[tivoupgrade]

updated 11/18/08

Thanks to feedback and contributions from many TCF members, we've updated our popular LBA48 CD (now at version 4.04) to reflect the current state of DIY upgrading for Series1 and Series2 TiVo DVR units. It will also work fine with a Series3 unit as long as you are using and IDE-SATA adapter because this CD does not contain native SATA support.

This CD is designed to replace most of the out-of-date and flaky CD's (Kazmyr's, Dylan's, etc.) that have been floating around for about EIGHT years now. It is also incorporated into our Universal Boot CD (version 11), but we have separated it here to keep the file size small, and the download free.

It is assumed you have a basic working knowledge of MFStools (or are using a decent how-to with detailed instructions) and are also aware that many bootdisks, utilities, and most importantly, the TiVo kernel for Series1 systems, and early Series2 software releases are limited to accessing only 137GB of each individual drive.

Key Features:

• Native LBA48 kernel for handling of >137GB hard drives
• MFStools 2.0
• Toshiba/Pioneer 'unlock' util
• CopyKern kernel transplant utility for Series1 units; modified TiVo kernels
• dd_rescue tools
• BusyBox Environment

Release notes (abbreviated):

This CD uses an LBA48 Linux kernel which is designed for use with all hard disk drives, including drives that are larger than 137GB. This CD may be used to perform standard MFStools backup and restore operations for ALL make/model TiVo systems which are upgradeable. HOWEVER, do not use this CD to restore a backup onto a drive LARGER than 137GB unless it will be used in a TiVo system whose kernel uses a comparable native LBA48 kernel or you are using tools and techniques to augment your upgrade with a user-supplied LBA48 kernel.

Units with a native LBA48 kernel are now:

• All Series2 and Series3 Models running version 6.X or later of the TiVo OS

If you are intending to use larger than 137GB drives in a Series1 standalone or Series1 DirecTiVo system, you can simply use the "copykern" utility (provided on the CD) to install an updated kernel featuring LBA48 support. Just type "copykern" and follow the prompted instructions.



Note: 11/18/08 The current version of this CD (4.04) conatins updated LBA48 kernels which work fine with the latest standalone software (3.0) and the latest DirecTiVo software (3.5d) on all Series1 models.

Note: 9/11/07 The current version of this CD (4.04) contains updated LBA48 kernels which work fine with the latest standalone software (3.0) and the latest DirecTiVo software (3.5c) on all Series1 models.

Note: 7/22/07 The current version of this CD (4.04) contains updated LBA48 kernels which work fine with the latest standalone software (3.0) and the latest DirecTiVo software (3.5b) on all Series1 models.

Note: 5/12/06 New Release of the LBA48 CD (ver 4.04) includes a revised copykern and a recompiled kernel (labeled 3.10+) in the s1_kernels directory. We have done preliminary testing with this kernel in conjunction with version 3.5 of the Series1 DirecTV TiVo release and early tests are encouraging. If you have built LBA48 drives which are spuriously rebooting, or contain content that is not accessible through the "Now Playing" list, we encourage you to use copykern to transplant this newly updated kernel. Also note that you will need to use killinitrd to zap the new initrd (or use nic_config in the silicondust network driver release to achieve the same result).



If you are not using drives greater than 137GB, you may use this CD for any model TiVo without worry, with one exception: Do not attempt to use BlessTiVo on drives being added to a Series1 unit; instead, use mfsadd.

Use this CD for performing standard upgrades to units which support disk drives greater than 137GB or use this CD if you are performing an upgrade to any Series1 unit and use copykern to update to an LBA48 kernel (after you have restored your MFS backup image to your new drive.

You can use this CD for ANY Series1 TiVo unit if you are not planning on using a drive greater than 137GB. You can use this CD to bless add-on drives for Series2 units, or use mfsadd to combine two drives for any upgradable Series2 or a Series1.

One last note, MFStool 2.0 (included on this CD as well) has a bug and will not properly initialize a swap partition greater than 127MB. If you are building a SERIES1 replacement drive, and are planning on using "copykern" you can use the -s option (hit F3 for MFStool usage examples) to define a larger than 127MB swap partition, and copykern will initialize it for you when replacing the kernel.

That's it; please consult standard upgrade instructions (hinsdale or weaknees for example); as this CD is designed to be compatible with their guides.

Note:

If you are in over your head and would prefer something easier, please consider our InstantCake DIY software CD which can be used to build a new replacement drive for your TiVo with limited effort, as long as you understand your PC and how to hook drives up to it. If even that is beyond you, please consider our pre-configured upgrade kits or professional services for your upgrade needs.

----

More information and the free download can be found here (it is approximately 8MB, and in ISO format).

If you are looking for a CD with killhdinitrd, or kernels modified with killhdinitrd (these tools are used for installing networking and other aftermarket modifications to Series2 units with USB ports), then you need one of our premium boot CD's which are also discussed on the free LBA48 CD download page.

If you have any questions about the use of mfstools or any specifics regarding use of this CD (or the included utilities), please use this thread as a support resource and we'll do our best to answer your questions -- this CD is intended to be compatible with the major upgrade guides already available, however some of the unique tools provided may require additional explanation.

Please stay tuned, as this CD is a work in progress!

 

[Thom]

Does your LBA48 CD contain support for ATA interfaces beyond the primary and secondary controllers found on the motherboards? Or, does it contain an LBA48 boot floppy disk image that contains MFSTools 2.0?

Sometimes I upgrade by performing a complete MFSTool backup | restore from my current dual drive setup to a pair of larger drives. If booting from CD, the boot CD must support ATA interfaces beyond the motherboard's pair. So far I've been booting from an MFSTool 2.0 floppy, but it only supports 137 GB.

- Thom

 

[weaknees]

Originally posted by Thom
Does your LBA48 CD contain support for ATA interfaces beyond the primary and secondary controllers found on the motherboards? Or, does it contain an LBA48 boot floppy disk image that contains MFSTools 2.0?

Sometimes I upgrade by performing a complete MFSTool backup | restore from my current dual drive setup to a pair of larger drives. If booting from CD, the boot CD must support ATA interfaces beyond the motherboard's pair. So far I've been booting from an MFSTool 2.0 floppy, but it only supports 137 GB.

- Thom

I'm not at the office any more, but as far as I know, our CD will recognize PCI card-attached drives, at least on Promise-based cards (Maxtor cards use Promise chipsets).

WeaKnees Large Kernel Boot CD

Michael

 

[Rschultz1457]

Originally posted by Thom
Does your LBA48 CD contain support for ATA interfaces beyond the primary and secondary controllers found on the motherboards? Or, does it contain an LBA48 boot floppy disk image that contains MFSTools 2.0?

Sometimes I upgrade by performing a complete MFSTool backup | restore from my current dual drive setup to a pair of larger drives. If booting from CD, the boot CD must support ATA interfaces beyond the motherboard's pair. So far I've been booting from an MFSTool 2.0 floppy, but it only supports 137 GB.

- Thom

The CD currently supports primary and secondary only - (/dev/hda - /dev/hdd).

 

[Robert S]

Is dd_rescue on either of those disks?

 

[BillL]

Forgive me if this is a stupid newbie question, but does this CD contain the LBA48 kernal? I have a Dtivo and want to utilize all of my 160GB hard drive. Will I be able to do this using copykern?

 

[dswallow]

Originally posted by BillL
Forgive me if this is a stupid newbie question, but does this CD contain the LBA48 kernal? I have a Dtivo and want to utilize all of my 160GB hard drive. Will I be able to do this using copykern?

Newbie or not, you deserve this: Did you even read the original post?

 

[BillL]

Originally posted by dswallow
Newbie or not, you deserve this: Did you even read the original post?

I did read the original post, but it said "to install an updated kernel featuring LBA48 support" in the original post. That could also mean find a LBA48 kernal somewhere else and install it with the utility from the disk.

 

[tivoupgrade]

Originally posted by BillL
I did read the original post, but it said "to install an updated kernel featuring LBA48 support" in the original post. That could also mean find a LBA48 kernal somewhere else and install it with the utility from the disk.

To answer your questions:

1) the LBA48 CD uses an LBA48 kernel
2) copykern will installed an updated Series1 kernel when you are making a large disk

More details and clarifications to follow.

 

[BillL]

Originally posted by tivoupgrade
To answer your questions:

1) the LBA48 CD uses an LBA48 kernel
2) copykern will installed an updated Series1 kernel when you are making a large disk

More details and clarifications to follow.

What about for Series 2 Directivos. Will "copykern" install the Series 1 kernel for them as well?

 

[tivoupgrade]

Originally posted by BillL
What about for Series 2 Directivos. Will "copykern" install the Series 1 kernel for them as well?

No, copykern is for Series1 units, only! Please reference the first post for the Series2 units which currently have an LBA48 kernel.

 

[BillL]

then what does this paragraph mean?

"If you are intending to use larger than 137GB drives in a Series1 standalone or DirecTiVo system, you can simply use the "copykern" utility(provided on the CD) to install an updated kernel featuring LBA48 support. Just type "copykern" and follow the prompted instructions."

 

[tivoupgrade]

Originally posted by BillL
then what does this paragraph mean?

"If you are intending to use larger than 137GB drives in a Series1 standalone or DirecTiVo system, you can simply use the "copykern" utility(provided on the CD) to install an updated kernel featuring LBA48 support. Just type "copykern" and follow the prompted instructions."

It means that if you are going to build a replacement drive kit using drive(s) that are larger than 137GB (eg a 160GB drive, or two 160GB drives), then you should use the copykern utility and it will install an updated kernel featuring LBA48 support (ie a kernel which can address > 137GB of space on the disk drive).

If you can give me an alternative way to word the aforementioned phrase which is any clearer, I'm all ears...

 

[tivoupgrade]

Originally posted by Robert S
Is dd_rescue on either of those disks?

Just made a quick and dirty attempt to include both dd_rescue and dd_rhelp. Please see my post on PortlandPaw's thread here for more details and a link to download a test version for folks to try. If all works out OK, we'll fold it into the latest release and update the main iso on our site.

Thanks!

 

[BillL]

Originally posted by tivoupgrade
It means that if you are going to build a replacement drive kit using drive(s) that are larger than 137GB (eg a 160GB drive, or two 160GB drives), then you should use the copykern utility and it will install an updated kernel featuring LBA48 support (ie a kernel which can address > 137GB of space on the disk drive).

If you can give me an alternative way to word the aforementioned phrase which is any clearer, I'm all ears...

I guess the reason that I was confused was that I thought that all directivos were series 2.

 

[tivoupgrade]

Originally posted by BillL
I guess the reason that I was confused was that I thought that all directivos were series 2.

Got it. For good measure, here are the descriptions of the Series1 DirecTiVo systems:

Philips DSR6000
Sony SAT-T60
Hughes GXCEBOT(D)

 

[lawnmowerdeth]

Originally posted by tivoupgrade
Just made a quick and dirty attempt to include both dd_rescue and dd_rhelp. Please see my post on PortlandPaw's thread here for more details and a link to download a test version for folks to try. If all works out OK, we'll fold it into the latest release and update the main iso on our site.

Thanks!

Hi,
I'm trying to rescue an HDVR2 drive, and there are some errors with dd_rescue.
I don't know if it's a version issue, but I was following the command in this thread http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2272612#post2272612
and I can't use the -B switch or the -A switch (unknown command), and -b 2M gives a segmentation fault. Basically I am only able to use: dd_rescue -v /dev/hda /dev/hdb.

Anyway, fingers crossed that this will save the drive. I'll know tomorrow afternoon sometime.

 

[tivoupgrade]

Originally posted by lawnmowerdeth
Hi,
I'm trying to rescue an HDVR2 drive, and there are some errors with dd_rescue.
I don't know if it's a version issue, but I was following the command in this thread http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2272612#post2272612
and I can't use the -B switch or the -A switch (unknown command), and -b 2M gives a segmentation fault. Basically I am only able to use: dd_rescue -v /dev/hda /dev/hdb.

Anyway, fingers crossed that this will save the drive. I'll know tomorrow afternoon sometime.

Can you please repost this issue in the other thread, as well as your follow-up results? This thread is really not for dd_rescue and the version referenced here does not contain it (yet); hopefully whatever problem this is can be verified by another reader of the dd_rescue thread who may be using it in a different environment and can either replicate the result, or identify what we need to add to our CD so that it doesn't happen.

Thanks,
Lou

 

[Kaelum]

I created both the 2.0 and the 3.0 CDs from the ISO images, and neither CD contains a copykern executable. What's up?

 

[dswallow]

Originally posted by Kaelum
I created both the 2.0 and the 3.0 CDs from the ISO images, and neither CD contains a copykern executable. What's up?

You are booting from the CD to look, right? If it's there and the ISO distribution is like the other CD's that've been made available to hack TiVo systems, you won't see it from DOS/Windows since it's part of a disk image that's loaded when Linux boots.