01 - Installer (How It Works)

Installer (How It Works)

The repo has a “CLI installer” and an optional GUI wrapper that launches the same Python tools.

The basic mod logic lives in ../jibo_automod.py

What the installer actually does

The tool is automating the exact same high-level steps you do manually in 1. Get your environment ready!

1. Build ShofEL (shofel2_t124) if it isn’t built yet.
2. Put the Jibo into NVIDIA Tegra RCM mode (USB device 0955:7740).
3. Read eMMC contents using EMMC_READ.
4. Find the /var partition (usually GPT partition #5, ~500MB).
5. Modify /var/jibo/mode.json from normal to int-developer.
6. Write the modified /var partition back using EMMC_WRITE.
7. Optionally verify by reading back and comparing hashes.

After that, Jibo boots to a checkmark and SSH should work:

• ssh root@<jibo-ip>
• password: jibo

Launchers (what runs what)

Linux launcher

• ../jibo_automod.sh is a Bash launcher
• It does a light dependency check, then prompts:
  • CLI installer (recommended)
  • GUI installer (experimental)

In CLI mode it runs:

• python3 ../jibo_automod.py <args>

In GUI mode it:

• creates ../.venv/ if missing
• installs GUI deps from ../JiboTools/JiboTools/requirements.txt
• launches ../JiboTools/JiboTools/main_panel.py

Windows launcher

• ../jibo_automod.bat just runs python ../jibo_automod.py <args>
• It warns if you’re not running as Administrator.

How it edits mode.json (important detail)

../jibo_automod.py tries multiple strategies to edit mode.json inside the /var filesystem image:

1. Linux mount (preferred on Linux)

   • Mounts var_partition.bin as a loop device.
   • Edits jibo/mode.json (or a couple fallback paths).
   • Unmounts.

2. debugfs (preferred for Windows if available)

   • Uses debugfs from e2fsprogs to read and rewrite the file inside the ext filesystem image without mounting.
   • This is the safest option on Windows if you can install it (see 05 - Windows Support).

3. Raw in-place patch (last resort)

   • Searches the binary image for known JSON string patterns like {"mode": "normal"}.
   • Overwrites bytes in-place without changing file size.
   • If the replacement would require growing the data and there is no safe padding, it refuses.

Note

Because this is a real filesystem image, the mount/debugfs approaches are more reliable than raw patching.

Installer modes

The CLI tool supports three main workflows:

• Full mod (default): full eMMC dump, then extract/modify/write /var.
• Dump-only: only dumps eMMC (no modifications).
• Mode-json-only (“fast mode”): reads only GPT + /var and patch-writes only changed sectors.

Details and flags: 03 - CLI Arguments

Where output goes

By default, the tool uses ../jibo_work/ for working files:

• jibo_full_dump.bin (full mode)
• gpt_dump.bin (fast mode)
• var_partition_original.bin / var_partition.bin
• backups, verification reads, and patch chunks

More: 07 - Working Directory + State Files