[Fire TV General] PhoenixMark:
Just wanted to post my notes for Mac users

I just joined this forum to post in this thread to try to help out Mac users. Although this process seems pretty straight forward to me some may need a little help to put it all together.

Here's the link to the tutorial that takes some 2.5 hours to root: http://hackthatphone.com/Fire TV/Rooting-the-Fire-TV-with-a-Mac.html

I would highly recommend this easier method where you install TWRP custom recovery and a pre-rooted ROM. It will only take 30 minutes or so to complete and is safer: http://marksmods.com/Hack-the-Fire-...-and-Install-a-Pre-Rooted-ROM-with-a-Mac.html

---Below instructions are for the 2.5 hour rooting method---

I'll post just the text from a tutorial I wrote and fully screen shot on my own site as it's not my intent to divert traffic to my site. It's a lot of screen shots so, If you want all the pretty pictures (and necessary links) too check out my guide at hackthatphone dot com and click on Tutorials you'll see the Amazon Fire TV icon there and that will get you to it. Hopefully my post isn't too dry without pics and links.

Thanks to all those who really made this process simple and smooth!

Step 1

Make sure you download the file from post 1 for either 5.0.3 or 5.0.4 firmware. Do not

download anything else linked to in that first post.

You may also want to check out Zeroepoch's Wiki but I will put all the steps in these

instructions.

Step 2.

Download Python 3.x from python dot org.

Double click the downloaded file and install Python.

Step 3.

Go to your Mac's Applications folder. Scroll down to Utilities and launch the Terminal

application.

In the Terminal enter "sudo pip3 install pyserial" and press enter, and then enter your

system password and press enter again. A couple messages appeared about caching being

disabled due to ownership issues. I don't know if this was a problem or not as I was

able to root the Fire TV anyway. Pyserial was then downloaded and successfully installed.

Step 4.

Connect a USB A to A cable from your Mac to your Fire TV.

According to the Wiki: You will need a USB A-Male to A-Male cable to perform any

of these rooting procedures. It should be a straight cable with no circuitry in the

middle, such as a "transfer" cable.

I purchased the cable on the Wiki list at Amazon from Cables to go:

Step 5.

In the Terminal change directories to the location of the folder that you unzipped in

Step 1. Then enter the execute command to begin the patching process. These are the

commands you'll enter (if your files are on the Desktop):

cd Desktop/root-aftv2-5.0.4

./root_aftv2.py

You should now see the message Waiting for preloader...

Step 6.

Disconnect the power from the Fire TV. Wait a few seconds and then reconnect the

power. If you still have it connected to a TV you won't see any output from the Fire TV

but you will see the white light on the front pulsing letting you know it's on.

Various messages will appear in the Terminal over the course of the next 2 (or so) hours.

It took 2 hours and 20 minutes until it finished patching. You'll see the message

"Congrats, rooting complete!" when it has finished.

Disconnect your USB cable and then disconnect the power from the Fire TV. Wait a few

seconds and then reconnect it. The Fire TV should boot up normally.

Step 7.

Now we need a method of talking to the Fire TV with your Mac. Download the adbFire

application from jocala dot com Double click the dmg file and drag the adbFire icon

into the Applications folder.

On your Fire TV go to Settings, System, Developer Options and turn on ADB debugging. This

will let you connect to the Fire TV via your computer using the adbFire application.

Find your Fire TV's IP address. Go to Settings, System, About, Network. Mine is

192.168.0.24.

Go to your Applications folder and launch the adbFire application.

Click the New button.

In the Description field enter the name you want to call your Fire TV. In the Address

field enter your IP address. Leave everything else the way you see it here. Click the

Save button when you're done.

In the Current device drop down box you should now see the name you entered for your

Fire TV. Click the Connect button.

In the Connected devices box you should see your IP address, and in the Status box you

should see "device".

Step 8.

Now let's block over the air updates from Amazon. Click the ADB Shell button.

A Terminal window will open (which also confirms that you have root). You will see the

prompt "shell@sloane:/".

Enter the command "su" and then press enter.

A prompt will appear on the Fire TV. Click the GRANT button.

Enter this command into the Terminal "pm disable com.amazon.device.software.ota" and

then press enter. You'll receive confirmation that software updates have been disabled.

If you ever wanted to re-enable software updates simply enter these commands into the

Terminal: "su" and then "pm enable com.amazon.device.software.ota".

You are done!

Update: I have never been able to mount /system as RW. While my only goal was to be able to FTP to an external drive on my hub to upload media content (which I'm able to do), it would be nice to install other things that need to write to /system. Keep this in mind. Don't know if my attempt at rooting had a random glitch in it or if I'd get different results if I re ran this process.