In this episode, I fix the off-by-one error in the IMAP envelope parser noted
in the previous episode, then improve the tracking of a malloced buffer that
gets shifted around during parsing.
Returning to the development of my IMAP client, in this video I add
functionality to fetch the default mailbox name from the resource file (later to
be moved to a preferences window) and then eventually locate a crash in the IMAP
protocol parser from a bogus memmove.
In this video, I create a new GUI application from scratch, create a resource file and add an image to it, and then display that image in a window. I also cover using THINK C's debugger to inspect a struct. Then, my Mac dies.
Now that my Mac 512Ke is able to use PPP for native TCP/IP, I wanted an easy way to do PPP between it and an OpenBSD server on my network. I initially did this with a physical serial cable, but was later able to do it over TCP so I could retain the use of my WiFi232.
Back in 2015, I created a BBS for Lobsters that worked in a web browser via WebSockets. After getting an old Mac earlier this year, I wanted a way to access the BBS from the Mac as natively as I could. Adding telnet and SSH frontends to the BBS was not too difficult, but being able to login from my Mac took a bit of work.
I recently came across an unused Dove Computer MacSnap RAM upgrade on eBay, so I bought it and installed it in my Mac 512Ke to bring its RAM up to 1 MB.
I used OpenBSD on the original Surface Go back in 2018 and many things worked with the big exception of the internal Atheros WiFi. This meant I had to keep it tethered to a USB-C dock for Ethernet or use a small USB-A WiFi dongle plugged into a less-than-small USB-A-to-USB-C adapter.
Microsoft has switched to Intel WiFi chips on their recent Surface devices, making the Surface Go 2 slightly more compatible with OpenBSD.
Last year I wrote about the Cidco MailStation and how I was using it as a Z80 development platform. One of the biggest hurdles to running code on them is that it must be uploaded over the MailStation's parallel port with a LapLink cable and some custom software (although it's certainly easier than having to pull and flash a chip).
I recently created a USB data loader device that allows for easier development from a modern computer and implements the MailStation's custom data encoding routines in its firmware.
Back in 2017, I bought an Arduboy, a fun little Arduino development system which integrates an ATmega32U4 8-bit CPU, 32 KB of flash storage, 2 KB of RAM, a 128x64 pixel OLED display, some buttons, a speaker, and a battery in a Gameboy-like package.
OpenBSD had an
old Arduino package
available without the
Arduino IDE, and it instead included
a custom
Makefile
for end-users to build off of for compiling projects.
But it was all pretty old and crufty and kind of sucked the fun out of tinkering
with a new piece of hardware.
Another year, another ThinkPad X1 Carbon, this time with a Dolby Atmos sound system and a smaller battery.
For two years I've been driving myself crazy trying to figure out the source of a driver problem on OpenBSD: interrupts never arrived for certain touchpad devices. While debugging an unrelated issue over the weekend, I finally solved it.
It's been a long journey and it's a technical tale, but here it is.
On July 4th, 2018, I reported a security/privacy problem to Apple regarding the firmware on its now-discontinued AirPort wireless access points.
Per Apple's website, a "factory-default reset" of an AirPort should "remove any saved configurations and profiles" and should be sufficient for "selling or giving away your base station".
On at least AirPort Extreme AP firmware 7.7.9 and AirPort Express firmware 7.6.9 (the newest available for each device at the time of reporting), a "factory-default" reset just moves the configuration file to a new location on the device, and the old file and up to two additional previous configurations remain accessible on the device.
The Huawei MateBook X is a high-quality 13" ultra-thin laptop with a fanless Core i5 processor. It is obviously biting the design of the Apple 12" MacBook, but it does have some notable improvements such as a slightly larger screen, a more usable keyboard with adequate key travel, and 2 USB-C ports.
It also uses more standard PC components than the MacBook, such as a PS/2-connected keyboard, Intel WiFi card, etc., so its OpenBSD compatibility is quite good.
I use a Huawei Matebook X as my primary OpenBSD laptop and one aspect of its hardware support has always been lacking: audio never played out of the right-side speaker. The speaker did actually work, but only in Windows and only after the Realtek Dolby Atmos audio driver from Huawei was installed. Under OpenBSD and Linux, and even Windows with the default Intel sound driver, audio only ever played out of the left speaker.
Now, after some extensive reverse engineering and debugging with the help of VFIO on Linux, I finally have audio playing out of both speakers on OpenBSD.
I upgraded to AT&T's U-verse Gigabit internet service in 2017 and it came with an Arris BGW-210 as the WiFi AP and router. The BGW-210 is not a terrible device, but I already had my own Airport Extreme APs wired throughout my house and an OpenBSD router configured with various things, so I had no use for this device. It's also a potentially-insecure device that I can't upgrade or fully disable remote control over.
Fully removing the BGW-210 is not possible as we'll see later, but it is possible to remove it from the routing path. This is how I did it with OpenBSD.