Harddisk partitioning on IpBox / Cuberevo / Mini
What the box expects:
The IpBbox uses a /media folder to save recordings, which is normally a mounted partition (giving a mount command will normally show /dev/sda2 on /media). The mounted partition can be ext2 or ext3, but ext2 works about twice as fast (important for double recordings, or simultaneous recording and playback).
Depending on what is detected on startup, /dev/sda2 can be a harddisk attached to the internal or external SATA port, or a USB-attached drive. Note that attaching a large (>4Gb) drive to the USB port may cause automatic use of this device as /dev/sda, even though a harddisk is present on the SATA.
The IpBox expects one of limited series of harddisks, so not every SATA disk will work. There´s an entry in the WIKI about working and non-working harddisks: working_cuberevo_harddrives, troublesome_cuberevo_harddrives.
How to setup a harddisk:
Method 1) If an empty harddisk is detected, the box will try to format it automagically. Attaching a virgin harddisk to the SATA port will normally means that the automatic format is started once the box is booted. In this way, a 128Mb /sda1 partiton and a big /sda2 partition (the rest of the harddisk) are created, ready to be mounted once the Linux kernel starts. Later firmware versions will make both partitions ext2.
Note: formatting may take a while (up to 10 minutes for a 250Gb disk). During this time, the box may seem stuck at booting or refuse to show the PVR preferences menu options.
Method 2) If the first method fails, it may help to force an automatic format of the harddisk: The option to format the harddisk at boot can be set in the Preferences menu under PVR options and is called Format HDD at next boot. The box is forced to go through the process described above, even though /sda1 and /sda2 are already made, so this method wil erase all recordings! Its best to check again after boot to see if the format option is turned off again.
Also here, the formatting may be invisible for 10-15 minutes. Give the box some time!
Method 3) If all fails, it may be possible to do a manual format from a shell prompt. Only do this if you have some experience using a shell prompt under linux! The process is as follows:
After logging in to the box in a telnet shell, see if the harddisk is recognized by a fdisk /dev/sda command. You have to start fdisk with the device to work on as argument, and you will get another command promt style to enter commands that act on that particular device. Check if the /dev/sda point to the harddisk and not a USB drive!
If the fdisk command does not see the harddisk, it simply isn´t recognized by the box, end of story.
The fdisk /dev/sda command has to show the hardisk (if the system can access the device), and you can list the partitons (or empty table). Use the fdisk help to see what commands you have at your disposal, the m command inside fdisk will give a list of commands.
Remembering the expected layout, you can make a partiton table with two type 83 (ext2) partitions. A small one (sda1, 128Mb-1Gb) for system or swap and a big one (sda2) for media files. For now, the fdisk instructions available on http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/fdisk_partitioning.html are enough to make the two partitons. Don´t forget to write the table before quitting fdisk!
After making the partitions, they can be formatted with the mkfs.ext2 command. It will be enough to give the command mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda1, followed by the command mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda2. Remember that the command may take some time to complete!
After a reboot, the correct folder should be mounted automatically on /media, and available for recordings.
USB attached drives:
Note: The following is only tested with the Nuetrino image on a CubeRevo250HD
Attaching an external USB drive to the CubeRevo250HD will not partition the drive as explained above. You have to make the partitions and format them yourself. On Linux: Either telnet into the box and partition by command line or attach the drive to a Linux computer and use GParted. On Windows: Get any Linux Live CD that will boot Linux from CD to use GParted. There’s also a specific GParted Live CD. Remember to make two type 83 (ext2) partitions. A small one (sda1, 128Mb-1Gb) for system or swap and a big one (sda2) for media files As explained above.
If you connect the USB drive back to your computer you’ll find the recordings stored in read protected directories accessible only to (root) so override the permissions to access them.
