Overview of Hacking an S3

[suzook]

i am wondering if i hack the s3, can i clone the sn of my other s3? i know this was possible with the directivo unit.

[Jamie]

i am wondering if i hack the s3, can i clone the sn of my other s3? i know this was possible with the directivo unit.

Why would you want to do that? This post is relevant.

[suzook]

the reason, i was hoping to use my 2nd s3 for mrv without activating it. i think it is bs that i cant use mrv if both units are not subbed. i would like to be able to watch in my bedroom what is recorded on my subbed s3.

[drez]

Ugh, for the millionth time... no, it can't be done.

[mamcclure]

Can you tell me about the TWP interface on the TivoHD/Series3? I want to initiate copies (TTGB) from the pc to the tivo without having to be in front of my tivo or having to make my wife stop watching while I do it.

With MFS_FTP, on Series 1's, I could just use an ftp client to move them around. If TWP includes the TivoDesktop-served shows in the Now Playing list, then I can select them and start transfers without ever touching the remote control.

[donahchoo]

[*] To modify the kernel, you need to get the tivo drive in a PC computer running Linux. You'll need a SATA port on your desktop PC and a specialized linux boot disk. As of March 2007, I'm finding the best ISO for this purpose is at mfslive.org However Mr Black's replace_initrd is not compatible with the version of DD on the mfslive boot disk. I haven't looked into why this is yet. You will need another linux environment to actually edit the kernel in.

Is this still the case or does the 1.3b version of MFSLive.iso use a compatible version od dd/replace_initrd?

[jt1134]

Is this still the case or does the 1.3b version of MFSLive.iso use a compatible version od dd/replace_initrd?

buechel fixed replace_initrd to work with the busybox version of dd, and NillaZilla posted it here. I used it this afternoon and it worked fine.

[donahchoo]

buechel fixed replace_initrd to work with the busybox version of dd, and NillaZilla posted it here. I used it this afternoon and it worked fine.

Okay, so all I need to do is put that on a drive that will be accessible when I'm booted from the mfslive cd. I'm going to assume that's any internal drive...

thanks.

[jt1134]

replace_initrd and the null-linuxrc.img.gz file. I usually use a usb stick.

[lgkahn]

Hopefully this will help someone else ... hacked drives wouldnt boot took me a long time pulling drive doing hack one step at a time... reinstalling drive reboot.. repeat.

to determine that my bootpage was the culprit and the serial port on the series 3 tivos is on PORT 1 not PORT 2 so the following bootpage that myself and probably many other past series 2 or tivo hackers are familiar with will Not boot at all

root=/dev/hda7 dsscon=true console=2,115200 upgradesoftware=false

make sure you set it to

root=/dev/hda7 dsscon=true console=1,115200 upgradesoftware=false

instead..

not I just need to get the damn cable company to get the pay channels working again on my cable cards..

[captain_video]

Hopefully this will help someone else ... hacked drives wouldnt boot took me a long time pulling drive doing hack one step at a time... reinstalling drive reboot.. repeat.

to determine that my bootpage was the culprit and the serial port on the series 3 tivos is on PORT 1 not PORT 2 so the following bootpage that myself and probably many other past series 2 or tivo hackers are familiar with will Not boot at all

root=/dev/hda7 dsscon=true console=2,115200 upgradesoftware=false

make sure you set it to

root=/dev/hda7 dsscon=true console=1,115200 upgradesoftware=false

instead..

not I just need to get the damn cable company to get the pay channels working again on my cable cards..

NillaZilla's thread on building a console cable covers the bootpage port issue here:

http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=53169

[lgkahn]

thanks i read that and that is how i found this out.. but thought it should be in this thread as it didn't specifically mention that the box wont even book if you have the wrong port in your bootparms..

also as a side note other people here have gotten comcast working with cable cards and pay channels on a hacked box correct?

just making sure it is only a coincidence that when I got the larger hacked drives in my 2 boxes no pay channels are working on the cablecards and not something to do with the hacking the kernel.. (other channels work fine) just not hbo/showtime/hbohd etc.

thanks in advance

re: this message in the logs.. makes me wonder if it knows we turned off encryption and hacked the kernel and that is why they are not working:


May 19 21:43:05 (none) Stats: 2008.04.02-1024 9.3a-01-2
May 19 21:43:05 (none) Stats: PROM version: TiVo/mips/Gen05C/rel version 3.16
May 19 21:43:05 (none) Stats: !! Computed SHA1 doesn't match stored SHA1 !! Computed SHA1: 0x25D6EF0AB77F0767BF8C43B52BFC1CDAC2372F92 Stored SHA1: 0x66DFBB8FD26C1F808EE364A1830B38E18AFA6AD3 File length: 87144 Stored length: 87144 Build type: TiVo/mips/Gen05C/rel Marked version: 3.16

[Jamie]

also as a side note other people here have gotten comcast working with cable cards and pay channels on a hacked box correct?

I have comcast with premium channels working with an S3 and cable cards. Took months to get comcast to provision the cable cards properly, and there are a still HD channels I should be getting but don't (The HD SciFi, for example).

I personally prefer to cleanup the startup scripts to suppress messages that reveal the presence of a hacked PROM.

[lgkahn]

do you have the modified startup scripts that you hacked.. thanks that would save me time because I know it uploads many of these logs to tivo..

also you don't have any contacts at comcast ie phone number that can be used as reference do you.. don't know if i am that patient damn

[Jamie]

do you have the modified startup scripts that you hacked.. thanks that would save me time because I know it uploads many of these logs to tivo..

Look at the LogSystemStats.sh script in the StageE startup directory.

also you don't have any contacts at comcast ie phone number that can be used as reference do you.. don't know if i am that patient damn

You'll need to deal with your local folks for provisioning the cable head-end, as far as I know.