question about rd mode.
 

after you put the unit into rd mode, get root. do you need to reboot and put back in production mode? or does it auto boot into production ?

It stays across reboots in RD mode until you use the flasher utility to reset it back into non-RD mode.

Anyone know exactly the differences of being in RD mode versus the regular mode? Besides making the gainroot command active which is the most obvious change.

Dave

That'd depend on which R&D mode flags you'd set when (re)flashing it. The most obvious effect is that even without any flags set, it changes to the R&D mode image for Stage 1, and posts some data about the various components (Firmware / Kernel / InitFS / RootFS) versions during boot.

I don't recall all of the flags off the top of my head.

gainroot is active even without R & D mode. the gainroot script checks the R & D flag before enabling root:

This is the contents of /usr/sbin/gainroot

#!/bin/sh -e
trap exit SIGHUP SIGINT SIGTERM
PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin
MODE=`/usr/sbin/chroot /mnt/initfs cal-tool --get-rd-mode`
if [ x$MODE = xenabled ]
then
echo "Root shell enabled"
/bin/sh
else
echo "Enable RD mode if you want to break your device"
fi

So disabling the conditional works. Of course, you have to be root to do so. *nix is secure.

The main issue continues to be becoming "root" without a linux machine or a MAC.

I could be wrong.

P'ski