HH2.0A Root hack not working for me

[stevekrupa]

Yesterday I tried the root hack on a BT HH 2.0A (SW version 8.1.H.U.) and got as far as plugging in the USB stick to the home hub. The Hub recognised the device and reported it's address as 192.168.1.153 (via the Web interface) but when I tried to access the device through Windows Explorer it reported that the device was not accessible. The SW on my hub was updated remotely earlier this year so I'm wondering if BT have addressed the root hack issue with this new SW. On my linux system I tried unsquashing (unsquashfs -l) the sysroot.sqsh but got an error saying 'Can't find a SQUASHFS superblock on sysroot.sqsh'. Have I got the right version of the root hack code?

[naroekie]

did you write the image to the usb stick using the device or drvie letter?

[stevekrupa]

I wrote the image using the physical device

[naroekie]

next thing to try is different usb stick's or formating it as fat then in disk manager remove any partitions and re-apply the image

[stevekrupa]

Tried reformatting my USB stick again (I had already done this before) and copied image file to it again. Still got the same result. The Home Hub mounts the USB stick as 192.168.1.253, and I can ping that address, but when I try to open it using Windows Explorer I get a message saying 'Windows cannot find \\192.168.1.253. Check your spelling...'.
I also tried running an nmap scan on 192.168.1.253, but got the same result whether the USB Stick has mounted or not - TCP port 515 open (printer spooler port) and nothing else. The USB Stick is a 'USB Disk 20x' and has no problems with it. Also I am running Windows XP Pro SP3 - don't suppose this makes any difference. I have also tried accessing the device using Konqueror on Linux but with similar results.
Because I can't unsquash the sysroot.sqsh file I have no clue as to what is supposed to happen when the BT HH linux system mounts the USB stick - I presume that there is a samba server running on the Home Hub and that it mounts the USB stick as a SMB share, but surely there should be the relevant TCP ports open at address 192.168.1.253 to allow access to the share?
Are you sure that BT haven't closed the loophole with SW version 8.1.H.U.? Has anyone successfully hacked a HH2.0a with this version of the SW installed?

[ihmilton]

I have exactly the same problem as stevekrupa, I cannot access the USB stick
when it's in the router. As a test I inserted a known good usb stick with just a
few pictures on it into the router, and it's not even recognised.
It seems BT have removed the remote hard-drive capability in 8.1.H.J and
made it printer only
Has anyone hacked a 2.0A router running 8.1.H.J ???

Thanks

[stevekrupa]

I have tried the root hack with a brand new USB stick and I get the same results. I believe that BT has closed off the root hack potential at least in SW version 8.1.H.U. If any of the root hack experts can tell me anything different then please do so as I would like to get root login to the HH2.0A!! Also can someone tell me the specific details of how the root hack works so that I can investigate further? Is this information available from the original person who discovered the hack?

[stevekrupa]

One other thing which occurred to me is that I have changed some of the settings on my HH such as the admin password. Do I need to do a hard reset on my HH before plugging in the USB stick, or should it just work regardless?
If anyone has experience of this please let me know.
Thanks

[naroekie]

did you change the ip address of the router?I would backup the settings from the webgui and then do a hard reset

[stevekrupa]

No, I think doing a hard reset is just clutching at straws - the only thing I have changed is the admin password, so that shouldn't affect the root hack given that each default admin password is unique.
What I would like is for someone to answer my questions about how the root hack works in detail so that I can work out what are the likely causes of it not working for me. Today I managed to get the HH to mount a USB stick formatted as a standard FAT drive, but I had to use 'Map to Network Drive' to get it to work. I couldn't mount it just by typing \\192.168.1.253, I had to map it to \\BTHUB\Drive_a and then it mounted and gave me access.
So can you or someone else tell me the detail of how the root hack works, or point me to someone who can then I can take a proper engineering approach to the problem rather than a scatter-gun approach. Thanks.