debugging an issue? This is huge!
Atvflash may want to consider this in the next release! Information like this could be great help when troubleshotting issues.
You logged in incorrectly to the Apple TV. You need to use this commend to SSH into the Apple TV:
ssh frontrow@AppleTV.local
Or some form of that. You are logging into the Apple TV using susan2 and there is no susan2 user on the Apple TV. The password for frontrow is frontrow.
move the “iStat Server” folder from /Users/frontrow/Library/Application Support to /Library/Application Support
cd /Library/Application Support
mv /Users/frontrow/Library/Application\ Support/iStat\ Server/ .
Set the permissions
sudo -R chown root:admin iStat\ Server/
I do not see the istat folder within application support step(. Drag the iStat Server folder into the Application Support folder on the Apple TV) [attachment=0]applicationsupport.JPG[/attachment]
I also suggest the use of RRD + Geektool for monitoring. If someone knows if RRD runs correctly on the AppleTV, please tell us! (I think so, but I didn’t tested).
Welcome to the world of Apple TV with aTV Flash
–For support please visit aTVFlash.com–
frontrow@192.168.1.101’s password:
-bash-2.05b$ ls
Applications Pictures
Documents Updates
Library Video Playlists
Movies atvflash
Music com.bjango.istatserver.plist
Music Playlists
-bash-2.05b$ sudo mv com.bjango.istatserver.plist /Library/LaunchDaemons/
mv: rename com.bjango.istatserver.plist to /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.bjango.istatserver.plist: Read-only file system
-bash-2.05b$
One thing we’ve already learned from SSH is that the root filesystem on the Apple TV (aka OSBoot) is apparently mounted as a read-only filesystem. That means it’s not initially possible to copy any files to the root mount point (/etc, /usr, /var, for example) while it is running. It has been pointed out elsewhere that you can remedy this with the “sudo mount -uw /” command.
