Author: v3ritas

Fun with Flipper Zero

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I’m trying to play around more with my Flipper Zero, especially since I came across info on custom firmware to unlock some extra features with the device. The install was extremely simple, just using the qFlipper application to flash the CFW: GitHub: RogueMaster / flipperzero-firmware-wPlugins.

There were a few extra steps to take after flashing, but as long as you read the instructions provided, it should work fine. I still have to play around with it a bit & see what else I can do with it, but I will definitely be reading \ loading most of what’s available through RogueMaster‘s awesome-flipperzero-withModules GitHub repo.

I haven’t actually played any of the included games or used the Game Mode, but since I’ve seen some questions in the Discord asking how to disable it (despite it being in the instructions 😉 ) I figured I would also include it here for reference: UP UP DOWN DOWN LEFT CENTER LEFT CENTER
That looks somewhat familiar 😉

EDIT20220715-1913: SMc: Also want to make note of this:
/r/FlipperZero: WiFi Dev Board with Marauder firmware

Xbox App: “Administrator approval required for installation.”

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So I got a new gaming computer last year, & as usual when I’m running Windows, I don’t login with a user account that has administrator rights. Instead, I login with a regular user account, & if I need to do something as admin, I’m either prompted (i.e.: Installing MSI’s) or I can “Run as administrator” through the context menu. Well it looks like that plan has a hole when trying to use the native win10\win11 Xbox app, & to install at least some games, the two I’m finding now are Halo Infinite & Halo: The Master Chief collection.

Halo Infinite: Administrator approval required for installation.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection

So I have a feeling I’m at least going to temporarily give my regular account admin rights to install the games, then I can remove, but it’s ridiculous that Microsoft can’t account for this. It’s not just the Xbox app either. It’s all the bundled “Metro” apps that are installed & updated through the Windows Store. If you try to run Windows Terminal as a different user, that user needs to have it installed. Apps are installed per-user, not for the system, so it’s just one more reason to continue using MSI \ installer EXE’s until this can be done a better way.

Fun Projects: Ubuntu Touch & LuneOS

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Two things I’m currently working on:
– Ubuntu Touch on my old Nexus 6P, just to see how it’s coming along. I did need to reference this comment in order to get mine booting properly.
– LuneOS on my old HP TouchPad… Which is giving me some problems. It started off rough because I was trying to find some files that were released between 2011-2014, & then trying to get them running… Then once I finally got that done, I still wasn’t able to get LuneOS to boot. Here are some of the files I collected while working on this:

➜  webOS ls -lah
total 4503576
drwxr-xr-x  17 smc  staff   544B Aug 25 21:43 .
drwx------+  7 smc  staff   224B Aug 25 22:00 ..
-rw-r--r--@  1 smc  staff   6.0K Aug 25 21:43 .DS_Store
-rw-r--r--@  1 smc  staff   268M Aug 23 22:17 HP_webOS_SDK-Win-3.0.5-676-x64.exe
-rw-r--r--@  1 smc  staff   264M Aug 23 22:18 HP_webOS_SDK-Win-3.0.5-676-x86.exe
-rw-rw-rw-@  1 smc  staff   224K Aug 25 18:11 UniversalNovacomInstaller-1.3.jar
-rw-r--r--@  1 smc  staff   354M Aug 25 21:42 luneos-dev-image-tenderloin-20170430092844-stable-050-86.rootfs.tar.gz
-rw-r--r--@  1 smc  staff   354M Aug 25 21:43 luneos-dev-image-tenderloin.tar.gz
-rw-r--r--@  1 smc  staff   369M Aug 25 21:39 luneos-dev-package-grouper-20170430100826-stable-050-307.zip
drwxr-xr-x@  4 smc  staff   128B Aug 24 19:39 moboot_038-tenderloin
-rw-r--r--@  1 smc  staff   185K Aug 24 19:38 moboot_038-tenderloin.zip
-rw-r--r--@  1 smc  staff    60K Aug 25 18:34 novacom-macos.zip
-rw-r--r--@  1 smc  staff    11M Aug 23 22:06 palm-novacom_all-platforms.zip
-rw-r--r--@  1 smc  staff   341M Aug 23 22:19 palm-sdk_3.0.5-svn528736-pho676_i386.deb
-rw-r--r--@  1 smc  staff   6.4M Aug 25 21:40 uImage--3.0.101-20161117-94-r0-tenderloin-20170430092844-stable-050-86.bin
-rw-r--r--@  1 smc  staff   9.2M Aug 24 19:39 uImage.LuneOS
-rw-r--r--@  1 smc  staff   223M Mar  8  2012 webosdoctorp305hstnhwifi.jar
➜  webOS

webOS Resources

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Just making note of some webOS tools \ resources that could be useful as I start playing with my HP TouchPad (Tenderloin) again. Specifically, I want to install LuneOS on my device.

➜  webOS ls -lah
total 744704
drwxr-xr-x  5 smc  staff   160B Aug  9 22:53 .
drwx------+ 8 smc  staff   256B Aug  9 22:53 ..
-rw-r--r--@ 1 smc  staff   352M Aug  5 11:11 Palm_webOS_SDK.3.0.5.676.dmg
-rw-r--r--@ 1 smc  staff    12M Aug  5 12:09 WebOSQuickInstall-4.6.0.jar
-rw-r--r--@ 1 smc  staff    78K Aug  5 11:27 org.webosinternals.tailor_0.3.1_all.ipk.zip
➜  webOS sha256 *
SHA256(Palm_webOS_SDK.3.0.5.676.dmg)= c2cd8346fd8e92e7090766652160879b0416ee1d4922d4942159c8c33442464f
SHA256(WebOSQuickInstall-4.6.0.jar)= 3dec2ca6b724a763a69019c6e0ed1803f4a12e8809bbe79eb80595b7819d5d00
SHA256(org.webosinternals.tailor_0.3.1_all.ipk.zip)= 9cdbef200daf21ea33fff883ac42809c80a204d7d562aa5ec6126b3fbaa728fd
➜  webOS

org.webosinternals.tailor_0.3.1_all.ipk.zip: Needed this version because it has options included for LuneOS.
Palm_webOS_SDK.3.0.5.676.dmg
WebOSQuickInstall-4.6.0.jar: I didn’t actually need this, but downloaded it because I was nostalgic.

So WordPress is giving me an issue when I try to actually upload a ZIP of the above (I can appreciate them not wanting me to upload DMG or JAR files), but I keep just getting a generic error when I upload the ZIP. This is mainly for my own reference anyway, but if anyone else is reading this, feel free to reach out & I can send you what I have.

EDIT: 20210810-1019: Just making note of some helpful links, that are currently still active right now (one with SSL errors, but the site still works):
– GitHub: WebOS Internals
– WebOS Internals

Malwarebytes Labs: Relax. Internet password books are OK

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Source: Malwarebytes Labs: Relax. Internet password books are OK

So this was posted on April Fools’ Day, but I do believe it’s a serious post & I agree with the content. The author brings up the point early: Whether using a physical password book is a good thing depends on your threat model & risk. If you are not good with computers & can’t figure out how to use a password manager (see some of my other posts about passwords: Don’t Change that Pa$$w0rd, FINALLY: A Good Password Management Article, & ANOTHER GOOD article about passwords) & you don’t have to worry about someone you live with abusing access to the book, then this is a great way to store passwords without remembering them or re-using the same one over & over. Having the details saved in a book that’s kept in a drawer at your desk is a good way for some people to store different passwords. And it would obviously stay safer if the book stays at home, versus keeping it with you at all times & potentially losing it while out & about. That of course leads to other questions like “What do I do if I am away from home & need a password?”, but that will have to be answered by the user: Is it worth carrying the book with you at all times or is it really something that can wait until you get home & can access the book.

Reasons why I run a network-wide adblocker…

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In the last 24 hours…

Screenshot from Pi-Hole dashboard

For anyone else looking to run a network-wide adblocker, I recommend Pi-Hole. I have also recently started testing out AdGuard Home & will see in the long run if I decide to switch, or just leave it as a backup.

I run Pi-Hole as my primary DNS & DHCP server with an excessive number of blocklists (totaling ~4.5m blocked sites) & have no issues with it. I only started looking into AdGuard Home after a resource issue on my original Pi-Hole (it seems when I added Resilio Sync to my Pi, the system would lock up). So, I decided to replace RasPi 3 B+ with a RasPi 4, 8GB, & turn the original 3+ into the secondary AdGuard DNS server.

I definitely do like the AdGuard Home interface better than Pi-Hole, but will see if there’s actually enough there that will make me want to switch off Pi-Hole once & for all, or as my primary.

Goodbye Google Fi & Android

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I find it pretty ironic that Google Fi is the reason I’m leaving Android as well. Whether it’s because of an actual Fi issue or juts a tower issue in my area, that caused me to finally switch off of Fi (something I’ve been meaning to do anyway), & I decided to switch to an iPhone to get more use out of my phone, but also so I could actually still communicate with some people on iMessage.

I guess I’ll also be looking into jailbreaking some more, especially since the phone I’m using for now is vulnerable to Checkra1n.

iOS14 Charger Connect\Disconnect Sounds

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This seems to be very popular with the release of iOS14, & I’m writing this up as a personal reference so I don’t have to continue to watch the great setup video that u/zeeshan_02 posted on Reddit: Beginner’s Guide on Playing a Custom Sound when Connected to Charger!

Shortcut 01: Encode Audio
This converts a sound file (in my case I was using an MP3) to Base64, for later use by the next shortcut:

“Encode Audio” shortcut

Shortcut 02: Charger Connected
Sound that will be played when the charger is connected. The base64-encoded text should already be in the clipboard from the step above. You just have to paste that into the Text field:

“Charger Connected” shortcut

Shortcut 03: Charger Disconnected (Optional)
Can use the same sound for connect & disconnect if you want. I just wanted to have different sounds used. It’s the same setup as above, just using a different Base64 string. If you want the same sound for both actions, you can skip this.

Automation
Setup a new Personal Automation for when your device is connected or disconnected from power, or both, & run the appropriate shortcut for what you’re trying to do.

Automation to play the sounds based on your selection.

Super Mario 64 Natively on Android

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Found a post on XDA about building Super Mario 64 for Android using Termux, & figured I’d try it out for fun.
Source: XDA Developers: Super Mario 64 can be natively run on Android without a Nintendo 64 emulator

Their instructions worked fine, so below is really just a copy & paste from the XDA post:

➜  ~ pkg install git wget make python getconf zip apksigner clang
Checking availability of current mirror: ok
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
apksigner is already the newest version (29.0.2-5).
clang is already the newest version (10.0.1-2).
getconf is already the newest version (0.5-1).
git is already the newest version (2.28.0).
make is already the newest version (4.3-1).
python is already the newest version (3.8.5).
wget is already the newest version (1.20.3-3).
zip is already the newest version (3.0-5).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
➜  ~ cd Development 
➜  Development git clone https://github.com/VDavid003/sm64-port-android
Cloning into 'sm64-port-android'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 15616, done.
remote: Total 15616 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 15616
Receiving objects: 100% (15616/15616), 22.76 MiB | 5.71 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (7567/7567), done.
➜  Development cd sm64-port-android 
➜  sm64-port-android git:(master) cp ~/storage/shared/Super\ Mario\ 64\ \(USA\).z64 baserom.us.z64
➜  sm64-port-android git:(master) sha256 baserom.us.z64 
The program openssl is not installed. Install it by executing:
 pkg install openssl-tool
➜  sm64-port-android git:(master) pkg install openssl-tool
Checking availability of current mirror: ok
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  openssl-tool
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 185 kB of archives.
After this operation, 643 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 https://dl.bintray.com/termux/termux-packages-24 stable/main aarch64 openssl-tool aarch64 1.1.1g-4 [185 kB]
Fetched 185 kB in 0s (214 kB/s)    
Selecting previously unselected package openssl-tool.
(Reading database ... 14219 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../openssl-tool_1.1.1g-4_aarch64.deb ...
Unpacking openssl-tool (1.1.1g-4) ...
Setting up openssl-tool (1.1.1g-4) ...
➜  sm64-port-android git:(master) sha256 baserom.us.z64   
SHA256(baserom.us.z64)= 17ce077343c6133f8c9f2d6d6d9a4ab62c8cd2aa57c40aea1f490b4c8bb21d91
➜  sm64-port-android git:(master) md5sum baserom.us.z64 
20b854b239203baf6c961b850a4a51a2  baserom.us.z64
➜  sm64-port-android git:(master) ./getSDL.sh
~/Development/sm64-port-android/SDL ~/Development/sm64-port-android
--2020-09-20 11:56:47--  https://www.libsdl.org/release/SDL2-2.0.12.zip
Resolving www.libsdl.org... 2604:a880:1:20::181:e001, 192.241.223.99
Connecting to www.libsdl.org|2604:a880:1:20::181:e001|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 6784187 (6.5M) [application/zip]
Saving to: ‘SDL2-2.0.12.zip’

SDL2-2.0.12.zip                       100%[=======================================================================>]   6.47M  5.65MB/s    in 1.1s    

2020-09-20 11:56:49 (5.65 MB/s) - ‘SDL2-2.0.12.zip’ saved [6784187/6784187]

~/Development/sm64-port-android
➜  sm64-port-android git:(master) make --jobs 4
...
cp build/us_pc/sm64.us.f3dex2e.unsigned.apk build/us_pc/sm64.us.f3dex2e.apk
apksigner sign --cert certificate.pem --key key.pk8 build/us_pc/sm64.us.f3dex2e.apk
➜  sm64-port-android git:(master) ls
Android.mk   Makefile.split  assets           charmap.txt       enhancements       key.pk8        sm64.jp.sha1  text
CHANGES      README.md       assets.json      charmap_menu.txt  extract_assets.py  levels         sm64.ld       textures
Dockerfile   SDL             baserom.us.z64   data              first-diff.py      lib            sm64.sh.sha1  tools
Doxyfile     actors          bin              diff.py           format.sh          rename_sym.sh  sm64.us.sha1  undefined_syms.txt
Jenkinsfile  android         build            diff_settings.py  getSDL.sh          rsp            sound
Makefile     asm             certificate.pem  doxygen           include            sm64.eu.sha1   src
➜  sm64-port-android git:(master) ls build 
us_pc
➜  sm64-port-android git:(master) ls build/us_pc 
actors  bin   endian-and-bitwidth  level_rules.mk  lib         rsp                  sm64.us.f3dex2e.unsigned.apk  src   textures
assets  data  include              levels          libmain.so  sm64.us.f3dex2e.apk  sound                         text
➜  sm64-port-android git:(master)
Super Mario 64 running natively on my OnePlus 7 Pro.