Unbrickable iLiad

[gillez]

Dear,

I'm a newbie of iLiad, and thus, I found that the unbrickable package does not help me so much.

How can I uninstall the unbrickable?

Thanks.

[ebookie]

So thoughts on how to create an 'ssh on / ssh off' item in the Device Manager content list? I was thinking I could just create script that tested for the existence of S99-unbrick and remove it for off and link to the scripts for 'on'. With changes to the XML files as well to show what it will do if you click it. Thoughts?

--Chuck

[CommanderROR]

Question:

Why would you want to NOT have the unbrickable package? You won't notice it's there anyway and it does not do any harm to have it in my opinion...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by gillez

Dear,

I'm a newbie of iLiad, and thus, I found that the unbrickable package does not help me so much.

How can I uninstall the unbrickable?

Thanks.

I'm not sure what you're expecting from it. It does nothing at all in normal use of the machine - it's completely transparent and invisible to you. It only comes into play if you somehow corrupt your iLiad's file system or delete something vital. In that circumstance, if you have it installed, you have a way of bringing your iLiad back to life; without it, you'll have no choice but to send your iLiad back to iRex to be repaired, and be without it for weeks, at a minimum.

Now you tell me, is it sensible to have it installed, or not?

[Adam B.]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm not sure what you're expecting from it. It does nothing at all in normal use of the machine - it's completely transparent and invisible to you. It only comes into play if you somehow corrupt your iLiad's file system or delete something vital. In that circumstance, if you have it installed, you have a way of bringing your iLiad back to life; without it, you'll have no choice but to send your iLiad back to iRex to be repaired, and be without it for weeks, at a minimum.

Now you tell me, is it sensible to have it installed, or not?

Actually, I think you may be cofusing this package, with the one provided by iRex.

The package this thread is talking about, setups up remote access to your iLiad so that you can access the filesystem from your PC to make changes or fix problems if something goes wrong.

The package that's included in the Shell access for 2.11 gives you the ability to reflash your iLiad from a compactflash card in the event of a software issue.

The later is more useful to the average user, and neither package conflicts with one another. However, the package in this tread can cause the battery to drain a little faster because wireless lan and an extra pocesss is running all of the time.

[jharker]

Yes, I agree with Adam. It used to be that the 'unbrickable' package was the only way to recover if something went wrong with your iLiad. Now that iRex includes the 'reflash from CF' feature with shell access, the 'unbrickable' package isn't necessary for that.

Instead, 'unbrickable' is a very easy way to access the iLiad's filesystem by logging on via SSH. Once 'unbrickable' is installed, every time your iLiad boots it will turn on wired (or wireless?) networking and start an SSH server. If you plug into your network, you'll be able to log in as root over SSH.

The drawback to this is that having wired/wireless networking running draws some extra power. Since 'unbrickable' is set to run them automatically at boot, you have to turn them off manually if you want to save power.

In my opinion, if you're not a developer, there's no reason to install 'unbrickable'. If you're in a position to mess up your iLiad, then you already have the iRex reflash tool installed anyway.

[ebookie]

So if I create a manifest file in the display manager area it seems like I can add the ability to set / reset SSH access. However I can't find any documentation on how to do the device manager UI thing. Anyone have any pointers to an example?

Also wish there was a way to detect light from the front of the Iliad, then you could create a "printer" by putting it into a copy machine and telling the copy machine to make 10 or 20 copies (depending on document length) and each time the Iliad "saw" the light go by it could change to the next page.

--Chuck

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Adam B.

Actually, I think you may be cofusing this package, with the one provided by iRex.

The package this thread is talking about, setups up remote access to your iLiad so that you can access the filesystem from your PC to make changes or fix problems if something goes wrong.

The package that's included in the Shell access for 2.11 gives you the ability to reflash your iLiad from a compactflash card in the event of a software issue.

The later is more useful to the average user, and neither package conflicts with one another. However, the package in this tread can cause the battery to drain a little faster because wireless lan and an extra pocesss is running all of the time.

Ah, my mistake; thank you for the correction. I was indeed talking about the iRex shell access package. I didn't know that there WAS another!

Thanks for putting me right, and apologies for the confusion.

[ragdoll]

Calling
ifdown eth0
will completely unload unbrickable?
Ethernet will still be available, for example, for updating?
Don't I have to kill dropbear to save the most possible memory ?

Finally, can I remove unbrickable from the start process?
If I do so, is it possible to create a script which starts unbrickable after the iLiad has booted?

Many questions, hope to have a lot of answers.

[serge]

There is an older thread about this.

A good description of how it works: Changing or adding system start-up services

These are the files unbrickable places in the system:
/usr/bin/dropbear
/usr/bin/scp
/etc/dropbear/
/etc/dropbear/dropbear_dsa_host_key
/etc/dropbear/dropbear_dss_host_key
/etc/network/interfaces
/etc/init.d/dropbear
/etc/rc5.d/S98dropbear
/etc/passwd

If you want to get rid of it, just delete all of them but /etc/network/interfaces and /etc/passwd.

If you want iLiad to stop starting the daemon at start-up, just delete the symbolic link /etc/rc5.d/S98dropbear , which points to the script, /etc/init.d/dropbear , that starts/stops it.
Then
/etc/init.d/dropbear start
to start, and
/etc/init.d/dropbear stop
to stop.
Or create .sh files as described in the thread I mentioned above.

[ragdoll]

Originally Posted by serge

There is an older thread about this.

A good description of how it works: Changing or adding system start-up services

These are the files unbrickable places in the system:
/usr/bin/dropbear
/usr/bin/scp
/etc/dropbear/
/etc/dropbear/dropbear_dsa_host_key
/etc/dropbear/dropbear_dss_host_key
/etc/network/interfaces
/etc/init.d/dropbear
/etc/rc5.d/S98dropbear
/etc/passwd

If you want to get rid of it, just delete all of them but /etc/network/interfaces and /etc/passwd.

If you want iLiad to stop starting the daemon at start-up, just delete the symbolic link /etc/rc5.d/S98dropbear , which points to the script, /etc/init.d/dropbear , that starts/stops it.
Then
/etc/init.d/dropbear start
to start, and
/etc/init.d/dropbear stop
to stop.
Or create .sh files as described in the thread I mentioned above.

Thank you, great answer, it works.
But I have another question:
eth0 is always on, is dropbear that starts it or is there a script starting it which comes with the unbrickable installation?
It is a problem for me because in the third case I have to know how to prevent eth0 from turning on. I don't want to do
ifdown eth0
every time I turn on th iLiad.

[serge]

In
/etc/network/interfaces
delete the following text:
---
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
...
pre-up modprobe smc91x
post-down rmmod smc91x
---
but leave
---
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
---

Then, in order to start LAN (eth0) use:
wired.sh start
and to stop it:
wired.sh stop

After you have edited /etc/network/interfaces ,
ifup/ifdown eth0
will no longer work.

[fodiator]

Originally Posted by Adam B.

I've gone ahead and set it up into an installable ipkg file. Simply unzip, copy and run.

Hi, I have installed Adam's package and since then I am no longer able to establish any network connection with my Iliad (LAN & Wlan). Needless to say that shh is impossible either. Any idea how to solve this?

Regards
Harald

[ericshliao]

"/usr/bin/wired.sh" and "/usr/bin/wireless.sh" are two useful script to manage internet connection. The following is the usage:

wiredUsage()
{
echo "Usage:"
echo " $0 stop"
echo " $0 start [dhcp]"
echo " $0 start static <ip-address> <netmask> <broadcast-addr> <gateway-addr> <nameserver-addr>"
echo " $0 mac"
echo "Note: NFS safe"
exit 1
}

wirelessUsage()
{
echo "Usage:"
echo " $0 stop"
echo " $0 start <ssid> [enc <wepkey> | wpa <psk>]"
echo " $0 scan [<ssid>]"
echo "Note: always dhcp"
exit 1
}

for wap, the <psk> is the plain phrase you set, such as "password", not encrypted key.

[fodiator]

Originally Posted by ericshliao

"/usr/bin/wired.sh" and "/usr/bin/wireless.sh" are two useful script to manage internet connection.

How do I access those scripts without network connection to establish ssh?

Regards