rc.sysinit - tivo won't boot

SpicyHedgehog · 06-18-2004, 12:09 PM

Hi All

I've been a bit silly and edited the rc.sysinit file with windows. Is anybody able to help me recover it?

I'm lost without the tivo and don't want to loose my recorded programmes.

Thanks

Glen

Robert S · 06-18-2004, 12:28 PM

Two things tend to happen when you do that. One is that the 'executable' flag tends to get reset. You can fix that with "chmod +x /mnt/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit".

The other thing is that DOS-style line-terminations replace the Unix-style ones that sh is expecting. I don't have the solution to hand, but it's such a common on that a few minutes with Google should turn it up. I would think sed would be the tool to use.

SpicyHedgehog · 06-18-2004, 12:40 PM

Hi Robert

The problem is I don't know how to mount the drive to get access to it in my PC.

I'll have a look for SED.

Is there anyone that can fix my drive? I'll post it if neccessary.

Thanks

Glen

Robert S · 06-18-2004, 12:53 PM

Just boot Kazymyr's CD with the TiVo drive on secondary master. Then you can do:

mount /dev/hdc4 /mnt

If that fails, or mounts your inactive root partition, you might have to mount hdc7 instead. Most UK TiVoes went from 1.5.1 to 2.5.5, so you should be on partition 4. If you had 1.5.2 or got 2.5.5a (but not both), then partition 7 will be the active one.

You can check the permissions with

ls -l /mnt/etc/rc.d/

The permissions for rc.sysinit should look something like

-rwxr-xr-x

If the x's are missing, run the chmod command.

And that would be 'sed' and not 'SED' - Unix is case-sensitive.

The sed command will be a pattern of more-or-less random characters.

iankb · 06-18-2004, 01:09 PM

Whatever you do, don't boot into Windows NT, 2000, or XP with your TiVo drive attached. That will corrupt the drive for TiVo and require a complete restore from a backup image.

SpicyHedgehog · 06-18-2004, 04:23 PM

Hi All

Thanks very much for the help. My TiVo now has a smile on his little face again.

Lesson learnt this end.... don't try and shortcut in windows.

Cheers,

Glen

threadkiller · 06-19-2004, 04:51 AM

the lesson should be don't edit the rc.sysinit file, only the rc.sysinit.author. and if you use sandertons Tivoweb app, then even thats a doddle

Megabyte · 07-17-2004, 06:41 AM

If someone can help me, please do

Mike B · 07-17-2004, 07:28 AM

You've deleted the rc.sysinit file? Which partition did you delete it from?

threadkiller · 07-17-2004, 07:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Megabyte
If someone can help me, please do

which file?????

Megabyte · 07-17-2004, 09:38 AM

I deleted the rc.sysinit file from ftp. I cant believe I was being that careless but nevertheless its gone. It was deleted from the active partition. I tried using the one from the inactive partition and the tivo just reboots before it switches to alomost there.

Can someone send me that file for a ver 3 system. It not model specific, right? Maybe just version because apperantly the one in the inactive directory is not working. PLEASE, PLEASE Help.

Also my backup disk seems to be empty, blank....no partitions on it. Its been in my closet for 4 years.

I think I could save my system if I get the exact matching file that I had. Any input from you guy would really be help helpful.

If you want to email me the file, send it to jpuma@verizon.net'

Thanks,
Joe

Robert S · 07-17-2004, 09:46 AM

After you copied the file from the inactive partition, did you chmod it to make it executable?

It's unlikely your old disk is blank. Remember you need to boot a byteswapping disk like Dylan or Kazymyr with the drive connected to something other than primary master.

iankb · 07-17-2004, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Megabyte
Can someone send me that file for a ver 3 system.

If you want a version 3 file, you're asking on the wrong forum. We only have version 2.5.5 in the UK. However, I doubt that there is any real difference.

sanderton · 07-17-2004, 11:33 AM

Oh it's different all right - rc.sysinit loads the PAL drivers!

iankb · 07-17-2004, 11:44 AM

PAL = 3 letters, NTSC = 4 letters. Only 1 letter different then.

Megabyte · 07-17-2004, 03:40 PM

I did the chmod 755 on the file. Still keeps rebooting just as it want to switch to almost there. Could there be hdd corruption? isnt there a log I can check to see whats going on?

as for the 3.0 file, I didnt think this board was uk ony, is it? where can I go to ask for this type of file?

I will try the hdd restore again. I have a 6 digit code written on the drive. i cant remember why i put it there. all I know is when i tried to mount the partition it couldnt find anything.

anymore suggestions? other than restore?

Robert S · 07-17-2004, 04:40 PM

Did you copy the file to Windows before you deleted it off the TiVo? If so, the transfer converts the line terminations from the Unix-style CR's to DOS-style CR-LF's and it will need converting back before it will run as a Unix script.

When you say 'backup disk' do you mean a working A drive or a disk with an MFS Tools backup on it?

The title of this part of the site - TiVo UK - is a hint that you should expect to see posts from British TiVo owners here. I would have posted this in the Underground.

mike0151 · 07-17-2004, 07:00 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Robert S
Two things tend to happen when you do that. One is that the 'executable' flag tends to get reset. You can fix that with "chmod +x /mnt/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit".

The other thing is that DOS-style line-terminations replace the Unix-style ones that sh is expecting. I don't have the solution to hand, but it's such a common on that a few minutes with Google should turn it up. I would think sed would be the tool to use.

IIRC dos2unix.exe is the little beasty that strips off the nasty DOS bits.

Megabyte · 07-17-2004, 07:19 PM

Didn't edit the file on my pc. Just moved it to floppy and then to tivo. You can if a file is edited on the pc when you see blue M's in the joe editor, right.

sorry didn't know I posted in this uk forum, I actually replied to the original post since I found it in a search.

mike0151 · 07-17-2004, 07:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Megabyte
Didn't edit the file on my pc. Just moved it to floppy and then to tivo. You can if a file is edited on the pc when you see blue M's in the joe editor, right.

sorry didn't know I posted in this uk forum, I actually replied to the original post since I found it in a search.

When you ftp the file to your TiVo did you make sure you did it in binary mode? Ascii mode will generally cause problems due (I believe) to some flakiness with the tivo ftp prog.

HTH

Mike

sanderton · 07-18-2004, 07:28 AM

ASCII mode will do the line end mess up trick too.

viperware · 01-24-2006, 01:58 AM

Thanks for this thread, it revived my tivo in no time. i did the exact same thing... gettin all fancy with my modules, I got cocky and thought I'd get my stuff to auto boot and did the same exact thing. Thanks for the fix mates!
-viperware-