They would probably notice that but it does seem like some former passenger most likely installed something that's patched into the system. It may just be a recording from a flash drive. Or it could also be more sophisticated and patch into the wifi as well. You could also imagine it having a microphone for added hijinx but none of the interactions seem to suggest that.
I've flown American six times in the last ten days, and four of the flights had chaos with the entertainment system. No groans or heavy breathing on the PA, but flight attendants had to "reboot the system" once or twice every flight.
I once captured the Linux boot screen of a United Boeing 737 infotainment system. Apparently I still got that photo. OCRed text for lols:
video capture buffer0 40b37460
video capture buffer1 40a8dd60
wideo_capture buffer2 409e4610
geode_: gamma black+csccorrection
VAL2: Registered "NSC Geode V4LZ UBI driver" as char device B1, 224
VAL2: Registered "NSC Geode V4L2 Capture driver" as char device 81,
geode_v: Unknown standard
VAL2: Registered "NSC Geode V4LZ Overlay driver" as char device B1, 16
Warning: loading /lib/modules/realmagichul_kernelland.o will taint the kernel: non-GPL license - Proprietary. Copyright (c) 2002 Sigma Designs Inc. All rights reserved (version 103 with proc pci dolby css macrovision sm2288 osdric_memorycheck),
/lib/modules/realmagichul_kernelland.o:init_module:Invalidargument
Hint: insmod errors Can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:12.3 to 32
geodeoss: disabling PM: PM registration failed
geodeoss: version 1.2.0 time 12:37:36 Dec B 2004
geodeoss: use_pm=0 check_interrupt=0
Warning: loading /lib/modules/maspcu.o will taint the kernel: no license
usb.c: registered new driver pcu
MAS-eFX SEB USB PCU driver version 1.01
usb.c: registered new driver usbccr
usb_ccr open is being called (0xc165f000
) <6›ccrdev.c: Adding credit card reader: input1
input1: Panasonic Avionics Corp PAC USB Keyboard/Credit Card Reader Ver. 1.01 on usb1:2.1
usbccr.c: v0.59:USB HID Credit Card Reader driver
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
usb.c: registered new driver pacpcu
geode rev-7 pmr-03a834c4 mcr-00030250
using /dev/mtd1 /usr/app
--- mount succeeded ---
using /dev/mtd4 /usr/app2
--- mount succeeded ---
> I once captured the Linux boot screen of a United Boeing 737 infotainment system.
I used to work adjacent to these exact systems...they're so bad.
Like, 10+ minute boot at times, or assigning multiple devices to the same IP, or the communication network just randomly dying... (and this was all in vitro testing)
It was still cool to see "the rack", aka an entire planes infotainment system setup on a rolling cart including however many seat backs each plane was supposed to have. They had multiple office buildings that were essentially full of these, because each airline and deployment was different enough that they didn't want to have to reconfigure when needing to test them.
Some of the time is because they have a single board computer, and only licensing the BIOS. You'll know if that's the case if after the boot, you see it purposely set the time to something arbitrary, but dating back to the 90's. To the flight entertainment, the date doesn't really matter. For the licensing however, it does.
Also elsewhere in the boot, you might notice they tend to be 80486 CPU emulation boards from Cyrix. They're not fast at all, but for what they do, they don't need to be.
Also, if you took video instead of a pic, there are a few interesting IP addresses might scroll by as the media program gets initialized.
They might be doing that out of caution just to keep it from being exploited. Sounds like something management or the Flight Crew might decide is a band aid if one tries it and it works then everybody starts doing it. Knee jerk reaction but sounds like they’re stumped.
If you watch the whole boot, they purposely set the date to the 90's. I think it is because they don't want to pay the license for the BIOS. You can see some text about that license scroll by as well.
I've seen it often, and somewhere on an old PeeCee buried in the darkest areas of my home office, I have a video of the whole sequence.
I recently had some funny business on a United Airlines flight where the high-low chime (you hear for the seatbelt sign and landing gear, etc.) was going bonkers and chimed maybe 10 times in a row while the cabin lights faded on and off.
No announcements were made by the pilot or flight attendants afterwards, and everyone was left confused. I turned to the passenger next to me and we both shrugged.
If it were just one passenger it would be easy to find out who she is by cross checking passenger lists. So probably not. Maybe a coordinated 4chan-style prank.
What's interesting is that it appears that the CF card slot is only accessible behind a panel. The only people that would have access to that are likely the ground crew -- possibly doing a software update, or other maintenance on that panel.
