osupdate README

Version 1.0 October 11, 2008

Description

osupdate is a simple tool that kicks off the Apple TV upgrade process without a download or signature verification.

You can upgrade or downgrade at will with this tool.

This tool still requires that you have shell access to the Apple TV to use.

The recovery partition is not modified at all. The process used is the same process used during normal Apple TV updates.

Updates for the firmware are requested as well, and will not affect anything if those updates are not present. This part is untested, however.

Usage

To begin, place the OS or any other updates into /Users/frontrow/Updates on the Apple TV. For the most part, the file names do not matter except for the extension.

Note: The updates directory is removed on every boot, so don't keep your only copy of any files there!

Next, copy the osupdate binary to the Apple TV. Make sure it is executable (chmod +x osupdate if necessary) and then execute it as root:

sudo ./osupdate

It will print a few lines of text, and your Apple TV should automatically reboot. If it says Requested update: 0, then there were no updates found. Check the file names if this happens.

Notes

The OS update must have the extension .dmg, in lowercase.

The firmware updates are all two files, an updater and the firmware itself. The updater must be named exactly as specified, and the extension of the firmware must match.

The IR updater is IRReceiverUpdaterTool2, and an .irrxfw file.

The EFI updater is AppleCapsule.efi, and a .scap file.

The HDMI updater is hdmiutil, and a .sihex file.

Building

This should build with any reasonably modern version of Xcode with the 10.4 SDK installed. There are no special requirements, just run make.

License

osupdate is licensed under GPL 3. The full license can be found in LICENSE.txt.

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

Notice

This program is provided at your own risk. The author claims no responsibility for any damage or other outcome that may occur from use of this software.

The author is not affiliated with Apple, Inc.

osupdate

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