Adding a YubiKey to Lastpass

October 16th, 2016

In the beginning of this year I got a YubiKey NEO from a colleague. As I
was already using LastPass to manage my passwords I wanted use my YubiKey as part of the two factor authentication process.

You can register your YubiKey by going to the premium “Multi-factor options” in your LastPass account settings and enabling the YubiKey option. For the two factor authentication to work you need to press the button on the YubiKey to generate a OTP (One Time Password) which will be stored with LastPass.

When I tried this for the first time I ran into a problem and got the following error: “At least one of the YubiKey tokens provided failed to validate.”. Copy and pasting this error in Google led me to a post on the LastPass support forum in which the solution was provided.

Thank you for contacting LastPass Support.

You need to set your YubiKey configuration to OTP authentication mode:

http://www.yubico.com/products/services … bikey-otp/

Once that is done, visit the following URL: https://lastpass.com/debug.php and where it says ‘YubiKey with LastPass’, run the authenticator to make sure everything is working properly.

If no issues found, try to setup the YubiKey once again:

https://helpdesk.lastpass.com/security- … ntication/

Let me know how it goes.

Best,
Jed

After enabling OTP I could register my key and start using it with LastPass.

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Updating the operating system on my Atari 1040STF

October 13th, 2016

After finishing the drive swap mod on Atari 1040 STF I continued browsing the Atari forum’s hardware section and found a post/guide on how to update the operating software. In general, updating the OS is advisable as newer versions may contain bug fixes, security updates and increased I/O compatibility. The same goes for my Atari. The last available version for my machine, 1.04 a.k.a. Rainbow TOS, contains all of the above and is found to be faster overall.

On the Atari, the OS is stored on two or in my case six ROM (Read Only Memory) chips. As the name indicates, writing to ROM chips is not possible so they have to be replaced with chips containing the newer OS. While it is possible to buy a “ready to go” upgrade package it is also possible to go the DIY route and prepare the chips yourself. I opted for the latter as it is much more fun, educational and gives a real sense of achievement when finished.

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Fix wifi Acer Aspire 5040

August 28th, 2016

I recently upgraded a Acer Aspire 5040 to Windows 7. After the upgrade I installed all the drivers and found the wifi was not working correctly.  Everything looked fine but I could not see any access points to connect to. To fix this issue I had to go Acer’s support website and download and install the Launch Manager. Before installing I had to enable compatibility mode for Windows XP and select run as administrator on the setup.exe. After rebooting the lights on the front of the laptop turned on and  I could now detect access points.

Sites used:

  1. http://www.acer.com/ac/en/GB/content/drivers
  2. http://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/57483-wireless-acer-aspire-5020-a.html

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Flashing a bios chip with an Arduino

October 18th, 2015

In this post I will describe the process I went trough of flashing the BIOS chip on a P5B motherboard using an Arduino.

Some background

My cousin gave me this motherboard and asked me to have a look at it after a failed BIOS update turned his computer into a paperweight. I’ve actually attempted to fix this board before using a method described here but I eventually gave up after I realised I lacked the necessary skills and shelved the project. Fast forward a year or so I come across a post on hackaday about a Arduino based BIOS flasher and decided the time had come to give it another try.

The tools

Hardware:

  • a BIOS chip compatible/supported by Flashrom, in my case a Macronix mx25L8005 (a list of all supported chips can be found here)
  • any of the supported Arduinos (I used a duemilanove):
    • any based on the ATmega328 (/168/88 will work with small changes too), like the Arduino Uno R3.
    • Arduino Mega or Mega2560, but notice that the software has a different branch for them.
  • a way to convert the 5V logic levels to 3.3V (except if 3.3V Arduino, these are rarer)

Software:

  • Flashrom
  • frser-duino (formerly known as serprog-duino)
  • the AVR toolchain

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Sansa Clip+ Repair

October 9th, 2015

My girlfriend was almost in tears when she told me her beloved Sansa Clip+ would not power on anymore. She handed me the little music player and told me that earlier that day, she pressed the power button a bit too hard after which she heard something break.

When inspecting the power button I noticed it was a bit loose where it usually has some tension from the switch underneath. I decided to have a closer look and used a tutorial to help me disassemble the Sansa.
Looking at the board the problem quickly revealed itself. The “extreme” use of force had broken the solder connections between the power switch and the board and as a result the switch fell off. Time to get out the soldering iron!

After reseating the switch and repairing the broken solder connections the Sansa powered up again meaning my girlfriend could listen to here favourite music again and dry her tears.

Edit: After a week my girlfriend returned to me with her Sansa. This time she was only hearing sound from one of her earbuds instead of both. Because I taught her well she had already tried multiple headphones to verify the problem was not the headphones but rather the Sansa itself. I did some research and found that this problem can be fixed by reheating the solder connections between the headphone jack and the board. It appears that the “stress” resulting from removing and plugging in the headphones weakens the connections. 

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