Commando 11.3.07 - a tasty Upgrade!!

[PaphosAL]

It's just over 2 months since Commando 11.3 was released- and we've all been beavering away behind the scenes during this period, acting on all the valuable Feedback received from across all the boards, thanks!

This Upgrade is for all of you Commando 11.3 users, whose image boots as 2009-08-23 or later.

If you're still running the original Commando 11 from June 09 (maybe with the SP1 and SP2 patches applied)- this Upgrade is NOT for you!! Please reflash with C11.3 first, and THEN run the Upgrade, OK?

There's a little readme.txt included in the Upgrade Pack, and this gives you a brief insight into the changes and advances made, and simple instructions on how to apply this Upgrade.

It's eazy-peazy, and a lot quicker than reflashing a new image!!

Enjoy! Renny and AL
(and mega-thanks to LraiZer and FreddyFr0g for all their time and effort, too!)

NEWS!! Latest Upgrade and Update packs are in post #3 below

[ianmac]

Thanks Paphosal,

Will give it a try later today if I can get the wife away from the box long enough..

Yeah, it contains the IDE installer/setup script and shell Menu, can't wait to try that out with my hard drive...

Thanx

[PaphosAL]

New update, guys!

OK- the system is now fully rolling since the original C11.3.07 Upgrade was released here on Saturday 7th November 2009. New attachments below!! Online Updates are now 'live'

If you are running C11.3 but haven't yet upgraded, the latest Upgrade package is attached below for you- Commando-11-3-11-upgrade.rar - see the readme enclosed, please!

For users who have already upgraded, there are various options on keeping your dBox2 C11.3 Image bang up to date:

1) Users whose dboxes are connected online-

press Blue > Blue > Image Add-Ons / Updates > Yellow > Red

If your Image is already the latest, a message will tell you so. If an Update is needed, you can download and install it. Takes about 2 mins, including the essential auto-reboot!

2) For Manual updaters (dbox NOT online):

check the top line of /var/etc/version.xml to see if your image is the latest version. The Current Version attached below is:

11.3.11 (Dec 31st 2009)

If your Image is earlier than this, download the update-C11-3-11.rar package attached, and extract the file update.tar.bz2 from it. Then, FTP this file 'AS-IS' to the /tmp folder on your dBox2.

press Blue > Blue > Image Add-Ons / Updates > Yellow > Green to Install the update.

All jolly good fun!! Cheers- Renny and AL
__________________________________________________ ________


Latest developments:

v11.3.11 Update; 95% of which must be dedicated to LraiZer's cutting-edge input, thanks! (*)

Last Epg Filter fix still flakey (not his fault, but ours- due to iffy testing!). He fixes 100% and feature is removed as a (confusing) Plugin, and is now embedded 'intelligently' in the System Menu (Blue > Blue), thanks to a spectacular piece of shell scripting (*)

SysInfo is moved from Services to the Extras Menu, as a proper Menu under Softcams and uCodes (*); SysInfo sub-menu titles also tidied up. New 'Memory and Processes' item gives more info on Memory useage now. (*)

uCode Menu also improved, with a proper active popup now for 'Reboot- Yes/No?' if changing uCode. (*)

Infobar colour buttons given a nice makeover! Press Yellow when watching something for a sampler. (*)

EPG Preferences Menu made more robust. If no user Bouquets yet exist, (or applying the upgrade/update) the image will automatically start up in 1 Day Standard VM EPG Mode (the only option that will actually function correctly, without bouquets present!). The EPG menus also react to this scenario, by hiding certain EPG Options until such time as bouquets.xml is found safe and well. A temporary 'Help' menu appears in place of the real menus, guiding the noob user on what to do...

Superb new ultra-simple Services > Backup/Flash Menu. Noob-proof!! (*)

EPG Preferences Menu given a major overhaul, thanks to upgrades to sectionsd, with optimized 'Now and Next' and 'Long EPG' timings, plus Memory mapping tweaks, all resulting in vastly improved EPG stability and full content (*). As well as leaving more scope for the 'Long Descriptions' than before! It's so different in fact, that we have to start you off in a new basic 'safe' EPG Mode in the update. Easy enough to switch modes afterwards... You'll love it.

FreddyFr0g input: Automount users will find their environment changes from /var/automount to /tmp/automount - this avoids an Image reflash scenario, if the settings are dicky and the image becomes Read-Only by filling up the /var Partition. The new setup just requires a reboot if things go tits-up!

Also attached: cosmetics.rar - an alternative set of LCD Clock Fonts to play with, plus LraiZer's new rectangular 3D Colour buttons for the Menus! See the little readme included with this, please!

Team-Commando
Renny, AL, (and Cydine, LraiZer, and Freddy). All the best for 2010 peeps!

[Devilfish]

Thank you again to the Commando team for sharing your creation with us.

[ianmac]

Hi AL

Think I must be getting a bit confused from the 3.07 update,

tried the files you posted a few day's ago & everything was giong to plan with the Telnet thing,
until I wanted to install the other ".tar.bz2" add-ons from D-box /tmp dir, I could not see any of them in the "Goodies Menu".

So flashed a fresh Commando 11.3 to start again, just incase I messed it up with all my button pushing..

But, still the same, was this one of the schoolboy errors or did I ftp the files in the wrong dir,
& am I better to delete the 3.07 update files & start again with the 3.08 update files you have posted.

Thanks you

Ian

[PaphosAL]

Well, if your box is hooked up online, then Blue > Blue > Image Add-Ons / Updates > Yellow > Red (online update) is now up and running, m8. If not, you might as well repeat the process with the new Upgrade pack above- then you'll be as up to date as us, LOL!

I'm not 100% clear on your method, though... Were you trying to do all of this in one go? Or did you run the upgrade via telnet first, and afterwards try to apply further manual-Install Add-Ons via the menus?

Remember that tar.bz2 files must be FTP'd to /tmp - else the shell menus won't find them!!

Cheers- AL

[ianmac]

Well, if your box is hooked up online, then Blue > Blue > Image Add-Ons / Updates > Yellow > Red (online update) is now up and running, m8. If not, you might as well repeat the process with the new Upgrade pack above- then you'll be as up to date as us, LOL!

I'm not 100% clear on your method, though... Were you trying to do all of this in one go? Or did you run the upgrade via telnet first, and afterwards try to apply further manual-Install Add-Ons via the menus?

Remember that tar.bz2 files must be FTP'd to /tmp - else the shell menus won't find them!!

Cheers- AL

Think I will try it again tomorrow with the 3.08, AL

Re: The 3.07, I did the ftp & telnet, ran the "cd /tmp" to change directory to tmp,
ran the "tar -xjvf upgrade.tar.bz2" command, saw all the files extracting in the telnet window,
then ran the "/tmp/upgrade" command, and saw loads of txt scrolling up but I must admit most of it was saying "could not delete the file as does not exist", (not sure if it was supposed to say that?) then the box rebooted.

Ftp the "hdd.tar.bz2" into /tmp but it was not showing in the "Add-Ons > Goodies > Manual Install Menu".

Did that twice, the second time was after a fresh flash of the commando 3.11 image.

Thanks, Ian

[PaphosAL]

That all looks OK to me, m8! Don't be alarmed by the 'file not found' messages- we are hunting for possible 0 byte 'marker' files (up to 14 of 'em') in /var/etc to clear out.

This would be in an original 2009-08-23 C11 image, where the user had not applied the subsequent robust patch to prevent 'phantom' installs resulting from attempting online Add-ons with a dbox that wasn't online!

In theory, there could have been up to 7 system modules and up to 7 goodies installed, we don't know. The new shellmenu setup now looks for the existence of genuine files used by each module, in order to dynamically shuffle the Install / Uninstall Menus contents.

As for hdd.tar.bz2 - I really don't know what to say... It's only 2kb in size - it is NOT a standalone package - it will NOT show in any menu! From the readme.txt file:

The little hdd file is supplementary and is provided for compatibility purposes. Add this tarball to /tmp too, if you're manually installing ext2.tar.bz2 or xfs.tar.bz2 - as it contains the IDE installer/setup script and shell Menu.

Nuff said?

[ianmac]

Hi AL

Tried again this morning with a fresh flash of your commando image, the image that I am flashing with is this one:

"Commando 11.3_x2_UkCvs.img", from the "Commando_11.3_2x__package" that had the "add-ons pack" with it.

Used the new: "Commando11-3-08-upgrade", ftp + telnet the "upgrade.tar.bz2",
so now in my image information it shows as:

image: commando 11.3.08
cycle: 3.7
image type: release
date: 08.11.2009 12:24
creator: Renwich & PaphosAL

But no matter what ".tar.bz2" file I ftp over to the /tmp, none of them show up in any of the manual install menus,
I have tried 1 @ a time & all of them together.

Thanks
Ian

[PaphosAL]

Your case appears to be unique, Ian- all works fine here, using exactly the same kit as you have on board, m8. Are you absolutely certain that you're FTP'ing the tarball(s) to /tmp and nowhere else?

Coz that's the only folder where shellexec Menus will recognize they exist!

Cheers- AL

[ianmac]

Your case appears to be unique, Ian- all works fine here, using exactly the same kit as you have on board, m8. Are you absolutely certain that you're FTP'ing the tarball(s) to /tmp and nowhere else?

Coz that's the only folder where shellexec Menus will recognize they exist!

Cheers- AL

Yes m8,

But never mind, The commando image is the best image that I have had, as it's very fast, stable & great for EPG, I will not change it for the world...

But was just hoping to get my hard drive working with it, so the mrs can record her soaps while I get the chance to come on here..

Thanks for your help PaphosAL & for a great image m8..

Ian

[PaphosAL]

Well give the HDD Install a go, then? If you want EXT2 FS, then ftp both these files to /tmp

ext2.tar.bz2 AND hdd.tar.bz2

If XFS is your preferred setup, then these go to /tmp

xfs.tar.bz2 AND hdd.tar.bz2

Whichever set you choose WILL appear in the System Modules Add-Ons Manual Install Menu 'as' EXT2 or XFS!! (The supplementary hdd tarball is automatically dealt with by the install process for each FS)

...Unless you've been unplugging the dbox from the mains immediately after ftp'ing stuff to /tmp ???

Cheers- AL

[ianmac]

Thanks AL

I will have another look @ that when I get home, in about an hour,
Gonna try the EXT2, but I just can't see where I am going wrong by not seeing the ".tar.bz2" in the D-box menus, as I have tried the HDD one before, ftp to /tmp & even tried ftp to /var/tmp but could not see the HDD or anything in either of the manual install menus.

I even tried your telnet command "tar -xjvf hdd.tar.bz2" to extract the files in the root, but did not know of a command to transfer them over to the right locations whilst still keeping the correct permisions on them ect.

Thanks again
Ian

[ianmac]

Hi AL

I managed to find out why the tarballs were not showing in the D-box install menus,
It needs the update tarball to be installed first, but could not install the update taball the way your instuction said.

[/QUOTE] press Blue > Blue > Image Add-Ons / Updates > Yellow > Green to Install the update. [/QUOTE]

I could only I could install it was this way:

press Blue > Blue > Yellow > Yellow > & if the "update tarball is in the D-box /tmp directory" the > Green will show to Install the update.

& then after that any tarballs in the D-box /tmp directory now seem to show.

==================================

Here is what I did in case you might want to update your txt file:

1. Reboot the dbox.
2. FTP upgrade.tar.bz2 to /tmp
3. In Telnet: /var # cd /tmp (enter)
4. /tmp # tar -xjvf upgrade.tar.bz2 (enter)
5. /tmp # /tmp/upgrade (enter) - dbox reboots itself.

6. FTP update.tar.bz2 to /tmp
7. Blue-Blue-Yellow-Yellow, & now the "Manually install image update pack" will show a Green selection to install the update.

As none of the ".tar.bz2" seemed to show in the /tmp directory unless the update was installed.

==================================

Thanks for sticking with me m8...


Now all I gotta do is work on getting my Hard Drive running,
I Ftp'd the hdd + ext2 tarballs to /tmp & installed the ext2 through the "Manual Add-ons Install Menu" & that is as far as I have got, (but that will be tomorrow now coz the mrs & kids will be home soon)
But hell, that's a lot further than B4 & I love all this learning curve..



Ian

[PaphosAL]

I am about to re-verify (for the 20th time) by reflashing with C11.3 exclusive release on ukcvs 23 Aug 2009.

I will then apply the current C11.3.08 Upgrade and retest that ALL the earlier Add-Ons (system / goodies) work. I know for a fact that they will, m8- because the ONLY single difference between the manual Upgrade and the Update (for peeps who already did the manual Upgrade) is that the former contains a telnet installer script, but the latter doesn't! Because the installer script is now an integral part of the image- thanks to the initial Upgrade stuff!!

What worries me is that you still seem to be confused about the reason for hdd.tar.bz2 being in there. Please carefully re-read my post #12 above again. I can't really explain it more succinctly than that! It is NOT a standalone install. It's a supplemental file now required by EXT2 or XFS, and that's it!

And thinking about it- you didn't read the destructions in post #3 properly, either! You are supposed to apply the manual Upgrade before any Update (Manual or Online)!!

Cheers- AL