# Newb Series 2 Step-by-step guide



## brianmay27 (Nov 21, 2006)

After having to hack my tivo once and take 2 weeks in doing so. Then having to do it again half a year later not knowing what to do after failing at slicing, I decided to make a guide. This should work on all standalone series 2 tivos (cable tivos) I will update this as i go on and get my tivo working. So hang on.

As you are starting out i am taking it that you have no idea what you are doing and starting at step one. getting your drive out. First unplug everything and move it to your work place (for me my bed ) Unscrew all the screws on the back that are on the black plate. Put them aside for now. and pull the top back to pop it open. Inside it looks very simple; a hard drive (very bad DO NOT USE IT get a newer one and better. Remember every gig=1 hour of recording. [Remember the tivo service will take up a few gigibites]), a power supply, and a pc board. On the hard drive there are two screws. Take them off and pop the drive off and remove the cables.

Your drive is now out.

Next is backing it up. Like i said before. DO NOT USE THE DRIVE it is a very cheep drive and if you mess up slicing it like i did you have nowhere to go.

Now go to your spare computer. You need a cd drive, a floppy (optional can use cd but slower and most things you need are only a mb or so), and two more hd slots. You should have your tivo drive with your cd drive. cd drive master and tivo slave. your new drive should be the master slot on master. So,

```
CD drive (master)--------------
                                             |-------------Slave slot
Tivo drive (slave) --------------

New drive (master)--------------------------Master slot
```
Next get a boot disk. I would recommend using this boot disk http:// www. dvr upgrade .com /dvr /stores/1/lba48_support.cfm
(remove the spaces) get the free one that is all you need and burn it to a disk. Put it in your computer and boot it up. hit enter twice when it tells you and now comes the fun part.

You need to get the drives correct. So after you hit the second enter hit shift+page up and look for something like 
hde maxtor drive 180000 megabytes ...
Look for the tivo drive. For me it was hdh and my new drive was hde but it could be anything. Once you found it wright it down. Next you have to copy the drive. Be very careful. double check everything. Type 

```
mfsbackup  -Tao  -  /dev/YOUR TIVO DRIVE | mfsrestore  -r 4 -s 127 -xzpi  -  /dev/YOUR NEW DRIVE
```
Make sure to plug your own hard drive locations in. Now it is time to wait. This could take three-ten hours. depends on how many recordings you have.

If everything goes well (it should) all you have to do after is type "halt" and it will shut down. Reboot the computer and go back into it. Now just to test your new drives out. hdX3 is the kernel as long is hdX6. Tivo has two partitions. When it gets a upgrade it updates the other side and reboots into the other side. very smart if i can say so myself. so hdX4 and hdX7 are the root partitions and hdX9 is /var. this is where tivo puts most of its stuff it keeps. there is only one partition 9 so don't mess with it too much. In the screen type "mount /dev/hdX4 /mnt" change the X with the NEW DRIVE letter. it should come up with no errors. if it does it is ok. i will get to that next. then type "umount /mnt" to un mount it. do the mount with 7 and if it is ok unmount it and mount number 9. If they are all ok great! if not something happened. If it is just one partition just do "dd if=/dev/hdY# of=/dev/hdX#" the Y is the tivo drive and the X is the new drive and the # is the partition that was bad. this should only take a few minutes. if more then one is bad try the backup again.

Once this is done you can start hacking it. First is the kernel. I do not have any experience with this. (my kernel was too old and did not work) i will leave this up to someone that has experience with this to help me correct this. All i can tell you is you take your kernel so take it from the latest partition. To find this out type "bootpage -p /dev/hdX" (use your new tivo drive letter in the X) it will come out with root=hda_. If that blank is 4 use 3 if it is 7 use 6. Next mount the number that is in the root=hda_ so, "mount /dev/hdX_ /mnt" (X with your new drive). Next, what ever the root= is -1 use "dd if=/dev/hdX# of=/mnt/vmlinux.px" this will make the kernel a file on your root partition. Then you use killhdinitrd on it and hopefully it will patch your kernel which if it does you dd it back to the two partitions. "dd if=/mnt/vmlinux.px of=/dev/hdX3" and "dd if=/mnt/vmlinux.px of=/dev/hdX6" If this does not work out i hope to have a answer soon for you.

Once you have your hacked kernel in which will prevent it from removing your hacks, you can begin. First off is your boot page. We need to change it so you can use seral bash. A very useful thing where you can use the seral port on the back of your tivo to communicate with your computer. First since you don't need your tivo drive, you can remove it. From now on i will use /hdX as the new drive. start it back up and get the bootpage again "bootpage -p /dev/hdX" remember the partition the root is on. Next is to edit it. In the _ put the root partition it said above. Also it HAS TO BE HDA. DO NOT CHANGE IT, in your tivo the drive is always hda. type

```
bootpage -P "root=hda_ dsscon=true consol=2,115200 upgradesoftware=false" /dev/hdX
```
This will stop tivo from upgrading and allow the seral to be used. Next is the rc.sysinit.author file. Mount the root partition and type "vi /mnt/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit.author" this will bring you to a blank screen. hit i to insert and type at the top #!/bin/bash hit enter and type echo "Starting serial" enter again and type /bin/bash --login < /dev/ttyS2 >& /dev/ttyS2& This will start the seral. hie esc and type : and wq. hit enter. This will save it and take you out of it. Now you have to make it so tivo can access it. Type chmod 755 /mnt/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit.author . This will make tivo be able to execute it. Also while in there i would get busybox. This allows you to control tivo better.

Will continue tomorrow. Getting tired.


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## captain_video (Mar 1, 2002)

Why are you bothering to post this? There are better and more comprehensive guides posted all over the place that are already proven to work. You are obviously inexperienced in Tivo hacking or drive upgrades based on what I've read so far. Give it up and start reading these forums instead. Posting erroneous information serves no purpose and helps absolutely no one. You've got typos all throughout your post which could be catastrophic if anyone were actually foolish enough to follow what you've written.


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## brianmay27 (Nov 21, 2006)

No for me I went to EVERY site. none did anything for me. after copying it, the drivers were bad, etc. I spent 2 weeks trying to get it to work.


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## captain_video (Mar 1, 2002)

If you followed the instructions you posted I'm not the least bit surprised. Most of it is complete gibberish and riddled with errors and typos. Not to mention that a lot of it is just plain wrong.

I would recommend that you stop whatever you're doing and start reading a lot more. This isn't something most people can pick up in a short amount of time, and two weeks is a very short time when it comes to the learning curve involved. Hacking a Tivo can take a long time to learn, especially if you have little expertise in PC knowledge and working with command lines. Jotting down notes during the process to track what you're doing is a good thing. Posting bad information in a public forum is not. What you have posted is, indeed, _extremely_ bad information.


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## Soapm (May 9, 2007)

As a Newbie I can appreciate his effort. Most of the guides I found assume you know what you want and what you want to do it. I haven't found much that says why you would want to do this hack.

Now from what I have been told, in my case, what is missing is that you much reprogram you PROM. I can't find any info on why, how or when this comes into play but I have finally been told this would have to be my first step.

Capt Vid, maybe you can link us newbies or rookies with a very descriptive step by step guide that is not full of acronyms and doesn't make the assumption you know Linux and what different hacks do.


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## Finnstang (Sep 11, 2003)

There is no super-descriptive guide that start with the assumption that you don't know _anything_. All the guides both here and over at DDB are designed to give good solid steps in reaching some goal. In each and every case, you need some background knowledge (basic PC, basic Linux commands, basic PC hardware) to reach your goal. There are many different TiVo versions, so one comprehensive guide is unrealistic since there are differences between what needs to be done from model to model, so it is also a good idea to have some knowledge of the TiVo model that you are attempting to hack. In your case, you have a newer TiVo that requires a PROM modification to hack the unit. On older models all the hacking was just software mods, but TiVo heightened security by using a PROM chip to foil attempts at making changes to the OS.


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## captain_video (Mar 1, 2002)

> As a Newbie I can appreciate his effort. Most of the guides I found assume you know what you want and what you want to do it. I haven't found much that says why you would want to do this hack.


That's sort of the point. You need to do some research ahead of time. It doesn't make much sense trying to install a hack without knowing why you'd want it.



> Now from what I have been told, in my case, what is missing is that you much reprogram you PROM. I can't find any info on why, how or when this comes into play but I have finally been told this would have to be my first step.


This has been talked about ad infinitum in this and other forums. If you have a series 2.5 or series 3 Tivo you need to modify the EEPROM in order to partially break the chain of trust (i.e., enable the hacks to be installed).



> Capt Vid, maybe you can link us newbies or rookies with a very descriptive step by step guide that is not full of acronyms and doesn't make the assumption you know Linux and what different hacks do.


Have you read through the sticky threads at the top of these forums? If you had I bet you wouldn't be asking these questions or wanting to be pointed to some guide that takes you by the hand and walks you through the hacking process.

Here's a little tip: Look for the threads that discuss the Zipper hack and rbautch's enhancements script. Read about what it does and see if it sounds like something you'd like to have on your Tivo. Then, do some searches for information regarding the hacks you are interested in and learn about what they do and how they're installed. Once you have the understanding the rest comes easy. You can't just start blindly hacking a Tivo without knowing what you're doing, although it seems that many members here do just that, which is why the Zipper support thread has over 10,000 posts. 

Here's another tip: Use Google to search for the terms you want instead of the lame search engines used in these forums. You'll actually get better returns from your queries, many of which will take you to the "other" forum that can't be mentioned here.  When you finally find your way there, look in the sticky threads in the newbie section, especially the one regarding newbie guides, and you'll find all sorts of good things you ought to know.


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## Redux (Oct 19, 2004)

captain_video said:


> You'll actually get better returns [with Google] from your queries, many of which will take you to the "other" forum that can't be mentioned here.


He'll certainly be warmly welcomed there.


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## ttodd1 (Nov 6, 2003)

Not all noobs there are "attacked". The ones that are start off with whining and wanting to be handheld without so much as reading any thread. If you ask questions the "right" way you will get answers but you have to make some effort in your own project.


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## brianmay27 (Nov 21, 2006)

So what do you guys think. i will say yes i suck at spelling. and i did not review it it was 12 and i was tired so some may not make sence. Should i finish it and review it or should i remove it and have it so people dont mess up?


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## Soapm (May 9, 2007)

captain_video said:


> Here's a little tip: Look for the threads that discuss the Zipper hack and rbautch's enhancements script. Read about what it does and see if it sounds like something you'd like to have on your Tivo.


Looks like I would love to get zipper but I have two problems, I don't plan on flashing a prom (don't have the tools) and according to this site it doesn't work on the 649DT Tivo's http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache...autch's+enhancements&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us

"The Zipper is a tool that modifies the software on your Series 2 DirecTivo. It enables your tivo's USB ports, allowing you to transfer shows between multiple Tivos, and stream music and photos from your PC to your Tivo. It also installs Tivowebplus, channel logos, new splash screen, CallerID, and more. With a little extra work, you can also move shows between your Tivo and your PC. The Zipper is based on rbautch's Enhancement Script"

Off to unmention land I do...


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## rbautch (Feb 6, 2004)

Soapm said:


> Looks like I would love to get zipper but I have two problems, I don't plan on flashing a prom (don't have the tools) and according to this site it doesn't work on the 649DT Tivo's http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache...autch's+enhancements&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us
> 
> "The Zipper is a tool that modifies the software on your Series 2 DirecTivo. It enables your tivo's USB ports, allowing you to transfer shows between multiple Tivos, and stream music and photos from your PC to your Tivo. It also installs Tivowebplus, channel logos, new splash screen, CallerID, and more. With a little extra work, you can also move shows between your Tivo and your PC. The Zipper is based on rbautch's Enhancement Script"
> 
> Off to unmention land I do...


If you don't plan on modifying your PROM, your journey ends here. You can't hack your tivo without it. You can send your tivo off to have the PROM modded for $60. There is a link to a modification service in Note 2 on the SApper website (in my sig).


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## captain_video (Mar 1, 2002)

> He'll certainly be warmly welcomed there.


That all depends on how he presents himself. If he just starts off by asking a lot of dumb newbie questions he'll be treated harshly. If he shows that he has put forth some effort and is simply stuck on a problem he'll get the help he needs. Just don't expect to get spoonfed if you go there. DDB is a forum for hackers and hobbyists and members are expected to have a basic knowledge of PCs and a few other skills. It's definitely not the place to go looking for a handout or a newbie step-by-step guide. What it does offer is the best source of information for hacking virtually any kind of Tivo, although you may have to look around to find what you need (google is your friend here).

Most of the major hacks have their own support threads. There's also a section where you can download files for installing on your Tivo. The latest software versions for HDTivos and S2 DTivos also have their own support threads with regards to what you need to do to hack them.

Hacking your Tivo is basically the same across all platforms and models, but with variations based on the processor (Power PC vs. MIPS) and Tivo version (S1, S2, S2.5, DT, or S3). The main differences have to do with the way you break the chain of trust. This involves flashing the EEPROM, killing initrd, modifying the kernel, reprogramming the EEPROM outside the box, or any combination of two or more options. Installing the hacks involves mainly copying the files to your Tivo, extracting them from a gzipped or tarred file, making them executable, and adding a line to the rc.sysinit.author file to run them at bootup. There are a few hacks that are a bit more involved but the vast majority of them are quite simple to install and set up.


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