Just Got Hughes SD-DVR40 And Am Trying To Turn on USB So I Can Use it.

[Herculezz]

I don't have a phone line and I can't use my tivo because it says it needs to connect to finish setup. I have a Linksys USB200M Nework Adapter Hooked up and I need to get it setup to connect over the ethernet. I've serached and searched and All the tutorials are either too complicated for me or Require some kind of serial cable that I do not have. I just want to get into this beast and enable the USB so It will update over the USB Nic. I have no problems taking out the HDD and putting into my machine or whatever. Can someone please tell me step by step how I can so this. Thank you in advance.

[Herculezz]

Can Anyone Help?

[Gunnyman]

short answer:
once you do the hacks to "get USB working" one of teh 1st things you do is make sure it CAN'T connect to Tivo.
There are scripts you can install on Tivo to get around the initial call in. search for fakecall.tcl

[Tivonator]

You cannot simply "enable" your tivo to use your USB device by doing a quick fix. Any new drivers that you put on your tivo will be wiped out by the tivo security check, so you have to do a few other steps to disable this security feature before you can do what you want.
Can someone please tell me step by step how I can so this.Step 1). learn about the options for hacking your tivo. Check out the sticky threads in the series 2 forum, particularly this thread (http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38468), which covers the basics and has some good links in it.
Step 2). Read Read Read to understand exactly how to use the options.
Step 3). Go for it. It'll take you a few tries, so be sure you do a backup first.

I don't have a phone line and I can't use my tivo because it says it needs to connect to finish setup.Once you get your tivo hacked and the security feature disabled, you'll need to run the fakecall.tcl to get around this issue.

[Herculezz]

Ok I understand no problem. I'll hack to its hearts content but is there any way to do these hacks without using one of those serial cables all the walkthroughs talk about?

[The Only Druid]

Ok I understand no problem. I'll hack to its hearts content but is there any way to do these hacks without using one of those serial cables all the walkthroughs talk about?
You dont need the serial cable unless you have a problem. If everything goes smoothly, its superfluous. If you have any problems though (except certain, extremely obvious ones), you're going to have a hard time (a) diagnosing the problem or (b) getting help diagnosing the problem here on the boards.

[Herculezz]

Is there a good walkthrough out there that will show me how to do it without the cable and where do i get the drivers for my USB200M Linksys adapter?

[Herculezz]

Also how do i know what kernel to get?

[Herculezz]

got it working everything seems to be working except fake call and tivoftpd. I can telnet in just fine and get a bash prompt but for the life of me can not figure it out

[The Only Druid]

got it working everything seems to be working except fake call and tivoftpd. I can telnet in just fine and get a bash prompt but for the life of me can not figure it out

Tivoftpd is precisely as simple as copying the appropriate binary to a given folder, adding that folder to the PATH, and making sure its running in the .author file. There's also a .tpm, that will install it all on its own.

Fakecall is a simple .tcl script, that needs to be run around once every two weeks. You can automate it either by having it in your .author file (and rebooting once every two weeks) or using crond.

[PlainBill]

got it working everything seems to be working except fake call and tivoftpd. I can telnet in just fine and get a bash prompt but for the life of me can not figure it out

Hey, Good job!!! Pat yourself on the back!

A little more information would be helpful - did you use AlphaWolf's Series 2 utilities? Did you set up the path properly in rc.sysinit.author? Did you call it with the right parameters?

PlainBill

[Herculezz]

no this is what i Did:
Took Tivo HDD Out and Put as Slave in my Computer
Booted to Knoppix
under a Shell prompt with root access (su)

I Ran
./pdisk --list /dev/hdb
To get the partion info such as count, skip and seek numbers

then I ran
dd if=/dev/hdb of=tivokernel6 count=8192 skip=(mynumber)
./killhdinitrd tivokernel6
dd if=tivokernel6 of=/dev/hdb count=8192 seek=(mynumber)

then killhdinitrd sucessfully patched my kernel

then I ran

dd if=/dev/hdb of=tivoroot7 count=262144 skip=(mynumbers)
mkdir /mnt/tivo
mount tivoroot7 /mnt/tivo -o loop=/dev/loop3

this gave me access to partion 7 which was all the files for the tivo.

then I copied
usbcore.o
hcd.o
ehci-hcd.o
ax8817x.o

to a folder called hack under /mnt/tivo

then I copied tivoftpd.mips to /mnt/tivo/hack renamed to tivoftpd

then from a shell prompt with root access I ran

chmod 755 tivoftpd

then I copied
callFakecall40.tcl
Fakecall40.tcl

to mnt/tivo/hack

then I ran
chmod 755 callFakeCall40.tcl
chmod 755 FakeCall40.tcl

then I put all this in my rc.sysinit.author file

PATH=./:.:/utils:/bin:/sbin:/tvbin:/hack:/hack/bin
#Load USB2 Ethernet Drivers (ax8817x)
insmod /hack/usbcore.o
insmod /hack/hcd.o
insmod /hack/ehci-hcd.o
sleep 10
insmod /hack/ax8817x.o
sleep 15

#Set IP Address
ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.5 broadcast 192.168.1.255 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
route add default gw 192.168.0.2

#Start Telnet
tnlited 23 /bin/bash -login &

#Start Tivoftpd
tivoftpd &

#Start FakeCall
sleep 60
callFakeCall40.tcl &

Then I ran
chmod +x rc.sysinit.author
umount /mnt/tivomnt
dd if=tivoroot7 of=/dev/hdb count=262144 seek=(mynumber)

Which wrote everything back to the drive

then I took the Tivo drive out of my computer, put back in tivo and:

My tivo boots fine and everything is as normal the only thing that seems a little different is that the USB Nic (USB200M) Now has lights on it and I can telnet to 192.168.0.2 and get a wierd bash2.02# prompt but i can't ftp to 192.168.0.2 and It still wants to make that call to setup my dvr. Any ideas?

[Herculezz]

Ok a Little More monkeying around and I found out that when the tivo boots for some reason /var/hack directory disappears. So i moved callFakeCall40.tcl and FakeCall40.tcl and tivoftpd to /lib/modules/usb and changed the path in the rc.sysinit.author and now the FTP works great but. When running rc.sysinit.author it says
./callFakeCall40.tcl: Permission denied

and in bash if try to run FakeCall40.tcl Manually

bash: ./FakeCall40.tcl: Permission denied

Any ideas?

Also what is the 40 part in that filename?

[PlainBill]

Sounds like you have to make it executable (chmod 755 FakeCall40.tcl). Also note that you should either put the directory in the path, or specify it in the command line.

The 40 refers to compatibility with 4.0.x software.

PlainBill

[hayreass]

Both files need to be executable.
callFakeCall40.tcl, and FakeCall40.tcl are seperate files.

callFakeCall40.tcl does what the name implies, it calls FakeCall40.tcl to be run on a loop the way you have it starting in your author file.

And if you are losing /var/hack on reboot, I'd guess you didn't get a killhdinitrd'd kernel running correctly.

[Tivonator]

Careful putting your hacks in /var. /var is actually a mounted partition that tivo will delete when it gets too full. You're much safer off putting your hacks in the active file system partition, like "/hacks".

Congrats by the way on getting this accomplished!

[hayreass]

Careful putting your hacks in /var. /var is actually a mounted partition that tivo will delete when it gets too full. You're much safer off putting your hacks in the active file system partition, like "/hacks".

Congrats by the way on getting this accomplished!
Correct indeed, but losing it on every reboot would make me think there's a bigger problem than it just getting too full.
I over 3 years of tivo hacking, I've had tivo clear my /var exactly one time. That system had way to much crap stored in /var and an issue with expiration dates on recordings that was causing the logs to grow at an absolutely astounding rate. (several hundred thousand entries in tverr)

[Tivonator]

Also correct about the var. It can get "defragged" and lead to thousands of "defrag" messages in the log, but you can help this problem by manually (or automatically) setting the expiration dates on all the old mfs objects to clear out the old junk.

In any case, I agree that something is suspicious. I interpreted Herculezz's last post as that the var being cleared was a one time occurance, and not something that happens everytime. But after re-reading, I agree, the wording does look like it happens every time, which is a little suspicious, and a little investigation is warranted to fix it.

[Herculezz]

I'm not losing it it just hides it i can reboot 30 times and boot up entirely each time and even watch tv for a few hours and shutit down take out the drive and put in computer and var/hack is there just not when booted up in tivo. and all the other files and folders i put in there are there just not that one. it's wierd cool. I will try and chmod both files see what happens. thanks.

[Herculezz]

Worked perfectly thank alot guys. Now 1 More question. I've been reading on here about the way im doing this that if i don't reboot every so often it will want to call out? Also i've read a bit about a way around this to have it schedule to run so often as my tivo usually doesn't get powered off? Any ideas how one would do this? Also I read about streaming pics and music to the tivo how about Movies from a computer like SVCD MPG's Or Divx/XVID Type Movies?

[hayreass]

I'm not losing it it just hides it i can reboot 30 times and boot up entirely each time and even watch tv for a few hours and shutit down take out the drive and put in computer and var/hack is there just not when booted up in tivo. and all the other files and folders i put in there are there just not that one. it's wierd cool. I will try and chmod both files see what happens. thanks.
Either it's there, or it's not.
You must be looking in the wrong place.

Like I said before callFakeCall40.tcl does what the name implies, it calls FakeCall40.tcl to be run.
It does this in a loop, running it every 23 hours if I remember correctly.

[The Only Druid]

Either it's there, or it's not.
You must be looking in the wrong place.

Makes me think he placed it in the inactive partition, or perhaps somehow created a /var/hack folder in the active partition (while it was in his PC) while not realizing that /var is actually partition 9, and as a result there's a mapping problem when the tivo boots up and mounts 9 as /var.

[Tivonator]

Good thoughts "The Only Druid". The only /var on your machine, Herculezz, should be the /var folder which is actually a mounted partition that tivo makes. Remove any other /var folders that you made. Also, confirm whether /var is mounted properly after reboot. Type 'mount' and confirm that you see a partition (I think its hda9) mounted as /var on your tivo.

[The Only Druid]

Good thoughts "The Only Druid". The only /var on your machine, Herculezz, should be the /var folder which is actually a mounted partition that tivo makes. Remove any other /var folders that you made. Also, confirm whether /var is mounted properly after reboot. Type 'mount' and confirm that you see a partition (I think its hda9) mounted as /var on your tivo.
This is as good a place as any to remind everyone that its best to do one of hte following, for your hacks:

1) Create a /hack directory in the root of your active partition. This directory can contain all your hacks, and besides being easily moveable (i.e. when you upgrade your OS), it'll never be looked for by tivo.
2) Create a wholely seperate partition, and mount it as /hack. This partition wont even have to be moved when you upgrade (although you'll have to mount it in your .author file).

There is precisely no good reason to have your hacks in /var, since if nothing else Tivo rebuilds /var in certain circumstances.

[Tivonator]

There is precisely no good reason to have your hacks in /var, since if nothing else Tivo rebuilds /var in certain circumstances.Correct, as already mentioned in post 16

[The Only Druid]

Correct, as already mentioned in post 16
Ugh, I am just -off- lately. Yeah, my bad.

Eesh.

[Herculezz]

Cool Guys So I Shouldn't Have To Worry About it then aye! Cool. How about is there a program that you can stream movies MPG And XVID To The Tivo Like You Can Music and What Not?

[hayreass]

Cool Guys So I Shouldn't Have To Worry About it then aye! Cool. How about is there a program that you can stream movies MPG And XVID To The Tivo Like You Can Music and What Not?
If you're done, and it works, and you never want to mess with it again, then you shouldn't have to worry about it.
However, if you do want to play inside the system some more, you do have some issues you should resolve.

And as far as streaming mpg and xvid, nope, HMO only allows for pics and music. You can also get multi room viewing going, allowing viewing of recordings between 2 tivo's.

[Tivonator]

Random question:
Herculezz, is your name a Nutty Professor reference?

[Herculezz]

Na Just a Nickname I've Always Had. And BTW When I put everything in /hack all is well. One thing wierd happened though My Tivo did some kind of acquiring DVR Service info for about 30 mins and when it was done everything was gone i had to re hack completely. but works now?

[Herculezz]

Ok Im Confused I have no more Lights on my USB NIC. I thought it was all ok after the Acquiring DVR Service INFO. But I can no longer get into system. No more lights on the nic card. HMMM I took out hdd and everything is still there in all the directories including the rc.sysinit.author? Any ideas guys? I even tried re running killhdinitrd. still nothing.

[Herculezz]

I really don't understand what happened here. I did everything and it was all working except fakecall as you could see in previous replies then i ran chmod on the fakecall ran it and it went successfully. then rebooted tivo and it sat at a screen where it said Acquiring DVR Service Info and took about 35 Minutes. Then after reboot. No more Network. Lights on usb will not come on. I took drive out put in my pc and everything including rc.sysinit.author is all still there. but it still won't load my USB NIC. I have even tried going through from scratch and doing killhdinitrd and copying all files and rebulding the rc.sysinit.author file. and it still will not load my usb nic. here is my rc.sysinit.author file incase you guys notice something im not.

PATH=./:.:/utils:/bin:/sbin:/tvbin:/lib/hack:/lib/hack/bin
#Load USB2 Ethernet Drivers (ax8817x)
insmod /lib/hack/usbcore.o
insmod /lib/hack/hcd.o
insmod /lib/hack/ehci-hcd.o
sleep 10
insmod /lib/hack/ax8817x.o
sleep 15

#Set IP Address
ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.5 broadcast 192.168.1.255 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
route add default gw 192.168.0.2

#Start Telnet
tnlited 23 /bin/bash -login &

#Start Tivoftpd
/lib/hack/tivoftpd &

#Start FakeCall
sleep 60
/lib/hack/callFakeCall40.tcl &

all files are in /lib/hack directory and still nothing any ideas? I'm getting real frustrated here!

[hayreass]

Well, for starters, if you're running a 4.x system, you can get rid of all the driver loading, and IP address lines.
4.X will load the drivers for you (though they can be tweaked via a different method), and chase down the settings for the IP in the TiVo Gui. You set them on-screen.

Did you rename netfilter-enable to something else?

[PlainBill]

Did you check the current bootpage? And mount the current root? Things change.

PlainBill

[Tivonator]

then rebooted tivo and it sat at a screen where it said Acquiring DVR Service Info and took about 35 Minutes. Then after reboot. No more NetworkI'm thinking along the same lines as PlainBill. It sounds like your DTivo flipped the bootpage and is now using the other partition. I don't have a DTivo, so don't know exactly what happens during that initial call, but you're getting all the symptoms of having your active partition flipped.

[Herculezz]

My system is running 3.1.1 it didn't happen over the phone line it happened over the sat connection. I don't have a land line. I tried mounting 4 instead of 7 and it gives and error stating you need tospecify the filesystem.

[PlainBill]

1. Are you sure you're running 3.1.1? Maybe it's 3.1.1c or even 3.1.1e?
2. Use bootpage -p to determine the active partition set. Right now you're guessing.

I was probably wrong - based on the latest information, it appears the system did NOT take an upgrade. So you'll have to keep digging and find out what went wrong. HINT: The console output (viewable via a serial cable) gives a lot of information on what is going wrong. It's helped me fix mistakes before they became problems.

PlainBill

[Herculezz]

I think its not even calling the rc.sysinit.author file as nothing loads. Is there anything i can put in there that will like reboot the system or pop up a message letting me know if or not it is running the rc.sysinit.author file?

[hayreass]

I think its not even calling the rc.sysinit.author file as nothing loads. Is there anything i can put in there that will like reboot the system or pop up a message letting me know if or not it is running the rc.sysinit.author file?
Yes, the serial cable Bill mentioned.
Doesn't pop-up, or reboot, but let's you watch what happens in real-time as the tivo boots. If you turn on logging in terra term pro, you can even examine the whole boot procedure at your leisure.

[PlainBill]

I think its not even calling the rc.sysinit.author file as nothing loads. Is there anything i can put in there that will like reboot the system or pop up a message letting me know if or not it is running the rc.sysinit.author file?
The kernel log might give you a clue. cat /var/log/kernel | more

PlainBill