Hacking your Series 2 in 2004

[jlangstn]

I have been reading this forum for several months and I finally decided to dive in and use the sleeper iso to do the hacks on my dtv tivo, even though most of the experts are saying not to use it. Boy was that a mistake! First it made me reboot a million times and most of the time it didn't even recognize my disk. Then it made me go through a pointless restore operation that deleted all my recordings, after you get to page 75 of the thread you find out that's optional (thanks a lot pal). And after everything was said and done most of the hacks were broken anyway and I had to read 200 pages of junk posts and me toos to find out what was wrong. Anyone who says the sleper iso is easy to use is a liar.

I made a list of the hacks I used so that anyone considering ths sleeper iso knows that you have better options. Here goes.

First I made a bash serial cable and downloaded tera term so I could see what was happening in real time, you can also buy them at 9thtee if you can't solder. This cable is essential, don't be lazy, you really need it. Then I started installing the hacks on my drive:

killhdinitrd, this is used to mod the signed kernel so that you can change files on the drive without getting caught by the security features. That thread has a bunch of links to kernel images and tutorials. I followed the killhdinitrd and monte instructions to load the kernel for 4.0 and it works perfect.

S2 utility collection, this thing has everything in it, busybox, editors, ping, and many useful utilities which are not out of date. This guy actually maintains his software instead of making everyone use broken stuff. This is a must have.

New network drivers, I needed to use these so the network did not lock up. I found out the drivers on the sleeper iso are all screwed up and they overwrite the good drivers on my system so it keeps rebooting.

HMO superpatch turns on hmo on the dtv tivo, I am using it to play my favorite songs and display pictures of the kids on the tv. This also runs the cso fix but if you want to do that by hand I found a thread here to tell you how. This is also broken in the sleeper iso, they install a patch that screws up your hard disk on most software versions.

tivoapp patches, this thread is great! It will show you how to enable the commercial skip button and turn off those stupid banner ads.

mfs ftp, lets you copy recordings to your computer to archiving and burning on dvd. Then I used tytools on the pc to convert them to dvd format.

I learned a lot in this experience, first off don't trust anyone who tries to tell you there is a shortcut. There are no shortcuts, you need to go through the steps and learn it yourself. You will have to do this sooner or later anyway because nothing is perfect and nothing works 100% of the time. Second, use the search and use google whenever you see an unfamiliar term, and take good notes so you remember what you read, and remember the sticky threads are GOLD and will answer most of your questions before you even ask. Third, if you are releasing software, for pete's sake don't dumb it down because it will only frustrate people like it did to me.

[NutKase]

Excellent first post, and congratulations on hacking your tivo!

One thing to point out is that the superpatch-4all includes:

NoCSO unscrambling, HMO, MRV, 30-second skip, NoPPV (i.e record scheduled PPV), and Parental Controls (Off after reboot).

Welcome to the group.

NutKase

[grossman]

I've seen this mentioned in many posts so here goes.....
Subject sais it all!!!

PS and yes I searched for 15 minutes and see it in many threads
BUT just can't find its meaning.

[bato]

Maybe multi room viewing? so you can watch a recording from tivoA with tivoB in other room if you have both in the network. HMO - home media option I guess is for showing pictures and music from a PC.

Thanks to jlangstn, I'll try to hack a new S2 soon, so your info is a great place to start.

[Jtw_124]

Anyone who says the sleper [SIC] iso is easy to use is a liar.
This is also broken in the sleeper iso, they install a patch that screws up your hard disk on most software versions.
Third, if you are releasing software, for pete's sake don't dumb it down because it will only frustrate people like it did to me.

Clearly, there have been some improvements since Sleeper issued his ISO more than a year ago. But, he provided a valuable service to the TIVO community by enabling many, many newcomers to dip their toe in the water and begin to experience the fun and benefits of hacking their TIVOs.

I knew barely a single UNIX command before running Sleeper's ISO. Today, after enjoying a hacked TIVO for 9 months, I've taught myself a lot and learned how to killhdinitrd my unit from scratch, install Elseed caller ID, extract and format video, etc. etc.

Take it easy on Sleeper. You've helped the community take a big step further by enlightening us on new methods, but so did Sleeper, in his time.

[stevel]

I used Sleeper's ISO and it worked perfectly and as advertised for me. Maybe today I'd do it differently, but there was nothing really wrong with it.

[jlangstn]

Take it easy on Sleeper. You've helped the community take a big step further by enlightening us on new methods, but so did Sleeper, in his time.

I'm not bashing him for making the sleeper but if you think it was easy to use you are fooling yourself, if it was ***** proof would there be 5000 questions in that thread?? Now that it is completely outdated for over a year he should have taken it down instead of insisting it is still the right way to do things. I'm not taking sides here but obviously he is looking out for his own ego not for guys like you and me who just want to learn the right way to do things.

Now please do not bring it up again in my thread, this is to HELP people not talk about ancient tivo history. TIA

BBSUX on my setup I put a sleep 5 after the insmod and i put 'up' at the end of ifconfig. Where did you find the author file you used?

[bbsux]

BBSUX on my setup I put a sleep 5 after the insmod and i put 'up' at the end of ifconfig. Where did you find the author file you used?

Thanks... added 'sleep 5' and it worked!!!!

[newbie]

Great post, Prehaps it should be a "sticky"?

[captain_video]

Now that it is completely outdated for over a year he should have taken it down instead of insisting it is still the right way to do things. I'm not taking sides here but obviously he is looking out for his own ego not for guys like you and me who just want to learn the right way to do things.

If you've been following this forum for any length of time you'd know that Sleeper is no longer a member here and hasn't been for many months. Besides, you have to have administrative privileges like the mods do in order to remove a thread, especially a sticky.

That aside, great first post!

[mrblack51]

If you've been following this forum for any length of time you'd know that Sleeper is no longer a member here and hasn't been for many months. Besides, you have to have administrative privileges like the mods do in order to remove a thread, especially a sticky.

sleeper had opportunities to update/fix/modify the tool long before he was banned. he chose not to do so. now that he has been banned, he no longer has the opportunity...however, it is fair to say that there are lots of individuals which have been implying that the sleeper tool is <fill in random comment>. in order to dispel the assured newbie questions of "i heard the sleeper iso was the way to go, but this post says differently...which is correct?", it is fair to put forth a basic statement regarding that tool. i dont see anyhting particularly derogatory in any of the posts. however, in an effort to keep this thread clean, i will be deleting this post, and any other posts that are off topic or related to sleeper politics, other than the author's original statement

[qball]

What if any of this is valid for the new RID S2's? I've had a hard time finding current info for many of the older hacks and networking for these boxes.

My previous T-60 S1 died on me the other day and best butt had a good sale on the Hughes SD-DVR80. I'd been hacking my S1 for 3 years now and figured it was time to step up anyway. Well unknown to me at the time there's these new type of S2 boxes out called RID units and it's been a pain to gather good info on these. Maybe someone that's hacked one of these could post a sticky for valid hacks on a RID S2? I'm sure it will be a hot topic over the next few months.

ohh, and I must say I do agree with jlangstn's comments and frustrations. I'm very appreciative of all those that have put in tons of time to develop these hacks and quick installs, but with 3 or 4 years of posts to sift through the site is rapidly becoming hard to use.

just my $.02

[The Only Druid]

What if any of this is valid for the new RID S2's?

Most off it is valid. The short version is this:

1) Killhdinitrd works perfectly well on RID units (i'm using it on a Hughes unit myself). Its worth noting that you'll have to use killhdinitrd on a 3.1.1c kernal for your new Tivo (which most likely will have 3.1.1e after dialing in to sub the box). This just means downloading either a virgin 3.1.1c kernal or a pre-hacked one from the forums, which should be pretty easy for you.

2) You cannot run 4.x on RID dtivo units. This is the big difference between RID/non-RID tivos. Basically, RID serves to keep DTivos from running anything but DTivo OS's. 4.x is for standalones, while 5.x (I believe) is for only DVD-burning Tivos.

I'm not aware of any other limitations on RID units as compared to non-RID.

Oh, there has been speculation that the RID will allow DirecTV to do something to the box remotely, but its just that: speculation. There has been no indication on DirecTV's part of such a plan, nor has there been any demonstration of it. Moreover, its unclear how it could do so, even though its a trusted peice of hardware on your Tivo, if your phone is detached and the upgradesoftware flag is set to false. At worst, it could make future versions of the OS harder to hack from scratch (i.e. it might mean that for future DTivos, you'll have to downgrade to a lower version, hack it, then upgrade the OS to whatever the current version then will be), but again thats pure speculation.

[rc3105]

2) You cannot run 4.x on RID dtivo units. This is the big difference between RID/non-RID tivos. Basically, RID serves to keep DTivos from running anything but DTivo OS's. 4.x is for standalones, while 5.x (I believe) is for only DVD-burning Tivos.

I'm not aware of any other limitations on RID units as compared to non-RID.

RID provides for a much tighter "marriage" between the dtv card and reciever, it's purly an anti signal-theft device

4.x sw was never intended to run on dtivos (happy accident) so when combo hardware was updated there was no reason to include new drivers in the 4.x codebase

there's currently a 4.x on RID fundraiser to get updated drivers released that allow for using 4.x on rid hardware. been running them here for a while, works great. it's well worth donating $20 for the tested lba48 kernel that'll be included

5.x also works nicely on rid hardware, but those updates will probably remain private for a couple of other reasons

Oh, there has been speculation that the RID will allow DirecTV to do something to the box remotely, but its just that: speculation. There has been no indication on DirecTV's part of such a plan, nor has there been any demonstration of it. Moreover, its unclear how it could do so, even though its a trusted peice of hardware on your Tivo, if your phone is detached and the upgradesoftware flag is set to false. At worst, it could make future versions of the OS harder to hack from scratch (i.e. it might mean that for future DTivos, you'll have to downgrade to a lower version, hack it, then upgrade the OS to whatever the current version then will be), but again thats pure speculation.

dtv can allready do lots of things to the box through the sat stream (deactivate cards, sw updates, updated guide data) RID or not only affects the communication between the access card & reciever.

dtv can use rid to remotely verify that the card is in the reciever you said it was in when you activated it - kind of a biggie if you're playing games sharing accounts or some such, but that's really not a tivo issue

[snoopy]

I have a Hughes DVR40 that I plan on upgrading to 120. Do I need to be concerned about RID? Is this a RID unit? I need first to get network access with my Linksys 200M USB/Ethernet adapter so that I can FTP to the unit.

I tried the instant cake stuff but I get decompression errors using it.

I have no problem starting from scratch. Could someone fill me in with an simple where to start run-down similar to the first post in this thread....

I'm still a little confused. Thanks for any help.