UncleJT's TiVo Tribulations

[UncleJT]

Background:

I'm a complete newbie to the TiVo community and both the DDF & TCF forums. I moved to Atlanta from So. Cal. in June of last year and went with DirecTV after being an Adelphia/MOXI subscriber for years. None of the local cable companies in my area here in NW Atlanta suburbs could/can compete with DirecTV for pricing. I lived without a DVR for a few months and finally added an R10 a couple months ago when DTV sent me a rebate = to the cost of a free unit. I purchased it from Best Buy so I am free of any lease holds.

I found DDF and TCF a couple weeks ago while searching for answers to some basic guide and service features that DTV CSR's could never answer for me. I quickly discovered that there was a strong hacking community for TiVo's and this interested me quite a bit as I've done quite a bit of hacking other gadgets in the past (XBox, PS/2, etc.) and I'm always trying to tweak things for maximum performance and entertainment. I'm also more comfortable in a UNIX environment than a Windows environment and the tools are not intimidating at all.

In my first days on these forums, I soon realized that the R10 was probably not the best unit to be doing these "enhancements" on. Sure, the R10 can be modified, but it requires socketing the PROM and I simply do not want to take on a project like this especially with surface mount soldering required. I began to search around on the forums for a suitable Series 2 box to use for my first hack. I soon found an awesome deal from weaknees.com for bare DSR7000's for only $35 delivered and decided to buy one. This non-RID based Series 2 box seemed like the ideal test bed as I have a few spare hard drives sitting on the shelf to play with while my R10 continues recording on a regular basis while I perfect the build. I probably should have purchased a couple DSR7000's at this price.

I've created this thread to log my progress and share my experiences with the community. I've seen a lot of newbies on these forums blindly venture into this world, and while I'm not one for hand holding the beggars and whiners, I hope that some will follow along and learn from what I do, both the right and wrong. I've found all the tools and software that I need to do this work by searching and reading the forums, I will not share specifically where to get everything from but I will document everything I use and how I use it.

Before I do begin, I want to thank some of the folks whose posts, and development work, have already been of great help and inspiration. Props to AlphaWolf, PlainBill, 7.1, Cheer, fantmn, sleeper, JJBliss, and last but certainly not least, alldeadhomiez. I'm sure I've missed a couple, hopefully a few will tag along for the ride.

Let the fun begin...

[UncleJT]

As I was typing the above, the UPS man delivered my DSR7000 - in the original box - from weaknees.com. Everything appears to be well packed and all cables are included. I still think this was a great deal @ $35 delivered.

I quickly popped the cover and everything is intact and looks new. I'm still at work for 6 more hours but I may start working on this upgrade tonight.

[UncleJT]

While digging through an old box of serial cables, I came across one with a female DB9 to an RJ45 plug. I think I am going to hack this for my serial console cable providing I have wires to pins 2, 3, and 5. It should, I think this cable was one I had made about six years ago for working on Cisco Routers as I can't think of anything else that would have had an RJ45 on it. I'll just need to swing by radio shack for a stereo mini-plug once I verify the DB9 with a multimeter.

Here is a good wiring schematic I found over at TCF:

http://www.numbski.net/img/tivocable.jpg

Props to the site owner providing this schematic (http://www.numbski.net/img/tivocable.jpg).

[UncleJT]

I should have also mentioned that the $35 DSR7000 deal does not include an access card. I have a couple P5 cards pulled from b0rken non-DVR units which, I have been told, should work fine with any non-RID DVR receiver.

[cheer]

Excellent string of notes, UncleJT. Newbies take note: UJT has clearly done a lot of reading prior to embarking on his project. (Proper use of "b0rken" is also a plus.)

Let us know if you have questions, UJT.

[ScanMan]

I think you'd be remiss not to mention Jamie in that long list of gurus who devote much time to keeping this forum "alive." Also, NutKase for his monte techniques and Superpatch...

Good luck!

[UncleJT]

Hard Drive Selection

Looking through my collection of spare hard drives, they all seem to be SATA drives which aren't going to work for this project. For the time being, my testing will be limited to a 10GB drive that I pulled out of a b0rked XBox. I had been using it for awhile as the boot filesystem and swap on a Gentoo linux box that is no longer active.

Fortunately, I have a copy of AlphaWolf's 6.2 small image so I should have about 9 to 10 hours of recording time once setup. This will be fine for initial testing while I find a couple larger drives.

ScanMan, yeah.. props to Jamie and NutKase as well. I knew there were a few people I missed.

BTW, if anyone wants to trade me an IDE 60-80GB + a USB Ethernet adapter for one of my 80GB SATA2 3.0GB/sec drives, send me a PM.

[UncleJT]

Well, the local radio shack closes at the same exact time I close my shop tonight so I won't be able to build my serial cable tonight. I will add this to tomorrows list of todo items.

[eastwind]

Well, the local radio shack closes at the same exact time I close my shop tonight so I won't be able to build my serial cable tonight. I will add this to tomorrows list of todo items.
If you really want to get it up and running you might find a stereo mini jack at Wal-Mart (or hanging from the end of some headphones you could live without).

ew

[UncleJT]

If you really want to get it up and running you might find a stereo mini jack at Wal-Mart (or hanging from the end of some headphones you could live without).
Yeah, I'm just a perfectionist and have my eyes on this gold plated plug at radio shack. Pimp my TiVo baby! :cool:

[cheer]

Pimp my TiVo baby! :cool:
I'm very afraid.

[Narf54321]

Pimp my TiVo baby!

When you're done with the project you should post pictures of your TiVo, complete with chrome spinners and all. :)

[UncleJT]

Well, I went by Wal*Mart last night. They didn't have any mini-stereo plugs for the serial cable. I'll go out to Radio Shack at some point today and build the serial cable tonight.

[UncleJT]

Having Fun

Just rebooted my Windows box with Tiger's mfstools 2.0 boot cd.

Disk Info:
/dev/hde - Windows 80GB SATA drive
/dev/hdc - Seagate 10GB IDE for TiVo

My FAT32 partition is at /dev/hde7 with all my TiVo softare.

Let's mount the FAT32 system:

# mount /dev/hde7 /mnt

Because of the small size of the drive, I am going to use AlphaWolf's 6.2 small image. This image contains no hacks of any kind whatsoever. It's nice, clean, fresh, and small, so you can restore it to practically any hard disk that is at least 2 gigs or more. Just make sure that you use the -x option in mfstool or else you'll end up with a zero hour storage capacity. ;)

So let's restore this image to the drive:

# mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi /mnt/62small.mfs /dev/hdc

This took about 5 minutes to finish and reported I had 10 hours of recording time.

Before I do any hacks, I think I will get this DVR activated with DirecTV while it is nice and clean. Unfortunately, I probably won't do this tonight as the DTV account is in my GF's name and she's passed out in front of the TV at the moment. ;)

One thing that is currently bothering me:

AlphaWolf, in his readme with the image, states that the serial console, ttyS2, is enabled in the bootpage, so you can watch its progress with a serial cable. My serial cable is assembled and tests fine with a multitester per the schematic above but I am not seeing anything in my terminal program. I'd really like to get this working, I'm puzzled.

The system boots up fine to the guided setup.

[UncleJT]

More on the Serial problem:
Well, I am getting data into my terminal software from the TiVo during boot. However, it is all garbage:

PNBB0BB0BB0

Terminal settings are currently set to 9600 8N1 No Flow Control. Most guides all suggest these settings.

Anyone have any clues?

[UncleJT]

Serial Works!

Well, through trial and error, I have the serial console working. I just had to adjust the speed to 115,200 and data came streaming across nicely.

weeeeeee, now we are having fun.

[cheer]

Terminal settings are currently set to 9600 8N1 No Flow Control. Most guides all suggest these settings.
OK, who's going to say it? :)

(Not taking a shot at you, UJT; just at guides.)

[fantmn]

Try:
# bootpage -p /dev/hdx

root=/dev/hda4 dsscon=true console=2,115200 upgradesoftware=false
The -p option will show if there are console settings and if so what they are.
Sure I'm a lot of help now. :D

[UncleJT]

Cheer: No worries, you can take a shot at me. That's what I get for using the guides as gospel instead of using a tool like fantmn suggested. I had tried most port settings, just didn't think to go as fast as 115,200 but probably should have knowing AlphaWolf. ;)

fantmn: Thanks for the tip, it's been added to my notes.

All:

Anyone know what the password might be to get into the diagnostics part of the prom? "factory" is documented in several faqs but doesn't work and I get a different password prompt than the documented "Verify password:". My prompt = "What is password?" I probably don't need to be in here but the hacker part of me is curious.

Thanks

[PlainBill]

Cheer: No worries, you can take a shot at me. That's what I get for using the guides as gospel instead of using a tool like fantmn suggested. I had tried most port settings, just didn't think to go as fast as 115,200 but probably should have knowing AlphaWolf. ;)

fantmn: Thanks for the tip, it's been added to my notes.

All:

Anyone know what the password might be to get into the diagnostics part of the prom? "factory" is documented in several faqs but doesn't work and I get a different password prompt than the documented "Verify password:". My prompt = "What is password?" I probably don't need to be in here but the hacker part of me is curious.

Thanks

The password set at the factory appears to either be random, or based on some algorithm I haven't seen documented.
IIRC crypto -u -srp UncleJT will set the prom password to UncleJT. If that doesn't do it, a search for 'crypto' and 'password' should pick up the information.

Second point, I'd suggest including links to threads with information you found valuable. It would certainly help minimize fruitles searches. I expect to be directing a LOT of newbies to this thread.

PlainBill

[UncleJT]

Second point, I'd suggest including links to threads with information you found valuable. It would certainly help minimize fruitles searches. I expect to be directing a LOT of newbies to this thread.

Yeah, I plan to Bill... once I start actual hacking. I plan on one post dedicated to links to some of the software and useful threads. :cool: