Advanced setup

As described here and here you can get a root shell into your speaker when you plug in a USB stick with an empty file called remote_services.

For me, it was a bit hard to figure out how the USB stick needed to be formatted, so here is step-by-step guide to preparing your USB stick.

Guide: Creating an EXT2 “Unlock” USB Stick

OS: Linux Command Line

⚠️ Warning

This process deletes all data on the USB stick. Identify your USB drive letter carefully (e.g., sdb, sdc). In this guide, we use sdX. Replace X with your actual letter.

---

Step 1: Identify and Unmount

Plug in the USB stick into your Linux PC and find its name.

lsblk
# Look for your stick (e.g., /dev/sdc). We will use 'sdX' below.

Unmount it to ensure no files are busy.

sudo umount /dev/sdX*

Step 2: Create MBR Partition Table

1. Open the partition tool: ```bash sudo fdisk /dev/sdX

2. Type the following letters in order (press **Enter** after each):
* `o` (Create new DOS partition table)
* `n` (New partition)
* `p` (Primary)
* `1` (Partition number 1)
* *(Press Enter)* (Default first sector)
* *(Press Enter)* (Default last sector)
* `w` (Write changes and exit)

### Step 3: Format to Legacy EXT2

Format the new partition (`sdX1`) with 128-byte inodes.

```bash
sudo mkfs.ext2 -I 128 -b 4096 /dev/sdX1

Step 4: Add the Trigger File

Mount the drive and create the “key” file that activates the services.

1. Create a mount point (if not exists): ```bash sudo mkdir -p /mnt/usb

2. Mount the partition:
```bash
sudo mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt/usb

1. Create the magic file: ```bash sudo touch /mnt/usb/remote_services

4. Unmount the drive to save the data.

```bash
sudo umount /mnt/usb

Done. You have prepared the USB Stick.

Plug in the USB stick

Now it is time to plug in the stick.

With the SoundTouch 20 it is very easy. Just use the USB-A port.

For the SoundTouch 10, you need an adapter. For me an OTG-Adapter for micro-USB, that I got some years ago together with my smartphone, worked.

Connect via telnet

After the USB-Stick is plugged in, use your computer to open the shell.

telnet 192.168.178.2

Replace 192.168.178.2 with the IP address of your speaker.

You should see something like that

... --- ..- -. -.. - --- ..- -.-. ....

        ____  ____  _____ _________
       / __ )/ __ \/ ___// _______/
      / __  / / / /\__ \/ __/
 ____/ /_/ / /_/ /___/ / /___
/_________/\____//____/_____/


spotty login: root

Type root as username. No password is required. 😅

Change the config on the speaker

To have working internet radio and to let the analytics data be sent to your Überböse-API server instead of to events.api.bosecm.com we have to change 2 lines in one file on the device.

cd /var/lib/Bose/PersistenceDataRoot
cat OverrideSdkPrivateCfg.xml

This should show

<SoundTouchSdkPrivateCfg>
    <margeServerUrl>http://ueberboese.your-example-host.org:8080</margeServerUrl>
    <statsServerUrl>https://events.api.bosecm.com</statsServerUrl>
    <swUpdateUrl>http://ueberboese-downloads.your-example-host.org:8080/updates/soundtouch</swUpdateUrl>
    <isZeroconfEnabled>true</isZeroconfEnabled>
    <usePandoraProductionServer>true</usePandoraProductionServer>
    <saveMargeCustomerReport>false</saveMargeCustomerReport>
    <bmxRegistryUrl>https://content.api.bose.io/bmx/registry/v1/services</bmxRegistryUrl>
</SoundTouchSdkPrivateCfg>

We need to change it to

<SoundTouchSdkPrivateCfg>
    <margeServerUrl>http://ueberboese.your-example-host.org:8080</margeServerUrl>
    <statsServerUrl>http://ueberboese.your-example-host.org:8080</statsServerUrl>
    <swUpdateUrl>http://ueberboese-downloads.your-example-host.org:8080/updates/soundtouch</swUpdateUrl>
    <isZeroconfEnabled>true</isZeroconfEnabled>
    <usePandoraProductionServer>true</usePandoraProductionServer>
    <saveMargeCustomerReport>false</saveMargeCustomerReport>
    <bmxRegistryUrl>http://ueberboese.your-example-host.org:8080/bmx/registry/v1/services</bmxRegistryUrl>
</SoundTouchSdkPrivateCfg>

You can do that via

HOST=$(grep -o '<margeServerUrl>[^<]*' OverrideSdkPrivateCfg.xml | sed 's|<margeServerUrl>||') && \
sed -i \
  -e "s|<statsServerUrl>.*</statsServerUrl>|<statsServerUrl>$HOST</statsServerUrl>|" \
  -e "s|<bmxRegistryUrl>.*</bmxRegistryUrl>|<bmxRegistryUrl>$HOST/bmx/registry/v1/services</bmxRegistryUrl>|" \
  OverrideSdkPrivateCfg.xml

Or you can use vi for that. (If you know vi)

vi OverrideSdkPrivateCfg.xml

And then restart the speaker via

reboot