Prevent Automatic TiVo Software Upgrades
From DVRpedia
Contents |
Overview
If your TiVo automatically upgrades to a new version of software, you lose all of your modifications. Follow these instructions to disable automatic upgrades. Instead, your TiVo will download the latest software but will allow you to install it manually.
Applies To
- All Series 2 and Series 3 TiVos
- Does not appear to work on Series 1 TiVos
Disabling automatic software upgrades
From your tivo telnet prompt run the following command to see what root is currently set to:
bootpage -p
It should show something like:
No device name given, assuming /dev/hda
root=/dev/hda7 brev=0x100A dsscon=true console=2,115200
Note: The above may appear all on one line depending upon how you have your console configured.
At the command prompt, substitute information from the previous command into the new command below, adding the parameter upgradesoftware=false. Use bootpage -p to add the upgradesoftware=false flag if you don't have it set:
bootpage -P "root=/dev/hdXY brev=0x100A dsscon=true console=2,115200 upgradesoftware=false"
Where XY is what you found for the root after running the first bootpage –p. Also note that the above should all be entered on one line, with out any carriage returns or line feeds.
If you are missing the console parameter, you should add it as well. It sets the speed of the serial port telnet session. If you lose networking, the easiest way to fix it is to run a telnet session over a serial cable, preventing you from having to remove the drive.
Alternative Methods for DirecTiVo
You can also simply unplug your phone line to prevent daily calls. This will not prevent automatic downloads of new software from the satellite, but it will prevent that software from being installed. Please note, you will start to receive "Your TiVo has not made a daily call in XX days" error messages, see the Fakecall.tcl page to prevent these error messages.
Fakecall.tcl can also be used to prevent daily calls, which will in turn prevent software upgrades.
Dead Routes
For Series 2 DirecTiVo owners, it is also possible to prevent TiVo from connecting to the TiVo corporate download servers. This is accomplished by adding the following lines to the [rc.sysinit.author] file. These line cause the IP addresses of the TiVo download servers to be re-routed back to your local TiVo.
route add -host 204.176.49.2 gw 127.0.0.1 route add -net 204.176.49.0 gw 127.0.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0
