Upgrading an existing unit to 2.5

[milhouse]

Is is possible to upgrade a unit to 2.5 without erasing the recordings? I am guessing that you may be able to rewrite one partition instead of the entire drive.

Milhouse.

[milhouse]

Someone must know the process. I assume is goes something like:
1) Restore a 2.5 image that is "pending reboot" to a spare drive.
2) Make an image of the partition with 2.5 using dd.
3) Backup your Tivo drive using dd to the spare drive.
4) Update the prom in the tivo running 2.0.1 using bash.
5) We copy the updated partition to our existing drive.
6) erase initrd
7) put the drive back in the tivo and reboot.

Questions:

1) What partition do I copy from the ice25
2) Do we have to do something special to make the tivo use the new partition?

Milhouse.

[BubbaJ]

WARNING: Process not finished/verified, use at your own risk

1) Obtain the following:
a) DirecTivo with Bash
b) faster boot prom
c) stripped :o 2.5.1 kernel partition image
d) 2.5.1 root partition image
e) GZsoftware.2.5.1????.slice.gz
f) GZir????????.slice.gz (this is specific to your model rec)
2) flash in the faster boot prom
3) DD the stripped :o kernel to the kernel partition that you are not using
4) DD the root partition image to the partition corresponding with the kernel you copied
5) uncompress and load the 2 slice files (I have no idea how to do this)
6) bootpage -B <your new kernel> -A <your current kernel> -P "root=<your new root>" /dev/hda

this is (kinda) what the tivo does.. I have the files for a sat-t60, it'd be cool if someone could locate the ir slice for the dsr6000/hughes

[_Formula]

I don't think anyone has ever acomplished this. I believe one of the main problems is the 2.5 install process makes several changes to the MFS. In order to keep your recordings you'd have to either add these changes to your MFS (and then do the rest of the upgrade), or extract your video and nowshowing MFS entries and insert them back into the new 2.5 MFS.

Not an easy task. You'd have to have a better understanding of MFS (which I still don't have) to really do this thing right. Someone will have to really examine what the normal upgrade process does and try to replicate it without calling in.

[milhouse]

It sounds like we need to try and replicate the real upgrade process. i.e. download a bunch of files and run an install routine.

Would it be possible to take a unit that is getting the real update via call to tivo and copy the files as they are being down loaded? I think that the real key would be the install routine, hopefully it is not compiled code.

If we can duplicate this, then upgrading to 2.5 could possibly be done with out even opening the cover (as long as you have bash).

Things that make you go hmmmmm....

Milhouse.

[BubbaJ]

During the download, the files being downloaded are stored in /var/packages, shortly after the download completes, they begin disappearing one by one. if you sit there and pay close attention, you can copy or move the files to a different directory before they get deleted, move would probably be more fun, as whatever process uses/deletes them would likely fail when it couldn't find the file. I have all of the 2.5.1 files (AFAIK) for the t60, and will probably post them somewhere soon. there is probably only one file different for the phillips/hughes..

[mrblack51]

I had the same problem, wanting to upgrade without loosing my programming. here's what i did:

1) remove all logs
2) copy the hacked .bin file to the unit and flash
3) save all my hacks so they could be replaced if needed
4) let the tivo dial in and download the upgrade
5) allow it to restart and finish installing
6) drop into PC, dd a hacked kernel partition onto the drive
7) re-apply hacks
8) be happy with hacked 2.5

chipster and I tried a number of things to restore a 2.5 image onto a working 2.0.x image, but we couldn't retain the programming. if you are willing to lose your programming, then you should just use the 2.5 xtreme image for a hughes or philips box, its awesome.

[milhouse]

It looks like upgrading an existing system without overwriting everything is more difficult than I thought. Is there a way to export all of you wishlists and season passes from 2.0.1 and then import them into 2.5. Entering all that stuff will take far longer than the actual upgrade.

Milhouse.

[surgeon]

Originally posted by mrblack51
I had the same problem, wanting to upgrade without loosing my programming. here's what i did:

1) remove all logs
2) copy the hacked .bin file to the unit and flash
3) save all my hacks so they could be replaced if needed
4) let the tivo dial in and download the upgrade
5) allow it to restart and finish installing
6) drop into PC, dd a hacked kernel partition onto the drive
7) re-apply hacks
8) be happy with hacked 2.5

chipster and I tried a number of things to restore a 2.5 image onto a working 2.0.x image, but we couldn't retain the programming. if you are willing to lose your programming, then you should just use the 2.5 xtreme image for a hughes or philips box, its awesome.

I did the exact same procedure on the one unit I had that I wanted to save content on... Once you flash the prom with BubbaJ's "speedstart" version the upgrade procedure won't overwrite it (sees that it's the same version) so you can easily hack your way back in...

Really pretty painless this way...

-Surgeon-