Please help ... with Series2

[rmedure]

Some years ago I stopped hacking my Tivo and quite frankly don't use it much (it's in a spare bedroom for guest use). I'm pretty sure that at that time I let it take an upgrade from Tivo. I thought that this should overwrite all of my hacks and go back to stock. But lately I've noticed that the system seems to be stuck on version 7.3 and I believe it should go to 9.3. Furthermore it won't take guide data.

I tried to see if FTP or telnet still work to this machine but it doesn't. So I expect that it did in fact take an upgrade (I believe from 7.1 to 7.3). But has not since. When I force it to connect to Tivo, it doesn't download anything (I assume it finds that something is already downloaded and waiting to install?) and it has a pending restart - but the new software never loads. Is it possible that for some reason it was only able to flip once? Is there an easy way to get in there and and maybe set upgradesoftware=true without rehacking it?

Any help would be appreciated.

[crashHD]

If you do not have telnet access, you will have to pull the drive to check bootpage status, although if the bootpage status has upgradesoftware=false, there is no way it could have taken an automatic update. If you manually call for an update from the command line, it will override that, but I have never heard of an automatic upgrade overriding the bootpage parameters.

[rmedure]

Thanks for the response. I mis-spoke above ... apparently it took an upgrade from 7.2 up to 8.3. I will pull the drive and check bootpage status.

How do I manually call for an update from the "command line". I don't have bash access and if I pull the drive, I will not have a tivo command line right? Anything else you can recommend I try while the drive is out?

[crashHD]

command line = telnet, a.k.a. bash access

you have to find the upgrade command, and run it manually. I think the command is usually /tvbin/installSw.itcl. If you run the command, with the version you wish to install as a command parameter, it will install that version, if the software slices for that version are present in MFS. Unless countermeasures are taken, this will negate any hacks on the system.

[rmedure]

I was able to "fix" the bootpage using winmfs.exe. It successfully took the 9.3 update that was apparently sitting there. But now, whenever I push the guide button, the Tivo restarts? Anybody have a clue what that's about?