| 00:18.32 | *** join/#arm-netbook infobot (ibot@208.53.50.136) |
| 00:18.32 | *** topic/#arm-netbook is arm-netbook: Don't ask to ask. Just ask! - EOMA68 spec http://bit.ly/ZHqfxA - ML arm-netbook@lists.phcomp.co.uk - Logs http://bit.ly/XELKJq or http://bit.ly/15OCYPD - For Allwinner/sunxi discussions prefer #linux-sunxi - iMX6 Card http://bit.ly/XAUGCD - Flying Squirrel http://bit.ly/WgOYaR - Allwinner A10/A20 Card http://bit.ly/zBLAbY - http://rhombus-tech.net |
| 00:25.39 | Necrosporus | I have an ARM device. How do I determine which kernel is best to use? |
| 00:25.50 | Necrosporus | I do not know if it can support vanilla kernel either |
| 00:26.02 | Necrosporus | AMlogic chip |
| 00:26.28 | Necrosporus | but not listed here http://openlinux.amlogic.com/wiki/index.php/Arm/arm-Kernel_Info |
| 03:18.16 | *** join/#arm-netbook leviathan (~quassel@pcd317144.netvigator.com) |
| 03:23.44 | lkcl | TorC, yehh silly that people do that... |
| 03:24.46 | lkcl | Necrosporus, you need to do some research. a _lot_ of research. that's just how things are with ARM having 1000+ separate companies licensing their design |
| 03:25.19 | lkcl | start with the name of the product |
| 03:26.10 | lkcl | if it's a common product someone is likely to have opened it up and possibly even done the 3 weeks to 2 years (not a joke) of reverse-engineering |
| 03:26.15 | *** join/#arm-netbook leviathan (~quassel@pcd317144.netvigator.com) |
| 03:26.22 | Necrosporus | Actually it turns out the SoC is listed here, it's called M6 |
| 03:26.35 | lkcl | ok great. that's a start. |
| 03:27.26 | lkcl | however it doesn't actually help you as you also need the linux kernel to be hard custom configured SPECIFICALLY for that product. not the PROCESSOR, the PRODUCT |
| 03:27.32 | Necrosporus | <PROTECTED> |
| 03:27.46 | lkcl | it's not like in the x86 world |
| 03:27.52 | Necrosporus | I know that |
| 03:27.52 | lkcl | there are no standards, period. |
| 03:28.10 | Necrosporus | Now the question, how do I configure kernel for the board |
| 03:28.12 | lkcl | yyep. so now you're looking at somewhere between three weeks and 2 years of reverse-engieering |
| 03:28.19 | Necrosporus | It's TVbox, it has android pre-installed |
| 03:28.35 | lkcl | you start by disassembling the product or finding a schematic |
| 03:28.45 | Necrosporus | I did already disassemble it |
| 03:28.54 | Necrosporus | And assemble back |
| 03:28.56 | lkcl | or you track down the manufacturer and see if they have complied with the GPL |
| 03:28.58 | Necrosporus | I have found UART port |
| 03:29.25 | Necrosporus | I have boot logs from android |
| 03:29.26 | lkcl | that's a start. you'll at least be able to print out debug messages |
| 03:29.49 | Necrosporus | It has all the stuff about loading kernel and that |
| 03:29.52 | lkcl | great, that will get you linux kernel log messages which will tell you which drivers have been enabled |
| 03:30.14 | lkcl | i'm assuming that the manufacturer are criminals who haven't complied with the GPL |
| 03:30.27 | lkcl | so great: now you can grep a linux kernel source tree for those messages |
| 03:30.38 | Necrosporus | Well, I have no idea. Manufacturer has firmware binaries at least |
| 03:31.01 | lkcl | also, you MIGHT get lucky, if you can get to a boot prompt, and get /proc/config and other information |
| 03:31.25 | lkcl | binaries are fuck-all use if the manufacturers are criminals by not providing matching source |
| 03:31.28 | Necrosporus | I can get to boot prompts. There are two of them even |
| 03:31.40 | lkcl | excellent, so now you can do cat /proc/cpuinfo |
| 03:31.45 | Necrosporus | Nope |
| 03:31.48 | lkcl | cat /proc/meminfo |
| 03:31.49 | Necrosporus | it's BOOT prompth |
| 03:32.00 | lkcl | you can check what's in /lib/modules |
| 03:32.22 | lkcl | u-boot prompt or login prompt? |
| 03:32.30 | Necrosporus | I mean I can get to prompt which UART offers before kernel even starts loading |
| 03:32.41 | Necrosporus | Two bootloader prompts |
| 03:32.44 | lkcl | that's probably u-boot |
| 03:32.52 | lkcl | you'll need to google the strings coming up |
| 03:32.59 | lkcl | google is your friend here. |
| 03:33.03 | Necrosporus | one if you press any key immediately when it's turned on, other if you press a key after a couple of seconds |
| 03:33.08 | Necrosporus | two distinct consoles |
| 03:33.18 | Necrosporus | the second is u-boot |
| 03:33.22 | Necrosporus | first I don't know |
| 03:33.38 | lkcl | you can't expect people to act as a google proxy, you'll need to use google searches a lot, here |
| 03:33.54 | Necrosporus | Yeah, I know |
| 03:34.04 | lkcl | so, with a u-boot prompt you now know that you have control over the linux kernel boot params |
| 03:34.08 | Necrosporus | so, I'm telling what I found out for now |
| 03:34.11 | lkcl | so you can do "printenv" for example |
| 03:34.22 | Necrosporus | Yeah, I can try to load a kernel I build via that |
| 03:34.27 | Necrosporus | through tftp or something |
| 03:34.30 | lkcl | that will give you the boot parameters including the linux kernel boot.. |
| 03:34.36 | lkcl | no it's more important than that |
| 03:34.47 | lkcl | you can modify the parameters to set "init=/bin/sh" |
| 03:34.48 | Necrosporus | Yeah, I can do that too |
| 03:34.57 | lkcl | or similar for android |
| 03:34.59 | Necrosporus | Oh, but is there /bin/sh in android? |
| 03:35.04 | lkcl | that will bypass the root login |
| 03:35.08 | Necrosporus | I guess it's /system/bin/sh |
| 03:35.14 | lkcl | you'll have to find that out for yourself, i don't use android |
| 03:35.23 | lkcl | then you can get access to /proc |
| 03:35.50 | lkcl | and if you are REALLY lucky they MIGHT have compiled the kernel with the option which puts all the CONFIG_XXX options into it |
| 03:35.57 | Necrosporus | lkcl, if you are talking about getting into console it isn't hard. The default firmware uses heavily outdated android 4.0.4 so it can be cracked by installing an app in a second |
| 03:36.04 | lkcl | but some embedded systems take that out to save space |
| 03:36.09 | lkcl | ok great. |
| 03:36.14 | lkcl | that's easier :) |
| 03:36.29 | lkcl | you want cat /proc/version |
| 03:36.36 | lkcl | and to find out what modules are there |
| 03:36.53 | lkcl | and "lift" the linux kernel binary off the device for analysis |
| 03:37.06 | Necrosporus | Wait just a sec, I will try to install a terminal to it |
| 03:37.13 | lkcl | don't trust whatever shit-firmware was "released", it is likely to be different |
| 03:37.15 | Necrosporus | I guess I won't even need a crack |
| 03:37.45 | lkcl | i really don't like that word, it implies you're doing something wrong / illegal / criminal. |
| 03:37.57 | lkcl | this is your own legitimately-purchased personally-owned hardware |
| 03:38.09 | Necrosporus | Actually it's not :) |
| 03:38.14 | lkcl | haha |
| 03:38.17 | Necrosporus | But I don't think it's criminal |
| 03:38.27 | Necrosporus | Because crack a nut isn't illegal right? |
| 03:38.32 | Necrosporus | or something |
| 03:38.38 | lkcl | it's *somebody's* legitimately-purchased personally-owned hardware :) |
| 03:39.15 | lkcl | oh right, yeah... well... the word's meaning changes when it comes to computer contexts |
| 03:40.32 | lkcl | anyway... having done this 9 times in a row for different NTC devices, back in 2003, and having spent 2 YEARS not getting anywhere, i don't do this kind of stuff any more, it's genuinely a waste of time |
| 03:40.45 | Necrosporus | anyway, I think it should be easy to get root in android. I could use init= or I can install some terminal app and see what it gets, it might give access to /proc even w/o root |
| 03:40.58 | lkcl | yep it will |
| 03:41.30 | Necrosporus | and even if it can't I can always install some android app which exploits vulnerabilities to get instant root |
| 03:41.42 | Necrosporus | and it could also have ADB enabled |
| 03:42.04 | lkcl | the project i'm doing, Necrosporus, is to empower people so that they don't have to fuck about like this, wasting weeks to years of their lives. |
| 03:42.17 | Necrosporus | And last but not least I can modify firmware image which gets flashed into the device from SD card |
| 03:42.43 | lkcl | but i'm mentioning that because you need to understand that it's not fun for me to explain this stuff to you |
| 03:43.04 | lkcl | yes, that would work well. |
| 03:43.26 | lkcl | you could also modify the root= parameter to get it to external boot a better OS |
| 03:43.59 | lkcl | debian should work straight away for example, as it's not dependent on the hardware. |
| 03:44.13 | Necrosporus | I know, I have other ARM devices |
| 03:44.18 | lkcl | grab any root filesystem from anywhere |
| 03:44.19 | lkcl | there you go |
| 03:44.44 | lkcl | you'll have an easier time of it rather than fucking around with android |
| 03:45.04 | lkcl | lsusb, etc. etc. |
| 03:45.31 | lkcl | instead of a half-broken reimplementation of busybox |
| 03:45.40 | Necrosporus | OK, I guess I got an idea what I can do, thank you. |
| 03:45.57 | Necrosporus | if you mean toybox it's not there yet, because android 4.0 |
| 03:47.45 | lkcl | anything android-related i would consider to be pretty useless. |
| 03:48.17 | lkcl | oh - you _can_ do pivot_root to swap over to sd-card debian oses |
| 03:48.23 | lkcl | if you can get to a root prompt |
| 03:50.20 | lkcl | or chroot it. |
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| 21:13.30 | *** join/#arm-netbook infobot (ibot@208.53.50.136) |
| 21:13.30 | *** topic/#arm-netbook is arm-netbook: Don't ask to ask. Just ask! - EOMA68 spec http://bit.ly/ZHqfxA - ML arm-netbook@lists.phcomp.co.uk - Logs http://bit.ly/XELKJq or http://bit.ly/15OCYPD - For Allwinner/sunxi discussions prefer #linux-sunxi - iMX6 Card http://bit.ly/XAUGCD - Flying Squirrel http://bit.ly/WgOYaR - Allwinner A10/A20 Card http://bit.ly/zBLAbY - http://rhombus-tech.net |
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