How to put your First gen Apple Tv(Silver) on OS 1.0.0

iPodGuru

New Tinkerer
Sep 17, 2023
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How to downgrade your Silver Apple Tv to OS1

(First gen)​

Items required:

-Mac OS Mountain Lion* and a modern Mac OS for the initial flashing

-Cyberduck* or a SSH tool

-Usb at least 8gbs

-Patience

-ATV installed

-Etcher

Links:

Etcher: https://etcher.balena.io

Apple TV firmware 2.3.1: https://www.tweaking4all.com/home-theatre/appletv/restore-appletv-os-offline-1stgen/

Downgrade tools:

https://mega.nz/file/bgsBGD5a#9M_P3NPa8LfwmQfdzdt9DyOGDF3kaKgStuHEIOaigl4

Curated for MacOS Mountain Lion*
Etcher will need a newer version of MacOS could not find a older version



If you are a person who is better at watching tutorials than reading them here is a link to a video I did on this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CneWCcf4IRs

Note if you do accidentally restore the apple tv to factory settings it will revert back to some version of 2.3.1 as I cannot figure out the root password for the apple tv to change the recovery disk. (You can go lower on the mac os version you’ll just need to find a older version of cyber duck).



Step One: Preparing the Apple Tv

Download Etcher and 2.3.1 and have Etcher

Flash the file on to your USB

Unplug your apple tv

Put the USB into the apple tv and plug it in.

It should do everything by itself

Once it boots up, Factory Restore the Apple TV
Step Two: Jailbreaking

Download ATVusb creator on MacOS Mountain Lion along with the 2.3.1 Firmware file.

You’ll need to go into the root of ATVusb and find atvusb-creator

It will be under ATVUsb/Contents/Macos

With “atvusb-creator” found open terminal

With terminal open

Type Sudo then drag the atvusb-creator on the same line as sudo\

Enter your password if you have one set

ATV usb should start up.

Note if you do not sudo it and just start the program up as normal you will get errors flashing to USB

Make sure Patch Stick is selected with SSH

Select the 2.3.1 DMG and your usb

Then press the Create using button and sit back and let it do its thing.



Unplug your Apple Tv and plug the usb in to the back port (They really should've added a power button)

It should boot up to the Usb loaded it will show the linux penguin next to the Apple tv.

When it is done it will show you the SSH passcode to get into the files that we will use to “Upgrade the tv”

Usr:Frontrow Password:Frontrow (Very secure)

Unplug your apple tv and its usb

Plug in your apple tv for the last time


Step 3: Downgrading Via SSH

With the Apple Tv turning if you haven’t already connect it to wifi

Open Cyber duck and select SFTP

Type in Appletv.local

And for username and password It is Usr:Frontrow Password:Frontrow (Very secure)

Then you should see files show up

Make sure you are at

/mnt/Scratch/Users/frontrow

Now on the Apple tv go to the updates tab (Please do not skip over anything past thios part or you will have to rejailbreak your apple tv if it is done wrong).

Make sure the OS1.0.DMG is renamed to the update file (It will be if you downloaded the mega link items) (It will be the updates folder)

Press Update software

Wait for the Prompt to Update

It should pop up on screen and say update now or later (DO NOT CLICK ANYTHING)

Back at cyber duck move the new update folder into /mnt/Scratch/Users/frontrow that was downloaded what I’ve provided.
(The mega upload in the Uploads folder it is all set up all you need to do is drag and drop it in place of the old updates folder)

When that file transfer is done go back to the Apple Tv and press update now

It might take some time

With it done it should keep your wifi settings and boot right into 1.0



If you have made it this far this was typed on a Powerbook G4 with Microsoft word and based of of my video on how to downgrade an Apple Tv 1st gen with SSH



-JariGuru



Note: If you are a content creator and do make a video on this credit would be appreciated or a link to the original video.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CneWCcf4IRs)
 

iPodGuru

New Tinkerer
Sep 17, 2023
21
9
3
18
United States
Note: if you want to go to any other version than 1.0.0 you just need to rename the versions file name to the one that is in the updates folder on mega as it needs to match to work. Or it will just overwrite it.

If anyone has information on how to get into the recovery partition please let me know So i can update my downgrade to include it so when you factory reset it doesnt put you back on 2.3.1
 
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