Subject: RE: [E3-hacking] All your hard work...

From: "George Sanders" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 21:20:08 -0000

Is it possible that Amstrad have locked down the E3 so tight to make sure it
can't be hacked and they are laughing at this???

---

From: en4rab <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2006 07:58:04 -0800 (PST)

> can't be hacked and they are laughing at this???

Im fairly sure Amstrad do have plans to introduce a bootloader that uses
RSA signatures to ensure the software it runs is properly signed so as
to stop you running your own software on the E3 but so far nobody seem
to have gotten an E3 from the shops with a new bootloader so it doesent
appear that there is any thing to stop you, that said i havent had the
chance to try my E3 which i have just bought.
Even if they did change the bootloader it isnt an overly difficult job
to desolder the NOR flash and reprogram it with the older bootloader
then resolder it onto the board, A £15 "gascat" gas soldering iron from
maplin with the hot air attachment will do for desoldering surface mount
chips if you are carefull and you can put them back on with a normal
soldering iron and some solder wick.
And for programming the chips there are several cheap programmers
available, im not sure what NOR chip the E3 uses but if its supported
then the willem programmer is quite a good one (www.willem.org) there
are several clones of this design available on ebay too.
en4rab

--
|     .-.   [email-masked]
|    /   \         .-.
|   /     \       /   \       .-.     .-.     _   _
+--/-------\-----/-----\-----/---\---/---\---/-\-/-\/\/---
| /         \   /       \   /     '-'     '-'
|/           '-'         '-'  -END OF TRANSMISSION-

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 26 Feb 2006 03:30:31 +0000 (GMT)

> can't be hacked and they are laughing at this???

No.

There isn't a "lockdown".  What's more, there are Amstrad employees being 
helpful and even giving us important information on how to program this 
thing, on this list, even.

If they did make it secure, it wouldn't be possible to do anything like 
what we're doing.

-J.