13 replies to this topic

[ozyaus]

Followed the following steps to upgrade firmware on my VU+ DUO;

1. Format USB 

2. transferred the vuplus/duo DIR of the downloaded firmware to USB

3. Powered off VU+ DUO, inserted USB and switched on

 

It does not work and the old firmware boots up. 

Have tried various USB sticks (7) of various capacity (2G/4G/8G) and inserted into front as well as rear USB ports, even formatted on UBUNTU as well as WINDOWS as FAT. Sometimes the display flashes momentarily Reading USB....

 

Firmware I tried ---  8.3/9.0 OpenPli, 4.4 OpenBH, 7.3 OpenATV

 

There is an internal hard disk that has a vuplus/duo DIR containing files. Should this be deleted?

Is there any way an upgrade can be done after telnetting to the box? 

ipkg update also fails on the current firmware as the URLs defined in the conf files at /etc/ipkg/ dont fetch any content. 

 

Any help would be really appreciated. 

[Frenske]

Depending the present FW on your Duo you can perform an online flash via Menu - Setup - Flashing an image. 
‘Why you can’t perform flashing via USB I can’t tell from here. It’s a long time ago I flashed a Duo. Perhaps you didn’t unpack the FW correct. On the USB stick there should be a folder Vuplus containing a folder duo which contains the files. Please check.

 

This is what is mentioned in the WIKI. 

 

 

How to flash a Vu⁺ Duo

Download a image from: https://openpli.org Unpack the ZIP file and place the content on a USB disk. 

1. Format your USB stick with a FAT32 file system
2. Download the USB image of your choice on https://openpli.org/...d/vuplus/vuduo/
3. Extract the USB image (it is a .zip archive) on your PC using your favorite unzip tool to the root directory of your USB stick. The result is that you get a directory vuplus and in this directory you find a directory duo in which you find the necessary files.
4. Insert the prepared USB stick into the front of your VU+ Duo receiver
5. Switch your VU+ Duo off (power-off, not stand-by!). Or choose restart in your receiver: Menu -> Standby / Restart -> Restart and go directly to step 7
6. Switch your VU+ Duo on
7. Wait until you receive the message to reboot your Vu+ Duo
8. Remove the USB-stick and switch the power off and on again to reboot.

[Trial]

Hi,

it is long ago but I think it must be 2-4GB fat32 formated and pluged in the front socket. Rear socket must be empty so no flash or disk drive attached there. When I had to uses this method I had 1 1TB stick which worked and I kept it like a treasure. The directory/file structure is also important.

Files must be in /vuplus/duo and

boot_cfe_auto.jffs2, kernel_cfe_auto.bin und root_cfe_auto.jffs2 must be inside this directory

 

Ralf

[ozyaus]

Thanks for the pointers Frenske and Trial. I tried unsuccessfully to upgrade from a URL I found on the internet for the ipkg conf files.

 

Can someone post working entries on their box.

 

I edited my ipkg conf files to:

root@vuduo /etc/ipkg # cat 3rd-party-feed.conf 

src/gz 3rd-party http://downloads.pli...pli-4/3rd-party

src/gz 3rd-party-vuduo http://downloads.pli...3rd-party-vuduo

 

root@vuduo /etc/ipkg # cat official-feed.conf 

src/gz all http://downloads.pli...s/openpli-4/all

src/gz mips32el http://downloads.pli...npli-4/mips32el

src/gz official http://downloads.pli...openpli-4/vuduo

 

root@vuduo /etc/ipkg # ipkg update

Downloading http://downloads.pli...rty/Packages.gz

Inflating http://downloads.pli...rty/Packages.gz

Updated list of available packages in /usr/lib/ipkg/3rd-party

Downloading http://downloads.pli...duo/Packages.gz

Inflating http://downloads.pli...duo/Packages.gz

Updated list of available packages in /usr/lib/ipkg/3rd-party-vuduo

Downloading http://downloads.pli...all/Packages.gz

Inflating http://downloads.pli...all/Packages.gz

Updated list of available packages in /usr/lib/ipkg/all

Downloading http://downloads.pli...2el/Packages.gz

Inflating http://downloads.pli...2el/Packages.gz

Updated list of available packages in /usr/lib/ipkg/mips32el

Downloading http://downloads.pli...duo/Packages.gz

Inflating http://downloads.pli...duo/Packages.gz

Updated list of available packages in /usr/lib/ipkg/official

 

root@vuduo /etc/ipkg # ipkg upgrade

Assuming locally installed package enigma2-plugin-pli-ppanel (openpli+git53+600ecdcfa75fc8000d9c45b12764469df37d428c-r3) is up to date.

Upgrading libtuxtxt32bpp0 on root from 0.0+cvs20090130UTC-r2 to 2.0+git64+a1b4255-r3.3...

Downloading http://downloads.pli...-r3.3_vuduo.ipk

Assuming locally installed package module-init-tools-depmod (3.2.2-r2) is up to date.

Nothing to be done

Collected errors:

ERROR: Cannot satisfy the following dependencies for libtuxtxt32bpp0:

         libz1 (>= 1.2.8) libc6 (>= 2.20) libtuxtxt0 (>= 2.0+git64+a1b4255) libfreetype6 (>= 2.5.4)

root@vuduo /etc/ipkg # 

 

[WanWizard]

That is a VEEERRRYYYY old image, we haven't used the pli-images.org domain in many, many years...

 

It could be an OpenPLi 4 installation (which doesn't have the flash option in the menu) from before the server disk crash, when we had to rebuild all images, in which case updating won't work due to package version issues.

 

So flashing is indeed the best option. If the box shows "reading USB" in the display, there is nothting wrong with the bootloader, but it can't read the USB.

 

Like Trail wrote, It MUST be FAT formatted, it must be connected to the front port, it must be the only USB device connected, and it must have the zip unpacked as-is, so all files must be in the folder "/vuplus/duo", not in the root of the stick !

 

And that brings me to the next problem: the VU+ Duo is a very old box, with only 128MB flash memory. The current images (release 8 and 9) are about 110MB in size, so while you can flash them, and install a softcam, you can not do software updates, or install plugins, there simply isn't any space available.

[s3n0]

@ozyaus:

 

Exactly as @WanWizard wrote, in your case there is an initial and important step in the flashing process that is wrong. And that's downloading the LATEST firmware, intended for your set-top box. You are using OpenPLi 4, which is an outdated build, often modified by third parties, to work on very old set-top boxes.

 

Download the latest OpenPLi firmware from the website:
https://openpli.org/download/

 

First of all, back up important data and settings from the set-top box - if you need any (e.g. channel list or softcam configuration files). Then download the latest firmware. Repeat the procedure. If something still doesn't work, please write again what exactly... or how you proceed.

 

BTW, you can find the exact procedure for flashing OpenPLi for your set-top box here:
https://wiki.openpli...h_your_receiver

[ozyaus]

I tried the steps in the wiki with version 8 of openpli. Still no joy. The only new development is that now the VFD display is stuck on Starting... and there is no display on the TV. The output from a putty serial connection at 115200 8E1 to the RS232 is completely indecipherable. Looks like the bootloader is corrupted. Saw some forums on the Web talking about loading the bootloader from USB, tried that too with no luck.
Don't know where to go from here. Any ideas?

[WanWizard]

You haven't bought an old Duo with a power supply issue, by any chance?

[ozyaus]

There are no issues with the power supply Wanwizard.

I got to the bottom of the issue of USB sticks - Duo expects only MBR and FAT32 partitions! Most software by default create GPT partitions, that is why they are not recognized on Duo being an older CFE to other later models which are less forgiving. Flashed it with Openpli ver 7 to be on the safe side and it works like a charm.

 

To investigate why the garbage char on RS232, I opened the box and discovered that the PS fan is not working and its power is located close to the serial port hardware - maybe a failed hardware in that area.

 

Thanks for the great help everyone, much appreciated.

[s3n0]

Wait, I don't understand exactly. The problem was that there was a bootable MBR / GPT (UEFI) boot record on the USB storage device ? So it should work without these MBR / GPT (UEFI) ?

 

Correctly, the CFE boot-loader in set-top box should not register and use for booting these MBR and GPT (UEFI) boot records on the USB storage device at all... if it is a linux set-top box. The CFE boot-loader boots the system from internal flash memory, not from a USB storage device. The USB storage device is only used for flashing the new firmware (CFE boot-loader, when the set-top box is turned on, searches the USB storage device for the folder for flashing and the appropriate files for the firmware, if it finds them, it starts the flashing process).

[WanWizard]

I have here loads of USB devices, from small sticks to portable disks, formatted on the box and on my laptop, and none of them have a GPT partition table. There is no reason for using GPT on a device smaller than 2TB.

 

So I am curious to know what the definition of "most software" is, as those are doing it wrong.

[abmantel]

I had the same problem but...I found out that one file was missing <splash_auto.bin> and downloaded that from the upgrade site of VU+ . Is in the package of the upgrade of your unit. After that it went very well.

[WanWizard]

That file is optional, not required for flashing. It is the VU+ bootlogo you see when the box boots up...

[s3n0]

Hi.

 

As WanWizard wrote, this splash_auto.bin file only contains the logo from the device manufacturer (which can be seen for a short time immediately after connecting the set-top box to the network or during reboot). For example, the OpenATV firmware overwrites it with its own logo - it's crap !!! So, when you ever download the OpenATV firmware, delete this one file from the USB stick after opening the ZIP archive.

 

---------------------

 

As for flashing problems... I also had... once again... a similar problem. However, not with the Vu+ device, but with the Formuler F3. It was not possible to flash with a USB key.

 

I really tried a lot of things there:

• I used about 4 USB keys - different capacities (512 MB, 4 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB).
• I changed the filesystem on the USB key several times by reformatting it - either by formatting it in the Windows system or using the MiniTool Partition Wizard tool.
• I have also tried to remove delete the MBR record or WIPE the disk.
• I even changed the MBR / GPT partition table.

Nothing helped at all !

 

Finally, disconnecting all the cables from the set-top box + waiting for about 15-30 minutes helped. After that, Enigma2 flashing (OpenATV, OpenPLi, etc.) also worked.

 

Apparently there was a charged capacitor or some residue in the RAM memory or something like that causing problems. I disconnected everything from the device... the power cable from the adapter (230V mains), the coaxial cable from the antenna, the HDMI cable... and in general all "holders" of a possible electro-static charge. Then I waited about 15-30 minutes. And then flashing from the USB stick worked normally again.