Unlock Push 3 - change collection names, default tracks, USB and more

[bouke]

Happy to report this procedure still works for Live 12 (incl. beta).

Intro
What if I told you there is a way to access your Push 3 Standalone SSD? Once you do, you can do all kinds of things, like:

• Renaming the collection tags [this post]
• Check CPU usage [this post]
• Clean up the filesystem
• Mount a share or USB drive with all your MP3s [viewtopic.php?p=1817394#p1817394]
• Troubleshoot issues and perhaps even fix them
• Replace the default liveset [viewtopic.php?t=248249#p1817288 and a (better) alternative: viewtopic.php?p=1817386&sid=5ef58a3c428 ... 4#p1817388]]
• Default Audio/Midi tracks [viewtopic.php?p=1817353#p1817353]
• and much, much more which I've not discovered (yet)

Since the Push 3 standalone (I will refer to it as the 'P3' in the rest of this document) is nothing more (and nothing less) than a great controller with an x86-based PC in it, running Linux AND running SSH, you can!

I've created this tutorial as a video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/kaU7AnphyS0

-WARNING-
You're accessing the basic filesystem of the device. Like any Linux OS, it can ruin operations. Be careful with ANY step you take. Ensure you've made a backup (I'll explain how to do that). I'm not responsible for bricking your device!!! My actions didn't brick mine so far, but you're taking these actions at your own risk. I'm not affiliated with Ableton in any way. I'm a consumer like most of you. I'm willing to take the risk since I know what I do on hardware and software. Again: you're taking these actions at your own risk! If you don't know what you're doing, you will brick your device. I don't know if it voids the warranty and whether Ableton will still service your device!!!
-WARNING-

Okay, now that's out of the way, how did I 'discover' this?
I hate limits and felt the P3's compute-based hardware is limited. The 256GB SSD was the easiest to swap out first. So, before powering it on, I swapped out the disk with a 2TB SSD. I picked the 'Transcend PCIe 4.0 SSD 250S, 2TB' since it has the newer '3d v-nand (TLC)' and seemed quite reliable. I did it before powering it on the first time. The replacement was done before, and I need to credit 'XRCST' for that by sharing this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFe9tIunZxI. The only difference was that he used a 1TB drive, and I had a 2TB drive. I ran into issues that I resolved a different way, I'll write something about that perhaps another day.

I mounted the OS disk while cloning and resizing the partition; I was just curious about what was out there. The P3 runs a webserver, and I found the place with all the pages live (like authorize, logs, crash, legal, etc.). From there, I reversed-engineered what Ableton was doing with the P3. It opened up a whole world to me.

Requirements
- For making a proper backup; screwdrivers to get to the SSD and an SSD to USB device to make the backup, as a computer with at least 256GB of free space, since we're making a dump of the whole SSD
- Basic file editing with Vim in Linux; there are plenty of tutorials on the internet for that
- Linux knowledge helps understand what you're doing, which might prevent bricking the device

Summary
Here is a short summary of what we are going to do. Backup first by removing the SSD and dumping the contents into a file, then place the SSD back. After a good backup, we're going to SSH into the P3. We need a key for that which we send to the P3. The method is slightly different on a Mac or a Windows PC since the Mac has tools like ssh and keygen. For Windows, you need tools like PuTTY and PuTTYgen. Once we've set up the SSH connection, we can log in to the Linux OS, stop Ableton and Push, and change the files we want. Then, we restart the P3 to check the changes.

Step 1: backup SSD
To backup the SSD, the SSD must be removed from the P3. The bottom contains a heatsink with 5 screws. Remove that first and carefully lift it to prevent damaging the heat conducting pad. Then remove the 3 smaller screws in the middle (one behind the heatsink) and the last 11 screws along the edges. Now you have three different sets of screws, and you should be able to lift the bottom metal plate. There, you'll see the SSD, secured by a plastic tab. Push the tab, and it should release the SSD. Remove it from its socket and connect it to another computer with an SSD to a USB device (I'm using a 'ACT M.2 NVMe/PCIe SSD dockingstation, US' for 27 Euros)

For MacOS:
- Open a terminal
Figure out the correct drive:

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% sudo diskutil list

Depending on your internal drives etc, you should see something like this:

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/dev/disk4 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *256.1 GB   disk4
   1:       Microsoft Basic Data msdos                   37.1 MB    disk4s1
   2:                 Linux Swap                         8.6 GB     disk4s2
   3:           Linux Filesystem                         10.7 GB    disk4s3
   4:           Linux Filesystem                         10.7 GB    disk4s4
   5:           Linux Filesystem                         226.0 GB   disk4s5

/dev/disk4 means my SSD is now attached as disk4, THIS CAN BE A DIFFERENT ONE FOR YOURS!!! Ensure you use the right one in the next commands!

By default MacOS will mount the MSDOS partition, unmount all the partitions first:

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% sudo diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk4

Next use convert and copy (dd) to make an image of your drive:

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% sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk4 of=/Users/bouke/abletonPush3.img bs=1M status=progress

Note the 'if' and 'of' here!!! Don't mix them up!!! if = input file, which is the SSD, the /dev/disk4 in my case. of = output file, the location where to write it to. Put this in your desired location.

It takes some time, just leave it untill it is done, depending on the hardware used, takes 15 to 30 minutes.

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bouke@Boukes-MBP ~ % sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk4 of=/Users/bouke/abletonPush3.img bs=1M status=progress
  84042317824 bytes (84 GB, 78 GiB) transferred 128.002s, 657 MB/s

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bouke@Boukes-MBP ~ % sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk4 of=/Users/bouke/abletonPush3.img bs=1M status=progress
  255639683072 bytes (256 GB, 238 GiB) transferred 387.003s, 661 MB/s
244198+1 records in
244198+1 records out
256060514304 bytes transferred in 387.637802 secs (660566418 bytes/sec)

Once done, you have a dump of the whole SSD in a file. Secure this file, this is your backup.

Eject the disk and place it back into the P3:

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% sudo diskutil eject /dev/disk4

For Windows:
Use an imaging tool, there are plenty of examples and tutorials, The idea is the same, dump the entire SDD contents into a file. This might help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTsq-HHz0Ss

Step 2: generate ssh keys
On MacOS:
In the same terminal, or a new one, run ssh-keygen:

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% ssh-keygen

Keep all default and press enter a couple of times:

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Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/Users/bouke/.ssh/id_rsa): 
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): 
Enter same passphrase again: 
Your identification has been saved in /Users/bouke/.ssh/id_rsa
Your public key has been saved in /Users/bouke/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
The key fingerprint is:
SHA256:TPDb7uVKtH5pke7uiZJQwZ5tyLx+n74ODFwac1x2ifM bouke@Boukes-MBP.fritz.box
The key's randomart image is:
+---[RSA 3072]----+
|      ..    o... |
|       oo. oo..  |
|       +==+  o   |
|       +BOo   E  |
|       .Soo  .   |
|      . .= .o    |
|       o .*..o   |
|        ++.==o   |
|         o=@%.   |
+----[SHA256]-----+

In Windows:
Use PuTTYgen to generate a key.

Step 3: Add public SSH key to the P3

Now here's the cool trick: open your browser and go to:
'http://push.local/ssh'

Enter the code prompted on the P3.

Copy the contents of the .ssh/id_rsa.pub file into clipboard and place it in the box on your browser.

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% cat .ssh/id_rsa.pub 

Click 'Add SSH key' and get ready to press the following key combination on your P3:
<Shift>-<Select>-<Settings> - which is the second button top left, the 'sun' icon.

Then it should say:
SSH key added successfully.

Congratulations, you can now SSH into you P3 and start changing things.

Step 4: SSH into the P3

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% ssh ableton@push.local

Say 'yes' to continue, and you're in!

You only need to repeat step 2 and 3 for a new connection from another computer.

General recommendations
Always use the 'ableton' account to log in, root has more access, so you might break it faster.
Whenever you change files, make a copy first
Whenever you change files, stop 'Live' first:

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$ killall XPython3Exe
$ killall Live

To restart the device:
Login as root:

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% ssh ableton@push.local

run reboot

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# reboot

Couple of options
Want to know your project CPU usage? Run:

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$ top

Want to change the 'Collection tag names'? Edit Library.cfg:

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$ vi /data/.config/Ableton/Live\ 11.3.10/Library.cfg

When there is a new version of Live, the folder might be different.

Now what?
Post your changes in this thread - I'll add it to the original post to get a nice list of 'hacks'. Enjoy!

[Just_Pierre]

Great job, Bouke! Really impressive. This will open a lot of possibilities.

btw....I read that 'XRCST' couldn't activate his Push 3 anymore because of the hardware change. Is this still the case?

[bouke]

He asked for a new unlock, which Ableton provided.

Also: if you do want to change the drive, what you can do first is deactivate the Push licence by resetting. I've not tested this though since it removes all data and returns it to factory default.

However, the reactivation was due to changing to a different SSD. If you just make a backup of the SSD and place it back, you won't need to reactivate it again. Note: The backup procedure is recommended, not required. If you just make sure you save the important files with http://push.local/logs and create a copy of any file you change, the risk is rather low.

[Just_Pierre]

Thanks for the reply!

The Transcend PCIe 4.0 SSD 250S 2TB you recommend is around 130,- Euro in The Netherlands, very affordable I think. Is the boot time of the Push 3 faster with the new SSD? With the original SSD it is around 40 seconds

First I'm going to invest how this all can be done in Windows 11, with Putty(I think). Maybe somebody has advice how to do this?

[bouke]

No, boot time is not changed.

[102455]

I upgraded my Push 3 to a larger drive back in June.

Steps were: Remove original drive and place in external enclosure. Connect drive to laptop running Ubuntu. Use Ubuntu utility to clone drive. Place new drive in enclosure and restore clone image to new drive.

I still have the original drive, so I may experiment on that.

[Just_Pierre]

I upgraded my Push 3 to a larger drive back in June.

Steps were: Remove original drive and place in external enclosure. Connect drive to laptop running Ubuntu. Use Ubuntu utility to clone drive. Place new drive in enclosure and restore clone image to new drive.

I still have the original drive, so I may experiment on that.

That sounds easy, thanks!

Does cloning apps like Macrium for Windows also can do the cloning job?

[102455]

I did have a look around at various options, but found the Disks utility that's part of Ubuntu was a nice easy way of doing it without having to use command lines or go through lots of instructions.

[Just_Pierre]

I will look into this, thanks!

[bouke]

Here is a tutorial how to do this on Windows based OS.

Download putty and puttygen from here:
https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgt ... atest.html

Start puttygen.exe:
Click 'Generate' and move your mouse over the 'blank' area:


Copy the generated public key into you clipboard and save the private key anywhere you want (just remember where you put it).


Put the public key into your Push by following the steps:
- connect to HTTP://push.local/ssh
- enter the 8 digit number if needed
- paste the clipboard public ssh key into the field
- click add and quickly press <Shift>-<Select>-<Settings> on your Push

Open putty.exe
In the 'Category', select 'Connection', 'SSH', 'Auth', 'Credentials'

Use 'Browse...' to select the private key file you saved with puttygen.


Click 'Connect', 'Data': Login details:
Auto-login username: ableton or keep it blank and it should prompt when connecting, then pick either ableton (safer) or root (more access, less safe):


Then click 'Session'and put in you P3's hostname: push.local (or depending what your network is doing - mine is accepting push.fritz.local, and best of all, SAVE: by naming it and click 'Save':


Last: click Open and this should open the connection to your P3!!!

Enjoy!

[Just_Pierre]

@bouke Thank you, appreciate it!

[bouke]

To ease everyone's mind: last night I did an upgrade to beta version 11.3.20b1 with firmware 1.3.0 and I can confirm everything keeps working as designed. The collection names are copied over to the new version. Didn't have any issues upgrading, even though I've got a larger SSD.

Update: b2 and b3 also no issues at all!

[bouke]

I was a bit surprised I wasn't able to save a live set as the default set.

Easy fix once you have access to the disks!

For this one to work you need to ssh into Push3 as root:

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ssh root@push.local

Next is making a backup of your original default set:

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root@push:~# cp /opt/push3/products/live/Live/AppLive/Resources/Builtin/Templates/DefaultLiveSet.als /opt/push3/products/live/Live/AppLive/Resources/Builtin/Templates/DefaultLiveSet.als.org

And now it's a matter of replacing the DefaultLiveSet.als with the one of your choice:

go into the folder where yours is stored:

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root@push:~# cd /data/Music/Ableton/Sets/<set name>

copy the set to 'DefaultLiveSet' and overwrite:

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/data/Music/Ableton/Sets/<set name># cp <set>.als /opt/push3/products/live/Live/AppLive/Resources/Builtin/Templates/DefaultLiveSet.als

If you ever want to revert to the previous default just copy the DefaultLiveSet.als.org to DefaultLiveSet.als.

Enjoy!

[[jur]]

I was a bit surprised I wasn't able to save a live set as the default set.

Easy fix once you have access to the disks!

Dude, this one is making trying out your method reaaalllly tempting!

[bouke]

To be honest: easy and worth it.

The above description sounds long and complex, but it's rather easy and comes down to:
- generate ssh key
- send the public key to your push
- connect

Once you know how, it's done in like 15 seconds...