Can anyone help with HDD replacement and new image?

[Julian Matthews]

Hi, my HDD has almost packed in on my Vu+ duo and i need to replace it. I keep getting the flashing circles so i bought a new one. I can access the old one but it freezes a lot so ive tried ftping things over but its getting stuck a lot. This made me decide to just start from scratch but it's been so long ive forgotten everything lol. Is there a way to just initialise the new HDD and if so what do i need apart from that?

I know i need satellites.xml for eg for the satellite list but im guesing mine is way outdated. Im also thinking im way behind on the image as im on 303, the newest is apparently 309. The thing is some of them say online only. The reason i dont update regularly is i keep having to relocate all the satellites which i find is a pain. With the new online updates do i still need to do that or do they stay in memory? Also 309 says i need openmultiboot, i dont even know what that is. Can anyone please give me instruction from changing the HDD to whatever i need to do to get this up and running again please? I'd search but theres so much i dont know that id probably miss an important part out.

One last thing, the last time i updated i had to flash using an old flash usb stick with a microsd in it, none of my other usbs worked. Is there any easier way such as ftp to put the new image on or is it still the same?

 

[AlexWilMac]

1) About the multiboot need, maybe if you also tell us what VU+ do you own... I suppose one with not much flash, then it's adviced to install in omb.
2) I also suppose (because of course you didn't tell even that) you want to copy your recordings from your old HDD. We often need to act like wizards, as you users simply don't explain. The easier way to save your old HDD content is:
put it into a box,
connect it as an external one,
install the new HDD as internal (and format it as ExtFs4);
install the plugin EMC (Enhanced Movie Center) because it makes easy to select multiple recordings or files of any kind and copy or move into another device. BH, otherwise, is quite limited at managing recording and media files.
4) About the pain of not updating, what you are talking about is not an "update", but it is an UPGRADE, in case. An update is within the same version but this is possible online; an upgrade is a step to the next version of an operative system and this requires to "reformat", reflash your box.
3) Again, about the pain of not updating and the strange talk about "relocating" satellites, what do you mean? Saving your channels and bouquets or saving your tuner configuration? Obviously, this another lac of info. So...
4) If the pain of the upgrade process, is to save all your settings (meant as configurations, not as bouquets and channels, as they are often named in enigma2 images) they are in the file "settings" located in /etc/enigma2: you can save it by FTP. After the new install, you can edit the new "settings" by a text editor, and paste the needed lines.
5) If, instead, by "satellites" you meant your channels and bouquet, they can be easily save in many ways: by a software specific for your O.S., or by a browser, using the OWIF (OpenWebInterface) just typing your box IP: there you have, among all the other functions, a bouquet editor to export (save) and then import.

End of the wizard's job. Do you understand that posting here is like going to the doctor? If you don't fully explain your situation or needs, we cannot be as helpful as we could.

 

[Julian Matthews]

Thanks for the reply Alex, firstly i should mention that in my OP i have said i own a vu+ duo. i didnt mention the recordings because there are none. i was trying to find out if there are any essential things that need to be copied over such as settings etc.

What i meant about relocating was that when i went from BH 2.something to 3.something i had to locate all the satellites and save their position again (disceq 1.2). I also lost the bouqets but managed to salvage them somehow, cant remember how. Whats omb btw, is that meant to be usb? Ive got dreamboxedit and filezilla, will work out how to save or do backups but just now im looking at how to start from scratch and somehow save my satellite config and bouqets if possible. Id also prefer the multiboot system as it seems i can do the "upgrade" you mention online as opposed to reflashing.

As for your last line i did post my machine as stated (in the 1st line of OP). Its harder to explain what i need to save when im asking what i "need" to save (ie bouqets or sat info etc). The only thing i seem to have omitted is whether or not i needed to save recordings. Again thought thanks for the reply

 

[AlexWilMac]

Thanks for the reply Alex, firstly i should mention that in my OP i have said i own a vu+ duo. i didnt mention the recordings because there are none. i was trying to find out if there are any essential things that need to be copied over such as settings etc.

The image does not reside in the HDD, it resides in flash. There is no special setting in the HDD and, as you mentioned Filezilla, you can verify yourself.


What i meant about relocating was that when i went from BH 2.something to 3.something i had to locate all the satellites and save their position again (disceq 1.2).

So, they are where I wrote: etc/enigma2/settings. But this file contains every settings. So you need to learn which lines are the ones related to what. For instance, the ones related to the TUNER CONFIGURATIONS are basically all the ones containing the word "NIMS".


I also lost the bouqets but managed to salvage them somehow, cant remember how.

I told you how: software for your computer. I don't know what O.S. do you have (fortunately, there are always less windows PC in the world, and that's why the IT world is becoming more effective), because you forgot to mention such a secondary detail. There is dreamboxedit, iDreamx and others, depending on your O.S.. And you mentioned dreamboxedit only below....
But, again, you don't need anything using a whatever browser and OWIF (see my previous message).


Whats omb btw, is that meant to be usb?

No: I wrote before using the acronym what is OMB; its OpenMultiBoot. We can't write Openmultiboot again and again. OMB.


As for your last line i did post my machine as stated (in the 1st line of OP). Its harder to explain what i need to save when im asking what i "need" to save (ie bouqets or sat info etc). The only thing i seem to have omitted is whether or not i needed to save recordings.

OH: this is funny, because HDD is almost only used to save your recordings or to transfer to it your media files! So you omitted a basic thing, if you don't use this way.
I save (also) on my HDD some other things, but just for my comfort (symlinks, L4L settings and a few secondary files, but they are also on my computer, if I need them and they have nothing to do with the functions of the image).
How did you fill up your HDD if there are no video files? How much space it's reported there? What File System did you use to format (if you formatted by your VU+ it can be only ext3 or 4, fortunately).


Now it's my turn to ask you what do you mean by OP: this is an acronym never used in this forum! If you mean you profile signature and details, it is simply not shown in the posts and nobody reads the user profile each time we answer a post...

I suggest you, if you want to really take advantage of such a powerful device like an enigma2 box, to explore the web to learn ho to manage it. A VU+ or any other Linux box is not just a passive STB (set top box, in case you haven't never read this acronym...): it is more like a computer with its O.S. (operative system) and it must be "programmed" appropriately or used by advanced means.

Regards.

Again thought thanks for the reply

 

[Julian Matthews]

OP is opening post, sorry, its used on other forums im a member of. Thanks for the other info, i'll just save the settings file. When i tried to copy everything over from the HDD it kept failing on some files in the proc folder, most of them in fact but now i know they're not important i'll leave them.

I have windows and dreamboxedit and i realised what OMB stood for later on but i couldnt edit my post. As for learning the vu+, basically i wanted the box for certain sports channels. When i first started i read and then asked questions and people were nice enough to explain calmly to me what was needed then i followed their instriuctions and got it sorted. After that i didnt touch it again as i had my channels. Later i had to reflash because of some sort of crash so i went from BH 2 to BH 3. After that i left it again so i apologise for not knowing that everything was kept in the settings folder etc.

PS i also didnt know that everything about the image was in the flash, i thought some files may be on HDD which is why i asked. I didn't mention i had windows because i didnt know it was important, how could i? As for the "this is funny line", i didn't know what was kept on HDD, i knew media was but ive also seen things like satellite.xml on there so i didnt know what important files were kept there.

I DO appreciate the help but if i talked to people the way you are in your replies in my job as a driving instructor i'd get no work. Perhaps you don't understand that not everyone does this full time or keeps updating etc so doesnt need to know every single thing or even most things about these boxes. Its there to watch a few channels, thats it so i don't know too much about them. If you're happy to explain things then i appreciate it but if you can't get past me not knowing what info you needed then please feel free to ignore this thread. Thanks again for the help

 

[AlexWilMac]

If I wasn't happy to explain, d'you think I'd write such long posts? What I want user to understand it's that they tend not no explain exactly their issues, their needs, their devices, their equipment and so on. And this makes very difficult to help.
The advice about trying to go deeper into such a powerful device it's something not related to your issue but it's only a general advice in order to be much more satisfied about your VU+.
I'm now also remembering that the only thing that maybe on the HDD (but it's not useful to copy it, as far as I know...) it's the Kodi folder. But as I don't like Kodi and I don't use it, I forgot it. But I almost sure that it's not a folder you may copy as it is and Kodi must be reinstalled from scratch, in case.

 

[Julian Matthews]

If I wasn't happy to explain, d'you think I'd write such long posts? What I want user to understand it's that they tend not no explain exactly their issues, their needs, their devices, their equipment and so on. And this makes very difficult to help.
The advice about trying to go deeper into such a powerful device it's something not related to your issue but it's only a general advice in order to be much more satisfied about your VU+.
I'm now also remembering that the only thing that maybe on the HDD (but it's not useful to copy it, as far as I know...) it's the Kodi folder. But as I don't like Kodi and I don't use it, I forgot it. But I almost sure that it's not a folder you may copy as it is and Kodi must be reinstalled from scratch, in case.

Thats great thanks, dont use Kodi either so that isnt a problem. I do intend looking more into the vu box as id love to have kodi on it but back when i updated it wasnt available. As it is just for now i intend to just change the HDD and look at maybe a new image so OMB looks good. At the least it'll make updating easier. Ive found a few tutorials on installing OMB but not had time to read them yet (work) so will give it a go tomorrow. Already downloaded BHv4.3 and the new BH3.0.9c i think it is which can then be updated to j online.

They say to use a USB for the images so i'll see if i can find one that works (i remember that i went through 5 last time before going out and buying a microsd with adapter which worked but have since used that microsd in a phone). Only thing im not sure of is if i need to empty the flash on the vu duo before or after i install OMB just to free up space since the USB will then be the image

 

[AlexWilMac]

1) OMB can use (to install images) either a HDD or a USB.
2) When you flash (that means installing an image in the flash memory of the box), the flash memory itself is formatted. So, you don't have to free up and clean anything.
3) About your difficulties with flash drive to flash, this is quite strange. I've never met any flash drive that did not work, and I've used a dozens so far: how do you format it? Try FAT instead of FAT32, if this does not work. But, over all, partition it as MBR. Unfortunately, the great windows has no tools to do such an important thing like a partition, but there are many free tools around.
But maybe OsX and MacOs are more compatible to FAT32 than windows itself

 

[Julian Matthews]

1) OMB can use (to install images) either a HDD or a USB.
2) When you flash (that means installing an image in the flash memory of the box), the flash memory itself is formatted. So, you don't have to free up and clean anything.
3) About your difficulties with flash drive to flash, this is quite strange. I've never met any flash drive that did not work, and I've used a dozens so far: how do you format it? Try FAT instead of FAT32, if this does not work. But, over all, partition it as MBR. Unfortunately, the great windows has no tools to do such an important thing like a partition, but there are many free tools around.
But maybe OsX and MacOs are more compatible to FAT32 than windows itself

Its mentioned in other places on this site that some usbs dont work when flashing to the duo, some wuugets changing ports but ive tried front and back, have all the usual ones, sandisk, verbatim etc, few usb2, 1 usb3 but still have problems. Will get it sorted though. Im going to do OMB tomorrow because i have a few hours free but will have to get usb working first. Thanks for the info on the flash memory though. I want to use either the usb or at a push the HDD for the image if possible (read you can store the images on the usb and use it as extra flash memory). Cant remember where i read it but somewhere suggests not using the HDD as it keeps spinning when used for the image

 

[Julian Matthews]

1) OMB can use (to install images) either a HDD or a USB.
2) When you flash (that means installing an image in the flash memory of the box), the flash memory itself is formatted. So, you don't have to free up and clean anything.
3) About your difficulties with flash drive to flash, this is quite strange. I've never met any flash drive that did not work, and I've used a dozens so far: how do you format it? Try FAT instead of FAT32, if this does not work. But, over all, partition it as MBR. Unfortunately, the great windows has no tools to do such an important thing like a partition, but there are many free tools around.
But maybe OsX and MacOs are more compatible to FAT32 than windows itself

Thanks for all your help, finally got it all sorted and openmulti working. Havent risked online update yet as im using it tomorrow and dont want to risk messing it up lol. I do have one more question as its sort of related.

I started all this messing around because certain channels are freezing that never used to whilst others on the same package etc are still going well. Ive changed all the usual things, satellite cable for example and the HDD you know about and even went out and changed the lnb from darkgold to a black ultra. It did increase the signal and the channel that keeps losing signal has 73% snr and 100% agc now up from 69 and 75. These figures are better than ive ever had but quite a few channels lose station especially in bad weather. The thing is they all worked perfectly till about a month ago. Even channels that stay on from the same package have lower numbers than that.

Btw the lock on signal finder does go off every so often so its the signal im losing. The only other thing i can think of is the dish is damaged. Ive checked it over and no dents etc. Its a triax 1m btw. You know the rest of my setup. Ive left the dish till last as its the most expensive but since its all thats left i may have to bite the bullet. If you have any other ideas though theyd be much appreciated. I really thought the new cable, lnb and HDD would sort this out (thought maybe a break in the cable or water in lnb i mean).

PS ive not mentioned the channels as some things arent allowed on some sites but safe to say a lot of the channels on the same package work perfectly