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Graded stock shipping with strange filesystem format?

It might be worth trying a later version of e2fsprogs since there seems to be a bug somewhere. I am not sure if the version that ships with 1.03.20 has been replaced in the CF version (@af123 would know).
 
ABMorley said:
Well, here's the next instalment.
Story so far: All three partitions are formatted from the command line (not Humax's UI) and check out fine with fix-disk.
This evening I ran fix-disk again. Still good.
Ran the Humax UI disk check. No problems.
So I tried formatting it from the Humax UI. The UI said:
Cannot format the hard disk. The capacity is too large.​
Re-ran fix-disk. Still OK.
Tried formatting the disk again. Same message.
Re-ran fix-disk again....
Now sda1 has the fault and fix-disk is spewing messages like mad.

So it looks as though:
  • The boxes come formatted strangely, in a way that fix-disk (or rather e2fsck) doesn't like.
  • Using the Humax UI formatter leads to it getting formatted strangely.
  • Using the command line (mkfs.ext3 -m 0 -O sparse_super -T largefile /dev/sdan) leaves it formatted normally (at least by e2fsck's standards).
  • It seems to stay that way as long as we don't reformat it using the Humax UI.
Anyone else found this on machines formatted by 1.03.12/2.22?
Click to expand...

I can confirm that formatting an old type (sidebyside tuner - V1.0 mainboard) from the Humax UI can cause every node on the drive to
appear faulty to e2fsck. Running e2fsck afterwards actually halted because fix-disk log had filled a 500gb drive. Twice.
I can also confirm after concerted testing that this firmware can cause this style of hardware to repeatedly crash. Whether its
specific to the firmware/hardware alone or whether input via over the air signals is required to do it is undetermined.
The fact is - this firmware 1.3.12 is bad by my tests. It also appears to prevent using the Humax UI from actually performing a
return to factory settings procedure (it starts then stops immediately)
If you have the above hardware I would suggest using alternative firmware.
1.03.11 appears to be stable as far as I can tell from 24hours of testing that. I have not tested reformatting and probably wont.
Always trust e2fsck - not the humax box for all formatting is my advice.

Please note: whilst I have done a double install and return to earlier firmware twice this is based on my 1 single box alone
and therefore a mysterious fault on my box cannot be ruled out without confirmation..
 
I'm using 1.3.12/2.22 on a year-old G-graded 1TB T2. It's only been in use a few weeks, but has been absolutely rock-solid, not a single crash, or other issue.

I've not reformatted the drive since it came from Humax, though.
 
xyz321 said:
It might be worth trying a later version of e2fsprogs since there seems to be a bug somewhere. I am not sure if the version that ships with 1.03.20 has been replaced in the CF version (@af123 would know).
Click to expand...
I tried installing e3fsprogs 1.41.14-2 from the web interface but it didn't change the binary for e2fsck. Didn't check to see if it changes the binary for the formatter though.
So I guess I've got the latest.
 
I've also had fix-disk produce errors (830kbyte log file is a lot of errors ) following reformat using hummy software from the remote. But that is on a disk which is showing signs of impending failure. Fix-disk did eventually complete and I didnt run it a 2nd time to see whether it completely fixed the mess that the humax software created.
 
xyz321 said:
It might be worth trying a later version of e2fsprogs since there seems to be a bug somewhere. I am not sure if the version that ships with 1.03.20 has been replaced in the CF version (@af123 would know).
Click to expand...
The official firmware doesn't ship e2fsprogs, not even busybox versions. The CFW contains some of the binaries but they're the same as the ones in the e2fsprogs package, 1.41.14
 
Just as a follow-up....
I moved the HDD from my older, broken HDR-FOX-T2 (running 1.02.xx) onto my new box (running 1.03.12/2.22).
The drive was formatted at the factory, presumably by standard firmware v 1.02.xx. On the new 1.03.12 system it appears to work, and fix-disk shows no errors.
So it would appear to be the disk formatting in 1.03.12 that is broken - or at least a bit odd. I wonder what they broke.
 
Nope.. I do know the reason, but I cannot divulge. The only thing I can say is that the reason it was pulled was not related to a bug. The dtg pulled it.
 
Are you able to say, please: is there any reason why those of us who are running it should be worrying about it?
 
Hmm. Very cloak and dagger! The mystery deepens, but at least we can feel reasonably assured the only defects in 1.03.12 are the ones we know about.
 
Makes you wonder why Humax couldn't have just released a USB stick installable version in addition, and avoided all the conspiracy theories about why the OTA was pulled.
 
raydon said:
Makes you wonder why Humax couldn't have just released a USB stick installable version in addition, and avoided all the conspiracy theories about why the OTA was pulled.
Click to expand...
Especially as my reading of the DTG website is that Humax pay a significant amount of money for a broadcast...
 
Lol I've said nothing more than what Barry actually said about a month ago..

It's not my place to say and could land me in bother. The reason is not that important, the important thing (to me at least) is that humax have not abandoned the T2.. Yet..
 
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