How to Update Flash Player on Apple TV
The folks at Boxee recently updated their player to version 0.9.20.10710. The new interface is pretty slick and installers are now available for Ubuntu, Apple TV, OS X and Windows.
Unfortunately, after having installed it on Apple TV v3.0.2, it is not possible to play any TV Show due to an outdated Flash Player. No worries, here is how to unlock the Flash magic:
- SSH into your Apple TV
ssh frontrow@<ip_address> - Go into the temporary directory
cd /tmp - Download the latest version of Flash Player for OS X
wget 'http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player_osx_ub.dmg' - Mount the DMG file
sudo hdiutil attach install_flash_player_osx_ub.dmg - Go into the Internet Plugin Directory
cd "/Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/" - Install the new Flash Player
sudo pax -r -z -f "/Volumes/Install\ Flash\ Player\ 10\ UB/Adobe\ Flash\ Player.pkg/Contents/Archive.pax.gz"
Now restart your Apple TV and enjoy watching movies on Boxee (if the CPU is powerful enough).
In this guide I assumed you already unlocked your AppleTV using a Patchstick, which will allow you to install Boxee and other programs as well as loading an SSH server to allow remote connection. You can easily create a Patchstick using atvusb-creator.
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Hi, thanks for your help. However, I’m not a very savvy computer person so I cannot make much sense out of your instructions. Could you possibly outline them in simpler terms? What does ssh mean? What does mount mean? I want to update, but I just don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m sorry. Thanks.
Hello Nate,
updating the Flash Plugin of your Apple TV makes sense only if you unlocked it using a Patchstick and installed Boxee or something similar. If you did that, you probably already used SSH (a program/protocol to remotely connect to a machine) to connect to your AppleTV.
About “mounting”: when you connect a USB drive, a cellphone or a camera to your Windows/Mac PC, the operating system automatically finds it and shows you a little icon of that peripheral/drive. In the unix world, you often have to manually tell the operating system that something attached to it is in fact a drive. This is what the “mount” command does.
If you read my guide, after every line of plain-english explanation there is the command to execute. Assuming you have a standard Apple TV with a standard installation of the Patchstick, you should be able to just copy and paste the commands in your SSH terminal and press enter.
You will just have to change with the IP Address of your AppleTV. You can find that in the Settings/Network menu of the Apple TV.
Nate, personally I would recommend that unless you really know what you are doing, you do not try to update the Flash Plugin on your Apple TV. If something goes wrong, you may have an hard time to bring it back to life.
Good luck!
I used a patchstick I bought on ebay to download Boxee. I plugged it in and it installed itself. Everything worked fine, except when I went to play a tv show on Boxee, it said I needed to download Flash Player. I went to couch surfer and typed in the adobe address on my atv. I tried to downoad the latest flash player, and I kept getting an error message: 0 of 0, 1 errors. I did a search and found your page.
I’ve read your directions, do I need to make these changes remotely from my computer? Where do I find my ssh terminal? Can I give you my IP address and have you do it remotely from yours? I’ll be happy to pay you. This is so frustrating!
Too bad you payed for the Patchstick. It is a free software distributed at the address that I mentioned in my post.
You need to launch the commands I described from an SSH terminal once you are connected to your AppleTV as the user “frontrow” (password “frontrow”). It is the first command in my list.
If you have OS X or Linux, you should already have an SSH client so just go on a terminal/command-prompt and type “ssh frontrow@”. If you have Windows, you can use Putty.
You cannot give me or anybody your IP address to get this fixed remotely. Your AppleTV is likely behind your router (is the IP something like 192.168.x.x?) so nobody could access it anyway from the outside world (unless your router is poorly configured).
Your easiest bet is to find a friend who likes Linux/Unix. He/she will have no problem in running the commands that I described in my post.
Thanks,
I got the terminal open and ran the commands as you listed. However, the box kept saying command not found. It also asked for a password? My apple tv has no password. I typed frontrow as the password and it let me continue. Long story short, I couldn’t figure it out. I’ll ask my computer tech at school if he can fix it for me. Thanks for your help anyhow.
I have followed your instruction on how to install flash on the Apple Tv, but I get stuck on the las line of code. I’m told the file is not found. I’m inside the /Internet\ Plug-Ins/ directory, but no luck, Please help. I’m using Putty on a Win XP laptop.
It looks like something did not succeed downloading the Flash DMG file or mounting it with HDIUTIL. Check what happens after step 3, did it download something? You could check if it did with the command “ls install_flash_player_osx_ub.dmg“. If that finds a file, then check what happens after step 4. Did it print an error message? You can check if it has been mounted with the command “ls /Volumes/Install*“.
Hi, just having one issue with these steps apart from me wget on the ATV, go the dmg scp’d to ATV, took out the escape char in the commands and they started working but on the final step I get load of read-only errors
pax: Access/modification time set failed on: .
have to mount the Fs read write I presume
It looks like you have permission problems writing to that (i.e., “/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/”) directory. Did not use “sudo” at the beginning of the last line? If you did correctly, it should have asked you a password (or at least it did on the 4th command). If not sure, try to run “sudo echo ‘test’ > test.file” and let me know what is says.
Alessio Signorini, I just want to thank you for your post … I did exactly what you suggest and works perfectly … Gracias desde Mexico … Regards …