HR10-250: hacks before 3.1.5e - questions

[farmerj]

Hi everyone,

Question:
---------
If I hack my HR10-250 when the kernel is 3.1.5 and then it takes the update to 3.1.5e, I know that it'll delete my hacks. Am I screwed at this point? Or, can I simply replace the kernel, perform killhdinitrd and put my hacks back?
Do you let it take the upgrade, then hack? Or does it matter?

History:
I have a DTivo HR10-250. It originally had 3.1.5, so I followed Ironman's guide to get ethernet & ftp.

After a few days, I got the 3.1.5e upgrade and I lost the ethernet & ftp. My /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit.author was still there, but no ethernet. I pulled the drive and performed killhdinitrd by copying a 3.1.5kernel, etc. and tried to restore networking. Nothing worked. I couldn't get networking to work. (forgot to look at the logs though)

I restored back to 3.1.5, unplugged the phone line, inserted upgradesoftware=false in my rc.sysinit file and restore the ethernet. Don't know if I need the 3.1.5e upgrade, but at least its still working.

Thanks all. Newbie at work.

--f

[PlainBill]

If I recall correctly, the Ironman guide was poorly written, and assumed your software was on one partition set (probably 6-7). The upgrade process is simple, and has been documented several times. You can do everything without pulling the drive.

Collect all the files you used to hack the system the first time. Telnet in and modify /tvbin/upgradeSw.itcl to prevent the reboot (change 'reboot' to 'exit 0'). Run installSw.itcl 3.1.5e-01-2-xxx where xxx is your hardware number (same last three digits as your present software). As part of the process, upgradeSw.itcl tells you what the new root will be. REMEMBER THAT.

Copy the old (killhdinitrd) 3.1.5 kernel from the old boot partition to the new one (either from 3 to 6, or from 6 to 3). Mount the new root partition and copy (either from the old root partition or from your computer) rc.sysinit.author and the rest of your hacks to it. Reboot.

I've done the upgrade in about half an hour on a 3.1.1e system.

PlainBill

[farmerj]

PlainBill,

Damn, you are GOOD. No, REALLY GOOD.
I didn't realize that the Ironman guide was a good reference, but no longer valid. I'll try your suggestions and get upgraded.

Thank you.


--f