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Napier Lopez
ReporterNapier Lopez is a writer based in New York City. He's interested in all things tech, science, and photography related, and likes to yo-yo in Napier Lopez is a writer based in New York City. He's interested in all things tech, science, and photography related, and likes to yo-yo in his free time. Follow him on Twitter.
Here’s a surprise for you: Google’s OnHub router is actually a Chromebook in cylindrical form.
A modder over at Exploitee.rs was able to root the OnHub much in the same way they would with a Chromebook, and indeed, the router runs something very similar to ChromiumOS.
It’s a lengthy explanation – the video above is 21 minutes long – but it boils down to booting the OnHub in developer mode by combining a key sequence with flipping a secret switch under one of its screws.
Now that it’s rootable, perhaps someone will figure out how to enable the currently-useless USB port, or activate its disabled radio. Watch the video above for an explanation of the process, or head on over to Exploitee.rs for a description of the reverse engineering and more on the entire root procedure.
➤ Gaining Root On The Google OnHub [Exploitee.rs via Android Police]
