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NTATV - Windows NT on the Original Apple TV

NTATV Logo

The NTATV Project: Bringing Windows NT (Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, ReactOS) to the original Apple TV.

Want to run Windows on the Apple TV? Read the Guide!
Want to learn how I did this? Read the Write-Up!
Want to join the Apple TV hacking community? Join the official Discord server!

IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR ALL NTATV USERS

NTATV version 1.1 breaks compatibility with earlier versions of NTATV! Please read this page for instructions on how to upgrade.

Contents:

Status
Known Issues
Get Involved
Compiling NTATV
Changelog
Acknowledgements

Status

Operating System	Kernel	PCI	USB	Basic Video	Accelerated Video (HDMI)	Accelerated Video (Component)	Ethernet	WiFi	RCA audio	Optical audio	HDMI audio	Remote/LED control	Software Reboot
Windows pre-2000 (NT3/4, 9x, DOS-based, etc)	Will likely never work; too reliant on legacy BIOS, PIC interrupts, and non-ACPI device enumeration (would require a completely custom HAL)
Windows 2000	Working	Working	Working	Working	Working	Working	Working	Working	Partially Working¹	Working	Broken	Broken	Broken
Windows XP	Working	Working	Working	Working	Working	Working	Working	Working	Partially Working¹	Working	Broken	Partially Working⁵	Working
Windows 2003	Working	Working	Working	Working	Untested	Untested	Working	Untested	Untested	Untested	Untested	Untested	Untested
Windows Vista	Partially Working²	Partially Working²	Partially Working²	Working	Broken²	Broken²	Untested²	Untested²	Untested²	Untested²	Untested²	Untested	Working
Windows 7	Does not work; no compatible bootloader or EFI-compliant video driver at this time
Windows 8, 8.1	Working³	Working	Working	Working	Working	Untested	Working	Working	Partially Working¹	Untested	Broken	Partially Working⁵	Working
Windows 10	Working³	Working	Working	Working	Working	Broken⁶	Working	Working	Partially Working¹	Untested	Broken	Untested	Working
Windows 11, any future versions of Windows	Will never work; no 32-bit CPU support
ReactOS	Working	Broken	Broken⁴	Working	Broken⁴	Broken⁴	Broken⁴	Broken⁴	Broken⁴	Broken⁴	Broken⁴	Broken⁴	Broken⁴

Audio plays, but at an extremely low volume. See Guide#Sound.
I have been able to boot Vista on the Apple TV, however it seems to have major issues with USB, Internet connectivity doesn't work, and the NVIDIA drivers do not work. As such, binaries or instructions will not be published unless and until these issues are resolved.
Functionally useless on Apple TVs with 256MB RAM; an SSD is all but required as the kernel and basic drivers alone use about 192MB minimum. Usage requires ATV1sm and Windows must be installed on another machine/in a VM since the installer won't load on the TV.
Non-working PCI breaks nearly everything on ReactOS.
Early alpha driver available here for Windows XP SP2 and later. This driver will not work on earlier versions due to limitations of the WinUSB library. This driver should work fine for LED control but its remote support is in early stages.
At least on my TV, Windows 10 sets the Component output to an invalid mode. This is definitely NVIDIA's fault and probably happens on other machines with similar driver versions.

Known Issues

Some horribly made IDE to SATA adapters have issues with Windows XP, the Apple TV's firmware, FreeLoader (our custom bootloader), or all of the above. I'd recommend the white plastic cased IDE to mSATA adapters you can find on AliExpress/eBay/Amazon for under $10 under various sellers and brand names, I seem to have the best luck with those (though USB adapters sometimes have issues on those, so consider an mSATA to USB adapter for imaging)
NTFS has issues on non-English Windows installs due to FreeLoader bugs. If you get errors like Cannot open SYSTEM.ALT hive!, reinstall on a FAT32 partition. You should be able to convert that partition to NTFS later on with no repercussions.
RDP connections fail on custom-built images. If you use sysprep to wipe the system configuration, as I did on the prebuilt image, RDP connections work fine, but if you don't, RDP will instantly disconnect.
HDMI audio will probably never work. The Apple TV uses an extremely weird configuration for HDMI audio in that the Intel chipset, not the NVIDIA video card, is responsible for the audio over the HDMI port. The Intel HDMI audio drivers from the GMA 950 drivers will install, but no devices show up. In order to get this working, I'd need to either completely rewrite or binary patch the Intel HDMI audio drivers to support the Apple TV, which would likely be extremely complicated. If someone wants to work on this please let me know, but for now audio via HDMI will not work.
NTVDM on Windows XP requires some legacy BIOS functions (likely the Extended BIOS data area and legacy VESA functions) and therefore will not work. Just use DOSBox or WineVDM (make sure to download the version for older Windows versions) to run DOS/early Windows applications. I haven't tested it on Windows 8/10 but it probably works fine since those OSes have official UEFI support.
Safe mode does not work due to the graphics driver used here. It is possible to fix this, but I haven't succeeded yet.
Using Windows' built in "Disk Cleanup" feature has been reported to break booting. I haven't tested it myself, but it is likely a result of missing or compressed files.

Get Involved

Contributions are welcome! I'm particularly interested in anyone who knows anything about Windows audio drivers, since sound has been a persistent problem with NTATV since its inception.

If you experience any issues with NTATV, please let me know through the NTATV issue tracker. Please refrain from reporting known issues like the ones above.

Compiling NTATV

My custom version of FreeLoader from ReactOS is located in this repository. To compile it:

Install RosBE (do not use the Ubuntu PPA)
Run RosBE (on Linux it's located in /usr/local/RosBE/RosBE.sh, on Windows it can be started from the Start menu)

You can also use MSVC, see the ReactOS guide. Clang is untested but I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work.

Clone my repository: git clone https://github.com/DistroHopper39B/reactos -b AppleTV-Desktop
cd to my repository
Run ./configure.sh (Linux) or configure.cmd (Windows) -DSARCH=appletv
Run cd output-MinGW-i386 (or cd output-VS-i386 if you're building with MSVC)
Run ninja freeldr

freeldr.sys will be located in output-MinGW-i386/boot/freeldr/freeldr.

For bootvid.dll, run ninja lfbbvid, then rename the generated drivers/base/bootvid/lfbbvid.dll to bootvid.dll.
For genfbvmp.sys, run ninja genfbvmp.

Changelog

v1.1

Please note that this release breaks compatibility with existing installs! Please follow this guide to upgrade.

Major FreeLoader codebase upgrade
Improved Windows 2000 support, it will no longer break if 2k is updated too much
Newer, more reliable boot video driver
Improve memory mapping routines
Simpler installation process

v1.0

FreeLoader NTFS issues should be solved, thanks iLauncherDev (reactos#8103)
Drivers packaged into the NTATV ISO for an easier installation experience
Updated FreeLoader codebase

To update from a previous release, replace freeldr.sys with the new one in the boot partition.

v0.5

Massively simplified Windows install process:

Second XP machine for installation no longer needed! We are now using CriticalDeviceDatabase to automatically load the framebuffer driver.
pciide.sys copying no longer required

v0.3

Windows 2000, XP, and 2003 now use the same bootloader and video driver, removing the need to download a seperate ISO
Updated FreeLoader codebase again, fixing the line of corrupted characters on the boot screen
Reverted memory mapping code due to compatibility issues
Removed IDE ISA compatibility mode hack, the IDE controller is now running in PCI mode at all times
Minimal GUI is now the default appearance of FreeLoader, resulting in a more NTLDR-looking boot process
Executable name is now freeldr.sys instead of mach_kernel for consistency with other FreeLoader ports
New prebuilt image adds more up-to-date NVIDIA driver

v0.2.1.1

Added Windows 2000 support! There are some caveats:

Likely limited driver support
Reboot doesn't work (no ACPI 2.0 support in Windows 2000)
More complicated installation process

win2000

No changes to the Windows XP/2003 ISO or installation process.

v0.2.1

Reboot now works! Shutdown still hangs, but the same issue happens on Linux and Mac OS X since the Apple TV has no ACPI shutdown at all.
Memory mapping code rewritten and simplified

v0.2

NTATV's FreeLoader is now up-to-date with ReactOS' FreeLoader (version 3.2)!
IDE driver issues are resolved (theoretically) and the Apple TV should now boot from any IDE drive, including IDE to SATA adapters and SSDs, without issue.
New prebuilt image adds NVIDIA driver support out of the box

v0.1.1

Fix to early video driver preventing corrupted boot logo at certain resolutions

v0.1

Initial release

File listing

NTATV_UTILS/Boot/boot.efi: Apple TV stock bootloader, from Apple TV stock OS (direct download to restore image)
NTATV_UTILS/Boot/freeldr.sys: FreeLoader from ReactOS; Apple TV modifications by me, based on code from Xbox and UEFI ports
NTATV_UTILS/Boot/System/Library/Extensions/Dummy.kext: DummyKext by me
NTATV_UTILS/DiskAndVideoFix.reg: currentq's testing
NTATV_UTILS/Drivers/BroadcomNetworkAdatper/*: Broadcom Wi-Fi driver v5.60.18.9 from Apple Boot Camp 3.1.1, extracted by me
NTATV_UTILS/Drivers/genfbvmp_1.02_installer.exe: Generic Framebuffer driver and Linear Framebuffer Bootvid from ReactOS, written by Justin Miller (The_DarkFire_) and Hermès Bélusca-Maïto (hbelusca), Windows modifications by me
NTATV_UTILS/Drivers/NVIDIA_179.48_AppleTV.exe: NVIDIA 179.48 beta driver with INF modifications and repack by me
NTATV_UTILS/Drivers/RealtekSetupXP.exe: Realtek HD audio driver v5.10.0.5936 from Boot Camp 3.1.1
NTATV_UTILS/Drivers/Windows2000/boingoinstaller.exe: Boingo Wireless Software for Windows 2000 (direct download link)
NTATV_UTILS/Drivers/Windows2000/IE6: Internet Explorer 6.00.2800.1106
NTATV_UTILS/Drivers/Windows2000/vcredist: Visual C++ 6 redistributable for Windows 2000 (direct download link), extracted by me
NTATV_UTILS/freeldr.ini: FreeLoader configuration file for Windows XP/2003 written by me
NTATV_UTILS/freeldr_Windows2000.ini: FreeLoader configuration file for Windows 2000 written by me

Acknowledgements

Edgar (gimli) Hucek, James McKenzie of MythicBeasts, Scott Davilla, and Dmitri (loop333) for Apple TV Linux bringup
Justin Miller (The_DarkFire_) and Hermès Bélusca-Maïto for UEFI FreeLoader and graphics drivers (and for being immensely helpful throughout this whole project)
Guido Lehwalder and Piggyhero2006 for NVIDIA driver support