Custom firmware for Humax FOXSAT-HDR

I have been using my Humax FOXSAT-HDR since I bought it new in 2009 and functionally it hasn’t changed much bar the addition of BBC and ITV catch-up TV services. I have always hoped that the manufacturer would issue a DLNA server upgrade to the firmware, but it never came. That is until today…

While searching the internet to find if the Freesat+ YouTube player was available for the FOXSAT-HDR, I found a custom firmware distribution that has been in development and use for some years that could be used to provide web access and DLNA services.

There is no dedicated website for the firmware but it appears the www.avforums.com is the place to go for community support and the latest downloads.

The version that I downloaded and installed was v4.1.1 . It came in a RAR file that I decompressed into a folder on one of my Ubuntu machines. I copied the files to a 1.1GB USB stick formatted FAT32 as advised in the README but it wouldn’t boot the new firmware installer. I found another stick that was 985MB when formatted and it worked perfectly. The installation was exactly as described in the instructions and when the FOXSAT-HDR rebooted there was no visible change other than the firmware version being displayed on the front panel during boot up.

Pointing a web browser at the box, I continued to install the full web interface. When complete I could see that the DLNA server was an installable package but I couldn’t get the package list to update from the web interface. No problem, I telneted into the box and used the command line instead.

opkg update
opkg list
opkg install dropbear

I installed dropbear so that I could deactivate Telnet and use SSH instead. More on this later.

After installing dropbear via the command line the web interface tabs for ‘Installed’, ‘Available’ and ‘Upgrades’ worked but the main ‘Update package list from internet’ still doesn’t work from the web interface.

I am currently experimenting with MediaTomb uPNP to serve recordings to my son’s PS3 but I think I will try the TwonkyMedia 5 DLNA server as originally planned. Twonky charge 15 Euros for the licence activation but I guess it’s probably worth it.

If you wish to rollback to the original firmware, you will need an installable image of it. I found one that I could download v1.00.21 from here.

3 May 2015
I should have updated this a long time ago as I have since upgraded my Foxsat-HDR to v4.1.2 and then on to v4.1.3
I am really impressed with the current version. Everything works well as flashed and with the addition of some of my own custom modifications to get it working with my WDTV-Live box.