Bonum Certa Men Certa

How To Deal With Your Raspberry Spy -- Part II: Introduction

By Gavin L. Rebeiro

Contents



Cover

Copyright

1 Acknowledgements

2 YOU ARE HERE ☞ Introduction

2.1 Prerequisite Knowledge 2.2 Apparatus

3 Fundamentals

3.1 Communication 3.2 Kernel Ring Buffer 3.3 Drivers 3.4 Operating Systems 3.5 Special Files

4 Doing The Task

4.1 Preparing The Boot Media 4.2 Connecting Physical Components 4.3 Using Picocom 4.4 OS Installation

5 Thanks

6 OpenPGP Key

A Malicious Hardware

B Linux Kernel Source Tree Analysis

C Digital Multimeter Tests

Summary: Following Part I, published a few hours ago, let's examine what happened from a technical perspective and what can be done about it technically

We don’t want to be spied on; what happens when we’re faced with an operating system that spies on people? We throw it in the trash where it belongs! I am boycotting the Raspberry Spy myself (you’re free to join me in doing so) but I don’t want people to waste hardware that they already have. So we’re going to walk through an interesting path of installing a different operating system on the Raspberry Spy; I want to show you a few things that will empower you to take greater control over your computing.



We’ll gently walk through and explore the following: how to install an operating system on an embedded device (a Raspberry Spy, in this case) over a USB-to-UART bridge (UTUB). This is the main project we’ve got on our hands. Don’t worry if you’ve never touched embedded systems before; everything here is accessible to people with a modest set of prerequisite knowledge and some basic apparatus.

We’ll delve into things with more depth as we move forward with our project; if you don’t understand something when you first encounter it, just keep reading.

2.1 Prerequisite Knowledge

There’s not much prerequisite knowledge required. Here’s what you need to know:

● A basic grasp of how to operate a shell on a GNU/Linux system. GNU Bash is an example. You don’t need to know how to write shell scripts. Knowledge of how to use the shell interactively will suffice.

That’s it. Really. Anything else you need you will pick up on the way.

2.2 Apparatus

You will need the following apparatus:

● A Raspberry Spy. I’ve got the Raspberry Spy Model 3 B+ so that’s what I’ll be using in this project.

● A working Internet connection.

● A USB thumb drive (used as boot media) for the Raspberry Spy.1

● A power supply for the Raspberry Spy.

● A USB-to-UART bridge (UTUB). I’ve got a CP2104 from Silicon Labs; this is widely available and you can pick it up from an online retailer. You want a module that has all the necessary pins and peripherals already packaged into one, neat, unit. I believe the specific module I have is by WINGONEER.

● 3 female-to-female jump wires.

● A computer with any recent GNU/Linux installed on it. The computer needs to have a working USB port.

● A generic microSD card reader/writer. I have an Anker AR200.

It’s likely that you already have the apparatus to operate your Raspberry Spy. Just acquire the additional bits that you don’t already have. The list here is just for completeness.

Here’s some extra equipment that will make your life easier:

● When you’re dealing with electronics, you should heed the old idiom of “two is one and one is none”. Get spares of whatever you can, as a rule.

● A digital multimeter (DMM) with spare fuses for the multimeter. Being able to do some quality control (QC) before you hook up your UTUB to your hardware is going to give you peace of mind. Don’t skimp on the spare fuses for the DMM; it’s easy to forget how much current you’ve got flowing through a circuit and fry the DMM’s fuse by accident2.

● A 2M or longer USB extension cable. Male-to-female is what you want here. You plug in the male part to your computer and the female part is open for receiving the UTUB. This makes life a lot easier (and safer).

● Nitrile gloves. Helps keep you safe.

● Safety goggles. Again, doesn’t hurt to be careful.

You should now have everything you need to get started! _____ 1 If you’ve got a Raspberry Spy that can only accept an SD card as boot media, you don’t need to fret too much. The procedure is the same; you just write the OS image to an SD card instead of a USB thumb drive. Fixing quirks of SD card installations are, however, out of scope of this project; you should refer to the relevant documentation, IRC chats, and mailing lists. I will provide links to boot-media-specific information, when we discuss boot media; this should give you a starting point to troubleshoot issues. 2 Real fuses were harmed during the making of this document.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
 
GNOME GUADEC 2022 & Debian Albanian women trafficked to Mexico?
Reprinted with permission from the Free Software Fellowship
Sainsbury's: It Takes Us Up to Two Days to Respond to Customers Upon Escalation (and Sometimes Even More Than Two Days)
It not only does groceries but also many other things, even banking
People Don't Just Kill Themselves (Same for Other Animals)
And recent reports about Boeing whistleblower John Barnett
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day