# Mac OS X blessing, backup, etc... help please.



## [email protected]

I've read all the posts I can find about the OSXv4Blesser which is a command line blesser. In addition, I've seen mention of a carbonized version of the MacTivo Blesser but every download link is a now non-exsisting .mac (iTools) account. I've also seen posts on how to use dd to backup a current A drive but I cannot find the unlock kext that is mentioned and needed to do so.

Anyone got any updated links or any help? I've had some success with the CLI blesser. By that I mean I got it to say that blessing was successful. I used the sudo ./OSXv4Blesser /dev/disk0 #blocksfrom devtools/512

At the moment I am too scared to pop the "B" drive I have now blessed (successfully I guess) in without backing up the A drive because I don't want them married if the B drive was not done correctly. Its my first TiVo hacking experience and it looks like OS X does not make it easy... All and any help with this is greatly appreaciated and thanks.

[email protected]


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## Robert S

That's the totality of what you can do with a Mac. To upgrade properly you need a PC. You don't necessarily need it for more than an hour or so.

I generally recommend against blessing as it does seem to go wrong some times and it seems to slow the TiVo down more than mfsadd does.

What sort of TiVo is it?


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## [email protected]

It is a completely unaltered (hope to change that soon) SVR-2000 Series 1 TiVo. I figured series 1s would be easier to hack since they've been around longer, more people have them, and you dont need to worry about byte swapping or whatever it is. 

Is there any place to find the carbonized MacTivo Blesser or anything like that? I have looked at the source code for the OSXv4Blesser and I might be able to help Loki develope it further... if he is interrested.

[email protected]

P.S. I popped the A drive into my computer and typed this into terminal:
sudo dd if=/dev/disk0 of=tivo bs=512

it appears to be working. Right now I have a 6 GB file and it is still running. My new question is: since I never unlocked the drive will this image be usuable for a backup? If so, how would you restore the drive from the file tivo? Once I have this info I am going to post it in HTML form on a web server for all mac users to utalize. I wish my machine could boot OS 9


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## [email protected]

sudo ./OSXv4Blesser /dev/disk1 80293248
0: Blessing Successful
Done


God, I hope this works...

[email protected]


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## TivoDoc

Nornally I run only on Macs. I have been hacking TiVos for about 2 yrs now and find the whole process easier with a PC. I even bought an old clunker PC only for the purpose of maintaining my Tivos. Note, you need a recent enough PC that it can boot from CD to get the most out of the process.

Jeff


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## [email protected]

Well it worked.

Yes mfs tools do look like they beat any other mac offering into the ground. My main question is what happened to the mac tools that were hosted on Loki's .mac address? There also seems to be no web site of just mac information... I am planning on hosting one if I can get the carbonized version of the MacTiVo Blesser Loki was working on. I also wonder why Tiger (who develops msf tools as far as I can tell) has not tried to port to the mac. As I understand it most of these tools are based in Linux, if this is so why have not these tools been ported to OS X or rebuilt through X11?

[email protected]


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## [email protected]

Well I put up a web page with some shortcuts I found on how to use the OS X Blesser and such... its all up at my web page. I will be putting up images soon incase anyone cares. BTW if you find information which is incorrect or confusing please let me know. Or if you have tools that are not posted on that page for Mac OS X let me know.

[email protected]


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## priglmeier

Lets create a mac boot cd image.

Has anyone tried to use these tool in Darwin or mac OS in general?
Let's make a list of Tivo utilities, create binaries and install them into a CD image.
The darwin core OS should be abe to run this SW. I can do some of the work, but I need some good instructions from people who have used these Tivo tools and some testers.

I am thinking we could use the rsyncx boot cd as a framework.

We need some info, the SW and some space to host the CD image when it is complete.


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## ADent

Loki reported success in compiling MFSTools for MacOSX here: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=169883 .


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## TivoDoc

I'll be happy to test. I've got an unused DirecTivo that I wouldn't mind playing with.

Jeff


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## Mytummyhertz

Hey, I'm wondering if I could use the linux tivoblesser on darwin/osx.

I already built it, going to test it soon.

Anyone already tried this?


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## ding

I have the mfstools for osx. according to disk utility and devmapper 1.1 my tivo disk is disk3. I type the following:
./mfstool backup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/disk3
Terminal tells me this:
/mnt/dos/tivo.bak: No such file or directory
what am I doing wrong. I typed this in order to make a new drive and it works:
./mfstool backup -Tao - /dev/disk3 | mfstool restore -s 127 -pxi - /dev/disk2
but I would like to have a backup of my original tivo disk. please help.


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## wingedpower

Hi All,

I just did a quick writeup, which is still up, that allows you to use the existing MFS tools to upgrade your Tivo drives using your intel-based Mac, USB enclosures to plug your drives into, and VMware's Fusion product.

Check it out at:

http://www.wingedpower.com/blog/wwong/upgrading-tivo-your-macbook-pro-intel-and-vmware-s-fusion

Or if the URL is broken,

http://www.wingedpower.com/

I used the method described to upgrade a 40H single drive Series 2 (w/lba) to a 320GB single drive in around 2.5 hours. Worked great the first time around.

I used the standard MFSlive live cd.


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## /.ryd

I have just read wingedpower's tutorial and it sounds like something I'm quite capable of doing. 
I just want to check, before I get the Torx screwdriver out that this works with Series 3 TiVo units (which use SATA drives). The tute only mentions Series 1 and 2 units (which used IDE, I believe).
I assume that the Series 3 (HD, to be exact) will be able to see any size drive I put in it (I intend to use a 1TB Western Digital AV drive). Confirmation of that would be handy.
Cheers.


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## mattack

ding said:


> I have the mfstools for osx. according to disk utility and devmapper 1.1 my tivo disk is disk3. I type the following:
> ./mfstool backup -f 9999 -6so /mnt/dos/tivo.bak /dev/disk3
> Terminal tells me this:
> /mnt/dos/tivo.bak: No such file or directory


because obviously /mnt doesn't exist.

You have to give it an existing pathname.

(I know you're probably not here 5 years later.)


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