Messages

1

Astro Slide - Hardware / Re: a lot of keys are not working

« on: March 03, 2023, 07:22:08 am »

Several keys were not functioning properly on mine and the keyboard was stuck in US English layout despite being set to UK English, which is what I have. However, after no less than four factory resets all seems to be working correctly, at least as far as the keyboard is concerned.

2

Gemini PDA - Android / Google certification

« on: March 27, 2018, 12:37:55 pm »

https://www.xda-developers.com/google-block...-rom-whitelist/

According to this update on XDA, manual registration for custom ROMs actually requires "Google Service Framework" No. not Device ID (Android ID). Your GSF number can be found easily using the Android app "Device ID" or similar.

3

Gemini PDA - Android / Install ADB drivers & Check for Adups

« on: March 15, 2018, 03:55:37 am »

(tl;dr: I didn't see adups packages on the Gemini)

Adups was a spyware that was baked in on a number of low cost Mediatek based phones in the last 2 years.
Pretty nasty stuff - https://www.blackhat.com/us-17/briefings/sc...ps--others-6634

I personally had one of these devices.

I mentioned to Planet early on in the campaign to guard against any accidents. Seems I was not the only one.

Back when adups first came out, I managed to verify it by checking the packages installed on the phone, and watching the stuff crash in logcat when I blacklisted the URLs it used on my network...

To check the Gemini for this, we first need to do a few things:
1) Enable developer options in Android:
In Settings, go to About, then tap on Build number option a number of times until you get the toast-message confirming developer option.

2) Ensure debug options are enabled on the device:
In Settings, go to Developer Options, and make sure the toggle is set to On.

3) Connect device:
Use the USB cable, and connect to the USB-C port on the left side of the Gemini (unplug and replug I guess if you already had it connected)

4) Download the driver:
Download latest_usb_driver_windows.zip from here: https://dl-ssl.google.com//android/reposito...ver_windows.zip
(The google driver seems to work, so no need to mess around with the MTK driver...)
Extract ZIP

5) Install the driver:
In Windows, open Device Manager, and you should observe some ADB device under "Other devices", with a yellow triangle on it...
There is more than one way of installing the drivers, you have to follow these steps to make it work... don't use some shortcut method you may know - Window will reject the drivers

Right click on the ADB device with the yellow triangle
Select Update Driver Software…
Select "Browse for driver software on your computer"
Select "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer"
Select "Show all devices"
Select "Have Disk"
Navigate to where you extracted the ZIP, select the android_winusb.inf file
In the dialog select "Android ADB Interface"
Ignore the "Update Driver Warning" message

Observe new device in Device Manager located at Android Device\Android ADB Interface.


You probably will get a confirmation dialog on your Gemini asking you to trust the computer - make sure you confirm that on the Gemini


Now that we have the drivers are loaded, you need ADB installed:
1) Go to here: https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html
2) Scroll down to "Get just the command line tools" and download the SDK tools.


Check if ADB is working:
1) From command line, navigate to \sdk\platform-tools\
2) Run: adb devices
You should see your device listed (make sure you tap the confirm button in the dialog on the Gemini)


To check for Adups, we'll make a text file, and try to get all the packages on the phone listed in it:
1) From command line, navigate to \sdk\platform-tools\

2) Run these command to dump package names into a text file:
adb shell pm list packages > packages.txt
adb shell pm list packages -s >> packages.txt
adb shell pm list packages -3 >> packages.txt
adb shell pm list packages -d >> packages.txt

3) Open that packages.txt file, and check for anything called "adups"



Is Adups in there?
Nope, cannot find it.
I did spot a com.fota.wirelessupdate though...
Previously the adups packages were:
com.adups.fota
com.adups.fota.sysoper

though that also means "Firmware Over-The-Air" - so does not mean anything.


Does that mean the Gemini is 100% clean?
Unsure.
Apparently Adups did something after they were found out... there are some news stories about a second round of adups fun out there...
https://www.slashgear.com/adups-chinese-spy...g-blu-27493055/

The original adups thing, exfiltrated data to:
bigdata.adups.com
bigdata.adsunflower.com
bigdata.adfuture.cn
bigdata.advmob.cn
221.228.214.101

See: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/15/an..._home_to_china/

Maybe someone with better skills can do some network level checking on the Gemini over a period of time, and list all the IPs/domains the device calls out to?

On a slightly less technical level, there is an Android app called "Connects" by Evbadroid which displays all your active connections on a world map. Tapping on each tells you the details. This will show at a glance whether you have any connections to China.

4

Gemini PDA - Linux / How to run Linux userland under Android

« on: March 07, 2018, 06:52:41 am »

I'd suggest to simply root it with Magisk (extract boot.img, modify it through Magisk Manager and flash it back via FlashTool) and use Linux Deploy. As a bonus, if you flash Linux dualboot, you can configure Linux Deploy to mount Linux partition and chroot there.

Looks as though the Planet guys have just done this for us. Rooted bootloader now available on Android support page.

5

Gemini PDA - General Discussion / Windows 10 on the Gemini?

« on: March 05, 2018, 06:18:01 pm »

For Windows users there are other tiny "laptops" already offering a Windows 10 solution (at least one on Indiegogo). These have been designed for this from the start and therefore have no compatibility issues. As it is, I think the Gemini is a niche product and needs to capitalise on what it already has and not try to complete in a more mainstream environment.
Personally, I ditched Windows six years ago and my only regret is that I didn't do it sooner. I'm really looking forward to Ubuntu on the Gemini.

6

Gemini PDA - Linux / Planet says new Linux info today

« on: February 20, 2018, 07:03:08 am »

I'm not as tech savvy as many of the Gemini backers appear to be. However, I do know that Ubuntu have been working for some time to get their system to work on mobile devices. So I would guess that this might be the most developed of the options currently on offer. I'm looking forward to finding out!