3.1.u5-01-2-151

[inet]

Where if anywhere is 3.1.U5-01-2-151 image for HDVR2 posted? I would like to play with this image, but i have had no success in locating this image.

Any help would be grate.

thanks

[orangejaylove]

I could use the same thing but I've seen this question ignored elsewhere also

[orangejaylove]

come on guys someone has to have the file can you PM me or something I really can't do anything with out this its not not I can make one or somthing mrblack you said you had to get one...

what should be do...
:confused:

[TheD0CT0R]

Did anyone figure out where to get this image? I just got my hdvr2 last night and want to get it to the same state (bash prompt) as my T60.

Thanks...
Doc

[orangejaylove]

I've got 2 120gig drives and my HDVR open software burned and no image to play with...

so no I've had no help finding the image:confused:

[Cryptlogic]

can someone please PM me with an FTP address or i can give you mine - i need a virgin HDVR2 image - my backup was bad and i cant use my HDVR2 at all.......please

[mrblack51]

well, since no-one managed to find one on their own it seems, here is an image for you.

ftp://tivo:later@ftp.twinbrothers.com/

hdvr2-31U5.zip

needs to have a clear & delete everything so it will work on your unit.

[dpr]

thanks!

[yellaboyla]

off topic, but I just can't understand the purpose of 2-120gig drives in a Tivo. I don't watch that much TV in a month!!

I can't imagine recording that many shows. I would rather put in my pc as a RAID and do some file sharing!! :D

[Justin_Thyme]

Originally posted by mrblack51
. . . needs to have a clear & delete everything so it will work on your unit.

I just restored the image overtop the drive but I am having problems getting past the "booting up" Tivo stage.

What exactly did you mean by "clear and delete everything"?

Justin

[yellaboyla]

in the user menu, do a clear and delete

[2old2play]

it unraps as a .mfs not a .bak Sorry, but Im a newbie. Can I use this the same way as a .bak???

[mrblack51]

the .mfs is an mfstools 2.0 backup. use mfstools 2.0 to restore

[2old2play]

thanks, it worked great

[egocentric]

So, I downloaded this image and booted with the latest mfs tools cd. I then executed this command:

mfsrestore -s 127 -xbzpi hdvr2-31U5.mfs /dev/hdd

Where /dev/hdd is a new Maxtor 120gb drive.

Now for my problem. The TiVo menus are overlayed onto the video, rather than covering the screen with a blue-ish background like I've seen others do.

I tried backing up my original and restoring it to the 120gb drive first, but I figured I just botched the backup. So, I tried your back up image and I get the same problem. Has anyone else seen this? What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance...

Edit: I did do a "clear and delete everything" and that didn't fix it.

Also, I forgot to say, Mr. Black is awesome. Thanks for posting so much useful info about the TiVo!

[2old2play]

Mine does the same thing. Its very wierd

[egocentric]

well, I restored my original drive 40gb onto my 120gb, backing up all the streams, and that fixed the problem. It seems that to get rid of the video overlay, we need a U5 backup that includes all of the series 2 streams.

[CheeseMan316]

Lucky you....

i can't imagine i messed this thing up... but here's the scoop...

i put in a new drive with this image... restoring as shown a few posts up with mfstool 2.0... it hangs as "welcome powering up"

so, I put the old drive back in... same thing

now, I have the serial cable connected when it boots... and this is what i get

Output enabled
Ram size = 64
Service number is 0000000000000. (real number appears)
What is password?


Now what?\ it \appears to be stuck!

[mrblack51]

did you put the jumpers back?

[Hamsterman]

I tried putting the U5 kernel and root partitions on a backup of my original to fix this problem, and ran into this issue.

My original drive had Kernel 1 being only half the size of Kernel 2, so the backup did, too. I was able to pdisk it to the right size by renumbering partitions and accepting a smaller /var, so I hoped I could have both versions on the same hard drive. I had dd'd the U5 kernel and root partitions earlier, and now was able to dd them back to hda3/4.

Unfortunately, even though I changed the boot parameters from hda7 to hda4, the unit would go into a reboot cycle as soon as it should have finished 'Welcome Powering Up'. And no, it's not the hard drive jumpers :-)

I'll try putting the U5 kernel and root onto hda6/7 and see if that works. Of course, I may not get to try that for a few days or weeks.

Hamsterman

[CheeseMan316]

I never changed the jumpers on the drive. I never changed anything. I pulled out the 40GB drive, and put in the 60 (re-imaged already). When it was giving the invalid signature error and prompting for a password (when it was booting and sitting at the "powering up" screen), I put the original drive back in.

So I never changed anything on it, the tivo (except tryin the other drive) and now the original won't get past welcome powering up. It does however not give the same error as the 60 did about invalid drive signature (more detailed message in previous reply).

[Requiem]

I too used the mfs image Mr. Black has graciously provided and my hacking experiences have been very successful.. except for the video playing under the menus.

Anyone know how to fix this?

- Requiem

[wkendrvr]

Originally posted by Requiem
I too used the mfs image Mr. Black has graciously provided and my hacking experiences have been very successful.. except for the video playing under the menus.

Anyone know how to fix this?

- Requiem

Easiest way to fix this....


First Make a backup of your original drive (the one with the menu video streams, and you might want to use -a to get ALL streams)

Restore the u5 image to a DIFFERENT drive

dd from the u5 drive to the backup of your original drive the partition 1 less than the boot partition (on mine it was 6)


You should now have the latest Tivo software with the older Kernel.

If you have already made all the changes to a drive and don't want to start from scratch do the following...

*disclaimer* you mess it up, you fix, it I do not guarantee any of the below other than it worked for me...*

Make a backup of your original drive (with the streams)
restore that to a drive

Take your working hacked drive and dd from it the 1 less than the boot partition, and the partition that was created for the hacks (in my case it was 16) then dd partition 9 or wherever your hacks dir is (or you could just copy em, either way)



Additionally, when I made the backup of my original drive I used -a to get ALL the streams... (it was a virgin drive so didn't make the backup that much bigger)

[Requiem]

I'll give it a try a little later. Thanks for the response!

- Req

[kmon]

dd from the u5 drive to the backup of your original drive the partition 1 less than the boot partition (on mine it was 6)


What name is displayed for this partition?

[Logandros]

That method wont help those if us who followed that very same guide for creating our original backup (also without the a option which ignored the said missing streams)!

BOOHOO I want MENU !

[txag93]

OK,

I have the new 120G drive working fine, loading fixsub, swapping rc.sysinit. However, I have the image with the transparent menus.

I also have the original 40G drive. I am not sure I follow what wkendrvr is suggesting above.

My thoughts are I can put BOTH the original 40G and the 120G hacked U5 HD in the computer as HDC and HDD. What would I need to copy from HDC (40G orig) to the 120 G hacked U5 (HDD)?

I was able to get the 40G working fine, but after backing it up, then restoring to 120G, I had to copy partition 14 from 40G to partition 16 on 120G, and redo the bootpage command to point to hda16 as well. But, all is working and I have my backgrounds back!

Thanks!

[drksun]

ok i have been looking for 3.1.u5-01-2-151 for like 8 hours now. was wondering if anyone could pm me with a link or a forum to look for it. thanks.

[2old2play]

So what happens if we dont have our origanal drive? mine is gone for good. Does that mean no more background???

[Logandros]

drksun

http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21070&perpage=15&pagenumber=8


enjoy

[drksun]

thank you very very much :-) you kept me from going insane.

[Logandros]

I tried quite a few images that were given to me from here. All gave me translucent menus. I'm curious to see how you make out.

Welcome

[drksun]

well i see what ya mean about the translucant screens. not to bad on a black background though. my only problem now is the first call out on set up i have the 31fixsub.tcl in place and it looks like it is taking care of the daily call out but no go on the first call out i also tried the touch /etc/TestSub. but to no evail. :-) any ideas?



btw thanks to all for the help.
##########
#callfixsub.tcl
##########
bash-2.02# cat callfixsub.tcl
while true; do
{
date > /var/hack/fixsub.log
/var/hack/fixsub31.tcl
sleep 82800
}
done





##############
# fixsub.tcl #
##############
!/tvbin/tivosh
date>>/var/hack/hackinit.log
PATH=/var/hack/bin:/sbin:/bin:/tivobin:/tvbin:.
TIVO_ROOT=
MFS_DEVICE=/dev/hda10
IGNOREEOF=1000
export PATH TIVO_ROOT MFS_DEVICE IGNOREEOF

tvsource /tvlib/tcl/tv/mfslib.tcl

proc FixSub {db} {
puts "Inside fixsub"
try {
RetryTransaction {
set now [clock seconds]
set today [expr ($now / 86400)]
set stateExpiration [expr ($today + 1)]
set nextCall [expr ($stateExpiration * 86400)]
set lastCallStatus "Succeeded"
set callStatusInfo "Succeeded"

set sobj [db $db open /State/PhoneConfig]

dbobj $sobj set LastDialInUpdateDate $today
dbobj $sobj set CallStatusInfo $callStatusInfo
dbobj $sobj set LastCallAttemptSecInDay $now
dbobj $sobj set LastSuccessPgdCallSecInDay $now
dbobj $sobj set LastSuccessCallSecInDay $now
dbobj $sobj set LastCallStatus $lastCallStatus
dbobj $sobj set NextCallAttemptSecInDay $nextCall

set ssobj [db $db open /State/ServiceConfig]

dbobj $ssobj set ServiceStateExpiration $stateExpiration

set ssobj [db $db open /State/GeneralConfig]

dbobj $ssobj set Complete 7
}
puts "done with fixsub"
} catch errCode {
puts "Failed to FixSub, code=($errCode)"
return 0
}
return 1
}

set db [dbopen]
FixSub $db
dbclose $db


proc Succeeded {db} {
puts "Setting call to Succeeded"
try {
RetryTransaction {
set lastCallStatus "Succeeded"
set sobj [db $db open /State/PhoneConfig]
dbobj $sobj set LastCallStatus $lastCallStatus
}
} catch errCode {
puts "Failed to set LastCallStatus, code=($errCode)"
return 0
}
return 1
}

[Logandros]

Ya know when I saw how callfixsub was setup:

##########
#callfixsub.tcl
##########
bash-2.02# cat callfixsub.tcl
while true; do
{
date > /var/hack/fixsub.log
/var/hack/fixsub31.tcl
sleep 82800
}
done


I see it was looking for /var/hack/fixsub31.tcl

Yet everyone refers to it and seems to only have fixsub.tcl in thier /var/hack directory. So before I even had a problem and as I was building my directories I grabbed 31fixsub.zip from http://www.tivostuff.com/ and put the files in my /var/hack directory. I fillowed the instructions and it produced a subdir called tvbin and in there it puts fixsub31.tcl. I moved fixsub31.tcl back to /var/hack removed the tvbin directory, deleted the files I transferred and all seemed to run smooth from day 1. Since I was confused I left fixsub.tcl in my /var/hack just in case.

Hope this helps .. just seems to make sense that if callfixsub.tcl is calling for fixsub31.tcl then what the hell is having fixsub.tcl in your /var/hack dir going to do for it?

;)

"Of course I'm only using logic since I don't have the knowledge."

[frottage]

Originally posted by wkendrvr
Easiest way to fix this....

Restore the u5 image to a DIFFERENT drive

dd from the u5 drive to the backup of your original drive the partition 1 less than the boot partition (on mine it was 6)




can you give an example of what this dd command would look like?

I understand there is an infile and outfile, but what is the infile? The entire u5 image?

Thanks for any clarification.


Frottage

[txag93]

Re: Re: Video overlay

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by wkendrvr
Easiest way to fix this....

Restore the u5 image to a DIFFERENT drive

dd from the u5 drive to the backup of your original drive the partition 1 less than the boot partition (on mine it was 6)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


dd if=/dev/hdX6 of=/dev/hdY6

assuming partition is 6 on both drives, and hdX is u5 drive and hdY is original drive. To find out what partition it is on each drive, type bootpage -p /dev/hdX and then bootpage -p /dev/hdY. Not lower case -p, which will return the bootpage rather than set it.

[t2davo]

Hi,
I am having an issue here.. Please help me.......

This is what I did:

I did my mfsbackup of my orig drive with -a option.
I did a mfsrestore of 31U5 and rebooted.
I then did a "dd if=/dev/hdc6 of=/dev/hdd6"

This copied my 31U5 partition 6 to my orig drive partition 6.

I rebooted then I setup my orig drive, with hdc6 being the one from U5, I created my directories, romfs image, setup my hackinit, and wrote my bootpage.

I brought the drive to the tivo, Plugged in and waited...
It booted fine, it has the video in the menus but no bash!
So I popped the drive out and hooked it back to my pc..

It seems that my hack directory is gone! but my bootpage is still set.

I set everything backup agian and agian it removed my hack directory! grrrrrr

Please help me out!

THANK YOU!!!!!

[yellaboyla]

make sure u are using the correct partition. it will be the last 1, right after Apple Tree. use the shift+page up to verify. if u putting in wrong partition, then it wont work

[t2davo]

I am using the one right before the boot partition as told in an earlier thread.. I did ...

bootpage -p /dev/hdc
and got

hda7

so I am using using 6.. I will double check the apple tree thing..

thanks

[yellaboyla]

bootpage -p /dev/hdc

It should spit out "root=/dev/hda7" which confirms the TiVo’s active root partition is 7, so that makes the VAR mount point at 9.

Lets now mount the var partition by typing:
mount /dev/hdc9 /mnt/tivo


NOT 6......................:)

[t2davo]

"dd from the u5 drive to the backup of your original drive the partition 1 less than the boot partition (on mine it was 6)"

So your saying that I'm just confused! The boot partition is not what gets spit out by bootpage -p?

So I am restoring the /var partition from the U5 Drive onto a drive with latest software and that is how to get the menus back???

I'm lost now...

[t2davo]

Here is some other news..

When I checked the version it is still 3.1.*.*.*.* NOT 31U5...

Like I said, I used my orig software and restored partition 6 from U5 to it.

Am I way off? That is the only thing I can come up with from the posts.

[t2davo]

Nevermind! Got it! Thanks!

[yellaboyla]

oops, thought u were at u5....congrats!!

[Cheule]

I've had success getting the 3.1U5 image on to a larger HD, but I'm still struggling with trying to restore the menu background streams from my original drive. (the transparent menu fix)

The interesting part is that from what I've been reading _everyone_ does a 'mfsbackup -f' on their drive, then gets to the point where they have 3.1U5 on another drive, notices the lack of streams, then realizes they should have done a '-a' backup. So back to the drawing board. It would have been great if the original posts had been modified to reflect that -a is needed to get the menus working. It's my opinion that the transparent menus are non-functional.

What's worse is, since I'm new to all this I'm not sure what the exact syntax of the mfsbackup command is supposed to be when using the -a switch. I have read several posts by wkendrvr and musclenerd that state -a is what we need, but they never spell it out.

In the short run, can someone spell out exactly what I should type the msfbackup when using the -a switch to save all streams?

But in the long run, would one of your fine people with a now working version of 3.1U5 _and_ working motion menu background please create a -a backup for distribution? I realize it's going to be a bit bigger, but as wkendrvr pointed out, if you do this on a drive that is new (no content on it) it should only be slightly bigger. In return I think I have a site I can host this new 'full streams U5 image" on.

Thanks guys, without your help, I'd be lost!

[Requiem]

The full MFSbackup command that copied everything, including background animations for me was:

mfsbackup -f 4138 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdx

I didn't need to use any -a parameter. The string above is straight from the Hinsdale guide, and I was able to use to create an image of a U5 HDVR2 drive which when restored maintained background animations. The backup was about 260mb.

[MuscleNerd]

The only time I ever chose to use the "-a" option for backup was when my TiVo was fresh out of the box, with any streams on it installed at the factory.

Once you've started to record programs though, and even if they've been "deleted", I would go with the -f #### option as mentioned above.

[Cheule]

Originally posted by wkendrvr on AVS Forums ( http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=90268&perpage=20&highlight=mfsbackup&pagenumber=13 )
All I did was restore the image with the graphics working
(btw I had to use the -a option to get ALL streams, and with nothing on the drive it didnt take that much more room)
Then I dd partitions 6 and 9
Entered the bootpage command
Did a mfsbackup of all of it (too much work to redo!)


Originally posted by wkendrvr
First Make a backup of your original drive (the one with the menu video streams, and you might want to use -a to get ALL streams)

I'be been reading multiple threads of people that have the same issue I have, with taking a HDVR2, applying the U5 image, and losing video backgrounds. Wkendrvr seems adimant that an -a switch is necessary to get a backup with those motion menu backgrounds.

You are saying that you did the dd merge of the older U5 kernel, to a backup of your original HDVR2 drive (that was created using a .mfs backup image with the -f switch?), and the menus worked? Or did you work off the original 40GB drive?

It's my understanding that a mfsbackup using the -f switch will not retain any streams, including the streams for the motion menus.

[Cheule]

Originally posted by MuscleNerd
The only time I ever chose to use the "-a" option for backup was when my TiVo was fresh out of the box, with any streams on it installed at the factory.

And pray tell, what would that syntax be? (going back to my original question)

[Requiem]

Originally posted by Cheule
I'be been reading multiple threads of people that have the same issue I have, with taking a HDVR2, applying the U5 image, and losing video backgrounds. Wkendrvr seems adimant that an -a switch is necessary to get a backup with those motion menu backgrounds.

You are saying that you did the dd merge of the older U5 kernel, to a backup of your original HDVR2 drive (that was created using a .mfs backup image with the -f switch?), and the menus worked? Or did you work off the original 40GB drive?

It's my understanding that a mfsbackup using the -f switch will not retain any streams, including the streams for the motion menus.

I didn't need to do any DD merging.... I never lost the background animations. Keep in mind I made a backup of my own U5 drive, I didn't use the one MR. Black points to... which is missing the background animations.

[Requiem]

Originally posted by Cheule
And pray tell, what would that syntax be? (going back to my original question)

While I don't think this is necessary, the syntax I think your looking for is this:

mfsbackup -a -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdx

[Cheule]

I wasn't lucky enough to have a HDVR2 that came with 3.1U5. But I'll do whatever is needed to get my HDVR2 to the state yours is in, whether it's doing the long winded sequence that's been detailed by wkendrvr and musclenerd, or whether it's as simple as getting a different U5 image, one with the backgrounds.

Unless someone posts a different U5 image (you perhaps?), it looks like I'll have to use my original HD and combine it with parts of the 3.1U5 that's floating around.

I'm willing to try that, but how do I back up my streams from my original HD? Lots of people are saying use -a. So the question remains...

how do I use -a?

-----
Edit:
-----
Looks like I was composing my post as you answered my question. Thanks for that syntax. Unfortunately my friend and I tried exactly that, and when it finished, it reported: "Failed: blah blah Success"

Seriously, the words 'failed' and 'success' were in the same line. There was no way I was going to trust that image. I guess I'll just have to try it again.

Seems like it would all be so much easier if the U5 images just contained the menu streams? Is anyone interested in creating a backup of their U5 working HD that has working menus? That would be such a time saver!

[psxboy]

The -f 4138 parameter tells it to bakup only fsids lower than 4138, which catches all the menu backgrounds.

[wkendrvr]

First off, I did not have a u5 image with the menu backgrounds that is WHY I had to muck around.

Second, what you are trying to accomplish is this

If you have a working drive with menus

and you have a drive with the restore of the backup of the u5 that Mr Black graciously posted, then you can use the technique that I used to restore your menus.

If you do not have the u5 image, you will not accomplish anything.

[mckitrick]

Hey Cheule,

Let me know if you get the background videos working.
I too used the U5 image and therefore didn't execute the command in step 12 of Hinsdales' guide:
mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/c/tivo-s2.bak /dev/hdc

I instead did an mfsrestore of MrBlack's U5 image.

I read Weekender's post but I didn't understand it.
At this stage I have my original 40Gig HD from the HDVR2 set aside for backup purposes and I'm running the HDVR2 with a 60Gig I had lying around.

Weekender - Should I hook up the original drive as Secondary Slave (/dev/hdd) and the copy from it? What do I copy and how? I know to use the dd command but I wasn't quite able to follow the rest of your instructions. Can you whip up a step-by-step?

Cheule - If you post a new U5 image, let me know where It can be found.

Thanks guys!

[Cheule]

I finally got it all working. I basically followed Ingineer's post from the AVS forums ( http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=90268 ).

I backed up my 3.1.0-01-2-151 original drive to a .bak. Then I restored that to a new HD, let's call it drive B. I then restored the 3.1.U5-01-2-151 image that you can download from twinbrothers on to drive C.

I then used dd (as discribed later by wkendrvr in that same ingineer post) to copy only the kernel partition from drive C and put it on drive B. So now, drive B is this strange hybrid disk that has not only my motion menus, but later software with an old kernel (the kernel that you can hack bash on.)

One thing that confused me was that when I booted this hybrid drive, the software version said "3.1.0-01-2-151" but I guess the kernel _must_ have been 3.1.U5-01-2-151 because I was able to get to Bash.

Before I use the BASH_ENV hack to get bash, I booted the hybrid drive to make sure it all worked, and at this point I did a clear and deleted from the system menu. This took about an hour to do. Then I hooked the drive back up to mfstools2, and issues exactly Ingineer's commands to get Bash, except that I added the "upgradesoftware=false" parameter to the bootpage line.

Another issue that caused me countless grief, was that at first my Tivo kept power cycling and never go to the "almost there" screen. It would just say "welcome" and then power cycle and say "welcome" again in a loop. It turned out to be a bad HD. Not bad in the way that the HD was faulty, but bad in the way that the Tivo didn't like it. I even verified the drive worked later under Mac OS 9, and Mac OS X. It took hours of fiddling before I came to the conclusion that maybe I should try another drive. I tried so many variations (like jumpers on master/slave/CS) and it would never boot the tivo fully. Oh well, I just wish I had that 10 hours back.

I had a lot of trouble following Mr. Black's post until I realized that in his varation of hackinit, he is telling the tivo to delete /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit and the replace it with a copy that he keeps in /var/hack/. Well, on my setup there is no such file. This would cause my tivo to boot up once, and then never boot again (because the file was removed after the last boot.) This may sound dumb of me, but when I am issuing a myriad of commands that I don't really understand, I really didn't pay attention to what that portion of Mr. Blacks hackinit did. For easily 6-7 hours I pulled out my hair trying to figure out why my Tivo drive kept eating itself.

I hope I don't piss anyone off by saying this: but.... On the "my HDVR2 hacking experiences" thread, someone makes the comment "Is all this information about HDVR2 going to be compilied into a How-to?" and the response was "I'm not sure how much more of a how-to you need?" Well I'll tell you. A lot more of one. The information about HDVR2 hacking is scattered through multiple posts, and is often contradictory. Little things like this "rm /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit" caused me huge headaches. I wasn't sure when to follow Ingineer's directions, or when to follow Mr Black's.

Obviously there is a reason why Mr Black (and others) are using a secondary rc.sysinit that is stored in the /var/hack/, but I couldn't find any reference to installing a second copy in there, or why we would.
If anyone can clue me in, that would be great. I've looked around a bit, but it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Maybe the current state of these threads seems like as much of a how-to as anyone could possibly need, but for a newbie like me that only knows a modicum of linux, I got hopelessly stumped on small things. I read about people that hack their HDVR2 in an hour or two, and groan. All told it took me and my friend 30+ hours to get bash/ethernet/tivoweb running.

I have it all running, and I'm really happy. :D The information that has been posted by everyone (but namely Ingineer, Mr. Black, Wkendrvr, and Musclenerd) has been invaluable. Hopefully someone more qualified to do so than I will write a very concise how-to for newbs, but until then, the "god" thread for me was the one I referred to at the top of this post.

ok. got it. thanks!

[Cheule]

The following is a PM asking for a .bak of my drive. I posted the answer in the forum, so that others might be aided too.


mckitrick wrote on 06-09-2003 08:53 PM:
Hey There!

Would it be possible to get a Ghost or MFS image of your drive?!


Well to be honest, I asked the same thing from another user. I begged for a full working 3.1U5 image with backgrounds, and he sent me a 300MB .bak. But then I never got it working.

In the end, backing up my own original tivo drive, and using DD to copy the kernel from the twinbrothers u5 image was what worked. It was not nearly as painful as I thought it would be in hindsight.

I really recommend reading that Ingineer post carefully, and if you want background menus, especially the wkendrvr posts later in that thread about using dd.

Note that I'm not refusing to send a .bak simply because I want you to jump through the same hoops I did, but because I didn't have any success except when I went through those same hoops. Also to further complicate things, the image of my drive is over 300MB and will only work on a 120GB drive. The added dd step is really not that hard, and wkendrvr spells out the syntax needed in his post.

If you cannot find his post, I might be persuaded to dig it up for you :)

[mckitrick]

I guess my trepidation lies in the fact that I'm not super familiar with dd usage nor am I super familiar with partition layouts (i.e. what partition contains what data).

I believe the wkendrvr post you are referring to is:

First Make a backup of your original drive (the one with the menu video streams, and you might want to use -a to get ALL streams)

Restore the u5 image to a DIFFERENT drive

dd from the u5 drive to the backup of your original drive the partition 1 less than the boot partition (on mine it was 6)

You should now have the latest Tivo software with the older Kernel.

If you have already made all the changes to a drive and don't want to start from scratch do the following...

*disclaimer* you mess it up, you fix, it I do not guarantee any of the below other than it worked for me...*

Make a backup of your original drive (with the streams)
restore that to a drive

Take your working hacked drive and dd from it the 1 less than the boot partition, and the partition that was created for the hacks (in my case it was 16) then dd partition 9 or wherever your hacks dir is (or you could just copy em, either way)

Additionally, when I made the backup of my original drive I used -a to get ALL the streams... (it was a virgin drive so didn't make the backup that much bigger)

Last edited by wkendrvr on 05-02-2003 at 09


I don't see anything about the syntax for dd usage. I would most likely use wkendrvr's second solution as my drive already has all my hacks on it and I wouldn't want to do them over.

Can you give me the exact dd commands you used to copy the partitions? Even if they don't apply to my exact config, I can use them to figure out what I need to do! THANKS!

[Cheule]

ok ok, my fault. He doesn't define what to type in that AVS ingineer thread. In a thread on this board, he posts the same blurb you quoted, and then someone else asks the same question you do, "what is the exact syntax?"

Then txag93 posts the syntax as a follow up. You can find it here: http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21723&perpage=15&pagenumber=3

txag93 says:
dd if=/dev/hdX6 of=/dev/hdY6

assuming partition is 6 on both drives, and hdX is u5 drive and hdY is original drive. To find out what partition it is on each drive, type bootpage -p /dev/hdX and then bootpage -p /dev/hdY. Not lower case -p, which will return the bootpage rather than set it.

Basically, you are copying the kernel partition from the no-menu U5 image to your original drive (I use that term losely, always work on a backup of your original).

But this is exactly what I'm talking about. Although the info about HDVR2 hacking is around, and it's not that hard to do, it's in so many different threads on different boards that it's hard to keep track of. I know if I'm the one who seems to care about the lack of a consolidated "how-to" then I should probably be the one to make it. But I swear, you do not want me making one. I'm know just enough to be dangerous, and I'll botch up any definitive guide attempt.

[mckitrick]

Cool! Thanks!

Ok, so my next question..

If I copy the Kernel partition of my Hacked drive to the Kernel partition of my Original* drive, will it carry over the /var/hack dir and the hackinit, etc. etc.

bootpage -p /dev/hdX will tell me my kernel partition, right?

*Backup of Original - not really the original.

I assume when we say kernel, we're actually talking about the name of the partition - we're not really talking about a true Linux kernel which is just a single file, right?

Write up that consolidated How-To! :)
I'm in the same boat as you are - I know just enough to be dangerous. :D

[stkim3011]

Please forgive me if this is a stupid question or has been brought up earlier, but I'm a newbie! I am trying to get BASH and understand that in order to do so on my HDVR2 I need to have the 3.1.U5-01-2-151 image. My question is if the shows that I have saved on my drive right now will transfer over if I change to the 3.1.U5-01-2-15 image or if they will be deleted.

Thanks!!

[Requiem]

They will be deleted if your installing a fresh image on your existing hard drive.

[stkim3011]

Hmmm. That's disappointing! Is it something that someone just hasn't come up with a way to do it or is it just not possible to transfer existing files when changing the image?

[DblDamage]

Im having trouble with the menu overlays, myself.

I backed up my original drive (3.1.0) using the following command:

mfsbackup -f 4138 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/hdx

I restored that image to my new drive. I then put the U5 image on the original drive, and dd the partition (6) over to the new drive. No backgrounds.

Now, here are a few questions:

1. Did the mfsbackup fail to copy the backgrounds because I didn't use the -a option?

2. If I place the U5 drive back in the stream it will take the update, but will the update restore the backgrounds?

3. If I make the initial phone call, will the software update over the phone line, or do I have to wait for the sattelite stream?

Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

DblDamage

[DblDamage]

I looked over the Hindale how-to guide, and I wonder if it's not just the image restore command that I am using that is not copying the backgrounds.

Hmmmm.


DblDamage

[DblDamage]

I'm screwed.

Apparently, if you didn't backup your original with the -a option, the animated backgrounds are gone.

Getting the updated software via the phone will not restore the backgrounds.

If anyone can point me to a full backup that included the streams, it would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

DblDamage

[nipquad]

I am looking for a U5 image with streams for a HDVR2, Ive been workin on this for a while now and I can't get any further without have a orginal, mine was toasted by a bad backup. I have a FTP what im willing to host the image for everyone to share, along with any other files that you may want me to host, PM me and I can setup something. My FTP is on a T1 so it'll be plenty fast. Thanx for all the help so far.

[Homer S]

Does the step of putting a 3.1.U5 kernel on a 3.1.0 drive *have* to be accomplished in one step like this:

dd if=/dev/hdX6 of=/dev/hdY6

or can it be done it three steps like this?

dd if=/dev/hdX6 of=foo.mfs bs=32k
wipe 3.1.U5 and restore 3.1.0
dd if=foo.mfs of=/dev/hdX6 bs=32k

I ask because I do not have a spare large hard drive around.

Also, the bs=32k, sometimes there, sometimes not. When should it be used?

Thanks,

Homer Out

[Dr. Phil]

Originally posted by Homer S
Does the step of putting a 3.1.U5 kernel on a 3.1.0 drive *have* to be accomplished in one step like this:

dd if=/dev/hdX6 of=/dev/hdY6

or can it be done it three steps like this?

dd if=/dev/hdX6 of=foo.mfs bs=32k
wipe 3.1.U5 and restore 3.1.0
dd if=foo.mfs of=/dev/hdX6 bs=32k

I ask because I do not have a spare large hard drive around.


There is no ancillary data of any sort on this type of information, so you will have no problem treating it as a fixed size stream and storing it however you choose before it is written out. It is a 2MB or 4MB chunk of data, nothing more and nothing less.

Using a ".mfs" extension, while harmless, is a serious misnomer if the data you are storing happens to be a kernel image.


Also, the bs=32k, sometimes there, sometimes not. When should it be used?


Specifying the block size in dd will help determine the amount of data to be transferred iff the count= parameter is specified. Otherwise, it can be tuned to maximize the speed of the transfer by working with larger blocks and reducing context switches.

For an illustration of how this affects an operation such as the one you mentioned, try bs=1 and note the difference in transfer speed.

[DblDamage]

After a myriad of problems (bad hard drive, no menu backgrounds, incomplete downloaded images, and backup decompression errors), I have decided to take a step back, take some time off, and read a little more. I was able to download a working U5 image, and get my Tivo up and running. What I would like to do is update to version 3.1.0, and dd the U5 kernel partition over. Here is what I have tried:

I restored the U5 image to my new drive, put it back in the Tivo, make 3 calls to download the new software, and reboot. After the software is updated, I pulled the drive and checked the root with the bootpage –p command. It reports back that the root has changed to hda4 (not unexpected). The first thing I tried was to set the root back to hda7. I put the drive back in the Tivo, and let it power up. I then pulled the drive and checked the root again. Still at hda7. So far so good. I go ahead and dd the U5 partition over, set up my hack directory, and enter the new bootpage command to hook partition 16. I put the drive back in the Tivo. It powers up, then reboots itself, then completes startup. I pull the drive and check the root – and my bootpage command has been reset to hda7. This doesn’t happen using the full U5 software. Is there any workaround for this, or am I just not doing things right?

The last thing I tried was to let the U5 software update to 3.1.0. Then I made a backup of the drive using mfsbackup. I was restoring the image to my new drive when mfsrestore reported a decompression error. It was at that point that I threw a hissy-fit, crawled to a corner of the room, and curled up into the fetal position. My kids found me there the next morning. It wasn’t pretty. It was at that point I decided to take a break.

Any advice given to this humbled man would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

DblDamage

[Henry]

Ok I have a U5 image I can upload if someone will direct me to where to send it. However I NEED someone to send me an image after its been modified to get the bash, telnet, P3 mod, etc... I've been racking my brain for the last 24 hours since I bought my THIRD HDVR2 looking for a good U5 image and now can't get the bash prompt. I swear I've followed the instructions on here and am not a newbie, I've modified many SA and DSR6000 but this is just messing with my brain. I've tried uploading to ftp.abs.net but it says I can't. Someone PM me or post where to upload the image and hopefully someone can help me out.

Henry

[DblDamage]

Before you go through all that, can you post the contents of your hackinit file? Also, a summary of the steps that you've taken thus far?

I've gotten to where you want to be, so maybe I can help.

DblDamage

[rpl]

Obviously there is a reason why Mr Black (and others) are using a secondary rc.sysinit that is stored in the /var/hack/, but I couldn't find any reference to installing a second copy in there, or why we would.

You would want to do that to ensure you don't get an unwanted software upgrade. I think the post suggests that you comment out the software upgrade section as one way to ensure it doesn't happen. Putting in the no software upgrade in the ENV doesn't seem to work. I didn't catch a reason why in reading his upgrade post, but he does indicate you can remove the /tvlib/tcl/updateSoftware.tcl file or the call to it in the rc.sysinit file.

[Cassius]

I have NTFS for my PC's hard drive, so I can't make a backup of my original drive. What I did was burn the u5 image to a CDR, and used mfstools2 to restore it to a new 40gig drive.

So I have the original drive, and now I have a new 40gig drive that is hacked, but doesn't have the menus or channel icons. So is there a way to copy these things straight from the original drive to the new one, without making images and the need of a 3rd drive?

If anyone has a hacked image for a 40 gig drive that would be even better. I have a Dtivo Series 2. Thanks.

PS: I think that the U5 image that is on ftp sites should be deleted and replaced with an image that contains the background movies.

[Cassius]

If I do what you said, then I'll lose all my hacks I've done on my new tivo drive. Isn't it possible to just copy the needed partition from the original tivo drive straight to the new one?

Also my original drive had version 3.1.0-01-2-151 and I don't think that one can be hacked.

[delmouch]

My original HDVR2 drive died almost immediately after purchase. I downloaded and restored an image to a new 120gb drive. Like many people have mentioned on this thread, my menus remain transparent. It seems the fixes mentioned all require a working original drive. As I don't have one, would someone PM me w/ a link to a working image w/ regular menus?

Thanks

[MuscleNerd]

Someone on AVS was offering up his brand new, all-streams-saved-but-still-small HDVR2 image. He wanted it to go on some ftp site, instead of having to send it out individually. But nobody has taken up his offer, as far as I can tell.

[duhh]

Hey, I just picked up an 80 GB drive, and I am looking to just try restoring an image to the HDVR2 that I have on the way. Is there now a valid image that does not have these transparent menu issues?
On twinbros i see the following:
hdvr2-31U5.zip 67199 KB
hdvr2_31.bkz 118125 KB
u5-151-hacked.mfs 283862 KB

I assumed the top 2 were backups and the bottom was the hacked image. Does anyone know if this has the transparency issues fixed? Looking at the file date alone it sounds like that file predates the reports of errors in this thread...

[amgqmp1]

I'm running the bottom one on my DSR7000 and I don't have transparent menu's. It's working great!

[duhh]

Awesome! I totally appreciate your prompt reply, especially with me being a noob.