Just about to buy a Dreambox 600C

[domahony]

Hi - I'm from Dublin - I'm mainly interested in getting a good PVR - but it looked
like the best one to get was a dreambox 600C PVR. I have ordered one, but I
think it will be supplied blank - that means a lot of fiddling before I get it to work.

Is it really true that I have to post 4 times before I can get to look at the
manual in the forums here?

 

[Devilfish]

You will need to have 20 posts before you can access the download section.

Have a read at the stickys on the dreambox and dm600 rooms as these have the most useful information.

 

[anfar]

Hi,
I've got a DB 600C (running), when I run a ransponder scan on a direct cable connection, it fails to obtain any lock. What's worrying me is the stats during the scan - the SNR , AGC and BER all hover around 60-80%, 99% and 165000 during the scan, with occasional dramatic shifts in the other direction. The same cable connection works fine with the cable co receiver (a Pace DC221KN).

Do this mean I have a crap signal coming into my house? I've heard the Dreamboxes don't have great receivers but this seems a bit excessive. If a booster would help any recommendations?

I've checked the Dreambox Guides, Tools and Info with no luck, many thanks.

Anfar.

 

[Curious123]

I have Dm600 and never had any tuner problems and I have not come across anyone with DM600 on this forum having any problems with a tuner. Make sure you have the right cables.xml file for scanning. What iamge are you using?

 

[anfar]

Many thanks Curious123, I updated the cables.xml (to the irish10 version) and did a rescan and it picked up 140+ channels. I can view a couple of them (RTE 1, Setanta Ireland, City Channel, Eurosport channels etc) but the majority just display black screens. I can see full EPG info for all channels.

I'm running "pli-Helenite-dm600pvr-20070417-2696.nfi" and I've downloaded a few softcams and tried testing with them but no luck - evocamd(2.16), mgccamd(1.25) . Do I need additional key files or anything?

cheers,

Anfar.

 

[Curious123]

There is later version of the PLI image than the one you have loaded and also try using Evocamd 2.13 as this seems to clear channels quicker than any other cam. As you are in Ireland I think the number of channels you recieve is a lot less than in England.

 

[Temp]

I think the number of channels you recieve is a lot less than in England.

That is correct.

But the Irish still get Sky One, Two etc as well as Virgin 1.

 

[anfar]

Curious123,

If you got a image without installed emus, keys and rom's you have to install all that things by yourself.

Hey,

Someone on another forum commented that I need to install extra roms, keys and emus if I'm using a stock pli image and evocamd. Would you have any pointers? I'm more than happy to try that if you/anyone has a recipe for getting and installing these extra files I apparenlty need? Or should I be starting with a completely different image? I'm having some difficulty locating various resources, probably because I'm new to the boards - sorry if I'm missing an obvious download somewhere.

Alternatively, if anyone has a working image for DreamBox 600C/dublin cable that they are willing to share I'd be more than happy to give it a spin. Feel free to PM me if that makes it easier to share!

 

[Curious123]

The Enigma Noob 1.0.2 by mrdude is the probably the best image to start with until you know what you are doing. However you cannot download anything until you have 20 posts or you have donated. So its up to you , take a wander round the forum putiing your 2 pennies worth or donate to the site and get downloading.

 

[qwqwek]

Is it possible to use keys from one image and put them into another image? I have pli image installed, can i insert mrdude keys onto it?

 

[anfar]

Corious123,
Thanks for that, I ended up finding and installing the keys I needed and got everything up and running. Unfortunately while flashing the box with the latest Pli image (pli-helenite-dm600pvr-20070709-3223.nfi) via the web UI but it stopped at 15% of the upload. I left it for a while (30 mins) but it didn't progress so I unplugged the box. On reboot I got a blank screen.

So I grabbed a null modem cable and fired up DreamUp 1.3.2. When connecting via COM1 it initially reported the "box type: DM600PVR" log message but then immediately threw an error dialog saying '" is not an integer'. *I left the "Use Network" box unticked btw). I retried a couple of times (cycling DreamUp, the laptop and the box) with the same result so in desperation I tried Hyperterminal'ing into the box. The boot sequence reported the following:

---------------------------------------
Dreambox DM600PVR

FIRST STAGE 1.6 {BO2345}

2ND STAGE OK, rev 2924 (20070628)



0.000 - fp init

0.001 - ca init

0.758 - load config

0.816 - config loaded.

* press to enter setup

no CF card detected!

BOOT #59 (20070628)

detected jffs2 blocksize: 16kb

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

dreamupd initialized

Scanning JFFS2 FS: . done.

find_inode failed for name=stop

load: Failed to find inode

/flash/bootlogo.elf

/flash/zImage.elf



loaded at: 00500000 00674244

board data at: 00672124 00672244

relocated to: 00505194 005052B4

zimage at: 00505A2D 00671809

avail ram: 00675000 04000000



Linux/PPC load: console=null root=/dev/mtdblock3 rootfstype=jffs2 rw

Uncompressing Linux...done.

Now booting the kernel
----------------------

And then it hung. Note the failed inode errors - that doesn't look good...

At this stage the box wasn't responding via the net interface (via telnet or http) so hit S to enter the advanced setup and manually configured it to listen on a fixed IP with the correct netmask and gateway for my router but still no luck.

In depseration I tried running DreamUp 1.0.2 but it didn't recognise the box at all when I turned it on (after hitting Connect). When I retried with 1.3.2 it got a bit further - it could upload the flash loader and the DreamUp status says "Box is in serial HTTP mode".

When I then hit Flash and choose any image file (even the official dreambox-image-dm600pvr-20070827.nfi) it immediately opens an error dialog saying "Cannot wait for event if event thread is created"). The log text box reports "Calculating checksum..." but when I dismiss the error dialog it never progresses. Checking back with HyperTerminal (after a reboot) shows the exact same output as above so I'm not sure what is causing this (and the previous DreamUp error message)

I'm open to anyones suggestions as my box is effectively a brick at the moment and I'm beginning to suspect I might have to return to dealer. Is there any other way to get the box stable enough for DreamUp to be able to reflash it sucessfully via null modem? However, if anyone can provide any tips I'd be more delighted to give them a go before resorting to that.

Many thanks,

Anfar.

 

[Curious123]

Have you tried doing a flash erase and than flashing the image across with the null modem cable?

 

[anfar]

Have you tried doing a flash erase and than flashing the image across with the null modem cable?

Hmm, how does one do a flash erase? (I thought dreamup would do that as part of flashing the new image across). I'm already using just the null modem cable...

 

[Curious123]

I have only used Dreamup twice but I think when you flash with the null modem cable there is a box you need to tick to do 'Flash erase'.

 

[anfar]

I have only used Dreamup twice but I think when you flash with the null modem cable there is a box you need to tick to do 'Flash erase'.

Hmm, I'm not seeing any flash erase option. I did manage to get some more info from the Linux boot load sequence (by press space bar then entering console=ttyS0,115200 <ENTER> when I saw Linux/PPC load via Hyperterminal). I'm just wondering if there is any other tool I can use to flash the 600 via null modem (other than DreamUp)

...
using irq 26

NAND device: Manufacturer ID: 0xad, Chip ID: 0x75 (Unknown NAND 32MiB 3,3V 8-bit

)

Scanning device for bad blocks

Creating 4 MTD partitions on "NAND 32MiB 3,3V 8-bit":

0x00000000-0x02000000 : "complete"

0x00000000-0x00040000 : "loader"

0x00040000-0x003fc000 : "boot partition"

0x00400000-0x02000000 : "root partition"

mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice

i2c /dev entries driver

IBM IIC driver v2.1

ibm-iic0: using standard (100 kHz) mode

NET: Registered protocol family 2

IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes

TCP established hash table entries: 4096 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)

TCP bind hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)

TCP: Hash tables configured (established 4096 bind 4096)

NET: Registered protocol family 1

NET: Registered protocol family 17

VFS: Mounted root (jffs2 filesystem).

Mounted devfs on /dev

Freeing unused kernel memory: 92k init

Kernel panic - not syncing: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel.

<0>Rebooting in 180 seconds..

 

[anfar]

Success!

FYI, I finally succeeded, thought I'd explain how for the benefit of others who are using DreamUP to flash a 600PVR (and possibly others?) that was bricked like mine (no web or telnet interface). Make sure your host PC has a configured network interface *even if* you have the "Use Network" box unticked* (thinking that it would then only use the null modem serial cable). There seems to be something in DreamUP that causes it to fail with the errors I was getting if you have the Use Network box unticked and the PC doesn't have a valid network interface configured...

The laptop I was flashing from didn't have a configured network interface (hence the Use Network box was actually disabled). I stuck an 802.11b card into it, configured it and plugged the dreambox into my hub and...some success! The error dialog never appeared and I could select my image. However, the first few attempts to flash lead to "404 Bad Request" errors but I restarted everything and it flashed sucesfully...

 

[digital123]

Another thing that might help is uploading a standard factory image and then one of the other ones on here