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@da5nsy@social.coop

Post #2220648

2026-04-30 09:29 UTC

Does #copyfail open any interesting doors for hacking (and upgrading/re-using) old locked down hardware? I'm initially thinking about old routers which couldn't previously have #OpenWRT installed on them 🤔 (I'm very much beyond my knowledge area, please inform/correct me) Edit: more info: https://copy.fail/ #permacomputing #hacking #RightToRepair #jailbreak

Replies (4)

  • @lukstru@toot.kif.rocks 2026-04-30 09:41

    @da5nsy@social.coop I would love to see cars jailbroken like this :D Or Smart TVs.

    Open ##2980009

  • @da5nsy@social.coop looks like the pivot date was in 2017 Anything installed before that date is fine

    Open ##2980011

  • @da5nsy@social.coop It could be with the following caveats : - many kernels in IoT/"smart" devices are from before 2017 so #copyfail won't apply - many devices have locked down bootloaders and rooting the OS doesn't provide by default a way to unlock these bootloaders. Unlocking them is required to be able to install a third party OS (depending of the device a root acccess could be suffficient to replace altogether the bootloader though) - having root access is nice and is a first step but the other step (which is 99% of the work) is doing a port of an OS (like #postmarketOS or #netbsd) to the new device and supporting its peripherals (network cards, GPU, cameras, modems...) and it is still an involved and technical process

    Open ##2980013

  • @bastelwombat@chaos.social 2026-04-30 16:57

    @da5nsy@social.coop Getting custom soft-/firmware on devices is a two step problem: 1. Find a way to execute custom code. 2. Have custom code you want to execute. #copyfail may be a solution for 1.) in some cases, but you still need 2.) to get anything useful out of it. And in many real world scenarios this will fail, because the proprietary hardware requires some proprietary drivers which you don't have.

    Open ##2980015