Re: Centrios KW-1315117 Stereo

Sounds like fun, though you may have made yourself a brick =)

Here's the typical things to try:

- Check for a system reset button or master restore combination in the
  manual if that exists (or maybe tech support knows one). If you're
  really lucky, there will be a 2nd copy of the original flash which 
  you can restore with this trick
- Check for a "debug" mode. Some embedded systems can be put into a
  debug mode, where they, for example, send out dhcp requests on boot
  and you can tftp a replacement ROM. Unfortunately, the exact sequence
  of steps may be non trivial to figure out. Again, tech support could
  be helpful
- What is the current state of your device? If it boots up, there may
  be another way to get files onto it. When I was hacking the WRT54G,
  the original trick to move files to the device was to use the ttcp
  program (a tcp testing tool which just happens to have a bare bones
  file transfer capability). However, you would also need a way to
  control the execution of programs. On the WRT54G, we found a hack
  on the webpage where the web-based ping program would not validate
  arguments (so you'd run "ping `ttcp -r > /tmp/telnetd`")
- Otherwise, you'd need to inspect the board and try to get lucky with
  ports or pinouts either for JTAG or some kind of serial. Typically,
  the pins are removed on retail devices, but you can often solder on
  the correct pins to the blank pinout and get a useable port.

Good luck!

-Ross

It would seem The Linux Doctor, on Sun, Jul 05, 2009 at 12:45:02AM -0400, wrote:
> Hi Guys,
> 
> I bought a stereo system from The Source a couple of months ago for
> about $100 -- the system noted in the subject line. This is basically a
> small black box with speakers, a CD player and an internet connection
> utilizing either a wireless dongle or an RJ45 connector.
> 
> it also uses uClinux as its base OS. Neat stuff.
> 
> Unfortunately, It's also got some proprietary stuff in it too, notably
> Gracenote's CDDB API and, of course, the programme the runs the whole
> thing is also proprietary.
> 
> Anyway, I've been fooling around with it as a preliminary step to
> replacing the firmware with totally Open Source stuff. The manufacturer
> has put all the open source stuff on line and included with it are also
> the object files (not sources) for the proprietary stuff too. Also,
> very nice for them, they've made the pre-built tool chain available
> also, always a big bug-boo trying to make them for any embedded project.
> 
> Anyway, I've got all the sources and compiled all the firmware and
> even, after much hesitation, uploaded it to the stereo system and it
> continued to work just fine.
> 
> After a while I started fiddling with it like adding a telnetd server
> so I can poke around inside while it was running. Unfortunately, on one
> of firmware rebuilds, I inadvertently forgot to include a crucial file
> in the image (the actual controller software) and so now I've
> essentially got a back box that does nothing but display a logo on its
> screen.
> 
> Now, from my own experience developing embedded systems, there is
> always a way to load firmware onto these things by some back-door
> mechanism. How does one do that with this thing? Is there is serial
> port? Magic way for it talk over the network?
> 
> Anybody know of this unit and how to get it download firmware after the
> main system programme doesn't work anymore or, as in my case, isn't
> included in the image file?
> 
> Any help appreciated.
> 
> >>>--fja->



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