Philips-HDR112, few questions please.

[MaDDNeSS]

OK, I am ready to begin, I purchased a Philips-HDR112 Series 1 stand alone Tivo. The internal modem was shot in it, so he is including an external modem. I do have a concern or two that I can not seem to grab an answer for.

If i need to add a .tcl file for a remote code, or another application, can that be used through the Null modem cable to the serial port on the Tivo, or does that require Ethernet access?

Secondly, if it does require ethernet access, and the internal modem is shot, is there a chance that the slot where the turbonet card goes is shot as well? I am not sure if the internal modem is in the same slot as where the turbonet card goes is my main concern.

Thanks, my head is spinning from cramming all the info in.

[stevel]

The internal modem is just some components soldered on the motherboard. TurboNET attaches to a connector meant for factory debugging - it is not used normally.

If you want to add scripts and such you will need to pull the drive and at a minimum enable telnet and a bash prompt over the serial line. I'm uncertain how you mix that with using the serial port for a modem. Jeff Keegan's Hacking TiVo book discusses using the serial port on S1 boxes, and William Von Hagen's "Hacking the TiVo" may as well.

If you simply want to add scripts that run to enhance functions, you can do that by pulling the drive and temporarily mounting in a PC booted to Linux (with byte-swapping).

[MaDDNeSS]

Thank you, I think I will just order a TurboNet card. Another question, do I want this thing to make Daily Calls? I am assuming I do not. But, how does it get the Guide?

[eastwind]

Thank you, I think I will just order a TurboNet card. Another question, do I want this thing to make Daily Calls? I am assuming I do not. But, how does it get the Guide?
Yes, you want it to make it's daily call to get guide data. This can be done over the internet once you get the ethernet card installed.

ew

[stevel]

... and you enter a dialing prefix of ",#401". This tells the TiVo to use TurboNET for the daily call.

Visit www.ptvupgrade.com and click on "Networking" for more info.

[MaDDNeSS]

ok, bash, ftp and TivoWeb are on startup. I need to add a remote code in a .tcl file. I am getting conflicting info from several post. Some say you have to FTP the .tcl file in, other post and readmes say you can use the serial port. Is there anyway that doing daily calls will wipe out the hacks? Even with a backup of the hacked drive, i would rather not go that route.

Thanks for the help.

[Narf54321]

If you really want, you could open an editor and type in the .tcl file (on the tivo). There are several ways of "getting the file" onto the tivo box. FTP is usually the easiest, once you have networking up and running.

On a series-1 you should be okay. I don't believe there is any anti-hacking measure. In series-2, there's an initrd check which wipes away any "unauthorized" files, but you wouldn't need to worry about that.

[stevel]

The daily calls won't touch your code, but if the TiVo thinks that the /var partition is full or corrupted, it will reset it and you'll lose changes made there.

[MaDDNeSS]

Now once I have my drive setup the way I want it, is it safe to make a backup of that too, the same way you back the origional Tivo drive up?

[stevel]

Yes - just do an mfsbackup of it.

[MaDDNeSS]

thanks, you guys been a huge help.

[Narf54321]

I'd make a quick suggestion, if you want to make another mfsbackup image after doing your hacks: save the image to a different filename. (A lot of guides simply refer to a generic name like tivo.bak, but you don't want to overwrite your original image.)

This way you can have your original tivo backup image, and the "hacked" image available.

[MaDDNeSS]

ohh yea, goes without saying. Thanks for the heads up.