Skip to content

Before Installing

seud0nym edited this page Nov 17, 2022 · 3 revisions
  1. Download and Extract the Scripts
  2. Harden Your Root Access
  3. Optionally Configure Additional DNS Servers
  4. Optionally Install Pre-requisites for Extras scripts

1. Download and Extract the Scripts

The best location for the scripts on your device is on a USB stick, so that if you need to reset or re-apply the firmware, the scripts will still be available without needing to upload them to the device again. Otherwise, I normally put them in the /root directory (the root user home directory) so they are available as soon as you log in without changing to another directory. /tmp is not suitable, as it is cleared on reboot.

There are two ways to download and extract the scripts

  1. Automated
  2. Manual

Automated (Requires internet access)

Download and extract the latest stable release archive directly to the device with the following command:

 curl -skL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/seud0nym/tch-gui-unhide/master/get | sh -s --

The above command will only work if run from device with a supported firmware version that has internet access.

Optional Parameters

The get script has additional options that you can add after the --:

  • -d
    • Delete the extracted scripts after copying. (Ignored if neither -r or -u specified.)
  • -f version
    • Get the archive for the specified firmware version rather than the archive for the current device.
  • -g
    • Run tch-gui-unhide after extract. (Ignored if -X specified.)
  • -h
    • Run de-telstra after extract. (Ignored if -X specified.)
  • -k
    • Keep the downloaded archive after extracting the scripts.
  • -p
    • Include pre-releases when determining latest version. (Ignored if -v specified.)
  • -r
    • Copy the extracted scripts to the /root directory.
  • -u
    • Copy the extracted scripts to the attached USB device, if one is found.
  • -v version
    • Get the specified version of the tch-gui-unhide archive, rather than the latest version.
  • -X
    • Do NOT extract the archive contents. Download only.

IMPORTANT: If the get script reports that your bank plan is not optimal, run: ./set-optimal-bank-plan (WARNING: This will reboot your device)

Manual Download

Alternatively, you can download the release for your firmware version to your computer and then upload it up to your device using WinSCP or equivalent. Run the tar -xzvf <filename> command to extract the release files.

WARNING: Do NOT use WinZip to extract the files on your PC and then upload them individually - the scripts will not run!

2. Harden Your Root Access

It is recommended that you apply whatever hardening and other configuration changes you want to make before executing the script, as some features are enabled or disabled depending on the current configuration of the target device.

You can use the the de-telstra script to harden and configure your device.

Otherwise, manually apply whatever changes you wish as described on the Hacking Technicolor site.

3. Optionally Configure Additional DNS Servers

There are 2 different sets of custom DNS Servers: those used by the device itself, and those sent to LAN clients via DHCP.

Device DNS Servers

Device custom DNS Servers can be configured on the the DNS card. The DNS servers will be used whenever the device handles a DNS request. For example, by default these devices are configured to send the device IP address to LAN clients with the DHCP request. LAN clients DNS requests are then sent to the DNS servers shows on the DNS card.

LAN Client DNS Servers

By default, these devices are configured to send their own IP address to LAN clients via DHCP for DNS resolution by the LAN client. You can also select alternate public DNS servers sent via DHCP from lists on the Local Network screen.

If a file called ipv4-DNS-Servers and/or ipv6-DNS-Servers is found in the directory from which the tch-gui-unhide script is invoked, the contents will be added to the lists of DNS Servers on the Local Network screen.

The contents of these file are simply the hostname and IP address, which are separated by a space. Multiple servers may be added, each on its own line.

For example, my ipv4-DNS-Servers and ipv6-DNS-Servers files consists of my main and backup Pi-hole servers:

    Pi-hole 192.168.0.168
    Pi-hole-VM 192.168.0.192
    Pi-hole fe80::aaaa:bbbb:cccc:dddd
    Pi-hole-VM fe80::1:22:3300:444

Once the tch-gui-unhide script has been run, these servers will appear in the lists on the Local Network screen.

4. Optionally Install Pre-requisites for Extras scripts

The extra functionality scripts are not incorporated into the main tch-gui-unhide script, because they rely on additional opkg packages being installed.

If you wish to incorporate any of the extra functionality into the GUI, you should install and configure the pre-requisites.

The extra functionality scripts can be also be applied at any time in the future by re-running the tch-gui-unhide command.