# Edited the rc.sysinit and it won't boot up



## Hookd (Oct 28, 2002)

Hi all,

I have a DSR6000r01 Series on DTivo that I've upgraded the drives and added a Cachecard to some while ago. Recently, Directv must have overwritten the dirveres again because the network capabitlites stopped working again. I pulled the drives and fixed it. I remember reading here about changing the rc.sysinit file so that it wouldn't update the software anymore. I downloaded a copy of the file to my desktop and changed the export software update to false then reloaded it onto the Tivo (using ftp) and now the Tivo won't turn on. Obviously I've done something horribly wrong. 

Can anyone give me an idea of how to fix it? I still have a back up of the file on my hard drive. And, how to get to the hard drive? I am handly with Windows and Mac stuff but limited on Linux stuff. Please be specfic.


----------



## David Platt (Dec 13, 2001)

You have to use a linux-friendly text editor to edit rc.sysinit, otherwise it will screw up the file by adding extraneous information to it; a good free one that I like is EditPad Lite. There is a utility out there that will fix the rc.sysinit, but I can't remember the name of if for the life of me right now. Hopefully somebody else will chime in here with the name of it.


----------



## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

There are several cardinal rules when editing files on your PC and uploading them back on the Tivo:

1. Make a backup copy of any file you intend to modify. That way you won't have to start a new thread and beg for a copy from someone else when you hose it up.

2. Use a text editor that can save the file in Unix format. Text editors like Wordpad or Notepad insert extraneous characters into the text that Linux can't recognize. If you inadvertently use one of the aforementioned editors you can fix the file by uploading a script called DOS2UNIX and running it on the offending file on the Tivo. It will remove the extraneous characters and convert the file to Unix format. I prefer TextPad for editing my Tivo files. It's easy to use and it's free.

3. Always upload files to the Tivo in passive binary mode using an FTP program. Uploading in anything other than binary mode will render the file useless.

4. Always make sure the permissions are set properly for the file. If you have an executable file and transfer it over to your PC there's no guarantee that it will remain executable when you transfer it back. Always reset the permissions to be on the safe side.

In your case, I'd recommend that you pull the drive and install it in your PC. Boot from any Linux boot CD and access the rc.sysinit file from there. If you have a copy of the original file you can modify it and transfer it to the Tivo or edit a copy on the drive itself (you did remember to make a backup of the file, didn't you?). Make sure it's executable and in Unix format when you're done or you'll have to start all over again.


----------



## Hookd (Oct 28, 2002)

mr.unnatural said:


> In your case, I'd recommend that you pull the drive and install it in your PC. Boot from any Linux boot CD and access the rc.sysinit file from there. If you have a copy of the original file you can modify it and transfer it to the Tivo or edit a copy on the drive itself (you did remember to make a backup of the file, didn't you?). Make sure it's executable and in Unix format when you're done or you'll have to start all over again.


I did make a copy of the file. However, it is sitting on my laptop and not in the Tivo. I have connected the drive to my computer using a linux software but it can't find the bootpage and won't let me mount the drives.


----------



## Hookd (Oct 28, 2002)

Okay so I was using an older version of the MFSTools that didn't have the bootpage command. I now got it. And I found out that my bootpage is on hda7

The problem is that when I use the 
mkdir /tivo
mount /dev/hda7 /tivo 
command I get a statement saying "no filesystem specified" but the mount was successful 

and try to view the /etc/rd.c directory and it doesn't seem to recognize it. 

I got all those commands from this websites archives but I've reached a roadblock. 

Any ideas?


----------



## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

Maybee try ls /tivo/etc/rc.d


----------



## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

Based on the partition he mounted, it will be "cd /tivo/etc/rc.d" to navigate to the directory ("ls" just displays the contents). I'm hoping you had a typo in your original command because it should have read "mount /dev/hda7 /tivo". In fact, you should be installing your Tivo drive anywhere BUT primary master unless you're doing a clone of multiple drives. Try installing the Tivo drive as secondary master and remount the active partition (/dev/hdc7). Just remember that you need to include the name of the mounted partition when you specify the path (in your case, partition 7 is /tivo and everything else in that partition is a subdirectory of /tivo).


----------



## Hookd (Oct 28, 2002)

mr.unnatural said:


> Based on the partition he mounted, it will be "cd /tivo/etc/rc.d" to navigate to the directory ("ls" just displays the contents). I'm hoping you had a typo in your original command because it should have read "mount /dev/hda7 /tivo". In fact, you should be installing your Tivo drive anywhere BUT primary master unless you're doing a clone of multiple drives. Try installing the Tivo drive as secondary master and remount the active partition (/dev/hdc7). Just remember that you need to include the name of the mounted partition when you specify the path (in your case, partition 7 is /tivo and everything else in that partition is a subdirectory of /tivo).


I fixed the typo. I've been working on this for days and it is pissing me off now and I make foolish errors when I am mad.

Anyway.. first off I think that the hard drive is failing because I am getting a partition error as it boots up.

Also, no matter what position the harddrive is in the bootpage is always /dev/hda7 even when placed in the /dev/hdc position.

I do have two bigger hard drive that are not doing anything (but are under 137 gb for my series 1)... I do have a mfsrestore copy on a cd from my original hack a number of years ago.

My question is if they original drive is failing maybe it would be better to restore clean version of the software, re-add the cachecard etc.. can I then copy the programs over to the new hard drives? Also, have a deactivated Series 2 Tivo... could I copy the programs over to that?


----------



## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

The bootpage will always be either hda4 or hda7 since the Tivo drive will always be the primary master drive when installed in the Tivo. You need to mount the active partition based on how you have it installed in the PC (i.e., if you have it installed as secondary master you will mount partition hdc7).


----------

