Hardware on CoderOnline

coreboot

Sat, 16 Nov 2019 23:16:53 +0100

Coreboot is an alternative and open source firmware. Together with its payloads it can replace a BIOS or UEFI.

I was not able to find binary packages of coreboot. Maybe that is, because it is so hardware specific and would somehow make its usefulness questionable. However the latest source code version is here.

Why?

Take back control: Own a hardware device and its software!
Brand your device so that even removing the hard disk does not help.
Write your own low level code. You know what? User space programs have no direct access to the contents of the flash.
Your life bores you and you want to risk something - clearly speaking: This procedure can very well brick your device!

Hardware requirements #

You better have one of these chip clips, best searched with soic16 clip. The cheapest I could find has a small pin pitch (see pictures). I once soldered a soic8 clip, but this time I used modified header cables and flexible heat shrink and only press fitted these. I found that very convenient and it worked perfectly, see here:

monitoring

Fri, 29 Jul 2016 18:02:36 +0200

Hard disk drives #

lsblk -f: tree overview over all block devices, partitions, uuid’s, labels and mountpoints
hdparm -C /dev/sda: displays the drive’s state (active, standby)
smartctl -s standby,now /dev/sda: put the drive into standby
hdparm -S240: automatically put the drive into standby after 20 minutes of inactivity
smartctl -a /dev/sda: displays all smart information about the drive
smartctl -lscttemp /dev/sda: displays the drives temperature over time (other -l options exist, wakes drive up from standby)
hddtemp /dev/sda: can spin sleeping drives up, but does not do that by default, shows the drive’s description/manufacturer, configurable as daemon

SIP #

As the SIP specification is very comprehensive it is not easy to find simple plain text tests. I found it is possible to make a simple call by sending this

avr isp mkii

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 06:56:19 +0100

Set up under linux #

If you find that your programmer is only usable by the root user, that is probably a permission issue. udev can set the correct permissions once configured:

// /etc/udev/rules.d/avr-isp-mkii.rules
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="03eb", SYSFS{idProduct}=="2104", GROUP="users", MODE="0660"

, where 03eb and 2104 can be aquired using lsusb and one needs a user group to which users typically belong. Many linux systems have such a group simply named users, but you can choose anything else, as long as you are member of that group.

AVM FritzBox specific

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 20:21:56 +0100

What is my IPv4 address? #

# get_ipaddress.py
from SOAPpy import SOAPProxy
print SOAPProxy(proxy='http://192.168.178.1:49000/upnp/control/WANCommonIFC1',
                namespace='urn:schemas-upnp-org:service:WANIPConnection:1',
                soapaction='urn:schemas-upnp-org:service:WANIPConnection:1#GetExternalIPAddress',
                noroot=True).GetExternalIPAddress()

Older methods #

wget -qO- "http://192.168.178.1:49000/igdupnp/control/WANIPConn1" --header \
"Content-Type: text/xml" --header \
"SoapAction:urn:schemas-upnp-org:service:WANIPConnection:1#GetExternalIPAddress" \
--post-data="" | xmllint --xpath 'string(//NewExternalIPAddress)' -

What is my IPv6 address? #

wget -qO- "http://192.168.178.1:49000/igdupnp/control/WANIPConn1" --header \
"Content-Type: text/xml" --header \
"SoapAction:urn:schemas-upnp-org:service:WANIPConnection:1#X_AVM_DE_GetExternalIPv6Address" \
--post-data="" | xmllint --xpath 'string(//NewExternalIPv6Address)' -

Force a reconnection #

curl "http://fritz.box:49000/upnp/control/WANIPConn1" -H 'Content-Type: \
text/xml; charset="utf-8"' -H 'SoapAction: \
urn:schemas-upnp-org:service:WANIPConnection:1#ForceTermination' -d '     '

DEM-16217

Thu, 13 May 2010 18:09:19 +0200

I am using the 8 bit mode of an Atmel ATtiny2313 to drive the display, because the 8 bit mode seemed to be the simpelst.

I am not exactly proud of the following code, but it used to work and it is very close to the instructions from the data sheet:

#include <avr/io.h>
#include <util/delay_basic.h>
 
typedef enum
{
  FUNCTION_SET    = 0b00111000,
  DISPLAY_CONTROL = 0b00001111,
  DISPLAY_CLEAR   = 0b00000001,
  DISPLAY_HOME    = 0b00000010,
  ENTRY_MODE_SET  = 0b00000110
} INSTRUCTIONS;
 
void execute()
{
  PORTD |= 0b01000000;
  _delay_loop_2(1024);
  PORTD &= 0b10111111;
}
 
int main()
{
  DDRB = 0xFF;
  DDRD = 0xFF;
 
  PORTB = FUNCTION_SET;
  execute();
  PORTB = DISPLAY_CONTROL;
  execute();
  PORTB = DISPLAY_CLEAR;
  execute();
  PORTB = ENTRY_MODE_SET;
  execute();
 
  char* c = "Max ";
  while(1)
  {
    int i;
    for(i=0; c[i]!='\0'; i++)
    {
      PORTB = c[i];
      execute();
    }
    _delay_loop_2(32768);
  }
  return 0;
}

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Delock-5114 #

What makes a good gadget? Its customizable and this device is. Thanks Delock.

The manual has these URLs to control the device, but it offers other options as well.

curl http://delock-5114.fritz.box/?cmnd=Power%20TOGGLE  # toggle on/off 
curl http://delock-5114.fritz.box/?cmnd=Power%20On      # toggle on/off 
curl http://delock-5114.fritz.box/?cmnd=Power%20off     # toggle on/off

and all these can be combined with username and password

curl http://delock-5114.fritz.box/?user=admin&password=<password>&cmnd=Power%20off

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

longan nano #

The examples for this Microcontroller do not work any more (framework hell as always) and you get an error message:

HTTPClientError: You do not have permission for this request

Download dependencies elsewhere #

Download everything with gd32.*linux in its name from sourceforge and place it in a new subfolder packages/ of a sample platformio-project, recognizable by a platformio.ini in its root.

Extract and rename files #

Extract the (four) packages and remove from their names everything including and after -linux.

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

First Upgrade #

Default username and password:

username: ubnt
password: ubnt

The Android app Unifi Network searches for devices on port 8443, but the port was not open:

U6-Lite-BZ.5.43.14# netstat -ln
Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:22              0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:8873          0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 :::22                   :::*                    LISTEN
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:41171           0.0.0.0:*
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:10001           0.0.0.0:*
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:38933           0.0.0.0:*
udp        0      0 :::47289                :::*
Active UNIX domain sockets (only servers)
Proto RefCnt Flags       Type       State         I-Node Path
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING       1556 /var/run/lldpd.socket
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING       1064 /var/run/ubus.sock
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING       4445 /tmp//mtk_bt_service

U6-Lite-BZ.5.43.14# upgrade https://dl.ui.com/unifi/firmware/UAL6/5.43.23.12533/BZ.mt7621_5.43.23+12533.201222.2019.bin
Downloading firmware from 'https://dl.ui.com/unifi/firmware/UAL6/5.43.23.12533/BZ.mt7621_5.43.23+12533.201222.2019.bin'.

Scheduling firmware upgrade...
Inform or provisioning in progress. Upgrade will start soon.
Waiting for upgrade to start...
Waiting for upgrade to start...
[...]
Waiting for upgrade to start...
Connection to 192.168.178.30 closed by remote host.
Connection to 192.168.178.30 closed.

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yubikey #

Unlock the PIN (defaults to 123456) with the PUK: Personal Unlock Key (defaults to 12345678):

# entered the wrong pin three times? Try

ykman piv      access unblock-pin
ykman opengpg  access unblock-pin

# ...you get the idea. Check the result with:

ykman openpgp info

Or start fresh over

# delete opengpg from yubikey and reset pin/puk counters
ykman openpgp reset

# KEYID is going to be the main key id (not the keyid of subkeys). The
# following command may require a password.
gpg --export-secret-keys --armor  KEYID > /tmp/file_backup.txt

# sanity check what has been exported
gpg --show-keys  /tmp/file_backup.txt


# 2. Transfer the key to the yubikey (move not copy, because copy impossible)
# edit the key in expert mode so you can skip entering `admin`
gpg --expert --edit-key  KEYID

Hardware on CoderOnline

coreboot

Hardware requirements #

monitoring

Hard disk drives #

SIP #

avr isp mkii

Set up under linux #

AVM FritzBox specific

What is my IPv4 address? #

Older methods #

What is my IPv6 address? #

Force a reconnection #

DEM-16217

Delock-5114 #

longan nano #

Download dependencies elsewhere #

Extract and rename files #

First Upgrade #

Login via SSH #

Yubikey #