TiVo boot parameters
From TivoZA
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Viewing the parameters
There are two way in which you can view the TiVo boot parameters, the first and easiest is just to have a look at the "PAL NTSC" menu in TiVoWeb. The other way in which to see the bootpage parameters is by typing the following from the TiVo telnet prompt:
bootpage -p /dev/hda
Either way you should be presented with a result similar to the following:
root=/dev/hda4 runideturbo=false TV_STD=PAL GS=0 TIVO_DISABLE_INTERSTITIALS=0
The parameters are as follows:
- root: the partition on your hard disk where the TiVo software exists, do not change this
- runideturbo: whether or not you are using an original TiVo hard drive, even if you are there is no problem having it set to false
- TV_STD: specifies whether you are using PAL or NTSC as input
- GS: Specifies whether or not you are in maintenance mode: 0=no, 1=yes
- TIVO_DISABLE_INTERSTITIALS: whether or not to display the startup animation: 0=enabled, 1=disabled
Editing the parameters
You can edit the boot parameters by using a telnet connection to your TiVo, the recommended telnet client is PuTTY available from the Downloads section of this site. The standard windows telnet client is unable to connect to the TiVo.
Once you have established a telnet connection to your TiVo, type the following to bring up the current parameters:
bootpage -p /dev/hda
This should return a string similar to the following:
root=/dev/hda4 runideturbo=false TV_STD=PAL GS=0 TIVO_DISABLE_INTERSTITIALS=0
Note when using the PuTTY telnet client you can copy text just by dragging your mouse over the text you wish to copy, to paste text you can just right click with the mouse. Its far safer to copy and paste the above parameter string and then make you changes as that prevents mistyping any of the parameters which could lead to your TiVo not being able to boot up.
To update the parameters you need to pass back the above string with the necessary changes made between the ' ' in the following:
bootpage -P '' /dev/hda
The below example has maintenance mode disabled as well as the startup animation disabled:
bootpage -P 'root=/dev/hda4 runideturbo=false TV_STD=PAL GS=0 TIVO_DISABLE_INTERSTITIALS=1' /dev/hda
Accessing the "Recorder & Phone Setup" Menu
In order for you to access the "Recorder & Phone Setup" menu your TiVo need to be in Maintenance mode, setting this mode is described below. Maintenance mode is also required if you select "Repeat Guided Setup" or "Clear and delete everything" from the "System Reset" menu, without being in maintenance mode your TiVo will not allow you to configure the necessary settings.
Note: If you are wanting to access the "Recorder & Phone Setup" menu to perform a daily call this can also be done by selecting the "Phone" menu in TiVoWeb.
Jerky video
When the TiVo is in maintenance mode you may notice that the video quality is slightly jerky, its best not to run your TiVo in maintenance mode when not necessary.
Maintenance Mode
Maintenance mode is a setting in the TiVo boot parameters and can be disabled or enabled, it needs to be enabled when performing Guided Setup or when trying to access the "Recorder & Phone Setup" menu but for the rest of the time it should be disabled. Your TiVo is running in Maintenance mode if the screen shown while booting up says "Welcome to Maintenance Mode", as shown here.
Note: when enabling or disabling maintenance mode the change will not occur until your TiVo has rebooted.
TiVoWeb's "PAL NTSC" menu allows for enabling maintenance mode, this can be done by selecting "Set PAL Guided Setup Mode". If you accidentally select "Set PAL Guided Setup Mode" twice the "GS=1" parameter will be added twice and you will need to remove the extra parameter from the boot parameters manually by using telnet as described in "Editing the parameters" above.
You can also enter maintenance mode by pressing the following key combination on your remote while aimed at the TiVo:
CLEAR 9 1 CLEAR
Be careful not to enter this twice as it will cause the same problem as described above and you will need to manually edit the boot parameters.
Disabling maintenance mode should happen automatically after your TiVo has been on for a couple of hours but you will still need to reboot your TiVo's for the settings to take effect.
You can manually disable maintenance mode by manually setting the parameter "GS=0" from the telnet prompt as described in "Editing the parameters" above.
Startup Animation
As cute as you may find the startup animation, you may quickly get sick and tired of it, especially since it get jumpy near the end due to being in NTSC format which has a different frame rate to PAL. To disable the startup animation you need to set the parameter "TIVO_DISABLE_INTERSTITIALS=1" from the telnet prompt as explained in "Editing the parameters" above.
