LeapFrog Pollux Platform: OpenLFConnect

OpenLFConnect is a Python and sg3_utils command line based replacement application for the LeapFrog LFConnect program and more. For Explorer and LeapPad it can use their dftpdevice to upload firmware. It also manages uploading the surgeon.cbf file for USB boot recovery mode and is capable of enabling ftp/telnet on both devices. For Didj it can mount the USB drive, copy firmware over, and send the eject command that will attempt to start flashing the firmware. There are also extra functions for wrapping and unwrapping CBF files and extracting lf2/lfp packages.

The program deals with firmware/bootloader items. The update functions deal with those exclusively, for updating the offical LeapFrog user interfaces, games, movies, etc. You'll need to use the LFConnect program. Especially if you want those things to run as they should, since there is online functionality that is required for certain features.

WARNING: This program can flash new firmware, has the ability to make and delete, upload and download, files could be destroyed, firmware flashing could go wrong. There is no prompts for second chances. Make sure you understand what you're doing, and use fresh batteries or an A/C adapter during updating.

Downloads
https://github.com/jrspruitt/OpenLFConnect

Requirements
Windows or Linux compatible

Python 2.6 - No special modules needed. Windows or Linux

sg3_utils
 * Included for Windows, common on many Linux distros

Windows LeapFrog Ethernet Driver
 * If LFConnect is installed, or previously was, this is already installed.
 * If not, when it prompts you for a driver, use the Windows update service.

Bonjour For auto device IP discovery
 * If LFConnect is installed, or previously was, this is already installed.

Install
Extract archive or clone git repo to a location of your choice.

Windows
If LFConnect is installed you may want to make sure Monitor.exe is disabled, which can be done via Task Manager, before plugging a device in, this is the program that auto starts LFConnect. You can also prevent it from running on boot up, with a registry edit. It will how ever start up again, if your open LFConnect, but until then it remains off, if you delete this entry.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\Monitor

Didj
You'll need to assign the Didj' USB Disk a drive letter as LFConnect will have assigned it another mount point instead. The letter you pick doesn't matter, as long as it doesn't conflict with something else. Plug your Didj in and then go to Disk Management, depending on what version of Windows it should be something like:

Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management

Right click the drive, and select Change Drive Letters and Paths click Add and assign the letter.

It is also recommended to disable any disk caching in the drive's properties on Windows. The Didj drive can become corrupted, if you are not careful with it, disabling disk cache, while takes longer to transfer files initially, is the safest route.

LeapPad and Explorer
Windows will default to a zeroconfig address, if you like you can just let it do that. But it takes a bit over a minute for it to do it. Static IP will greatly speed up the process.

Plug your device in and turn it on. You should see an icon in the Start Bar about trying to connect, if not go to Network Connections, right click and choose status. Then properties, scroll down to TCP/IP click on its properties, and make sure to set a static IP. Unless your device is set to a non standard IP, it will be on the 169.254. subnet. Windows will actually default to an address on this subnet, it takes a little over a minute from first turn on though, static IP is much faster.

Static IP: 169.254.0.1 Broadcast Mask: 255.255.0.0

Linux
Extract archive or clone git repo to a location of your choice.

You'll have to decide if you want to run OpenLFConnect.py with sudo or not. If you do not want to, you will need to copy the OpenLFConnect/src/udev_rules files to /etc/udev/rules.d/ The Mass_Storage rules are for all 3 devices. Didj in normal use and LeapPad, Explorer in USB Boot mode. The create a persistent generic SCSI device name /dev/leapfrog that is set to allow regular users permission to use.

Make sure the rule is owned by root:root and set to permission 644.

Didj
Disk caching is a problem, and getting around automount to change the mount option, is problematic, with out an across the board disabling of the feature. A Linux host is the hardest to manage in this regard, safely ejecting, running sync, or using didj_eject, which runs the sync command prior to sending the eject command to the Didj, is mandatory. Especially if you've uploaded data into Base/ Data/ or ProgramFiles/ on the Didj, corruption is incredibly easy, be careful and gentle.

LeapPad and Explorer
Plug your device in and turn it on, then check

System > Preferences > Network Connections

If you see Auto Eth1 open up its properties and go to the IPv4 tab, on the Methods drop down pick Link Local.

If you do not see the Auto Eth1 or something similar, you can copy the udev rules for Net to /etc/udev/rules.d/ This will trigger avahi-autoipd on plug in, and assign an IP address to the interface. This is basically what Network Manager does when set to Link Local.

Make sure the rule is owned by root:root and set to permission 644.

Usage
There is basically three types of commands. OpenLFConnect commands, such as manually configuring the host IP before a connection is made, debug settings, remote, or local. There are client commands, for DFTP and Didj, dftp_connect or didj_mount both start their respective clients and connections and each have various commands to run once started. Then there is filesystem commands, ls, cd, cat, upload, upload_dir, etc. Client commands are only available while the client is running, filesystem commands, are the same remote or local, obviously if no remote client is running, there is no where to upload something to though.

A word of caution, there are no prompts to ask if you are sure. Uploading will over write a directory or file, deleting a directory will remove it regardless if there is anything in it, etc, etc. Also always make sure you are where you think you are, its easy to forget you switched to local or remote, and run a command thinking you are somewhere else. You've been warned, cwdl and cwdr are you're friends, they will tell you where each path is pointed to.

Getting Started
From a terminal or the command prompt run OpenLFConnect.py this will bring up the python command line. In windows you can also double click on the file.

To get a full list of commands type local>help

For help on a specific command local>help command

Commands with an option in [] means its optional, commands with an option <> means it is mandatory.

 Basic Commands 

The basics are very similar to the Linux command line, and when first started, you will be able to navigate around the local filesystem. Some examples.

This changes the directory local>cd files/LX

This lists a directory's contents. local>ls files/Didj bootloader-LF_LF1000/ firmware-LF_LF1000/ Connect to the device local>dftp_connect Device:		Explorer Firmware Version:	1.3.4-2044 IP:			169.254.3.208 DFTP Version: 		1.8 remote>

Make a directory and list its contents. remote>cd /tmp remote>mkdir NewDir remote>ls NewDir/ temp.socket temp.file

Download takes a remote path argument to a file, and will download it to the current local directory.

Upload takes a local path argument to a file, and will upload it to the current remote directory.

Set the remote directory to where the file you want to download resides in, switch back to local and navigate to where you want to save it. Then download. remote>cd etc/ remote>local local>cd LX/temp local>download vsftpd.conf local>ls vsftpd.conf Set your remote directory to where you want the file to be put, then upload a local file using the path argument. remote>cd ../etc/avahi/ remote>upload ../../user/scripts/avahi-autoipd.action remote>ls avahi-autopid.action

 Remote/Local Locations

Once a remote client is running, you can navigate both the local and remote filesystems. On Didj, remote just means it starts at the mounting point as technically they are both local.

This means you are on the host computer and the commands will take action on it. local> command arg This indicates you are about to run a command on the device. remote> command arg

Change to remote device local>remote remote>

Change to local from remote remote>local local>

The are a few exceptions to this, Upload/Download commands don't care, as Upload wants a local path to upload to the current remote directory, and Download wants a remote path, to the current local directory, the location is taken care of behind the scenes. Commands that do not deal with a path, or connecting a client, generally do not care either.

The current directory is maintained on an individual basis. So you can switch between remote and local, and you will stay in the same place. The only exception is if the device is disconnected, this will reset both paths. The cwdl and cwdr commands Current Working Directory Local and Current Working Directory Remote respectively, can be used to check what that path is, regardless of the command lines current location.

Didj
The Didj is different than the LeapPad or Explorer in that it is not a networking enabled device. Once you mount the Didj, you will be given a remote prompt, in reality you are still on the local filesystem, you can still use all the same commands if you like however. The Didj client has a few specific commands, all prefixed with didj_.

The first thing you should do with your Didj, is back up the entire drive that gets mounted, archive it, and keep it somewhere safe. It will be needed if your Didj ever says it "needs repair."

A word of caution to prevent "needs repair" issues. Always make sure to safely eject the device, to allow the host OS to commit the changes. If you just pull the plug, it can cause data corruption.

Didj Command List

Filesystem Command List

General
Once Didj is plugged in and turned on, start the client and connect. local>didj_mount Mounted on /dev/Didj

This will obtain the location the Didj is mounted on. You should see a new window pop up with the contents, or it show up in your file browser, depending on the OS used. For general purpose looking around, its far easier to use the OS's file browser. But if you would like to run an update of the firmware or bootloader, OpenLFConnect can make it rather painless.

Send the eject command, to be gentle with your Didj or start firmware update. didj_eject

Updates
Preperation

OpenLFConnect comes with a directory called files/, inside you'll find the Didj/ directory, its a convenient place to keep your firmwares.

More Information on firmware updating. Bootloader

Make a directory called bootloader-LF_LF1000. Put your lightning-boot.bin and bootflags.jffs2 (optional) into it.

Firmware

Make a directory called firmware-LF_LF1000. Put your kernel.bin and erootfs.jffs2 files into it.

In OpenLFConnect navigate to the location of these files. You can be one above, or just inside the one you want to update. If you are going to do both, you must be in the parent directory of both of them.

Depending on what you want to do, update just the bootloader, just firmware, or both, there is a command for each.

Update both with change to directory. local>cd /Didj local>ls bootloader-LF_LF1000 firmware-LF_LF1000 Update both. local>didj_update

Update Firmware using the path to parent. local>didj_update_firmware Didj/

Update Bootloader with path a to files. local>didj_update_bootloader Didj/bootloader-LF_LF1000

It will take a second for the command prompt to come back after the files have transferred and eject command sent. If on Linux eject the device now. Once ejected the Didj screen should change, it will say "Learning new tricks" Then "Disconnect Now". Once you do it will shutdown. Turn it back on and plug it in. run: local>didj_mount local>didj_update_cleanup

This removes the file to prevent unwanted firmware flashes if the eject command is sent again. If everything went okay your files will have been flashed to the Didj and you can now use it.

Needs Repair
This section is part warning, part remedy. With disk caching enabled, it is fairly easy to corrupt the Didj's drive. When ever possible, use safely remove options, which will flush the disk cache before removing. The Didj, when in good status, seems to hold up on the eject command until everything is synced, especially on Windows, for Linux OpenLFConnect will run the sync command prior to issuing the eject.

Needs Repairs and Download Failed

To fix it you'll first need your backup copy of the disks contents,Base/ Data/ and ProgramFiles/ at the very minimum Base/ is required, Data/ holds your user profile type stuff, ProgramFiles/ is for JetPackHeros. Then format the drive with FAT, when done copy over your backups then safely eject it, preferably use didj_eject. Most of the time this has worked for me in fixing any issue that arises.

If you want the be all to end all access for such issues check out serial console. In console if you just can't get anything going, cause it "brazenly refuses to mount /dev/mtdblock9" rmmod g_file_storage this disables usb storage and takes out the /flags/needs_repair that won't go away, as it is set by the usb driver.

 Prevention 

Always use safely remove, if you've uploaded data, especially with a Linux host PC as data corruption seems far more likely. On a Linux host, OpenLFConnect will run the sync command, before ejecting. Its actually a fairly good idea to use the didj_eject command each time. Windows, XP at least, seems more friendly in these regards, as didj_eject will hold up until files are written. It is still highly recommended to disable disk cache in Windows aka Quick Removal. As for Linux, mounting with the sync option is a good idea also. But getting this to work with automounting can be problematic. Manually running sync, safely removing, or running didj_eject should all take care of it.

LeapPad and Explorer
LeapPad and Explorer are both network connected and use the same DFTPdevice, as does both versions of Surgeon. There are a few client specific commands available, but mostly it is much like a basic ftp client. All DFTP commands are prefixed with dftp_.

DFTP Command List

Filesystem Command List

General
There are a few things worth doing with OpenLFConnect and your Explorer. You can send a surgeon.cbf file, or any kernel and or initramfs you want to test that has been converted to CBF Commands,  Information. You can run firmware updates, there is a convenience function for enabling ftp, or you can use it like a basic ftp browser.

Once the device is turned on and plugged in.

Connect to it. dftp_connect prints device info...

Disconnect, device can be reconnected to with out unplugging or restarting application. dftp_disconnect

Reboot the device and/or disconnect.(depends what you're running Surgeon, Explorer, LeapPad, as to if it reboots or not) dftp_reboot

Starting FTP, Telnet and SSHD
When normally booted, FTP and Telnet are not running, while they will be if surgeon is running. SSHD is never enabled, but can be. These use the dftp RUN command, to upload a shell script, these can be found in files/Scripts/. All three will have the same log in.

Username:root Password:[blank]

After establishing a connection.

FTP

Start

remote>dftp_ftp start Ran script. FTP start

Stop

remote>dftp_ftp stop Ran script. FTP stop

Telnet

Start

remote>dftp_telnet start Ran script. Telnet start

Stop

remote>dftp_telnet stop Ran script. Telnet stop

SSHD

This will require patching the sshd_config file, to allow empty passwords. This is not a critical file to your device running normally.

local>dftp_sshd_no_password Ran script. sshd_config patched for empty passwords.

Start

remote>dftp_sshd start Ran script. SSHD start

Stop

remote>dftp_sshd stop Ran script. SSHD start

On Linux you can install the service-discovery-applet which will automatically pick up the FTP and SSHD server announcing themselves. Look in Places>Network. In Windows it should show up in any Bonjour apps that display services.

USB Booting
There is a special mode called USB Boot mode, which can accept a Surgeon.cbf file. Both Explorer and LeapPad have it. You can access this mode using dftp_reboot_usbmode, or on the Explorer through holding both shoulder buttons and the ? while turning it on. As for LeapPad a hardware method is not known.

There are two versions of surgeon, one for LeapPad and one for Explorer. The DFTPdevice on the LeapPad version is better, disconnects do not reboot the device. As far as functionality, updating seems to work just as well also.

More Information

Make sure you have a surgeon.cbf file and it is unpacked from the .lfp archive.

Put the device in USB boot mode.

OpenLFConnect with device connected and running normally. remote>dftp_reboot_usbmode

Button presses.

Explorer hold both shoulder buttons and the ? button, while turning it on.

LeapPad Not sure.

Once in USB Boot mode run: boot_surgeon /path/to/surgeon.cbf

This will take a few seconds to return. You can then connect to the DFTP server surgeon sets up. dftp_connect print device info...

Be patient this could take a few, OpenLFConnect times out at 30 seconds, which is usually plenty for it to get up and running.

Update
Update is determined by if fuse-flasher on LeapPad has created the /LF/fuse directory, if so, it tries a Fuse (LeapPad) style update if not a standard DFTP (Explorer) style. This allows you to run the LeapPad surgeon during updates also, as it will not create the fuse folder, falling back to a regular DFTP style update.

Update Files

dftp_update first looks for the official firmware directories in the directory specified, firmware/ (LeapPad) Firmware-Base/ (Explorer). Failing that, it looks for the files it would normally find inside those directories. If those are not found, it tries to match a list of keywords to the files in the current directory.

LeapPad: nfs, kernel, mbr2G, FIRST_Lpad Explorer erootfs, kernel, FIRST

The first files it finds to match those, it will attempt to upload while translating to the proper path and file names.It is best to not have multiples, as its not guaranteed which one will be selected. Also any CBF file will be checked for a valid magic number and length before any upload takes place.

You may also specify a single file to upload, and it will translate it for you.

Boot Surgeon.cbf

You will also need a surgeon.cbf file, this will be sent to the device while its in USB boot mode, and establishes the necessary systems for the flashing process.

Once you got your firmware ready, put the device in USB boot mode and boot surgeon: local>boot_surgeon /path/to/Explorer/surgeon.cbf

 Run Update

Connect to the device local>dftp_connect

It will take a few for the device to boot up, you will then have the command line back. And can start flashing your files. remote>dftp_update /files/Explorer/Firmware-Base

Once done uploading reboot the device. remote>dftp_reboot

You can now unplug the USB cord, or otherwise let it boot normally. You can connect again if you like, and browse around too.

Explorer File Names These file names must be prefixed as they are, as the name has significance to the flashing process. The first number is the NAND address in decimal to flash to, and the second is the size of the partition in packets, which the packet size is 131072. Check Explorer technical information for the partitions numbers.

1048576,8,FIRST.32.rle 2097152,64,kernel.cbf 10485760,688,erootfs.ubi

General
debug Usage: debug  Turning debug on, turns most any filesystem action off, such as, up/download, rm, mkdir, etc. It is replaced with text displaying what would have happened. Useful for checking updates before they happen, also will not eject Didj on update.

get_device_id Usage: get_dev_id Returns the currently configured device id.

get_mount_point Usage: get_mount_point Returns the currently configured mount point to use when creating a new mount client client.

set_mount_point Usage: set_mount_point Set the mount point to use when creating a new mount client. The mount point, ex. Linux /media/didj, or Windows D:\ To reset to auto determine leave input blank.

get_device_ip Usage: get_device_ip Returns currently configured device IP to use when creating a new network client.

set_device_ip Usage: set_device_ip  Set the device IP address to use when creating a new network client. ex. 169.254.123.123 To reset to auto determine leave input blank.

get_host_ip Usage: get_host_ip Returns currently configured host IP to use when creating a new network client.

set_host_ip Usage: set_host_ip  Set the host IP address to use when creating a new network client. ex. 169.254.123.123 To reset to auto determine leave input blank.

remote Usage: remote Set to remote device for filesystem navigation.

local Usage: local Set to prompt to local host for filesystem navigation.

FileSystem
cwdr Usage: cwdr Print current remote directory path.

cwdl Usage: cwdl Print current local directory path.

exit Usage: exit Exit OpenLFConnect

ls Usage: ls [path] List directory contents. Where depends on which is set, remote or local

cd Usage: cd Change directories. Where depends on which is set, remote or local

mkdir Usage: mkdir Create directory. Where depends on which is set, remote or local

rmdir Usage: rmd Delete directory. Where depends on which is set, remote or local

rm Usage: rm Delete file. Where depends on which is set, remote or local

upload Usage: upload Upload the specified local path to the current remote directory, Will overwrite with out prompt.

download Usage: download Download the specified remote path to the current local directory, will over write with out prompt.

cat Usage: cat Prints the contents of a file to the screen. Doesn't care what kind or how big of a file.

Didj
didj_mount Usage: didj_mount [mount name] Unlock Didj to allow it to mount on host system.

didj_eject Usage: didj_eject

Eject the Didj which will unmount on host system, if the firmware updates are on the Didj, an update will be triggered. If they are not, it will ask you to unplug it. Only use after uploading with OpenLFConnect, can cause issue with disk caching and corrupt drive.

didj_device_info Usage: didj_device_info Returns various information about device and mount.

didj_update Usage: didj_update CAUTION: !!Attempts to flash firmware, could potentially be harmful.!! !!Make sure Battery's are Fresh, or A/C adpater is used!! Upload Didj firmware and bootloader to Didj and run eject command.

didj_update_firmware Usage: didj_update_firmware CAUTION: !!Attempts to flash firmware, could potentially be harmful.!! !!Make sure Battery's are Fresh, or A/C adpater is used!! Upload Didj firmware to Didj and run eject command.

didj_update_bootloader Usage: didj_update_bootloader

CAUTION: !!Attempts to flash firmware, could potentially be harmful.!! !!Make sure Battery's are Fresh, or A/C adpater is used!! Upload Didj bootloader to Didj and run eject command.

didj_update_cleanup Usage: didj_update_cleaup Remove Didj firmware and bootloader from device.

DFTP
Used for LeapPad and Explorer.

dftp_connect Usage: dftp_connect Connect to device for dftp session. Will attempt to configure IPs as needed. This could take a minute or so, if you just booted the device.

dftp_disconnect Usage: dftp_disconnect Disconnect DFTP client. This will cause the DFTP server to start announcing its IP again, except Explorer's surgeon.cbf version,  which will reboot the device

dftp_server_version Usage dftp_server_version [number] Sets the version number of the dftp server. Or retrieves if none specified OpenLFConnect checks for version 1.12 for surgeon running before a firmware update. Set this to 1.12 if getting complaints, or surgeon has its dftp version updated.

dftp_device_info Usage: dftp_device_info Returns various information about the device, and connection. Note: Device name is guessed from board id.

dftp_update Usage: update CAUTION: !!Attempts to flash firmware, could potentially be harmful.!! !!Make sure Battery's are Fresh, or A/C adpater is used!! Uploads and flashes the files found in path, or the file specified by path.

Caution: Has not been tested on LeapPad, theoretically it should work though, please confirm to author yes or no if you get the chance.

dftp_reboot Usage: update_reboot This will trigger a reboot.

dftp_reboot_usbmode Usage: dftp_reboot_usbmode This will reboot the device into USB mode, for sending a surgeon.cbf to boot. If surgeon is booted, will do a standared reboot.

dftp_mount_patient Usage: dftp_mount_patient 0|1|2 Surgeon booted device only. These give you access to the devices filesystem. 0 Unmounts /patient-rfs and /patient-bulk/ 1 Mounts /patient-rfs and /patient-bulk/ 2 Mounts only /patient-rfs

dftp_telnet Usage: dftp_telnet  Starts or stops the Telnet daemon on the device. Username:root Password:

dftp_ftp Usage: dftp_ftp  Starts or stops the FTP server on the device. Username:root Password:

dftp_sshd Usage: dftp_sshd  Starts or stops the SSHD daemon on the device. Does not work on surgeon. Username:root Password:

dftp_sshd_no_password Usage: dftp_sshd_no_password Patches the sshd_config file to permit login with a blank password. Should be run before starting sshd, only needs to be done once.

dftp_run_script Usage: dftp_run_script This takes a shell script as an argument, and proceeds to run it on the device. Username:root Password:

send

Usage: send Advanced use only, don't know, probably shouldn't.

USB Boot
boot_surgeon Usage: boot_surgeon  Uploads a Surgeon.cbf file to a device in USB Boot mode. File can be any name, but must conform to CBF standards.

Explorer
lx_rename_firmware Usage: lx_rename_firmware [path] Renames a the current or specified directory of files, with first, kernel, and or erootfs in the file names. Prepends the proper number prefix to each file. Will rename all files in the directory that match.

LF2/LFP Packages
package_extract Usage: package_extract [path] Extracts LF Package files (lfp ,lfp2) Takes a file path, or will extract all packages in a directory.

package_download Usage: package_download   Downloads the LF firmware package for device specified to files/ Bootloader is for Didj only. Didj also has no surgeon. Short names work also.

CBF Files
cbf_unwrap Usage: cbf_unwrap Removes the CBF wrapper and prints a summary. CBF is used on kernels and surgeon, to wrap a zImage or Image file. Saves the image file to the same directory the cbf file was in. If image file already exists will fail.

cbf_wrap_surgeon Usage: cbf_wrap_surgeon Creates the CBF wrapper named surgeon.cbf and prints a summary. CBF is used on kernels and surgeon, to wrap a zImage or Image file. Saves the image file to the same directory the kernel file was in. Kernel should be a zImage or Image file. If cbf file already exists will fail.

cbf_wrap_kernel Usage: cbf_wrap_kernel Creates the CBF wrapper named kernel.cbf and prints a summary. CBF is used on kernels and surgeon, to wrap a zImage or Image file. Saves the image file to the same directory the kernel file was in. Kernel should be a zImage or Image file. If cbf file already exists will fail.

cbf_summary Usage: cbf_summary Display the CBF wrapper summary. CBF is used on kernels and surgeon, to wrap a zImage or Image file.