# /var/hack gone



## speedyrite (May 18, 2002)

More than 4 years after doing a hard drive upgrade and adding a cachecard - which gave me TivoWeb and the ability to daily call via the internet (and to which I added EndPad and Aerialplug's logos) - my /var/hack directory disappeared this week. First noticed something was wrong when soft padding stopped working and then found that I couldn't use TivoTool.

I can still access TiVo via Telnet and FTP. The daily call is still working via the internet.

So, I have found a backup on my computer of /var/hack from almost 4 years ago which was created by running the following in /var

tar -cvh hack | gzip > hack.tar.gz

My ancient notes suggest that I can simply FTP the file hack.tar.gz back to /var on TiVo and then run the following in /var

gzip -d hack.tar.gz
cpio -H tar -i < hack.tar

and all should be normal after a restart.

Is it really as simple as that?
Are there any potential pratfalls that I need to be aware of with the above (especially as the backup is so old)?


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

speedyrite said:


> Is it really as simple as that?
> Are there any potential pratfalls that I need to be aware of with the above (especially as the backup is so old)?


When my /var directory was wiped in February last year (3 years and 8 months on from upgrading the hard drive and installing Tivoweb) I simply FTP'ed everything back up from a copy I had on my PC hard drive plus I also FTP'ed back the copy of the rc.sysinit and rc.sysinit.author files I had taken to the /etc/rc.d directory on the Tivo after making it writable (if you don't have a copy of these files the instructions at www.steveconrad.co.uk/tivo/tivoweb.html should tell you how to modiify the rc.sysinit file appropriately). These files are the ones that have to be modified to get Tivoweb to start automatically at bootup.

I did also have a tar backup of the type you describe but couldn't seem to get that to work properly so hence why I used the direct copy of /var that was on my hard drive.


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

rc.sysinit.author is unaffected by a /var wipeout as it's under /etc

..and you REALLY should not be altering the rc.sysinit file at all.


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## jamesmb (Oct 26, 2005)

I recently lost my /var too. Didn't notice except endpad wasn't working much to my frustartion.
I remembered it happening some time ago when I tried to load tivoweb.
I have TivoHeaven drive upgrade and they suggested:

cd /devbin
restorevar

which worked a treat then and has just saved my bacon again now.
downloaded endpad again, created a directory /var/hack/endpad for it and it has started working again after a restart as luckily this was where I put it last time and my sysinit.rc.author file was OK.


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## speedyrite (May 18, 2002)

speedyrite said:


> More than 4 years after doing a hard drive upgrade and adding a cachecard - which gave me TivoWeb and the ability to daily call via the internet (and to which I added EndPad and Aerialplug's logos) - my /var/hack directory disappeared this week. First noticed something was wrong when soft padding stopped working and then found that I couldn't use TivoTool.
> 
> I can still access TiVo via Telnet and FTP. The daily call is still working via the internet.
> 
> ...


Yes, it really was as simple as that!


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## purplesocrates (Jan 7, 2005)

My /var/hack folder got deleted mysteriously. It's been that long, I couldn't even remember the name of the utils or anything :-( 

I started to worry for tivo, he's pretty old, gulp.. but then as if a gift from the gods... 
cd /devbin 
restorevar. 

Thanks tivo / tivocentral / jamesmb.


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