Mac OS 9 Lives

Mac OS 9 Discussion => Development & Programming => Topic started by: OS923 on September 22, 2019, 01:28:36 AM

Title: Serial box
Post by: OS923 on September 22, 2019, 01:28:36 AM
Every month there's a new "Serial box", a file with extension .sb2 with passwords for Mac applications. What's the last unencrypted version of the serial box? Is there someone who managed to decrypt the serial box?

There are several programs which can open such a file, like iSerial Reader and SerialSeeker. What's the last version which can run on OS 9?
Title: Re: Serial box
Post by: MacTron on September 22, 2019, 01:31:02 PM
There are several programs which can open such a file, like iSerial Reader and SerialSeeker. What's the last version which can run on OS 9?
iSerial Reader Classic 1.2.1.1 (2005-2006) app and Serial Box 08-2006.sb2 file are probably the newest that can run on Mac Os 9.
I can provide you both in case you needed.
Title: Re: Serial box
Post by: Knezzen on September 23, 2019, 08:31:45 AM
I can provide you both in case you needed.

Please do! I would love to get my hands on it as well :)
Title: Re: Serial box
Post by: OS923 on September 23, 2019, 09:14:01 AM
I can't find it.
Title: Re: Serial box
Post by: Mat on September 24, 2019, 03:13:37 PM
I am quite sure I could use much later monthly files. From 2012 if I am not completely crazy, … wasn't there even some program for changing the new file formats to the old ".sb2" ones? Damn I hate that informations are fading away over the time. Perhaps I will one day sort all my harddisks and find the information again and report back here ;)

But for Mac OS 9 all 2006 to 2008 sb2s should be fine.
Title: Re: Serial box
Post by: IIO on September 24, 2019, 04:05:43 PM
yes you can you use later files, too. of course it is not really required when you think about it. :)
Title: Re: Serial box
Post by: OS923 on September 25, 2019, 02:04:29 AM
I have SerialReader 1.0, but when I start it, it says "An exception of class NilObjectException was not handled. The application must shut down." It came with Serial Box 08.2005. This is unencrypted.
Title: Re: Serial box
Post by: Knezzen on October 03, 2019, 03:28:30 AM
iSerial Reader Classic 1.2.1.1 (2005-2006) app and Serial Box 08-2006.sb2 file are probably the newest that can run on Mac Os 9.
I can provide you both in case you needed.

MacTron, could you upload this somewhere? Would be wonderful to have this in Mac OS 9.
Title: Re: Serial box
Post by: MacTron on October 05, 2019, 08:36:11 AM
iSerial Reader Classic 1.2.1.1 (2005-2006) app and Serial Box 08-2006.sb2 file are probably the newest that can run on Mac Os 9.
I can provide you both in case you needed.

MacTron, could you upload this somewhere? Would be wonderful to have this in Mac OS 9.

OK, Here it is (attached)  ;D :
Title: Re: Serial box
Post by: OS923 on October 11, 2019, 08:39:15 AM
I found iSerial Reader 1.2.1.1 + Serial box 10.2006.
Title: Re: Serial box
Post by: OS923 on October 11, 2019, 08:39:43 AM
I found a way to convert the encrypted serial box to readable text. Export the database to Palm PDB. This is unencrypted. Then convert it to text.

I wrote my own Serial Reader which can read a PDB. It can work with only 33 MB of memory. (iSerial Reader uses 132 MB.)

Which is the last version of iSerial Reader which can export to PDB?
Title: Re: Serial box
Post by: CheeZeeMac on July 23, 2020, 01:23:01 PM
A couple of things:

I can't expand the .sitx archives, it looks like they require a newer version of Stuffit Expander than I have (Mac OS 9.0.4, Stuffit Expander v5.5 and v7.0.3, on SheepShaver under Linux). Can anyone post archives that either Stuffit Expander 5.5 or 7.0.3 can expand?

The one that I could expand (an .hqx file) says it requires Mac OS 9.1 and then quits. Does anybody have an earlier version that will run on 9.0.4? Or just a text version of the DB?
Title: Re: Serial box
Post by: IIO on July 24, 2020, 03:33:59 AM
new entries to the database after 2006 tend to zero. OS9 support once ended because of the certificate system.

that is mainly because there were no more new OS9 programs coming out for OS9. :)

except graphicconverter and csound, of course.