Enable AFP Server

From AwkwardTV

Contents 1 AppleTV 1.0 software 2 AppleTV 1.1 software 3 Setting up the server 4 AppleTV 2.0 - Now working

[edit] AppleTV 1.0 software

Editing /etc/hostconfig will start Appleshare service on boot.

Simply change:

AFPSERVER=-NO-

to

AFPSERVER=-YES-

[edit] AppleTV 1.1 software

• Copy from you mac Intel computer the binary:

cp -R /System/Library/CoreServices/AppleFileServer.app /Volumes/OSBoot/System/Library/CoreServices/AppleFileServer.app

• Alternatively you can extract AppleFileServer.app from your Apple TV's recovery partition, this method involves:
  • extracting a dmg from the disk0s2 partition : dd if=/dev/disk0s2 of=recovery.dmg bs=1m
  • transferring that dmg to your Mac (verified on a G4 so no Intel mac required for this).
  • mounting the dmg
  • mounting the "osboot.dmg" found inside the mount
  • Find AppleFileServer.app in that mount, in /System/Library/CoreServices

• Editing /etc/hostconfig will start Appleshare service on boot.

• Then change:

  • AFPSERVER=-NO-

  • to

  • AFPSERVER=-YES-

CAUTION: If your AppleTV came with software version 1.1 factory installed then the recovery partition doesn't seem to contain the required binary any longer. Copying it from a mac machine didn't work for me either as AppleFileServer crashed every time on startup with "Illegal instruction" error. The only way I found to obtain the working AppleFileSever was to dump the recovery partition from AppleTV, which originally came with software version 1.0, and copy it from there.

[edit] Setting up the server

If you'd like to start appleshare without rebooting, run:

sudo /usr/sbin/AppleFileServer

Once AFP is running, you can mount the OS and Media partitions from the AppleTV as user 'frontrow', with the password 'frontrow'.

[edit] AppleTV 2.0 - Now working

Unlike the previous poster, I found I was able to get this working. Here is what I did (in simple steps, assuming everyone is a noob):

1. From my Macbook running Leopard I copied "/System/Library/CoreServices/AppleFileServer.app" using Cyberduck to /Users/frontrow

2. From terminal, "sudo mv ~/AppleFileServer.app /System/Library/CoreServices/"

3. Then to run it, "sudo /usr/sbin/AppleFileServer"

4. From my MacBook, I connect to it by selecting Finder, Ctrl+K, and then "afp://AppleTV.local/frontrow", where "AppleTV" is the name of my ATV.

5. Username and password are, as always, "frontrow"

Update - I find this service is still running after reboots and so there is no need to restart it.