Avoid Loss of iPlayer?

MontysEvilTwin

MontysEvilTwin

Well-Known Member
There is firmware update available for the HDR-2000T (see this thread). Without the update, this model will be unable to access iPlayer from sometime later this month. I think that this is due to the new requirement to log in to iPlayer with a BBC account, which is currently rolling out across platforms. As the HD-FOX and HDR-FOX are not being updated, I think it likely that they will lose iPlayer functionality.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, so I downloaded the new HDR-2000T update and extracted the filesystem using humidify and squashfs (method here). The file 'usr/browser/opera_dir/certs/cert.conf' now contains reference to the 'bbctvapps.co.uk' domain. My plan, in the first instance, was to rename the 'usr/browser' folder on a HDR-FOX and copy the 'browser' folder from the HDR-2000T update to the 'usr' folder of the HDR-FOX to see what happens. However, these operations failed due to the read-only file system: presumably this is due to the 'usr' folder residing in flash memory rather than on the hard drive. I unmounted and re-mounted the root folder '/' as read/ write: this seemed to work as I could now use 'chmod' to modify file permissions, but still I could not rename or copy folders. Short of packaging the modified filesystem as a hdf file and flashing it as an update is there a way of doing this? I know that some custom firmware packages do write files in the flash memory, so I am hopeful that this is possible.
 
prpr said:
Have you tried a bind mount? There's something for you to research ;).
Click to expand...
Not yet (isn't that how the 'mod' folder is incorporated into the filesystem?), but I also have the problem of temporarily renaming the original browser file in the 'usr' folder.
 
OK, so I copied the new 'browser' folder to '/mnt/hd2' and ran the following:
Code: 
mount --bind /mnt/hd2/browser /usr/browser
This worked, in that now when you navigate to '/usr/browser' on the HDR-FOX you see the new files, but it makes no difference to the portal or iPlayer. I created a file in '/mod/etc/init.d' so that the mount bind command would run at start-up, but still no dice. I presume that the required files from the 'browser' folder are loaded from flash before the mount bind comes into effect, or perhaps it is more complicated than that?
 
Would tinkering with the New Portal package give you any more control over what was invoked rather than attempting to trick the standard portal?

I have no idea whether or not this is feasible.
 
MontysEvilTwin said:
This worked, in that now when you navigate to '/usr/browser' on the HDR-FOX you see the new files, but it makes no difference to the portal or iPlayer. I created a file in '/mod/etc/init.d' so that the mount bind command would run at start-up, but still no dice. I presume that the required files from the 'browser' folder are loaded from flash before the mount bind comes into effect, or perhaps it is more complicated than that?
Click to expand...
Set up the bind mount from a script in /mod/boot/xinit.d/ - those are executed earlier in the boot process.
 
af123 said:
Set up the bind mount from a script in /mod/boot/xinit.d/ - those are executed earlier in the boot process.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I made a script in /mod/boot/xinit.d/ (based on the opkg-beta script):
Code: 
#!/bin/sh

mount --bind \
    /mnt/hd2/browser \
    /usr/browser
I gave the script '755' permissions (chmod) and rebooted. It did not work; using a browser showed the original files from /usr/browser, not the files from the bind mount. Have I missed something?
 
Yes - it runs before the disk is even spun up so you need to put your alternative version in flash - /var/lib/humaxtv_backup should just be big enough
 
af123 said:
Yes - it runs before the disk is even spun up so you need to put your alternative version in flash - /var/lib/humaxtv_backup should just be big enough
Click to expand...
I couldn't get the whole of the browser folder (from the HDR-2000T update) in there but I copied some of the files and folders into the above location. I copied 'opera_home' which contains configuration files, 'opera_dir/certs' which contains mostly certificates, and the configuration file 'client.conf'. A script in '/mod/boot/xinit.d' defines the bind mount setup. The mount bind works: I can see the new files after boot with a file explorer, but it makes no difference to iPlayer and the portal.
My hope was that the HDR-2000T version of iPlayer would be loaded. As I said in my first post, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and I don't know if what I am attempting is possible. There have been several different custom portals, so there must be a few people who post on this forum who have a much better idea of how the portal works.
 
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