GSOD Loop Series 1 w/127MB swap--possible causes?

1256 Views 10 Replies 3 Participants Last post by unitron, Jan 9, 2012

sskraly

Discussion Starter · Jan 4, 2012

I have a Series 1 (HDR112) which I upgraded with a 320GB WD several years
ago using Hinsdale/MFStools (don't remember which version). After a recent power outage in the area, the Tivo (which is on an APC surge protector) came
back in a GSOD loop (less than one minujte cycle time). I ran WD Extended Diags--no errors. Booted MFSLive1.4 and pdisk says that my swap is 127MB.

mfsinfo showed somewhere around 300GB in total MFS partitions but I thought Tivo S1 was limited to 274GB--does this mean that I used the LBA48 kernel to do my original upgrade (was too long ago to remember)?

Bottom line--anyone have any ideas what the problem is and if there is any way to fix it (ideally preserving recordings, but I'll take whatever I can get)?

Thanks!
Sam

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sskraly

Discussion Starter · #2 · Jan 5, 2012

OK, my memory is slowing returning; I think I probably used MFSTools (not sure which version) with an LBA48 kernel and did a copykern.

I'm wondering why I only have a 127MB swap? Perhaps at the time of the upgrade there wasn't an easy way to do >127MB? In any case, I see that copykern now initializes >127MB swap partitions, so I should be able to use that.

Would this work (or is there any way to save my current drive?):

1) Backup my (presumably corrupt) 320GB drive
2) Restore to a new drive 320GB or greater, making swap >160MB
3) Use copykern to initialize the larger swap

Thanks,
Sam

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unitron

· #3 · Jan 5, 2012

sskraly said:
OK, my memory is slowing returning; I think I probably used MFSTools (not sure which version) with an LBA48 kernel and did a copykern.

I'm wondering why I only have a 127MB swap? Perhaps at the time of the upgrade there wasn't an easy way to do >127MB? In any case, I see that copykern now initializes >127MB swap partitions, so I should be able to use that.

Would this work (or is there any way to save my current drive?):

1) Backup my (presumably corrupt) 320GB drive
2) Restore to a new drive 320GB or greater, making swap >160MB
3) Use copykern to initialize the larger swap

Thanks,
Sam

Boot with MFS Live again and do

mfsinfo /dev/hda

where hda is the TiVo drive

If it's hooked up as hdb or hdc or hdd, adjust command line as necessary.

If you get a "volume header checksum error" or something like that, you're probably screwed as far as any existing recordings.

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Copykern would have been on a cd from PVRupgrade (now known as DVRupgrade), but if you didn't mount the cd first it might have only appeared to work.

This

http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/downloads/BOOTCD/ptvlba48-4.04.iso.zip

should get you what you need to burn a copy of the cd with copykern on it.

After booting with it, mount it

mount -t iso9660 /dev/hd'x' /cdrom

or something like that

then run copykern.

That won't help any other problems, but you'll know the kernel's properly patched for LBA48 drives.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Download and install WinMFS (mfslive.org) and run fixswap, might help, can't hurt.

If that's not enough...

Also, the WinMFS version of mfsinfo will show whether you're booting from partitions 3 and 4 or 6 and 7.

fixboot (or bootfix) option 1 will set it to 3 and 4, option 2 will set it to 6 and 7.

Whatever it is now, use the option necessary to switch it

Then try it in the TiVo again.

127MB is probably big enough for a 320GB drive, and I remember something about the early MFS Tools being limited to that, read the full guide at mfslive.org, where you'll find both MFS Live and WinMFS.

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ggieseke

· #4 · Jan 5, 2012

unitron said:
Also, the WinMFS version of mfsinfo will show whether you're booting from partitions 3 and 4 or 6 and 7.

fixboot (or bootfix) option 1 will set it to 3 and 4, option 2 will set it to 6 and 7.

Whatever it is now, use the option necessary to switch it

Then try it in the TiVo again.

Wouldn't you need to run copykern again if you switch poot partitions?

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unitron

· #5 · Jan 5, 2012

ggieseke said:
Wouldn't you need to run copykern again if you switch poot partitions?

An excellent question.

Shows that it's been a while since I messed around inside an S1.

You're probably correct.

I have a vague memory of maybe having done so, but I could be thinking of something else.

One thing about running copykern, if you do it correctly, it shouldn't do any harm, so probably better to do it both before and after the switchover.

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sskraly

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jan 5, 2012

Thanks for the advice--will try it and let you know how it goes.

Still wondering though, what do we think is broken here?

If it's some bad blocks on the disk and you're saying that 127MB is adequate for swap, why won't mfsfix or the Western Digital Extended Diag tool fix it?

If it's not a bad disk and 127MB is OK for swap, what else could cause a GSOD loop? How do you view the Tivo bootup messages and would that indicate if it's running out of swap?

Thanks again...
Sam

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unitron

· #7 · Jan 5, 2012

sskraly said:
Thanks for the advice--will try it and let you know how it goes.

Still wondering though, what do we think is broken here?

If it's some bad blocks on the disk and you're saying that 127MB is adequate for swap, why won't mfsfix or the Western Digital Extended Diag tool fix it?

If it's not a bad disk and 127MB is OK for swap, what else could cause a GSOD loop? How do you view the Tivo bootup messages and would that indicate if it's running out of swap?

Thanks again...
Sam

It probably isn't physically bad blocks or sectors, it's probably that the TiVo software, possibly in an OS partition, possibly in an MFS partition, got corrupted somehow during that power outage (UPSes aren't always perfect), which is why I suggested looking at it with MFS Live mfsinfo to see if you get the volume header corrupt or checksum error message, in which case, you have my sympathies.

If you don't get that, then try WinMFS's bootfix to see if it will boot from the alternates okay.

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sskraly

Discussion Starter · #8 · Jan 5, 2012

First of all, mfsinfo worked fine, and pdisk -l showed all my partitions.

I ran WinMFS, selected the drive, and chose Bootfix->Option 2.

Now I'm stuck at the "Starting Up" screen.

Ran WinMFS again and now it says the drive is type=Series 2 or 3, and
won't even Select it, saying "wrong partition signature". Ouch!

Booted from MFSlive and it says "unknown partition table" for this drive and now it won't run mfsinfo or pdisk because it no longer finds the drive (was previously sdb as I'm using an ATA->USB adapter).

What the heck happened and is there any way to get back to the old boot partition so that I can at least try some other recovery methods?

Thanks,
Sam

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sskraly

Discussion Starter · #9 · Jan 5, 2012

Should I try WinMFS->BootFix->Option1 or will that screw up the other boot partition?

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unitron

· #10 · Jan 6, 2012

sskraly said:
Should I try WinMFS->BootFix->Option1 or will that screw up the other boot partition?

If WinMFS won't let you select the drive, none of the tools are available.

You may be well and truly screwed.

I have a number of drives sitting around here (waiting for me to learn enough to hex edit them back to the way they should be) that used to be in Series 1s until they figured out a way to scramble themselves.

Fortunately my Series 2s have been better behaved.

There's a very long shot thing that we might try. What have you got lying around in the way of spare hard drives?

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unitron

· #11 · Jan 9, 2012

For those wondering how this turned out (which remains to be seen, but I'm hoping for a favorable resolution) this thread seems to have continued itself elsewhere

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=481194

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