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Six
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 289 |
Lieutenant Kernal Serial # protection
So I have a bunch of LTK host adapters and drives, and I wanted to be able to use any drive on any host adapter without having to dick around with changing serial numbers on the drives.
To this end, I dumped the host adapter rom, found the spot where it checked the serial #, and commented out the check, burned a new ROM, put it in my host adapter.
I then patted myself on the back for my extreme cleverness, and fired up my 64. Much to my chagrin, I was presented with this message:
"OK. SO YOU GOT PAST THE SERIAL NUMBER CHECK IN THE BOOT ROM.
BIG DEAL, MY GRANDMOTHER COULD DO THAT. KEEP GOING IF YOU WANT, BUT WE FEEL IT IS ONLY FAIR TO WARN YOU THAT THERE ARE SEVERAL MORE TRAPS ALONG THE WAY.
BY THE TIME YOU FIGURE OUT THE LAST ONE, THIS 'OPERATING SYSTEM' WILL HAVE EVEN LESS INTELLIGENCE THAN YOU OBVIOUSLY DO!
******************** HAPPY HUNTING SUCKER ******************"
Of course I'd seen this message in a file on the SYSGEN disk before - and figured it was a decoy. It isn't.
Clearly, there's more work to do, but I thought everyone would enjoy the big middle finger some 80s coder managed to raise in my face 30-some years later. |
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Heavy Stylus
Registered: Apr 2007
Posts: 62 |
HAPPY HUNTING SUCKER
I love these stories :) |
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Stone
Registered: Oct 2006
Posts: 172 |
Haha that's hilarious! :D |
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chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11357 |
LOL |
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Six
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 289 |
Followup: it's fully cracked now - and we've worked out how to change the SNs on existing drives and use them with unmodified host adapters.
We're in the midst of re-sourcing the entire SYSGEN here: https://github.com/sixofdloc/LTK - so if anyone wants to pitch in with some re-sourcing work, you're welcome to! |
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HCL
Registered: Feb 2003
Posts: 727 |
..and did you update the hacker message also? ;) |
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Oswald
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 5086 |
am I the only one who doesnt knows whats an LTK host adapter and drive, and what is being cracked here ? |
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MagerValp
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 1074 |
http://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/ckb/ltk/ |
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Twoflower
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 434 |
Wow, so this is about the Xetec HD's? I used to have an interface - although (luckily) I traded it for a 1581. In retrospect I would never have gotten it to work back in 1992 lacking both documentation and software. Would love to get one running now, though. |
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Cruzer
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 1048 |
@Oswald: Me too. Still a funny story though. |
