How to net-boot mb_boot_tv on an Apple TV.

James McKenzie,

We are planning to start offering dedicated hosting on Apple TVs shortly, check our services soon for prices.

Prerequisites

a working DHCP server
a working TFTP server
a working NFS server
a file system image
a kernel (or you can download a precompiled one from here or follow the instructions here, you'll need a kernel with IP_PNP and NFS_ROOT enabled

Set up the DHCP server

Add a clause for your Apple TV in your dhcpd.conf file

host appletv {
    hardware ethernet 00:17:F2:F9:32:15;
    filename "/appletv/mb_boot_tv.conf";
    fixed-address 192.168.1.193;
    option routers 192.168.1.1;
};

and start your dhcp server.

Set up the files for the boot

place the kernel and the mb_boot_tv.conf file in the directory named in the dhcp clause (here /tftpboot/appletv/ ) the mb_boot_tv.conf wants to contain something like

kernel appletv/vmlinuz
append rw root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=192.168.1.1:/export/appletv irqpoll

the paths references the root as seen by the tftpd server.

Set up your nfs server

place the client in the exports file for the nfs server, add the following to /etc/exports

/export/appletv 192.168.1.193(rw,no_root_squash)

and run exportfs -a to tell the nfs server. (Make sure you're runing nfsd, mountd, lockd and statd)

Set up your root filesystem image

populate /export/appletv using one of the methods in the walk through