Editing the read-only parts of an image

[Devilfish]

Enigma images are created in such a way that there is a read-only section of the image and read/write section. The /var folder and /tmp folder is the old folders in an image that you can edit. If, for any reason, you want to edit the read-only folders, i.e. /bin, /etc, /lib, /share, etc. this is what you'll need to do.

First of all, you'll need a linux platform to make your changes. This could be a PC with a linux OS, i.e. Ubuntu, or you could have a program called VMWare which is a virtual machine that allows you to run a different OS from within an existing OS. It's up to you which one you choose and I will not go into setting it up in this thread.

Telnet to the dreambox...
username: root
password: dreambox

Follow these commands...

 mkdir /var/tmp/root

 mount -t squashfs -o ro /dev/mtdblock/5 /var/tmp/root

 cd /var/tmp

 tar -cf root.tar root

FTP the root.tar to your linux desktop and open a terminal.

cd Desktop

 tar -xf root.tar

Leave the terminal window open.

Treat the root folder on the desktop as the box itself but don't add or change anything in /var because that is a different location.

When you have finished go back to the terminal window and...

 ./mksquashfs root mtd5.img -be

Then ftp the mtd5.img back to the box. You will need a copy of mksquashfs on the Desktop to be able to perform this command.

Telnet back to the box and...

 cd /tmp && eraseall /dev/mtd/5 && cp mtd5.img /dev/mtd/5 && reboot

Done.

To check what mtd# ...

more /proc/mtd

...but most squashfs are mtd5.

Njoy!