Maintenance Mode

Note: If you are planning to use maintenance mode, it is recommended that you upgrade to Customised Firmware version 2.13 or above

Background

Version 1.15 of the Custom Firmware added a new feature called Maintenance Mode, This mode has been created to enable the Humax to carry out special functions that can’t be run in normal mode, When this mode is running there will be no TV Tuner, TV Recording or Custom Firmware Graphical User Interface (GUI), Access in this mode is via Telnet - Command line only.

When the Custom Firmware boots up it will look for a special file, If it finds this file, the Firmware will boot into Maintenance Mode and then delete the file, If the file is not found the Firmware will boot into the normal Custom Firmware

Enter Maintenance Mode

To enter Maintenance Mode you need to create the special file and then re-boot using Telnet as follows :-

touch /mod/boot/maintenance.boot

reboot

The telnet session will then be closed and the box will reboot, After a few seconds you should be able to telnet back into the box

Maintenance Mode Notes

While in Maintenance Mode Only Telnet is functional, The following Notes are Valid for the HDR-Fox T2:-

• Disk are shown as /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, etc
• An external HDD found on boot will be /dev/sda and the internal HDD will be /dev/sdb
• An External HDD connected after boot will be /dev/sdb and the internal HDD will be /dev/sda
• Partitions on those disks are /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2 etc
• fdisk -lu HIDE Will display Disks and their Partitions
• df -h HIDE Will display Mounted Disks

Exit Maintenance Mode

The Special file created in order to enter Maintenance Mode is automatically deleted on entry, Due to this 'Fail Safe' feature all subsequent re-boots will result in a normal Custom Firmware boot up,

So to exit Maintenance Mode, simply Telnet the following :-

reboot

What is Maintenance Mode for ?

At present, it is used for checking the HDR internal disk file system and formatting USB hard disks up to 2TB (The standard Humax format only works up to 1TB)

Run a filesystem check on the Internal Hard Disk Drive

See notes on the fix-disk utility

Format a WD Elements 2TB USB external Hard Disk

Full Details Here

These are some extracted notes for drive = /dev/sda1 :-

• Ensure you are formatting the correct drive e.g. /dev/sda1 or /dev/sda2
• unmount drive (if Mounted already mounted) with e.g. umount /dev/sda1
• Partition the disk with using fdisk -u /dev/sda1 then p to display current
• d to delect current
• n to create primary partition
• p to select primary partition
• Partition no = 1 First Sector = 2048 last sector = default
• p to display new selection e.g. Disk /dev/sda: 2000.3 GB, 2000396746752 bytes
• w to write new partition and exit fdisk
• Format new partition with mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1
• format will will take about 20 minutes for a 2TB disk