LSOD

Login Screen of Death (LSOD)

Many of you have probably run into this problem in the past, you a get a login screen and even if you can connect a keyboard or manage to share the screen (not likely without the proper password) with no discernable solution in sight.

Problem

Login screen after abnormally long boot.

Potential Causes

/.readwrite file at root, this file is needed during at least one reboot to generate the necessary mach.sym file for kextloading (a prerequisite for everything fun on the AppleTV, from USB to AFP mounts) This file being persistent at root will always have the OSBoot partition mounted as readwrite, unplugging the AppleTV at any given time (on some units) can be plugged back in to reveal the surprise of the LSOD. In theory the netinfo database is getting corrupted during the unplug which causes securityd to report no autologin user.

Security.log Success example

Jul  9 15:21:00 localhost com.apple.SecurityServer: Entering service
Jul  9 15:21:09 localhost SecurityAgent[124]: User Authenticated: continue login process
Jul  9 15:21:09 localhost SecurityAgent[124]: Autologin user authenticated.
Jul  9 15:21:09 localhost com.apple.SecurityServer: authinternal authenticated user frontrow (uid 501).
Jul  9 15:21:10 localhost com.apple.SecurityServer: Succeeded authorizing right system.login.console by process /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app for authorization created by /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app.
Jul  9 15:21:10 localhost com.apple.SecurityServer: Succeeded authorizing right system.login.done by process /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app for authorization created by /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app.
Jul  9 15:21:11 localhost com.apple.SecurityServer: Succeeded authorizing right system.preferences by process /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app for authorization created by /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app.
Jul  9 15:21:11 localhost com.apple.SecurityServer: Succeeded authorizing right system.preferences by process /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/AppleTV.framework/Resources/SettingsHelper for authorization created by /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app.
Jul  9 15:21:11 localhost com.apple.SecurityServer: Succeeded authorizing right system.preferences by process /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/AppleTV.framework/Resources/SettingsHelper for authorization created by /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app.

Security log Unsuccessful example:

Jul  9 15:49:21 localhost com.apple.SecurityServer: Entering service
Jul  9 15:49:42 AppleTV SecurityAgent[128]: Unable to create user list
Jul  9 15:49:42 AppleTV SecurityAgent[128]: Could not get the user record from DirectoryServices for autologin user.
Jul  9 15:49:42 AppleTV SecurityAgent[128]: Will sleep 3 seconds and try again (retryCount = 5)
Jul  9 15:49:46 AppleTV SecurityAgent[128]: Unable to create user list
Jul  9 15:49:46 AppleTV SecurityAgent[128]: Could not get the user record from DirectoryServices for autologin user.
Jul  9 15:49:46 AppleTV SecurityAgent[128]: Will sleep 3 seconds and try again (retryCount = 4)
Jul  9 15:49:49 AppleTV SecurityAgent[128]: Unable to create user list
Jul  9 15:49:49 AppleTV SecurityAgent[128]: Could not get the user record from DirectoryServices for autologin user.
Jul  9 15:49:49 AppleTV SecurityAgent[128]: Will sleep 3 seconds and try again (retryCount = 3)
Jul  9 15:49:52 AppleTV SecurityAgent[128]: Unable to create user list
Jul  9 15:49:52 AppleTV SecurityAgent[128]: Could not get the user record from DirectoryServices for autologin user.
Jul  9 15:49:52 AppleTV SecurityAgent[128]: Will sleep 3 seconds and try again (retryCount = 2)
Jul  9 15:49:55 AppleTV SecurityAgent[128]: Unable to create user list
Jul  9 15:49:55 AppleTV SecurityAgent[128]: Could not get the user record from DirectoryServices for autologin user.
Jul  9 15:49:55 AppleTV SecurityAgent[128]: Will sleep 3 seconds and try again (retryCount = 1)
Jul  9 15:49:58 AppleTV SecurityAgent[128]: Showing Login Window

Solution

A solution has finally been created for this somewhat prevalent and extremely pesky problem. A little life raft has been floating underneath us the entire time (unbeknownst to most of us of course) rc.redirect in /etc has been "hiding" some juicy secrets about /SeedScratch. Long story short, you will need the atvusb-creator and a thumb drive to get this process going.

After getting your thumbdrive and the creator ready you will choose any AppleTV update image (needed for the crucial boot.efi file) and the mounted thumb drive of choice. Create a ATV-patchstick with any settings (they wont matter, we will be replacing the patchstick.sh with one of our own creation for the fix)

After your patchstick has been created make sure its mounted to the desktop, open the patchstick.sh script and replace it with the following contents (VERBATIM!)

#!/bin/bash

exec 2>/dev/console
exec 1>/dev/console

echo
echo "        --- AppleTV Patchstick by ATVUSB-Creator ---"

echo "       * mounting OSBoot partition"
echo "       * mounting OSBoot partition"
mkdir -p /OSBoot
fsck.hfsplus -f /dev/sda3
mount -t hfsplus -o rw,force /dev/sda3 /OSBoot
sleep 1

# if we successfully mount /OSBoot 
if [ -d "/OSBoot/dev" ]; then


	echo "       * mounting Media partition"
	fsck.hfsplus -f /dev/sda4
	mount -t hfsplus -o rw,force /dev/sda4 /OSBoot/mnt
	sleep 1
	
	if [ -d "/OSBoot/Users/frontrow" ]; then
		
		rm -rf /OSBoot/mnt/Scratch/private/var/vm
		rm -rf /OSBoot/mnt/Scratch/private/tmp
		rm -rf /OSBoot/mnt/Scratch/System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist
		rm -rf /OSBoot/mnt/Scratch/System/Library/Caches
		rm -rf /OSBoot/mnt/Scratch/Library/Caches
		rm -rf /OSBoot/mnt/Scratch/private/etc/sudoers
		rm -rf /OSBoot/mnt/Scratch.old
		mv /OSBoot/mnt/Scratch /OSBoot/mnt/Scratch.old

		rsync -v -a /OSBoot/SeedScratch /OSBoot/mnt/Scratch
	else 
		echo "       * error mounting Media partition"
	fi	
 else 
	echo "       * error mounting OSBoot partition"
 fi

sync
umount /OSBoot/mnt
umount /OSBoot
echo "       * Please unplug your Apple TV to reboot/reset the device."
echo
echo "       * If you received no errors above, then you can plug in your Apple TV, "
echo "          wait 3 minutes, then open Terminal and type: ssh frontrow@appletv.local " 
echo "       * When prompted for a password, enter: frontrow"
echo
echo "       * For other ssh clients (putty, etc):  "
echo "          Hostname: appletv.local  Username: frontrow  Password: frontrow"
#sleep 100000