WDLXTV LIVE Firmware Flashing

[joanjett1]

no #
replace ON with OFF
put only S00custom-options on stick and reboot (no need to flash anything)

Thanks Recliq!
That worked. Thanks again.

[RQuadling]

Hi.

This is the first time I've ever modded anything ... MMMV ...

The steps I've taken are ...

Copied the .bin and .ver files to the root of a newly formatted 4GB USB key.
Created a .mnt file.
Amended the S00custom-options file in the following ways:

config_tool -c PANDORA=OFF
config_tool -c RTORRENT=ON
config_tool -c RTORRENT_DIR=/tmp/mnt/rTorrent
config_tool -c NZBGET=ON
config_tool -c WDLXTV_CENSUS=ON

I've inserted the stick into the USB slot on the side of the unit (the one at the back has the harddrive connected to it).

Upon booting, I get notification of new firmware. I follow the process to install it. A reboot took place.

For the last 10 minutes or so, I've been looking a "Updating firmware" page.

"Your HD Media Player is being WDLXTV'd. Please DO NOT disconnect power or the attached storage."

And the progress bar is at 0% and not moving.

I can see the USB key is being accessed (it has a light which is flashing when it is being accessed) and the USB access light on the WDTV box is also flashing.

Is this supposed to take this long? Does the progress bar follow the Microsoft rules for indicating progress? Can I recover from this?

It is at this stage that I realise I didn't actually create the rTorrent directory in the root of the stick. Is that an issue? If I want to flash from the USB stick, but use the main drive as the store, what is the name of the device? (I'm a Windows user with a little *nix knowledge ... and you know what they say about a little knowledge ... "A little knowledge means you are going to fubar it pretty fucking quickly!".

Regards,

Richard Quadling.

[RQuadling]

And a warm start isn't a cold start. Unpowered the WDTV ... Repowered. Firmware all in.

WOOT!

[marquis6461]

One thing I have found also. Certain Flash Drives do not work. I have tried several. The only one that seems to work 100% of the time is the Cruzer.

I have had my system recycle over and over on one. another, just froze on the get go.

I have even suffered the infamous Brick symptom. Solution: Use 2 USB drives. One with the Original Software. and the other with B-Rad custom FW.
Place the Original Software in the USB1. and B-Rad in USB2. Power up several times. BAM!. System comes online and load up original software.

A Downloadable Plugin: The Folder Shortcut does not work...... Just hangs. System runs fine without it. Noticed a very long delay on startups and video runs but otherwise.

The 25 fps is working better and the Networking problem in the original is fixed and the HUB works great.

Thanks B-Rad. My whole family is now buying one because of your great enhancements.

[RQuadling]

So, do most people load the firmware from a USB key or do they flash the WDTV box itself (that's what I did)?

I've got a 1TB USB harddrive. Can I put the software on there and load if on bootup?

As I see it, if the original firmware is always available, but I can load WDLXTV from my harddrive, which is also on my network ... that would seem to be the best of both worlds.

If so, why bother flashing? Without an external harddrive, how to people play video/music/photos?

As you can tell, I'm new, but I'd like to be able to get the most out of my setup, so having some feedback on this would be great.

Does the WIKI include this type of info? I noticed the different versions of WDLXTV, but I didn't really know which to use. If someone can explain in simple terms why you would choose one over the other, then I could update the wiki (I guess I can update the wiki?).

[Buhric]

I beleive you are talking about using the EXT3 version of the firmware (Root.bin) instead of flashing the WDTV with the firmware....

Well in order to use ""root.bin" the WDTV needs to be flashed with B-Rad's firmware first.
The reason is that its B-Rad's firmware that has a "hook" that looks for Root.bin on the USB drive and boots from there.
As far as I know, any version over v0.4.x.x will let you boot with a Root.bin
in my case I have v0.4.1.9-6 flashed, but I'm booting with v0.4.2.2 using "Root.bin" in a USB key

I find it easyer to flash it once, then when you want to "upgrade" just change the root.bin file on the usb key

Has for how to play video/audio/photos without an external hard drive ?
well theres Network Shares and Media Servers.... ya don't need a Plugged USB hard drive to use the WDTV Live...

All the media I have are in Networked drives, either a shared folder in my computer or a NAS

[RQuadling]

I beleive you are talking about using the EXT3 version of the firmware (Root.bin) instead of flashing the WDTV with the firmware....

Well in order to use ""root.bin" the WDTV needs to be flashed with B-Rad's firmware first.
The reason is that its B-Rad's firmware that has a "hook" that looks for Root.bin on the USB drive and boots from there.
As far as I know, any version over v0.4.x.x will let you boot with a Root.bin
in my case I have v0.4.1.9-6 flashed, but I'm booting with v0.4.2.2 using "Root.bin" in a USB key

I find it easyer to flash it once, then when you want to "upgrade" just change the root.bin file on the usb key

Has for how to play video/audio/photos without an external hard drive ?
well theres Network Shares and Media Servers.... ya don't need a Plugged USB hard drive to use the WDTV Live...

All the media I have are in Networked drives, either a shared folder in my computer or a NAS

My pc is a small laptop, I use the external drive for all the big storage. Having it in the WDTV is useful as the drive is now on my network and I don't have to plug it into my pc all the time. It is a lot slower though. 100mb/s vs the 420mb/s of USB2 High Speed (assuming that High Speed is all working).

I think I've got to do a LOT of learning about the unix OS to get all the best out of this.

For example, it took me a few hours to work out how to edit the YouTube search history. Now I want to build a PHP script to do all the useful housekeeping, etc. But I don't know where to put the scripts in this system? I _want_ to put them on the external harddrive, but I think I can't. I think I need to use Samba, but that's a guess.

I wonder if there are any really clever people here who could do a Windows/Unix comparison so those of us who aren't unix guru's can get to grips with things.

[ipodvi]

I am on a custom FW that someone posted with WMA Pro support. I am trying to update the latest b-rad.cc FW and the usb drive FW update is not being noticed I don't know why anyone know why? Also I have tried to change the number on the wdtvlive.ver and it still wont find it.

[b-rad.cc]

wma pro has been in fw's for a long time. how about you post what version it says you're running in setup->system->about

[j.elices]

Hi, I am a newster to WDLX.
I followed the general rules, but started from beta 1.06.38 official fw.
Changed the version numbers so that automatic detection of new fw took place appropriately and... after being informed of a future restart, my WD Live went blank and never came back online.
When I try to unplug and replug it, some of the back lights blink and when connected to the ethernet cable, its light goes green, but I get nothing else, no matter what I try: connecting via composite or compount video, two pendrives, one or none connected...
What did I do wrong?
Can I fix it now?
Please... help!