# HR10-250 Continuous Reboot



## FMK2 (Dec 28, 2002)

I have a hacked HR10-250 (3.1.5f) that's been working fine for months until this morning. I was working in TWP (v1.3.1) and had gotten an error on one of the screens, so I decided to restart TWP. When I did, the TiVo rebooted, and has been continuously rebooting ever since.

It goes through the "Welcome. Powering up..." screen, then to the "Please wait as we finalize your configuration and reboot your system just one more time..." DVRupgrade screen, and on to the "aquiring information" screen, but always reboots when it gets to 52%.

Anyone else seen this type of behavior? Any thoughts? Is this perhaps a sign that the hard drive failed?

I'll pull the hard drive and check it out in the PC (I'm not getting bash with a serial cable), but if anyone else has seen similar behavior, I'd like to know what you found rather than reinvent the wheel.


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## BTUx9 (Nov 13, 2003)

A serial cable and checking what messages are displayed right before the reboot would be most useful, diagnostically.

just in case... if you are running an older version of TWP, I'd remove it from automatically starting up. TWP 1.4 and up have anti-reboot loop code (assuring that THEY don't cause a reboot loop), but older versions don't.


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## FMK2 (Dec 28, 2002)

BTUx9 said:


> A serial cable and checking what messages are displayed right before the reboot would be most useful, diagnostically.


I have a serial cable, and I've checked it on another TiVo (HDVR2). It works, but I get no bash on the HR10-250. Very odd.



BTUx9 said:


> just in case... if you are running an older version of TWP, I'd remove it from automatically starting up. TWP 1.4 and up have anti-reboot loop code (assuring that THEY don't cause a reboot loop), but older versions don't.


Good point -- I'm running 1.3. If I can figure out how to get the serial port working again, I'll do that. In fact, it might be worth pulling the drive and killing the auto-startup on TWP, and then putting it back in the TiVo and trying to boot again.

Thanks.


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## FMK2 (Dec 28, 2002)

I pulled the drive, and the good news is that the Tivo partition at least appears to be in tact. I can mount partition 4 (which, according to bootpage, is my active partition), and everything appears to be in order.

Based on BTUx9's comment that older TWP versions can be unstable, I tried removing the command that launches TWP in rc.sysinit.author, but I'm still getting continuous reboots as reported above.  

I notice that, during it's attempt to boot, the USB adapter lights come on for a minute, but then go out again just before it reboots. I've attempted to telnet to the device when they're on, but so far that hasn't worked either. Telnet times out.

What should I be looking for? Are there any messages written to the drive during boot that I might be able to look at? I haven't been able to get the serial port to work, so i can't watch them "live" during the boot process. Are there other things I can try to see if I can get the box to boot?


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## Xtra7973 (Apr 6, 2006)

FMK2 said:


> I haven't been able to get the serial port to work, so i can't watch them "live" during the boot process. Are there other things I can try to see if I can get the box to boot?


Go to this thread and read what Da goon wrote it may be of some help to you.


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## FMK2 (Dec 28, 2002)

Xtra7973 said:


> Go to this thread and read what Da goon wrote it may be of some help to you.


Thanks for the tip -- that's a great idea -- but I'm not getting ANY response from the serial port at all. Not even garbage characters. I tried Da goon's suggestion hoping that the serial port would initialize if it was earlier in the boot cycle, but no such luck.

I'm beginning to think that the problem is from when I initially Zippered the unit, and that whatever didn't quite work right took a while to completely manifest into what I have now. Maybe some sort of corrupted file or a memory leak or something. Who knows...

Short of figuring out a more focused approach, I'm leaning towards re-zippering the drive and hoping I don't lose my recordings in the process. While I'm at it, I can move from 3.1.5f to 6.3d, which I would like to do anyway.


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## Da Goon (Oct 22, 2006)

What bootpage command do you have set?? Does it contain

```
dsscon=true console=2,115200
```


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## BTUx9 (Nov 13, 2003)

in the spirit of eliminating possible causes for the reboots, you may want to pull your usb network adapter, and see if that helps.


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## FMK2 (Dec 28, 2002)

Da Goon said:


> What bootpage command do you have set?? Does it contain
> 
> ```
> dsscon=true console=2,115200
> ```


The "bootpage -p" command returns the following:
root=/dev/hda4 brev=0x100A dsscon=true console=2,9600

I had hyperterminal set to 9600 baud, but still didn't get anything at all from the TiVo. I have a USB->Serial adapter that has LEDs on it, and I could see that the PC was sending data. Nothing was coming back. I use the same adapter and serial cable on my HDVR2 and it works fine, so it's not a cable problem.



BTUx9 said:


> in the spirit of eliminating possible causes for the reboots, you may want to pull your usb network adapter, and see if that helps.


I'll try that tonight... it's worth a shot.


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## FMK2 (Dec 28, 2002)

BTUx9 said:


> in the spirit of eliminating possible causes for the reboots, you may want to pull your usb network adapter, and see if that helps.


 Well, removing the usb network adapter seems to have done the trick. It booted, the tuners work fine, and everything is still in the NPL. 

But still no activity on the serial port at all. Very odd.

I'm still leaning towards this being a faulty Zipper install. One indicator of that is the fact that I still see the "Please wait as we finalize your configuration and reboot your system just one more time..." DVRupgrade screen instead of the "Unleashed" screen right after "Welcome. Powering up...". That makes me suspicious all by itself. Combined with the dead serial port and the odd behavior of the USB port, it just about has to be either a bad Zipper install or a hardware failure.

If it's a hardware failure, there's not much I can do about that. But if it is indeed Zipper, that's solvable.

I think I'll try to re-Zipper the drive. I could just run Zipper again on the 3.1.5f OS, but I may get brave and try to install the InstantCake 6.3d at the same time -- I'm ready for faster Guide screens!


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## FMK2 (Dec 28, 2002)

Tried re-zippering the 3.1.5f image, but there was absolutely no change. The HR10 boots, but only without the USB adapter (Linksys USB200M2) attached. And no serial activity whatsoever.

I checked, and the version of Zipper I'm using is pretty old -- 2.4 -- so I think it's probably wise to download the latest version and give that a shot. I'll try that tonight after work.


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## rbautch (Feb 6, 2004)

FMK2 said:


> "Please wait as we finalize your configuration and reboot your system just one more time..." DVRupgrade screen...


This is not Zipper output. Do you have PTVnet on the system too?


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## FMK2 (Dec 28, 2002)

rbautch said:


> This is not Zipper output. Do you have PTVnet on the system too?


Well, I basically followed the instructions on the Zipper page, so I did the following:
- Downloaded the Zipper scripts.
- Downloaded and included the 3.1.5f image from DVRupgrade's "Instantcake" CD. (I was zippering a new drive, not starting with the original hard drive, so I needed the image.)
- Downloaded and included the LBA48 Boot CD iso from DVRupgrade.
- Downloaded and included Superpatch and set_mrv_name -- which I later realized I didn't need on an HR10 (missed that note at first), but it didn't seem to hurt anything at the time.

All was well when I was done. I was able to connect via the network, manage TWP over the internet (using GoToMyDVR), etc.

It's been running fine ever since, but without a network connection. I moved into a new house shortly after zippering this Tivo, and it took me a while to get a network connection to it. I finally hooked it up to the home network last week, and it was a couple days afterwards that it went into this continuous reboot.

So it's pretty obvious that I messed something up along the way somewhere, but I can't figure out what it is.

Should I put the drive in the PC and manually remove all the enhancements (since I can't get to it via serial) and start over?


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## FMK2 (Dec 28, 2002)

Well, if nothing else, I'm certainly learning a lot from this experience... which is a good thing, I suppose.

I hadn't changed the drive to rw when I modified the test.conf file, so it didn't make any difference. But I have since done so, and still nothing.

Very frustrating.

I'll keep poking around and see what I can see.


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## FMK2 (Dec 28, 2002)

Here's where I stand;
I have bash... sort of. I discovered that the connector on the TiVo is funky. I tried not pushing the connector in all the way, and that did it. I actually have to have about 1/8" of the connector hanging out for it to work.

However, now I see that something very odd is going on; I'll get the bash prompt (bash-2.02#), but then the next time a hit Return, I get my hacked prompt (HTIVO1-TiVo). If I enter the ls command, I'll get the directory listing, but if I try to cd, I end up back at the original bash prompt. Hit return again, back to the hacked prompt... and so on. So it seems to be stuck in some sort of loop. 

The TiVo still goes into continuous reboot if I don't unplug the USB adapter.

If I pull the drive and look at the filesystem, I can see that the zipper flag is in the root directory... but I also see all the PTVnet folders and files. I have only used the Zipper on this drive, so where did all of that stuff come from?

As rbautch mentioned earlier, the splash screen I'm seeing is a PTVnet screen, not Zipper (thanks for that, by the way). So it's pretty clear that the PTVnet stuff is on my drive, but I don't know how/why.

My guess is that I need to re-Zipper, but I've tried that and it didn't make any difference. So my next thought is that I need to remove the PTVnet stuff and then re-Zipper, but I'm not sure exactly how to do that.

Can I just go through and delete anything related to PTVnet and then re-Zipper the drive? Is there anything in particular that I need to make sure I remove -- or _don't _ remove?

I can, of course, replace the image, but I'd prefer to keep the recordings if possible.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to proceed, I'd appreciate it.


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## BTUx9 (Nov 13, 2003)

sounds like bash has been started twice... if you log out of one of them, it'll probably be a bit easier to use

re: rezipper... you may want to check the tivo diagnostics link from my wiki, and try an emergency reinstall... that'll unhack the tivo, putting a virgin copy of the s/w on it, which you should then be able to zipper. It's also possible to trigger something like that from the tivo (very similar to an upgrade) and hack it without pulling the drive, but it takes a lot more knowledge.
Also check the "Before you upgrade" link for info on resetting your prom password (very useful when you have a serial cable)


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## FMK2 (Dec 28, 2002)

BTUx9 said:


> sounds like bash has been started twice...


Ah-ha! That makes sense, actually. I put the modified test.conf in the root directory, but didn't comment out the bash line in rc.sysinit.author, so it's very possible that it is running twice. I should've figured that one out for myself, but it was just too obvious! 



BTUx9 said:


> re: rezipper... you may want to check the tivo diagnostics link from my wiki, and try an emergency reinstall...


But won't I lose the recordings? I'm willing to wipe them out if I have to -- I'm thinking of dd'ing the whole drive to another (larger) one anyway just so I can play and learn without losing everything -- but I don't want to permanently lose the recordings unless I have no alternative.



BTUx9 said:


> It's also possible to trigger something like that from the tivo (very similar to an upgrade) and hack it without pulling the drive, but it takes a lot more knowledge.


Yeah, I'm new enough at this that I'll stick to easier approaches for now. But I'm learning fast -- necessity is an excellent, if brutal, teacher.



BTUx9 said:


> Also check the "Before you upgrade" link for info on resetting your prom password...


Thanks... I will.


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## FMK2 (Dec 28, 2002)

Since I did indeed have two bash sessions running (thanks, BTUx9), and since I see all sorts of PTVNet "stuff" on the TiVo despite using Zipper, I decided to kill one of the bash sessions by simply renaming test.conf.

The result is that the problems all appear to be resolved!  I get serial bash, I can connect via telnet, and I manually started TWP with no problems.

I still see some stuff that I don't think belongs though, but I'm going to go with the "if it works, don't fix it" approach for now.

I'm going to work on upgrading the unit to 6.3d -- I have the slices already -- and then rerun tweak and see if the unit remains stable from that point.

Thanks for all the help.


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