4 ms·

They would probably notice that but it does seem like some former passenger most likely installed something that's patched into the system. It may just be a rec

They would probably notice that but it does seem like some former passenger most likely installed something that's patched into the system. It may just be a recording from a flash drive. Or it could also be more sophisticated and patch into the wifi as well. You could also imagine it having a microphone for added hijinx but none of the interactions seem to suggest that.

panarky 4y ago
I've flown American six times in the last ten days, and four of the flights had chaos with the entertainment system. No groans or heavy breathing on the PA, but flight attendants had to "reboot the system" once or twice every flight.
- oefrha 4y ago
  I once captured the Linux boot screen of a United Boeing 737 infotainment system. Apparently I still got that photo. OCRed text for lols: video capture buffer0 40b37460 video capture buffer1 40a8dd60 wideo_capture buffer2 409e4610 geode_: gamma black+csccorrection VAL2: Registered "NSC Geode V4LZ UBI driver" as char device B1, 224 VAL2: Registered "NSC Geode V4L2 Capture driver" as char device 81, geode_v: Unknown standard VAL2: Registered "NSC Geode V4LZ Overlay driver" as char device B1, 16 Warning: loading /lib/modules/realmagichul_kernelland.o will taint the kernel: non-GPL license - Proprietary. Copyright (c) 2002 Sigma Designs Inc. All rights reserved (version 103 with proc pci dolby css macrovision sm2288 osdric_memorycheck), /lib/modules/realmagichul_kernelland.o:init_module:Invalidargument Hint: insmod errors Can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:12.3 to 32 geodeoss: disabling PM: PM registration failed geodeoss: version 1.2.0 time 12:37:36 Dec B 2004 geodeoss: use_pm=0 check_interrupt=0 Warning: loading /lib/modules/maspcu.o will taint the kernel: no license usb.c: registered new driver pcu MAS-eFX SEB USB PCU driver version 1.01 usb.c: registered new driver usbccr usb_ccr open is being called (0xc165f000 ) <6›ccrdev.c: Adding credit card reader: input1 input1: Panasonic Avionics Corp PAC USB Keyboard/Credit Card Reader Ver. 1.01 on usb1:2.1 usbccr.c: v0.59:USB HID Credit Card Reader driver mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice usb.c: registered new driver pacpcu geode rev-7 pmr-03a834c4 mcr-00030250 using /dev/mtd1 /usr/app --- mount succeeded --- using /dev/mtd4 /usr/app2 --- mount succeeded ---
  - ksaj 4y ago
    Some of the time is because they have a single board computer, and only licensing the BIOS. You'll know if that's the case if after the boot, you see it purposely set the time to something arbitrary, but dating back to the 90's. To the flight entertainment, the date doesn't really matter. For the licensing however, it does. Also elsewhere in the boot, you might notice they tend to be 80486 CPU emulation boards from Cyrix. They're not fast at all, but for what they do, they don't need to be. Also, if you took video instead of a pic, there are a few interesting IP addresses might scroll by as the media program gets initialized.
  - flutas 4y ago
    > I once captured the Linux boot screen of a United Boeing 737 infotainment system. I used to work adjacent to these exact systems...they're so bad. Like, 10+ minute boot at times, or assigning multiple devices to the same IP, or the communication network just randomly dying... (and this was all in vitro testing) It was still cool to see "the rack", aka an entire planes infotainment system setup on a rolling cart including however many seat backs each plane was supposed to have. They had multiple office buildings that were essentially full of these, because each airline and deployment was different enough that they didn't want to have to reconfigure when needing to test them.
  - joezydeco 4y ago
    Oh man, the NatSemi Geode (aka Cyrix MediaGX). What a system. I'm amazed anyone got a usable Linux system out of it at all.
- 6stringmerc 4y ago
  They might be doing that out of caution just to keep it from being exploited. Sounds like something management or the Flight Crew might decide is a band aid if one tries it and it works then everybody starts doing it. Knee jerk reaction but sounds like they’re stumped.
  - ksaj 4y ago
    If you watch the whole boot, they purposely set the date to the 90's. I think it is because they don't want to pay the license for the BIOS. You can see some text about that license scroll by as well. I've seen it often, and somewhere on an old PeeCee buried in the darkest areas of my home office, I have a video of the whole sequence.
  - nightpool 4y ago
    That's true, but there's also reports from flight attendants of it happening spontaneously before the issue was known about: https://twitter.com/xJonNYC/status/1572358118985633795 https://twitter.com/xJonNYC/status/1572358118985633795
    - consumer451 4y ago
      Deeper link to video of it happening: https://twitter.com/actuallyemerson/status/1573107117254639616 https://twitter.com/actuallyemerson/status/15731071172546396...
- docmars 4y ago
  I recently had some funny business on a United Airlines flight where the high-low chime (you hear for the seatbelt sign and landing gear, etc.) was going bonkers and chimed maybe 10 times in a row while the cabin lights faded on and off. No announcements were made by the pilot or flight attendants afterwards, and everyone was left confused. I turned to the passenger next to me and we both shrugged.
josu 4y ago
If it were just one passenger it would be easy to find out who she is by cross checking passenger lists. So probably not. Maybe a coordinated 4chan-style prank.
bb88 4y ago
What's interesting is that it appears that the CF card slot is only accessible behind a panel. The only people that would have access to that are likely the ground crew -- possibly doing a software update, or other maintenance on that panel.

panarky 4y ago

I've flown American six times in the last ten days, and four of the flights had chaos with the entertainment system. No groans or heavy breathing on the PA, but flight attendants had to "reboot the system" once or twice every flight.

oefrha 4y ago
I once captured the Linux boot screen of a United Boeing 737 infotainment system. Apparently I still got that photo. OCRed text for lols: video capture buffer0 40b37460 video capture buffer1 40a8dd60 wideo_capture buffer2 409e4610 geode_: gamma black+csccorrection VAL2: Registered "NSC Geode V4LZ UBI driver" as char device B1, 224 VAL2: Registered "NSC Geode V4L2 Capture driver" as char device 81, geode_v: Unknown standard VAL2: Registered "NSC Geode V4LZ Overlay driver" as char device B1, 16 Warning: loading /lib/modules/realmagichul_kernelland.o will taint the kernel: non-GPL license - Proprietary. Copyright (c) 2002 Sigma Designs Inc. All rights reserved (version 103 with proc pci dolby css macrovision sm2288 osdric_memorycheck), /lib/modules/realmagichul_kernelland.o:init_module:Invalidargument Hint: insmod errors Can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:12.3 to 32 geodeoss: disabling PM: PM registration failed geodeoss: version 1.2.0 time 12:37:36 Dec B 2004 geodeoss: use_pm=0 check_interrupt=0 Warning: loading /lib/modules/maspcu.o will taint the kernel: no license usb.c: registered new driver pcu MAS-eFX SEB USB PCU driver version 1.01 usb.c: registered new driver usbccr usb_ccr open is being called (0xc165f000 ) <6›ccrdev.c: Adding credit card reader: input1 input1: Panasonic Avionics Corp PAC USB Keyboard/Credit Card Reader Ver. 1.01 on usb1:2.1 usbccr.c: v0.59:USB HID Credit Card Reader driver mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice usb.c: registered new driver pacpcu geode rev-7 pmr-03a834c4 mcr-00030250 using /dev/mtd1 /usr/app --- mount succeeded --- using /dev/mtd4 /usr/app2 --- mount succeeded ---
- ksaj 4y ago
  Some of the time is because they have a single board computer, and only licensing the BIOS. You'll know if that's the case if after the boot, you see it purposely set the time to something arbitrary, but dating back to the 90's. To the flight entertainment, the date doesn't really matter. For the licensing however, it does. Also elsewhere in the boot, you might notice they tend to be 80486 CPU emulation boards from Cyrix. They're not fast at all, but for what they do, they don't need to be. Also, if you took video instead of a pic, there are a few interesting IP addresses might scroll by as the media program gets initialized.
- flutas 4y ago
  > I once captured the Linux boot screen of a United Boeing 737 infotainment system. I used to work adjacent to these exact systems...they're so bad. Like, 10+ minute boot at times, or assigning multiple devices to the same IP, or the communication network just randomly dying... (and this was all in vitro testing) It was still cool to see "the rack", aka an entire planes infotainment system setup on a rolling cart including however many seat backs each plane was supposed to have. They had multiple office buildings that were essentially full of these, because each airline and deployment was different enough that they didn't want to have to reconfigure when needing to test them.
- joezydeco 4y ago
  Oh man, the NatSemi Geode (aka Cyrix MediaGX). What a system. I'm amazed anyone got a usable Linux system out of it at all.
6stringmerc 4y ago
They might be doing that out of caution just to keep it from being exploited. Sounds like something management or the Flight Crew might decide is a band aid if one tries it and it works then everybody starts doing it. Knee jerk reaction but sounds like they’re stumped.
- ksaj 4y ago
  If you watch the whole boot, they purposely set the date to the 90's. I think it is because they don't want to pay the license for the BIOS. You can see some text about that license scroll by as well. I've seen it often, and somewhere on an old PeeCee buried in the darkest areas of my home office, I have a video of the whole sequence.
- nightpool 4y ago
  That's true, but there's also reports from flight attendants of it happening spontaneously before the issue was known about: https://twitter.com/xJonNYC/status/1572358118985633795 https://twitter.com/xJonNYC/status/1572358118985633795
  - consumer451 4y ago
    Deeper link to video of it happening: https://twitter.com/actuallyemerson/status/1573107117254639616 https://twitter.com/actuallyemerson/status/15731071172546396...
docmars 4y ago
I recently had some funny business on a United Airlines flight where the high-low chime (you hear for the seatbelt sign and landing gear, etc.) was going bonkers and chimed maybe 10 times in a row while the cabin lights faded on and off. No announcements were made by the pilot or flight attendants afterwards, and everyone was left confused. I turned to the passenger next to me and we both shrugged.

josu 4y ago

If it were just one passenger it would be easy to find out who she is by cross checking passenger lists. So probably not. Maybe a coordinated 4chan-style prank.

bb88 4y ago

What's interesting is that it appears that the CF card slot is only accessible behind a panel. The only people that would have access to that are likely the ground crew -- possibly doing a software update, or other maintenance on that panel.