June 23, 2005 7:08 AM

dddiam said:

Kindly clarify a couple of areas where I am confused.

The S2SA release notes contain two conflicting statements: In one place they imply that InstantCake's TCD540 image does include LBA48 support. In another place, they say "LBA48 support is NOT included in the current release of InstantCake."

Also, does the InstantCake boot CD, itself, have LBA48 support. i.e., Can the InstantCake software/scripts and underlying Linux see the full capacity of the target hard drive?

- David

TiVo's software for the TCD540 models supports LBA48, therefore InstantCake (and its boot CD) for this model includes LBA48 support.

For answers to commonly asked questions, please refer to the
InstantCake Instructions and Release Notes,
Official InstantCake Discussion Thread, and the
Official PTVnet Discussion Thread

June 28, 2005 9:17 AM

tivoluvr said:

I must admit it does seem rather confusing to me as well as it is presently written. I was first encouraged by the claims your InstantCake product, then discouraged to find that if I use it, I can only use a portion of my 160Gb drive. I again was a bit encouraged to find that I could be able to use the whole disk if I ordered your Universal Boot Disk or used the LBA48 CD, and modified the kernel to allow LBA48 support, only to find that if TIVO sends an software update our way I will likely be dead in the water. I see that you do offer 160Gb drives fully set up (S2R71-160000X) and I was wondering if these drives will have the same limitations if TIVO were to revise their software? Would your "X" drives cease to work as well? I really don't care to learn Linux and I will likely just use the InstantCake and live with the 137Gb limit. If you have found a way to fully utilize a 160Gb disk so the subsequent software updates won't render the system useless, I'm wondering if you will be coming out with an upgraded version of InstantCake-S2SA in the near future that will allow us to realize the full capacity of large drives?

Product Specific Notes

InstantCake for your Series2 standalone unit builds the equivalent of our standard replacement drive kits for your unit. This product does not contain LBA48 support This product does not contain any modifications for your unit, other than capacity expansion.

Drive Sizes

.... [Note: kits with a -X in the model name indicate LBA48 support; LBA48 support is NOT included in the current release of InstantCake for this platform, therefore we do not recommend using drives larger than 160GB which will only yield usable space of 137GB per drive]



Also note that should TiVo update the software on your unit, you will need to go through the kernel replacement procedure again.


tivoluvr

The kit you are referring to does contain a modification which supports LBA48. When the latest version of the TiVo software is updated to the unit that kit is designed for, things will work just fine because the latest version of the software does support LBA48 natively.

The bottom line is this -- Series2 SA units (TCD 240 models) are supported by an InstantCake release which is based upon the 4.0 software from TiVo. This does not contain LBA48 support. Our kits DO offer LBA48 support and updates from TiVo will not affect their operation.

So the way it works is this -- InstantCake is certainly cheaper than purchasing a kit from us -- you get more functionality if you purchase a kit from us.

For answers to commonly asked questions, please refer to the
InstantCake Instructions and Release Notes,
Official InstantCake Discussion Thread, and the
Official PTVnet Discussion Thread

June 28, 2005 9:59 PM

tivoluvr said:

Ah, let me see if I correctly understand the problem. InstantCake writes 4.0 ver files to the new drive when you use it to format the prospective TIVO drive. If you would then use Todd's updated kernel to be able to support LBA48 and then TIVO updated the software to a version that didn't support LBA48, it would wipe out Todd's Kernel and one would have to re-install Todd's Kernel. I believe that the software on my TIVO unit is like 7.2. If that software now supports LBA48, then Todd's kernel it would seem that it would not be affected by future software upgrades as the LBA48 support should now be the default. If I am correct then we could use InstantCake, let the TIVO call in and update the software. It would seem that one could use the universal Boot Disk and upgrade the kernel with no future problems. Am I on track?

Its not Todd's kernel; its one we had custom built for us. There is also more to it then just installing a new kernel.

Here's how it is --

4.01 does not contain LBA48 support; 7.1 does

The kit you mentioned IS 4.01 with LBA48 support. When 7.1 downloads, everything is replaced and works fine.

For answers to commonly asked questions, please refer to the
InstantCake Instructions and Release Notes,
Official InstantCake Discussion Thread, and the
Official PTVnet Discussion Thread