AppleTV and a Linux server...

[pjac]

I looks like I won't be buying an Apple TV just yet anyway - I'd have to buy a new TV too, or a signal adaptor. But its nice to think ahead...

I don't currently own a Mac or an Apple TV - my home computer is happy running Linux. Now from reading up on the net, there is Linux software I could run on my Linux machine to make my music available on my home network using DAAP for any computer running iTunes, and possibly even an AppleTV: daapd and Firefly/mt-daapd

Serving photos may also be possible - but has not yet been implemented.

However, as far as I can tell from google and browsing other forums, things are a bit trickier for serving content to an AppleTV - and for now the only way is to run iTunes.

Do any of you guys here have any experience of this stuff?

 

[Aegelward]

i could be interested in something like this myself, would be great if there was a way to get this onto a NAS, then it won't even require me to build a secondary system

i know there are a few that serve audio, but i haven't heard of any serving video unfortunately

 

[TonyH]

Re: AppleTV & Linux Boxen

I run Ubuntu at home on my central box where all of my media resides. To get the AppleTV to talk nicely to the central box, I had to:
1. Downgrade to version 1.0 (mine came with version 2 "take 2" installed)
2. Use a patchstick to install SSH
3. Do a safe update to 1.1
4. Install ATV Files & perian -- Perian was only because I have Xvid media.
5. Create an NFS share on my central box
6. Create an NFS mountpoint on my AppleTV
7. Use ATVFiles to browse the NFS mount point.

Check out www.awkwardtv.org for all bits and bops you need to get it started. It didn't take me long at all -- very straightforward process at this point. Definitely worth it as well.

Best of luck to other people with linux - most of the info on AwkwardTV.org have either a Mac or a WinBox so most of the instructions are geared towards them. Though with a vm & a little command line know how, it's totally possible to make your ATV talk to Linux.