AltEPG

Another "my TIVO isn't appearing on the network anymore" thread, sorry.

I've transferred to altEPG via phone a few days back but wasn't able to access Tivo by tivoweb anymore (unrelated, happened a few weeks back), pinging the IP address where it ought to be returns time out. So today I pulled it out of the stack and opened up, Cache card seemed seated comfortably but took opportunity to remove all the dust bunnies and reseat everything. on booting up all 3 lights (link, activity and cache) were lit with only cache red light flickering, seemingly in time to HD activity.

Router is showing something plugged in to port 3 where the Tivo cable runs but I've run various IP scan programs and they only return the various PCs, laptops and tablets I'd expect to be seeing, nothing that might be TIVO with a new address.

I know that theretcally I can pull the drive and sort things the hard way, looks like I might have to if I can't even ping it, telnet is going to prove a tad difficult!

So, as Mr Murphy would have anticipated, everything here either takes a 2.5" drive (laptops, tablets, Daughter's Dell SX 260) or is so shiny and new it's never even heard of an IDE connector - all Sata. Glad I tidied out the attic a while ago, who'd have thought I'd be needing a 10 Year old Desktop PC just to fettle the TIVO?

Anyone had luck connecting the TIVO drive via USB caddy type thing? Will the AtlEPG ISO CD recognise via USB? Can use the CD drives to boot from but how to get the TIVO drive attached?
Also, any way to re-image with AltEPG image and keep existing recordings?

Any polite or anatomically possible suggestions greatfully accepted.

Paul

Do you get the silicondust screen on startup?

Yup, goes through the caching and writing etc screens before the guy on the slide as normal. Cachecard had 3 lights suggesting all's well, Router has lit indicator for the cable the tivo is on the end of, again suggesting it's connected, I just can't find it on the network!

Frustrating.

P

when this happened to me it was because it had gone back to the default IP of (I think) 192.168.1.200

Ping 192.168.1.200 = request timed out.
Doh!

worm wrote:when this happened to me it was because it had gone back to the default IP of (I think) 192.168.1.200

From the description I would think his drive was build some time ago (prior to the AltEPG image), all builds like that only worked off static IP's set by the Silicon Dust tools.

The earlier AltEPG images weren't quite finished, so they defaulted to the 192.168.1.200 if the card was a cachecard (basically, I borked the DHCP on the cachecard side of things)

It is strange however that everything looks in order, the card drivers are loading, you can see the NIC link light is up on both the cachecard and the router and you can even see traffic polling through the card and yet your can't access the tivo!?!
Is it possible you just forgot the IP you had originally assigned it ?

You could try and scan your IP range to see what IP's are live or failing that, use the Silicon Dust CD (as long as its defiantly not an AltEPG image) to edit the NIC config, but that requires pulling the drive.

It does look like I'm going to have to resort to pulling the drive but still don't know if I can use a USB caddy to connect it up in the absence of and IDE connectors?

Good call on forgetting what IP I had assigned the TIVO many moons ago, fortunately an olf Tablet PC I've not used for a while still had the shortcut for TIVOweb on it and even had the last PING attempts saved in the run menu, but sadly request still times out.

IF I can get connected by USB caddy, might be an opportune moment to do the AltEPG ISO install, How about saving recordings whilst doing this?

Cheers for any/all help

Paul

Well, before you panic....

Have you checked that you are on the same subnet? If you are on a different subnet, unless you have modified your netmask or added a static route, then pinging 192.168.1.200 isn't going to work....

.... which doesn't mean that it isn't the correct address....

Afraid the AltEPG ISO is based on a heavily cut down Knoppix base (to keep the size down to a minimum) and only has PATA drivers installed, so I don't think you'll be able to mount a USB device.
When we get time, we will fix this, in the mean-time, you could use the MFSLive CD which is basically a similar bootable Linux ISO that does support USB.

A prize to the gentleman on my left!
Seems my router was using a different range (192.168.50.x) to what it was when Tivo was originally fully functional, swapped 50 with 127 on router mask and Robert became your mum's brother!

Little steps = steady progress.
Telnet gives bash-2.02#, result!

I don't remember asking the router to change anything, TBH it took me a while just to find out how to force a change this afternoon, once I'd remembered the chuffing config/admin password!

Cheers chaps, fermented grass seed based beverages on me.

Now, anyone remember why I wanted the Tivo networked again?
Paul

microbe wrote:Yup, goes through the caching and writing etc screens before the guy on the slide as normal. Cachecard had 3 lights suggesting all's well,

Out of interest how do you see the Cachecard lights? Do you run your TiVo with the case open or have you made a custom mod?

mrtickle wrote:Do you run your TiVo with the case open or have you made a custom mod?

You mean there are lids?
Mine hasn't seen a lid in months now... (Oops don't tell the IEEE chappies who frequent this forum!)

yup, sadly low tech solution running cabriolet style, at least temporarily whilst fault finding. No fibre optic light path extensions here, only the guff virgin installed 15 years ago.

Ooh a "Tivo Cabriolet" - me want one!
Is there somewhere to hang my shades?

Yes I do like that term