Hack 54 Setting Up an FTP server

Transfer files to and from your TiVo with the ease of FTP.

FTP used to be the de facto way to move files around the Net, but HTTP is quickly catching up. However, despite the efforts of WebDAV (http://www.webdav.org/) and the like, an FTP server is still about the easiest way to push things to a computer. There's a plethora of client software out there for Mac, Windows, Unix, you name it. And, thanks to "sorphin," there's an FTP server for your TiVo, part of the TiVo Utilities project (http://tivoutils.sourceforge.net/).

Grab the FTP server for your TiVo from http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tivoutils/tivoftpd.ppc.gz?download. With that in hand, you're faced with a classic chicken-and-egg problem: how are you to get the FTP server over to TiVo without FTP access? Hopefully you left your serial port running with Bash, because you are going to use rz [Hack #36].

With the downloaded file on your TiVo, unpack the daemon (read: server) and drop it into your /var/hack/bin [Hack #36] directory as tivoftpd.

bash-2.02# gzip -d /var/hack/bin/tivoftpd.ppc.gz
bash-2.02# mv /var/hack/bin/tivoftpd.ppc.gz /var/hack/bin/tivoftpd

Finally, mark the program executable and start the server with:

bash-2.02# chmod 755 /var/hack/bin/tivoftpd
bash-2.02# /var/hack/bin/tivoftpd

The program will return you to your prompt immediately, with the server running quietly in the background. To test it, point your favorite FTP program at your TiVo's IP address [Hack #51].

If you are coming in from a command-line FTP program, the start of your session will look something like this:

Connected to tivo (192.168.0.3).
220 You are in TiVo Mode. 220 Login isn't necessary.       
220 Please hit ENTER at the login/password prompts.
Name (tivo:r):
331 No Auth required for TiVo Mode.
Password:
230 Running in TiVo Mode.
Remote system type is UNIX.
ftp>

Like TiVo's telnet access, there is no security on the FTP daemon. Anybody can get in, upload, download, and delete files at will. Make sure that your TiVo is behind a pretty strong firewall if you plan to leave FTP running all the time.

I recommend you don't run the FTP server all the time, preferring to run it only when you need it and kill it when you're done. There is no pretty, built-in way to shut down the FTP daemon, so you'll have to do it the Unix way. Figure out the process ID of the FTP server (tivoftpd) and kill it:

bash-2.02# ps auxw | grep tivoftpd
root   1220 0.0 0.0   0   0 ? SW  01:21  0:00 /var/hack/bin/tivoftpd 
root   1233 0.0 0.0   0   0 p0 SW  01:21  0:00 grep tivoftpd
bash-2.02# kill -9 1220

That should take it down. If you want to check, issue the ps auxw | grep tivoftpd again, and you should no longer see any mention of the tivoftpd process.