FU: Running OS X on AppleTV - Success! ...ntp and usb questions...

[mattkime]

In follow up to: http://forums.macresource.com/read/1/487341/487710

OS X is running very well on my AppleTV but not without hiccups. the biggest one is that the time doesn't update properly. luckily enough its a perfectly even ratio 2 seconds to the AppleTV is 3 seconds to everyone else. So I can use it for timed events if I take this into account. However, I would like to update the time once a day at midnight (8pm on the appletv).

I found Lingon, which is an excellent interface for launchd, a tool for timed and triggered events. http://lingon.sourceforge.net/ I can run scripts every 40 seconds which i can't do with cron.

Does anyone know the shell command to run ntpudate?

also, i'd like the machine to reset itself if it loses connection with the camera. Does anyone know of a way to do this? is there a command line app that reports on connected devices?

[endymion]

This is very interesting to me. Too bad I sold my refurb 40GB ATV a while back. Maybe when the next rev is (ever) released...
So are you running it from an external drive entirely, along with keyboard and mouse through a USB hub?
g=

[mattkime]

>>So are you running it from an external drive entirely, along with keyboard and mouse through a USB hub?

Yes, I installed OS X on an external USB drive. Unplug the drive and its back to normal.

I can plug in a keyboard and mouse but mostly I'm controlling it with Chicken of the VNC/Apple Remote Desktop.

[mattkime]

hm, this seems to work -

sudo SystemStarter -d restart "Network Time"

now, does anyone know how to automate it since it needs to run as root?

[mikebw]

can't you just login as root all the time?

[MacMagus]

'Dunno if this still works under Leopard...

Change the user field of a cron job to "root" and it should run as root.

[ztirffritz]

If it is running OS X you should be able to do it using CRONtab

This might help:
http://www.bradrice.com/wposx/archives/51

[space-time]

"the biggest one is that the time doesn't update properly. luckily enough its a perfectly even ratio 2 seconds to the AppleTV is 3 seconds to everyone else."

I am not sure I understand, so 2 seconds inside Apple TV is 3 seconds to the outside world? Like time is slowed down 1/3? 16 "hours" per day? what could cause that???

does Apple TV have an internal "clock" (quart crystal) that runs at a slower frequency than the ones used in real Macs? Maybe you can adjust this factor in a kernel extension or something, that being said, this is just a shot in the dark, I never hack an OS before.

BTW: thanks for the LaserWriter manual!!!

[mattkime]

>>does Apple TV have an internal "clock" (quart crystal) that runs at a slower frequency than the ones used in real Macs?

Its something like that but anyone who is knowledgeable enough to fix it isn't interested in the project.

I'd prefer to avoid cron to fix the problem but at this point it looks like my only choice.

I might be able to AppleScript the System Profiler and parse it to give me the status of connected usb devices. not ideal, but possible.

[mikebw]

What about syncing the system clock to a network time server? Should that keep it in time?