Unbrickable iLiad

[yokos]

This will be the 1st thing to deal with after my iLiad's return from a journey to Eindhoven, NL.
After installing it I can hack /home/root/start.sh again.

[wagnerian]

Thank you! It works great.

Now, I got a question. I want to disable the network connection after the boot process finished to save battery life. But I don't know how can I re-enable the network connection.

I tried 'connectionMgr --background --stay-connected' but the lamp of the LAN port just blinked once and nothing happened. The command 'ifconfig' says no network connection established. What should I do?

[hudson]

Originally Posted by wagnerian

I want to disable the network connection after the boot process finished to save battery life. But I don't know how can I re-enable the network connection.

I just run 'ifup eth0'. If you are using my /etc/network/interfaces file it will automatically load the smc91x kernel module and configure the interface. Likewise, 'ifdown eth0' will unload the module to save on battery.

[wagnerian]

Originally Posted by hudson

I just run 'ifup eth0'. If you are using my /etc/network/interfaces file it will automatically load the smc91x kernel module and configure the interface. Likewise, 'ifdown eth0' will unload the module to save on battery.

It works great and even faster than 'connectionMgr' command. Thank you so much!

By the way, 'ifdown' command does not work at once. The SSH connection is closed after that command, but the lamp on the LAN port is still on. The lamp turns off when I execute the same command once again. So I made a semi-wise script:

ifdown eth0
sleep 1
ifdown eth0

[jls]

Just in case someone overlooked this: Matthijs made a very useful suggestion to add an extra symlink from /etc/rc5.d/S99-unbrick to an executable /mnt/cf/unbrickable.sh which might be used as a second rescue device if something went wrong.

For the lazy ones I have attached a script which creates this link. I have tested it and it works for me, also in the case if the target does not exist.

[yokos]

Yamp! I have ssh access to my little iLiad during booting process.
In Windows World I use PuTTY to log in.

I have set a symlink from /etc/rc5.d/S99-unbrick to a /mnt/cf/unbrickable.sh, but script doesn't run during booting. I don't know why.

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           18 May 23 17:53 S99-unbrick -> /mnt/cf/unbrick.sh

[jls]

is the script /mnt/cf/unbrickable.sh itself executable ?

[nekokami]

Could all the "unbrickable" (or "brick resistant") directions be consolidated in the wiki, please? I'm not sure I have a correct and complete set of directions.

[Dorian]

Hi, everyone. I recently was granted shell access by the kind folks at Irex but I am having a bit of trouble getting started hacking my Iliad. I have been reading these forums for a few hours and it seems as though I am missing some sort of crucial first step.

You see, I was expecting to be able to mount my Iliad using USB and then just cd .. until I got to / (root), and then just drop an ssh client (dropbear or something) in init.d so I could login at my leisure after next bootup. My problem is, however, when I mount the Iliad as a USB drive, the topmost directory seems to be the one containing the content folders (newspapers, books, notes, etc.) Am I in some sort of chroot jail?

As anyone can see, I am missing something very obvious. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Dorian

[narve]

Originally Posted by Dorian

Hi, everyone. I recently was granted shell access by the kind folks at Irex but I am having a bit of trouble getting started hacking my Iliad. I have been reading these forums for a few hours and it seems as though I am missing some sort of crucial first step.

You see, I was expecting to be able to mount my Iliad using USB and then just cd .. until I got to / (root), and then just drop an ssh client (dropbear or something) in init.d so I could login at my leisure after next bootup. My problem is, however, when I mount the Iliad as a USB drive, the topmost directory seems to be the one containing the content folders (newspapers, books, notes, etc.) Am I in some sort of chroot jail?

The USB connection only exposes the internal storage area (with books, docs, notes, news). Which makes sense, as exposing / would be a disaster for most people.

The best way to go is to install the unbrikcable package. Then you connect to your network (automatically using cable and dhcp at boot), and you can then ssh to the iliad (using rootme as password), change the password and/or set up ssh keys for easier login.

If you don't want to use cable, create a connect_to_my_wlan.sh containing something like "wireless.sh start <myssid> <mypasswd>" (detailed and correct instructions can be found somewhere in this forum), place it in e.g. "News" and run it.

Hope this helps

[narve]

Originally Posted by Dorian

You see, I was expecting to be able to mount my Iliad using USB and then just cd .. until I got to / (root), and then just drop an ssh client (dropbear or something) in init.d so I could login at my leisure after next bootup.

Remember to be extremely careful in editing init.d or anything startup-related! If the iliad fails to boot properly it is bricked and that is not something you want happen... the unbrickable package helps, as it starts sshd (dropbear) and connects to LAN with dhcp, but it is not a full protection.

[Dorian]

Thanks, you are really beginning to bridge the gaps in my understanding. I think with this new knowledge I can get something going here. Now, I have seen much mention of this wireless.sh script floating around on these forums, along with wired.sh as well. Are these scripts that have already been written and included in my $PATH? Or do they exist outside of my $PATH and need to be referenced directly? Or are they something that I need to try and write myself?


Dorian

[narve]

Originally Posted by Dorian

Thanks, you are really beginning to bridge the gaps in my understanding. I think with this new knowledge I can get something going here. Now, I have seen much mention of this wireless.sh script floating around on these forums, along with wired.sh as well. Are these scripts that have already been written and included in my $PATH? Or do they exist outside of my $PATH and need to be referenced directly? Or are they something that I need to try and write myself?

They are already there, and in your path (IIRC). Did you manage to connect to your iliad using ssh yet?

[bruce]

Originally Posted by narve

The USB connection only exposes the internal storage area (with books, docs, notes, news). Which makes sense, as exposing / would be a disaster for most people.

Indeed. On the other hand, if the whole file system were available via USB mount, many common bricking scenarios could be easily corrected.

My preference would be an option where attaching while pressing some button (or combination thereof) would cause the root partition to mount instead. Perhaps also modifying the boot process to detect very early-on if the iLiad is USB attached and said button pressed, it should directly mount the root file system rather than attempt normal startup.

[narve]

Originally Posted by bruce

Indeed. On the other hand, if the whole file system were available via USB mount, many common bricking scenarios could be easily corrected.

Hm... only if the important system files (enough to make the iliad boot and expose the said root system!) were protected from "unauthorized" modification. I guess this is the job of a boot loader, not a USB connection. So perhaps after the CF-reflash-function is completed, but until then they have to play it rather safe.