HD Fox T2 – iPlayer crashes/System Flush/can't record

iainwhite2012

iainwhite2012

New Member
Hello everyone. I haven't posted for about 4 years as my HD Fox T2 was working perfectly.

Recently my iPlayer from the HD Fox T2 portal began crashing every time I tried to start a programme and became unusable.

I ran the system flush software and reinstalled the CFW, but while I can play programmes already recorded on my external hard drive, I can't record to it as the Humax box asks me if I want to 'reformat it and use it for recordings' every time I switch it on.

I had been using it to record on without any problems before the system flush. Nothing in the systems flush documentation alerted me to this problem!

Is there a package in CFW I can use to force the box to record on my hard drive again?

Can I do something from the web interface to stop my box asking to reformat my drive and to get it to record on my HD again?

I read something about the e2fsprogs package on another post, but can't be sure that it is appropriate. I was going to try this:

  • Install the e2fsprogs package via the web interface;
  • Go to the Diagnostics screen in the web interface (link from home page);
  • Enter assignhd into the diagnostic field on that page and click Run Diagnostic;
  • Put the Humax into standby using the remote control;
  • Start up the Humax using the remote control.

I don't want to have to format it again as I'll lose all my recording!

As a fallback I can use another external HD to record on and use my existing one as a static archive, but I'd rather not.

Anyway, thanks for your help. It would be greatly appreciated.

Iain
 
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e2fsprogs is already installed as it's a dependency of the WebIf (in any case the useful utilities are in flash, as they are no use on the disk if the filesystem on disk can't be accessed).
It may be worth going to maintenance mode to check the disk. It seems you have to do this manually, unlike on the HDR, so select the "cli" option, then:
Code: 
humax# umount /dev/sda1
humax# e2fsck -f -y -C 0 /dev/sda1
Then exit and reboot when it's finished and run the assignhd diagnostic, as you said.
 
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Thank you both for your expert advice. What a fantastically supportive community. I'll try that as soon as I get home tonight. I was wondering, if my iPlayer still isn't working, that a RTM factory reset might help. Would that mean my box wouldn't recognise my hard drive again? If so, I guess I could use the same solution after doing back to CFW. Thanks again.
 
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Thanks to everyone for their help – assignhd has in fact fixed it! Tried to restart it in maintenance mode, but the box crashed on start-up three times, so I couldn't. Hopefully iPlayer now works, but I may be back for your advice if not. Thanks again. What a brilliant community!
 
iainwhite2012 said:
Tried to restart it in maintenance mode, but the box crashed on start-up three times, so I couldn't.
Click to expand...
That's a bit of a worry. When you say "crashed", what EXACTLY did you see and how did you determine it was "crashed"?
You should get a web page saying the system is in maintenance mode, unless you have the Webshell package installed when you will get a console type shell in the browser.
If you don't have Webshell, you'll need to use a Telnet client to get to the box to perform maintenance.

If it really is crashing repeatedly, it's probably worth unplugging the hard disk immediately after attempting to reboot into maintenance mode, letting it run up until "Util" is displayed on the front panel, then plugging the disk back in. Then attempt to Telnet to it and do what I suggested in post #2.
 
As far as crashing when starting the TV Portal or iPlayer is concerned - that's nothing unusual and not something to get in a flap about.
 
Hi prpr, my mistake! The unit went into maintenance mode, but the video froze as the sound continued. I assumed it had crashed but the console-type shell appeared in the browser and I was able to run the cli command. (Util is displayed on the front panel.)

Here is what it's telling me. I'm clicking yes to the options to clear and fix, is that correct? There seems to be quite a lot of errors to be fixed!

Should I continue to click yes until it finishes? Thanks again for all your help.

humax# umount /dev/sda1
humax# e2fsck /dev/sda1
e2fsck 1.42.13 (17-May-2015)
USB-1 has been mounted 2094 times without being checked, check forced.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Inodes that were part of a corrupted orphan linked list found. Fix<y>? yes
 
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iainwhite2012 said:
Hi prpr, my mistake! The unit went into maintenance mode, but the video froze as the sound continued.
Click to expand...
That's what maintenance mode does, as I'm sure you know by now!
I'm clicking yes to the options to clear and fix, is that correct? There seems to be quite a lot of errors to be fixed!
Click to expand...
Yes, you need to fix all the errors. To save you sitting there clicking 'y' all the time, you could modify the command:
Code: 
humax# e2fsck -f -y -C 0 /dev/sda1
It ought to fix it after one run, but occasionally doesn't, so run this until you get no errors.
(And can you use an Insert, Code step on the message editor to put logs in to [CODE]...[/CODE] blocks - not that we need to see all the errors! See Newbies' Guide)
 
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Thank you. Sorry for posting the errors. Oops! My iPlayer still crashes 100% of the time, but I can boot into HDR mode and it works perfectly from there. (Although scheduled recording won't work while I have that mode activated.) I'll correct all the errors and see if iPlayer works again. If not, do you think something more radical like a RTM wipe, reinstalling CFW might do the trick? Was wondering if I did that if the Humax wouldn't recognise my hard drive. Anyway, I'll fix all the errors (thanks for the shortcut!) and see if that sort things. Thanks again for all your help.
 
Hi Martin, it's 1.03.02 overwritten with the latest custom version – 1.03.02 (mod 3.10). Version 7.27 comes up on-screen when I boot. The system version is described as KZTFT 1.03.02 in System Information, with an update date of 14 Nov 2014. (Mimcom version is 7.61.) It's possible I may have skipped a version of the official software some way along the line. It's funny that the latest version on iPlayer shows up when I use the HDR software and works perfectly, but it crashes when I boot up the HD-FOX normally. Would be great to get it working perfectly again. Thanks for your help.
 
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prpr said:
e2fsprogs is already installed as it's a dependency of the WebIf (in any case the useful utilities are in flash, as they are no use on the disk if the filesystem on disk can't be accessed).
It may be worth going to maintenance mode to check the disk. It seems you have to do this manually, unlike on the HDR, so select the "cli" option, then:
Code: 
humax# umount /dev/sda1
humax# e2fsck -f -y -C 0 /dev/sda1
Then exit and reboot when it's finished and run the assignhd diagnostic, as you said.
Click to expand...
I've tried running e2fsck on my HD-FOX and it found some file system errors. The problem I am having is that the process does not complete; it disconnects from Telnet before it is finished. I think it may be a memory problem, so I thought about creating a temporary swap file like the HDR-FOX version does. I found a method for doing this but when I try and create the swap file it fails and I get a message saying that the filesystem is read only. Guidance would be appreciated.
 
Creating a swap file where though?
The HDR method creates the swap file on one of the small partitions which have already been checked in order to check the large recordings partition. You can't do this on the HD if your disk only has one partition. You will need to boot real linux on a PC and attach the disk to that to do the check (a live CD/DVD/USB will do).
 
prpr said:
It may be worth going to maintenance mode to check the disk. It seems you have to do this manually, unlike on the HDR, so select the "cli" option, then:
Code: 
humax# umount /dev/sda1
humax# e2fsck -f -y -C 0 /dev/sda1
Then exit and reboot when it's finished and run the assignhd diagnostic, as you said.
Click to expand...

Hi prpr, I've been running this for about 6 hours and only about 1% of the disc has been checked so far. Does this seem like a lot of errors? I expected it to complete fairly quickly! (How long is a piece of string? I know!) Good news, though – I was experiencing drop outs in recordings but that has been fixed now, which is brilliant. Not sure it's practical to leave my laptop on for days on end (and to have the Humax out of action) for the programme to complete. Might give it a few 12 hour runs through the night when I'm not recording anything.

As for the iPlayer problem – it's still crashing 100% of the time. I've already gone down the system flush, reinstall CF route. Can you suggest another way to tackle this problem? I can always use my Chromecast. I noticed it's slightly higher resolution as well (viewing a 720p 32in display at about 6 feet!) compared to Humax when viewing identical content. I noticed you did a post on varying resolutions of HD content on the iPlayer which was interesting. Anyway, thanks for all your help.
 
iainwhite2012 said:
Hi prpr, I've been running this for about 6 hours and only about 1% of the disc has been checked so far. Does this seem like a lot of errors?
Click to expand...
I don't know. How big is the disk? I've never tried it on mine with anything over 60GB. See posts 14 and 15 for a possible reason why it doesn't complete and an alternative solution.
As for the iPlayer problem – it's still crashing 100% of the time. I've already gone down the system flush, reinstall CF route. Can you suggest another way to tackle this problem?
Click to expand...
I tried it yesterday on my HD and it crashed first time after selecting a programme to play. The second time it crashed on pressing the TV Portal button. The third time it worked and played a programme through to the end. An attempt to play a second programme crashed it again. I was bored by that point.
I haven't tried recently on the HDR, but it's usually been a similar story in the past. Humax's crappy code seems to be very unreliable and they've never been interested in fixing it.
On the (very) odd occasion I need to use iPlayer, I use get-iplayer on my Linux box and either watch it on the PC or copy the file over to the HDR and play it there. It never crashes then.
 
prpr said:
I don't know. How big is the disk? I've never tried it on mine with anything over 60GB. See posts 14 and 15 for a possible reason why it doesn't complete and an alternative solution.
Click to expand...
Thank you. It's Western Digital 1TB disk. As the box works brilliantly for recording and streaming purposes I'm going to ignore iPlayer for now and resort to using the Chromecast. Funnily enough I bought my father in law the same set-up and his iPlayer works well. He's on an earlier version of custom firmware (can't check at the moment), so maybe that's significant. Am I right in assuming the Chromecast gives a higher resolution stream? Thanks again for your help. Hope you have a good weekend.
 
You think the CF is interfering with iPlayer? It doesn't seem very likely, because the code is separate.
 
Hi there, thanks for all your help. More problems this week, I'm afraid. My HD says it is recording when I press the recording button, but it isn't. Have tried to trigger recordings from the WebIF (with a reboot) but this doesn't work either. The delete asterisk was stuck on screen for ages, so turned off and unplugged which sorted it. Scheduled recordings and series recordings aren't working either. Have unplugged it for half an hour. This hasn't helped. Can I do a big software reset (is it called Return to Manufacturer?) then reinstall the CF? How would I do this – is it in some hidden menu? If so, afterwards, will I be able to force the HD to use my original hard disc with all my recordings? Thanks for all your help. Would like to get things working again!
 
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