Recovery mode

Description

Recovery mode is a low-level functionality state of the player, automatically triggered in case of a file-system corruption or a hardware malfunction, or during certain firmware updates; it is also possible to manually boot the player into Recovery mode in order to install a specific firmware package, for instance.

While the player is in this mode, the text "Recovery" or "Recovery System", with or without a SpinetiX splash-screen, is shown on the screen instead of the user content; over the network, only a basic player interface (Recovery Console) is accessible.

The Recovery mode can also be identified by looking at the (SYS) LED, which blinks very fast as following:

• for HMP400/W, DiVA, HMP350, HMP300, and HMP200, the SYS LED is blinking red four times per second;
• for HMP130 and HMP100, the LED is blinking green four times per second.

After one hour of inactivity while in Recovery mode, the player will automatically reboot into normal operating mode; of course, if the problem persists, the player will end up in Recovery mode again.

Note:

Recovery mode is a different operating mode of the player than Safe mode, which is due to problems rendering the user content. In both cases, the user content is not rendered, however the LED activity and what is displayed on the screen are different.

What to do when the player is in Recovery mode

The player may boot temporarily into Recovery mode during a firmware update from a version prior to 4.7.x – the player will perform the update, and boot back in normal operating mode using the new firmware, the same configuration as before, and with all user data and previous logs preserved.

Note:

It is important to leave the player finish the update, without any interruption (such as reboot, power cycle, etc.) because that might make the player to reboot in loop.

The second-most common reason for the player to enter into Recovery mode is a file-system corruption, which could be solved by following the steps below, and thus saving any shipping fees to return the player.

1. Unplug the power supply cable of the player for at least 10 minutes.
2. If a USB cellular modem is used with a legacy players, ensure that the 3G / 4G connection is active, as the network watchdog might be the cause for the Recovery mode.
3. Power on the player and wait (few minutes) for it to boot.
4. If the player enters again into Recovery mode, access the Recovery console.
5. Take a screenshot of the "Main" page.
6. Go to "Diagnostics" page
   1. Take a screenshot of the entire page.
   2. Find the "Main system" section (it might not be available) - generate and download a system report.
   3. If the system report is not available, then generate a recovery report found close to the top of the page - it has less information than the system report, but is still better than nothing.
7. Go back to the "Main" page and flush the player firmware.

   It is recommended to install the latest firmware package instead of the factory default one.

8. Reboot the player and wait for it to start.
9. If the player enters again into Recovery mode, send the screen captures and the report to SpinetiX Support.
10. We'll get back to you with the steps to follow next or RMA details, if needed.

How to boot the player into Recovery mode

Note:

Write down the IP address of the player before manually booting it into Recovery mode.

iBX410, iBX440

If you can reach Control Center:

1. Open the Operations → Maintenance page.
2. Click the “Start Recovery Mode” button.

Otherwise, use the boot menu or power-cycle to reboot the player for 7 times in order to force it into Recovery mode. For more details, see the iBX players troubleshooting page.

HMP400/W, HMP350, HMP300, DiVA

If you can reach Control Center:

1. Open the Operations → Maintenance page.
2. Click the “Start Recovery Mode” button.

Otherwise, use the player's blue button to force a reboot into Recovery mode:

1. Unplug the power supply cable.
2. Press and hold the blue button.
3. Plug in the power supply cable.
4. Release the blue button after around 20 seconds when the SYS LED starts to blink rapidly red

HMP200, HMP130, and HMP100

If you can reach Control Center:

1. Open the "Maintenance" page under Administration menu.
2. Select the Advanced tab.
3. Click the “Restart Now” button under the “Diagnostic Mode Restart” section.

Otherwise, use the player blue button to reboot into Recovery mode - settings differ between devices.

Network access in Recovery mode

While in Recovery mode, the regular player address can be used to access the Recovery Console interface:

• IPv4 address

http://{Player_IPv4_address}/

• Hostname address

http://spx-hmp-{Serial_Number}.local/
http://spx-dsos-{Serial_Number}.local/ (for iBX players and third-party players )
http://diva-{Serial_Number}.local/

• IPv6 address

http://[fe80::21d:50ff:fe{XX:XXXX}]/

The {XX:XXXX} notation above must be replaced with the the last six digits of the serial number of the player. Example: http://[fe80::21d:50ff:fe10:0014]/

Notes:

• The player uses the same admin password, as in normal mode; if that was forgotten, then you must perform a reset to factory default settings using the player blue button to restore the default credentials (admin / admin).
• If the player is configured to use a static IP address, it keeps that while in Recovery mode as well, thus accessing the Recovery Console though the first two methods above might be problematic. In such cases, you can simply do a reset to factory default settings using the player blue button to clear that static IP address. Or use the IPv6 address.
• The Recovery Console cannot be accessed via the 3G connection, therefore you need to use the Ethernet connection instead.
• The HMP100 devices with serial number below 001d50001000 (e.g., from 001d5000001 to 001d5000fff) can only be accessed using an IPv4 address as following:
  • If you have manually configured a static IP address, then the HMP is using that IP address. In case you don't know that static IP address, you need to reset to factory default settings in order to remove it (the HMP will then be configured to use DHCP).
  • If the HMP was configured to use DHCP (which is the default configuration), then the IP address of the HMP100 is the first available IP address from the following list: 192.168.1.11, 192.168.1.12, ..., 192.168.1.29. To access the recovery console of the HMP100 in this case, you need to change your PC network configuration to be in the same range as the HMP (i.e. set your computer IP to 192.168.1.10 and the gateway to 255.255.0.0).}}

Recovery Console

The Recovery Console contains three pages, Main, Diagnostics, and Reboot, which are accessible using the three buttons on top of each page.

Main page

Main page

This page has the following sections:

• Install new firmware

  Shows information about the factory-installed firmware present on the device and allows flushing the player firmware - either with a firmware image package file uploaded by the user (the latest one is recommended) or with the factory-installed firmware image .

• Previous install

  Shows whether a firmware install has been performed since last reboot of the player.

• Reboot
• System Data

  Lists a brief description of the player system data (e.g., serial number, MAC address, IP address, internal storage size etc.)

Diagnostics page

Diagnostics page

This page has the following sections: (note that some of these sections might not appear under some conditions)

• Recovery report

  From here you can get the recovery report - a basic report, useful in case the System report (see below) is not available.

• System date and time

  Allows setting the date & time of the unit.

• Temperature

  Lists the internal temperature of the player. This does not apply for HMP130 and HMP100 devices.

• Flash memory contents

  Lists the verification results of the kernel image on the flash memory;

• Internal storage

  Lists the verification results of the internal storage partitions;

• Main system:
  • Kernel

    Lists the verification results of the kernel image in the root filesystem;

  • System / Base firmware

    Lists the system firmware installed on the player;

  • System report

    From here you can get the system report - in case this section is not available, get the Recovery report instead (see above).

  • System configuration

    Allows running configuration commands on the player.

• Reboot

Recovery report

The "Recovery report" (previously called "Safe report") is a report that provides the basic information about the file system of your device.

To generate this report, press (one time) the "Get recovery report" button and wait for it to be generated by the player. When the report is ready, you will be prompted to save a file called safereport-{Serial_Number}.tar.gz.

System report

The "System Report" has more information than the Recovery report and therefore it's better to generate this one. However, depending on the type of problem the player is having, this report might not be available all the time.

To generate this report, scroll down to the "System report" (under "Main system" section), then press (one time) the "Get system report" button and wait for it to be generated by the player. When the report is ready, you will be prompted to save a file called spxreport-{Serial_Number}.tar.gz.

Configuration changes

 

This section does not apply for firmware versions lower than 2.2.1.

1. Boot the player into Recovery mode.
2. Open the Recovery console in a browser.
3. Open the Diagnostics page.
4. Go to the "System configuration" / "Change configuration" / "Add configuration change" section
   • The name of the section is different depending on the hardware revision of your player.
5. Type configuration_command into the text box.
6. Click the "Set change" button.
7. Reboot the player into normal mode from the Main page to apply the configuration change(s).

Notes:

• On older hardware revisions only one configuration change can be entered per reboot. The applicable section is named "Change configuration" in this case.
• One newer hardware revisions multiple configuration changes can be entered before rebooting (they will be executed in the order listed). The applicable section is named "Add configuration change" in this case.

Configuration commands

The following commands can be used (at step 5 above):

• format

  Trigger a format of the content partition upon booting in normal mode.

  This can be used when you are certain that the firmware itself is not corrupted - when in doubt, install the latest firmware package.

• reset

  Trigger a reset to factory default settings.

• dhcp

  Configure the network for DHCP.

• static=ipaddr;mask;brd;[[gw];dns1;dns2;dns3]

  Configure the network for static IP address.

  • the 'brd' field is always ignored and can be left blank.
  • Example: static=192.168.1.10;255.255.255.0;;10.5.25.4;10.5.27.8

• reset-persistent-data (added in firmware 4.2.0)

  Trigger a reset of the persistent data storage, erasing all the private data (this is kept across resets to factory defaults).

Reboot page

This page allows rebooting the player into normal mode (default) or into recovery mode (if "Force recovery mode" checkbox is enabled).

The content of this page is also included at the bottom of the other two pages.

Install the firmware in Recovery mode

Installing the player firmware is necessary in case of firmware corruption, but can also be used when wanting to downgrade the firmware or when the firmware update would take too long.

• A firmware corruption can occur when the update process is interrupted or when there is a physical corruption of the internal storage, in which case the player is going to enter into Recovery mode by itself.
• For the other cases, see how to manually boot the HMP into Recovery mode.

The process of installing the player firmware from the Recovery Console works as follows:

1. The internal storage is formatted, so the existing firmware files (including the configuration settings) and the user content are completely removed.
2. The selected firmware version is installed from scratch.

Note:

Before reinstalling the player firmware, you might want to generate a configuration backup and make sure you have a copy of the content.

Reverting to factory default firmware

The factory default firmware is permanently stored on the player, regardless of the current installed firmware. If needed, the player can be reverted to the factory default firmware, by following these steps:

1. Boot the HMP into Recovery mode.
2. On the "Main" page, under "Install new firmware" section, check if the factory installed system firmware is present.
3. If so, click on the "Install Factory Image" button.

Notes:

• The device is restored to the same state as when it left the factory - this could mean that the firmware is not the latest one, therefore you might need to update to / install the latest one afterwards.
• In case the factory firmware got corrupted, then use the installation procedure based on PKG files, as detailed below.
• To restore the factory default settings without reinstalling firmware, see the Reset to factory default settings page.
• This functionality is not available on the HMP100 with serial number below 001d500000d7.

Installing a specific firmware

You can install a specific firmware version (the latest one recommended) using the corresponding PKG file that can be downloaded from SpinetiX server.

Procedure

To install a specific firmware version, follow these steps:

1. Download the relevant PKG file (e.g., fw-spinetix-hmp350-***.pkg, prod-fs-spinetix.hmp200-***.pkg etc.) onto your PC.
2. Boot the HMP into Recovery mode.
3. On the first page of the Recovery Console ("Main" page), click on the "Browse" button (next to the "Firmware image package:" field).
   • The "Browse" button might be translated into your language by the browser.
4. Select the PKG file that you have downloaded from SpinetiX site from your PC.
5. Click on the "Upload and install this image" button.
6. Wait for the installation process to complete.
7. (Optional) If you need to set a static IP or to avoid losing the one previously set, follow the procedure below.
8. Reboot the player into normal operating mode.

Avoid resetting the static IP

If you need the player to use a specific IP address after a firmware installation from the Recovery Console, follow the procedure below:

1. Do not reboot at the end of the installation process.
2. Open the "Diagnostics" page.
3. Go to the "System configuration" / "Change configuration" / "Add configuration change" section.
   • The name of the section is different depending on the hardware revision of your player.
4. Set the IP configuration and click on the "Set change" button.
5. Reboot the device.

Troubleshooting

• "tar: gzip: Cannot write: Broken pipe"

  The PKG file is corrupted. Download the file again after clearing your browser's cache.

• "Could not recover firmware image package file"

  If you receive this error when trying to update from a PKG file, attempt to install the factory default firmware.

  If you receive this error when installing the factory firmware, then contact SpinetiX Support.

• "ERROR: package corrupted or forged"

  That could happen when the package file got corrupted upon download (try downloading it again) or when the system date is not correct (set the date manually on the Diagnostics page).

See also

• Firmware
• Operating modes
• Player address
• Safe mode
• Player troubleshooting
• IBX players troubleshooting