Series 3 Information

[Supafly]

I don't think so -- at least, on one of my PCs here, I can't install *&^%@#$ Windows XP onto the SATA drive unless I build a slipstreamed Windows disc with the SATA drivers integrated...

You must have an older SATA controller. The first generation did this, but the ones I've seen recently (past 18 months) have all had native windows/Linux support.

[Jamie]

However, isn't IDE/ATA/SATA supposed to be transparent to the OS? Shouldn't a real SATA controller report the device as an generic ATA device? It shouldn't matter the physical interface, the why the bits come into the OS are all the same.

I don't think so. There is controller specific knowledge in the device drivers. Have a look at the linux sata drivers if you doubt this. Your controller may have a legacy mode where it pretends to the OS that it is a generic PATA controller, but, in the general case, the OS does do SATA specific things with SATA controllers.

If your device is showing up as /dev/hdX instead of /dev/sdX, I think you must be running in legacy mode. Not all controllers support this, and some features, like NCQ, hotplug, etc aren't available in that mode.

Lots of info on SATA support in linux here.

[Supafly]

I don't think so. There is controller specific knowledge in the device drivers. Have a look at the linux sata drivers if you doubt this. Your controller may have a legacy mode where it pretends to the OS that it is a generic PATA controller, but, in the general case, the OS does do SATA specific things with SATA controllers.

If your device is showing up as /dev/hdX instead of /dev/sdX, I think you must be running in legacy mode. Not all controllers support this, and some features, like NCQ, hotplug, etc aren't available in that mode.

Lots of info on SATA support in linux here.

I stand corrected; my motherboard must be doing this by default. One option, and it's not the best is that you can slip the TiVo drive in an external USB case and restore to that. That I know for a fact works on the LBA48 cd. I have all NTFS drives, so I backup to and restore from my FAT32 thumbdrive. Works surprisingly well, there's a small performance hit, but the convenience of not having to keep a FAT32 drive around is worth it.

[muddy]

Has web server running on it with welcome screen and links to tivo site,
http://series3ip

[AbMagFab]

I stand corrected; my motherboard must be doing this by default. One option, and it's not the best is that you can slip the TiVo drive in an external USB case and restore to that. That I know for a fact works on the LBA48 cd. I have all NTFS drives, so I backup to and restore from my FAT32 thumbdrive. Works surprisingly well, there's a small performance hit, but the convenience of not having to keep a FAT32 drive around is worth it.

Interesting. What's the USB thumb drive show up as (/dev/???)?

I hope I don't need to do this with the SATA drive though, as I don't have any external enclosures for SATA (only PATA), and I'd rather not add to the expense. Hopefully the above link has some SATA drivers...

Any additional help will be very appreciated!

[Narf54321]

I am also afflicted by a motherboard with the rather early-generation SiliconImage 3114 SATA controller chip. SATA seems to be made specific for HDD units, and they forgot to include ATAPI support for things like CD-ROM, or possibly home Tape backup units.

Anyway, a few of the modern Linux Live Boot CDs seem to work fine these days with my computer. I suppose if you can get the machine to boot, and then can get tivopart on it (ftp from a nearby machine, thumdrive, floppy) it should hopefully then "see" the tivo partitions on the tivo drive.

[Supafly]

Interesting. What's the USB thumb drive show up as (/dev/???)?

I hope I don't need to do this with the SATA drive though, as I don't have any external enclosures for SATA (only PATA), and I'd rather not add to the expense. Hopefully the above link has some SATA drivers...

Any additional help will be very appreciated!

The LBA48 boot disc includes a library called "SCSI Emulation Layer for USB Mass Storage Devices" and it does a great job of detecting all the different USB hubs on your machines and any attached USB Drives you have connected to your computer. My LBA disc detected both my 2GB and 4GB thumbdrives, and also my Maxtor 3200 External USB drive. Since they are emulated SCSI drives, the mount points are usually at /dev/sdx. Where "x" is the different drives, example: /dev/sdb1.

[muddy]

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/acces....asp?ProdID=74

[AbMagFab]

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/acces....asp?ProdID=74

Thanks - but what's that link for? We know the drive in the S3 is SATA, and they are using the non-proprietary WD cable. Doesn't have much to do with accessing the drive on a PC.

I guess I'll hope my old P4 2.6Ghz motherboard SATA ports will be recognized by the Linux boot disk. Otherwise this will take a while...

[muddy]

I though someone said something about having to cut the cable so guess I miss understood, that allows a WD drive to go in a standard SATA
PC. I didn't look close at the drive, I guess they are just a standard
drive with the two connectors in one form factor, I thought it was
something new...

Ron

[AbMagFab]

I am also afflicted by a motherboard with the rather early-generation SiliconImage 3114 SATA controller chip. SATA seems to be made specific for HDD units, and they forgot to include ATAPI support for things like CD-ROM, or possibly home Tape backup units.

Anyway, a few of the modern Linux Live Boot CDs seem to work fine these days with my computer. I suppose if you can get the machine to boot, and then can get tivopart on it (ftp from a nearby machine, thumdrive, floppy) it should hopefully then "see" the tivo partitions on the tivo drive.

So okay, I booted to 4.x MFSTools CD, and it booted up, saw all the drives (SATA drive at hdf or hdh, depending on which port I use), but after it found the IRQ of my DVDRom drive, it hung. It said the 2 SATA chains were actually IDE chains, and the only difference from the real IDE chains were that it said "100% compliant" or something like that for the SATA chains.

There's nothing in my BIOS about legacy mode, except for the USB ports.

Any ideas? Any alternative Linux builds I can try? I can always stick the MFS CD in after booting a kernel that works, I assume, and run the MFS commands?

Help please... I'd really like to get this 750GB into my S3.

[AbMagFab]

Okay, I'm guessing it's because it's greater than 320GB? I see that the CompUSA external SATA enclosure supports only up to 320GB drives.

Any hope for me?

[Narf54321]

I though someone said something about having to cut the cable so guess I miss understood, that allows a WD drive to go in a standard SATA
PC. I didn't look close at the drive, I guess they are just a standard
drive with the two connectors in one form factor, I thought it was
something new...

People are unfamiliar with the Western Digital combined "clip" connector attaching power and data lines to the SATA drive in the S3. I'm sure Tivo used it to avoid too many DOA complaints if the SATA connectors popped loose in transit.

My original impression, as was others apparently, was that the "clip" on the special connection was too deep or something to attach any other brand of SATA drive. So there was much talk of cutting, soldering, putting seperate power and data connections in place inside the S3 Tivo. Now some reports are that the "clip" is fine, and will attach to other drives.

As for putting it in a regular PC, sure. I'd be surprised if the WD drive wouldn't go into a standard PC SATA setup.

[Narf54321]

Any ideas? Any alternative Linux builds I can try? I can always stick the MFS CD in after booting a kernel that works, I assume, and run the MFS commands?

Help please... I'd really like to get this 750GB into my S3.

I've had good luck with Ubuntu 5.10 on my SATA PC and using the tivopart to load the tivo drive's partition table into memory. This of course is with older S2 IDE tivo drives, but I don't see why it wouldn't work for you as long as linux "knows" there is some sort of device where your tivo drive is attached. Instead of /dev/hdc (for example) it'll probably look like /dev/sdc.

[AbMagFab]

I've had good luck with Ubuntu 5.10 on my SATA PC and using the tivopart to load the tivo drive's partition table into memory. This of course is with older S2 IDE tivo drives, but I don't see why it wouldn't work for you as long as linux "knows" there is some sort of device where your tivo drive is attached. Instead of /dev/hdc (for example) it'll probably look like /dev/sdc.

Quick question - What do I download to create just a bootable CD? I see a bunch of install images, but I just want a bootable ISO image.

And do I need to use tivopart if all I want to do is mfsrestore?