# Physical Connection to Tivo Drive from Ubuntu



## JackRazz (Jun 2, 2003)

Hey Everyone,
I was wondering if anyone has been able to connect to their tivo drive for doing an upgrade and initial setup for hacking.

I tried adding the bswap to my menu.lst config file, but ubuntu didn't seem to recognize the partition once I was booted up. Ubuntu normally mounts all partitions.

from menu.lst file
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.17-11 (Tivo mode)
root (hd0,5)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.17-11-generic root=/dev/hdb2 hdd=bswap ro single
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.17-11-generic
boot
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Has anyone mounted tivo partitions from with something like ubuntu, fedora, etc? Am I taking the right approach? Has anyone ever run msftools from a full desktop instead of a boot cd?

Thanks - JackRazz


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## BTUx9 (Nov 13, 2003)

bswap is only used for drives from series 1 tivos
the tivo uses a modified apple partition scheme that isn't standard, so there are 2 common choices for mounting under linux:
1) modify the linux kernel to identify/use the tivo partition scheme (this is what the tivo boot CDs do)
2) use a utility to revalidate the partitions so linux can read/use them... there are 2 that I know of, the more popular one by far is ADH's tivopart


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## JackRazz (Jun 2, 2003)

BTUx9,
Thanks for the reply. I should have mentioned it in my first posting that _I have a Series 1 Tivo_. I'm assuming that means that the modified apple partition doesn't apply in my case.

Is that correct?

JackRazz


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## BTUx9 (Nov 13, 2003)

JackRazz said:


> BTUx9,
> Thanks for the reply. I should have mentioned it in my first posting that _I have a Series 1 Tivo_. I'm assuming that means that the modified apple partition doesn't apply in my case.
> 
> Is that correct?
> ...


No... it means both apply... bswap AND modified apple partition

btw, bswap can be funky, and it's usually recommended that you turn off DMA if you turn on bswap


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## JackRazz (Jun 2, 2003)

Thanks for the info, I'm checking out ADH's tivopart.


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