Getting to Bash

Getting to diagnostic mode and Bash:

Ok now that you've made your backup cold boot the computer with the TiVo drive still attached, with your boot cd or floppy, login as you did performing the backup. Now we're going to need to mount 2 separate partitions on the TiVo's drive. We'll start by creating the mounting points:

mkdir /mnt/7
mkdir /mnt/4

As described in Hinsdale's How-To Linux identifies hard drives and partitions as hdpX where p is Primary/Secondary & Slave/Master and X is the partition number. ( yes I have a chart too! )

hdaX Primary Master

hdbX Primary Slave

hdcX Secondary Master

hddX Secondary Slave

For this example I'll assume your TiVo drive is Secondary Master ( hdcX ), Time to Mount the partitions:

mount /dev/hdc7 /mnt/7
mount /dev/hdc4 /mnt/4

Congratulations, you just mounted partition 4 and 7 on your TiVo's Drive these partitions are what TiVo "boots" from and holds your configuration Data. The next step is to modify a system file to give us a BASH shell over the TiVo's serial port. Its kind of like modifying the Autoexec.bat on a DOS system. We'll be using a simple echo redirection to edit the file ( even us M$ babies should know this one =P ). I'll use C++ style // comments to describe each step PLEASE DON'T TYPE THEM!:

cd /mnt/7/etc/rc.d // nothing new here change directory to /mnt/7/etc/rc.d

cp rc.sysinit rc.sysinit.bak          // always make a back up before you change!

echo "/bin/bash < /dev/ttyS3 >& /dev/ttyS3 &" >> rc.sysinit   // append quoted string to rc.sysinit

cd /mnt/4/etc/rc.d    // same thing different partition

cp /rc.sysinit rc.sysinit.bak // we do it twice because we can't be sure which one

echo "/bin/bash < /dev/ttyS3 >& /dev/ttyS3 &" >> rc.sysinit // TiVo will load on, with all good fortune we'll know soon

umount /dev/hdc7 // we're done time to pack up and go home

umount /dev/hdc4

Now turn off your computer, and put the TiVo drive back into your TiVo Making sure the jumpers are correct ( if you changed them ). Before turning your TiVo on we need to get the Windows machine ready. So first lets make sure you've got your TiVo's Serial Cable with Null Modem adapter connected to a free Comm port on your windows machine; The Tivo should be plugged in, in a way that's easy to quickly reach the computer, and quickly restart the Tivo I recommend using a power strip with a switch that can be placed by your feet, by your computer. Now setup your terminal program to connect to the appropriate Comm port at 9600 Bps, 8 Data bits, No Parity, 1 Stop bit, and No Flow Control. See below.

Hyper Terminal

Tera Term

1) New Connection, Name Tivo -> OK
2) Connect using -> Select Comm Port -> OK 1) New Connection, Serial, Select Comm port -> OK

3) Set As Specified ( 9600,8,N,1,None) ->OK 2) Setup (Menu Bar) -> Serial Port -> (Set as specified) -> OK

4) Should be back to main Terminal Screen with active session 3) Should be back to your active Terminal Session

Ok our first step is to see wither or not you can get into the Diagnostic Menu. DirecTivo users the diagnostic console does not exist on DirecTivos, you may skip to the next chapter after getting to your bash prompt. Its like getting into your computers bios you'll hit enter on your terminal program in the first 3-4 seconds of your TiVo's boot process, don't get overzealous with the enter key or you'll fly right past it. Now start up your TiVo and hit enter until you see the VERIFY PASSWORD: pop up on your terminal session. Try typing factory as the password, you'll see something like this:



Successful access to the Diagnostic Console    Failed Attempt

If your attempt failed don't worry we'll take care of it in the next chapter. If it worked great go ahead and type B to continue booting. Even if you failed to get into the diagnostic console you should still soon see the Bash prompt in your terminal window - bash-2.02# . Ok leave it there, time to move to the next chapter, if for whatever reason you did not get a bash prompt see - the Trouble Shooting section.

Dummy's Guide to:
Tivo PPP over Serial for Win 9x

hdaX	Primary Master
hdbX	Primary Slave
hdcX	Secondary Master
hddX	Secondary Slave

cd /mnt/7/etc/rc.d	// nothing new here change directory to /mnt/7/etc/rc.d
cp rc.sysinit rc.sysinit.bak	// always make a back up before you change!
echo "/bin/bash < /dev/ttyS3 >& /dev/ttyS3 &" >> rc.sysinit	// append quoted string to rc.sysinit
cd /mnt/4/etc/rc.d	// same thing different partition
cp /rc.sysinit rc.sysinit.bak	// we do it twice because we can't be sure which one
echo "/bin/bash < /dev/ttyS3 >& /dev/ttyS3 &" >> rc.sysinit	// TiVo will load on, with all good fortune we'll know soon
umount /dev/hdc7	// we're done time to pack up and go home
umount /dev/hdc4

Hyper Terminal	Tera Term

1) New Connection, Name Tivo -> OK 2) Connect using -> Select Comm Port -> OK	1) New Connection, Serial, Select Comm port -> OK

3) Set As Specified ( 9600,8,N,1,None) ->OK	2) Setup (Menu Bar) -> Serial Port -> (Set as specified) -> OK
4) Should be back to main Terminal Screen with active session	3) Should be back to your active Terminal Session