3.xx to 6.2 hmo with wireless

[lancer123]

Hello,

I am very new so forgive me for my questions. My ultimate goal is to have 6.2 able to function over wireless with HMO. I currently have the latest 3.xxx (prior to 6.2) software. Do I need to first upgrade to 4.0 and then upgrade to 6.2 ? Or, can I let the tivo install 6.2 (which directv is sending out automatically) and then apply the patch? Since I have no experience with unix, I need the easiest way possible. Last, If I do need to the 4.0 to 6.2, is there one document which will explain how to do all of this?

Thanks,

Lance

[cheer]

I am very new so forgive me for my questions. My ultimate goal is to have 6.2 able to function over wireless with HMO. I currently have the latest 3.xxx (prior to 6.2) software. Do I need to first upgrade to 4.0 and then upgrade to 6.2 ?]

No. In fact, on a DTivo, 4.0 isn't worth the trouble with 6.2 now easily hackable.

Or, can I let the tivo install 6.2 (which directv is sending out automatically) and then apply the patch?

Yep. Though there isn't just one "patch" you will need to install.

Since I have no experience with unix, I need the easiest way possible. Last, If I do need to the 4.0 to 6.2, is there one document which will explain how to do all of this?

No document.

There are step by step guides out there, but most gloss over important information, leave steps out, or add unnecessary steps. You won't like hearing this, but you have a lot of reading to do. What you'll need (do searches on the key words and you'll find more details):

• You'll need a good Linux boot disk for your PC to do work from. Many here have recommended Knoppix. I was lazy and used the $5 special from PTVUpgrade. Just make sure that if your HD is >137gb to use one that is LBA48-aware.
• You'll need to pull the drive and cable it up to your PC, then boot from the boot CD mentioned above
• You'll need to use bootpage to figure out which partition is your active boot and which is your active root. Lots of examples of how to do this around here; start with the killhdinitrd thread below.
• You'll need to break the chain of trust that prevents changes to the Tivo's system by dd'ing over a compatible kernel that has been killhdinitrd'd. Read this thread for information on what killhdinitrd does and how to use it. It has a link to the files thread to actually get the file.
• You'll then want to install Alphawolf's all-in-one utilities (files are here and support/instructions are here ) and apply NutKase's 67superpatch (located here, support is here ).
• You'll need to run the set_mrv_name_67.tcl script (included in the superpatch listed above) to "name" your Dtivo.
• Since you're coming from 3.xx, you probably manually insmod'd the USB drivers and manually used ifconfig to configure your IP address. Pull those lines out of your rc.sysinit.author (or whatever). Then run netconfig.tcl to insert your IP information into MFS, or else MRV won't work properly.
• You probably want to install Jaime's backported USB drivers.
• Finally, if you want to use HMO to view photos/hear music, you'll need TivoDesktop or JavaHMO installed on a PC

(Senior folks, please correct me if I have erred.)

I haven't done the upgrade yet -- just finish hacking the rest of my 3.1.1e boxes over the weekend. My 6.2 upgrade is planned for this coming weekend, though I will be using slices to do it. Dunno if there's a reason to monte (can't see why there would be unless you want a custom kernel of some type). No idea what's involved in getting wireless going on any DTivo as I'm running on copper.

If you don't understand most of what I said...you're not ready. Read the stickies in the newbie forum and the Series 2 support forum, then do some searching.

[Gunnyman]

Wireless is what makes the OP's situation unique.
6.2 has no idea what to do with a wireless connection.
A couple of scripts are in very early development from a couple of users here.
The EASIEST way to have wireless networking functional within 6.2 is to slice from 4.0 to 6.2.
4.0 has the wireless setup routines and it has been my experience that if a wireless connection is configured and working under 4.0 when you slice to 6.2 the settings get migrated over.

[PlainBill]

No. In fact, on a DTivo, 4.0 isn't worth the trouble with 6.2 now easily hackable.

Yep. Though there isn't just one "patch" you will need to install.

No document.

There are step by step guides out there, but most gloss over important information, leave steps out, or add unnecessary steps. You won't like hearing this, but you have a lot of reading to do. What you'll need (do searches on the key words and you'll find more details):

• You'll need a good Linux boot disk for your PC to do work from
• You'll need to pull the drive and cable it up to your PC, then boot from the boot CD mentioned above
• You'll need to use bootpage to figure out which partition is your active boot and which is your active root
• You'll need to break the chain of trust that prevents changes to the Tivo's system by dd'ing over a compatible kernel that has been killhdinitrd'd
• You'll then want to install Alphawolf's all-in-one utilities and apply NutKase's 67superpatch
• You'll need to run the set_mrv_name67.tcl (may have the name off but it's similar to that) script
• You probably want to install Jaime's backported USB drivers
• Finally, if you want to use HMO to view photos/hear music, you'll need TivoDesktop or JavaHMO installed on a PC

(Senior folks, please correct me if I have erred.)

I haven't done the upgrade yet -- just finish hacking the rest of my 3.1.1e boxes over the weekend. My 6.2 upgrade is planned for this coming weekend, though I will be using slices to do it. Dunno if there's a reason to monte (can't see why there would be unless you want a custom kernel of some type). No idea what's involved in getting wireless going on any DTivo as I'm running on copper.

If you don't understand most of what I said...you're not ready. Read the stickies in the newbie forum and the Series 2 support forum, then do some searching.

Chris,

No mistakes; it's an excellent outline for a 'How to hack your DirecTiVo in 2005' 'travel guide'. I'm adding this to my list of pointers. If grandson permits, I'll be adding pointers to the threads for each step.

PlainBill

[lgkahn]

also I cheat.. the way I do wireless is to have linksys usb200m's on the two downstairs tivos going into a small linksys 5 port switch behind a buffalo repeater running wds ...

you can also do this with a linksys wrt54g or 54gs in place of the buffalo equip. if running sveasoft alchemy or talisman firmware which support WDS (Wireless Distribution System)

that way I don't have to mess with wireless drivers on the tivo and the throughput is beter because you can put external antennas between the downstairs and upstairs units to maintain a constant high quality link.

[cheer]

No mistakes; it's an excellent outline for a 'How to hack your DirecTiVo in 2005' 'travel guide'. I'm adding this to my list of pointers. If grandson permits, I'll be adding pointers to the threads for each step.

I just did the critical ones; I'll add some more links later tonight.

Thanks for the kind words; I feel much better about its accuracy now. I may even use the process myself.

[cheer]

And so I did. Here's essentially how I proceeded. Note that I didn't let DTivo install the OS; I used slices. YMMV.

This is an SD-DVR80 RID box. I was running 3.1.1e hacked very simply with a 3.1.1c killhdinitrd'd kernel. Not a lot of hacks running -- all I really wanted to do is get it on the network and get the videos extracted. Since they were scrambled, I used this process to unscramble them as I pulled them off via TyTool. That was my first experience with monte, but it was a piece of cake to do: monte to the custom kernel, install modified tserver, play each vid for a few seconds, and extract away. Anyway.

• I ftp'd the appropriate slices for my box to /var/packages
• I dbloaded the slices
• I modified installSw.itcl according to the instructions in this thread
• I ran bootpage -p /dev/hda to make sure I knew what my current boot/root were; in my case, /dev/hda3 and /dev/hda4.
• I fired off installSw.itcl with the appropriate parameter for my machine; if you know which set of slices to use, you'll know what this is. It's listed in the text file included in the package of slices if you got them from the usual places (emule).
• I was presented with an error -- installSw.itcl did not complete successfully. Reading the error, it seemed that installSw.itcl was trying to create a symlink called "mtab" in /install/etc. /install is just where the script mounts the NEW root partition (in my case, /dev/hda7). I checked /install/etc and mtab was there, symlinked to /var/mtab. I deleted /etc/mtab and reran the script successfully.
• I installed Alphawolf's tools to the new partition
• I ftp'd over a killhdinitrd'd 3.1.5 kernel and dd'd it to the appropriate places
• I copied my rc.sysinit.author from the running partition and removed the insmod lines for the USB drivers and the lines that fired up various hacks (but leaving in the ifconfig stuff, the bash/telnet lines, fakecall, and tivoftpd).
• I edited fakecall appropriately (see the thread listed above for installSw.itcl)
• I rebooted -- success!
• I telnetted in, ran superpatch, ran set_mrv_name_67.tcl, and netconfig.tcl.
• I removed the ifconfig lines from rc.sysinit.author.
• I rebooted again -- success!

From that point I've just been installing hacks at my leisure. It wasn't a difficult process at all...one just has to make sure that one understands what is happening in each and every step. Also, FYI I've updated this post with minor changes and the information about netconfig.tcl.

[rbautch]

Cheer, nice outline on the 6.2 upgrade. I suggest that any outlines, walkthroughs, or collected info and tips should mention that it is curretly not possible to enter your router's WEP key for secure wireless networking without going to 4.0 first. I learned this the hard way as described here. In fact, you can't use wireless networking at all unless you set your router's SSID using the script created by Thinkdiff, which is posted in that same thread. This fact is certainly not obvious for folks upgrading to 6.2 for the first time.

The issue with WEP is figuring out how the key is stored in MFS.

[Thinkdiff]

Cheer, nice outline on the 6.2 upgrade. I suggest that any outlines, walkthroughs, or collected info and tips should mention that it is curretly not possible to enter your router's WEP key for secure wireless networking without going to 4.0 first. I learned this the hard way as described here. In fact, you can't use wireless networking at all unless you set your router's SSID using the script created by Thinkdiff, which is posted in that same thread. This fact is certainly not obvious for folks upgrading to 6.2 for the first time.

The issue with WEP is figuring out how the key is stored in MFS.

I said it when I originally posted it. My script DOES NOT enable Wireless on a brand new 6.2 system, at least I don't think it does. My script relies on the fact that you have already set up wireless using an older system (4.01b).

[rbautch]

I didn't see this fact anywhere in that thread. In fact, this post led me to believe the opposite. If you need to go to 4.0 first anyway, it defeats the whole purpose of a script to set SSID. In light of this, I think it's even more important for first-time 6.2 upgraders to know wireless is not possible without a 4.0 install first. Thinkdiff, other than WEP and SSID, what else would you need to set up for wireless networking in 4.0?

[Thinkdiff]

if you look at my script, you will see it immediately:

if { $ssid != "" } {...
} else {
puts "TiVo not set up for Wireless. Don't Know what to do. Exiting"
exit 1

Basically, that's saying, if there is no SSID currently set, then don't execute the script. When I posted my "It works" result, that was a 4.01b tivo upgraded to 6.2 with an incorrect SSID set. so I changed the SSID using my script and it rejoined the network. Sorry for not being more clear.

Edit: all of that aside, it should be quite simple to edit my script so that it will create the appropriate MFS entries if they were not set by 4.01b. I simply don't have the time to do that.

edit 2:
http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/sh...0&postcount=13
Also here, I said "change SSID"...

[mateom199]

Even though I know next to nothing about mfs, I tried adjusting your script to set up the correct parameters if the system had no previous wireless settings, but i keep getting "failed to commit" error. Obviously I'm doing something wrong, and I know next to nothing about working with mfs, so maybe I'll leave it to someone else.

[mateom199]

Ok, I made a quick and dirty script to add WirelessParams to any network adapter.

You MUST supply the correct FSID of the adapter you want to add wireless params to. There is no error checking, so make sure its the correct fsid. Use at your own risk.

This script only creates a subobject called NetConfigWirelessParams, with the SSID. I do not know if there are any other settings required to get wireless working, as right now I have not been able to test this! The script DOES work in creating the entries, I just do not know if there are more entries that need to be created in getting wireless to work on a non-slice upgraded 6.2 system.

Any feedback would be great, and again, double check those FSID numbers!

Edit: After writing this, I have the sneaking suspicion that more is required to get wireless up and running....so who knows if this will work.

#!/tvbin/tivosh
#########
# Wireless Set up for 6.2
# by mateom199, modeled from Script by Td, Modeled from LanMan's modified script of l.g. kahn's script
# Use at your own risk
#########

puts "SSID Set Up"
puts "BE SURE YOUR USING THE CORRECT FSID"
puts "THERE IS NO ERROR CHECKING!!!!!!!!!"
if [llength $argv] {
set newssid [lindex $argv 0]
set adapterfsid [lindex $argv 1]
} else { 
set newssid "" 
set adapterfsid ""
}

if {$newssid == ""} {
puts stderr "Usage: wireless67setup.tcl \"newssid\" FSID"

puts stderr ""
puts stderr "ex. wireless67setup.tcl \"My Home\" 455689"
exit 1
}
if {$adapterfsid == ""} {
puts "No FSID supplied, aborting!"
exit 1
}

set db [dbopen]
puts "TiVo not set up for Wireless. Setting up Wireless Params on given adapter now."
RetryTransaction {

	set netcfg [db $db openid $adapterfsid]
	set ipparam [db $db createsub NetConfigWirelessParams $netcfg]
	puts "FSID $adapterfsid"
	puts ""
	puts "SSID $newssid"
	dbobj $ipparam set DenyUnencrypted 1
	dbobj $ipparam set SsId $newssid
	dbobj $netcfg set WirelessParams $ipparam
}
puts "Done!"
exit 1

dbclose $db

[rbautch]

Thanks for stepping up to pick up the torch. I'd be happy to test this script out for you. Just tell me how to find the fsid of my adapter.

[mateom199]

Thanks for stepping up to pick up the torch. I'd be happy to test this script out for you. Just tell me how to find the fsid of my adapter.

Tivowebplus

Go to MFS->State->Network and there should be one (or more, if you've plugged more than one usb adapter in). For instance, on my system I have 2 entries, 004:324136 and 005:363595 because I have a wireless and wired adapter. The FSID is listed under "ID" or you can just chop off the "00X:" part, and the last numbers are the FSID, ie, 005:363595 the FSID is 363595.

If you don't have a wired connection, and can't access tivowebplus, Im not sure how to find it yet.