# Rebooting Tivo



## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

Hi

My power has been down for a bit today, when it came back on my Tivo would boot, play the intro then go to LiveTV then after a bit it would reboot.

Having had the no sound problem for while I switched the PSU for one I've had in store for a while, but still the same thing.

I get my network connection etc. before it reboots but I have no idea why it's restarting or what I can do about it - can anyone help?


```
Feb 20 16:58:58 (none) kernel: mediaswitch: returning 0 from standin tune after tuning to ch -3 with adjust 0 
Feb 20 16:58:59 (none) kernel: Done with this packet 
Feb 20 16:59:01 (none) kernel: tcp_keepalive: call keepopen(0x80ad12e0) 
Feb 20 16:59:57 (none) kernel: Tmk Assertion Failure: 
Feb 20 16:59:57 (none) kernel: BlockFailure, line 1771 () 
[b]Feb 20 16:59:57 (none) kernel: Tmk Fatal Error: Thread tivosh <204> died due to signal -2 [/b]
Jan 1 00:04:17 (none) kernel: Cannot find map file.
Jan 1 00:04:17 (none) kernel: Loaded 29 symbols from 9 modules.
Jan 1 00:04:17 (none) kernel: Old MediaSwitch address map
```


```
Feb 20 16:44:17 (none) kernel: Last boot was with sound, all OK 
Feb 20 16:44:50 (none) kernel: tcp_keepalive: call keepopen(0x80af05c0) 
Feb 20 16:45:31 (none) kernel: mediaswitch: returning 0 from standin tune after tuning to ch -3 with adjust 0 
Feb 20 16:45:32 (none) kernel: Done with this packet 
Feb 20 16:46:00 (none) kernel: Tmk Assertion Failure: 
Feb 20 16:46:00 (none) kernel: BlockFailure, line 1771 () 
Feb 20 16:46:00 (none) kernel: Tmk Fatal Error: Thread tivosh <203> died due to signal -2 
[B]Feb 20 16:46:05 (none) kernel: 1a344ec 1a32a44 1a2ed70 1b95e0c 1c4d5e8 1c891d0 1c858b4 1c85158 1c7aee0 1c61a10 1c8e4e0 1c77e7c 1c61a10 1c8e4e0 1c77e7c 1c61a10 1c849c0 1c85ec8 1c4d248 1c28cac 1800134 <3>tcp_keepalive: call keepopen(0x80af05c0) [/B]
Jan 1 00:04:17 (none) kernel: mem_init: start_mem = 0x80294000, end_mem = 0x81000000 
Jan 1 00:04:17 (none) kernel: Memory: 13744k/16384k available (696k kernel code, 1944k data) 
Jan 1 00:04:17 (none) kernel: Kernel virtual start=0x81000000, end=0x81d6c000
```


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

Ran mfs -assert which triggered a gsod followed by a successful boot - 2 minutes later it restarted. I'm running mfscheck now...

Is the disk busted?


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

Also tried kickstart 57, then 58 no dice - Tivo booted then rebooted 4 minutes later.
So in desperation I ran kickstart 52 which has brought Tivo back to life.
Unfortunately all my previous recordings are unplayable - Tivo claims to have had no video signal at that time.
I've also lost all my hacks and network connectivity too.
All in all a very bad day for my poor old pal.

I'm resigned to pulling the drive to reinstall the network driver and restore my hacks.

*Is there any way to recover my recordings?*

I've been searching unsuccessfully...
*Does anyone know the default IP address for the cachecard?*


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

At the risk of talking to myself...

Looks like the cachecard drivers aren't installed as I don't even get the loading screen on reboot. Guessing their final act was downloading the 2.5.5 software?

Does anyone know if kickstart 52 reinstalls lba48 or just the vanilla 2.5.5 OS from the mothership?

Is it possible that running copykern will revive my now playing list or is it dead anyway?

Looks like I have a job to do tomorrow


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## smokie (Dec 27, 2002)

Well I can offer no technical support but here's a bit of the moral kind.

It's been so long since I did all the hacking that made my TiVo the superstar it is today that I hope I never find myself in your position. Very good luck!

PS Someone who knows what they are talking about may need to know a bit about your disk configuration - looks like 1 drive to me...?


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

Thanks for the moral support - it's a 1 disk machine, upgraded to 400GB April 2008 I think.
I believe I was just unlucky losing the power shortly after the daily call. Tivo is on a UPS but the outage was longer than the run time


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## Johnbyte (Nov 4, 2008)

All beyond me, I'm afraid. However I don't think I changed the IP address of my cachecard from the default which was 192.168.1.200, if that helps.

I know that loss of input signal will make TiVo reboot after a longish period - 30 minutes or more. The fact that you can't play your existing recordings does kind of suggest either corrupt software or disk or both.

Sorry I can't be more help.


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

Crickey...
Well yanked Tivo out of the comfort of the av cupboard and pulled the lid off.
Removed the drive and dismantled the main PC, struggled to find my old discs so reburnt an old PTVUpgrade ISO onto CD.
Went through the usual nonsense with putting the drive on Primary Master and wondering why nothing worked.
Reconnected the Tivo disk as secondary master and the CD as primary master and finally got copykern to run.
Then struggled to find a version of nic_install that supported the cachecard.
Eventually found my original TivoHeaven cachecard driver disc (in a locked filing cabinet in a disused toilet, behind a sign saying "out of order" in a dark basement with no stairs).
Got nic_install to run.
mistyped the IP/subnet thanks to that gottcha of it putting in . with 3 digit entry but not 2.
Got the drive back into Tivo and got a boot with cachecard drivers and a response to ping. FTP and telnet are working and /var/hack is still there but my author file is gone.

Recordings between the kickstart 52 and this morning are failing to play. Some from before that are also knackered but a fair few are working. Now I think about this it makes sense as the MFS will have been merrily rewriting addresses <137GB since then stomping over the previous recordings.

Moral of this story - when the electricians say they're turning the power off for a bit expect them to turn the power on/off/on/off all bloody afternoon and don't trust the UPS to smooth all the problems out.

*Kickstart 52
Hopefully a search brought you here. If you've run kick start 52 to get out of a reboot loop and you have >137GB of storage turn your Tivo off until you can get the disk into a PC and rerun copykern.*


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

Just ran a test call - to check it was all working again - then a daily call. And while that was running I FTP'ed my rc.sysinit.author file back over and just caught myself before I typed sync then reboot.

That would have been funny...not.


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

ARGH back into reboot hell - obviously something is rotten in /var.
Put in a copy of rc.sysinit.author with everything but the path commented out.
Time to reinstall all the hacks, not sure I trust the ancient back up - might start from scratch...tomorrow.

Anyone remind me what the Linux command to remove subdirectories is?


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

*rm -rf /var/hack*

That will delete ALL of /var/hack


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

Hmmm even the commented rc.sysinit.author appeared to cause reboots or may be it's something evil in the video buffer. I think I'll clean up the duff recordings, clean up /var and start again.


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

Hmm another reboot last night playing back a corrupted recording (video from one programme in another) followed by the "installing new software" panic screen.
I still have cachecard drivers, telnet and FTP but nothing else?
*Is there a way to check if LBA48 is still working without pulling the drive (again)*


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

*cat /proc/version*

With the LBA48 kernel:

Linux version 2.1.24-TiVo-2.5 ([email protected])

Original non-LBA kernel:

Linux version 2.1.24-TiVo-2.5 ([email protected])

If it says buildmaster, then you need to run copykern again.


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

excellent many many thanks!

```
bash-2.02# cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.1.24-TiVo-2.5 ([email protected]) (gcc version 2.8.1)
 #14 Wed Oct 8 12:06:25 MDT 2003
```


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

It continues...
Should I be worried about this in the Kernel log?

```
Feb 23 11:32:49 (none) kernel: EXT2-fs warning: mounting unchecked fs, running e2fsck is recommended
```
What does e2fsck do?


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

It seems efsck is some form of disk checking. Mine seems to grumple about partiton 9 on most boots before and after this problem.

Deleting the recordings immediately before and during the period when I was running the unpatched kernel seems to have improved reliability but I'm still stuck with reboots if I try and run dailymail


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