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The most popular brand of embedded systems for the E46 series BMWs is the Dynavin. They make a WinCE 6 and an Android 2.3 version. The WinCE 5 version is discontinued, and the WinCE6 version comes with or without android on a separate partition. I’ve put together a complete Dynavin support library, with multiple versions of igo and other apps for wince and android, and I am tired of the BS. I need a universal ROM and a deployment script to figure out each system’s maximum capabilities and deploy itself to spec for the board its writing to.

The Dynavin is available from http://jandtdistributing.com/dynavinsolutions/bmw-stereo-navigation-units-and-accessories/dynavin-e46-d99-android/ for 799, and http://www.dynavinstore.com/shop/bmw-series/dynavin-dvn-e46-d99.html for 990.17 not including the backup camera, 3G dongle, wifi dongle, hdtv tuner, hd radio tuner, ac relocation kit or SH. So yeah, if you want an all in one unit and dont want to develop anything or pwn your car, then just go there and blow money on that.

Not all of us bought our BMWs new, and we don’t have a small fortune to spend on a little embedded computer. Fewer of us still, like myself, are willing to pay for a computer, but will not buy one without having root, the full functionality expected or exploitable from it, and the look of OEM as well. There is now a huge market for Dynavin clones which provide similar function, although the performance and quality of the clones compared to the original Dynavin are inferior. I have a clone which came with all the extras and am still dissatisfied. However, all these units come from China and thus cannot be economically returned.

I have been through a D95 unit, and a D99+Android clone, and I am very dissatisfied. I eventually want to put together a library so a single rom can be flashed to the myriad boards which roots the box, backs up everything to sd card, unmounts sd card, loads packages, builds, and flashes the generic rom over with the self customized rom, and runs real time. These boards, embedded in these aftermarket stereo systems, can all run the same RTOS, android or not, and I will make the SD prep tool and common image available publicly, so like a liveCD, every aftermarket navigation radio can boot. From the live boot, the script will build a rom customized to the chips capabilities, rooting it, deploying busybox and botbrew, and installing whatever other packages are appropriate for the chip.

The biggest problems are canbus/ibus communication with the steering wheel and radio buttons, the uninterruptible power supply, and wiring the HDTV and Backup video into the video and HD Radio tuners into the audio. The GPS, DVD, and USB units are all onboard most of these units, but what varies most among them all is the board used and the FAKRA/canbus connection. Until all the boards are documented, the best workaround will be tapping the canbus and using one of the usb canbus adapters with linux libraries like bus pirate or stk500.

Pwnership: Ownership of something pwned.

Intro:
You don’t have to know what AOSP, NDK, and the SDK are to pwn phones, nor do you have to keep track of a myriad array of recommended specifications for each device, and vanilla backups of each one. You will however have to make the first step and come to terms with pwnership, what it means, what will happen, and how to reverse the changes if you don’t like it. Now that we are on ICS, flash is no longer developed, so the problem of locked devices has hit home for a lot of consumers/users that wouldn’t normally root their devices.

Pros:
You become the real owner/administrator of your device, you can run adobe flash, you can write, run, and script android applications not from the market, you can control permissions, you can disable all advertising that eats your data, cpu and battery, you can uninstall locked programs and bloatware, you can freeze broken programs, you can firewall yourself from specific IPs and ranges (IE gov and edu), and encrypt to your heart’s content, you can put your carrier back in your pocket instead of being in theirs.

Cons:
It takes a long time to back up using a stock sd card, you will have to buy a few apps to really enjoy it, you will void your warranty if you do not unroot your device before bringing it in for service, you will have to learn more about your device as an administrator to control its broad range of power and ability.

Context:
In the CONUS, most android devices you’ll get your hands on are post development, loaded with bloatware, bound by a contract, and bent over a table and sodomized with ads you pay for. They may also have apps that cannot be uninstalled, and a backdoor service for carrier admins to remote control your phone with.

I don’t know about you, but I do not pay for advertising. I do not pay for speed limits, throttling, advertising, bloatware, third parties, middle men, or other useless garbage.

Join me in breaking the hearts and wallets of the senseless advertising executives and lawyers who allow applications like MOG Music, Slacker Radio, and NFL Mobile to be installed and locked onto devices prepurchase!

If you haven’t already installed the drivers for your device, and you are using the Motorola phones this article was mainly written for, you can get them here. If you are using a phone from another manufacturer, you know how to google for them.

Instructions:

First, you will need to download an up to date rootkit for your phone.
It should include busybox, supersu, and you should have already installed the USB drivers from your manufacturer’s website. In this case, we’ll use the Eternity Project EasyRootICS 1.5 kit from Pedro Torres and XDA found here.

from article:

1. Download and unzip the package (hint: save it to your PC Desktop)
2. Install Motorola Drivers – Get them here (hint: uninstall other android device drivers from PC)
3. Enable Unknown Sources (Config > Security > Unknown Sources)
4. Enable USB Debug (Config > Developer Options > USB debug)
5. Enable Mock Locations (Config > Developer Options > Mock Location)
6. Connect the phone to your PC as Media Sync – MTP (Change it after connect you phone to PC in Config > Storage > Media Sync)

Run the batch file and wait patiently. If it doesn’t work the first time, make sure you are logged into an administrator account, and that adb.exe is set to run as administrator in the compatibility tab, and that you right click and launch it as administrator.

Thanks Pedro and XDA!

Once you have rooted your device, download clockworkmod recovery bootstrap specific to your phone, I used ClockworkMod Black Touch, then buy and download rom manager pro to manage your phone’s roms and back them up using clockworkmod.

Buy and download rom toolbox pro to back everything up, then use it to uninstall the bloatware on your phone like NFL Mobile, Slacker Radio, and other BS, then use it to set auto-kill for apps like Facebook which you don’t want to install, yet need not run at boot time. Finally, use rom toolbox pro to freeze all the apps you don’t want to use regularly and to tweak all the little settings you want.

Finally, you’ve rooted your phone and are using superuser rights in root!

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Ok so Ive got the wincen unit in, and its a definite upgrade, but now i have the janus bezel and am going to build the system to replace the replacement system.

It will run android and backtrack, will be root, and will have the following features.

Specs:
Dual core arm or atom cpu
4gb+ ram
Atheros wifi (madwifi ok)
Realtek hd audio out
Canbus reader/writer for wheel controls and other buttons
Vga out
Rca in
Gps in
Hd radio in
Hdtv in
Etc.

More to come…

So the Dynavin may not have had a bad aux video in chip anyway. I’m pleased with the wincen unit, but it was a 400mhz unit running ce 5 and this one is a 766mhz unit running android 2.3. The unit gui is generally the same as the dynavin with a few extra features. The navi gui is completely different with a locked up android 2.3 versus a locked up wince 5. More on navi later…

For one it has a built in atsc tuner, with tv mode being the default screen, not the menu screen or the radio screen, which would be slightly less irritating if we still used atsc! Topping it off, they don’t include the antenna anymore because they know that the atsc tuner feature is useless. I have an atsc-mh tuner running into the aux av in and i still get little to no reception. I’ll relocate the antenna when the rest of the job is done.

The radio has a neat auto scan feature which presets all good stations. Thats cute but I’m using the visteon hd tuner with fm modulation for radio, so i only need one preset. The right knob tunes better, but wont cycle through presets like dynavin did.

The navi is android 2.3 for telechips dev board and will run pandora and igo at the same time, but it will not run netflix smoothly due to slow render, not bandwidth.

I plan on installing microhdmi to rca, ipod to rca, and aux rca cables into glovebox with a selector switch so i can split the single aux av ins without sacrificing inputs. By doing this i can run my droid razr maxx, my girlfriend’s iphone, and any additional av input to the unit’s screen.

The usb ports are one each for the two partitions. One for the 3g dongle or wifi adapter, either/or apparently, and the ipod input goes to the ipod touch.

I also have to root the device because some region information is still cached for china and prohibits installing apks that normally work here in California.

I’ve reached out to the manufacturer and hopefully ill get the android project files and the code for the base os.

Stay tuned…

I took the Dynavin down to Best Audio on Shattuck. They found that the video in chip was dead by running a video feed into my reverse cam input and aux video inputs. Both came up blank, so I can’t use the backup camera or iphone video with the D99 unit.

I have all the trim pieces and cables, but I am still waiting on some bits and pieces to complete the installation of the new unit. ECS sent the wrong screws with the license plate covers and I didn’t want to send them back at more expense. I’m fed up with the Dynavin now that I actually want to have a working reverse camera and iphone input, and installing the janus bezel and the xenarc touchscreen can wait, because every little feature has to be specifically addressed for a carpc.

The WinCen headunit from AliExpress.com is a perfect economy replacement in the meantime. It’s a 766Mhz ARM core, has an OEM look, bluetooth with phonebook and audio streaming, gps navigation, hd radio/cd, hd video/dvd, audio, line drivers, usb inputs, wifi, 3g, remote, touchscreen, and it runs android 2.3 and wince6 as opposed to a 433Mhz core, some weird closed source linux and wince5. With the money saved delaying the carPC indefinitely, I can get an android phone to tether my car and do business on the road. I think I might spoil her and get some LED angel eyes also.

Pics coming soon!

Hey folks.

I understand not all of you are citizens of the USA, let alone patriotic, but cybersecurity is an international affair, and even if the US cybersecurity month isn’t honored abroad, it’s still important to bring awareness to 21st century security practices.

Here’s some DHS guidance: http://www.dhs.gov/cybersecurity-everyones-business

Of course, there are also the standby guides by the NSA: http://www.nsa.gov/ia/mitigation_guidance/security_configuration_guides/

If you have any questions or need someone to secure your network for you, give me a call!

http://www.gowhitehat.com/

PSA=Professional Service Automation

CRM=Customer Relationship Management

I’ve been working in IT since 1998 at least, and I’m tired of tracking everything in excel and notepad, then checking it with quickbooks.

I’m ready to implement a PSA/CRM solution that works with the iphone, browsers, google apps like gmail and calendar, and will provide a customer and employee front end, in addition to my administrator backend.

Obviously it would be great if there was an sql/php based platform that would work with quickbooks, which could sms and email me, book appointments, store customer info, etc.

I don’t want to use connectwise or autotask but they are the dominant platforms out there right now.

SugarCRM is as close to the point as I have seen, but it’s not full featured in the form of IT and mobile dispatch capability.

http://www.mspmentor.net/2011/05/26/connectwise-and-autotask-pursue-vastly-different-long-term-strategies/

http://www.shockeymonkey.com/features.php

http://www.sugarcrm.com/

http://alternativeto.net/software/autotask/

http://alternativeto.net/software/connectwise/

http://www.allocpsa.org/

http://www.openpsa2.org/