# Fixed MFSTools - Introducing MFSLive



## Agent86 (Jan 18, 2002)

I found this in another thread in the Series3 area. Props to dswallow for finding the software.

Link to dswallow's original post

The new software/distribution is called "MFSLive" and it appears to fix the two biggest issues we had with MFSTools:

1) Improper alternate root partition size
2) Improper swap setup over 127MB

The author basicially took MFSTools v2 and fixed it up. It looks like this just might be what we've all been searching for!

Link to MFSLive


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## JamieP (Aug 3, 2004)

Um. How about props to spike2k5 for taking on mfstools bug fixes and enhancements and releasing the software?

BTW, the weaknees_sata iso that accompanies their Series3 upgrade instructions also has the swap and partition size bug fixes.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

Here! Here! :up:


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

Agent86 said:


> I found this in another thread in the Series3 area. Props to dswallow for finding the software.
> 
> Link to dswallow's original post
> 
> ...


This software is GREAT and the guy will help you if you E-Mail him, he answers quickly. It does all he tells you but you have to issue some commands a little different, to restore just issue restore not Mfstool restore, and mounting to a partition just leave off the word /mount and only issue /partition name.


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## Agent86 (Jan 18, 2002)

JamieP said:


> Um. How about props to spike2k5 for taking on mfstools bug fixes and enhancements and releasing the software?


I did not notice this - thank you for pointing it out.

*HUGE* thanks to spike2k5 for hooking us up with a fantastic toolset!


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## BlankMan (Mar 30, 2002)

This stuff worked great! Thanks!


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

BlankMan said:


> This stuff worked great! Thanks!


I have been using for two months now and its great and they answer their E-Mail quickly.


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## HTH (Aug 28, 2000)

Would this help me in my situation?

I have a pair of married Series1 WD 120GB drives that are dying on me. They started as 30 horus, upgraded to 92, upgraded to 127, upgraded to 270 hours. Originally I failed to expand the swap and had to sacrifice the alternate partition to increase swap to successfully emerge from a GSOD.

I'm now trying to back them up to a pair of Seagate 120 GB drives, preserving recordings. It tells me it can't fit it. I've tried -T, -t, and -s on backup and dropping -x from restore. With -T I get "Uncompressed backup size: 224494 megabytes" and with -t I get "260 megabytes", but still get "Restore failed: Unable to fit backup onto drives."

I am booting the CD that came with Jeff Keegan's _Hacking TiVo_ 2004 book from /dev/hde so and with hda, hdb, hdc, and hdd byteswapped and vmlnodma.

I don't want to have to go back and pick up two 160 GB drives that I can't fully utilize. I've had stuttering problems with mismatched master-slave models and manufacturers before, so I also rather not have 160 + 120.


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## HTH (Aug 28, 2000)

I did a check and it looks like the MFSLive CD sacrifices the ability to byteswap four drives, so it may not work for me after all. 

Also, it looks like I did the swap expansion on the other Series1. Space is accounted for up to the first MFS application region according to plist. Swap is 131072 (64.0M) though, so I'll try not expanding it, then doing an alternate root blowaway again... ah, now it runs with -Tsao and -zpi.


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## haysdb (Dec 11, 2002)

The command to upgrade a 250GB drive to a 500GB drive is

```
backup -qTao - /dev/sda | restore -s 128 -xzpi - /dev/sdb
```
I was curious what each of the switches did, and managed to find most of them:

```
mfstool backup

-q
	?

-T
	Like -t, but in addition to using the total size for comparison, the
	total size is also used to back up the stream.  Normally only the
	used size is backed up.  This will result in a larger backup.  This
	implies -t, with the exception that it can be used with -i as
	expected.

-a
	Backup ALL streams.  This is useful if you have recordings you
	want saved with your backup.

-o file
	This tells backup where to write the backup.  If - is specified, the
	backup will be written to stdout.


mfstools restore

-x
	Extend the MFS volume to fill all the drives given for restore.  This
	will create extra partitions on the drive to fill the remaining space
	and add them to the usable space for the TiVo, even if the drive was
	not needed for the restore.  Note, however, that doing this could
	cause a backup to fail because it will leave room for the extra
	partitions, possibly making the backup not fit.-i file
	Read backup from file.  If - is specified, backup will be read from
	stdin.

-z
	Zero out partitions not backed up.  This means the inactive bootstrap,
	kernel and root partitions, as well as the /var partition if it is
	not in use.  Swap is automatically re-created, and not zeroed out.
	This is a little slower (About half a minute) but safer.  It may
	become the default at some point.

-p
	Attempt to optimize the partition layout for TiVo's access patterns.
	This will imitate the partition layout of DirecTV TiVo receivers
	and newer standalone receivers.  The partition layout of the first
	drive will be such that the application data will be in the middle
	of the drive and the video on the outside, causing the head to have
	to seek less.

-i file
	Read backup from file.  If - is specified, backup will be read from
	stdin.
```
I found this in the MFS Tools README file.


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## HTH (Aug 28, 2000)

-q
Quiet. Don't display progress.

-qq
Really quiet. Don't display anything but errors.

-f N
Back up all video streams whose fsid is below N.

-l N
Back up all video streams smaller than N megs in size.

-t
Cause space calculations for "-l" (above) be done on the total space allocated, instead of space used. Doesn't work with mfstool restore's "-i" option. ("-i -" is the same as omitting it.)

-s size
Recreate swap partition of specified size. The value for size is in MB.
_WARNING: Do not put a value greater than 127, or you will end up with no swap space at all! The README file for mfstools does not mention this, but it is crucial. This can render your TiVo unusable. Always just use "-s 127" during restores if the combined drive size is greater than 140 GB._

Hmm... I wonder, could I have opted to shortchange the size of /var using -v to give me enough swap? Apparently not: "Varsize in backup mis-matches requested varsize."


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## spike2k5 (Feb 21, 2006)

HTH said:


> I did a check and it looks like the MFSLive CD sacrifices the ability to byteswap four drives, so it may not work for me after all.
> 
> Also, it looks like I did the swap expansion on the other Series1. Space is accounted for up to the first MFS application region according to plist. Swap is 131072 (64.0M) though, so I'll try not expanding it, then doing an alternate root blowaway again... ah, now it runs with -Tsao and -zpi.


you don't need to turn on byte swap. mfstools takes care of byteswap so just boot w/ defualt.


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## dcehl (Oct 3, 2005)

HELP!!!

the command:
backup -qTao - /dev/sda | restore -s 128 -xzpi - /dev/sdb

what is the vertical slash after sda and before restore - I'm new at this and want to upgrade.

Also, how long should it take (backup & restore) to go from a 40gb to 300 gb with no recordings to tfr?


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## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

dcehl said:


> what is the vertical slash after sda and before restore - I'm new at this and want to upgrade.


It's called a pipe. It's on the backslash key (above Enter).


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## dcehl (Oct 3, 2005)

thanks windracer - I originally thought it meant (hit return)! I was wondering why it was taking so long to get to the next prompt!


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## spike2k5 (Feb 21, 2006)

dcehl said:


> HELP!!!
> 
> the command:
> backup -qTao - /dev/sda | restore -s 128 -xzpi - /dev/sdb
> ...


w/o much recording 30 minutes.


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## HTH (Aug 28, 2000)

My TiVo doesn't seem to like the new Seagate pair. It doesn't get past the initial splash screen. But if I pair the new Seagate master with the old Western Digital slave, it works.

I'm suspecting a problem with the way they are jumpered for master and slave. The label doesn't describe a slave position, just master and cable select, with master saying 1 for master, 0 for slave. I took that to mean that no jumper should be present for for slave. It appeared to work on the PC that way. They are both Barracuda 7200.9 120 GB drives, model ST3120814A, firmware 3.AAJ.


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## spike2k5 (Feb 21, 2006)

I've seen that problem on my older TiVo with Seagate drives. I suspect firmware on TiVo has problem with two identical model & size. What is your TiVo model?
My work around was to use a different size drive.


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## HTH (Aug 28, 2000)

Phillips HDR112.

My experience has been the opposite with identical models. I've experienced stuttering with mismatched vendor drives but not with matching drives (Maxtor and WD), until this Seagate pair.

I also tried to dd the old slave to new and still it would not work. If I allow it to boot with the original slave with the new master, I get a GSOD. I've put back the Western Digital pair. Analog recapture is difficult though due to frequent playback problems.


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## spike2k5 (Feb 21, 2006)

I've only seen the dual identical model problem with Seagate drives 7200.9 & db35


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## dlongnecker (Dec 31, 2006)

I used MSFLive today to upgrade my Tivo 40 hour to 280 hour. Worked like a champ!!!!! The only wierd thing is that I picked the backup option and it took about 18 hours to backup and restore to a new drive.

Thanks for publishing such a great tool and easy to use documentation!!!!!


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## spike2k5 (Feb 21, 2006)

dlongnecker said:


> I used MSFLive today to upgrade my Tivo 40 hour to 280 hour. Worked like a champ!!!!! The only wierd thing is that I picked the backup option and it took about 18 hours to backup and restore to a new drive.
> 
> Thanks for publishing such a great tool and easy to use documentation!!!!!


What kind of computer did you use? Normally takes less than an hour for 40GB.
I guess your DMA setting was off.
What was your TiVo model and what boot option did you use?


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## hoyty (Jan 22, 2003)

HTH said:


> Phillips HDR112.
> 
> My experience has been the opposite with identical models. I've experienced stuttering with mismatched vendor drives but not with matching drives (Maxtor and WD), until this Seagate pair.
> 
> I also tried to dd the old slave to new and still it would not work. If I allow it to boot with the original slave with the new master, I get a GSOD. I've put back the Western Digital pair. Analog recapture is difficult though due to frequent playback problems.


There is some problem with Series 1 and dual seagate. Check out Series 1 UK. These are UK tivo but the same problem. Dual Seagates seem to work fine in Series 2 and above.


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## HTH (Aug 28, 2000)

I reimaged again to one Seagate and a spare Western Digital I hadn't yet used and now my Series1 is happy again. I'll need to run some diagnostics on the previous WD pair (WD1200 Caviar) to see if one or both were dying and if they can still be used in other devices.

This weekend I've decided up upgrade on of my Series2 next from its stock WD800 Performer to a single 750GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9. Due to the problems I've had with Mystro software on the cable box, I need a bigger drive on a Series2 so I can move cablebox recording to it from a Series1 so soft padding can solve some of the problems. Both Series1 units will have to be relegated to straight cable recording.


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