Mini 11S / 4.0.7 - Can't install hack [User error]

[andrewjbates]

Background

I recently applied the hack to a Mini 11S and two Mini 7Cs I bought a few months ago. Based on the success of those, I picked up another Mini 11S. This new one won't hack and it's not clear why.

A few notes:

• I've attempted this with 4 different SD cards, including the SD card I used to hack the first Mini 11S
• I have no trouble getting port 8090 open and doing /proc/cmdline and /devices/deviceinfo
• The firmware version (4.0.7) is the same as the working camera
• I confirmed the reset button does work
• I saw https://github.com/guino/Merkury1080P/issues/28 which doesn't help because those issues began after a successful hack
• I saw https://github.com/guino/Merkury1080P/issues/29 which led me to https://github.com/guino/BazzDoorbell/issues/13 , which didn't solve this.
  • I confirmed the env file has the correct format in HxD
  • I tried env two different ways:
    • bootargs=mem=64M ...
    • setenv bootargs mem=64M ...
  • I also tried ppsMmcTool.txt two different ways:
    • ... env import 81C08000 ... (from ppshack2)
    • ... env import 42000000 ... (from this repo)

Outputs

I'm posting the both twice, once in code blocks (to clarify formatting) and quotes (to be readable and not so wide)

/proc/cmdline

setenv bootargs mem=64M console=ttySAK0,115200n8 loglevel=10   mtdparts=spi0.0:256k(bld),64k(env),64k(enc),64k(sysflg),3m(sys),4032k(app),640k(cfg) ppsAppParts=5 ip=192.168.1.99:::255.255.255.0 eth=00:55:7b:b5:7d:f7 usb_other

setenv bootargs mem=64M console=ttySAK0,115200n8 loglevel=10 mtdparts=spi0.0:256k(bld),64k(env),64k(enc),64k(sysflg),3m(sys),4032k(app),640k(cfg) ppsAppParts=5 ip=192.168.1.99:::255.255.255.0 eth=00:55:7b:b5:7d:f7 usb_other

/devices/deviceinfo

{"devname":"Smart Home Camera","model":"Mini 11S","serialno":"101934489","softwareversion":"4.0.7","hardwareversion":"M11S_A2_V20_GC1","firmwareversion":"ppstrong-a3-tuya2_merkury-4.0.7.20210624","identity":"M6H0096K6V00901104","authkey":"APvLAil8K5zXxiRDkFmY21awjKzDCcCt","deviceid":"pp0102312aa2284cc972","pid":"aaa","WiFi MAC":"84:7a:b6:55:1d:57","ETH MAC":"00:00:00:00:00:00"}

{"devname":"Smart Home Camera","model":"Mini 11S","serialno":"101934489","softwareversion":"4.0.7","hardwareversion":"M11S_A2_V20_GC1","firmwareversion":"ppstrong-a3-tuya2_merkury-4.0.7.20210624","identity":"M6H0096K6V00901104","authkey":"APvLAil8K5zXxiRDkFmY21awjKzDCcCt","deviceid":"pp0102312aa2284cc972","pid":"aaa","WiFi MAC":"84:7a:b6:55:1d:57","ETH MAC":"00:00:00:00:00:00"}

Final Notes

• Implicit with the hack not working, but making it explicit: I can't get telnetd running to do any further onboard investigation
• Please let me know anything else you need to see / want me to try
• Edited to add more detail around the work I did with ppshack2

[guino]

@andrewjbates can you post a zip of your env, initrun.sh and ppsMmcTool.txt -- the files you need to install the hack are exactly these: https://github.com/guino/Merkury1080P/tree/main/mmc (so the env file should start with hack= which wasn't listed in your post). If you get to install the hack with just the 3 files in the SD card you'll know it worked because it will create a home directory in the SD card, then you can add other files for telnet, etc.

[andrewjbates]

@guino Based on your note that the env file was wrong, I decided to start over from scratch— re-downloading, restaging everything. I’m not sure what I did wrong the first time, but it all worked this time. Thanks for your help!