Can't catch the password prompt for the Prom Menu, help?

[Relativity]

My serial cable works, I can see all of the information as it's booting up and I have a bash prompt. I think I've unplugged/plugged this thing a dozen times trying to catch the prom menu with zero luck. I've tried hitting Enter as soon as I plug it in, a second after, repeatedly hitting enter non-stop from the moment of plugging it in, no matter what I never catch the password prompt. What am I doing wrong?

I even tried changing the password (crypto -u -srp factory) and using different terminals (Putty, TeraTerm) at different connection speeds. No luck, I still can't catch the password prompt for the prom menu.

This is on a series 2 Directivo, Hughes SD-DVR40. Running instant cake 6.2 and ptvnet, as well as the superPatch67 and bufferhack. I want to make a few more changes, but before going farther I want to know that I can revert to the backup kernel/root if something should go wrong.

I searched and didn't find any posts with this problem. Any help is appreciated!

[Jamie]

My serial cable works, I can see all of the information as it's booting up and I have a bash prompt. I think I've unplugged/plugged this thing a dozen times trying to catch the prom menu with zero luck. I've tried hitting Enter as soon as I plug it in, a second after, repeatedly hitting enter non-stop from the moment of plugging it in, no matter what I never catch the password prompt. What am I doing wrong?Are you running the serial port on the PC side at 115200,8,N?

[Relativity]

Are you running the serial port on the PC side at 115200,8,N?
That was one of the speeds I tried, yes.

[Relativity]

Does anyone else have any ideas, thoughts, or suggestions?

[PlainBill]

Does anyone else have any ideas, thoughts, or suggestions?

I see a number of POSSIBLE problems; I've had a few of them myself. Do you have dsscon=true console=2,115200 in your boot parameters (bootpage -p /dev/hda)?

Is the cable wired correctly?

Is the cable plugged all the way into the jack on the back of the DirecTiVo?

Hyperterm should be set to 115200,8,n,1, no flow control.

Are you using the correct serial port?

Using a jumper wire, short the tip and ring of the plug together. Does typing omething echo back to the screen?

PlainBill

[Narf54321]

Hmmm... Check the carriage-return setting. Linux expects a LF (line feed) but many Microsoft-based tools prefer to send CR+LF and it might not trigger the prompt. Just a guess, really, but worth a try.

[Jamie]

Correct me if I am wrong, but reading your post, I understand that the serial port works fine for serial bash once the box is booted up, you just aren't able to get to the PROM menu. Is that right? If that's true, it rules out a lot of possibilities in the troubleshooting space -- pretty much everything in PlainBill's post.

[Lost Dog]

I think Narf54321 may be on to something. I've had that problem as well. Now that I'm on linux and messed around with the tivo the other day I kept hitting the prom password when I pressed enter too early (didn't have that issue when I booted over to XP).

[ScanMan]

On Windows, try something like Tera Term (http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA002416/teraterm.html) rather than Hyperterminal.

[PlainBill]

On Windows, try something like Tera Term (http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA002416/teraterm.html) rather than Hyperterminal.

Read post #1 - he did.

PlainBill

[Relativity]

Correct me if I am wrong, but reading your post, I understand that the serial port works fine for serial bash once the box is booted up, you just aren't able to get to the PROM menu. Is that right? If that's true, it rules out a lot of possibilities in the troubleshooting space -- pretty much everything in PlainBill's post.
Correct. Serial cable works fine during boot and after boot, I just can't catch the prom menu no matter what I do. Btw I used this diagram when assembling the cable (and I have verified that the pins are correct and isolated from each other):
http://javier.rodriguez.org.mx/upload/blog/tivocable.jpg

Hmmm... Check the carriage-return setting. Linux expects a LF (line feed) but many Microsoft-based tools prefer to send CR+LF and it might not trigger the prompt. Just a guess, really, but worth a try.

This sounds promising. For those using Tera Term and/or Putty, is there a setting for this? I seem to remember seeing something like that, I'll look at it again tonight.

Thanks for the help!

[Narf54321]

This sounds promising. For those using Tera Term and/or Putty, is there a setting for this?

Tera Term look under Setup->Terminal.
There will be a setting for transmitting New-line, which can be set to either CR (Carriage Return only) or CR+LF (Carriage Return followed by a Line Feed).

[mike_s]

You can use ctrl-m for CR and ctrl-j for LF as a quick way to test.

[drez]

This sounds promising. For those using Tera Term and/or Putty, is there a setting for this? I seem to remember seeing something like that, I'll look at it again tonight.



In PuTTY, Connection > Telnet > uncheck "Return key sends Telnet New Line instead of ^M"

[PlainBill]

And in Hyperterm, don't worry about it. I've never had a problem getting the prom prompt with Hyperterminal. (Lots of problems setting page width, etc, of course.)

Personally, I'm betting something is wrong in the boot parameters.

PlainBill

[Jamie]

And in Hyperterm, don't worry about it. I've never had a problem getting the prom prompt with Hyperterminal. (Lots of problems setting page width, etc, of course.)

Personally, I'm betting something is wrong in the boot parameters.

PlainBillThe boot parameters aren't seen until the kernel is booted -- long after the prom menu check.

You could try this: from bash on the serial console, enter restart; reboot and start hitting enter once a second or so as soon as you see the message indicating the system is about to reboot.