8 replies to this topic

[dannyfs]

Hiya. Have a dm500 clone with an OpenPLi Beta build on it which works absolutely fine most of the time.
However, sometimes it seems to get annoyed with the epg, which is stored on a drive on my pc. I think that's the reason anyway, but ttis all by the by really, but I need to reflash it every now and then and could do with being able to do this without dragging the thing to my pc to flash. It loops round the boot screen over and over again so I can't get into the menus. I can telnet and ftp into it, with no issues.

Is there any way of flashing this without null modem cable or without being able to get into the menus??

I still to this day, can't understand why these images have the utility where you hold a button on the front in whilst you boot them to reflash the box, disabled? This would be so much easier and on my boxes where I don't use PLi, have never ever had to use a null modem cable...

Is there a way to invoke something like this via telnet?

Cheers

[hemispherical1]

The easiest way to reflash is to use the root.cramfs method as listed in the PLi wiki. If you cannot read the rolling screens for initial setup, you can point your web browser at the DB and use the remote & OSD screenshot functions to set the video mode to stop the rolling.

There's also a trick to flash with telnet, but it is easier to mess up & if you try to change between a normal & max-var image it will leave the box unbootable, requiring the null-modem...



--
hemi

[dannyfs]

The easiest way to reflash is to use the root.cramfs method as listed in the PLi wiki. If you cannot read the rolling screens for initial setup, you can point your web browser at the DB and use the remote & OSD screenshot functions to set the video mode to stop the rolling.

There's also a trick to flash with telnet, but it is easier to mess up & if you try to change between a normal & max-var image it will leave the box unbootable, requiring the null-modem...



--
hemi

Hi hemi

Are you able to let me in on this Telnet method?

The webif doesn't start so I can't "point the web browser" at it.

Also, I'm still baffled why this image doesn't support the "hold the button in to reflash via the network" method.


Cheers

[WanWizard]

The webif doesn't start so I can't "point the web browser" at it.

Also, I'm still baffled why this image doesn't support the "hold the button in to reflash via the network" method.

We're still talking about a DM500 right?

That doesn't have a web interface you can use to flash, nor does it have a hold-a-button feature. And it never had. I think you're confused with the newer boxes running Enigma2.

For an old Enigma1 powered box, a little look in the wiki would have told you how to do it: http://openpli.org/wiki/DM500install

But as it is a clone box, fat chance the latest images are going to work. Flash them at your own risk.

[dannyfs]

For an old Enigma1 powered box, a little look in the wiki would have told you how to do it: http://openpli.org/wiki/DM500install

Hi,

I did look in the Wiki, well I didn't.. because I know how to flash the box when it's working properly. My question, in the first post referred to when this wasn't possible.
Hemi referred to a method of flashing via Telnet.

The way of flashing in the Wiki is not relevant to my original question because

It loops round the boot screen over and over again so I can't get into the menus.

So I'm unable to do steps 3 and 4 from the Wiki. This was why I asked hemi for this telnet trick.

There's also a trick to flash with telnet, but it is easier to mess up & if you try to change between a normal & max-var image it will leave the box unbootable, requiring the null-modem...

Edited by dannyfs, 11 October 2011 - 23:49.

[WanWizard]

I thought our E1 images alternate between PAL and NTSC in the setup wizard to deal with the rolling screen issue? It's been some time since I flashed one.

From what I can remember, the code behind the update panel in the image places the image file with the name "root.cramfs" in /tmp, then does

rm -f /tmp/.enigma
sync
umount /var
umount /media/hdd
/bin/flashtool

Don't know it that could destroy things when you do it manually though...

[dannyfs]

I thought our E1 images alternate between PAL and NTSC in the setup wizard to deal with the rolling screen issue? It's been some time since I flashed one.

From what I can remember, the code behind the update panel in the image places the image file with the name "root.cramfs" in /tmp, then does

rm -f /tmp/.enigma
			sync
			umount /var
			umount /media/hdd
			/bin/flashtool

Don't know it that could destroy things when you do it manually though...

Thanks mate. Really appreciate it. I'll give it a go tomorrow night and report back.

[hemispherical1]

E1 images stay in PAL until set to NTSC, E2 images cycle through the different options.

If you can't get into the menus, the logical choice would be to flash with DreamUP, no GUI or TV needed. Might as well use that as, if I explain how to do it with telnet, if anything goes wrong (which is easy enough to do, there are no safeguards) the box will be dead until reflashed w/ dreamup & null modem anyways

It seems strange that you cannot connect to the web interface, yet telnet is up and running?

Telnet Flash 500- CDK:
[list=1]
[*]Copy unzipped image to /tmp, name doesn't really matter as long as you know what it is, I'll use root.cramfs for this example.
[*]In telnet run command: eraseall /dev/mtd/3 (if you mistype here you could kill the box, think jtag not dreamup)
[*]In telnet run command: cp /tmp/root.cramfs /dev/mtd/0
[*]Reboot
[/list]
If anything doesn't complete successfully, Dreamup can probably recover the box unless you managed to corrupt the boot loader, that's basically what Gemini's infamous clone kill images did, requiring soldering, jtag, bootloader image, etc...

Again I'd just suggest using dreamup & being done with it, neat & clean...


--
hemi

[dannyfs]

E1 images stay in PAL until set to NTSC, E2 images cycle through the different options.

If you can't get into the menus, the logical choice would be to flash with DreamUP, no GUI or TV needed. Might as well use that as, if I explain how to do it with telnet, if anything goes wrong (which is easy enough to do, there are no safeguards) the box will be dead until reflashed w/ dreamup & null modem anyways

It seems strange that you cannot connect to the web interface, yet telnet is up and running?

Telnet Flash 500- CDK:
[list=1]
[*]Copy unzipped image to /tmp, name doesn't really matter as long as you know what it is, I'll use root.cramfs for this example.
[*]In telnet run command: eraseall /dev/mtd/3 (if you mistype here you could kill the box, think jtag not dreamup)
[*]In telnet run command: cp /tmp/root.cramfs /dev/mtd/0
[*]Reboot
[/list]
If anything doesn't complete successfully, Dreamup can probably recover the box unless you managed to corrupt the boot loader, that's basically what Gemini's infamous clone kill images did, requiring soldering, jtag, bootloader image, etc...

Again I'd just suggest using dreamup & being done with it, neat & clean...


--
hemi

Hemi.

This worked perfectly.

Thank you very much Hemi.