Well it's official, I have borked my Shark Jack Cable

[Starson]

Well I am pretty certain I won't be getting this one back from the dead without any clever ideas.

It seemed to crash or fail during an upgrade to firmware 1.2 using the recovery method web server.

Now I have no lights and the eth RJ45 end isn't recognized in Windows  (network control panel) or any switch I plug it into.

The only hope I have left is when I plug the cable into my computer I get a COM port (identified as the CP210x USB to UART Bridge) however Putty connects to a blank screen.

Perhaps I will try against different baud rates to see if I can get something returned, I am not hopeful though.

Any thoughts or ideas would be much appreciated as I would love to get this back online.

[dark_pyrro]

3 hours ago, Starson said:

It seemed to crash or fail during an upgrade to firmware 1.2 using the recovery method web server

I need to ask to make sure I get the scenario correctly; did you try to upgrade or do a firmware recovery? Probably a recovery since you use that specific word and an upgrade isn't really likely since there is only one (1) firmware version for the SJC (no need for any upgrades). If doing a recovery, did you pay attention to the tabs in the recovery web UI that is supposed to be used? If not following the instructions to the letter, it might end up with an inoperable Shark.

3 hours ago, Starson said:

Perhaps I will try against different baud rates to see if I can get something returned

What serial settings have you tried?

[Starson]

So this is likely where I went wrong:

Quote

I need to ask to make sure I get the scenario correctly; did you try to upgrade or do a firmware recovery? Probably a recovery since you use that specific word and an upgrade isn't really likely since there is only one (1) firmware version for the SJC (no need for any upgrades). If doing a recovery, did you pay attention to the tabs in the recovery web UI that is supposed to be used? If not following the instructions to the letter, it might end up with an inoperable Shark.

Some time ago I must have bee playing around and changed enough settings on the SharkJack to make it not "normal"/"factory" simple things like statically assigning an IP or changing the behavior of the eth port (I apologize for my vague example but I think it was over a year ago and I am unsure what I was trying to do)

Me being Me I decided to just ok lets use the recovery method and put firmware 1.2 back on there (this was what was on there but I was trying to do a restore).

So yes upgrade was the incorrect term, again apologies.

In regards to this:

Quote

What serial settings have you tried?

I am unsure the best way to answer as I know enough but maybe not enough.

I have tried the "generic" baud rates that are listed against a COM port in windows with the recommended settings for a SharkJack (parity bits, start end and the other settings etc) with no luck. If I run (in CMD) the mode <comport#> I can see what is "supposed" to be set but still no luck.

What gets me is that if I run a Putty session against the COM port I do get a connection but no response which is a characteristic of incorrect settings.

At this point I have very little hope, but a tiny bit of optimism.

 

I had to wait 24 hours from my last post to post this (new users have a rate limit of one post a day sorry.

[dark_pyrro]

There's no need to be sorry for anything

57600 bps is the setting to use
https://docs.hak5.org/shark-jack/getting-started/default-settings#shark-jack-serial-settings

Not sure what you've tried but when using PuTTY with the SJC you normally get a blank screen and need to press Enter a couple of times to get to the prompt. I guess you have tried that already though. However, if the firmware recovery was done in the wrong way (for example selecting the wrong tab in the recovery web UI), then that could be the reason to why the SJC isn't working, if it's 100% not possible to access in any way).

Regarding the 24 hour limit, I guess that is related to the spamming that has been going on lately in the forums. I think that it's normally 5 posts per day up until you've made a certain amount of posts over time.

[Starson]

Fantastic, I can now reply straight away!

Sadly yeah, I tried the normal 57600 rate and smashed that enter button like my life depended on it (I am a network engineer so its some what common to slap slap slap until you get a prompt 🙂 ).

 

If I rack my brain it was the "firmware" tab which now that I look may have been the wrong location.

I can see that @Scriptmonkey_ has a screen shot of the Firmware tab but mentions the OS tab going forward here:

Although I was not using an upgrade.bin file but using the actual firmware so may I was in the right place?

Can I please have clarification on the acronym SJC haha 🙂?

 

 

[dark_pyrro]

SJC = Shark Jack Cable (i.e. the cable variant of the Shark, not the battery based one)

This is what the documentation says:

Quote

If your Shark Jack web interface shows a blue banner reading Web Failsafe Recovery, click the OS tab, then click browse, select the Shark Jack firmware downloaded previously, then click Start Upload File. If your Shark Jack features the blue bannered Web Failsafe Recovery interface, it is extremely important that you select the OS tab and not the Firmware tab or any other tab as doing so will render the device inoperable.

 

[Starson]

 

10 minutes ago, dark_pyrro said:

If your Shark Jack features the blue bannered Web Failsafe Recovery interface, it is extremely important that you select the OS tab and not the Firmware tab or any other tab as doing so will render the device inoperable.

Welp there it is 😞  ^^^^

 

Wish I found the proper documentation earlier.

 

So sadly that answers that, that its inoperable, though surely there has to be a way to re-program the chip/board. Obviously that would likely mean someone at Hak5 spilling some beans on how they are programmed in the first place.

 

I do appreciate your help and time on this, thank you.

[dark_pyrro]

If it's truly inoperable in any "normal" way, then I guess the only possible way out of it might be to try to access it using hardware serial, but that would void warranty and also require some skills in soldering and also needing to crack the Shark case open. Also, I'm not at all sure there are serial pads on the SJC PCB since it in a way already has hardware serial via the USB-C interface. I haven't opened my SJC, so I don't know if it's the same as the battery based PCB (that has serial soldering pads on the PCB).
 
There is an "ugly" factory reset procedure that has been successfully used on the Signal Owl and that procedure *might* be possible to re-use for the Shark since it's OpenWrt although it doesn't share the exact same hardware specs. That involves a great amount of risk though, but if it's already "dead", then it might be worth a shot.

However, I would probably suggest contacting official support and submit a ticket as the first option, but since it could very well be "self-inflicted" I guess no warranty will cover that. Especially if the documented procedure hasn't been followed.

[Irukandji]

Here is the support link: https://hak5.customerdesk.io

[Starson]

12 hours ago, dark_pyrro said:

If it's truly inoperable in any "normal" way, then I guess the only possible way out of it might be to try to access it using hardware serial, but that would void warranty and also require some skills in soldering and also needing to crack the Shark case open. Also, I'm not at all sure there are serial pads on the SJC PCB since it in a way already has hardware serial via the USB-C interface. I haven't opened my SJC, so I don't know if it's the same as the battery based PCB (that has serial soldering pads on the PCB).
 
There is an "ugly" factory reset procedure that has been successfully used on the Signal Owl and that procedure *might* be possible to re-use for the Shark since it's OpenWrt although it doesn't share the exact same hardware specs. That involves a great amount of risk though, but if it's already "dead", then it might be worth a shot.

However, I would probably suggest contacting official support and submit a ticket as the first option, but since it could very well be "self-inflicted" I guess no warranty will cover that. Especially if the documented procedure hasn't been followed.

I had a little nosey inside the SJC the other day, I couldn't see anything that stood out as serial pads (most likely because as you mention the cable is the serial), the SJC does open easily and fits back together with no issues if you were curious (I do also own a battery SJ so maybe I will do a compare of the boards).

If in the worst case I do need to solder some jumpers on and re-program that way, it wouldn't be the end of the world as I am comfortable with that.

I am curious about the Signal Owl thing you mention, I'll have a quick google (for some reason I feel like maybe I have looked into that in the past with my Signal Owl (sensing a theme here haha).

I have made a support ticket and I will be completely transparent with them about the issue, just hoping there is a way to probe that serial. It just bugs me that a COM session is initiated and only disconnects of the switch is in the off position or the cable is unplugged.

8 hours ago, Irukandji said:

Here is the support link: https://hak5.customerdesk.io

Cheers for the link, I have made a support case, wish me luck.

[dark_pyrro]

Regarding the Signal Owl "ugly" restore, you can read through this thread
https://forums.hak5.org/topic/49420-recovery-reset/

Of course, keep in mind that it is not a 1:1 "copy-paste" scenario. It needs some deep dives into the specifics of the Shark.

To get an idea of where the serial pads are located (at least on the battery based Shark), you can use this video by Darren as a reference
https://youtu.be/dI3XiBNkU-k?t=118

Mind though that the video is mirrored so it might look a bit strange when trying to figure out where things are located.