[Solved] Replace VAIO quick web access, aka splashtop os with *anything*..?

Hi,

My Sony laptop comes with 3 special buttons: "ASSIST", "WEB", and, "VAIO". From poweroff, "ASSIST" launches the Windows recovery partition and "WEB" launches the splashtop OS. The splashtop OS is actually located in the Windows partition at c:\splash.sys

What I would like to do is change it so that from poweroff when I press "WEB" the laptop boots straight into a different OS, rather than booting into splashtop or Windows.

I know I could just press the normal power button and select my OS of choice from a bootloader, but I want it my way. It is slicker, absolutely not worth the time and effort, and only I will get any tangible benefit.


I think it should be possible, after all, the laptop knows somehow to boot into the splashtop OS rather than windows when the "WEB" button is pressed, so I just want to change the target...somehow.

If anyone could give me some pointers that would be great, thanks!
Tom

 

That link might be handy, will give it a good read through a bit later.

I've been trying to experiment with c:\splash.idx as this file points to the directories c:\SPLASH.000\ & c:\SPLASH.SYS\
contents of splash.idx:

Code:

root=UUID=CA4297374297276B defconf=en region=2057
/SPLASH.SYS
/SPLASH.000

I've got linux mint installed on my Windows partition at the moment, under c:\linuxmint\, and I was trying to point the file to it but all I succeeded in doing was to cause the BIOS to tell me that Quick Web Access wasn't installed, of course it might help if I had a proper install of a linux OS, but as my laptop disk is full I might have to put that onto an SD card for now.


I've had another idea of how I could maybe, (a big maybe), get this to work- could be that I place a .sqx archive in c:\splash.sys\ so that on boot, this file is run by splashtop os. This file could then execute a command to boot into another linux install. So I would be turning splashtop OS into a bootstrapper of sorts for a bigger + better OS.


Will see what I get to work, or break.

 

I've not had any luck with anything:

• couldn't use c:\splash.idx to point to any other bootloader or OS, modifying this file causes a 'web access not found error'
• removal or either c:\SPLASH.SYS\kernel.bin or c:\SPLASH.SYS\LTKNL.BIN result in 'web access not found error'
• renaming a c:\SPLASH.SYS\*.sqx file causes a splashtop OS error
• unpacking and repacking (with the same files OR different) *.sqx files also cause a splashtop OS error
• removal of c:\SPLASH.000\, c:\SPLASH.SYS\persist\ just cause splashtop OS to go into read-only mode

What I have found out:

• c:\splash.idx appears to be the boot config that is fetched by the BIOS when the 'WEB' button is pressed
• inside c:\SPLASH.SYS\ are 36 .sqx files. These are squashfs archives, made using version 3.1.
• c:\SPLASH.SYS\version is a file that seems to be referencing the squashfs archives...perhaps modifying this file is key.

The two errors I created when booting were distinct: 'web access not found' seemed to be an error message built into the BIOS; and 'splashtop OS error' is what I termed the error prompt from inside splashtop OS telling me to reboot.


If I can modify c:\SPLASH.SYS\version to point to updated squashfs archives I might have some success, otherwise I think I'll call it a day.

 

the .000 directory just enables persistence (ie saving of network settings, and maybe bookmarks) so removing that and entering a read-only mode is no drama

stboot looks like the way to go...might test that out in a little bit

I was trying to modify the c:\SPLASH.SYS\version - I've looked at the file with HxD and found a couple of things out:

• first 16 bytes of file given to header: "_DeviceVM Inc._."
• second 16 bytes of file given to date of create for version file

then, repeating for each file:

• 32 bytes dedicated to file name
• 16 bytes dedicated to date string in format YYYYMMDD
• 16 bytes unknown (but with changeable values I don't understand)
• 16 bytes for the MD5 of the file

I may have managed to change the date to something different without splashtop breaking, but inserting a different MD5 for a newly generated sfx archive caused failure within splashtop OS. But I was tired when I did this. The attachment just sort of shows what I said. The unknown 16 bytes I've highlighted if anyone wants to guess their purpose...

So onto stboot...


(and thanks for the links)

 

stboot works, all I had to do was replace the file c:\SPLASH.SYS\LTKNL.BIN with CEFULL from stboot and it worked. Admittedly it only boots to my win 7 install for now, but once I have a proper linux install I should be able to insert my own custom MBR into the file so that I have one button on my laptop to boot windows, and one for linux

cheers,
Tom