Please activate sevice

[BlackFlux]

"You have 1 day remaining in your initial grace period. After Wednesday, August 9, 2006, the recorder will have limited TiVo functionality."

What the hell does this really mean and what are my options? I am not interested in subbing my tivo just yet... I wanna see what my Tivo can do first.

[ScanMan]

As I indicated in previous post(s), your guide data is running out! After your grace period, you will not get anymore guide data. If you continue to let it call in, it may go into "boat anchor" mode, in which case I believe you will be limited to 30-minute buffer recording. So, cut it off from the outside world and use fakecall to make it think it's successfully calling in every day. I run fakecall twice a day from crond. Your clock will eventually drift; I have a turbonet (not sure if you mentioned you did) and I run ntpdate from crond as well to sync up with public time servers. I only allow the tivo to connect to the the NTP servers via UDP; other than that it's blocked at the router. Been running great for years...

[BlackFlux]

I know your are getting tired of me asking but I am searching before I post. However, I just want to be sure what I need to do.

Are you running fakecall and ntpdate manually?

[ScanMan]

Nope, I'm running them both from crond; you could run them manually, it just gets old fast...

[BlackFlux]

I don't want to do it manually. I just realized that I am way over my head. I don't even know how to ftp the fakecall.tcl to my Tivo. Reading up on it now.

[ScanMan]

Do you have a tivo/turbonet ethernet adapter? Do you have telnet enabled? The Steve Jenkins guide (http://tivo.stevejenkins.com/network_cd.html) has a lot basic info on hacking a Series 1 tivo.

[BlackFlux]

Yup I have a turbonet ethernet adapter and I followed that guide and stopped at step 8.2.

[ScanMan]

Nah, you don't need to worry about changing the prompt; that's window dressing. Just finish setting your IP address and copy over tivoftpd.ppc from his download directory (if you don't have the bootcd) edit rc.sysinit.author and you'll be good to go...

[BlackFlux]

Do I really need to setup the static IP address and what's tivoftpd.ppc? That's not in that guide.

[ScanMan]

No, you could use DHCP if you want, generally setup in the rc.net file. That's just the tivoftpd binary - you need the PPC one for Series 1 not MIPS. If you are using the one from the bootcd, it should be fine; he has another (MIPS) in his download folder that's for Series 2.

[BlackFlux]

:confused: I'm confused.

I am not even going to pretend that I know what you are talking about.

[ScanMan]

Forget it; I'm getting ahead of myself :) Do you have your ip address setup? Are you using the jenkins bootcd? Did you create the rc.sysinit.author file and copy over the tivoftpd binary?

[BlackFlux]

Yes and I know it's work because I connected to my tivo via the command line.

[ScanMan]

Are you connected via telnet? Were you able to get tivoftpd running?

[BlackFlux]

I am able to telnet and to ftp. I just don't know how to ftp files over. I know I have to change permissions to read/write.

[BlackFlux]

Scanman are you there?

[ScanMan]

I am able to telnet and to ftp. I just don't know how to ftp files over. I know I have to change permissions to read/write.
Not necessarily; when you use your ftp client to connect you should be presented with a directory structure. Navigate to the /var/tmp folder and upload there; make sure you choose "binary" as file type. Then after you telnet it and cd to /var/tmp it should be there; make sure it has proper permissions (ex. chmod 755 fakecall.tcl).

[BlackFlux]

Is there anyway to do this from the command prompt in Windows? I have tried with 2 different ftp applications it neither one worked. I tried FlashFXP and WS Ftp Pro.

[ScanMan]

Are you getting an error from the FTP clients? If you are using WinXP, do you have your Windows firewall turned off? Are you sure tivoftpd is running? You can do:
tivosh
ps ax
And look for tivoftpd; just type exit to quit the tivo shell (tivosh) and return to bash.

[BlackFlux]

Ok I got it to transfer ok. Is this right?

1. I placed it in the /var/hack/fakecall.tcl folder.
2. cd /var/hack/fakecall.tcl
3. chmod 755 fakecall.tcl
4. Then edit the rc.sysinit.author file with /var/hack/fakecall.tcl ?

[ScanMan]

It's just in the /var/hack folder right? You can run it manually with:/var/hack/fakecall.tclTry it; see if it works. You can then add that line to the end of rc.sysinit.author which will run it upon boot/reboot. If you want to run it periodically look into crond.

[BlackFlux]

I got:

bash: /var/hack/fakecall.tcl: Permission denied

[ScanMan]

cd /var/hack
chmod 755 fakecall.tcl
./fakecall.tcl

[BlackFlux]

Ok I did that and didn't get a message back. So I guess that's a good thing. Now how do I set it up so it runs automatically during the day?

[ScanMan]

We'll get to that in a minute; check your tivo under "Message & Settings" -> "System Information" - do you see the last call status updated?

[BlackFlux]

I see the last "status: Succeeded." Is there another way to check to make sure it worked?

[ScanMan]

You should be able to see by the date/time of the call details.

Regarding crond - see this (http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15732) thread for the general file release and info. Also, pay close attenion to the info here (http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.php?p=189482&highlight=crond#post189482) as I needed this to work; note that the crond included in AlphaWolf's binaries is for Series 2 tivos; you want the vixie one.

[BlackFlux]

I am going to see if I can figure it out first before I asked any questions. Thanks again ScanMan.

[BlackFlux]

Is there a difference between cron-3.0pl1_tivo-1 and cron-3.0pl1_TiVo-2?

[ScanMan]

They are similar just that "Tivo-2" is a newer version that was compiled; they are both for Series 1 Tivos.

[BlackFlux]

What am I doing wrong?

1. Downloaded cron-3.0pl1_TiVo-2

2. At Bash prompt enter:

mkdir /var/hack/etc [ENTER]
mkdir /var/hack/etc/cron.d [ENTER]

mkdir /var/hack/cron [ENTER]

3. Copy cron to the /var/hack/cron/ directory and mark it executable

chmod 755 cron [ENTER]

4. Copy crontab to the /var/hack/etc/ directory

5. Add the following line to the end of the /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit file:

/var/hack/cron/cron > /dev/null &

6. Edit /var/hack/etc/crontab to schedule programs to run:

Remove the following line:

*/10 * * * * date >> /var/hack/cron.test.out

Add the following line to run fakecall every 5 minutes:

*/5 * * * * /var/hack/fakecall.tcl >> /var/hack/cron/log
*/5 * * * wipelogs >> /var/hack/cron/log/

7. At Bash prompt enter:

sync [ENTER]
reboot [ENTER]

[ScanMan]

What am I doing wrong?Well, what happens? Are you getting anything in your cron log? I remember having some difficulty getting fakecall (aka fixsub) to run through cron until I did those things in Alphawolf's post I linked above (i.e., editing /etc/passwd and /etc/group). My setup is a little different; I don't use the system crontab file, but have a separate one named root; here is what it looks like...

bash-2.02# cat /var/hack/cron/tabs/root
PATH=/var/hack/cron:/var/hack/bin:/bin:/sbin:/tvbin:/devbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:./
SHELL=/bin/sh
MFS_DEVICE="/dev/hda10"
TIVO_ROOT=""

4 0,12 * * * date >> /var/hack/cron/fakelog
5 0,12 * * * /var/hack/fixsub.tcl >> /var/hack/cron/fakelog 2>&1
0 0 * * * ntpdate 111.222.333.444 >> /var/hack/cron/fakelog 2>&1Obviously that's not a real NTP server; find a public one near you...

[Michael M]

Where can I find a copy of fakecall.tcl to use with a Series 1 Dtivo (SAT T60)?

I have been searching around for it and can not find it.

thanks

[ScanMan]

This (http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.php?p=194436&highlight=fakecall#post194436) should work; if not also try searching for 'fixsub'

[Psydork]

Sort of a thread hijack, but touches on some of the same issues, so I thought I'd ask here since this thread is still somewhat recently active...

I have an S1 that has a lifetime sub that I am going to transfer to a new S3, and I am wondering what my options are once the 1 year freebie from tivo is up on that original S1.

I dont really care if i get tivo guide data anymore, but would really only be interested in being able to set a time/date recording schedule, a la vcr's of the old days.

I had fixsub working on my T60, so I understand what this is doing, but with this standalone, I am not really even sure what I am thinking for it in a year is even doable?

[Narf54321]

Many (most?) of the S1 standalone units, especially from the system 2.5 and 3.0 days could do manual timer recordings without subscription. You can probably test if your S1 has this function simply by unplugging the phone line (or network cable if you have turbonet) for a week or two.