I kinda wish I had read the various TiVo forums before buying my series 2 TiVo, since I may not have done so had I read about the measures employed to prevent hacking the box. (Not that reading the AVS forum would have helped anyway, given that half the idiots there swear they read that you can hack a stand-alone series 2, and that's just not true..)
Before anyone considers buying one, here are the protections that I know
of in place to prevent hacking:
1. The EEPROM contains TiVo's public key and verifies the SHA-1 hash of
the kernel/initrd. If these do not match, your TiVo does not boot.
2. The initrd checks for modified init files and added files of any kind.
If it finds any, they'll be replaced/deleted from what's in the initrd
and the TiVo will reboot.
3. Any way people discover to get around the above, if it becomes widely
used, will be "fixed" in the next software upgrade.
While you can still add a bigger drive to the series 2 TiVo and even
replace your existing drive with a larger one, you cannot make any other
changes. You're also limited to the maximum size of drive the kernel
allows currently, which is probably lower than the maximum size of hard
drive you can probably buy on the market now or soon.
The kernel cannot be replaced with the latest IDE hack to increase the max
disk size unless/until TiVo replaces the kernel. Possibly this may skirt
the GPL a bit, but I'm sure the legal department at TiVo has determined
that they can do it as long as they publish source code to the kernel,
even if that code is basically useless.
The only way to hack the TiVo series 2 involves reflashing the EEPROM,
which is soldered to the motherboard and not software flashable.
Socketing this chip would let you toss it in an EEPROM programmer, but
requires SMT soldering skills (obviously I can't do that.) Another
suggestion was that a debugging socket be employed if such exists. The
idea is that you have an inverted socket connected to a normal one. You
just cut the CS line to the existing chip and plunk this thing down with a
new EEPROM, modified not to check the kernel. Then you modify the
kernel's initrd not to check the filesystem and you're good to go, until
the next software revision.
At that point, you'll have to modify the kernel/initrd again. Unless of
course someone finds an easy way to do the above which doesn't require
someone studying electronics to do the work, in which case the new initrd
will probably check the integrity of the BIOS. There are probably ways
around this, but then again if what they are become common knowledge,
again they will be defeated.
In short, TiVo has become quite hostile to people hacking their TiVo. The
hackish but useful tivoweb script cannot be used on the new boxes because
TiVo is planning to offer something which is less hackish (but also less
featureful..) Although TiVo has a better guide than the competition, and
a better interface, I can no longer recommend buying one as a good geek
toy. (Sorry kbob..) The thing has been crippled to the point that I
question whether it's even worth keeping it. The option to return it and
go back to my aging Sony still exists, though the Sony has significant
software bugs I know will never be fixed.
Still another option exists: building a suitable replacement for the TiVo.
Attempts to do so exist, but they are not complete yet.
--
Joseph Carter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> This thing is an AI
<Mercury> alexsh: Be /VERY/ careful, you could, if you're unlucky, fry
your motherboards..
<Knghtbrd> sounds like fun
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