Published January 16, 2017 © GPL3+

Chromebook Enrollment

For work every now and then I have to enroll up to 200 Chromebooks/Chromebits/Chromeboxes, so I wrote a script that does just that.

BeginnerWork in progress6 minutes4,307

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Particle Photon

USB-A to Micro-USB Cable

Software apps and online services

Particle Build Web IDE

Story

Introduction

I work as an Administrator in schools, and they tend to move to the cloud more and more. Because they're so easy to manage, we often recommend Chrome devices over Windows/Mac Laptops/Desktops.

Once the Chrome devices are in the Cloud, they're super easy to manage, assuming you've bought the management licenses. If I had to join a lot of Chromebooks in the past, I created an open WiFi Network at the school I was working, created a Google account with a short name and gave it an easy-to-type password, so the enrollment process would go quickly.

However, typing the username (mostly in the form of "in@schoolname.school.nz") and the password (password123) got tiring after the 20th device and I ended up doing a lot of stupid typos. Additionally, at some school it's not an option to just create an open, unsecured WiFi Network, because students could stumble across it.

I thought surely there must be a way, and I came across Hak5's "USB Rubber Ducky". I thought about going for that, but since I had bought a Particle Photon for another project anyway I ended up using that.

Our project

I ended up flashing the code for the different devices (Chromebook, Chromebox, Chromebit) to my Particle via DFU-Mode (locally via USB, not through the cloud), because my particle couldn't make it through the school's firewall, using the command:

particle flash --usb Downloads/firmware.bin

I'm still working on the code, hopefully I'll tidy it up a bit more. The timing for the 3 device categories are a bit different, and for the Chromebit you need an additional bit on the first boot to confirm you've got a mouse/keyboard attached.

Demo

Here's a video of the whole thing in action:

Video during testing with the typing-speeds still humanlike

This has better timing and I've bumped up the writing-speed

Code

// This #include statement was automatically added by the Particle IDE.
#include "KeyboardDuckie.h"


STARTUP(Keyboard.begin());
SYSTEM_MODE(SEMI_AUTOMATIC);


bool runChromebookStep0 = false;
bool runChromebookStep1 = true;
bool runChromebookStep2 = true;
bool runChromebookStep3 = true;

void Chrome_0_Chromebit_Setup(){
    delay_medium();
    tab();
    enter();
    tab();
}

void Chrome_1_WifiSetup(){
    
    delay_medium();
    
    tab(2);
    enter();
    delay_tiny();
    
    // Up 2 for Chromebooks & Chromebits
    up(2);
    
    // Up 3 for Chromeboxes because of Ethernet
    //up(3);
    delay_tiny();
    enter();
    delay_tiny();
    fastWrite("YOURSSID");
    tab();
    // Down 2 for WPA2
    down(2);
    tab();
    fastWrite("YOURWIFIPASSWORD");

    enter();
    
    // Delay(5000) for Chromebooks and Chromeboxes
    delay(5000);
    // Delay(10000) for Chromebits
    //delay(10000);
    
    tab();
    enter();
    
    runChromebookStep1 = false;
}

void Chrome_2_FirstSetup(){
    delay_short();
    enter();
    // Delay(5000) for Chromebooks and Chromeboxes
    delay(5000);
    // Delay(15 000) for Chromebits
    //delay(15000);
    runChromebookStep2 = false;
}

void Chrome_3_Enrollment(){
    delay_long();
    
    Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFTALT);
    Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFTCTRL);
    delay_tiny();
    Keyboard.press(KEY_E);
    
    Keyboard.releaseAll();
    
    //Keyboard.click(KEY_E, MOD_LEFTALT | MOD_LEFTCTRL);
    delay_long();
    //
    // Enrollment User EMail
    //
    fastWrite("USERNAME");
    
    //somehow I had problems just writing the @ so I used this workaround
    Keyboard.press(KEY_LEFTSHIFT);
    delay_tiny();
    Keyboard.press(KEY_2);
    Keyboard.releaseAll();
    fastWrite("DOMAIN");
    enter();
    delay_long();
    //
    // Enrollment User Password
    //
    fastWrite("YOURPASSWORD");
    //tab(2);
    enter();
    runChromebookStep3 = false;
}

// Stop the process when you press the System-button and
// try to connect to the cloud
void button_handler(system_event_t event, int duration, void* )
{
    if (!duration) { // just pressed
        RGB.control(true);
        RGB.color(255, 0, 0);
        runChromebookStep1 = false;
        runChromebookStep2 = false;
        runChromebookStep3 = false;
        Particle.connect();
        delay(1000);
        RGB.control(false);// MAGENTA
    }
        
}

///
//
//
// Finally - Run all the Stuff!
//
//
///

void setup() {
    
    System.on(button_status, button_handler);
    
    LedSetup();
    LedToggle();
}

void loop(){
    
    if(runChromebookStep0){
        Chrome_0_Chromebit_Setup();
    }
    if(runChromebookStep1){
        Chrome_1_WifiSetup();
    }
    if(runChromebookStep2){
        Chrome_2_FirstSetup();
    }
    if(runChromebookStep3){
        Chrome_3_Enrollment();      
    }
    
    //done with enrollment
    delay(100);
    LedToggle();
}

#include "application.h"
#include "KeyboardDuckie.h"

int microdelay = 20;
int tinydelay = 100;
int shortdelay = 500;
int mediumdelay = 1000;
int longdelay = 2000;

void delay_micro(){
    delay(microdelay);
}

void delay_tiny(){
    delay(tinydelay);
}

void delay_short(){
    delay(shortdelay);
}

void delay_medium(){
    delay(mediumdelay);
}

void delay_long(){
    delay(longdelay);
}


void LedSetup(){
    pinMode(D7, OUTPUT);
}

bool led = true;

void LedToggle(){
    if(led == true){
        digitalWrite(D7, HIGH);
    }else{
        digitalWrite(D7, LOW);
    }
    led = !led;
}


void fastWrite(String text){
    Keyboard.releaseAll();
    for (unsigned int i = 0; i < strlen(text); i++) {
        Keyboard.write(text.charAt(i));
        //delay_tiny();
        LedToggle();
    }
}

void tab(){
    tab(1);
}

void tab(int count){
    while( count > 0){
        delay_tiny();
        Keyboard.click(KEY_TAB);
        count --;
        LedToggle();
    }
    delay(shortdelay);
}

void down(){
    down(1);
}

void down(int count){
    while( count > 0){
        delay_tiny();
        Keyboard.click(KEY_DOWN);
        count --;
        LedToggle();
    }
}

void up(){
    up(1);
}

void up(int count){
    while( count > 0){
        delay_tiny();
        Keyboard.click(KEY_UP);
        count --;
        LedToggle();
    }
}



void enter(){
    enter(1);
}

void enter(int count){
    while( count > 0){
        delay_short();
        Keyboard.click(KEY_ENTER);
        count --;
        LedToggle();
    }
    delay_short();
}

void shifttab(){
    shifttab(1);
}

void shifttab(int count){
    while( count > 0){
        delay_short();
        Keyboard.click(KEY_TAB, MOD_LEFTSHIFT);
        count --;
        LedToggle();
    }
    delay_short();
}

Credits

Dominik Feiler

1 project • 2 followers