New HD Fox

Dave_G

Member
OK, just picked up a Fox HD from HumaxDirect for £69 (which i believe is a bit of a bargain!) for use in the bedroom. We already have an HDR downstairs.

Obviously, I want the custom firmware on it, and I'm a bit unsure of the current state of play regarding USB sticks. I don't want to use a full size external HDD (its the bedroom, and I don't have a spare anyway!) I have been reading some posts from a few years ago, from Black Hole) regarding the formatting. Is this still the case? Will I have to telnet in (something I've never needed to do, but should be able to manage...) Are there any key pitfalls?

As the missus is watching the box at the moment, I haven't yet played much (tomorrows job) so I still need to find out the firmware version it came with, then consider downgrading if it is ..32, as I believe there isn't a CFW for the the HD using version 32 - or is this no longer the case? As you can see, I still need to trawl through the relevent forums / wikis! There's so much info on here I struggle to find the relevent stuff sometimes!

On a related note, also to tinker with tmw, I suspect my homeplugs are causing issues as well. The HD connects to a mini-LAN upstairs, which is then Homeplug'd to the main LAN. Despite connecting using a switch, it appears to have dropped its connection since this morning. Again, more to tinker with tmw. Should this prove to be an ongoing problem, is my best option to set the Humax to manual IP (taking care to avoid a clash) and leave it on that, while my router carries on using DHCP? Is it even possible to have a mix-and-match network? Or is there a packagwe that can help?

Phew, sorry about the length! I'll probably have more questions tmw when this missus is at work and the cat can play...

Dave
 
Available firmware versions are listed HERE and there is an upgrade document HERE, as far as USB installation for the HD-Fox T2 have a look HERE, there is also a section at the bottom of that link that highlights some of the problems uses have had getting USB 'sticks' to work. The Humax work equally well when using DHCP and Manually allocated IP's, but I prefer to use a Manually allocated IP for the Humax so that when I login to it from a P.C. I know what it's IP address is
 
cheers - just nosing at the downloads page. The upgrade path doc confused me though, as it contradicts the downloads page by referring to 1.02.32 and 2.16, whereas the downloads makes no mention of 1.02.32, but does mention CFW 2.17 - unless the upgrade path doc ONLY refers to HDRs?

I'm particularly interested in the current situation with USB sticks (which I appreciate only affects a few people..!)
 
1.02.32 and 2.16 are both required for Custom firmware, 1.02.32 refers to the version of official Humax firmware, whereas 2.16 refers to the Custom firmware version that is installed on top of the official firmware. A package such as HD_FOX_T2_1.02.29_mod_2.17.zip is custom firmware version 2.17 but it must only be installed on top of official Humax version 1.02.29. USB sticks can be used for two procedures, 1) To install the initial Custom firmware package and 2) to install extra add-on packages to add more functionality to the basic Custom Firmware. Procedure 2) can be carried out via the internet if the Humax has access to it, whereas procedure 1) can't
BTW
Although Humax's latest version for the HDR is 1.02.32 their latest version for the HD is 1.02.29 so the latest Custom Firmware for the HD is the one shown above
 
but 1.02.32 isn't available for the HD Fox... I know the naming conventions with CFW and 'OFW' as I run an HDR which is fully 'pimped'!

The USB stick issue is about the difficulty formatting a USB stick correctly on the HD Fox.
 
As detailed in the link HERE (and above) a USB 'Stick' must be formatted to FAT32 when installing Official Humax firmware and it must be formatted in EXT2 when being used to run the Custom Firmware
 
think I got that... I hadn't realised that to INSTALL the CFW requires Fat32 stick, and then to RUN the CFW requires ext2/3... I assume it doesn't have to be the HD that formats to ext2/3 - I'm planning on using my QNAP to do it!
 
The Humax will only format in EXT3, this is what is needed for a USB hard disk drive BUT a USB Flash Memory stick won't last very long if formatted in EXT3. One way get over this problem is install Customised Firmware and then convert the USB 'stick' to EXT2 using the built-in Custom Firmware feature detailed HERE
 
think I got that... I hadn't realised that to INSTALL the CFW requires Fat32 stick, and then to RUN the CFW requires ext2/3... I assume it doesn't have to be the HD that formats to ext2/3 - I'm planning on using my QNAP to do it!
Reading my step-by-step installation guide in post 2 of the Quick Start Guide (click) would have helped, but I have not been around the last few days to point you to it (and other people only do half a job).
 
cheers BH, I did indeed read it - I think I just ended up missing the fact that the usb drive needed to be FAT for the initially installation, and then ext3 for the subsequent use. Anyway, all is sorted now.

The other thing that I was curious about was the latest official FW for the HD. As has been reported elsewhere, my box came with .32 preinstalled, even though this has never been released for the HD. I downgraded in the end, so that I could run the CFW.
 
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