[Repairs] price of a brick, cost of all tools needed to open and repair a d6 bricked XO

[Daniel Fuhry]

Caryl Bigenho <cbigenho at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hello Daniel,
>
> Thanks for the great info and links...you donated a lot of time to put 
> this together.  It is appreciated.  Now...I have a question...I have 
> an old (but like new) Keyspan serial/USB connector that looks exactly 
> like this one: http://www.keyspan.com/products/usa28xg/
> Is there a way I can use this to unbrick a D6?  Do I need to get a 
> serial cable and modify it somehow?
>
> Thanks,
> Caryl
Hi Caryl,

There two possible methods that I can think of at the moment. The first 
one is to use the linux command "modprobe usbserial vendor=0x0000 
product=0×0000". This is highly recommend, I would check this before 
doing anything else. It is not very likely to work (with a PS/2 to USB 
Converter) but if your hardware supports it you get an easy to use, 
reliable and documented interface.

Before you can actually use this command you need to figure out  your 
device IDs. Just use lusb (it is included in ubuntu but you can get it 
for your distribution debian: apt-get install usbutils, fedora: yum 
install usbutils, suse: yast --install usbutils) and look for a device 
with a name similar to "PS/2 to USB Converter"
eg.: Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0711:0240 Magic Control Technology Corp. 
PS/2 to USB Converter.
To use this type: sudo modprobe usbserial vendor=0x0711 product=0×0240.
Now you can use minicom (or your favorite terminal application) and 
connect to /dev/ttyusb0. (depending on your distribution you can try

/dev/usb/USB0 or /dev/usb/tts/0 instead.)


The second method uses binary files and sends them to the Human 
Interface Device. Before you try the second method I would think about a 
more stubborn solution that would be fully hardware independent and a 
lot easier to perform.
e.g. programming via sound card. (you only need an old pair of 
earphones, splice the cable and connect ground, RX and TX)
Back to your Question:
If you type sudo tail -f /var/log/messages and plug in the adapter you 
get an out put close to this one:
Jul  7 21:40:40 ubuntu kernel: [38670.561795] usb 2-1: new full speed 
USB device using uhci_hcd and address 32
Jul  7 21:40:40 ubuntu kernel: [38670.727810] usb 2-1: configuration #1 
chosen from 1 choice
Jul  7 21:40:40 ubuntu kernel: [38670.735969] input: MCT Corp. PS/2 - 
USB Interface Adaptor as 
/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0/usb2/2-1/2-1:1.0/input/input64
Jul  7 21:40:40 ubuntu kernel: [38670.777652] input,hidraw0: USB HID 
v1.10 Keyboard [MCT Corp. PS/2 - USB Interface Adaptor] on 
usb-0000:00:1a.0-1
Jul  7 21:40:40 ubuntu kernel: [38670.781877] input: MCT Corp. PS/2 - 
USB Interface Adaptor as 
/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0/usb2/2-1/2-1:1.1/input/input65
Jul  7 21:40:40 ubuntu kernel: [38670.865632] input,hidraw1: USB HID 
v1.10 Mouse [MCT Corp. PS/2 - USB Interface Adaptor] on usb-0000:00:1a.0-1

Now you can record a sequence of commands:
cat /dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:1a.0-usb-0:1:1.0-event-kbd > 
mycommands.txt
and play them back to the keyboard:
cat mycommands.txt > 
/dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:1a.0-usb-0:1:1.0-event-kbd

A picture of all parts used:
http://bookbeaming.fuhry.net/ps2usb.jpg

best regards,

Daniel
daniel at fuhry.net (best way to contact me.)
I'm on the forum.laptop.org as danielfuhry.
I'm in the wiki.laptop.org as danielfuhry.
You can visit my website at www.fuhry.net
You can visit my XO-only blog at daniel.fuhry.net/xo