Flashing Vix images and keeping settings (Apollo 3 to Apollo8)

iba

Hi,

Every time I flash a new Vix image on my box eg helios to zeus to apollo I naturally lose my settings (if settings is the right word). By settings I mean by GPS location (for my motor), my Picons, Auto Bouquet, Vhannibal, Ondemand player, Softcams, USB Mount etc and I reinstall them from the feeds.

I guess you experts have another way of doing this and I would be grateful if you could let me know.

In other words, is there a way that I can save/download all the add ons that I have and GPS settings etc from the box. Reflash the box to the latest image and then upload the settings back onto the box?

Thanks

fat-tony

In the ViX menu on Apollo there is a backup manager. There you can save your settings etc. to a connected drive. After flashing from Apollo 8 you can then use the backup manager to restore your settings.

iba

fat-tony wrote: »

In the ViX menu on Apollo there is a backup manager. There you can save your settings etc. to a connected drive. After flashing from Apollo 8 you can then use the backup manager to restore your settings.

Thanks Fat-Tony,

I will give that a go asap.

Cheers

iba

Sorry another question (i might have more later)

At the moment I have a memory stick in one of the USB ports of the box where Picons and EPG are saved to.

Can that stick just be left in the box during the whole reflashing process and restoring settings rocess or does it have to be removed, wiped and then remounted please?

Thanks

byte

I've a USB stick plugged in the back, and used a seperate USB stick to reflash plugged into the front. Didn't remove it (never even thought about it), flashed grand.

iba

byte wrote: »

I've a USB stick plugged in the back, and used a seperate USB stick to reflash plugged into the front. Didn't remove it (never even thought about it), flashed grand.

So it is grand to leave it there for the reflashing process but will it cause any complications when restoring settings?

I have never done a back up before so just learning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiTIPbSIsFg

also reading this:

http://www.world-of-satellite.com/showthread.php?9752-How-to-use-Backup-amp-Image-Manager-on-Duo-Solo-Uno-ET9000-ET5000-ViX

iba

ah so as I say just learning.

So I do not need to use a 2nd usb stick to save the settings to. I can use the same usb stick that is already in the back of the receiver which has the picons and EPG on it?

More info:

Ah but the backup is saved as a rar file so it has to be extracted. So you have to take the usb out of the receiver and extract it using your pc/laptop, so it is maybe just as handy to use a second usb stick afterall?

fat-tony

To clarify the issue regarding USB sticks when flashing VixX images:

The recommendation from WoS in their guides is that you disconnect any external drives or other USB sticks when flashing a new image. The issue with USB sticks is that some boxes are particularly "picky" with regard to recognising them and flashing from them. I have a particularly ancient hp stick with a capacity of 4GB formatted to FAT32 and this seems to work on everything - Humax Foxsat, Mvision and now the Enigma based machines so I use it exclusively. Once you find a stick that works reliably, keep it safe!

I have a Quad Plus with an internal HDD, so I use the front USB port for flashing as it's more convenient. The USB stick with the flashed image also contains a folder with picons and a couple of test audio and video files. I leave the stick in the machine most of the time so anytime it boots I get a warning message that an image is found, but I ignore it (unless I'm actually flashing a new image) and the boot process continues after a few minutes.

As regards the backups that the ViX backup manager takes - yes they are compressed and the ViX manage will decompress them on restore, so you don't need to do anything.

I keep the EPG on the HDD and also the backups. I usually keep the picons in the flash, although I have them on the USB stick also if I'm trying a new set on another machine.

iba

fat-tony wrote: »

To clarify the issue regarding USB sticks when flashing VixX images:

The recommendation from WoS in their guides is that you disconnect any external drives or other USB sticks when flashing a new image. The issue with USB sticks is that some boxes are particularly "picky" with regard to recognising them and flashing from them. I have a particularly ancient hp stick with a capacity of 4GB formatted to FAT32 and this seems to work on everything - Humax Foxsat, Mvision and now the Enigma based machines so I use it exclusively. Once you find a stick that works reliably, keep it safe!

I have a Quad Plus with an internal HDD, so I use the front USB port for flashing as it's more convenient. The USB stick with the flashed image also contains a folder with picons and a couple of test audio and video files. I leave the stick in the machine most of the time so anytime it boots I get a warning message that an image is found, but I ignore it (unless I'm actually flashing a new image) and the boot process continues after a few minutes.

As regards the backups that the ViX backup manager takes - yes they are compressed and the ViX manage will decompress them on restore, so you don't need to do anything.

I keep the EPG on the HDD and also the backups. I usually keep the picons in the flash, although I have them on the USB stick also if I'm trying a new set on another machine.

Fat-Tony,

Thanks for the very useful information.

I have the Gigablue 800 SE (so no hard drive) and like you mention I previously found that one usb stick that I had would not work to flash the box whilst another did.

You mention that you keep your Picons in the flash, but I read that it is not a good idea to do this as it uses up space so I permanently have an old 4gb usb stick inserted in a back port of the box for as I say, epg and picons and this is formatted to .ext (I think that is what it is called. It definitely is not called Fat32 because either the epg or the Picons would not save to it if it was formatted to Fat32).

So two points of very good info in your post are:

1) remove usb stick when flashing; and

2) the box/image itself will unzip the backup file settings - so no need to do that on the PC/Laptop.

So if I understand correctly, and please correct me if I am wrong, I should/can do the following:

1) use backup manager to do a back up of settings and save this to the same usb stick (.ext usb stick) that I have the picons and epg on at the back of the box.

2) turn off box/plug out box and remove .ext usb stick from back of box.

3) put image I want to flash onto another usb stick (Fat 32 usb stick)

4) flash new image on to box with fat32 usb stick

Now I am not sure about the rest/below:

5) remove fat32 usb stick from box and insert .ext usb stick into box

6) install backup settings from .ext usb stick onto box

So as I say, I am not sure of the correct steps after step 4

Regards

fat-tony

ext3 or ext4 is the native disk file system for linux boxes. FAT32 comes from the MS Windows PC environment. linux will read and write ordinary files from the FAT32 file system. Your .ext stick was presumably initialised in the box and is mounted as ext3 or 4 by it. Stuff like swap files (if you're short of RAM) would only work on ext file systems and it's probably best to keep system files on such a stick or external disk. That said, my picon set is on the FAT32 stick in a folder and the Quad Plus manages just fine with it. There is 512MB of flash on the Quad Plus, so there is no issue with storing picons there as they are just written occasionally when you add a new set, otherwise they are just read from. You are recommended not to store the EPG in the box flash, though, as there is a re-write of megabytes of data every time you refresh the EPG, usually several times per day, which could cause premature wear issues or use up your available flash. It's better to have the EPG on a separate USB flash drive or a HDD.

As for your steps 5/6, you are correct - insert the .ext formatted USB stick into the back port and, once it's recognised and mounted by the system, you can restore from it. You may find that it's ok to leave it installed permanently. It's just that the recommendation to remove attached devices when flashing is there to eliminate any potential issues.

iba

fat-tony wrote: »

ext3 or ext4 is the native disk file system for linux boxes. FAT32 comes from the MS Windows PC environment. linux will read and write ordinary files from the FAT32 file system. Your .ext stick was presumably initialised in the box and is mounted as ext3 or 4 by it. Stuff like swap files (if you're short of RAM) would only work on ext file systems and it's probably best to keep system files on such a stick or external disk. That said, my picon set is on the FAT32 stick in a folder and the Quad Plus manages just fine with it. There is 512MB of flash on the Quad Plus, so there is no issue with storing picons there as they are just written occasionally when you add a new set, otherwise they are just read from. You are recommended not to store the EPG in the box flash, though, as there is a re-write of megabytes of data every time you refresh the EPG, usually several times per day, which could cause premature wear issues or use up your available flash. It's better to have the EPG on a separate USB flash drive or a HDD.

As for your steps 5/6, you are correct - insert the .ext formatted USB stick into the back port and, once it's recognised and mounted by the system, you can restore from it. You may find that it's ok to leave it installed permanently. It's just that the recommendation to remove attached devices when flashing is there to eliminate any potential issues.

Fat-Tony,

Thanks for all your advice.

'Your .ext stick was presumably initialised in the box and is mounted as ext3 or 4 by it' - yes exactly.

I'll give it a go when I get home tonite.

Thanks again much appreciated.

iba

Hi,

Well that nearly all worked. All settings were restored.

The one thing that did not work, and I do not know if it is meant to or not, is I had no TV stations.

I had to go into Plugins and click on AutoBouquets E2 and press the 'Start' (Green) button.

This is what my stations look like after doing that:

lfc84

in laymans terms whats the benefit of gonig from 3 to 8 ?

fat-tony

@iba - I thought the channel lists were backed up as part of the process, but I've been mostly doing fresh flashes, no restores in order to check the builds.

fat-tony

lfc84 wrote: »

in laymans terms whats the benefit of gonig from 3 to 8 ?

Really depend on what box you're using. Most of the changes are minor, so if your box is working and stable at the moment I'd suggest leave well enough alone for now. The changes were to fix driver issues and introduce the new GB Quad Plus box to ViX support. There have been a lot of issues with the stability of the feeds system and it's down at the moment.

iba

fat-tony wrote: »

@iba - I thought the channel lists were backed up as part of the process, but I've been mostly doing fresh flashes, no restores in order to check the builds.

fat-tony,

Just found an answer to this problem over on WoS posted by Judge:

http://www.world-of-satellite.com/showthread.php?20220-UKCvS-AutoBouquets-E2-by-LraiZer-BETA&p=289629#post289629

'You can also add custom files & locations to be backed up using Backup Manager.
When in Backup Manager, press menu, then yellow to choose any extras you want included in backups.'

Looking forward to trying this tonite

Regards

iba

Following on to finding the solution above, which one of the folders in the following list is AutoBouquets E2 saved in. In other words which one of the folders should I tick to save please?

Whilst I am at it, any other folders that I should tick please?

Thanks

daneparkinson

With Openvix bouquet files are stored in directory /etc/enigma2

It also contains auto timers + other setting related files.

A normal backup (backup manager -> new backup) will do the same thing, then you can just restore the backup or unzip the backup file and pick n choose the files to copy in.

iba

daneparkinson wrote: »

With Openvix bouquet files are stored in directory /etc/enigma2

It also contains auto timers + other setting related files.

A normal backup (backup manager -> new backup) will do the same thing, then you can just restore the backup or unzip the backup file and pick n choose the files to copy in.

Thanks for your reply.

I did that (backup manager - new backup) but the bouquet files were not saved.

I believe this because when I did a flash the stations were all missing and I had to do a scan on autobouquet to get them back.

So should I tick the 'etc' folder in the list/screenshot I posted?

Thanks

daneparkinson

You don't need to back up the full /etc directory So....

Click OK button on the etc directory, this should expand that directory, then press yellow button on the enigma2 directory to include in backup.

You can always connect to box (using box ip the information -> network page shows this) using FileZilla and browse to the /etc/enigma2 directory and see it contains your bouquet files.

iba

Thanks

Ok got you. Expanded the folder and found that the enigma2 folder is already ticked.



So back to the drawing board. Why am I having to rescan the autobouquet plugin to get the stations back?

Darn.

Thanks for your help though, much apreciated.

Regards

iba

FTP'd the box and the files seem to be there allright:

radiowaves

Am I missing something?

Why not just use DreamboxEdit to save and upload your services and bouquet list?

iba

radiowaves wrote: »

Am I missing something?

Why not just use DreamboxEdit to save and upload your services and bouquet list?

Probably will have to do it that way because the proper way is not working.

radiowaves

iba wrote: »

Probably will have to do it that way because the proper way is not working.

FTP is the "proper" way

I find applying backups to fresh installs can cause issues and bloat the receiver.

Using FTP for your services files ensures they are clean and always available

iba

radiowaves wrote: »

FTP is the "proper" way

I find applying backups to fresh installs can cause issues and bloat the receiver.

Using FTP for your services files ensures they are clean and always available

Thanks for the info about applying backups to fresh installs bloating the box.

Ok, maybe I should have said easiest for me
rather than proper.

But it does bug me that I Am following the instructions correctly but not getting the results

As you will have gathered from this thread I have only been learning about backup manager this week. So I will have to learn your method.

I have another thread open called skins and vix where I tried to download mymetrix skin but I don't have enough memory left on the box
. Sounds like bloating.

Typing slowly and with lots of mistakes coz I'm on my phone. Not good with phones :-(

radiowaves

iba wrote: »

Thanks for the info about applying backups to fresh installs bloating the box.

Ok, maybe I should have said easiest for me
rather than proper.

But it does bug me that I Am following the instructions correctly but not getting the results

As you will have gathered from this thread I have only been learning about backup manager this week. So I will have to learn your method.

I have another thread open called skins and vix where I tried to download mymetrix skin but I don't have enough memory left on the box
. Sounds like bloating.

Typing slowly and with lots of mistakes coz I'm on my phone. Not good with phones :-(

I wasn't trying to be smart BTW

I always prefer fresh installs - everything is clean that way. I have a checklist to go through and all Plugins etc ready to go. To get a new image back to my favoured state usually takes 15-20 minutes (obviously too long for lots of people )

What box are you using btw?

If you are low on memory it is quite possible that your box just can't deal with applying backups. Having said that MyMetrix in its raw state is quite bloated anyway.

In addition Vix is a little unstable right now because of its well-documented political situation

iba

radiowaves wrote: »

I wasn't trying to be smart BTW

I always prefer fresh installs - everything is clean that way. I have a checklist to go through and all Plugins etc ready to go. To get a new image back to my favoured state usually takes 15-20 minutes (obviously too long for lots of people )

What box are you using btw?

If you are low on memory it is quite possible that your box just can't deal with applying backups. Having said that MyMetrix in its raw state is quite bloated anyway.

In addition Vix is a little unstable right now because of its well-documented political situation

I didn't think you were being.

Everything you said makes perfect sense to me. In fact I am just about convinced to forget about this backup option altogether

Just I was getting tired having to reinstall everything with all these new vix flash updates lately, zeus, helios, apollo etc

It's a gigablue hd 800 se.

I don't know about this political situation

Send me ur check list please, I'm sure it would help me a lot

radiowaves

iba wrote: »

I didn't think you were being.

Everything you said makes perfect sense to me. In fact I am just about convinced to forget about this backup option altogether

Just I was getting tired having to reinstall everything with all these new vix flash updates lately, zeus, helios, apollo etc

It's a gigablue hd 800 se.

I don't know about this political situation

Send me ur check list please, I'm sure it would help me a lot

I'm not familiar with your receiver so bear in mind that any advice I've given needs to be considered on that basis.

There was a fallout behind the scenes with the Vix team which is why there are so many different versions and updates.

Everybody's checklist would be different - mine goes in order from tuner configuration (despite having all the sats it takes me 3-5 minutes these days) through which plugins I had, what cam(s) etc to uploading whatever files I need to. (The checklist is oin my head but is a well-established order).

BTW I'm not saying do away with the Backup option altogether; they can be handy for restoring your receiver to a particular point if you like experimenting. I just personally find applying backups to fresh installs can cause issues.

fat-tony

@iba - I've been away on holidays the past week so didn't keep up to date with threads! I see now that you are using E2 Autobouquets, rather than AutoBouquetMaker (ABM) which is packaged with the newer ViX images, so it's entirely possible that the E2 AB plugin settings are not being retained, although the actual bouquets should be ok if you are restoring them. E2 AB requires you to have a complete scan of 28.2 in place so that it works properly, I believe. ABM does not require this as it has the main satellite transponder settings for SKY and Freesat built in and then it rebuilds the bouquets everytime you run it. It doesn't handle Saorview at all, so there is an element of copy and paste required to keep your own custom bouquet working properly. I think E2 AB might be the better choice for Irish terrestrial and satellite, though. I haven't had time to play with E2 AB due to the number of image releases happening! Because ViX is supporting so many boxes there have been issues with failed or withdrawn releases and also because of the need to merge changes from other Open Alliance images there have been stability problems also. Hopefully it will settle down, but I'd suggest sticking with a particular image if you are not getting issues.
Because I'm actually testing the Quad Plus box I do a fresh flash each time (no restores) in order to check the initial state of everything and then I run through setting the tuners and plugins manually.

iba

fat-tony wrote: »

@iba - I've been away on holidays the past week so didn't keep up to date with threads! I see now that you are using E2 Autobouquets, rather than AutoBouquetMaker (ABM) which is packaged with the newer ViX images, so it's entirely possible that the E2 AB plugin settings are not being retained, although the actual bouquets should be ok if you are restoring them. E2 AB requires you to have a complete scan of 28.2 in place so that it works properly, I believe. ABM does not require this as it has the main satellite transponder settings for SKY and Freesat built in and then it rebuilds the bouquets everytime you run it. It doesn't handle Saorview at all, so there is an element of copy and paste required to keep your own custom bouquet working properly. I think E2 AB might be the better choice for Irish terrestrial and satellite, though. I haven't had time to play with E2 AB due to the number of image releases happening! Because ViX is supporting so many boxes there have been issues with failed or withdrawn releases and also because of the need to merge changes from other Open Alliance images there have been stability problems also. Hopefully it will settle down, but I'd suggest sticking with a particular image if you are not getting issues.
Because I'm actually testing the Quad Plus box I do a fresh flash each time (no restores) in order to check the initial state of everything and then I run through setting the tuners and plugins manually.

Hi Fat-Tony,

I hope you enjoyed your holidays.

Thanks for the information and advice.

I use Autobouquet E2 because I actually have a motorised dish so I understood that this was the easiest way to keep all sats. updated. And I am using Vhannibal Motor Settings.

I do not have the box connected to a Saorview aerial at this time, so I am not worried about that.

I am still pretty new at all this and only learning little by little thanks to guys and girls on here - so if I come across as stupid, well i am - for example I do not even know whether to choose the 50hz, multi or 60hz option refresh rate when the box starts up after a reflash

Cheers