puffdaddy
08-29-2010, 03:08 PM
The attachment found in development thread post (link (http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.php?p=308363)) includes pre-compiled executables that one can use with the 1.4 MFSLive BootDisk to backup, restore, and even expand a TiVo Premiere drive. These exectuables have limitations and are released to allow experimentation.
Some warnings about these exectuables
These are not backwards compatible with S3 and earlier drives (hence the different executable extension).
These have only been tested once with a single stock drive (other configurations including multiple drives or expanded drives have not been tested)
These executables do not handle the SQLite partition (partition 14), so one must manually delete this partition prior to backing up and must manually recreate the partition after a restore (see usage notes below).
One can expand using mfsadd to expand only by creating a "single, coallesced partition" or "uneven SOMETHING SOMETHING", this should be considered experimental.
Usage notes
Run these executables along side the normal compliment of PC-side tivo tools. They should work with any modern Linux distribution, Linux LiveCDs (or the MFSLive boot disk), a Linux Bootable USB derived from a LiveCD, etc...
Backups are best made of a stock drive configuration by first using pdisk to delete the partition 14 (the 3GB SQLite partition) and then creating a backup using -9vo (i.e. omit backing up the var partition).
When restoring one can specify "-v 3584" to make the var partition 3.5GB in size. This allows you to, later, manually divide it (again using pdisk) into partitions 9 (512MB var) and 14 (3GB SQLite) and then initialize their filesystems by hand (i.e., "mke2fs -t ext2 /dev/sdb9; mke2fs -t ext3 /dev/sdb14"). It's not necessary to save the contents of var or db (SQLite), as the TiVo will repopulate these partitions during power-up.
Expansion can be done with JMFS or using the modified provided mfsadd.s4.x86. The process I used is described here: on the mfslive forums (http://mfslive.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1500#p6810) Note that with either method (as both use the same underlying principle), there are still unanswered questions about the suitability of later adding (and removing external storage). Tivoapp contains the string: "TROUBLE: Partitions are supposed to come in pairs!", thus, there is reason to believe that perhaps during some level of mfscheck/fsfix might barf with a configuration like this.
run mfsadd.s4.x86 being sure to specify the "-r 4" option.
use pdisk to delete the newly created partitions 15 and 16 and create a single partition equivalent in size in their place.
hexedit the MFS superblock (found in partition 10) to remove (overwrite with zeros) "/dev/sda16" and
correct the superblock checksum (corrupted when you manually removed /dev/sda16) using "mfs_info -f"
Note that after you expand, its not possible (with the provided executables) to backup the expanded drive.
Remember: these executables are experimental, your mileage may vary, works for me, always back up your... oh, never mind about that last one ;)
Some warnings about these exectuables
These are not backwards compatible with S3 and earlier drives (hence the different executable extension).
These have only been tested once with a single stock drive (other configurations including multiple drives or expanded drives have not been tested)
These executables do not handle the SQLite partition (partition 14), so one must manually delete this partition prior to backing up and must manually recreate the partition after a restore (see usage notes below).
One can expand using mfsadd to expand only by creating a "single, coallesced partition" or "uneven SOMETHING SOMETHING", this should be considered experimental.
Usage notes
Run these executables along side the normal compliment of PC-side tivo tools. They should work with any modern Linux distribution, Linux LiveCDs (or the MFSLive boot disk), a Linux Bootable USB derived from a LiveCD, etc...
Backups are best made of a stock drive configuration by first using pdisk to delete the partition 14 (the 3GB SQLite partition) and then creating a backup using -9vo (i.e. omit backing up the var partition).
When restoring one can specify "-v 3584" to make the var partition 3.5GB in size. This allows you to, later, manually divide it (again using pdisk) into partitions 9 (512MB var) and 14 (3GB SQLite) and then initialize their filesystems by hand (i.e., "mke2fs -t ext2 /dev/sdb9; mke2fs -t ext3 /dev/sdb14"). It's not necessary to save the contents of var or db (SQLite), as the TiVo will repopulate these partitions during power-up.
Expansion can be done with JMFS or using the modified provided mfsadd.s4.x86. The process I used is described here: on the mfslive forums (http://mfslive.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1500#p6810) Note that with either method (as both use the same underlying principle), there are still unanswered questions about the suitability of later adding (and removing external storage). Tivoapp contains the string: "TROUBLE: Partitions are supposed to come in pairs!", thus, there is reason to believe that perhaps during some level of mfscheck/fsfix might barf with a configuration like this.
run mfsadd.s4.x86 being sure to specify the "-r 4" option.
use pdisk to delete the newly created partitions 15 and 16 and create a single partition equivalent in size in their place.
hexedit the MFS superblock (found in partition 10) to remove (overwrite with zeros) "/dev/sda16" and
correct the superblock checksum (corrupted when you manually removed /dev/sda16) using "mfs_info -f"
Note that after you expand, its not possible (with the provided executables) to backup the expanded drive.
Remember: these executables are experimental, your mileage may vary, works for me, always back up your... oh, never mind about that last one ;)