How to install XBMC 13.0 Gotham on Apple TV 2

by tomek • April 7, 2014 October 14, 2016 in How To

Last week XBMC released the beta 3 of their next major update – XBMC 13.0 Gotham that was released back in March with a support for 3D movies, improved UPnP capabilities, “dramatic” Audio Engine improvements and various visual changes that improve usability and logic (check out the full list of changes). Here is a tutorial on how to install XBMC Gotham (beta 3) on Apple TV 2.

Note: XBMC 13.0 will only works on jailbroken Apple TV 2 (latest jailbreakable Apple TV firmware is 5.3). If you have an Apple TV 1 and want XBMC badly, you can find out how to do it here.

Requirements

Jailbroken ATV 2 running firmware 5.3 or older
Mac computer (use Terminal app) or Windows PC (use PuTTY app)

Step 1: Install the latest stable version of XBMC – XBMC Frodo (12.3). If you already have Frodo installed, go directly to Step 2.

Launch the “Terminal” or “PuTTY” application.
Ensure that your computer and your Apple TV are on the same network.
Connect to your Apple TV via SSH using the following commands.

ssh root@[Your Apple TV’s I.P. Address]

Example: ssh root@192.168.2.18
This can be found under General/Network on your ATV’s main menu

Note: Should you receive an “Authentication Error,” copy and paste the following command into the Terminal window and press Enter, then continue.

rm ~/.ssh/known_hosts

Agree to any security prompts by typing “yes” (without quotations), then press enter.
When prompted for a password, type the word “alpine” (without quotations) then press Enter.

Copy and paste the following commands into your Terminal or PuTTY app, pressing the Enter key after each. It’s important that you wait for each one to finish before moving onto the next. Don’t worry… you will know when each line is finished.

apt-get install wget

wget -O- https://apt.awkwardtv.org/awkwardtv.pub | apt-key add -

echo "deb https://apt.awkwardtv.org/ stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/awkwardtv.list

echo "deb https://mirrors.xbmc.org/apt/atv2 ./" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xbmc.list

apt-get update

mkdir -p /Applications/AppleTV.app/Appliances

apt-get install org.xbmc.xbmc-atv2

mkdir -p /Applications/XBMC.frappliance

reboot

Step 2: Install XBMC 13.0 Gotham beta 3

Launch the “Terminal” or “PuTTY” application.
Connect to your Apple TV via SSH using the following commands.

ssh root@[Your Apple TV’s I.P. Address]

When prompted for a password, type the word “alpine” (without quotations) then press Enter.
Copy and paste the following commands:

rm -f *xbmc*.deb

wget https://mirrors.xbmc.org/apt/pre-release/atv2/deb/org.xbmc.xbmc-atv2_13.0-0~b3_iphoneos-arm.deb

dpkg -i *xbmc*.deb

rm *xbmc*.deb

Done! You should now have the beta 3 of XBMC 13.0 Gotham installed on your Apple TV.

To ensure the new build fits your screen:

Launch XBMC from the main menu on Apple TV
Enter the “Settings” sub menu under the “SYSTEM” heading.
Select the “Appearance” tab from the left menu bar.
Change “Settings level” from Standard (default) to Advanced

Under the “Skin” menu,you’ll now want to choose “-4%” for the “Zoom” field so that your XBMC configuration will properly fit your television display.

Depending on the television, you might have to play around with this, but it should work flawlessly at the “-4%” setting. Press “MENU” on your remote to return back one level once this is done.

Congratulations! Your Apple TV now has XBMC 13.0 Gotham installed on it, and fitting on your screen.

Now, check out Top 10 best XBMC addons for Apple TV 1 and Apple TV 2

More on XBMC:

.. and more.

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