Defeating Vendor Lock-Ins: "Liebert GXT4."

Certain double-conversion UPS units by Liebert (in my case — a GXT4-2000RT120) appear to contain a boobytrap whereby off-the-shelf (needs two 12v/80mm) high-efficiency/quiet fans will not operate — the boot will abort with a Fan Out of Order error. The pill: install a 100 ohm wirewound resistor in parallel with the front fan connector (on […]

X-Ray Large-Format Kindergarten.

Below is the output of a new test-fire of the PCB radiography system, this time using FujiFilm “Super HR-T Medium Speed” (25×20 cm) film in place of the earlier self-developing dental Eco-30. However, the time has not yet come to molest the MacIvory — first, we must characterize the film and the pertinent chemistry. This […]

X-Ray Microscopy of Symbolics "Ivory" CPUs.

I currently have three Symbolics MacIvory CPUs. (Do you, reader, have one to sell? Please leave a comment!) One is currently installed in a working machine and was not yet molested; the two remaining chips, I obtained in 2017 by bartering away a Symbolics 3620. At some point I will cut one or more of […]

Symbolics "MacIvory": PCB Photographs.

This post concerns the “MacIvory” Model 3 Lisp Machine. It is of interest strictly to bolixologists. Click on a photo to see detailed version. Machine chassis: The Ivory NuBus Board Set (i.e. the LispM itself, the Mac Quadra is otherwise ordinary): “Ivory” NuBus board, component-side: What’s under the labels? Bolix Label Part Notes 115999-B PLUS20L8 […]

The Google H1 Fritz Chip.

Edit (January 2023): This machine is long out of print, but NSA lackeys continue to spread “squid ink” regarding the supposed harmlessness of its Fritz chip. So, for the thick: Yes, it’s a backdoor. The CR50 bypasses any user-installed OS, and can extract arbitrary secrets from disk and memory (or silently implant “incriminating” info) via […]

The secret of the "Debug Accessory Mode" Adapter.

The exact internals of Google’s proprietary “Suzy-Q” debugging device are, at the time of this writing, unknown. However, I have found how to make an apparently-compatible device: We connect the USB-C “business end” into a Asus C101PA machine; the USB-B end into a reasonable Linux PC, where we then: echo 18d1 5014 > /sys/bus/usb-serial/drivers/generic/new_id …and […]

Open Problem: "Debug Accessory Mode" on the Asus C101PA

Edit #2: Aaaand it’s solved: echo 18d1 5014 > /sys/bus/usb-serial/drivers/generic/new_id triggers creation of /dev/ttyUSB0 … 5 , several of which spew console log… Example spew on boot. (Looks like RK’s UART..?) Edit: apparently they’re USB lines! When connected as D-/D+ through a USB B-connector, to a Linux box, we get a device that enumerates with […]

Open Problem: Forcing MaskROM Mode on the Asus C101PA

The Asus C101PA is based on a Rockchip RK3399. These have a “maskrom mode”, where if the SPI EEPROM is disabled, the chip will attempt to boot from other devices: first, NAND flash, then microSD, and then finally a USB debug mode where you can attach a A-A cable and use the rkflashtool utility to […]

Open Problem: Delousing the Asus C101PA.

Apr. 26 update: This article is obsolete, the pill — was found; if you have this machine, scroll to the end. The Asus C101PA Chromebook is a very interesting device: it contains a Rockchip CPU, for which we already have a working deloused Gentoo; it also contains such marvels as a non-blobulous Marvell 802.11 card, […]

Dicţionar Român-Englez.

This post exists to give a permanent home and linkable reference point for certain materials. Specifically, a — to my knowledge, currently the only one found anywhere on the entire Net — grep-able plain-text English-Romanian dictionary. The original source was an ancient piece of MS-Windows nagware. The perpetrator of this item (I hesitate to dignify […]