So today, a coworker brought in a Sony NSP-1. I had never heard of this gadget before; it is supposedly a signage controller, which is supposed to drive a projector or plasma display to display changing signs, videos, and so on. It's tiny; about the size of a DSS satellite receiver, and... it's based on Red Hat Linux!
Trouble is, nobody had any idea what the passwords were to log into its web interface. I also didn't know what the root password was, so I couldn't log into it at first. There was also no way to access the boot loader so I could tell LILO or GRUB to boot into single user mode. The only removeable media was a PCMCIA slot, and there's no way to boot off those.
Arrgh. After some fiddling with some DIP-switches on the back, though, I found that it has a standard PC BIOS! It can also boot from USB! So we grabbed an external USB CD-ROM drive, put in a Knoppix CD, and booted it up.
I promptly mounted the various partitions to find out where the heck the /etc/passwd file was. Whoever partitioned this thing must really enjoy themselves in fdisk, as there were ten partitions, and the actual root was the third! I finally located it, and nulled the password. One more reboot, and I was in! I found the .htaccess that controls the web interface (it's all open-source! I love it!) and reset the passwords.
Overall, a fun hack. Now I want one of these NSP-1s for myself, as they look like they make good video jukeboxes, but the price is a bit disconcerting: $2 grand! ARRGH!
(I disabled comments on this post because it's receiving a lot of spam comments. I'm not sure why. -Z 9/27/06)
nsp
How exactly do you null the password? We are using some of these at my office and I am curious how to access.
Thanks,
Ginger
So... I too have been messing
So... I too have been messing with one of these and I have a few more details.
Set dip switch 4 on.
Boot the NSP1.
hit the delete key... a lot... during the boot sequence...
this will let you mod the bios.
Now, find advanced and change the first boot device to USB-CDROM
I changed the second device from disabled to HD0 so with the CDROM detached or off, the system would boot normal.
I used KNOPPIX 3.9
at the knoppix boot prompt I entered
knoppix acpi=off noapic pci=bios 2
I prefer command line so I used the 2. If you want the gui, leave the 2 off.
Now my only problem has been the CHEAP USB hub I bought.
Can't use it.
So, I have been limited to just 2 USB ports.
The keyboard and the CDROM.
I wanted to direct connect another HD to image to partitions before messing them up.
Now I have to image across the wire.
Slower, but same net result.
Good luck to all.
Kurt
Edge pcmcia card
I will like ton use NSP-1 with sony ericsson's GC89 card a Quad Band edge/Gprs modem card and wifi. Any hints on how I could accomplish this?
More info please
Recently got one of these things... Booted with Puppy Linux on a 2GB jump drive. But... fact is I know jack about it and can't null the passwords. A bit more info / help would really make my life easier.
NSP1
I think this is great. Would you like to share with me NSP1?