UART Bootloader Root/Rebooter Release (Unsigned Kernels!)

[zenofex]

We've finally gotten the Sony portion of the roots we unveiled at DefCon posted. You can find the process on our wiki at:
http://gtvhacker.com/index.php/Root_thr ... der_Access

As well as the slides from the conference at:
http://gtvhacker.com/pres/dc20.odp

Thanks,
Zenofex

[Mattsm]

Just some notes to edit wiki in case one gets confused with amount of usb devices.

Writing images on MacOSx
7. Press enter, when command is complete, repeat steps 2-6 until you have created all 4 USB drives.


USB Drive Validation
2. Calculate the MD5 hash (md5sum) of each of test1.img through test4.img. (It looks like here's one for Windows, but we haven't tested it:

[davpel]

I know this is probably a stupid question, but should those of us who are still rooted from the last exploit many months ago concern ourselves with this latest release?

[zenofex]

Just some notes to edit wiki in case one gets confused with amount of usb devices.

Writing images on MacOSx
7. Press enter, when command is complete, repeat steps 2-6 until you have created all 4 USB drives.


USB Drive Validation
2. Calculate the MD5 hash (md5sum) of each of test1.img through test4.img. (It looks like here's one for Windows, but we haven't tested it:

Thanks! All fixed!

I know this is probably a stupid question, but should those of us who are still rooted from the last exploit many months ago concern ourselves with this latest release?

The only upside to doing this now is that you'll have the system files from the newest update. Not sure if that's really worth the work though.

Thanks,
Zenofex

[lndshark]

Any hope for those of us who are stuck on 20120222 and are unable to update?

[zenofex]

Any hope for those of us who are stuck on 20120222 and are unable to update?

Yes, perform the steps in the guide for the UART root and if the problem is what I think it is (/cache not having enough space to update). The root will re-partition the drive and fix the space issue. You may need to perform the root and then do a manual upgrade to the 20120520 build from the wiki and then root again (if you want to be rooted still). But overall this will fix the problem.

Thanks,
Zenofex

[lndshark]

Any hope for those of us who are stuck on 20120222 and are unable to update?

Yes, perform the steps in the guide for the UART root and if the problem is what I think it is (/cache not having enough space to update). The root will re-partition the drive and fix the space issue. You may need to perform the root and then do a manual upgrade to the 20120520 build from the wiki and then root again (if you want to be rooted still). But overall this will fix the problem.

Thanks,
Zenofex

Yes, that is precisely the problem, according to the log. Thanks!

[havikx]

Anyone done this yet?

Why wouldn't you be able to build and flash ROM or recovery?

[cj_000]

Well, since the GTV is quite different, you can't flash a rom per-se.

However, what you can do is replace just about everything - if you want to replace the running (kexec'd) kernel you can, if you want to edit boot, you can, system - you can.

As for recovery, you can't replace that (signed), but you can study our exploit (hint: edit the bash script), inject your own code to start up another binary. It's an extra step, but you could do it that way.

[e.w.bohle]

I know this is probably a stupid question, but should those of us who are still rooted from the last exploit many months ago concern ourselves with this latest release?

The only upside to doing this now is that you'll have the system files from the newest update. Not sure if that's really worth the work though.

Thanks,
Zenofex

So... I am on the original sony root... can I just create usb#2 from this new UART sony root, boot into recovery, and load usb#2 image??? Will that effectively overwrite/update all the sony system files to the 20120520 build versions as well as install your new modified kernel???

--- OR ---

Is it not that simple and i have to un-root by updating to sony 20120520 build, then re-root using the UART method???