HOWTO: North americanize your satlist

[boomer_106]

I'm about to snap. I just spent a few hours with the remote getting the sat list the way I want it. I save it to maz. Next button I push on the remote, it says problem occurs on your system. BOOM! All the Euro garbage right back. I think ok, I'll just FTP the list I saved back to the Azbox. navigate to Disk 2 and try to put the DVBS.dat file back and it says failed to put DVBS.dat

At this point I figure, well I'll try to put crackt file on there. I take it and rename it. I tried both files taking the 1 or 2 off the name. Same result. I'm looking at the name of the default file in Disk 2 folder and the name and case match. It just won't take it.

I can't even take a file you guys give me and put it in the Azbox with Maz.

 

[crackt]

are you using the ftp portion of maz ? i found if i use the arrow buttons it didnt work, i had to drag and drop across the window panes. if you stay calm boomer ill work it out with you . haha. maybe even sign up for msn or some s@#$.

crackt out,.

 

[B.J.]

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How critical is it to do a format application area before all of this ? I have not done it in fear of locking the Azbox up
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At this point, I'd say that it's essential. I would also reload the firmware.

.......

I can't even take a file you guys give me and put it in the Azbox with Maz.
.....

I just can't escape the conclusion that MAZ is responsible for 75% of the problems people are having with the Azbox. I would recommend getting a generic FTP program, and practice with it a while. Then reload firmware, format application area to make sure that there isn't anything in the channel/transponder data that conflicts with the DVBS.dat, THEN try to put in a new DVBS.dat file. Actually, I really think that in addition to the DVBS.dat file, it might help if Crackt could provide the antenna_list.dat file that goes with his files. I pretty much found that if there is corruption in those files, you have to remove the corruption. My Azbox CAME with corrupted files. It wouldn't even let me delete satellites, well actually I could delete most of them, but every time I tried to delete the one at ~1W , it wouldn't do it, and would change the parameters of other sats. So I needed to wipe everythng clean, and people recommended that I try the .xml method. I think that when I tried it, I had a few channels saved, although it's been over a year now, so I'm not positive. I do remember though that I didn't completely use the web page to create my sat list, someone posted a sample .xml file, and I took that and edited it myself to get the sats I wanted. Then I imported that into AzboxEdit, which created BOTH the DVBS.dat and the antenna_list.dat file. I seem to remember that after doing this, things still weren't quite right, so I think I used AzboxEdit to grab data FROM my Azbox, which also brought in the all_channel.dat file, THEN I imported the .xml file, replacing the other two files. This "seemed" to make the 3 files compatable for some reason. THEN, I uploaded ALL THREE FILES to the Azbox. After doing this, my Azbox was free of corruption, and I have had very few problems ever since. I may be wrong, but my opinion is that you may need to not just get the DVBS.dat, but the other two files as well. Once you get a non-corrupted set of files, THEN, if you have problems, usually you can just replace the DVBS.dat file, but I always try to save all three files, so that if things get messed up, you can be certain to get back to a working configuration by replacing all three files.
But above all, I really do not trust MAZ. You can experiment with MAZ AFTER you get the Azbox stabilized, and have a set of backup files to restore your box if things get wrong, but I'd really stay away from MAZ until you get the thing working. But for me, the .xml method was the ONLY way to get my Azbox working, because I couldn't use the delete everything via the remote method, because the Azbox wouldn't let me delete the files. After using the .xml method, the 2nd time I tried starting over from scratch, I DID do it via deleting satellites, although I didn't delete everything, as has been suggested above, and which seems to be a good idea.

 

[AcWxRadar]

At this point, I'd say that it's essential. I would also reload the firmware.




I just can't escape the conclusion that MAZ is responsible for 75% of the problems people are having with the Azbox. I would recommend getting a generic FTP program, and practice with it a while. Then reload firmware, format application area to make sure that there isn't anything in the channel/transponder data that conflicts with the DVBS.dat, THEN try to put in a new DVBS.dat file. Actually, I really think that in addition to the DVBS.dat file, it might help if Crackt could provide the antenna_list.dat file that goes with his files. I pretty much found that if there is corruption in those files, you have to remove the corruption. My Azbox CAME with corrupted files. It wouldn't even let me delete satellites, well actually I could delete most of them, but every time I tried to delete the one at ~1W , it wouldn't do it, and would change the parameters of other sats. So I needed to wipe everythng clean, and people recommended that I try the .xml method. I think that when I tried it, I had a few channels saved, although it's been over a year now, so I'm not positive. I do remember though that I didn't completely use the web page to create my sat list, someone posted a sample .xml file, and I took that and edited it myself to get the sats I wanted. Then I imported that into AzboxEdit, which created BOTH the DVBS.dat and the antenna_list.dat file. I seem to remember that after doing this, things still weren't quite right, so I think I used AzboxEdit to grab data FROM my Azbox, which also brought in the all_channel.dat file, THEN I imported the .xml file, replacing the other two files. This "seemed" to make the 3 files compatable for some reason. THEN, I uploaded ALL THREE FILES to the Azbox. After doing this, my Azbox was free of corruption, and I have had very few problems ever since. I may be wrong, but my opinion is that you may need to not just get the DVBS.dat, but the other two files as well. Once you get a non-corrupted set of files, THEN, if you have problems, usually you can just replace the DVBS.dat file, but I always try to save all three files, so that if things get messed up, you can be certain to get back to a working configuration by replacing all three files.
But above all, I really do not trust MAZ. You can experiment with MAZ AFTER you get the Azbox stabilized, and have a set of backup files to restore your box if things get wrong, but I'd really stay away from MAZ until you get the thing working. But for me, the .xml method was the ONLY way to get my Azbox working, because I couldn't use the delete everything via the remote method, because the Azbox wouldn't let me delete the files. After using the .xml method, the 2nd time I tried starting over from scratch, I DID do it via deleting satellites, although I didn't delete everything, as has been suggested above, and which seems to be a good idea.

I am going to jump on board here with some short comments that agree with B.J.'s conclusions.

Very simply put, MaZEdit is a super little program for doing some neat things, but it is not useful and not desired for many applications and especially not for editing sat or channel lists. If you apply it for simple, basic things, you will find it enjoyable. For nearly all other aspects (like backing up your *.dat files) I find FileZilla to be of great importance and highly reliable. There are other aps that would probably work equally as well or better, but I happen to like FileZilla. It is comfortable to use for me and I trust it.

Now, here is the one area where I really like MaZEdit... I find it very useful to FTP movie files from my PC to the HDD of the AZBox. I have transferred >115 movies now and still going.

Well, that is all, (I said it was short) and it is direct.

RADAR

 

[boomer_106]

are you using the ftp portion of maz ? i found if i use the arrow buttons it didnt work, i had to drag and drop across the window panes. if you stay calm boomer ill work it out with you . haha. maybe even sign up for msn or some s@#$.

crackt out,.

You stay up pretty late crackt! Kinda like me alot of times if I don't have to work the next morning. I sure appreciate your help. Last night I was finally able to upload my own backup of only 3 satellites. I did it using Filezilla. I used Filezilla sometime back. I used it back when I was using 2880 FW and Azedit. As I've said before, I had alot of frustration with that too. After having the trouble with Maz, I was so mad I figured it can't hurt so, I tried it again. At least now I have a start. I have increased my list to 5 satellites and am still able to save and send it back to the Azbox (via Filezilla) and reboot without the Euro stuff coming back. I have zero channels scanned. I'm finally making some progress.

I still have no idea how it considers my full list corrupt. I had a transponder for every satellite. The only thing I can think of was that for some sats when I wanted C and KU, I used the same orbital location. I didn't do the 89.0 W 89.1W etc. I did however have different names. I would add either C or Ku. When I look at the default Azbox list, it has 2 sats at 105.0 One is AMC 18 and the other AMC 15. Also in my successful 5 sat list, I have a C and a KU at 72.0W with no repercussions so I don't think that matters.
I did see you mentioning editing your DVBS file with a hex editor. Do you think if I sent you the corrupt file I spent hours making, you would be able to see the corruption source or, would that not tell you anything.

My plan as of now is to keep expanding slowly and, saving after each satellite added so, I don't lose much work and, maybe when and if it corrupts, I will know what just corrupted it.

 

[boomer_106]

BJ

I think you are absolutely correct. In my post above, I mentioned to crackt that I finally was able to upload my own small list with Filezilla.

 

[boomer_106]

Well that was short lived. For some reason, filezilla now when I try to overwrite the Euro file, says operation successful. The problem is, it's now showing 2 DVBS.dat files in disk2. I delete one and it says delete successful however when I reboot, it's right back. All the Euro sats too. At least before it wasn't doing that. I didn't change any settings in filezilla either.
I thought maybe I've done to much rebooting and testing so I did the "format application area" and, reloaded the FW 4991. That didn't help. It still does the same thing. It's like it now refuses to overwrite the DVBS file. The directory listing in filezilla shows two files.

Edit: Now I reboot the pc. I decided to try to delete the files in disk 2 with Maz. It works. I then use crackts' suggestion to drag and drop with Maz. I load the small file I had made earlier that way and it works. Weird.

 

[crackt]

what firmware are you using boomer ? i should have stated that i used 5020 to build the files. i doubt the lists will work with anything 4991 and earlier.

crackt out,.

 

[boomer_106]

Yep 4991. I have a possible theory on what was corrupting my huge list. I took a certain satellite that had a known transponder. This particular broadcaster also uses some other transponders on the same satellite from time to time. I put in each frequency with the same SR and parameters. I'm wondering if you enter a frequency in, that the Azbox backup already has, with the same polarity (but a different SR) is making it consider it corrupt??? ,

I say that cause I'm now up to about 14 satellites WITHOUT doing all of those transponders and so far so good.

 

[B.J.]

Yep 4991. I have a possible theory on what was corrupting my huge list. I took a certain satellite that had a known transponder. This particular broadcaster also uses some other transponders on the same satellite from time to time. I put in each frequency with the same SR and parameters. I'm wondering if you enter a frequency in, that the Azbox backup already has, with the same polarity (but a different SR) is making it consider it corrupt??? ,

I say that cause I'm now up to about 14 satellites WITHOUT doing all of those transponders and so far so good.

The FTP issues you mention in other message are weird. Never seen anything like that, however I use WFS-FTP, not Filezilla. Almost makes me think Filezilla doesn't show you the whole file name. It's also possible that it's writing to sort of a virtual drive rather than actually to the real partition. It was my understanding that in some Linux implimentations, files are written into ram, and don't actually get put on hard drive (or module in this case) until the partition is unmounted. This is supposedly why messing with mounting and unmounting RO partitions into RW, and forgetting to put it back RO is sometimes dangerous, since some changes may have been written, and others were just on RAM.... or something to that effect. I've never seen an example of this, but this is sort of the gist of what I've been told by people more experienced with Linux than I am. This is also what makes me nervous about using MAZ, because one of the first things it does when you run it, is to re mount some RO partitions as RW, and I don't know why it should have to do that.

But relative to your theory relative to Azbox, yeah, the Azbox is very annoying relative to not letting you put in what IT thinks is a duplicate frequency. There are several transponders I use, which change parameters from day to day, and I like to have both versions saved, so I can switch back and forth, but the Azbox won't let me do that. I do all my editing via the remote, so if it doesn't like it, nothing usually gets corrupted. I do have a few duplicate satellites with slightly different names though, and I think you can have the same transponder with different parameters in that duplicate sat, but I'm not positive.