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Explanation of "Demo Purpose Only" (also: the Eken phones home)

15369 Views 42 Replies 11 Participants Last post by  carpenter940
I just posted an explanation on my blog that should help explain "Demo Purpose Only" & "Demo version has expired" messages.http://projectgus.com/2010/07/eken-m001-phone-home/Summary: If the firmware thinks its running on unauthorised hardware then it will display this message and it seems to also "phone home" to a company in China.EDIT: Oops, I meant to put this in the 'Device Discussion' forum. Sorry!
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Firmware modders, if you guys want to disable the "phone home" on an invalid license, it should be really easy. In /system/etc/hosts, edit127.0.0.1 localhostto this127.0.0.1 localhost0.0.0.0 aiteer-order.com www.aiteer-order.com... this won't prevent the "Demo Purpose Only" from showing up, so the protection still works, but at least the m001 won't continually try to report your MAC back to Aiteer.
.EDIT: DO NOT DO THIS. IT DOESN'T SEEM TO WORK AS I EXPECTED, AT LEAST NOT IN VERSION 1.7.4
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Good work! Now if we can do the same for Google we can reclaim some more proc cycles for ourselves.
projectgus;12740]Firmware modders said:
www.aiteer-order.com[/url]... this won't prevent the "Demo Purpose Only" from showing up, so the protection still works, but at least the m001 won't continually try to report your MAC back to Aiteer.
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Can you develop please? I tried to change 127.0.0.1 localhostto 127.0.0.1 localhost0.0.0.0 aiteer-order.com www.aiteer-order.comBut still show the "Demo purpose only" after reflashing the romI dont understand why this should work!Now I am getting "Demo version expired " with sound!Thats RIDICULOUS!thank you
enotar;18182 said:
But still show the "Demo purpose only" after reflashing the romI dont understand why this should work!Now I am getting "Demo version expired " with sound!Thats RIDICULOUS!
This can't stop "Demo purpose only", it just should stop it from phoning home over the net. My original post says exactly that.Maybe when it can't phone home it decides to play a sound instead... weird!
[quote name='projectgus;18212]This can't stop "Demo purpose only"' date=' it just should stop it from phoning home over the net. My original post says exactly that.Maybe when it can't phone home it decides to play a sound instead... weird![/QUOTE'] Thank you but:After I did your solution that I include in the Rom I got this bad thing:"DEMO VERSION EXPIRED" in the center of the screen and cannot get rid of it even after reflashing with the original ROM unchanged.Any possible solution?
@ projectgusI thought I read somewhere that the who "phone home" bit showed up in the latest 1.7.4 release? All questions aside about whether the whole demo expired is right or not, is not the best solution (at least for now) to fall back to an earlier release?
donaldson: No, the old version phones home as well but I think it doesn't cover the entire screen with DEMO VERSION ONLY - that is (if I'm not wrong) new in 1.7.4.enotar - that sucks, did you upgrade to 1.7.4 at the same time? Maybe try rolling back to 1.7.2? Someone also posted on my blog and said that setting the date back worked for them... I think the only real solution for now is to take the tablet back, at least until there is a proper Free android distribution built from scratch on this tablet (some day, hopefully.)
[quote name='projectgus;18537]enotar - that sucks' date=' did you upgrade to 1.7.4 at the same time? Maybe try rolling back to 1.7.2? Someone also posted on my blog and said that setting the date back worked for them... I think the only real solution for now is to take the tablet back, at least until there is a proper Free android distribution built from scratch on this tablet (some day, hopefully.)[/QUOTE'] Thanks but the guy doesnt show up and my process was to switch from 1.7.2 to 1.7.4 to avoid the demo purpose only.When I first switched 1.7.4 was ok but with the same D.P.O.After that I follow the method here modifying the Host to avoid calling home and boom Demo version has expire.Now the strange thing is that when I switch to 1.7.4 the boot loader was updated so I think the check point is in the boot loader not in the rom.So I have to find and maybe you can help a Rom that modify the bootloader maybe 1.7.2 but I need a M70003 one, this is not an eken M001 or M003Anyone knows where I can find 1.7.2 for M7003?Btw: why do you put twice the aiteer address one without www and one with?Is this as it should be set127.0.0.1 localhost0.0.0.0 aiteer-order.com www.aiteer-order.comThank you
So you're an M70003? Did this problem only start when you flashed with M001 firmware? Because if so that would seem to be the entire purpose of that copy protection check - to stop people loading Eken firmware on non-Eken tablets!
enotar;18547]After that I follow the method here modifying the Host to avoid calling home and boom Demo version has expire.[/QUOTE]The decompiled source that I looked at was 1.7.2 said:
Btw: why do you put twice the aiteer address one without www and one with?
Just to be extra sure. Unless something dramatically changed in 1.7.4, all that does is says "When you look up aiteer-order.com or www.aiteer-order.com, resolve it as IP address 0.0.0.0". Which should give the exact same effect as not being connected to the internet, for those two names only.[quote name='enotar;18547]Now the strange thing is that when I switch to 1.7.4 the boot loader was updated so I think the check point is in the boot loader not in the rom.So I have to find and maybe you can help a Rom that modify the bootloader maybe 1.7.2 but I need a M70003 one' date=' this is not an eken M001 or M003[/QUOTE']All Eken's firmware updates reflash the bootloader, and I can almost guarantee you that the check is not in the bootloader.Like I said though, it's possible that something in 1.7.4 has been written back to the internal system parameters saying "expired" which is now staying there. But AFAIK I can't see it in the 1.7.2 firmware.What firmware did you use to upgrade to 1.7.4 in the first place?
Problem came with the arrival of the tablet; i got imediately the Demo purpose onlyUpdate to 1.7.4 and all was the same fine if not better for 1.7.4 and with the demo purpose onlyI decide to try you solution and trick the Host as mentioned Demo version expired came right away after loading and booting.The 1.7.4 came from here post 12: http://www.slatedroid.com/vbulletin...ID-M70003-original-firmware...-obtained/page2BTW: to clarify; I dont say that your method did this; I understand that they modify somnething in 1.7.4Thankl you for your help
@projectgusI'm not sure I get this.You said at your blog that "at startup, the Eken loads the serial number and compares it with the serial number it calculates from the wireless adapter." But I've done my fair share of hacking these tablets and more that once, believe me, I've started up my eken without the WIFI adapter card connected or turned on, whatever. If there is no WIFI adapter to read the MAC from, wouldn't I have seen the DEMO expired message? Even this morning I was hacking around my M003 with the wifi adapter unplugged using Slatedroid 1.3 firmware and no DEMO expired message. Does the software check bag out if there is no MAC address? Once retrieved, is the MAC address stored somewhere on the tablet? Just wondering at this point.
something else I want to mention is that:This is the first time I see the U-boot been update in the first place but maybe I didnt se well the many other time I reflash my other M001
[quote name='donaldson;18589]@projectgusI'm not sure I get this.You said at your blog that "at startup' date=' the Eken loads the serial number and compares it with the serial number it calculates from the wireless adapter." But I've done my fair share of hacking these tablets and more that once, believe me, I've started up my eken without the WIFI adapter card connected or turned on, whatever. If there is no WIFI adapter to read the MAC from, wouldn't I have seen the DEMO expired message? Even this morning I was hacking around my M003 with the wifi adapter unplugged using Slatedroid 1.3 firmware and no DEMO expired message. Does the software check bag out if there is no MAC address? Once retrieved, is the MAC address stored somewhere on the tablet? Just wondering at this point.[/QUOTE']Yes! I just read the code again, and if I read it right this time then the check is in a loop waiting to get the MAC address from the 'ra0' interface.If it can't find the interface (ie if your WiFi adapter isn't plugged in) then it just keeps trying. If it also can't find a serial number, then it will put up "DEMO VERSION" but as long as it can find the serial number (which is stored internally) but not the interface then it just keeps checking every 10 seconds and never does anything.So unplugging your Wifi adapter may actually be a way around the problem (I do not know so don't blame me if it doesn't work or does something worse.) Although then you don't have Wifi, which is a bit of a drag. ...I just noticed something else interesting about the 'Phone Home', which is that it looks like if the aiteer-order web site returns a valid serial number then the Eken will accept it, save it internally, and then work properly... So it's possible for someone (Aiteer?) to remotely re-enable these tablets. (At least for 1.7.2, this may have all changed in 1.7.4 noone has decompiled that source.)
enotar;18593 said:
This is the first time I see the U-boot been update in the first place but maybe I didnt se well the many other time I reflash my other M001
AFAIK all of the official Eken updates reflash U-boot but the custom ones (ECOTOX Slatedroid etc) do not because there's no need, and it's a bit safer not to.
[quote name='projectgus;18610]So unplugging your Wifi adapter may actually be a way around the problem (I do not know so don't blame me if it doesn't work or does something worse.) Although then you don't have Wifi' date=' which is a bit of a drag.[/QUOTE']That's where I was heading - at least turning wifi off.
Another question (sorry). You say:"Spoofing the MAC address won?t work unless you have a serial number loaded that matches the MAC."But we've all been swapping firmware through ECO or Willo or Dax for weeks now. Surely the serial number is not stored in the firmware, right? Or else we'd all be sharing the serial number.... Then there's the whole question about the MAC address... each MAC is supposed to be unique. If I read your above statement right, you're implying that each Eken is uniquely matched up with it's own MAC/Serial number combination - seems like a lot of work for a device that retails for less than $100 now.
Success coming back to begining:As there is no 1.72 ROM arround I decide to use the 1.7.4 post here http://www.slatedroid.com/vbulletin...ID-M70003-original-firmware...-obtained/page2Post 12 and use the Dump.rar /system post here:http://www.l8ter.com/slatedroid/M7003_Sys_dump.tarI system folder and re-flash and BINGOThe booting says it is 1.7.4 but that should be 1.7.2And i get now the Demo Purpose only! not the Uggly Demo version has expiredThe Eken is now usableIt would be great if we can find the exact file that do the trick to avoid the bad message and get a complete 1.7.4 that is a lot better.Only hip for now I cannot connect with WIFI Tablet recognise the WIFI with WEP but dont connect!What do you think?
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