Restoring the Neuros LINK

If you run into problems with the Neuros LINK, we offer an easy set of steps to restore the software to its "factory defaults". This page describes the steps required.

Please note: Restoring the Neuros LINK operating system will erase any customizations you have made to the operating system.

Please note: If you use PC speaker audio (e.g. the green jack on the back of the LINK), you may need to manually enable it after upgrading to version 1.2.2 or newer. To do this, close XBMC and the Neuros.TV browser and double click on "Set 5.1 Audio Out" on the desktop.

Windows Restore Path

Requirements

Selfimage, a free open source imaging utility.
A desktop PC with Windows XP, Windows 2000, or Windows Vista.
Your main hard drive formatted with the NTFS file system (Fat32 does not support the large files needed for the LINK restore process).

Process

Download the file directly, or the Bittorrent .torrent file. If you can use Bittorrent, please help us reduce bandwidth costs by seeding the file also! This file is 1300MB, so please be patient.
- Direct: Version 1.3.img.bz2
- Bittorrent: Version 1.3.torrent - Not currently available
Remove all USB and media cards plugged into your PC.
Extract and install Selfimage 1.2.1 or newer.
Insert Neuros LINK flash drive in your PC's USB port
Windows XP: run Selfimage from start menu. Windows Vista: Right click on Selfimage in Start menu and select "Run As Administrator" or drives will not be listed.
In SelfImage, you are asked for the input file. Direct the file selector to .bz2 file you downloaded above.
Select "Drive" in the Output options area at the bottom of the Selfimage window.
In the drop-down list you will see a drive that is 3.7-4.1GB in size. Select that drive, as it should be your 4GB USB flash drive.

NOTE#1: Make sure it's your USB drive (~3.8GB) it reformats the drive you tell it to, so make sure it's the right drive!!!

NOTE#2: Make sure you select the "(entire disk)" option, not the "partition1" option for your drive

When you are sure you have selected the correct drive, press Start.

Linux Restore Path (Neuros Official Cloning Method)

Requirements

Linux Desktop or LiveCD with Partimage 0.6.4, Grub, Bash, and sfdisk (provided by util-linux on debian/ubuntu). Use x86 only, x86-64 partimage will fail. If your are a debian or gentoo user, the best way to install partimage is to type "apt-get install partimage"

NOTE:

You can actually do this method with the LINK itself, to do it you'll need

the USB key you are going to flash to-obviously
something to boot the LINK from (usb key that came with device or something else you've since formatted to)
LINK connected to internet,you'll need this for partimage (applications>accessories>terminal type "sudo apt-get install partimage)
somewhere to store the image files below (about 2GB IIRC) it won't fit on the USB key that came with the LINK.

Process

Download the file directly, or the Bittorrent .torrent file. If you can use Bittorrent, please help us reduce bandwidth costs by seeding the file also! This file is 1.46GB, so please be patient
- Direct: Current Partimage
- Bittorrent: - Not currently available
Remove all USB and media cards plugged into your Linux PC. Do not yet plug in your Neuros LINK USB flash drive
Login as root, or run sudo su
tar -jxvf neuroslink-1.3.tar.bz2
cd neuroslink-1.3
ls -l /dev/sd*
Plug in your Neuros LINK USB flash drive - Do NOT mount the partitions! If you are using an automounter for USB please unmount any partitions before continuing.
ls -l /dev/sd*
Compare to the list in step 7 to the list in step 9 to find your drive. For this we will assume it is sdm. So you should see sdm1 and sdm2. (Replace sdm with your drive sda, sdb, sdc, sdd, etc). Be careful! This will erase the drive you select!
sudo ./restore.sh sdm
Wait 5-10 minutes and the process should be complete.

Note for Ubuntu users: the above will fail at step 11 because the script will repartition the drive and then try to re-read the partitions. However Ubuntu will instantly auto-mount the drive after the partitions are rewritten, and this will prevent the rest of the script from working. Very annoying. The solution was to run gconf-editor ("gconf-editor" from terminal) and then go to apps > nautilus > preferences and uncheck the "media_automount" option. Then re-run step 11 and it should work now. You may want to re-enable the option afterwards.

Direct Flashing of Image in Linux

Requirements

bzip2
dd
root login

Process

Download the file directly, or the Bittorrent .torrent file. If you can use Bittorrent, please help us reduce bandwidth costs by seeding the file also! This file is 1.46GB, so please be patient
- Direct: Version 1.3.img.bz2
- Bittorrent: Version 1.3.torrent - Not currently available
Remove all USB and media cards plugged into your Linux PC. Do not yet plug in your Neuros LINK USB flash drive
Login as root (or sudo su)
bzip2 -d neuroslink-1.3.img.bz2
ls -l /dev/sd*
Insert your Neuros LINK USB flash drive
ls -l /dev/sd*
Compare to the list in step 6 to the list in step 8 to find your drive. For this we will assume it is sdm. So you should see sdm1 and sdm2. (Replace sdm with your drive sda, sdb, sdc, sdd, etc). Be careful! This will erase the drive you select!
dd if=neuroslink-1.3.img of=/dev/sdm bs=1M
type sync

Mac Restore Procedure

Download the file directly, or the Bittorrent .torrent file. If you can use Bittorrent, please help us reduce bandwidth costs by seeding the file also! This file is 1.46GB, so please be patient.
- Direct: Version 1.3.img.bz2
- Bittorrent: Version 1.3.torrent - Not currently available
Do not yet plug in your Neuros LINK USB flash drive.
Place the downloaded file on the desktop, and extract it by double-clicking it (go make a cup of tea, this will take a while).
Open 'Disk Utility' contained Applications->Utilities.
Insert your Neuros LINK USB flash drive, and observe it appearing in the left-hand pane (see fig). Take note of the device node for the flash drive that appears in the left-hand pane: "disk1s1" & "disk1s2" mean that the USB flash drive is at /dev/disk1 <- remember this.
Open 'Terminal' contained Applications->Utilities, and type the following (hitting 'enter' after each line):

 cd Desktop
 dd if=neuroslink-1.3.img of=/dev/disk1 bs=1048576

Wait until the dd command completes, it will take over 15 minutes at least. When done, type

 sync

You may now remove the flash device (no need to eject it) & use it on your Link.

Troubleshooting:

If you do not see the 3.7-4.1GB drive in Selfimage on Windows, please:
1. Unplug your Neuros LINK USB flash drive.
2. Restart your computer.
3. Plug your Neuros LINK USB flash drive back in.
4. Follow the instructions above again.

Problem: Selfimage fails with this error:

   Write thread encoutered ESelfImageFileError exception: "error while writing to \device\Harddisk2\Partition0: 
   The parameter is not correct

Solution: Make sure there is at least 4GB of free disk space on your computer before proceeding to flash the Link's USB flash drive.

Image fails to boot or other misc problems after flash. Check your md5sums on your download. Its possible the download is corrupt.
1. Partimage MD5SUM
2. Full/Windows Method MD5SUM

For further help, please read and post to the Neuros Forums topic on restoring your flash drive.

Changes

The latest version's changes are described here.

Restoring the Neuros LINK

From The Neuros Technology Wiki

Contents

Different LINK Hardware Revisions

LINK Hardware v1.0

LINK Hardware v1.1 OR v1.2 "Phantom"

LINK Hardware v1.3 OR v1.3s "Phantom"

Hardware to Firmware Magic Decoder Ring