4TB Disk Issues - Part 2

[drmaybe]

I've managed to get hold of another box now & done the tests recommended & all seems to be well with it but I haven't yet installed the 4TB disk into it as yet. I have tried playing back some files from the 4TB disk on the new unit via USB and that works as well, but there are some files that for whatever reason where not decrypted before I removed the 4TB disk from the original box and subsequently they won't play on the new box yet. As I'm unable to start the old box with the 4TB disk to finish decrypting the outstanding files, I'm currently manually uploading them back to the original box which has a 1TB disk that is working OK so they can finish decrypting, but as expected transferring the files via USB is quite slow and even just browsing the files via USB so I can find & select the ones that need decrypting is also very slow presumably because of the size and amount of files - but is this the only way to do it? Is it possible to communicate with a USB device via the webif & do the decryption without having to move the files back onto the box? The only other thing that I can think of to speed up the process is running Mint while the old disk and the new disk are in in a dock & copy & paste but even then there's no way to see what files are still encrypted & therefore I need to copy is there?

I did manage to get the original box running first then plugged the power in for the 4TB disk as suggested, but was then unable to connect to the box via webif getting network errors.

Essentially I need to find what files need decrypting, transfer them from the 4TB disk to the original box, decrypt them and then transfer them back to the 4TB disk before I install that in the new box.

Also I know you can make schedules & favourites backups in the webif but is there any way to save them to a USB stick so I don't have to go through reordering channels/setting everything if there are disk issues in the future?

 

[Black Hole]

Also I know you can make schedules & favourites backups in the webif but is there any way to save them to a USB stick so I don't have to go through reordering channels/setting everything if there are disk issues in the future?

If you browse through the /mod folder tree you'll find where the schedule backups are, but if you copy those out they will be frozen in time and essentially useless after a while. It's easy enough to save off the tunefix config.

As far as playing encrypted files from USB is concerned, the easy way is to use the WebIF to clone the encryption key from the old unit.

 

[prpr]

The only other thing that I can think of to speed up the process is running Mint while the old disk and the new disk are in in a dock & copy & paste but even then there's no way to see what files are still encrypted & therefore I need to copy is there?

hmt and stripts are available for Linux.

 

[Black Hole]

Yes, they should be decrypted.

Famous last words huh?

 

[drmaybe]

Yeah... Oops! It's not all of them though so that's something!

If you browse through the /mod folder tree you'll find where the schedule backups are, but if you copy those out they will be frozen in time and essentially useless after a while. It's easy enough to save off the tunefix config.

That's helpful thanks. Where is the /mod folder? Can't seem to find it, still looking though. I only wanted to know how to make a USB backup so that I could make one to use if I knew I that I was doing something that might/would lose the webif backup, only because I don't like having to having to resort the channels and re-entering scheduled recordings using the remote when this happens.

As far as playing encrypted files from USB is concerned, the easy way is to use the WebIF to clone the encryption key from the old unit.

That's also helpful! What I wanted to do was just get the remaining encrypted files on the 4TB disk decrypted so I can put into the new box without having to mess about if I find encrypted files down the line that I need the original box for. Is it possible then to clone the encryption key & somehow playback the files in the new unit not via USB but with the disk installed as usual, internally?

 

[Black Hole]

Where are you looking for /mod, and how? It seems you have not really read up about the subject before diving in. You can't be doing this stuff naively - you really must know what you are about.

Just like any other computer system, the HDR-FOX has an operating system and a file system. You need to be looking at that level. The SUI (Standard User Interface as presented on the TV screen) only gives you access to what Humax wants a consumer to see.

You can gain access to the file system from another (networked) computer by FTP, but the SUI FTP option Menu >> Settings >> System >> Internet Setting >> FTP Server = On only gives you a restricted view and capability. Therefore you have to have FTP Server = Off and install the CF betaftpd package, which provides unrestricted FTP access.

You can also gain access to the file system by SMB or NFS by installing samba or nfs-utils, I'm not going to explain those here - look them up, there are plenty of resources (see recommended links below), but there are pitfalls and you might get on better with FTP (running something like FileZilla on the PC).

The above provide the means to move files about, on and off the HDR-FOX. To get access to the actual operating system you need to go in by Telnet or webshell. You might find webshell most convenient: install the package, reboot (probably), then access the command line via WebIF >> Diagnostics >> Command Line. The operating system is Linux.

Is it possible then to clone the encryption key & somehow playback the files in the new unit not via USB but with the disk installed as usual, internally?

I wouldn't have said so if it wasn't, again you are displaying a distinct willingness to let others spoon-feed you rather than do your own research.

https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/index-of-package-primary-topics.8005/
Things Every... (click) section 5
Decryption Guide (click)
http://hummy.tv/forum/threads/black-holes-trail-guide-to-hdr-fox-t2-hacking.354/
http://hummy.tv/forum/threads/new-readers-start-here.839/
https://wiki.hummy.tv/

Oh, and by the way, the standard forum search engine filters out search terms of less than four characters. You can get around that though, by prefixing a search with "site:hummy.tv/forum" (or "site:hummy.tv" if you want to include the wiki) in Google or whatever. Newbies' Guide to the Forum (click).

 

[/df]

Anyone who, like me or OP, has wondered which recordings are still encrypted in a nest of directories might enjoy, or at least find useful, this obscure exercise in shell quoting:

find XXX -name '*.hmt' -exec printf "f=\"%s\"; hmt -list \"\$f\" | grep -Eq '^Flags:.*ODEncrypted,' && echo \"\${f%%.*}\"\n" {} \; | sh

Just replace XXX with the pathname of the top-level directory of interest, quoted if it contains otherwise unquoted spaces, eg "/mnt/hd2/My Video". OP would be able to type or paste this command into Webshell.

From the top:

• find XXX: finds the files at all levels under a specified directory XXX, filters them by tests and applies actions;
• -name '*.hmt': filter by filename matching the pattern *.hmt, which has to be quoted so that it doesn't get seen by the shell;
• -exec ... {} \;: apply the exec action which runs a command using the string {} for the current pathname; the command ends with ;, which has to be quoted so that it doesn't get seen by the shell;
• printf "f=\"%s\"; hmt -list \"\$f\" | grep -Eq '^Flags:.*ODEncrypted,' && echo \"\${f%%.*}\"\n": the command run for each filtered pathname; it formats a compound command string that will later be executed, because -exec itself can only execute a simple command, but there is no simple command that returns true (0) for encrypted files and false otherwise; inside the double-quoted format string, double-quotes have to be quoted as \", per-cent signs as %% to avoid being interpreted by printf (%s is meant to be seen by printf, %.* isn't), and dollar signs as \$ to avoid being interpreted by the shell;
• | sh: each command written to its standard output by find is piped to a shell interpreter sh;
• finally the command executed: f=...; sets variable f to the matched .hmt pathname; hmt -list "$f" lists details from the file, which are piped to grep -Eq '^Flags:.*ODEncrypted,', returning true if the details include a line like "Flags: ...ODEncrypted,...", && and if so echo "${f%%.*}" write out the pathname without its .hmt suffix; for additional confusion, the pattern ".*" in the grep command is a regular expression meaning 0 or more of any characters, while the same pattern in "${f%.*}" is a shell pattern meaning "." followed by 0 or more of any characters.

 

[drmaybe]

Thank you, I do appreciate your help & support. With regard to the encryption key cloning, I didn't realize that it could work with the disk inside the new box, from your comment:

As far as playing encrypted files from USB is concerned, the easy way is to use the WebIF to clone the encryption key from the old unit.

I thought it would only be possible via USB as all I'm trying to do, as I said, is to just move the disk into the new unit with the recordings on it intact & watchable if possible.

I am trying to learn & I am reading up & posting as I go, but it is impossible to know everything. I'm a normal user with no background in this sort of thing who simply wants to learn & figure out how to do what I need to do without it taking over my life. But thank you again.

 

[Black Hole]

it is impossible to know everything

Then what you are trying to do may be over your head. Much of it is logical deduction rather than learning by rote.

It seems obvious enough that if you give HDR-FOX B the same encryption/decryption key as HDR-FOX A, HDR-FOX B gains the ability to decrypt recordings made on A, and recordings made on B after the change can be decrypted as normal, but loses the ability to decrypt recordings made on B before the change.

Transplanting a HDD from A to B is no problem if you decrypt everything first. Otherwise transplanting the encryption/decryption key sorts out the problem. Alternatively recordings can be decrypted by software (stripts) if you tell it what key to use.

 

[drmaybe]

So the most straightforward way is to move the encryption key to the new box. I will try & find out how to do this. Unless of course you would be kind enough to at least point me in the right direction, which would be greatly appreciated. As I said, I am trying to learn in the meantime & if I can do it on my own I will. But please don't think I'm sitting back waiting for someone to do everything for me.

Also the old box will only now boot with it's original 500GB Disk. With the 1 & 4TB disks installed the box won't start up at all, as per my original problem, and even connecting them after the box has booted causes the box to crash immediately & then reverts to the loop of booting then restarting when it displays the custom firmware version.