Notes on my Patriot Box Office (PBO)

1. Flush lastest yaffs2 firmware (official SquashFS firmware image is NOT moddable):
   One must downgrade to P02 official firmware first before flashing the following moddable firmware. Otherwise it may brick the PBO with a small PBO logo shown on the TV after booting. 
2. Debrick PBO without a USB-TTL cable:
   There's a reset switch SW3 on the circuit board of PBO without any physical connector soldered onto it. The switch SW3 can be used to initiate an emergency flashing after the PBO is bricked without using a USB-TTL cable.
   
   
   • Detach the PCB from the box and expose the reset switch SW3. I had to unscrew about 10 screws.
   • Put the PCB assembly on a piece of plastic bag and power it on.
   • Plug in a USB flash drive with official P02 install.img into the front panel USB port
   • Short the two soldering pads of SW3 circled in the picture above briefly. I shorted the two pads with a metal wire very briefly and I can see PBO reboots immediately and starts to read the firmware from the flash drive. 
   • Firmware flashing will be completed after rebooting twice.
3. Latest moddable megapack firmware

   BETA.P70R2(BCN).megapack Moddable bootcode neutral

   Only the megapack has ipkg-cl for optware installation so get the megapack. It may take 10-15 minutes to flash a moddable firmware so be patient and don't turn off PBO until the flashing is completed.
   
4. Install ipkg
mkdir /tmp/hdd/root/opt
mount -o remount,rw /
ln -sf /tmp/hdd/root/opt /opt
mount -o remount,r /
mkdir /opt/tmp
cd /opt/tmp
wget http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/oleg/cross/stable/uclibc-opt_0.9.28-13_mipsel.ipk
ipkg-cl install uclibc-opt_0.9.28-13_mipsel.ipk
wget http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/oleg/cross/stable/ipkg-opt_0.99.163-10_mipsel.ipk
ipkg-cl install ipkg-opt_0.99.163-10_mipsel.ipk
rm *.ipk

5. Install Vsftpd
cd /opt/tmp
wget http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/oleg/cross/stable/vsftpd_2.3.4-1_mipsel.ipk
ipkg-cl install vsftpd_2.3.4-1_mipsel.ipk
rm *.ipk
cd /opt/etc
mv vsftpd.conf vsftpd.conf.orig

    Create my own vsftpd.conf to allow root user login
   cat vsftpd.conf
local_enable=YES
write_enable=YES
local_umask=022
dirmessage_enable=YES
xferlog_enable=YES
connect_from_port_20=YES
vsftpd_log_file=/opt/var/log/vsftpd.log
ascii_upload_enable=YES
ascii_download_enable=YES
ftpd_banner=Welcome to My PBO.
ls_recurse_enable=YES
listen=YES
ftp_username=root
   Now create the log folder and set up root directory
   mkdir -p /opt/var/log
mount -o remount,rw /
   modify /etc/passwd and change the home directory for root user to be / (from empty)
   cat /etc/passwd | grep root:
root::0:0:root:/:/bin/sh
mount -o remount,r /
/opt/sbin/vsftpd /opt/etc/vsftpd.conf &
   Now ftp login as user root (empty password).
   I also start vsftpd at boot by adding this line to the end of /usr/local/etc/rcS
   /opt/sbin/vsftpd /opt/etc/vsftpd.conf &
6. Customize IMS feeds
   Modify the file /usr/local/etc/dvdplayer/savedrss/scripts/menu.rss or wget from a web server hosting the modified menu.rss. (Power cycle the PBO by the remote if the root IMS menu is not refreshed after the modification.)