Zgemma H7s Guide

egal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121971956#Comment_121971956

Thanks swoofer. I was able to delete 14 episodes in one go!

joeirish

So lost the hard disc (again!). I posted about this a few months ago but the problem has now returned. The box has lost the internal HDD. Storage does not appear on the Setup page. I've done all the usuals including deep standby but still nothing. The whole system froze last night while I was changing channels and while it was recording. When I re-booted the HDD and all recorded programs had disappeared. Any help appreciated. Thanks.

joeirish

When I hit File List on the remote I get this

Screenshot 2024-04-06 at 16.42.02.png

Showing 1946 MB (78%) free discspace. So it would seem that the system can see the disc space but cannot get a route to the directory where the programmes are stored?

Gerry Wicklow

working from memory, have a look in HDD/Movie/ and use the coloured button to set that location.

swoofer

What you do is press the yellow button while in the directory as above, you should then get 4 options , no 3 should say media/hdd/movie, select that and you will see recordings etc exit out and next time when you press file list it will take you to that directory.

But may not solved the HDD problem. Is it an SSD and are you using an USB for the epg? Does the box get hot? What settings have you for the HDD?

Is the box the latest with HDD sticking out at rear?

joeirish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121984719#Comment_121984719

Thanks. When I look in that directory I get the followng screen. It seems to be sayig that there is just 64kB free space?

Screenshot 2024-04-06 at 17.34.45.png

Also I can't find how to set this as the location.

joeirish

So basically Storage is not showing on the Setup options and I think that nothing I do will work until it shows this option? Any ideas how I can make this happen? Or have I lost the internal drive altogether?

joeirish

The Vix image is 6.2.011 and I can't seem to flash a newer version. I get this screen when I try and use Image manager. I assume because it can't dind the internal disc?

swoofer

Go slow and see my Q's above then I'll guide you from there/

Gerry Wicklow

Ok just had a chance to check on my box, if you go

MENU>SETUP>RECORDINGS PLAYBACK & TIMESHIFT
you should see a setting similar to this for the default location. Im a bit worried how it no longer has the STORAGE option in the menu. It could be that the HDD file system has become corrupted.

joeirish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121984770#Comment_121984770

The box is an older one with an SSD. and it looks like this cannot be found after the system froze last night. When I press the yellow button I only get 2 options, 1 (Other…) , 2 Internal flash

1 gives me this screen but I think these are all in the RAM and not the SSD?

joeirish

So no Storage showing even after a deep standby and restart etc. Does this seem to suggest that the SSD is dead?

Gerry Wicklow

another shot from that menu try MEDIA/HDD/MOVIE and see if you can access that for your recordings.

joeirish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121984974#Comment_121984974

Thanks again but that didn't work. I get a message saying this director is not allowed. Pic below

swoofer

Yes the box has lost the SSD so you have to turn off box and press that white button at rear. then open box to take out the SSD you will need to check the cable in the box as I have seen reports the cbale is too short. make sure ure the sata cable is fully seated on the board. then put back in ssd after you put cover back on, then power on with white button and wait.

BUT take a few pics of the inside of box as Andy on here has said capacitors swell.

If it does not recognise the SSD after the above its more than likely corrupt software. And I hope you have epg saved to SSD from the outset.

Have you only the one image on box?

Gerry Wicklow

Sadly it looks like the HDD is messed up. The question then is, was that caused by the box crashing or did the box crash because the drive died.
Im not sure if are good you are with kind of stuff. I would try the drive in a Linux powered PC to see if that shows anything. Chances are you don't have access to such a beastie. There probably is some Windows or Apple software to help test / recover a drive but I wouldn't be able to advise there. AFAIK windows boxes cant read Linux HDD systems.

joeirish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121984920#Comment_121984920

Yep I thik you may be right about the file system becoming corrupted. Where to next?

Gerry Wicklow

Before trying the nuclear option, if you had another spare HDD to test in the box and see if it recognises that one, we would then know if the box and software were OK.

Otherwise try the suspect HDD in another PC. It might be possible to re-format it. This would lose anything that was on the drive. If it did come back to life in the PC it could then be tried in the Zgemma and re-initialised to the Linux system. In each case you would lose whatever was on the drive already.

greasepalm

I have lost storage media on boxes before and powering off for a few minutes then on it came back as listed and still working.

joeirish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121985083#Comment_121985083

Ok. I plugged in another HDD to the usb port and that works fine. I had to reformat it but I can record stuff on the new drive. So what next? I'm not sure what's on the SSD as well as the recorded stuff. Is there system stuff on there as well? Would it be a problem if I re-formatted the SSD and lost everything?

CalamariFritti

There shouldn't be any system stuff on the ssd. Just your epg and the recordings.

greasepalm

Did you power off box for a few minutes and then on to see if storage was found again before a format wipes everything.

joeirish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121986509#Comment_121986509

Yes did that several times. Also deep standby and power off. No luck.

joeirish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121986494#Comment_121986494

So how would I reformat the ssd and reinstal the stuff that was deleted?

swoofer

I gave you the answer in post 2176. You can even remove the ssd from box and plug in as a usb hdd. If it still not recognised by USB method then you know the ssd has failed. Did you put the ssd in box yourself? because if it came pre installed it may not be an ssd and more likely to fail but as i SAID above there are problems with older versions and how they are connected. Is it still under guarantee? All that will be on the HDD is epg, recordings and backups and any images that you downloaded. Trust me you have to open the box and check the hdd connections.

joeirish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121987098#Comment_121987098

Thanks for the help and sorry but I missed post 2176. So to recap and answer your questions. The SSD was installed when I bought the box. I've lost it about 3 times over the past 2 years and each time the deep standby and restart method has worked (sometimes after 2 or 3 goes). This time it has not worked after three days of trying. I've not made any changes to the cables or connectors so my thinking is that it is software related as this has been the case before. But I'll open the box anyway to see if there's anything obvious. I also have an older image and I have reverted to that but it still did not find the SSD. I'm. not sure where the images are stored but just assumed that it must be somewhere else than on the SSD as they seem to get loaded OK. I'll also check that it's an SSD in the box and not a hard drive but I've not ever heard any sounds to indicate the physical movements of heads etc (which I hear on the external HDD which I've now connected via USB and gives a temporary fix) so my thought was that it's solid state. And no the box is no longer under guarantee.

joeirish

I guess what I find confusing is not knowing where stuff is stored. So where EPG data and ViX image stored? I assumed these were stored on the SSD. So what I don't understand is that if the system can find these files why not my recordings which are also on the SSD? Also if you look at my post 2164 there is a pic showing the parent directory and it also shows 1946 MB free space so where is the system getting the information about the free space on the SSD? Again my small knowledge of computer systems would tell me this is in the file system on the SSD. But maybe I've got all this wrong? Grateful if somebody could talk me through this. Thanks.

joeirish

So I've opened the box and no signs of any damage to components or loose cables. I've also found that the storage is a HDD. it's a 500GB Western Digital SATA hard drive (WD500LPX). I've attached some photos. So where to next?

Thanks

swoofer

Thank you. Now that looks like a normal HDD but I cant see the spin speeds on photo. These were good and silent but can fail.

As with all things computers cables can be a bugbear, so you need to unplug the cables from the hdd, and the sata cable from the PCB board, have a good look and reseat them. You can also take out the HDD installed and replace it with the one you are using via USB unless its USB only. Also when you bought the box it may have come with a HDD adapter so you could use that to check that internal HDD.

Those sata cables can be poor so if you have a spare you can try that.

The box has 4 partitions where it stores the OS. The space you see on your pic is the partition. The EPG is read into memory but when turned off it reads it back to storage.

NB if you did not set it up to store memory on the HDD then that can cause problems. You should always store the epg on a USB hence the usb ports but … that's another story.

How did you revert to another image??

The fact its failed before is a worry.

You don't need an internal HDD for box to work well. By the time you have finished fixing this you will know where all the files are stored!! Do you know how to FTP to the box and are you using windows OS?

CalamariFritti

The Linux system software is stored on its 4GB Flashprom. It boots from there and runs without a hard disk altogether. It only needs a relatively small section of writable data (log & status & tmp files etc) and it creates a Ramdisk for that and then runs from the rest of the 1GB RAM. Its a stripped down 'minimal' linux streamlined to run on 'boxes'.

They even divided the Flashprom into 4 * 1GB sections so we can store 4 different linux images and select which one to run at boot time. Enigma2 is a linux for boxes and its amazing what can be done within just 1GB of RAM/ROM. I could start a 'when I was a young embedded developer' speech ;) and the gist of it would be - 4GB ROM and 1GB RAM is quite a lot.

***

There is an exception to that rule that zgemma runs from Flash entirely - but I imagine it doesnt affect most people. In 'Menu/Setup/System/Storage devices' - where you find your options to reformat hard disk etc too - there is (on openatv image anyway) an option called 'flashextender'. With the flashextender plugin you can expand the linux installation onto the hard disk. This is for when you want to install a mad amount of (other) plugins or third party software in general, like kodi or godknowswhat. What flashextender does is it moves the entire '/usr/share' (I think) folder onto the hard disk and the original '/usr/share' (on the Flashprom) becomes a link to that hdd folder.

But it's very unlikely this is the case with your box. Flashextender is very much an 'advanced' setting. Normal state of affairs is that zgemma runs entirely from Flashprom. The hard disk is just for data like EPG and recordings and totally replaceable that way.

***

Your screenshot in 2164 shows your 'root' filesystem - root is '/' - top-left corner of your screenshot. Linux always has a root filesystem, thats where folders like /bin, /boot, /dev, /etc, /sys and so on are located. The kernel sits usually under '/boot'.

However, the linux file system is hierarchical and can make folders work like 'pointers' to other storage devices - 'mounts' they are called. In linux you can create a folder and 'mount' another storage device there, making it part of the overall root filesystem. 'Mounting' is the only way of integrating any storage device into the one and only root filesystem.

Different concept compared to say 'Windows' where another hard drive or USB stick becomes a new 'drive' and gets a new drive letter, like the 'D:' drive or so.

Linux doesnt know the concept of 'drives', everything has to be mounted one way or the other onto the '/' file system or one of its subfolders or sub-sub folders, anywhere within the hierarchy.

For enigma2 boxes those mounts are usually under '/media'. Like you change to '/media/hdd' thats where your hard disk is mounted. Your 'automounts' will show up in there too, like you pop in a USB stick and from nowhere a folder '/media/usb' or /media/hdd2' or so will appear and it will contain the contents of your USB stick.