The Inevitable
12-04-2006, 05:43 PM
I finally got around to updating my SAT-T60 to v3.5 and, at the same time, adding a 500GB drive to the 250GB drive that I already had in there. Unfortunately, now my TiVo is running off of my original 40GB drive instead of enjoying 750GB of recording capacity and a new software upgrade :( .
Let me start at the beginning of what I've done thus far:
I plugged my phone cable into the TiVo and did a manual daily call. After the call was complete, it said "Pending Restart" and I immediately powered-down my TiVo and took it apart.
Using Hinsdale's How-To, I downloaded the "MFSLBA48" image (from the link in the How-To), booted from it, created a backup using mfsbackup, and then I used mfsadd on my 250GB and 500GB drives.
Next, using PTV's 4.04 LBA48 CD, I ran "copykern", which failed the first time because it couldn't find "/cdrom". So I mounted the CD using "mountcd" and re-ran "copykern" and updated my kernel to "3.1.0+" successfully.
Then, I booted from SiliconDust's "nic_cd_lba48_20050218.iso" CD and ran "/nic_install/nic_install cachecard", which installed successfully. It did not ask to disable killinitrd, and I didn't run tivoflash at this time.
I then proceeded to put my drives back into my TiVo. When I powered it on, it got stuck at "Welcome. Powering up..." indefinitely. I first thought it was because I didn't run tivoflash, so I went back and ran tivoflash; I still encountered the same problem. So I decided to copy my original kernel back using tpip -s -o /mnt/dos/tivo/kernel.35 -k /mnt/dos/tivo/kernel_1.orig /dev/hdc . I tried to boot my TiVo again, and it got stuck at the same place; however, when I disconnected Drive B (the 500GB HD), it seemed to boot without incident. After learning that, I re-applied the 3.1.0+ kernel and booted the TiVo without the 2nd HD attached, which still got stuck at the "Welcome. Powering up..." screen.
After that, I just wanted a working TiVo (with or without the extra HD), so I re-applied my original kernel back using the above command (minus the -o section). Unfortunately, even with my original kernel and without the 2nd HD attached, my TiVo started rebooting constantly at the "Welcome. Powering up..." screen. :/
I couldn't think of anything else to try, so I re-installed the original CacheCard drivers that I had before the update (version 20041218) and then used mfsrestore -zpi /mnt/dos/tivo/tivo_min.back /dev/hdc to restore my backup image to my TiVo. When I powered it up, I got past the "Welcome. Powering up.." screen and the TiVo said that it was installing the new update, and, a little while after that, it rebooted. Then i got the "Updating Database. This will take a long time..." screen, and, a while later, it rebooted. Fortunately, it no longer was constantly rebooting at the "Welcome. Powering up..." screen; instead, after the update, it was constantly rebooting at the "Almost there..." screen before it ever got to the CacheCard screen. :/
Thinking it was a driver issue with the CacheCard, I installed the latest CacheCard drivers (version 20050218). It asked to disable killinitrd, and I said yes, and the drivers installed successfully (I did not run tivoflash again this time). I put the drive back in the TiVo, and now the TiVo does the following: Gets past the "Welcome. Powering up..." screen, goes into the "Almost there..." screen, goes into the CacheCard Writing/Reading/Caching screens, goes back to the "Almost there..." screen, and, 10-20 seconds later, it reboots. It then goes through the cycle again and again. :cry:
The only thing I haven't done yet is install the LBA48 patch again, but I don't think that will help if its not booting with the official kernel.
Can anyone please help? I still have shows on my TiVo that I haven't watched yet and I don't want to lose them by starting over. Is there a way I can look at some logs to try to determine at what point its failing? Has someone else encountered a problem like this and has found a solution? Or does anyone know of some other things I can try to get my beloved TiVo working again?
As a last resort, is there a way I can restore my mfsbackup image and then modify my system to not install 3.5 when it boots up again? Or copy my original 40GB HD's system files (which is v3.1.0c2, same as before my update to 3.5) over to my 250GB TiVo HD without losing my recordings?
Thanks a whole bunch in advance!
Let me start at the beginning of what I've done thus far:
I plugged my phone cable into the TiVo and did a manual daily call. After the call was complete, it said "Pending Restart" and I immediately powered-down my TiVo and took it apart.
Using Hinsdale's How-To, I downloaded the "MFSLBA48" image (from the link in the How-To), booted from it, created a backup using mfsbackup, and then I used mfsadd on my 250GB and 500GB drives.
Next, using PTV's 4.04 LBA48 CD, I ran "copykern", which failed the first time because it couldn't find "/cdrom". So I mounted the CD using "mountcd" and re-ran "copykern" and updated my kernel to "3.1.0+" successfully.
Then, I booted from SiliconDust's "nic_cd_lba48_20050218.iso" CD and ran "/nic_install/nic_install cachecard", which installed successfully. It did not ask to disable killinitrd, and I didn't run tivoflash at this time.
I then proceeded to put my drives back into my TiVo. When I powered it on, it got stuck at "Welcome. Powering up..." indefinitely. I first thought it was because I didn't run tivoflash, so I went back and ran tivoflash; I still encountered the same problem. So I decided to copy my original kernel back using tpip -s -o /mnt/dos/tivo/kernel.35 -k /mnt/dos/tivo/kernel_1.orig /dev/hdc . I tried to boot my TiVo again, and it got stuck at the same place; however, when I disconnected Drive B (the 500GB HD), it seemed to boot without incident. After learning that, I re-applied the 3.1.0+ kernel and booted the TiVo without the 2nd HD attached, which still got stuck at the "Welcome. Powering up..." screen.
After that, I just wanted a working TiVo (with or without the extra HD), so I re-applied my original kernel back using the above command (minus the -o section). Unfortunately, even with my original kernel and without the 2nd HD attached, my TiVo started rebooting constantly at the "Welcome. Powering up..." screen. :/
I couldn't think of anything else to try, so I re-installed the original CacheCard drivers that I had before the update (version 20041218) and then used mfsrestore -zpi /mnt/dos/tivo/tivo_min.back /dev/hdc to restore my backup image to my TiVo. When I powered it up, I got past the "Welcome. Powering up.." screen and the TiVo said that it was installing the new update, and, a little while after that, it rebooted. Then i got the "Updating Database. This will take a long time..." screen, and, a while later, it rebooted. Fortunately, it no longer was constantly rebooting at the "Welcome. Powering up..." screen; instead, after the update, it was constantly rebooting at the "Almost there..." screen before it ever got to the CacheCard screen. :/
Thinking it was a driver issue with the CacheCard, I installed the latest CacheCard drivers (version 20050218). It asked to disable killinitrd, and I said yes, and the drivers installed successfully (I did not run tivoflash again this time). I put the drive back in the TiVo, and now the TiVo does the following: Gets past the "Welcome. Powering up..." screen, goes into the "Almost there..." screen, goes into the CacheCard Writing/Reading/Caching screens, goes back to the "Almost there..." screen, and, 10-20 seconds later, it reboots. It then goes through the cycle again and again. :cry:
The only thing I haven't done yet is install the LBA48 patch again, but I don't think that will help if its not booting with the official kernel.
Can anyone please help? I still have shows on my TiVo that I haven't watched yet and I don't want to lose them by starting over. Is there a way I can look at some logs to try to determine at what point its failing? Has someone else encountered a problem like this and has found a solution? Or does anyone know of some other things I can try to get my beloved TiVo working again?
As a last resort, is there a way I can restore my mfsbackup image and then modify my system to not install 3.5 when it boots up again? Or copy my original 40GB HD's system files (which is v3.1.0c2, same as before my update to 3.5) over to my 250GB TiVo HD without losing my recordings?
Thanks a whole bunch in advance!