MFS Tools 2.0! An upgrade revolution!

Tiger · 06-15-2002, 01:34 PM

Announcing the release of MFS Tools 2.0!

MFS Tools 1.0 was evolutionary in the TiVo upgrade process. MFS Tools 2.0 may prove to be revolutionary.

Key features:

Seamless support for AT&T and Series 2 TiVo
When restoring a backup of an AT&T or Series 2 TiVo made with MFS Tools 2.0, no longer will it be necessary to give a flag to restore for it to get the byte order right. All Series 2 and AT&T TiVos can be worked on with the same ease afforded Series 1 TiVos, all completely seamlessly.
Upgrade a second time without losing recordings
It's all over the hack FAQ and the underground. You can only have TiVo upgrade with a blessed drive once. It is set in stone, if you want to upgrade again you lose recordings. Not anymore. Due to research into the workings of TiVo, MFS Tools is now able to upgrade a drive without having to bless it and rely on the TiVo software to upgrade it correctly. In fact, with MFS Tools 2.0, you can upgrade again and again, upgrading one drive up to 5 times (3 for some models)
Upgrade both drives on AT&T and Series 2 TiVo
Have an AT&T or Series 2 TiVo, and getting jealous of your friend with 344 hours, while you are stuck with a mere 200? Not anymore! Now Series 2 TiVos can be as large as Series 1! As far as MFS Tools treats them for upgrading, all TiVos are basically the same. There is no need to have a separate tool for standalone, DirecTiVo, and Series 2. One tool does it all.
Increase performance without sacrificing space
When you use MFS Tools 2.0 for all your upgrade needs, you do not need to worry about giving your TiVo extra RAM or swap (Though it never hurts) - MFS Tools is able to create the new MFS partitions in such a way as they use less RAM for the exact same space, making even a full 344 hour upgrade safe to perform without extra RAM or swap.

Download it directly ot as an ISO bootable image HERE! (Or from a mirror)

dsmdriver · 06-15-2002, 01:38 PM

Wow. Let me be the first to say thanks for all the hard work Tiger!

I do have a question though: I already have a Series 1 with a 60+80Gb setup. The menus are a bit slow when going into now playing. Is there any way for me to take advantage of the reduced RAM usage MFS model without loosing my recordings or would I need to start from scratch?

DCIFRTHS · 06-15-2002, 05:11 PM

Looking forward to using it. Thanks !!!

David Platt · 06-15-2002, 05:14 PM

I'm glad I followed my instincts and heeded the rumors that this was on tht horizon. I got my Outpost $109 120GB drive last week, but decided to hold off for a few weeks. Glad I waited!! Thanks for all the hard work, guys.

zaknafein · 06-15-2002, 05:17 PM

Tiger, you really do amazing work. Thanks again.

bdub · 06-15-2002, 05:56 PM

Drat! I should have waited just one more day! Now I've got a 300-hour TiVo with nothing to watch.

Oh, well. It's just TV.

Thanks, Tiger. You've made life great for tinkering couch potatoes everywhere!

David Platt · 06-15-2002, 05:58 PM

And, as an addendum to my previous post--

I've just complete the first (to my knowledge) non-beta upgrade using the new software. It was on a Philips DirecTivo running 2.5.2. I went from a 40GB/80GB config to a 120GB/80GB without a hitch, and still have all my shows. The whole process took about 3 1/2 hours; the majority of that time was wating on dd, as to be expected. I'm sure my upgrade time would have been much longer if I hadn't gone through and deleted all my suggestions first!

stormsweeper · 06-15-2002, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by dplatt
And, as an addendum to my previous post--

I've just complete the first (to my knowledge) non-beta upgrade using the new software. It was on a Philips DirecTivo running 2.5.2. I went from a 40GB/80GB config to a 120GB/80GB without a hitch, and still have all my shows. The whole process took about 3 1/2 hours; the majority of that time was wating on dd, as to be expected. I'm sure my upgrade time would have been much longer if I hadn't gone through and deleted all my suggestions first!

Nah, dd copies the whole drive no matter what.

MFSTools 2.0 rocks, guys. Oh yeah, and people w/ Sonys you don't need an 11 partition image anymore. Let my dual 80GB setup stand witness to that.

philhu · 06-15-2002, 07:11 PM

take it from a beta user!

It really! ROCKS!

I did a 30/60 to a 120/120 upgrade without losing programs!!!!!!

It is bulletproof!!!

phil

Mars · 06-15-2002, 07:54 PM

Will MFS Tools 2.0 work with TiVo's 3.0 software?

stormsweeper · 06-15-2002, 08:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mars
Will MFS Tools 2.0 work with TiVo's 3.0 software?

Yep.

idlepaw · 06-15-2002, 11:15 PM

Hi, just used this to upgrade by AT&T Tivo2. Noticed two mistakes though. First, in step 7, when mounting my windows c drive, I had to type "mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos" to get it to mount. Second, in step 8, you wrote, "Take (one of) your new drive(s) and set it’s jumpers to Master. Connect the drive to your secondary IDE channel to make it Secondary Slave." I think it should be "Secondary Master", not slave. Except for these two minor mistakes, everything worked great! Thanks!!!
Ben

David Platt · 06-15-2002, 11:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by stormsweeper

Nah, dd copies the whole drive no matter what.

Aaah... I had never paid much attention to how dd works, as I've never needed to use it before. I assumed the time of the backup was directly correlated to how many programs you have, not the size of the drive. Thanks for the info-- I won't bother deleting anything when I upgrade my Hughes!

Craftsman · 06-16-2002, 01:03 AM

You Da MAN !!!

One week ago I upgraded from a 1 drive TiVo series 2 60Gb, to a 60 + 120. The 60Gb A drive is really a 120Gb (using 60). I put in 2 120's. I was looking towards the future.

Well, guess what?

THE FUTURE IS HERE !

Thanks to you.

Very generous.

THANK YOU !

Now I just can't wait to 'swell' my A drive.

Worf · 06-16-2002, 01:43 AM

Wow, now that's cool. Now I can stop worrying what to do when my 90-hour TiVo (single 80GB drive) is full

. I wanted to use a 120GB drive, but had problems... now I guess I can easily add it to my TiVo if I need to. yay!.

kenr · 06-16-2002, 02:08 AM

I have a DSR6000 with 2 80 GB drives.

The A drive is a mirror image of the original A drive (only 40 GB of it is used), the B drive was blessed and is used entirely.

Can the new mfstools expand my A drive to use the entire 80 GB and retain all recordings?

(I did this upgrade originally before TiVoMad supported the DTiVo)

DCIFRTHS · 06-16-2002, 04:45 AM

The FAQ says:

Q. How confident can I be in the backup made?

A. As confident as you want. Feel free to test the backup before doing anything to your source drive. In fact, I encourage you to test your backup. There are a few instances I am still a little uncertain about. Besides, it only takes a few minutes to test.

My Question: Can you please be more specific when you say: "There are a few instances I am still a little uncertain about".

The FAQ says:

When you use MFS Tools 2.0 for all your upgrade needs, you do not need to worry about giving your TiVo extra RAM or swap (Though it never hurts) – MFS Tools is able to create the new MFS partitions in such a way as they use less RAM for the exact same space, making even a full 344 hour upgrade safe to perform without extra RAM or swap.

My questions:

1) When I run MFS Tools 2, is there a way to specify more swap space, or is this handled automatically by the tools?

2) If Ithere is a way topo add more swap space, and I don't do it, what will the downside be? For example, will TiVo still be able to do a repair if necessary?

Thanks

stormsweeper · 06-16-2002, 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by DCIFRTHS

1) When I run MFS Tools 2, is there a way to specify more swap space, or is this handled automatically by the tools?

During a restore, there is a flag you can pass to set the size of your swap space. Check the restore options in the readme. This is NOT a new option to MFS Tools, btw.

DCIFRTHS · 06-16-2002, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by stormsweeper

During a restore, there is a flag you can pass to set the size of your swap space. Check the restore options in the readme. This is NOT a new option to MFS Tools, btw.

I should have asked if it is advisable (a good idea) to add more swap space with the new set of tools. I will be using two 120 GIG drives in a series 2, and I am unclear as to whether the default restore (not specifying a swap size) will actually create a sufficient swap file to run a self repair.

I want to set it up so that there is enough room to do the self repair. In addition, I'm not confident as to what size swap I should choose if I am "required" to specify this value.

I thought it was a new feature because one of the readme states:

MFS Tools 2.0 New Features
MFS Tools 1.0 was evolutionary in the TiVo upgrade process. MFS Tools 2.0 may prove to be revolutionary.

- Increase performance without sacrificing space
When you use MFS Tools 2.0 for all your upgrade needs, you do not need to worry about giving your TiVo extra RAM or swap (Though it never hurts) – MFS Tools is able to create the new MFS partitions in such a way as they use less RAM for the exact same space, making even a full 344 hour upgrade safe to perform without extra RAM or swap.

NeZorf · 06-16-2002, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by dsmdriver
I do have a question though: I already have a Series 1 with a 60+80Gb setup. The menus are a bit slow when going into now playing. Is there any way for me to take advantage of the reduced RAM usage MFS model without loosing my recordings or would I need to start from scratch?

Does anyone have any insight if using MFS 2.0 improves the menu speed when there are lots of programs in NP?

Any tips for dual 120+giggers?

Tiger · 06-16-2002, 06:54 PM

Wow, my very own pinned topic!

To answer a few questions...

dsmdriver,
You would need to start over. I do not, however, know if it really makes a difference in the menu speed and such. The only 100% known difference is if it has a green screen, without reducing RAM usage or increasing RAM or swap, it would not be able to complete.

dplatt,
Sorry to disappoint you. To test the floppy image on the final release version of the CD, I upgraded my live TiVo (DirecTV) from 80+80 to 120+120. So depending on how you look at it, that could be considered non-beta.

And if you want me to get really technical, I upgraded it to 80+80 in the first place a year ago using the same code that is in the new software, long before it was beta. (The upgrade code has actually been in there since way before even 1.0.. I just needed to make an interface for it)

Idlepaw, thanks.

I'd be amazed if thats the only mistake though.

kenr,
It can do that without even breaking a sweat. Just pop the drives into your PC on the primary IDE channel, boot off the CD, and run

Code:

mfsadd -x /dev/hda /dev/hdb

and less than a second later when it finishes, shutdown and pop em back into your TiVo. Total time: 5-10 minutes, most of which spent taking the drives out and putting them back.

DCIFRTHT,
I should probably change that FAQ item. The few instances referred to are from 1.0 - I had one report of the reboot loop problem back then (Since 2.5 is the one with the problem and it was only in beta) so figured it was an isolated thing. But because I was not sure, I left that comment in. It turned out not to be an isolated problem, and with the release of 2.5, I got sent a problemed backup, figured it out, and released MFS Tools 1.1 to fix it.

It is never a bad idea to add more swap space. However, I am using 2x120 in my combo without increasing the swap. But I upgraded it to 80x80 with the memory saving feature originally. If I you are upgrading a system that was upgraded with bless or with TiVoMad, it would be advisable to make swap something more like 128 megs. You don't need to specify the value, it assumes 64 megs if you do not.

As to the readme, it has nothing to do with the swap size creation, it just says it is not required for making the larger upgrades safer.

Agent86 · 06-16-2002, 09:00 PM

For anyone wondering, I upgraded a 40/120 Series2 AT&TiVo to 120/120. No loss of recordings, and I've got 306 hours now!

Though, one word of warning, it did take 2-3 hours to dd the old A drive to the new one.

I didn't do anything with my swap file, and it seems to be running fine.

Tiger, should I be worried about the swap at all?

- Agent 86

Tiger · 06-16-2002, 09:18 PM

Probably not. The big problem comes with Series 1, which only had 16mb of RAM. The problem occurred somewhere between 120 and 160gb. With what you have, you have the same memory requirements as 180gb w/o the extra savings MFS Tools does. (That is 120+40 for the original, then an additional 80 / 4 for the new stuff) With the extra RAM of the series 2, I don't think you will have to worry.

DCIFRTHS · 06-16-2002, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tiger
Wow, my very own pinned topic!

If I you are upgrading a system that was upgraded with bless or with TiVoMad, it would be advisable to make swap something more like 128 megs. You don't need to specify the value, it assumes 64 megs if you do not.

I am upgrading a unmodified factory fresh Series 2 using 2x120 GIG drives . What would you suggest for the swap size so the self repair will run with no problems?

Tiger · 06-16-2002, 09:29 PM

In that case, as the head post says "No change in swap size needed if you use MFS Tools for all your upgrade needs". You don't need to worry about extra swap at all.

Tiger · 06-16-2002, 09:40 PM

BTW, if anyone wants to mirror this and post a link, feel free, I'll add it to the main post as a mirror.

DCIFRTHS · 06-16-2002, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tiger
In that case, as the head post says "No change in swap size needed if you use MFS Tools for all your upgrade needs". You don't need to worry about extra swap at all.

I think it's the "(Though it never hurts)" after the line above that has made me paranoid....

If I do add swap, do you have a suggestion as to the size I should use with 2x120 GIG drives?

Thanks!

Tiger · 06-16-2002, 09:44 PM

Though it never hurts means exactly that.. Nothing ill will come from using more swap. I would not worry about increasing the swap size with that config. I am using 2x120 in my combo now with no extra swap.

bidger · 06-16-2002, 09:47 PM

Well, I downloaded the .iso image for the boot CD, burned it per instructions, then printed out the instructions. I was looking at doing the upgrade yesterday, but I noticed my SA took a long time during it's daily call. Sure enough I checked SI and saw "Pending Restart", so I put the upgrade off til today. Everything went smoothly and when I added the 80G Maxtor it said I'd added 88hrs at basic. Cool! Only problem is when I hook it up it does the "Starting Up...almost there" loop. I've tried every jumper config. & I'm at a loss. Do I need to add a jumper to the original drive for "Master enabled" as opposed to "Master". I'm not buying another Maxtor. They make this whole jumper situation too complicated.

DCIFRTHS · 06-16-2002, 09:47 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tiger
Though it never hurts means exactly that.. Nothing ill will come from using more swap. I would not worry about increasing the swap size with that config. I am using 2x120 in my combo now with no extra swap.

Cool. Thanks again.