Amiko Alien2 / SAB / GM / ST7162 ** ENIGMA ** Discussion Thread

techdiver

Well, I set up Spark yesterday evening and so far everything is running smoothly. No crashes or lockups.

I was down doing much of the operations that I used to do on Enigma (crossepg, audio settings, etc). I pretty much messed around with all the settings. If I do that with enigma2 it would be sure to lockup eventually.

I'll keep running spark for a few days and see how it gets on. It doesn't have the bells and whistles of enigma2. What I would really miss from enigma2 is the epg and cool tv guide.

deezell

techdiver wrote: »

Well, I set up Spark yesterday evening and so far everything is running smoothly. No crashes or lockups.

I was down doing much of the operations that I used to do on Enigma (crossepg, audio settings, etc). I pretty much messed around with all the settings. If I do that with enigma2 it would be sure to lockup eventually.

I'll keep running spark for a few days and see how it gets on. It doesn't have the bells and whistles of enigma2. What I would really miss from enigma2 is the epg and cool tv guide.

Did you install enigma using the boot/ forc/fact method from power on? You could try installing it from within spark using the E2 uploader plugin, it might already be there. I'm not sure if it will make a difference but you never know.

techdiver

deezell wrote: »

Did you install enigma using the boot/ forc/fact method from power on? You could try installing it from within spark using the E2 uploader plugin, it might already be there. I'm not sure if it will make a difference but you never know.

I installed enigma2 using the e2 plugin in spark.

deezell

techdiver wrote: »

I installed enigma2 using the e2 plugin in spark.

In that case you could try the direct from boot method, or perhaps uninstall reinstall you E2 loader plugin.

techdiver

deezell wrote: »

In that case you could try the direct from boot method, or perhaps uninstall reinstall you E2 loader plugin.

Sorry, I wasn't aware of the direct boot method.

How do you go about that?

mrbloop

techdiver wrote: »

Sorry, I wasn't aware of the direct boot method.

How do you go about that?

After downloading the desired E2 image from the internet, extract the downloaded .RAR or .ZIP file.
This should result in two files , ‘e2jffs2.img’ and ‘ulmage’.
Format a USB stick to FAT32 file system.
Create a folder called ‘engima2’ on the USB stick (the folder name is case sensitive).
Copy the two files into the newly created ‘enigma2’ folder on the USB stick.
Disconnect the USB stick from your PC using the ‘remove the USB device safely’ option.

Now firstly, we need to put the receiver into Enigma2 mode.
Power off you set-top box using the main power switch at the rear panel.
While holding the OK button on the front panel, power on the receiver with the main power switch.
When FORC appears on the display, release the OK button.
Press and release the CH-(DOWN) button and ENIG should appear on the display.
Press and release the OK button and the receiver will now switch to Enigma2 mode, starts loading and the stops (SUCC →BOOT).

Now to load the Enigma2 image.
Power off the receiver again with the main power switch and connect the USB to the rear USB port.
While holding the OK button, power on the receiver with the main power switch.
When FORC appears on the display, release the OK button.
This time, press and release the VOL+(RIGHT) button on the front panel. The receiver should start the upgrade of the E2 image from the USB stick.
After the receiver finishes upgrading the E2 image, it will automatically reboot and start Enigma2.
In my experience, this usually takes about 10 minutes.

Issues while Loading the E2 image
The receiver might display ‘T TO or 7 70’ error message on the display. This means that the enigma2 image file cannot be read from the USB stick. Check the name of the file is correct and that the USB disk is formatted to FAT32. Reformat to be sure.

techdiver

mrbloop wrote: »

After downloading the desired E2 image from the internet, extract the downloaded .RAR or .ZIP file.
This should result in two files , ‘e2jffs2.img’ and ‘ulmage’.
Format a USB stick to FAT32 file system.
Create a folder called ‘engima2’ on the USB stick (the folder name is case sensitive).
Copy the two files into the newly created ‘enigma2’ folder on the USB stick.
Disconnect the USB stick from your PC using the ‘remove the USB device safely’ option.

Now firstly, we need to put the receiver into Enigma2 mode.
Power off you set-top box using the main power switch at the rear panel.
While holding the OK button on the front panel, power on the receiver with the main power switch.
When FORC appears on the display, release the OK button.
Press and release the CH-(DOWN) button and ENIG should appear on the display.
Press and release the OK button and the receiver will now switch to Enigma2 mode, starts loading and the stops (SUCC →BOOT).

Now to load the Enigma2 image.
Power off the receiver again with the main power switch and connect the USB to the rear USB port.
While holding the OK button, power on the receiver with the main power switch.
When FORC appears on the display, release the OK button.
This time, press and release the VOL+(RIGHT) button on the front panel. The receiver should start the upgrade of the E2 image from the USB stick.
After the receiver finishes upgrading the E2 image, it will automatically reboot and start Enigma2.
In my experience, this usually takes about 10 minutes.

Issues while Loading the E2 image
The receiver might display ‘T TO or 7 70’ error message on the display. This means that the enigma2 image file cannot be read from the USB stick. Check the name of the file is correct and that the USB disk is formatted to FAT32. Reformat to be sure.

Cheers for that.

Quick question. What is the significance of the requirement for FAT32? Would this have any bearing on installing through the E2 plugin? I install that from an EXT3 hard drive.

deezell

To

techdiver wrote: »

Cheers for that.

Quick question. What is the significance of the requirement for FAT32? Would this have any bearing on installing through the E2 plugin? I install that from an EXT3 hard drive.

It won't work from NTFS. It also doesn't like some types of USB stick. I think older Kingston are preferred. I use an old 256Mb stick. It won't work from 2 and 4 Gb sticks I have, tho these will work later as storage and backup, and for cross epg. Edit. Tvtrade website advises using a USB as source when upgrading via E2 plugin in Spark.http://www.freetv.ie/how-to-install-enigma2-on-amiko-alien-2-triple-tuner.html

zefer

Anyone else having issues with crossEPG hanging the box on its overnight update? Using OpenATV 5

championc

deezell wrote:

In that case you could try the direct from boot method

Oh please, lets not go there again. You'll end up with two pages full of back and forth posts.

My suggestion would be to go and flash a fresh enigma2 image and build it up from there. Try OpenATV v5.

If a fresh image bombs out, then hardware would be the prime suspect.

deezell

championc wrote: »

Oh please, lets not go there again. You'll end up with two pages full of back and forth posts.....

Thats a bit harsh! techdiver's not been there to go back in the first instance. Problem solving is a process of test and see sometimes, so untried procedures (in this case boot and flash from a USB) might just suceed. A new fresh image of course is worth a try, but I imagine he wants to get his own familiar customised image back if possible. If that takes a bit of back and forth blogging, it's worth it if he gets a result in the end

Zardoz

championc wrote: »

My suggestion would be to go and flash a fresh enigma2 image and build it up from there. Try OpenATV v5.

If a fresh image bombs out, then hardware would be the prime suspect.

He has already tried that.
Techdiver installed the default Hyperion 4.5 image last week and it caused problems
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=95640311&postcount=3835

I suppose he could try Openatv5 .
Speaking of Openatv ,anyone else having an issue with Openatv 5 on the Alien 1 where if you bring up the channel list and select a channel the picture only comes up in a small section of the screen ,the preview screen ?
Its very annoying and happens with the channel preview turned off ,the only way to get the picture full screen is to bring up the channel list again and reselect the channel .
It works ok with the preview on but you have to press the ok button twice .

AlonzoHarris

My mount points for the external HD got mixed up.
Anyone remember how to point to the updated picons folder?

techdiver

Ok, so I installed Hyperion 4.5 from scratch again using the boot loade technique.

I'm already having lock-up and green screen issues. My menu items have decided to disappear now also. Also, the plugin down loader won't work. It says "No New Plugins"??

Spark has been running flawlessly for days now, so it's hardly a hardware issue.

I might try OpenATV. Does anyone know where I can get the base image?

Zardoz

techdiver wrote: »

Ok, so I installed Hyperion 4.5 from scratch again using the boot loade technique.

I'm already having lock-up and green screen issues. My menu items have decided to disappear now also. Also, the plugin down loader won't work. It says "No New Plugins"??

Spark has been running flawlessly for days now, so it's hardly a hardware issue.

I might try OpenATV. Does anyone know where I can get the base image?

Spark and Enigma 2 use different Flash partitions and different sectors of Ram it would seem.
The receiver has 256MB of flash memory space but E2 only uses 120MB ,the rest is reserved for Spark.
There was talk a while back that the Spark partition could be deleted and E2 could use the full 256Mb but I heard no more on it.

There is a possibility that the E2 Flash sector is faulty perhaps whilst the Spark partition is fine ?

You can get the nightly Openatv 5 builds here
http://images2.mynonpublic.com/openatv/5.0/index.php?open=amikoalien

NegativeOne

techdiver wrote: »

Ok, so I installed Hyperion 4.5 from scratch again using the boot loade technique.

I'm already having lock-up and green screen issues. My menu items have decided to disappear now also. Also, the plugin down loader won't work. It says "No New Plugins"??

Spark has been running flawlessly for days now, so it's hardly a hardware issue.

I might try OpenATV. Does anyone know where I can get the base image?

Are you sure your harddrive is mounted properly? When you record something check where it saves to. If it records to the box itself then you know the harddrive is not mounted fully. Also did you enable a swapfile?

deezell

NegativeOne wrote: »

Are you sure your harddrive is mounted properly? When you record something check where it saves to. If it records to the box itself then you know the harddrive is not mounted fully. Also did you enable a swapfile?

It's stating to look like hardware problems in the E2 partition. In my experience with Linux devices I'd say you'll need to replace a memory chip, but they are soldered in as far as I'm aware. Still, try another Image first.

Gerry Wicklow

If memory serves, techdiver's box isn't that old and should be under guarantee. Return to source might be on the cards.

championc

techdiver wrote: »

Ok, so I installed Hyperion 4.5 from scratch again using the boot loade technique.

I'm already having lock-up and green screen issues. My menu items have decided to disappear now also. Also, the plugin down loader won't work. It says "No New Plugins"??

Spark has been running flawlessly for days now, so it's hardly a hardware issue.

I might try OpenATV. Does anyone know where I can get the base image?

Create your whole setup with NO HDD attached. All of the images I created have all been without a HDD so it's the best way to eliminate the HDD as being a cause. However, it shouldn't be an issue since it's not in Spark

aireng

Hi Guys,
How do you change the box password? On Hyperion 4.5 and OpenATV. Thanks.

deezell

techdiver wrote: »

Ok, so I installed Hyperion 4.5 from scratch again using the boot loade technique.

I'm already having lock-up and green screen issues. My menu items have decided to disappear now also. Also, the plugin down loader won't work. It says "No New Plugins"??

Spark has been running flawlessly for days now, so it's hardly a hardware issue.

I might try OpenATV. Does anyone know where I can get the base image?

Just recalled that when I changed from OpenATV to hyperion I had menu freezing, some blue screening, other problems. Other problems also with crossEPG. I solved it all when I correctly mounted the partition on the hard disk as HDD. If Hyperion is trying to use the remaining box memory for EPG, etc, it's likely that it will run out crash the system. When you boot hyperion next go straight to PKT blue panel and unmount any HDD, then scan and remount to your hard drive partition. With this in place the system will have storage for crossepg, swapfile, timeshift etc.

deezell

aireng wrote: »

Hi Guys,
How do you change the box password? On Hyperion 4.5 and OpenATV. Thanks.

Telnet to the box, use command 'passwd' . You are then asked for your old password and prompted to supply and confirm a new one

techdiver

deezell wrote: »

Just recalled that when I changed from OpenATV to hyperion I had menu freezing, some blue screening, other problems. Other problems also with crossEPG. I solved it all when I correctly mounted the partition on the hard disk as HDD. If Hyperion is trying to use the remaining box memory for EPG, etc, it's likely that it will run out crash the system. When you boot hyperion next go straight to PKT blue panel and unmount any HDD, then scan and remount to your hard drive partition. With this in place the system will have storage for crossepg, swapfile, timeshift etc.

Hi,

My hard disk is mounted correctly. I tested to make sure that all files destined for it are writing to it.

techdiver

I installed OpenATV 5 and it seemed to be running better but then the crashes started to happen.

It is starting to look like a hardware issue, if the assumption that the RAM is partitioned between systems.

I'm still within my warranty period, but the issue I have is trying to prove it's a hardware issue as I can imagine they will say if Spark is running fine then the issue is enigma2.

Are there any tools that you know of that I can run through putty to test the RAM. I've looked up MemTest86, but not sure that would install.

Slevster

Where did you purchase? Can you call in to them, and show what happens with an enigma image?( although, you can be sure that it will work perfectly that one time if you do! Sods law )

techdiver

Slevster wrote: »

Where did you purchase? Can you call in to them, and show what happens with an enigma image?( although, you can be sure that it will work perfectly that one time if you do! Sods law )

Ha Ha, how true!

I bought it from freetv.ie (tvtrade).

I might drop them an email about it.

deezell

techdiver wrote: »

Ha Ha, how true!

I bought it from freetv.ie (tvtrade).

I might drop them an email about it.

They do say on their site that Enigma2 is not covered under warranty, but having said that if you were to install their linked image (openATV) and could show the problem they might consider checking out the box. They might also have some hardware testing utilities, probably you will need somthing while in Spark to check the read/write consistency of the E2 partition. They are down in Portarlington.

Zardoz

techdiver wrote: »

It is starting to look like a hardware issue, if the assumption that the RAM is partitioned between systems.

Are there any tools that you know of that I can run through putty to test the RAM. I've looked up MemTest86, but not sure that would install.

After further reading it would seem that the Ram is not partitioned ,only the flash memory.

The receiver has 256 MB of Ram but Enigma 2 is only allocated ~120 MB ,the rest is reserved for system tasks such as frame buffer.

The Vu+ Duo for example has 384MB of Ram but Enigma 2 is only allocated 138 MB of ram.

techdiver

Zardoz wrote: »

After further reading it would seem that the Ram is not partitioned ,only the flash memory.

The receiver has 256 MB of Ram but Enigma 2 is only allocated ~120 MB ,the rest is reserved for system tasks such as frame buffer.

The Vu+ Duo for example has 384MB of Ram but Enigma 2 is only allocated 138 MB of ram.

So, if the RAM is only allocated and not partitioned, then I should be seeing issues in Spark also.

I'm assuming Spark then uses the same RAM as enigma2?

deezell

techdiver wrote: »

So, if the RAM is only allocated and not partitioned, then I should be seeing issues in Spark also.

I'm assuming Spark then uses the same RAM as enigma2?

Probably correct, but if the E2 flash image is corrupt due to problems in its partition, Spark will be unaffected. The operating system (spark or E2) is loaded from the flash into the ram after boot. Missing bits or bytes will cause problems when they are encountered by the processor. I'm wondering what level of verification is performed on the flash image when it is written. having said that, its possible that the memory may present the correct values momentarily after a flash write, only to change later and cause problems. Too many read/writes to flash memory can burn it out in time.