Transfering files to the tivo with rz --tcp-server

[jgrills]

My tivo automatically removed my /var/hack directory tree recently, so I had to get all my files back over to it. My rc.sysinit.author file was still around so I had telnet access but that was all - no ftp, rsync, etc. I did some web searching and found that the tivo had rz (zmodem receive) but I just couldn't get it to work with any of the terminal programs I could find no matter how hard I tried. On a whim, I decided to try the --tcp-server option that is available on some versions of sz/rz and to my amazement it worked the even though it wasn't listed in the options when run with --help. The files I transfered using this method went across cleanly the very first time. I searched the web for "tivo rz --tcp-server" and didn't find any pages, so I thought I should post here and spread this knowledge.

A little more digging indicates that tivo is using lrzsz 0.12.20, which is available here: http://www.ohse.de/uwe/software/lrzsz.html

I hope this helps someone,

j

[Thinkdiff]

if you have busybox still on the drive (you should), netcat (nc) also works well. I believe the tivo might also come with a built in HTTP or FTP client.

Good to know rz works over TCP though. Thanks for the tip.

[jgrills]

I didn't have any executables other than what comes stock on the tivo - I had kept everything other than my rc.sysinit.author file in /var/hack. I do still need to look for a way to protect those files so this doesn't happen again. I'm sure someone out there has solved that problem nicely.

One really nice thing about TCP rz/sz is that it doesn't require a server to be set up to host the files you want to transfer.

j

[djl]

It's a little harder to set up with some programs (MFS_FTP comes to mind) but a lot of people keep their hacks in /hacks off of root rather than in /var. It defaults to r/o, which means you have to set the drive to r/w when you want to change or add something, but on the plus side everything is protected from being wiped. Also, the excellent TivoWebPlus 2.0 will determine if it's being launched from an r/o folder and will write its config files to /var/TWP if so.

I didn't have any executables other than what comes stock on the tivo - I had kept everything other than my rc.sysinit.author file in /var/hack. I do still need to look for a way to protect those files so this doesn't happen again. I'm sure someone out there has solved that problem nicely.

One really nice thing about TCP rz/sz is that it doesn't require a server to be set up to host the files you want to transfer.

j

[jgrills]

Thanks for the advice. I hadn't had a chance yet to research what other people thought was a good solution for this yet, but what you propose makes sense.

I think I might keep a /hack.cpio.gz archive and extract it into /var/hack every time at boot. I'll also keep that archive somewhere else too just in case I lose everything on the tivo - certainly faster than having to reinstall everything manually.

j

[jt1134]

I think I might keep a /hack.cpio.gz archive and extract it into /var/hack every time at boot.

Why every time you boot? Just put a conditional bit in a startup script. Here's what I use :

if [ ! -d /var/hack ]; then
   mkdir -p /var/hack 
   tar -xzf /varhacks.tgz -C /var/hack
fi

I put my hack backups and a spare kernel in hda2 and hda5, so the above is a little different, but you get the idea.

[Soapm]

It's a little harder to set up with some programs (MFS_FTP comes to mind) but a lot of people keep their hacks in /hacks off of root rather than in /var. It defaults to r/o, which means you have to set the drive to r/w when you want to change or add something, but on the plus side everything is protected from being wiped. Also, the excellent TivoWebPlus 2.0 will determine if it's being launched from an r/o folder and will write its config files to /var/TWP if so.

I used a script that I shouldn't mention here that put all my hacks in a directory called /enhancements/varhacks then it made symlinks to the /var directory so the drive doesn't have to be RW to make changes etc...