Address bruteforcing

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The best way people can help us out right now is by helping find the correct address we need to jump to in order to execute code. This has already been done on the 2G Nano and the 1G Classic. But now we really need help with the other iPods. If you find the correct return address, you can rightfully brag about being the first person to run non-Apple code on that iPod :-). I'd also like to point out that your iPod cannot be bricked by this process and the Linux4nano team will gladly help you out on IRC if you encounter any problems.

OK, so here's how to help out: first of all download a copy of sweep.7z. Don't be fooled by it's small size, because uncompressed this archive is ~500MB. It contains every return address that can possibly be jumped to. The best way to get the files is to just extract the files you need one by one, rather than the whole thing. Also update your iPod to the latest firmware because we want everyone to have the same version. Once you have these things set up, you are ready to go.

  1. Connect your iPod to the computer if it isn't already and browse to it's Notes directory. Clear out any previous notes files and put a new one from the sweep.7z archive in there. Unmount your iPod and disconnect it.
  2. Reboot your iPod by holding the menu and center buttons for a few seconds. The apple logo will show while it is booting, and when the iPod is done booting you will see 1 of 4 scenarios:
    1. The iPod reboots automatically the instant the main menu is shown. This will lead to an endless reboot cycle until the note is taken off
    2. The iPod works completely normally. You can navigate menus, play music, etc. without any problems.
    3. The iPod seems to work normally ie. you can still navigate menus, but when you try to play a song it freezes or crashes
    4. The iPod freezes up entirely.
  3. The next step is to get into disk mode in order to remove the notes file. First, you need to reboot by holding menu+center. If your note causes a type #1 behavior, the iPod is always rebooting and you do not need to reboot manually. When the apple logo shows up, hold the play and center buttons until the disk mode screen comes up. Repeat these steps to try another sweep file.

Most sweep files will generate a #1 behavior. Record any non-#1 behaviors and the address that causes them on this wiki page. You can also drop in at #linux4nano-dev if you have anything interesting to report and discuss it with the developers.