Need some info...

[AlphaWolf]

I have a little project I am working on for my own educational purposes (basicaly I want to make a hughes "xtreme" image with a few updates, only this will be for my own personal use, won't release unless theres a strong desire or something, as I don't want to augment any disarray)

Anyway, I need to know how the 25xtreme creators got the software image to work on any tivo without getting the error #51, and how to make it so that the first boot will flash the prom with the fastboot and no kernel check.

[captain_video]

Wasn't 2.5Xtreme developed by Surgeon? I'd try to contact him via e-mail or PM. I haven't seen or heard from him as of late but I'm sure he's lurking around somewhere.

[superzap]

Actually the process is quite simple. All of the install work by v25xtreme is done in the script installSw.itcl. Take a look at it on partition 7 (v2.0) in /tvbin. The source files needed are in /var/hack. I've done this same thing to create a v252xtreme for a DSR6000. The error #51 doesn't occur because the image used is "pending restart" for a software upgrade.

[AlphaWolf]

Ah I kinda suspected thats why they use an image of an upgrade already in progress, was too lazy to test myself.

Something still boggles me about the prom update though, as afaik tivosh doesn't run during the "welcome, powering up" screen.

[superzap]

The prom update/clearing the initrd also occurs in installSw.itcl during the process that's happening when you see the screen "installing new software". After this process finishes the new alternate partition is built, an automatic reboot is done and now the special prom/cleared initrd does it's magic.

[captain_video]

I wasn't sure about the exact process that was going on but I had always assumed that the image was derived from an upgraded DTivo prior to placing it back into the DTivo at the point where it would upgrade itself and flash the PROM. This is why you can't use an image from an already upgraded DTivo and copy it to a drive for use in a DTivo that was at a previous software version prior to the upgrade. The PROM will never get flashed and you'd likely get the "Green screen of death" because the PROM doesn't recognize the software version on the hard drive. It never gets the command to upgrade itself to make it compatible. It's always nice to have the Linux gurus around (or at least the DTivo software literate) to explain things like this to us mere mortals.

[AlphaWolf]

Thats news to me, whats that first reboot at the "welcome, powering up..." screen for then? (I always thought that the 25xtreme shell script cleared the initrd as one of the final steps)

[superzap]

If you watch the boot-up on a pending restart like v25xtreme this is what you see and what, generally speaking, is happening:
1. "welcome, powering up..." - the prom code is in control.
2. "almost there, a few more seconds" - linux is in control and rc.sysinit is doing it's thing.
3. "installing new software from the TiVo Service" - the routines that build the alternate kernel and root partitions are in control. This is where, for xtreme, the prom is flashed and the initrd is cleared in installSw.itcl (25xtreme shell script doesn't do this). After this completes a reboot is done which loads the new prom and software and now you're running from the alternate partitions.
4. On this boot-up you should see the normal screens like #1 and #2 and then "Updating database. This will take a long time". It really doesn't take that long and then you should see "Last step: acquiring information from satellite" as normal.

[AlphaWolf]

Damn, thats a lot easier than I thought :D