Preparing your Hard Drive for OzTiVo

Welcome to the HowTo for installing the 3.0 OzTiVo software image for Australia. This document is designed to help you install the software onto your hard disk, to do the Guided Setup and to keep your OzTiVo cared for and well-fed. The process involves temporarily installing your Tivo hard disk in a network-connected PC, following the steps below, and then moving the hard disk to your Tivo.

This is the current guide to setup for V3.0 Release 1.6 for Australia as of 27th September 2006.

Table of Contents

Hints and Tips

Skim through the InstallGuidedSetup16Hints document before attempting this upgrade. Something there may come in handy during this process. Please update that document if you have any tips that may help others.

You should also have a look at the KnownIssuesCurrentImageRelease page for any unresolved issues with the current image that may affect your setup.

Western Digital Caviar Blue drives do not work in Series one TiVo's

The latestest firmware these drives now ship with is no longer compatible with the IDE controller in series one TiVo's, even as a single drive. This seems to be a problem with both 16Mb and 8Mb cache versions. Models confirmed to not work are 500Gb WD5000AAKB (16Mb cache), 320Gb WD3200AAJB (8Mb cache), and WD2500AAJB (8Mb cache). WD is well aware of these problems and had promised a firmware fix mid 2009, but in January 2010 this still has not occured (so unlikely to). We will update this when more information is available. It has been reported by one user that WD5000AVJB also does not work in TiVo's as a single drive or main drive in a dual drive system. It was reported to work as a 2nd drive when paired with another brand. The whole Western Digtial AV range should probably be considered effected by recent firmware and should not be used in single drive TiVo's. (I have just used a 200Gb WD2000 and it worked just fine. Hopefully you may be as lucky (bryan))

Seagate 7200.9 & 7200.10 hard drives over 200gbs appear to have problems when used in dual drive OzTiVo's

At this point (March 2006) it appears that the current Seagate 7200.9/7200.10 generations of hard drives will not work in dual drive OzTiVo's. They work fine as single drives, but do not seem to work when used as either the primary or secondary in a dual drive OzTiVo. Previous generations of Seagate drives work fine (eg 7200.8, 7200.7 etc).

Installer may have issues with dual large (250+)hard drives and some motherboards.

Brian reported to the mailing list today 22/5/6, that he had problems imaging a pair of samsung drives (250+300) using the installer. The process was successful but would not boot pass the maintenance screen. To resolve the problem Brian booted his PC with only one of the drives attached and loaded the image to that drive. He then shutdown the PC added the 2nd drive and used the installer to add them together.

At this stage we are unsure if it's an issue with the installer or just a compatability issue with the motherboard Brian was using. We know the installer works with <200gb dual drives, we just have to wait to hear if any others have problems with larger drives.

Installer may have issues with newer motherboards

Sometimes during the hard drive imaging process you may notice the progress pause for quite some time. It will do this again during the cleanup phase after the image. If you find the tivo does not boot with the freshly imaged hard drive it could be the computer you made the image from that is the problem. Try performing the image on an older machine and you may find it successful. This was a problem a few people have encountered and using an older machine seemed to fix this.

Some people have also reported success using vmware to boot the oztivo install cd (you can map the downloaded iso file directly the vm to remove the need to burn the cd), and attaching the intended tivo HD as a raw physical device. If you are attempting this technique use the nodma boot target on the cd, rather then the default 'oztivo' one.

Downloading and Installing the Software

Our latest installer ISO releases are based on the Sony & Philips images. You can use either image in any of the recommended OzTiVo's for use in Australia (Philips, Sony, Thomson), though the Philips image is the most popular. There is no difference in functionality, just the look of the menu backgrounds.

Go to our Server and download one of the iso files (~94Mb) use this file with your CD burning software to create a bootable installation CD.

The xxxxxxxx represent the release date of the current release, e.g. at present this is 20061106 (11-Nov-2006).

The installer images follow this naming convention:

  • ozTiVo_installer_Philips_1.6.2_xxxxxxxx.iso is the Philips image (recommended for all OzTiVo's)
  • ozTiVo_installer_Sony_1.6.2_xxxxxxxx.iso is the Sony image

There may be some outstanding issues with the current image releases; before reporting any problems, see if they have already been addressed @ KnownIssuesCurrentImageRelease

Software to Burn ISO Images

Some software suggested for buring the ISO images to CD:

For Windows, get a program called "DeepBurner", there's a free version for non commercial use available, get it from www.deepburner.com. Or if you have a copy of Nero this is perfectly fine too.

For Linux, "K3B" is a gui to the "cdrecord" tool, making it a bit easier to burn the image.

(Note: If for some reason your PC won't boot with the bootable CD ISO, you can try downloading our separate OzTiVo-BootCD or Tiger%u2019s Mfs Tools Boot-CD. Burn the latest Tivo MFS image file to an ordinary CD and mount it manually after booting the Boot-CD. Using this method will not give you the installer menu, so all customisations need to done manually.)

Upgrading from an Older Image

If you are upgrading from an older to a newer image, it's a good idea to write down all the information that was specific to your old image setup, things like network card type (turbonet/cachecard etc.), IP address and netmask (if a static IP), gateway IP address, MAC address (especially if you have several OzTiVos), the IR code of your STB or cable box and if you have it on fast/medium/slow digit delays. Also make use of the backup facility included in OzTiVoWeb & OzTiVoWebPlus to backup all your Season Passes.

Booting from the Install CD

You need an Internet-connected PC for this step. Remove the power cable from your PC before connecting up the HD to be imaged. It's preferable to only have the new OzTiVo disk and your CD connected (to avoid accidentally writing over your PC disk!)

Boot up from the CD and press enter at the "boot:" prompt (or simply wait as it will auto-boot after a few seconds).

After a welcome message and a warning/recommendation regarding only having OzTiVo disks connected you reach the main install menu.

From here select each option as required moving down the list, starting with Update. It is very important to move down the list and not do any steps out of order.

First Update - always use this option to bring the installer program on your CD up to date.

Second Select - use this option to identify which disk is your OzTiVo disk - even if there's only one.

Third Image - use this option to select and restore the image file to the disk.

The default (127MB) swap partition size is OK for total disk storage of up to 274GB. Above that, the rule of thumb is to divide the disk capacity (in GB) by 2 and to use that many megabytes (for example use 300MB for a 600GB OzTiVo). The largest value for swap supported by mfsrestore is 511MB. If you are restoring an image to an original OzTiVo drive (eg. to a 40GB drive or smaller) then you should use a size of 64MB (otherwise you will see a message stating that the drive is too small).

You will be given a final warning before the restore is commenced. It only takes a minute or so. Note that the progress percentage does pause a few times - this is normal. When it has finished you will see an estimated recording capacity - this is at basic quality recording.

If the restore seems to happen instantly, then the restore probably didn't happen, even if it says 'restore successful'. If you have an original OzTiVo drive, you may first need to unlock it with QUNLOCK. See HERE for more information.

Fourth Mfsadd - Only required if you have a second disk to install in the OzTiVo.

Fifth Network - Configure your OzTiVo networking here. Choose your network method or type of card (if applicable) and configure the networking as appropriate to your setup.

Sixth Emulator - Only needed if you are using an Emulator other then the standard Australian one (minnie). Most people will want to use Minnie, the Australian guide data server, however this also allows you to select Orac - the NZ server, Hydra - the NL server, or to enter your own emulator details.

Seventh Palmod - Only required if you need to reconfigure palmod. Not usually required although if you are considering archiving to DVD it is a good idea to change the horizontal resolution to 720 (option 4 followed by option 1). Note: you may see artifacts on the screen (especially with the PAL tuner) when running in 720 resolution. Some OzTiVo's do and some do not as it is pushing the limits of the MPEG chip. For those who have had the tuner mod done the image comes with the internal tuner setting defaulted to Samsung/ALPS and if you have had the Micronas chip replaced for the "Mark 2" stereo sound modification you can also set the stereo switching threshold settings. You can also use palmod to vary the input sound levels too.

Eighth Sysinit - allows you to edit rc.sysinit.local - only required for advanced configuration.

The file /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit.local is a bash script used for starting up optional hacks at boot time.

Ninth Exit - Exits the menu system to a bash prompt. Shut down, power off and remove the power lead from your PC before removing the drive.

Installing the Drive and Preparing for the Guided Setup

Once your hard disk has the software loaded, you can put the disk into your OzTiVo (remember to take out the power cord). Make sure you set the jumpers back to make it the master drive (if you changed them!). OzTiVo does not support Cable select, so jumpers must be installed in master and slave as appropriate. For instructions on how to open the case and install a single drive look here and If your mounting a 2nd drive look here. Make sure both ends of the IDE cable and PSU cable are firmly attached and HDD and case screws re installed. It should now be safe to restore power and boot your OzTiVo.

In order to do the Guided Setup, you must have:

  • a TV connected to your OzTiVo.
  • some form of networking that works.
  • An Australian power cable. The Series 1 OzTiVo will accept our 240V which is fine (series 2 (Not Supported or working) is a different story), but you will need a new power cable. See TivoPowerSupply.
  • some form of video input. If you are going to be using your VCR or STB with the OzTiVo, get it connected now! The same goes if you have a PAL tuner and you are going to use your antenna.

We would also recommend that you build or buy a serial cable, regardless of what networking you choose to use. If the networking fails, this will be your only way to get "into" the OzTiVo to diagnose the problem.

Also be aware that Windows Telnet and some Linux Telnets programs fail when connecting to the OzTiVo. PuTTY is known to work as a Telnet client. Linux telnet works when you provide the -r switch.

Setting up OzTiVo Networking

Guided Setup won't work without a network connection to the Internet. As of February 2005, the menu based install has made network configuration a lot easier than it used to be (some say boring). However if you are having issues the concepts of OzTiVo networking are described in:

As well as the following HowTos:

Running The Guided Setup, or "GS"

Please refer to the GuidedSetup16 document.

Keeping Time

If the time displayed in the Guide is wrong, either force a daily call or run /bin/ntpdate -b -v 132.163.4.103 192.43.244.18 129.6.15.29 from telnet.

Forcing a Daily Call

Normally your OzTiVo will phone home each day to see if there is any new program guide data. You can force your OzTiVo to make a daily call early, but you can't do this using the on-screen TV menus, as the "Phone" menu doesn't work in PAL mode. Instead, you can use your web browser to connect to the OzTiVoWeb server on your OzTiVo, and then use the Phone menu there.

Redoing Guided Setup

There are two reasons why you may want to do this:

1. (rare) If for some reason the Guided Setup fails (maybe the networking didn't work), then you should be able to reboot your OzTiVo and it will retry the Guided Setup again. However, if you find that it doesn't do this, and you need to redo the Guided Setup.

2. (most commonly) You want to change your input configuration (maybe a new STB or addition of the PAL tuner or whatever). Redoing Guided Setup retains your old recordings so it is better to redo Guided Setup than a clean install if you can avoid it (unless of course you do want to erase all and start again with the latest software release).

YOU CANNOT PICK THE "REDO GUIDED SETUP" MENU OPTION FROM THE TIVO MENU WHEN IN PAL MODE. IT DOES NOT WORK AND YOU WILL GET KICKED BACK TO THE MAIN MENU. Apologies for the shouting I cannot emphasise that enough as it is asked very often. It does not work due to a quirk of the PAL software changes which may or may not be rectified one day. For now the easiest way to enable a redo of Guided Setup is to point a web browser at the OzTiVo's IP address and select Enable Guided Setup in PAL from the PAL/NTSC menu. Follow these simple steps:

1. Gain access to OzTiVoWEB (OzTiVoWEBPLUS on newer images) by pointing your web browser at the IP address of the OzTiVo. EG: type into your web browser http://192.168.0.100 but note that is ONLY an example and will most likely be NOT your IP address. From OzTiVo images install CD packages created on and after November 28 2005 there is also an internal mail message generated showing your OzTiVo%u2019s current IP address, or you may also be able to gain access to your router which will usually report the correct IP address.

2. Go to the PAL/NTSC tab in OzTiVoWEB, or SysAdmin tab then select PAL-NTSC in OzTiVoWEBPLUS.

3. From within this menu pick "Set PAL Guided Setup Mode"

4. Reboot OzTiVo

5. When you get the main menu appear on the OzTiVo, go into "Messages And Setup" and then "System Reset" then "Repeat Guided Setup"

If you don't have networking working yet, but you can get to the Bash prompt on the OzTiVo, you can do this command:

[TiVo] # bootpage -p /dev/hda

Note lower case p

The output will look something like this:

root=/dev/hda4 runideturbo=false TV_STD=PAL GS=0 

The output is the current boot parameters. GS has to be 1 to run Guided Setup or any of the hidden menus on a PAL OzTiVo, so we have to rewrite the boot params with GS=1. On the other hand is OzTiVo seems to be stuck in Maintenance Mode, you will want to set GS=0.

If your boot param output is as above, this command would update them to enable Guided Setup:

[TiVo] # bootpage -P 'root=/dev/hda4 runideturbo=false TV_STD=PAL GS=1' /dev/hda

Note upper case P

Make certain to enclose the new params in single quotes. Everything between the quotes should be the same as the output of the first step except the value of GS

Reboot the OzTiVo for the change to take effect, and keep your eye on the second boot menu. If it says "Maintenance Mode" you will be able to navigate through the menus to get to GS: Messages & Setup, System Reset, Run Guided Setup.

Back to: Install


This topic: Install > WebHome > PrepareTiVoDisk
Topic revision: r52 - 2011-09-06 - BryanMcglade
This site is powered by the TWiki collaboration platform Powered by PerlCopyright (c) 2001-2024 OzTiVo - The information in this website may be accessed for individual non-commercial use only. The information cannot be used for commercial purposes. Please refer to the full copyright notice.