# TivoMad changed my rc.sysinit file, now tivo won't boot



## Twitch17 (Apr 21, 2003)

Im swapping out two old 80 gig drives with two new 160 gig drives. I used the

dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/hdb bs=1024k

to copy the programs and partitions over to new ones with out any errors. The problem comes when booting up. The TivoMad 3.1 I used to expand the drives to seems to change my rc.sysinit file on hdc4 and the tivo wont boot. . It had only 70 lines instead of around 850 like it does on hdc7 and my other tivo drives and master image. The rc.sysinit on hdc4 has the following....

/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit - trev's special version

then some of the main sections are named these.....

#set the path

echo "starting trev's rc.sysinit" >/dev/ttyS3

#see if we need to re-init swap

#add second disk if there an unitilized

#put back the prorper rc.sysinit

get rid of libraries we copied and put back originals

remove our copy of mn

then ends with this......

#restart
echo "restarting . . ." >/dev/ttyS3
mount -n -o ro,remount /
reboot

I have tried copying with the following command as well

Mfsbackup Tao - /dev/had /dev/hdb | mfsrestore s 127 xzpi - /dev/hdc /dev/hdd

But the tivo wouldnt boot this way either.

I feel if it were booting from hdc7 it would boot right up. Is there a way to copy the rc.sysinit from hdc7 and put that on hdc4 or get it to boot from hdc7?

Should I have used something other than tivomad to expand (bless) the drives. 

You say that it can now take full advantage of partitions over 140 now, is there a certain program I need to expand with to get the full 160 out of my drives?

Series 1 SA Tivo
Original 15 gig drive with version 2.0.1
(2) WD 80 gig drives copied from v 2.0.1 then upgraded via phone to version 3.00.1
(2) new Seagate 160 gig drives
TivoMad 3.1 floppy
Jenkins Boot CD
Athlon XP 2400+


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## puffdaddy (Mar 1, 2006)

Let me preface this by saying that I've never seen or touched a S1 SA. Though I have worked with a S1 Combo box. Let me offer some suggestions that might help you.

If you're attempting to fully use dual 160GB drives, you'll need to get yourself an lba48 aware kernel to do so. MFSTools are going to be a much better bet than older tools like TivoMad. If you're not terribly concerned with your old recordings, I would recommend doing the following:
1. using your 80GB hda, make a minimal backup (to rid yourself of any B drive complications)--or simply get a virgin 3.0 image.
2. restoring that image to your 160GB drive (but not expanding)
3. replacing the stock kernel with an lba48 aware kernel (in preparation for expansion),
4. expanding the A drive only to utilize all 160GB of the drive,
5. verify that works (with whatever hacks you want).
6. then expand to include the B drive (using MFSTools).

Each of these smaller steps would help you to avoid minor errors and would prevent you from taking too large a step (which often can leave you with little recourse to troubleshoot).

To answer your other questions:


Twitch17 said:


> I feel if it were booting from hdc7 it would boot right up. Is there a way to copy the rc.sysinit from hdc7 and put that on hdc4 or get it to boot from hdc7?


yes, you can simply copy over the rc.sysinit from root 7 to root 4, and thereby restore it. You can also change Tivo's boot partition by altering the bootpage (I'm not sure if the Jenkins bootcd has this utility, but other bootCDs do, or you can just grab the actual bootpage binaries off the Inet).


> Should I have used something other than tivomad to expand (bless) the drives.


I've never used Tivomad, but I would suggest MFSTools 2.0, as this Tivomad is quite old.


> You say that it can now take full advantage of partitions over 140 now, is there a certain program I need to expand with to get the full 160 out of my drives?


As I mentioned above, you need an lba48 kernel that is compatible with your Tivo OS version. I'm pretty sure I had seen a Todd Miller custom lba48 kernel for TiVo OS 3.0, so that would probably be a good place to start.


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## Twitch17 (Apr 21, 2003)

What is the command I would use to copy the rc.sysinit from hdc7 to hdc4?

Thanks


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## Twitch17 (Apr 21, 2003)

Just a follow up to let anyone that might see the post that I found the problem. It turns out it was the two new Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 drives, and their inability to work together in Philips series 1 SA as dual drives. I had tried for over a week using mfsrestore, dd copy, Tivomad and many different types of boot CDs and floppys to do a copy of two 80 gig WDs to two new Seagate 160s and preserve recordings to no avail. I finally gave up on my shows and just tried a standard restore of my original Quantum drive and its image. When with many different copy methods I still couldnt get it to work I REALLY got frustrated. It would copy to the A drive fine, but when I tried marrying and expanding the B drive it wouldnt boot up. I tried a different tivo, different ribbon cables, cable select jumper settings, low level format and still no go. I then tried a new Hitachi 160 drive that just came in the mail as the B drive and bang first time success with no problems! Im not sure if anyone even uses dual drive systems anymore or if they would act the same in later series Tivos but beware using two in series one. Knowing that the LBA48 is now available I probably wouldnt have used a dual drive format, but not working on any of my stand alones in years I didnt know they had busted the 137 gig partition problem. I liked the Seagates 5 year warranty and was the reason I selected the drive in the first place, but sure sorry I did now.


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