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-rw-r--r--content/posts/WIP-xprinter-wifi/index.org256
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-rw-r--r--content/posts/WIP-xprinter-wifi/xprinter_set_net.pngbin0 -> 11419 bytes
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+#+TITLE: Setting up an Xprinter thermal receipt printer WiFi from Linux
+#+DATE: 2021-10-12T15:57:12-04:00
+#+DRAFT: true
+#+DESCRIPTION:
+#+TAGS[]:
+#+KEYWORDS[]:
+#+SLUG:
+#+SUMMARY:
+
+I recently purchased a thermal receipt printer off of [[https://web.archive.org/web/20211012195845/https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32842111016.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.207d4c4d6xNWgO][AliExpress]] for a
+project. It features both WiFi and USB connectivity which I thought
+was really cool for the price.
+
+To my dismay, I realized after purchasing that the drivers and
+configuration application only run on Windows.
+
+This wasn't a huge deal, as thermal printers generally use the
+somewhat kinda standardized command set called [[https://github.com/escpos/escpos][ESC/POS]]. Unfortunately
+while many of the formatting commands are shared between printers, the
+commands to setup the WiFi connection don't seem to be documented
+anywhere, and I suspect are device-specific.
+
+Since booting into Windows every time I want to manage the printer's
+network settings isn't ideal, I decided to reverse engineer the
+WiFi configuration protocol.
+
+Initially I tried to run the configuration tool in wine, but it
+couldn't communicate with the printer over USB, which wasn't too
+surprising.
+
+I booted my spare laptop into windows and launched the config tool
+there.
+
+I then setup the WiFi through =Advanced -> Set Net=
+
+#+ATTR_HTML: :title Xprinter config tool running in wine
+#+ATTR_HTML: :alt Xprinter config tool running in wine
+[[file:xprinter_setup_tool.png]]
+
+
+#+ATTR_HTML: :title Xprinter advanced settings
+#+ATTR_HTML: :alt Xprinter advanced settings
+[[file:xprinter_advanced.png]]
+
+#+ATTR_HTML: :title Xprinter net settings
+#+ATTR_HTML: :alt Xprinter net settings
+[[file:xprinter_set_net.png]]
+
+At this point I noticed that the application supported configuring the
+printer over the network, meaning I might be able to change the
+settings under wine again, as network sockets should work normally.
+
+After rebooting into Linux and testing my assumption, it turned out to
+be true, I was able to run the configuration tool without issue as
+long as it was connected through the network.
+
+While I could have stopped there I decided to go one step further and
+reverse the command sequence that configures the WiFi settings so I
+could re-configure the printer's WiFi over USB if it ever got messed
+up.
+
+To do that, I sniffed the traffic going from the Xprinter application
+and the printer's socket using Wireshark.
+
+[[file:xprinter_wireshark.png]]
+
+In the examples below I've encoded the decimal numbers to hex to make
+it easier to understand the contents of the packets.
+
+Based on the traffic, I was able to come up with the following.
+
+* Setting IP address
+
+ The following sets
+ - IP =192.168.0.7=
+
+ The IP hex:
+ #+begin_src ruby
+ [192, 168, 0, 7].map { _1.to_s(16).rjust(2, '0') }
+ #+end_src
+
+ #+RESULTS:
+ | c0 | a8 | 00 | 07 |
+
+ Packate contents from wireshark:
+
+ =0000 1f 1b 1f 22 c0 a8 00 07=
+
+ | Description | Characters |
+ |----------------+---------------|
+ | Unit separator | =1f= |
+ | Escape | =1b= |
+ | Unit separator | =1f= |
+ | Command code | =22= |
+ | IP | =c0 a8 00 07= |
+
+* Setting Subnet Mask
+
+ The following sets
+ - Subnet mask =255.255.255.0=
+
+ Subnet mask to hex:
+ #+begin_src ruby
+ [255, 255, 255, 0].map { _1.to_s(16).rjust(2, '0') }
+ #+end_src
+
+ #+RESULTS:
+ | ff | ff | ff | 00 |
+
+ Packate contents from wireshark:
+
+ =0000 1f 1b 1f b0 ff ff ff 00=
+
+ | Description | Character |
+ |----------------+---------------|
+ | Unit separator | =1f= |
+ | Escape | =1b= |
+ | Unit separator | =1f= |
+ | Command code | =b0= |
+ | Subnet mask | =ff ff ff 00= |
+
+* Setting gateway
+
+ The following sets
+ - Gateway =192.168.0.1=
+
+ Subnet mask to hex:
+ #+begin_src ruby
+ [192, 168, 0, 1].map { _1.to_s(16).rjust(2, '0') }
+ #+end_src
+
+ #+RESULTS:
+ | c0 | a8 | 00 | 01 |
+
+ Packate contents from wireshark:
+
+ =0000 1f 1b 1f b1 c0 a8 00 01=
+
+ | Description | Character |
+ |----------------+---------------|
+ | Unit separator | =1f= |
+ | Escape | =1b= |
+ | Unit separator | =1f= |
+ | Command code | =b1= |
+ | Net Mask | =c0 a8 00 01= |
+
+* Setting IP, netmask, and gateway
+
+ The following sets
+ - IP =192.168.0.1=
+ - Subnet mask =255.255.255.0=
+ - Gateway =192.168.0.1=
+
+ Packate contents from wireshark:
+
+ =0000 1f 1b 1f b2 c0 a8 00 07 ff ff ff 00 c0 a8 00 01=
+
+ | Purpose | Character |
+ |----------------+---------------|
+ | Unit separator | =1f= |
+ | Escape | =1b= |
+ | Unit separator | =1f= |
+ | Command code | =b2= |
+ | IP | =c0 a8 00 07= |
+ | Subnet mask | =ff ff ff 00= |
+ | Gateway | =c0 a8 00 01= |
+
+* Setting WiFi network
+
+ The following sets
+ - SSID =SSID_HERE=
+ - Key =PASSWORD_HERE=
+ - Key Type =WPA2_AES_PSK=
+
+ SSID to hex:
+ #+begin_src ruby
+ "SSID_HERE".bytes.map { _1.to_s(16) }
+ #+end_src
+
+ #+RESULTS:
+ | 53 | 53 | 49 | 44 | 5f | 48 | 45 | 52 | 45 |
+
+ Key to hex:
+ #+begin_src ruby
+ "PASSWORD_HERE".bytes.map { _1.to_s(16) }
+ #+end_src
+
+ #+RESULTS:
+ | 50 | 41 | 53 | 53 | 57 | 4f | 52 | 44 | 5f | 48 | 45 | 52 | 45 |
+
+ Packate contents from wireshark (including string representation):
+ #+begin_src
+ 0000 1f 1b 1f b3 06 53 53 49 44 5f 48 45 52 45 00 50 .....SSID_HERE.P
+ 0010 41 53 53 57 4f 52 44 5f 48 45 52 45 00 ASSWORD_HERE.
+ #+end_src
+
+ | Purpose | Character |
+ |-----------------+-----------------|
+ | Unit separator | =1f= |
+ | Escape | =1b= |
+ | Unit separator | =1f= |
+ | Command code | =b3= |
+ | Key type | =06= |
+ | SSID | =SSID_HERE= |
+ | NUL-termination | =00= |
+ | Key | =PASSWORD_HERE= |
+ | NUL-termination | =00= |
+
+ If the WiFi key type is anything like the menu, the other key types
+ are as follows
+
+ | Key Type | Value |
+ |----------------------+-------|
+ | =NULL= | =00= |
+ | =WEP64= | =01= |
+ | =WEP128= | =02= |
+ | =WPA_AES_PSK= | =03= |
+ | =WPA_TKIP_PSK= | =04= |
+ | =WPA_TKIP_AES_PSK= | =05= |
+ | =WPA2_AES_PSK= | =06= |
+ | =WPA2_TKIP= | =07= |
+ | =WPA2_TKIP_AES_PSK= | =08= |
+ | =WPA_WPA2_MixedMode= | =09= |
+
+* Setting all network options
+
+ The following sets
+ - IP =192.168.0.7=
+ - Subnet mask =255.255.255.0=
+ - Gateway =192.168.0.1=
+ - SSID =SSID_HERE=
+ - Key =PASSWORD_HERE=
+ - Key Type =WPA2_AES_PSK=
+
+ Packate contents from wireshark (including string representation):
+
+ #+begin_src
+ 0000 1f 1b 1f b4 c0 a8 00 07 ff ff ff 00 c0 a8 00 01 ................
+ 0010 06 53 53 49 44 5f 48 45 52 45 00 50 41 53 53 57 .SSID_HERE.PASSW
+ 0020 4f 52 44 5f 48 45 52 45 00 ORD_HERE.
+ #+end_src
+
+ | Description | Character |
+ |-----------------+-----------------|
+ | Unit Separator | =1f= |
+ | Escape | =1b= |
+ | Unit Separator | =1f= |
+ | Command Code | =b4= |
+ | IP | =c0 a8 00 07= |
+ | NetMask | =ff ff ff 00= |
+ | Gateway | =c0 a8 00 01= |
+ | Key Type | =06= |
+ | SSID | =SSID_HERE= |
+ | NUL-termination | =00= |
+ | Key | =PASSWORD_HERE= |
+ | NUL-termination | =00= |
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generated by cgit v1.2.3 (git 2.25.1) at 2025-10-31 02:17:50 +0000