Requirements:

• Boxee account
• Apple TV with Boxee software already installed (Tutorial: How to Install Boxee on Your Apple TV)
• A Mac or PC with a SSH client application such as Terminal (Mac) or PuTTY (PC)

NERD NOTE: SSH is short for "Secure Shell." SSH is typically used to securely log into a remote machine and execute commands.

01) Is Boxee Installed on Your Apple TV?

First things first. You must have the Boxee software installed on your Apple TV. Did you run an Apple TV software update recently? When you update your Apple TV firmware, Apple will automatically delete the Boxee software off your Apple TV. No big deal. You can just reinstall Boxee. Installing Boxee on your Apple TV enables SSH. In the steps below you will be using SSH to access your Apple TV.

1. Make sure you see Boxee listed on the main menu of your Apple TV. This means SSH is enabled.
2. If you don't see Boxee listed, follow these instructions and reinstall Boxee.

02) What's Your Apple TV's IP Address?

Before you can SSH into your Apple TV, you need to know your Apple TV's IP address. This is especially true if you have more than one Apple TV on your network.

1. From the Apple TV main menu, scroll down to the bottom and select Settings, then General (Apple TV > Settings > General).
   
   
   
   
2. From the General screen, select About. Your Apple TV's IP address should be listed on this screen (Apple TV > Settings > General > About).
   
   
   
   
3. Write down your Apple TV's IP address. It will look something like 10.0.1.200. You will need this number later.
   
   
   

03) Launch a SSH Client Application

Before you can connect to your Apple TV using SSH, you need to have a SSH client installed on your computer. Macintosh users are lucky and already have one installed. PC users will probably need to download and install one.

1. Find/install a SSH client application:
   
   
   • Terminal (Mac) - Terminal is on every computer using Mac OS X. You can find it in your Utilities folder (Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > Terminal).
     
     
   • PuTTY (PC) - PuTTY is a free SSH client for PC. You can download a copy of PuTTY here.
     
     
2. Open your SSH application.

NERD NOTE: An SSH client program is typically used for establishing connections to an SSH daemon accepting remote connections. SSH client programs are commonly present on most modern operating systems, including Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and OpenVMS.

04) Connect to Your Apple TV Using SSH

1. You should have your SSH client open. If not, open Terminal or PuTTY.
   
   
Pull out that piece of paper with your Apple TV's IP address from step #2. You need it now. At the command line prompt ($), type in the following:


• ssh frontrow@your.appletv.ip.address.goes.here
  
  
2. You might be asked if you are sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no). Type yes.
   
   
3. You will be prompted for a password. The default password is frontrow.
   
   
• frontrow
  
  
4. Congratulations. You now have a SSH connection to your Apple TV.

05) Delete Old Boxee User Data on Your Apple TV

If you've updated your Apple TV lately, you might be experiencing a "black screen" when you try to use Boxee. Unfortunately Apple TV updates tend to break the ability of the Boxee application to consistently appear in foreground... resulting in a "black screen" error when you try to launch Boxee on your Apple TV. This is especially common if you were an early adopter of Boxee and are now upgrading an older Boxee install. Let's use SSH to access your Apple TV and delete any old user data.

1. At the command line prompt ($), type in the following:
   
   
   • rm -rf /Users/frontrow/Library/Application\ Support/BOXEE/UserData
     
     
2. This will delete any old Boxee user data. Just to be safe, let's reboot your Apple TV. While you have the SSH connection established, you might as well use it. Type sudo reboot at the prompt ($).
   
   
   • sudo reboot
     
     
     
     
     
3. That's it. Your Boxee "black screen" error should be history. If you are still having Boxee issues like your Apple TV freezing or the "black screen" error is still happening, then keep reading.

06) Delete Old Configuration File to Fix Boxee "Frozen Remote" Error

With the release of Boxee for Apple TV 2.3, Boxee changed the way the application interacts with the Apple TV remote control. In some circumstances, this causes users who are upgrading an existing Boxee install to freeze at login.

To fix this, you need to connect to your Apple TV using SSH and delete your Boxee configuration file. Boxee will automatically create a new a new configuration file and fix this issue for you.

1. Connect to your Apple TV using SSH (see step #4 of this tutorial titled: Connect to Your Apple TV Using SSH).
   
   
2. At the prompt ($) type the following:
   
   
   • rm /Users/frontrow/Library/Application\ Support/BOXEE/UserData/guisettings.xml
     
     
3. Launch the Boxee application on your Apple TV and everything should be fine now. If not, keep reading.

07) Completely Uninstall All Traces of Boxee

Oh no. If you are still reading this tutorial, then something Boxee related must be majorly F.U.B.A.R. on your Apple TV. Let's delete all traces of Boxee on your Apple TV.

1. Open your SSH client program.
   
   
2. At the command line prompt ($), type in the following:
   
   
   • ssh frontrow@your.appletv.ip.address.from.step.2
     
     
3. You might be asked if you are sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no). Type yes.
   
   
4. You will be prompted for a password. The default password is frontrow.
   
   
• frontrow
  
  
5. Type in the following one line at a time:
   
   
   • sudo rm -rf /Applications/Boxee.app/
   • sudo rm -rf /Applications/XBMC.app/
   • sudo rm -rf /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/PlugIns/XBMCLauncher.frappliance/
   • rm -rf /Users/frontrow/Library/Application\ Support/BOXEE/
   • rm -rf /Users/frontrow/Library/Application\ Support/XBMC/
     
     
6. You should now reinstall Boxee from scratch.

08) That's it!

Congratulations! You are done. Go buy yourself a drink... and feel free to buy us one too. These articles don't write themselves. Show us some love and drop a PayPal dollar in our MethodShop.com Beer Fund. Beer Fund If you are low on cash, you can say thanks by following us on Twitter, fanning us on Facebook, subscribing to our RSS feed or joining our weekly mailing list. We totally appreciate your support.