Resetting Loader to version a7.30

R

raeshaw

Member
I recently returned to Australia bringing with me my Humax HDR_FOX_T2. After reading several threads on this forum I managed to get this and my other Humax units working, with a few minor irritations with the EPG.

Humax Australia brought out the 7500t - which looks like the HDR_FOX_T2 and supports not only the local Humax EPG but also a third party EPG service called ICE. I thought perhaps I could load the local firmware Version 1.07.00. So I renamed the hdr_7500t_upgrade.hdf and loaded via USB. All seemed to go as expected during upgrade. On the reboot I noticed that the loader had changed to V a7.54 and the Humax stayed in System Startup mode.

I rebooted using the original 1.02.20 hdf and found that the loader now on 7.54 would not install the firmware upgrade.

Is there a way in which I can roll the loader back to a7.30?

I should of course have left well alone - but I was tempted by the possibility of using ICE EPG and have the same functionality as supported in the UK.

As a closing remark, I have to say I really enjoy the forum and the level of expertise available.

Thanks in advance for any assistance that can be provided to get my HDR_FOX_T2 up and running again.
 
I think only af123 or maybe xyz321 will be able to help you. I suspect you will need a bespoke firmware built to untangle it.
 
As far as I know, Humax have never published a HDR-Fox T2 loader in any firmware update so we don't have a copy of a7.30 available to us.
They have, however, released loader updates for the HD-Fox T2 which may be some help but it should also be possible to extract the a7.30 loader from another HDR.

How did you manage to load the 7500 firmware? The Fox should have refused it due to mismatched system IDs (E-ID error). It is possible that it did, but the loader went on anyway.

I rebooted using the original 1.02.20 hdf and found that the loader now on 7.54 would not install the firmware upgrade.
Click to expand...
What happens? Any error codes displayed on screen or on the front panel such as E-ID?

Can you direct us to the 7500t upgrade file you used? We can at least start be seeing what's contained within it and try to determine what may have happened.
 
I did not get ( or at least see) any loading errors, which is why I thought it may have worked. It went through the normal upgrade loading screen and then to "end" at which I removed the USB drive and powered off/ on.

There are no errors displayed on startup - just the "Start System", the Humax Loader screen with a7.54 - then a blank screen and the Start System message

I do have a working HDR-FOX T2 and HD Fox T2 loaded with customised software.

I obtained the firmware from: http://www.humaxdigital.com/au/support/swdownload.asp

HDR-7500T S/W(Aug. 2012 / Latest Software) - Ver. 1.07.00
 
As an update -

I have reloaded 1.02.20 and customised firmware using loader a7.54 by following the upgrade process of the HDR-7500T - that is, naming the file hdr_7500t_upgrade.hdf and on powering the HDR-FOX T2 pressing the power/standby button on the unit regularly. I assume that pressing of the power/standby creates an interrupt to indicate a firmware upgrade version should be looked for. This of course prevents accidental firmware upgrade if the usb stick is left in?

Not sure if having a7.55 loader is going to present upgrade issues down the line but for the moment I have a working unit again; configured for Germany, which picks all of the Australain channels (UHF/VHF) except SBS1,2&3 536.625 MHz. I guess this is because the default German frequencies are not compatible with the necessary SBS uhf/vhf configuration or perhaps the tuner(s) don't have the capability.

It seems ( no doubt due to slight hardware differences) that loading 7500T firmware is not possible on the HDR-FOX T2.

I have just ordered a 7500t 1Tb - and if there is any interest, I can report on the unit compared to the HDR-FOX T2. I know that there have been software issues and perhaps there is not the same level of user group interest as in the UK. It was only recently that encryption could be removed when copying files!

If there is a way in which to revert my unit back to loader a7.3x I would be very interested in understanding how this could be achieved.

Thanks for your help.
 
Glad you've got it back! I haven't had a chance to look at the 7500t firmware file yet, there may still be a way if getting it to work. We can at least see how it's made up and give it a go.

It may also be possible to enable customisation in the same way as the HDR Fox T2 if it's similar enough. It must be the same architecture for the boot loader to run on the T2 which is a good start.
 
Sorry for the delay - just got around to looking at this.

You may have already looked at this, but the 7500t firmware update contains three files:

Code: 
% humidify hdr_7500t_upgrade.hdf
HDF Tool v1.0.3, by af123, 2011.
 
Opening hdr_7500t_upgrade.hdf, 18606892 bytes.
 
  Blocks:    580
  Model:      4
  System ID:  0000.0000 - ffff.ffff
 
File  Offset  Address  Type  Flags  Size      Uncompressed Size
----  ------  -------  ----  -----  ----      -----------------
  1  0000014  0000000  1    0      16244736  -
  2  0f7f780  1e00000  1    0x80  1911979    1914667 (0.14%)
  3  115271b  1c00000  3    0x80  443101    696028 (36.34%)

These are the filesystem, kernel and bootloader in that order. Notice that Humax have set this to be compatible with any system ID which is why the usual protection didn't prevent you from applying the firmware to the wrong box!

The bootloader was installed directly into flash memory at location 1c00000 with the length as shown (696K) so you may be able to read the bootloader out of memory on your HDR Fox T2 from the same location which is /dev/mtd3.

Something like dd if=/dev/mtd3 of=/tmp/loader bs=1 count=696028 should retrieve the part that was overwritten - you can compare that with the third file in the 7500t upgrade bundle to get some confidence that it looks like a bootloader. You'd then need to package that up into another firmware update file which just updated the bootloader and try it on your HDR. Anything you do like this is completely at your own risk, you could completely break the box.

As far as customising the 7500t goes - that should be fairly easy as the structure looks very similar to the HDR Fox T2 and it's the same platform architecture. At least it should be trivial to enable telnet access assuming the kernel was compiled with PTY support (some Humax devices, such as the Foxsat HD, don't have that)

I will try the 7500t software on a Humax this evening too : - )
 
af123 -


First, I would like to thank you for taking the time to look at this issue and getting back with such a comprehensive update. I will have a play this weekend. Feedback from your trial install would be appreciated.

Are you of the view that the 7500t software could run on the HDR FoxT2? I'm beginning to wonder if there are any real benefits - perhaps localising the Portal content and possibly allowing tuner configuration to pick up the missing channels.

The current a7.55 seems to have no negative impact on the HDR FOX T2.

My first impressions of the 7500t which I received last week - are disappointing. There are issues when reading external hard disks created on the HDR FOX T2 - you see the directory but not the files - however via network connection all is ok. Need to look at this issue in a little more detail....
The copying of files from the internal drive to USB drives generates a Humax nag warning of possible infringement of copyright. I think this is local politics....
The bundled ICE epg (for a price ) does add functionality such as series recording which normally is only available to "approved Freeview" Australian units - but so far has required 4 reboots to repopulate the guide - and the number of known bugs to be rectified in the next release seems to grow daily.

On the positive side - the setup configuration allows a wide range of countries - so I guess, this unit could be usable in the UK and a host of other supported countries. This may tie in with an "open" solution for future products?

Thanks again for your help.
 
raeshaw said:
af123 -


First, I would like to thank you for taking the time to look at this issue and getting back with such a comprehensive update. I will have a play this weekend. Feedback from your trial install would be appreciated.

Are you of the view that the 7500t software could run on the HDR FoxT2? I'm beginning to wonder if there are any real benefits - perhaps localising the Portal content and possibly allowing tuner configuration to pick up the missing channels.

The current a7.55 seems to have no negative impact on the HDR FOX T2.

My first impressions of the 7500t which I received last week - are disappointing. There are issues when reading external hard disks created on the HDR FOX T2 - you see the directory but not the files - however via network connection all is ok. Need to look at this issue in a little more detail....
The copying of files from the internal drive to USB drives generates a Humax nag warning of possible infringement of copyright. I think this is local politics....
The bundled ICE epg (for a price ) does add functionality such as series recording which normally is only available to "approved Freeview" Australian units - but so far has required 4 reboots to repopulate the guide - and the number of known bugs to be rectified in the next release seems to grow daily.

On the positive side - the setup configuration allows a wide range of countries - so I guess, this unit could be usable in the UK and a host of other supported countries. This may tie in with an "open" solution for future products?

Thanks again for your help.
Click to expand...

Hi reashaw, I just moved to Australia, how do you get the HDR t2 to work? I can't even make find a single channel, yet the Samsung TV I imported found all channels plus EPG on the first try. Any advice would be much appreciated.
 
af123 said:
Sorry for the delay - just got around to looking at this.

You may have already looked at this, but the 7500t firmware update contains three files:

Code: 
% humidify hdr_7500t_upgrade.hdf
HDF Tool v1.0.3, by af123, 2011.
 
Opening hdr_7500t_upgrade.hdf, 18606892 bytes.
 
  Blocks:    580
  Model:      4
  System ID:  0000.0000 - ffff.ffff
 
File  Offset  Address  Type  Flags  Size      Uncompressed Size
----  ------  -------  ----  -----  ----      -----------------
  1  0000014  0000000  1    0      16244736  -
  2  0f7f780  1e00000  1    0x80  1911979    1914667 (0.14%)
  3  115271b  1c00000  3    0x80  443101    696028 (36.34%)

These are the filesystem, kernel and bootloader in that order. Notice that Humax have set this to be compatible with any system ID which is why the usual protection didn't prevent you from applying the firmware to the wrong box!

The bootloader was installed directly into flash memory at location 1c00000 with the length as shown (696K) so you may be able to read the bootloader out of memory on your HDR Fox T2 from the same location which is /dev/mtd3.

Something like dd if=/dev/mtd3 of=/tmp/loader bs=1 count=696028 should retrieve the part that was overwritten - you can compare that with the third file in the 7500t upgrade bundle to get some confidence that it looks like a bootloader. You'd then need to package that up into another firmware update file which just updated the bootloader and try it on your HDR. Anything you do like this is completely at your own risk, you could completely break the box.

As far as customising the 7500t goes - that should be fairly easy as the structure looks very similar to the HDR Fox T2 and it's the same platform architecture. At least it should be trivial to enable telnet access assuming the kernel was compiled with PTY support (some Humax devices, such as the Foxsat HD, don't have that)

I will try the 7500t software on a Humax this evening too : - )
Click to expand...

Hi af123

Just reading this. I just moved to AUS and would like to get going what reashaw was trying to attempt (7500 firware loaded on my T2 and then the custom over that, or the former at least) I am currently running fhtcp 1.02.28, loader a7.31, was wondering how far you got and if you could pass on some pretty specific instructions. Thanks.
 
beachsurfhead said:
I just moved to Australia, how do you get the HDR t2 to work? I can't even make find a single channel.
Click to expand...

I'm off to work so very brief reply.

There is a country setting in the Hidden Setting menu of the HDR-FOX T2. Australia is at the top of the list, and Germany is further down the list. See http://wiki.hummy.tv/wiki/Hidden_Service_Menu_-_HDR-FOX_T2 and be carefulL with what you change!
BTW When raeshaw said "the setup configuration allows a wide range of countries" my understanding was that he was referring to the 7500T, not the HDR-FOX T2.

As to your second post, I will leave it to those who the question was aimed at or know what they are doing.:byebye:
 
Hi Luke, thanks for the quick response. I have set thus to Australia, odly the search uses a band with of 8 MHz when I do this, not stations anyhow, Australia is 7 MHz, set it to Germany which is 7 MHz, I get 7 MHz, that doesn't help either, the only other a things I have changed in there is operator setting ( from BBC to none and back for both Aus. And Germany) no joy there either, so i am stumped.
 
I should add that I have manually tuned a station, and I get 100% quality, 80% signal strength when I put in the frequency etc of a know station, but I can't seem to save it. I just have the option of selecting search, which of course comes up with nothing.
 
Hi Beachsurfhead

Hope you are enjoying the current extreme weather conditions.

I have two HDR-T2 and a HD-T2 receiving all of the channels including SBS. This became possible after the recent digital upgrades. I'm based in Perth.

The process is quite simple but fragile as you have experienced. The most reliable way was to go through the installation process with auto tune after setting the country to Germany.
You need to double check that the Germany selection has been retained and has not reverted to previous setting. It seemed if you change the country and pressed "exit" it worked, if you pressed "back" it didn't. Or was it the other way round?
As soon as you start auto search it has to commence on 7Mhz - if it is starts on 8Mhz the county setting is incorrect. The Australian setting on the HDR does not work as it starts on 8Mhz

As a matter of interest the HDR7500t has proved to be a little unreliable.

Hope this helps.
 
Hi reashaw
In Brisbane, so missing the worst of it. Thanks for the instructions. Honestly I think I have done this, but will try again. A couple of other questions...
Service provider... Did you change that from the BBC?, and custom firmware...was that installed when you got yours to work?, and finally what firmware version are you running?


As an aside I am still keen to get that 7500 firmware an as that would be good for ice..

Thanks
Bsh.
 
Bsh

Will check tomorrow details tomorrow and advise. Yes, it did take a few attempts to get it right.

I use ICE on the 7500T and can't say I'm overwhelmed. The broadcasters seem less attentive in getting the schedules up to date and even the ICE 15 minute schedule updates don't help - so you end up with program under or overruns. You should also be aware that the TS supporting files are not compatible between the HDR and the 7500T. The TS file is fine but you have to remove the other related files to see it on the other Humax.

Regards
Raeshaw
 
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