Restoring a drive back to "normal"

[Wilhite]

I have a DTivo that the Zipper process has gone wrong on. If I hook up a serial cable to the unit, I see a bunch of "buffer overruns" and other stuff going on. It takes several hours for the unit to restart - about an hour at the initial acquiring data from satellite screen and then another several hours for it to get guide data. Once it has completed the boot process, everything works ok. I've tried to re-Zipper without success.

However, I've pretty much decided that I'm ok with returning this unit to the default software that comes from DirecTV and Tivo (unless someone has a fix for the issues described above).

The catch - I want to make sure I keep the shows recorded on the drive.

So... can I Instant Cake the drive to return it to an "official" version of software and keep the shows? Is there some other way of doing this or am I hosed completely and have to start from scratch?

Any advice and/or direction will be appreciated.

[JWThiers]

What version of the OS are you using? If you didn't upgrade to 6.2a then you could let the upgrade happen and that would fix the problem. But DO NOT use InstantCake if you want to keep the recordings.

[Wilhite]

It's running 6.2a.

[JWThiers]

I've never done it so I don't know exactly how, but a little more searching on your part should find an answer. I THINK you could swap active boot partitions, this would get you back to a hacked 6.2. After that allow the upgrade from 6.2 to 6.2a. There are 2 changes you have to make in the hacked 6.2. first comment out the route commands in the author file and then (i'm not sure where it is) change the allow updates flag. Hope this helps some.

[captain_video]

The command you're looking for is "upgradesoftware=false" and it's located in the bootpage. Most of the time you can't simply swap active partitions because some software upgrades make changes to mfs that will still be there even after you switch partitions and could render the Tivo unusable. However, switching from 6.2a back to 6.2 may not pose much of a risk. You can swap the partitions by changing the "root=hdax" command in the bootpage, where hdax will be either hda4 or hda7. Read up on using the bootpage command that comes with most Linux boot CDs (i.e., MFSTools) to understand the syntax required.

[JWThiers]

That was the command, I had to work a 12 hour shift and my mind was a bit fuzzy. I didn't think that swapping back to 6.2 just to have it upgrade back to 6.2a "Unhacked" would pose much of a risk in this case. Thanks for the help

[tnedator]

Ok, I have an HR10-250 that is on software version 6.3d. it was zippered back at 3.5f (I think) and then I used the slicer to do all the updates since. I would like to revert it to stock, but keep the recordings.

Do I simply have to change "upgradesoftware=false" to "upgradesoftware=true" and then the next upgrade (6.3e??) will overwrite the hacked with a non-hacked OS, or is there more to it?

[Da Goon]

Do I simply have to change "upgradesoftware=false" to "upgradesoftware=true" and then the next upgrade (6.3e??) will overwrite the hacked with a non-hacked OS, or is there more to it?
Basically yes. You'll need to connect a phone line also, so that the tivo gets the "OK" to install the new software. When it reboots afterwards, and the upgradesoftware flag isn't set to false anymore, then it will install the new software on your alternate partition pair.

[tnedator]

Basically yes. You'll need to connect a phone line also, so that the tivo gets the "OK" to install the new software. When it reboots afterwards, and the upgradesoftware flag isn't set to false anymore, then it will install the new software on your alternate partition pair.

Just to make sure I am clear, since I have zippered a few and even edited the author file, etc., but have typically followed instructions, rather than becoming a Linux/Tivo wiz.

The Tivo has two partitions (4 and 7 or something like that). At any given time, one of those is active. If I change upgradesoftware=true and make a phone call, it should authorize an upgrade, install the latest software (assuming there is a later one ready, such as 6.3e) on the alternate partition, copy my recordings across, restart on the alternate partition. At that point, will it be the same as a virgin Tivo, but still with my season passes and recordings?

Also, I think my box is setup to allow phone calls to be made, but is there anything I have to check to make sure it is properly making phone calls?

Also, is the upgradesoftware flag in the authors file? Can you give me an exact name/path?

thanks

[JWThiers]

Just to make sure I am clear, since I have zippered a few and even edited the author file, etc., but have typically followed instructions, rather than becoming a Linux/Tivo wiz.

The Tivo has two partitions (4 and 7 or something like that). At any given time, one of those is active. If I change upgradesoftware=true and make a phone call, it should authorize an upgrade, install the latest software (assuming there is a later one ready, such as 6.3e) on the alternate partition, copy my recordings across, restart on the alternate partition. At that point, will it be the same as a virgin Tivo, but still with my season passes and recordings?

Also, I think my box is setup to allow phone calls to be made, but is there anything I have to check to make sure it is properly making phone calls?

Also, is the upgradesoftware flag in the authors file? Can you give me an exact name/path?

thanks
More or less right. The recordings are on their own separate partitions, so there is nothing to "copy across" in terms of recordings (Although I'm pretty sure it copies some system configuration files) and a Virgin image"implies (to me anyway) nothing setup at all. Just like out of the box with no information about zip codes, area codes, dialing settings, etc. A more accurate description would be unhacked.

[tnedator]

More or less right. The recordings are on their own separate partitions, so there is nothing to "copy across" in terms of recordings (Although I'm pretty sure it copies some system configuration files) and a Virgin image"implies (to me anyway) nothing setup at all. Just like out of the box with no information about zip codes, area codes, dialing settings, etc. A more accurate description would be unhacked.

Thanks, and correct on terminology, unhacked.

Is the upgradesoftware flag in bootpage or author? I read elsewhere that it is in bootpage (although I can't find the directory it is in) and that you should also rename the Author.int (??) file before allowing it to upgrade.

I am replacing one of my 10-250's with an HR20 and will either move it to another part of the house, or give to a friend, and I want to keep the recordings for now, but get it where it starts auto-updating as revisions are released.

[BTUx9]

the flag is in THE bootpage... it isn't a directory, it's the first sector on the hard drive... you use the "bootpage" executable to examine/modify that info

re: system files, all unhacked tivos running the same s/w should have the same info in their root partition (with the minor exception of /etc/fstab which is different depending if you're running from part 4 or 7)... ALL dynamic info is in the MFS partitions.

[tnedator]

the flag is in THE bootpage... it isn't a directory, it's the first sector on the hard drive... you use the "bootpage" executable to examine/modify that info

re: system files, all unhacked tivos running the same s/w should have the same info in their root partition (with the minor exception of /etc/fstab which is different depending if you're running from part 4 or 7)... ALL dynamic info is in the MFS partitions.

Ok, I just figured out part of my confusion. I was getting the upgradesoftware flag confused with the debug_board=false flag that is in rc.sysinit. I have had to change that debug_board flag in the past based on instructions on Tivocommunity. That was a simply file edit.

I am completely lost on how to change that setting with the bootpage executable. I have been searching in the forum, and I have found instructions on how to change the active partition, but I can't find the command line syntax to change the upgradesoftware flag.

can you point me in the right direction?

thanks

[tnedator]

bootpage -p returns:

No device name given, assuming /dev/hda
root=/dev/hda4 dsscon=true console=2,115200 upgradesoftware=false

I think I need to use the bootpage -P command, but I am not sure what I do after that. Is it:

bootpage -P "root=/dev/hda4 dsscon=true console=2,115200 upgradesoftware=true"
or
bootpage -P "root=/dev/hda4 dsscon=true console=2,115200"

Is either of the above what I need to do? Do I need to modify the upgradesoftware flay on both hda4 and the alternate partition (hda7?)

[BTUx9]

bootpage -p returns:

No device name given, assuming /dev/hda
root=/dev/hda4 dsscon=true console=2,115200 upgradesoftware=false

I think I need to use the bootpage -P command, but I am not sure what I do after that. Is it:

bootpage -P "root=/dev/hda4 dsscon=true console=2,115200 upgradesoftware=true"
or
bootpage -P "root=/dev/hda4 dsscon=true console=2,115200"

Is either of the above what I need to do? Do I need to modify the upgradesoftware flay on both hda4 and the alternate partition (hda7?)
both would probably work, the 2nd is easier

as I said, the flag isn't per partition... there is only one place to change it

[tnedator]

both would probably work, the 2nd is easier

as I said, the flag isn't per partition... there is only one place to change it

Sorry, I am completely (or nearly) Linux dumb.

when I saw the bootpage -P "root=/dev/hda4 , I thought that meant it was editing the flag for hda4. Looking at it again and based on what you are saying, this is instead indicating that the boot partition is hda4. After a software update, it probably changes to root=/dev/hda7, so that the box boots off of the hda7 partition. Is that correct?

As to the other stuff. Doing the edit without the upgradesoftware will just overwrite the bootpage paramaters so that if I ran bootpage -p, it would look like:

root=/dev/hda4 dsscon=true console=2,115200 upgradesoftware=false

Is that right? If I am attempting to let it do the upgrade and become an unhacked box, do I leave dsscon=true and console=2,115200? I am not sure what those two things are.

[BTUx9]

when I saw the bootpage -P "root=/dev/hda4 , I thought that meant it was editing the flag for hda4. Looking at it again and based on what you are saying, this is instead indicating that the boot partition is hda4. After a software update, it probably changes to root=/dev/hda7, so that the box boots off of the hda7 partition. Is that correct?completely

As to the other stuff. Doing the edit without the upgradesoftware will just overwrite the bootpage paramaters so that if I ran bootpage -p, it would look like:

root=/dev/hda4 dsscon=true console=2,115200 upgradesoftware=false

Is that right? If I am attempting to let it do the upgrade and become an unhacked box, do I leave dsscon=true and console=2,115200? I am not sure what those two things are.
the -p flag reads, and the -P flag overwrites, correct

don't worry about the dsscon and console flags... they just set up the serial port... you can safely remove them if you want

[tnedator]

the -p flag reads, and the -P flag overwrites, correct

don't worry about the dsscon and console flags... they just set up the serial port... you can safely remove them if you want

Ok, then for purposes of what I am trying to do, I could simply issue this command:

bootpage -P "root=/dev/hda4"

Reboot, make a daily call, reboot and it should install 6.3e?

[Da Goon]

bootpage -P "root=/dev/hda4" /dev/hda