ADVANCED shim for older apps for new unlock scheme
well, i got to thinking. all you need to do is unlock the camera. what we'd be doing is a "keycatch" method, having the camera still powered on...but on the local system. so, what i laid out was, how about i have an app open and unlock the camcorder, then promptly close the camcorder? that would mean the camera is powered, enumerated and unlocked. all someone would have to do is run the other program , but only open the camcorder. the camcorder is already unlocked, so you can just start doing whatever you'd normally do. i just -*test*-('")ed my passive-unlock application against ops-for-linux 0.12, which has no new-camcorder unlock measures. so, i ran passive-unlock, then ran ops. hit open, then update directory listing. and there it was...all the files on the cam. this retrofit works, which i am relieved to say. so, with such a shim, on any platform , any of the older applications would work, as long as there was no built-in limit that prevented people from performing actions on their camcorder without it being "unlocked" by the application itself. nobu@blackdeth:~/pure_digital/saturn/passive-unlock/src$ ls close_camcorder.c open_camcorder.c ops-linux.h passive-unlock passive-unlock.c readwrite.c saturnkeys unlock_camcorder.c nobu@blackdeth:~/pure_digital/saturn/passive-unlock/src$ ./passive-unlock Closing devices... Scanning bus 0 ... usb device with VID==167b PID==0101 Found the camcorder: Pure Digital Inc. , VID:167B PID:0101 Connected to camcorder. Loading saturnkeys... Challenge retrieved. C 67452301efcdab893322110077665544bbaa9988ffeeddcc111100003333222245 C 555544447777666699998888bbbbaaaaddddccccffffeeee000000001111111155 C 222222223333333344444444555555556666666677777777888888889999999922 C aaaaaaaabbbbbbbbccccccccddddddddeeeeeeeeffffffff55aa55aaefbeaddeaa Challenge and response recieved: S All Camcorders RESET key Camcorder unlocked! Closing devices... Camcorder USB device closed. nobu@blackdeth:~/pure_digital/saturn/passive-unlock/src$ cd ../../ops-for-linux-v0.12/ nobu@blackdeth:~/pure_digital/saturn/ops-for-linux-v0.12$ ./ops-linux Starting threading... Threading started Starting gtk... main window created Closing device trying bus 0 usb device with VID==167b PID==0101 Found the camcorder: Pure Digital Inc. , VID:167B PID:0101 Found camcorder. Connected to camcorder. p0 ChangeDirectory "/" RecursiveListing: / Getfileinfo? unknown file type type 0x4a attr 0x28 Getfileinfo. /NO_NAME Not a directory: /NO_NAME Getfileinfo? Getfileinfo. /STATFILE.TXT Not a directory: /STATFILE.TXT Getfileinfo? Getfileinfo. /DCIM if (pData.filetype == FIDIR) ChangeDirectory "/DCIM" ChangeDirectory "/" RecursiveListing recursion. RecursiveListing: /DCIM/ Getfileinfo? Getfileinfo. Getfileinfo? Getfileinfo. Getfileinfo? Last file. ChangeDirectory "/" unknown file type type 0x00 attr 0x28 Getfileinfo? Last file. p2 ChangeDirectory "/" RecursiveListing: / Getfileinfo? Getfileinfo. /ADC.BIN Not a directory: /ADC.BIN Getfileinfo? Getfileinfo. /AE.BIN Not a directory: /AE.BIN Getfileinfo? Getfileinfo. [...truncation...] Getfileinfo. /DEFEC~12.BIN Not a directory: /DEFEC~12.BIN Getfileinfo? Last file. ChangeDirectory "/DCIM" ChangeDirectory "/" model created. Closing device Camcorder USB device closed. maybe this could be useful too...unless this has been done before...

I don't get it. :?

older applications didn't work with the newer cams, right? the unlock scheme was different, meaning the older app didn't work. so my little app is technically a shim, unlocking the cam before you run your original app. meaning all of the software, old and new, now works with all cams. so if you had an app that you liked, but a new version isn't out yet, or you don't want a new version, you can use this and keep using your old app.

Using older versions of OPS is probably a bad idea. There's been many bugfixes and features added - the best solution is simply to use the la-*test*-('") version. I appreciate your efforts, but it'll likely result in confusing newbies. The best advice to give, is simply to use the la-*test*-('") available software.

this isn't for the newbies. i like using two pieces of software that have no updates and are only available in binary form. this is the only way that i can circumvent that shortcoming. i will mark the post as such.

wow, nice idea. Source please!

--grins-- already did. it's in your inbox

Interesting idea, but how useful? I don't get most of it.

hosted http://jeff.crowell.googlepages.com/passive-unlock-0.1.tar.gz

thanks again, enigma. another idea that didn't occur to me is that this is a perfect app for people to use it as a webcam/v4l device. maybe even something to launch as a userspace program from hotplug/udev.