FreeAgent Theater and GoFlexTV

[playdude]

Your Theater Plus, like other Realtek players, has a command called chroot built into its busybox. This allows it change its root to another directory as long as that directory contains a file system of the mipsel architecture. Once you're in a chrooted environment, all the things you run will be relative to that root.

This HOWTO will hopefully help you understand how chroot works so you can use it to do useful stuff like compiling your c/c++ programs, and then running them all on your player. You can also chroot into a fully fledged Linux operating system like Debian Lenny if you want to do more sophisticated things like package installation, package compilation.

REQUIREMENTS:

-Mod firmware (version alpha8d or later)

-A USB hard drive

-An ext3 partition on the hard drive (at least 2GB)

-A swap partition (200MB in size)

PREPARATIONS:

You need to format your USB hard drive so that partition 1 is ext3 and partion 2 is wap. I won't go into details how to do this because I don't have a spare hard drive to do it. Use google if you don't know how to. You can also use your FAT+ to do partition and format the USB drive (Hint: fdisk, mkfs.ext3, mkswap) if you know what you're doing.

EXECUTION:

I'll assume you have formatted the first partition of your USB hard drive as ext3 and the second partition swap. I'll also assume your ext3 partition is mounted at /tmp/usbmounts/sda1. All ready? Here come the commands!

#make sda1 writable if it's read only

cd /tmp/usbmounts/

mount

mount -o rw,remount /tmp/usbmounts/sda1

mount

#turn swap on so your FAT+ have more memory to use when running out of RAM

free

swapon /dev/sda2

free

If you want to use deluge to download torrents, click here to continue.

#get a mipsel files system to chroot into

#Thanks to Consumer Electronics Hacker for generating the ext2 image.

cd sda1

wget http://fatplus.googlecode.com/files/mipsel-rootfs.tar.zip

#unzip and untar

unzip mipsel-rootfs.tar.zip

tar tf mipsel-rootfs.tar

tar xvf mipsel-rootfs.tar

#mount proc so you can run commands like ps inside the chroot

mount

mount -t proc none /tmp/usbmounts/sda1/mipsel-rootfs/proc

#you should see this entry

# none on /tmp/usbmounts/sda1/mipsel-rootfs/proc type proc (rw,nodiratime)

mount

#mount dev so you can use dev devices inside the chroot

mount -t devfs none /tmp/usbmounts/sda1/mipsel-rootfs/dev

#there's a next entry in the mount list that looks like this

# none on /tmp/usbmounts/sda1/mipsel-rootfs/dev type devfs (rw)

mount

#mount devpts in case you want to log into servers running inside the chroot

mount -t devpts none /tmp/usbmounts/sda1/mipsel-rootfs/dev/pts/

#and you should have this entry added

# none on /tmp/usbmounts/sda1/mipsel-rootfs/dev/pts type devpts (rw)

mount

#make a note of your DNS server. We need this in /etc/resolv.conf in the chroot so we can ping by name.

#Mine has this in the file

# nameserver 192.168.0.1

cat /etc/resolv.conf

#moment of truth: chroot time!

chroot mipsel-rootfs

#if there's no complaint, you've chrooted successfully

#Try to ping google. Shouldn't work because there's no DNS server is set yet

ping google.com

#Set the DNS server. Mine (found out earlier) was nameserver 192.168.0.1

#so I used 192.168.0.1. You need to use your own number.

ls -al /etc/resolv.conf

echo "nameserver 192.168.0.1" > /etc/resolv.conf

#Now ping google again and it should work

#CTRL+C to stop it from running

ping google.com

#Check on the compilers

cd /root/

which gcc

which c++

#Let's find a simple program to try and compile it

wget http://fatplus.googlecode.com/files/hello.c.tar

tar tf hello.c.tar

tar xvf hello.c.tar

#compilation time

gcc -o hello hello.c

#if there's no error during compilation let's try to run it

ls -al

./hello

And it works (for me anyway). Hopefully it's the same for you. If it works, you can copy the hello binary to your FAT+ and execute it from there. I used this method to compile the UltraVNC repeater and download manager axel. You can download their sources here.

http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/vncrepeater-0.12.tar.gz

http://alioth.debian.org/frs/download.php/3015/axel-2.4.tar.gz

Now use your creativity to create your c/c++ programs so you can run them on your FAT+!

EXIT CHROOT CLEANLY:

Once you've finished working in your chroot, you can exit it.

#Get out of chroot like getting out of a normal terminal session

exit

#Unmount the things we mounted earlier

mount

umount /tmp/usbmounts/sda1/mipsel-rootfs/dev/pts

umount /tmp/usbmounts/sda1/mipsel-rootfs/dev

umount /tmp/usbmounts/sda1/mipsel-rootfs/proc

mount

Message Edited by playdude on 01-13-2010 08:32 PM

Message Edited by playdude on 01-20-2010 01:24 PM

Message Edited by playdude on 01-20-2010 04:07 PM

[playdude]

... in case i need to add more

[playdude]

Done! See if it works.

Message Edited by playdude on 01-13-2010 08:27 PM

[MeTePe]

Hi playdude,

I just joined to this forum to thank you. I read all the explenations you wrote.

I am a new linux learner and trying to mod the firmware of my Egreat EG-R1 which also has a realtek 1073 chip. Firmware structure is nearly the same.

The info you provided is awesome and I managed to make some modifications by myself.

Thanks a lot for your patience and good work.

Best Regards 

[playdude]

You're welcome mate. Documentation writing is a boring and tedious job, but it's also rewarding when knowing that others can benefit from it, like in your case. Have fun hacking!

[MeTePe]

I'm sure many ppl benefit from your docs.

BTW, is it possible to use a mipsel linux image file on vmware for testing applications instead of chroot'ing? Or am I just dreaming?

BR.

[playdude]

You're not dreaming. It's possible but you have to take a few trips. If you insist on doing it in VMWARE, here's how to do it.

1. Install Debian Lenny under VMWare.

2. In Lenny, install QEMU.

3. Use QEMU to boot the Lenny mipsel image. You can download the Lenny mipsel image in the link below.

http://people.debian.org/~aurel32/qemu/mipsel/

4. In the Lenny mipsel environment, chroot into the FAT+ development image as described in the HOWTO.

So in the end, you still have to chroot into it, but with this method you can comfortable do it using VMWare in Windows, everyone's comfort zone . I haven't tried it though, you can verify it yourself it you want.

[playdude]

Deluge is a torrent client that is capable of doing sophisticated things. One of the favourite features I like about deluge is that it can queue torrents. Think of it as a meaner version of transmission that can do whatever utorrent can. If you want to see what it looks like, see this link:

http://dev.deluge-torrent.org/wiki/Screenshots

So why am I telling you this? Because your FAT+ should be able to run deluge using our chroot trick. Here's how you do it.

#Assume your partition 1 is ext3 and mounted at /tmp/usbmounts/sda1/

#and your partition 2 is swap

cd /tmp/usbmounts/sda1/

#Get the file system. I extracted it from the mod wdtv live firmware (Thanks Brad!)

wget http://fatplus.googlecode.com/files/wdtvlive-rootfs.tar.zip

#Stop the TV GUI to claim back memory. Don't worry, we can always turn it back on.

free

stopall

free

#Unzip and untar in one go. If you have nothing else to do, enjoy watching flying text for a few minutes

unzip -p wdtvlive-rootfs.tar.zip | tar xvf -

#Check out new wdtvlive-rootfs. About 253MB I think.

ls -al wdtvlive-rootfs

du -h wdtvlive-rootfs

#Mount essential devices and check

mount

mount -t proc none wdtvlive-rootfs/proc/

mount -t devfs none wdtvlive-rootfs/dev/

mount -t devpts none wdtvlive-rootfs/dev/pts/

mount

#Make a note of the DNS server so we can use in our chroot later

#Here's mine

# nameserver 192.168.0.1

cat /etc/resolv.conf

#Change the crazy date to something less crazy

date

rdate ntp.internode.on.net

#Fix the timezone to match your local time

#Below is mine. It's CST and I'm 10 hours and 30 minutes ahead of GMT

env

export TZ=CST-10:30:00

date

#Moment of truth: chroot into the wdtvlive root file system

chroot wdtvlive-rootfs

#Try a few basic commands inside the chroot.

#Hit q to stop top

free

ps

top

#Try to run deluged in the foreground (switch -d) first to watch for errors.

which deluged

/usr/bin/deluged --help

/usr/bin/deluged -c /root/.config/deluge -d

#No errors? Hit CTR and C to stop it

#Now we can run it in the background

/usr/bin/deluged -c /root/.config/deluge

#See how much RAM and CPU deluged is using. Hit q to get out of top

#Yes, deluged is using 50% of RAM. I told you that swap partition was important!

top

#Now you have 2 options: access it from a GTK frontend, using its web interface

#Or you can just use both. It just means more RAM if you turn the web interface on

#Let's try to access it through the web interface first.

#Run the web interface in the foreground first

which deluge

/usr/bin/deluge --help

/usr/bin/deluge -u web

#No major error? Then let's run it in the background and test it and watch it with top. q to kill top.

/usr/bin/deluge -u web &

top

#The IP of my player is 192.168.0.18 so I access it using the http link below in Firefox.

#You have to use your IP number of course.

#The default password for the deluge web interface is deluge

http://192.168.0.18:8112

#Hopefully you will see this logon screen

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/5748/delugeweb01.jpg

#Connection Manager will appear

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/2518/delugeweb02.jpg

For some reason Connection Manager says the status of 127.0.0.1 is Offline. If this happens to you to, you need to add a new entry for 127.0.0.1.

#In the console, check the auth file for deluge. Its contents are as below

# localclient:9b13c65615a049f61f699d34ecc55cf0b5a0ad0c:10
# root:debian

cat /root/.config/deluge/auth

To add a new entry, from the Connection Manager, click Add and and fill in these values

Host: 127.0.0.1

Port: 58846

Username: localclient

Password: 9b13c65615a049f61f699d34ecc55cf0b5a0ad0c

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/4487/delugeweb03.jpg

You may want to add one for 192.168.0.18 too. Below are its details.

Host: 192.168.0.18

Port: 58846

Username: root

Password: debian

Click the Close button and open Connection Manager for the new entry to appear. When it appears, the new entry should be Online. You may now delete the Offline entry.

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/6955/delugeweb04.jpg

Click Connect and you're in!

http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/4613/delugeweb05.jpg

Click Logout when you're done.

So we can access it from the net. But what about connecting to it directly using a GTK interface. I've found that the easiest way to do this is installing the Windows version of deluge, which is a lot easier to set up than in Linux. Funny eh? Made for Linux but easier to install in Windows. Anyway, here's how to install it in Windows.

Have a look at the deluge Windows binaries here:

http://download.deluge-torrent.org/windows/

Download and install deluge-1.2.0_rc4-win32-setup.exe since it's the version we are using at the server end. By default, Windows deluge runs in Classic mode. We need to disable it by unticking option Classic Mode.

http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/9935/delugegtk01.jpg

Restart Windows deluge and Connection Manager will pop up. Does it look similar to the web interface?

http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/4010/delugegtk02.jpg

Since deluged is running in my player at IP address 192.168.0.18, I will add a Connection Manager entry for it. Remeber we had

root:debian

in the auth file earlier. We need to use it. Below are the values for that entry. Change the host name to match the IP number of your player.

Hostname: 192.168.0.18

Username: root

Password: debian

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/880/delugegtk03.jpg

Click Add. If you see a green light then it's a good sign.

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/6712/delugegtk04.jpg

Click Connect and you're in!

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/4484/delugegtk05.jpg

Click Preferences and have a look at the settings. For optimum results, I set the maximum number of connections at 100 and the number of maximum connections for each torrent at 20. Also, check out Preferences > Queue.  Total Active Downloading = 2 and Total Active Uploading = 1.  This means at any given time, only 2 downloads and 1 active are running.

http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/9392/delugegtk06.jpg

So if you have enough space, load about 30 torrents (I'm not kidding) and see how your player and deluged handle it.

And a few last things before I go.

#Since delugd and the web interface run in the background, they are still running after we exit chroot

#to get back to our FAT+ console

exit

#Now we're in the FAT+ console

#Check if deluged and deluge web are running

ps

#To kill the web interface of deluge

killall deluge

#To kill deluged

killall deluged

If you killed the TV GUI earlier with stopall, reboot your player to have it back. 

Message Edited by playdude on 01-20-2010 04:01 PM

[bodhi78]

This post from playdude is a gem for anybody who wants to compile, build extra module or tools on the FAT+/GFTV. I'm pumping it back so that we don't loose this valuable guide! Thanks playdude