Avid jailbreakers are somewhat spoilt this Christmas. Having had an end-of-life iOS 10 32-bit tool by tihmstar, and an iOS 11 tool too, the gifts just keep on coming. The Apple TV 4 and 4K have been brought into the fold, with a tvOS counterpart to Jonathan Levin’s LiberiOS, called LiberTV.
Apple TV 4 users may remember this tool, as its tvOS 10 incarnation was the last jailbreak for the Apple TV we saw. It’s back, and better than ever, now supporting tvOS 11 firmwares up to and including tvOS 11.1. Firmwares higher than that are not susceptible to the bugs used in the jailbreak, and will therefore not be supported.
Whilst Apple TV jailbreaks have not historically got off the ground, there has always been the hope that porting Substrate across would allow tweaks, and bring some of the ecosystem over. With more people than ever making the signing window this time round and getting onto <=tvOS 11.1, and with nitoTV back working on his offering, perhaps this time we’ll see a more complete experience. For now, the jailbreak will be of use mostly for SSHing to your device, blocking updates, pushing files, and changing your root password for security purposes. If and when unsigned app support is added, TV jailbreakers will be able to install their favourite media apps without being subject to Apple’s 7-day restriction.
The tool is available to download now from the official LiberTV site. Avoid downloading it from other sources, as well as redistributing it elsewhere. The site also provides an FAQ and other information, which you might find interesting to read before getting started.
I haven’t tried it out on the Apple TV 4K yet, but a cursory run on the Apple TV 4 succeeded immediately, and worked as advertised. I was able to SSH into the device straight away, and didn’t encounter any bugs or instability.
We’ll keep you informed of any feature updates to the tool as it progresses, as well as any juicy titbits which are released to take advantage of the jailbroken platform. In the meantime, take care with your filesystem modifications, and let me know your experiences with LiberTV for iOS 11 in the comments below.
