Jailbreaking the AppleTV 2 with 5.3 and Seas0nPass...and iFaith

My AppleTV has been flaking out lately. Netflix is been really slow to buffer, XBMC was getting to a point that I had to listen to the button clicks when I changed something to make sure that it was working correctly, or the video would be REALLY choppy. Not fun when you're trying to enjoy The Simpsons with the kids, and they're yelling at you to fix it (that's another issue...:-D).

So, I decided it was time to upgrade the AppleTV to the latest firmware that could be jailbroken (5.3) and after a little research, I found Seas0nPass seemed to be the way to go...

I was....semi-right.

I found pretty keen instructions on a couple different blogs, but the ones at iDownloadBlog seemed to be pretty simple and straight to the point...except I was working on a Windows box, but it's all good, I know how to convert between Win/Mac (hint: if you don't know how, just download the Windows version, run it, and follow the instructions :) )

So, I downloaded the 5.3 version of the software from here, and put it on the desktop. Well, once you open Seas0nPass, it will automatically download the software for you, and put it in your Documents folder under Seas0nPass\Downloads. No big deal.

After clicking on Create IPSW, letting it download the software, and patch it all, it goes to install it. I enter the ATV into DFU mode, it tries to install, and I wait. And wait. Annnnnnddddd.....wait.

Then the error pops up. "Firmware restore failed."

Ugh.

So, while Googling the error, I came across many different forums that had ALL KINDS of different fixes...but nothing was working.

Enter iFaith.

After a bit more research, I came across a post (#6), that said to use Seas0nPass to create the custom IPSW, but to use iFaith/iReb to get the ATV into DFU mode, then use iTunes to update the firmware by holding Shift when clicking restore, and using the custom firmware built at the aforementioned Documents location ending with "SP_restore.ipsw". It WORKED!!!!

So, the AppleTV has XBMC added again, I've got my video sources added back, and the Movies/TV Shows are getting all the databases updated as I write this.

Damn it feels good to be a gangsta. ;-)

EDIT: I wanna give a BIG SHOUTOUT to all those iOS hackers out there, the XBMC hackers and the guys on the XBMC forums...you guys make the world a better place. :-)

--Aaron