Make Gadgets Work !!!

OpenVPN on Linux Mint to access US sites

2011-11-06T18:19:00.000Z

I received a Google Music invite and as it is only available in US, I used OpenVPN on linux. Now this is a handy little trick to bypass the geographical constraints that are placed to block services on net. All this without opening the windows box to install dodgy looking services of Hotspot Shield which anyway does not work on Linux.

Ever come across "This video is not available in your country." on you tube or ever wanted to access Hulu only to be greeted by a similar message. Well then, if yes is your answer, openVPN is the solution to such sorrows.

It also comes with some other benefits such as anonymous browsing but then highlighting benefits of VPN is not exactly the aim of this post. The aim of this post is:

To configure a free VPN service that allows you to bypass country restrictions for US based sites. Keyword - US. As the site I am going to use only gives a US IP. Ofcourse if we remove the word free it opens up a range of possibilities which I will leave the readers to explore. :)

Alright, let's get on with the business:

Step 1: Install OpenVPN

Open Synaptics and type OpenVPN in "Quick Search". Then select all the packages marked green in screenshot below but not in your synaptic window and click on "Apply".

Then type "pptp" in "Quick Search" and select all the packages marked green in the screenshot below but not in your synaptic window and click on "Apply".

Step 2: Register with the free OpenVPN provider "Hostizzle"

a) Open the website http://hostizzle.com/ and follow the screenshots below:

Step 3: Set-up OpenVPN on Linux Mint

a) Open Terminal and type the following command:

gksudo nautilus /etc/openvpn/

You will be asked for root password and the File Explorer will be opened with root access. This is necessary as /opt directory only gives write access to root and as you wil see next step requires some files to be extracted in this directory. This extracted directory will be some long number.

**Please be extremely careful now, as you are accessing your file system as root.**

b) Now copy the zip file downloaded from Hostizzle in Step 2 to this directory and extract it here.

Step 4: Configure network manager

Open the Network Manager as shown in following screenshot:

(Menu > All Applications > Preferences > Network Connections)

This will open the following window:

Now click on VPN tab and then on Import button as shown in next screenshot.

It will open the file selection box. Navigate to File System/etc/openvpn/ and now open the long numbered directory that was extracted in Step 3(a) as shown in next figure.

Here select the .ovpn file and click Open. Following dialogue box will open.

Just accept defaults and click "Apply".

Then Click on "Close" on Network Connections window.

Step 5: Connect to the OpenVPN

Restart your system and once it is connected to your home WiFi, click on Network Indicator in the panel and select "VPN Connections".

This will list all available VPN connections as can be seen in the screenshot. Select the VPN name with big number which is what we have just configured.

Once done if everything was done correctly, it should connect to VPN and you should be able to browse with an american IP address.

Some key points to remember:

Free service of Hostizzle is quite generous compared to so many other options I explored, yet it is worth knowing the restrictions:
a) 100GB of bandwidth each month.
b) US IP
c) Limited to one month. You need to download new Keys and configure VPN using steps below each month.

Now considering that it takes less than 5 minutes to complete these steps and that it is a free alternative with a generous bandwidth, I would say it is all worth it.

Ofcourse, if you are not happy with the restrictions, there are some paid alternatives that can be implemented for as low as $4 per month from various providers, Hostizzle included. Go shopping !!!

- Ankit.

Access (files / folders) Directories from Linux Mint on Android

2011-11-04T00:48:00.002Z

Let me clear the air before anyone mentions. Yes, I know it's directories and not folders and yes I know many still call these folders and this may encourage the wrong usage but my aim is to help not educate but hopefully making this the first line in post will have some educational effect :).

Right, so to start with, presented below is the problem statement:

We want to share particular folder on our home WiFi network such that all members of the family can access it using their gadget - laptop / smartphone / netbook etc. Now like a true project manager, I will scope it down by making an assumption that any gadget that runs a variant of linux - Android included. It's not to say that the solution will not work on iOS or Windows, it's to say that these operating systems are not covered but might as well work with right application downloaded.However the solution offered will make no such claims...:p. Having said that, I will actually only be covering Android in this article as for Linux on desktop, it is fairly straight forward by going through "Network" places.

Ok now to the exciting stuff:

Step 1: Decide which Directory (Folder) you want to share.

For purpose of this demonstration, let's create a new folder called "DemoShare".

Step 2: Decide whether you want it to be accessed by specific users or anyone and everyone connected to your home network

a) If you would want the shared directory (folder) to be password protected go through all steps below.
b) If you would want to give guest access to all users, skip to Step 4.

Step 3:

a) Create new User(s) -

Let's create a new user - androshare. This can be done by following the images below:




	Obviously you are free to be creative with the username. Just replace androshare with your username in subsequent commands.

b) Create samba username(s)/password(s)

Open the terminal and type the following command:

sudo smbpasswd -a androshare

You will be asked for the root password and then new password for the username.

Once you type in new password, you will be asked to retype the new password. Again as shown in image.

c) Restart Samba

Open the terminal and type the following command:

sudo service smbd restart

Step 4: Update Share Properties of the Directory(ies) to be shared

Goto the folder "DemoShare" created in Step 1, right click on the folder and select properties. On the properties dialogue box click on Share tab. Click on share the folder checkbox.

For scenario (a) of Step 2 click on checkbox - "Allow users to create and delete files in this folder" as shown in the figure below and click on Create Share.

For scenario (b) of Step 2, mark the "Guest acess" Checkbox too as shown in next figure before clicking the Create Share button.

After the Create Share button is clicked following dialogue will appear. Select "Add the permissions automatically"

The folder icon will then change to show a share flag as shown in adjacent figure.

Step 5: Download and install the file explorer app

ES File explorer is what I use and recommend. It can be downloaded from market here - https://market.android.com/details?id=com.estrongs.android.pop

Step 6: Configure the app to access the shared directory

On your computer, open the terminal and type:

ifconfig

In the resulting information, locate wlan0 (last entry) and under that in second line you will find something like "inet addr: 192.168.1.74", Note this down.

Open the app and goto LAN tab.

Press the menu button and click on "New".

Now click on "Server". This will open the "New/Edit Samba Server Screen".

Complete it as shown with following information:

Field	Value
Field	Scenario A	Scenario B
Server	IP Address from above	IP Address from above
Username	Androshare	BLANK
Password	As given in Step 3a	BLANK
Anonymous	BLANK	Select the checkbox.

Click OK.

Now if you click on the IP address, it should show the shared directory. As you can see in the screenshot at the beginning of this post, I have already shared my Calibre Library and it does make life really simple. I can download files and e-books without actually going to my laptop.

That is all there is to it.

Hope you find it useful.

-Ankit.

Visio Alternative on Linux - Business Process Model and Notation Tool

2011-06-20T22:44:00.004+01:00

yEd - It's not Visio alternative, it's better and it's opensource.

I was recently looking for Visio alternatives on Linux and while Dia is good it lacks the oomph of Visio and hence not an easy sell for new and potential Linux converts.

Now good news for those open to enter the wonderful world of Linux is that any OS need not have an alternative for it to be usable to you, all it needs is the ability to let you run the software you find useful.

So this post isn't about why Linux is better. It is about knowing that there is something better than the software you have got accustomed to. If someone is adamant on continuing with the software they have fallen in love with, there is always WINE / Virtualbox but if you have opened to the idea of new OS but you are taking baby steps software like yEd can help you take a giant leap. yEd is written in Java and can run on Windows, Mac and of-course Linux.

Before we move into the steps of how to get it and use it let me bore you little with what are the other alternatives I explored.

During my quest I came across two other useful candidates Activiti 5.6, ARIS Express 2.3. What went against these and in favour of yEd? Read on:

Ease of installation

First on the list is ARIS Express 2.3. Now this requires registration which is my first gripe. I could have lived with that but as claimed on their website the product is meant for Windwos and is reported to be working fine for Linux. What they forgot to mention is on linux using Wine or atleast that is what it did on my set-up. Now am not sure if it has something to do with my installing JRE in wine for using Open Workbench (see last post) or it is because the product works on similar lines as Open Workbench installer but eighther way it does not run natively on Linux and for that reason alone it is unreliable and looses points even to Activiti.

Activiti Designer on Eclipse Helios.

For easiest installation, Activiti 5.6 can be added into Eclipse but that results in a bit complicated and not so user friendly user-experience. You will at-least need to have one Activiti project created in eclipse before you can draw using Activiti Diagram. (Check Screenshot)
Above might be circumvented by installing standalone Activiti bit that involves configuring ANT and other stuff. While guide is there, it is not very straight forward and considering we want to win new users not scare them, it is best left as untouched topic.

Ease of Use - While all the three products yEd, Activiti and ARIS are superior to Visio, in terms of ease of use I think it's yEd which wins hands down even to Visio. The one aspect of this software that won me over was it's ability to auto align the whole flowchart / diagram with just one click and it can do it in several layouts.

OK, now that I have covered comparison, let's get down to how we install it on our beloved Linux Mint. It's really very simple.

Step 1: Go to this website - http://www.yworks.com/en/products_yed_download.html

Step 2: Download yEd for your platform. In our case for Linux Mint the 43 MB sh file in front of Linux.

Step 3:

a) Go to the folder where it is downloaded, select the yEd-3.7.sh file and right click on it.

b) In the right click menu select Properties (last entry). This will open the yEd-3.7.sh properties box.

c) On the Properties box, click on Permissions tab.

d) Click the checkbox in front of Execute - Allow executing file as program.

e) Click Close.

f) Double click on the yEd-3.7.sh file. It will display a dialogue box with four options - Run in terminal, Display, Cancel, Run. Select Run in terminal

g) yEd will now install, it may give one small error but it did not affect anything at all so ignore it if you get it.

h) Follow the wizard and leave default options.

i) Once done, you will have yEd successfully installed and can be found in MENU - ALL APPLICATIONS-OTHER.

j) Create a shortcut of yEd by dragging yEd from MENU - ALL APPLICATIONS-OTHER onto desktop. You may need to make this dragged link executable by right clicking the link and following steps b,c and d.

All Done !!!

A quick tutorial from yWorks:

Find more on http://www.yworks.com/en/products_yed_videos.html

Having seen, how nice and easy it is to create the flowchart, let's also see the best feature of the product that is one click alignment.

Install Open Workbench and JRE on Wine in Linux Mint

2011-06-04T10:18:00.005+01:00

Open Workbench on Linux Mint using Wine

What is Open Workbench?

Open Workbench is a Project Planning Software comparable to Microsoft Project. There are mixed views on whether it is truly open source or not but as it is considered a very good alternative for Microsoft Project and it is free to download, it is something I as a Project Manager would want to know about. After all some of my clients are going to be using this. :)

Now then, as of writing this article Open Workbench is not available from the well publicised sitewww.openworkbench.org which seems to be down. Instead it is available for download fromhttp://www.itdesign.de/en/products-solutions/open-workbench.html

As you will find that the installer is an exe and the product is made for Windows platform and requires Java Runtime Environment, we will need to either use Windows in virtualbox or Wine. I am going to cover below the steps for installing the software on Linux using Wine.

Steps to install Open Workbench and JRE on Wine V1.2.2 in Linux Mint:

1. Install JRE in wine

2. Install Open Workbench in wine

3. Configure wine to play well with Open Workbench

4. Configure icon to launch Open Workbench

What do we need?

1. We will need to download the installer exe file from http://www.itdesign.de/en/products-solutions/open-workbench.html

2. As the product requires Java Runtime Environment, we will need to download the JRE for windows.

3. We will need access to system32 folder of a WindowsXP machine or in Virtualbox.

Step 1: Install JRE in wine

You can download the JRE file from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html . Remember, we only need JRE not JDK so click the download button in second column.

This will open another page for you to select which JRE package you want to download.

Click on the radio-button to accept license agreement and then select Windows x86 Offline for download.

(I am assuming that your hardware is 32 bit, if not please select Windows x64 but it will not have the offline version and I have no way of checking if it will work or not; so please leave a comment either way as it will help others.)

a) Copy the downloaded (jre-6u25-windows-i586.exe) file into .wine/drive_C/Program Files. You can do this using GUI on Linux Mint using steps below:

Goto MENU-ALL APPLICATIONS-WINE and click on BROWSE C: DRIVE

Click on Program Files folder.

Paste the copied exe file here.

b) Right click on the exe file and select "open with wine windows program loader".

c) Follow the installation wizard.

Once completed move on to next step.

Step 2: Install Open Workbench in wine

a) Download the “Open Workbench” installer file(Open_Workbench_Setup_1.1.6.exe) and copy it into .wine/drive_C/Program Files.

[TIP: You can use Step 1 bullet "a" to reach drive_c and then click on windows folder and then on system32 folder.]

b) Right click on the exe file and select "open with wine windows program loader".

[TIP: You can use Step 1 bullet "b" to reach drive_c and then click on windows folder and then on system32 folder.]

c) Follow the installation wizard.

Step 3: Configure wine to play well with Open Workbench

Due to some bug identified in Wine V1.2 the odbc32.dll file does not work and gives the error “err:module:attach_process_dlls “odbc32.dll” failed to initialize, aborting” if you try to run file from Terminal.

The following workaround is one suggested on Launchpad (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/wine1.2/+bug/572393) and does solve the problem.

I have just tried to make it easier to follow the instructions by providing screenshots and explaining each step.

1. On the WindowsXP machine / virtualbox goto following location – C:\WINDOWS\system32

2. Now copy odbc32.dll and odbcint.dll files onto the Linux machine at this location - .wine/drive_c/windows/system32 .

[TIP: You can use Step 1 bullet "a" to reach drive_c and then click on windows folder and then on system32 folder.]

3. Now goto wine configuration (On Linux Mint: MENU-ALL APPLICATIONS-WINE-CONFIGURE WINE)

4. Click on Libraries tab.

5. From the dropdown select odbc32 and click add.

6. Click OK

Step 4: Configure Open Workbench icon to launch the application

1. Open terminal (MENU - TERMINAL)

2. Type: wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Open\ Workbench/bin/npWBench.exe

3. Once Open Workbench is opened we are sure the command works. Select this command and right click and select copy.
[TIP: You can also press Ctrl+Shift+C to copy the selected text from terminal]

4. Close "Open Workbench" and goto icon in MENU-ALL APPLICATIONS-WINE.

5. Right click the "Open Workbench" icon and click on "Edit Properties".

6. In Command click on browse and navigate to following location: .wine/drive_c/Program Files/Open Workbench/bin/ and select the file npWBench.exe.

7. Now click "OK"

This is it. You are ready to use Open workbench on Linux using wine.

-Ankit.

How to edit PDF in Linux - The easy way.

2011-05-07T12:03:00.004+01:00

Recently someone asked this question to me and after some search on Google I came across mentions of PDFedit, Scribus, flpsed, Gimp, PDFMod and even the openoffice plugin for importing PDF and I tried all of these. PDFescape is probably a good solution but is only online and limited to 30 pages in it's free avatar. If your aim is similar to the one stated below, these tools are way too complicated (PDFedit), limiting (PDFescape) or ineffective (rest of them).

So, Let's start with the usual what was my aim question.

Aim:

To be able to highlight and put his own annotations, highlights and comments in the lecture notes that he gets from his college lecturers in pdf and be able to print the amended notes from any platform. (Linux / Mac / Windows.)

What Worked?
What I gave my friend as his final solution in the end kills two birds with one stone - Use of "Calibre" to convert the pdf to rtf and then use the open office to edit the notes. Where is the second bird, you ask...well Calibre is a great tool, infact in my opinion the best tool for ebook management. Using Calibre will not only help in editing the notes from the pdf but enable us to have a copy of final notes for ready reference right on our smartphone. There you have the second bird. :)

Now the steps involved are listed below:

Steps:

Install and set-up Calibre
Import pdf into Calibre
Convert pdf to rtf using Calibre
Open rtf file and start editing
Convert final version of rtf to epub and transfer to your phone.

Step 1 - Install and set-up Calibre:

The current version of Calibre at the time of writing is 0.8 while the one in ubuntu repository is 0.6 so I recommend you should update after installing from repo as that will ensure all dependencies are satisfied and then you have the latest version as well.

So first open your package manager (on Linux Mint: Menu - Package Manager). You will need to provide root password and then search for Calibre and install it.

Now to update to latest version, open the terminal (on Linux Mint: Menu - Terminal) and type the following command:

sudo python -c "import urllib2; exec urllib2.urlopen('http://status.calibre-ebook.com/linux_installer').read(); main()"

You will be asked for your root password so provide that and terminal will show a question:

Enter the installation directory for calibre [/opt]:

Type /opt and press enter.

Now type Calibre and it will fire up the welcome wizard. Follow these screenshots:

Select your language and Directory where you will want your ebooks to be stored. I keep it default.

Select your ebook Device. I have selected Android as that is the smartphone I use for reading ebooks.

That's Calibre configured. Easy-Peasy !!! :)

Step 2: Import pdf into Calibre

Open Calibre (On Linux Mint: Menu - All Applications - Office - Calibre or just by typing calibre on terminal).

Now click on "Add Books" and select "Add books from single directory.

It will open the dialogue box for you to select file. Go to the location where you have saved your pdf. In my case it was in /Downloads/Tutorials as you can see in next screenshot.

Select the file and click open. Calibre will then import the pdf.

While importing it shows the "Adding" screen as can be seen on right above.

Depending on size of the pdf it can take a while or be very quick. In this case as it's a small lecture note it was hardly few seconds. Once completed, imported file will appear in your library as shown.

Once completed, it's time to move to next step.

Step 3: Convert pdf to rtf using Calibre

Select and right click on the pdf imported into Calibre and select Convert - Convert Individually.

It will open the window to show options for conversion as shown below. In this window on right hand side corner select "rtf" from the drop-down against "Output".

Now click OK.

Once Converted it will show the rtf format in right pane as shown in red circle in following figure.

Step 4: Open rtf file and start editing

Click on rtf and it will open the file in open-office and you are ready to edit, highlight and do pretty much what you like.

You may notice that some pictures are not coming on the page but all that is required is to do some formatting for openoffice which is quite straight forward.

Double click on the picture and in most cases it will be fixed if you click on "keep Ratio" and changing the anchor to Page.

Some changes to page layout from Portrait to landscape may also help. To do so go to Format and select Page. It will open the dialogue box as shown below where you can switch between Portrait and landscape.

Step 5: Convert final version of rtf to epub and transfer to your phone (Optional)

Once done save your work with a different filename and follow steps 2 and 3 to import the saved rtf file into calibre and convert to epub this time (Keep output to epub in step 3) and then transfer it to your smartphone through mail or by usb transfer.

That's it all done. It's a long tutorial keeping in mind people who are new to Linux but carrying out the steps to convert don't take more than 2 minutes so trying this will be well worth it.

I must add that this may not be required if all you will ever need is to add notes and comments and highlight in pdf and then print from your own laptop / computer. In which case OKULAR is a far superior way of doing it and you must try it out. However, having said that I don't know many college going students who have easy access to Printers at their hostel and in all likelihood their print-outs will be from college library in which case solution above should come handy.

-Ankit.

Part 2 - Configure Epson S515W on Linux Mint / Ubuntu 10.04

2011-05-04T21:56:00.004+01:00

While the majority of settings are covered in my previous post here I found that each time I switched off my printer, it used to change it's IP address and I had to repeat Steps 7 to 16 each time. My printing and scanning needs are pretty limited so I never bothered working out a solution until today and knowing what I now know, it was quite a simple and quick solution I should have done this on the first place. Anyway as they say better late than never. :)

So to carry out the magical transformation to your printing experience follow the steps below:

On your printer (actual machine not on laptop / computer) go to Settings (Press the button with Wrench and Screwdriver symbol as shown in picture).
Using left arrow navigate to Network Settings (Computer and Printer icon)
Click OK button.
Using down arrow navigate to "General Setup" and click OK button.
Printer will show the question "After changing the settings, network may be disconnected. Continue?" and present options Yes and No with No selected (highlighted in Yellow.)
Using left arrow move to Yes and press OK.
Printer will now show the screen for "Printer Name Setup", do not change anything. Just Click OK to proceed to next screen.
Now printer will show screen for TCP/IP screen with two options Auto which is selected by default and highlighted in yellow and Manual. Here using down arrow key select Manual.
Click OK button.
The screen will show current IP address assigned to printer something like 192.168.1.66.
Now I am assuming that you have already followed part 1 of this tutorial so on your laptop open the file epkowa.conf from /etc/sane.d. You can also open this file by typing the following command in terminal - gedit /etc/sane.d/epkowa.conf
Note down the IP address you entered last time 192.168.1.60 below usb and scsi. (Line 12 on my file.)
Now on your printer change IP address to match the one on Step 12. To do so, first click on left arrow on printer to reach the last digit of displayed IP address and then adjust the number using up or down arrow.
Once it is same as that on epkowa.conf file (192.168.1.60 in this example), click OK button. Now continue to click OK button on all remaining screens till you reach Network Settings screen (About 5 times)
Press OK one final time and that's it you are done.

If you are to now switch off and switch on the printer and test scan it should work without any issues.

Hope you find this useful.

-Ankit.

Glympse

2011-05-02T23:27:00.001+01:00

Every now and then we come across something that has a strong potential, something that is a great phenomenon in making and Glympse to me is that idea.
The simple to use and highly effective application available on android market for free that allows you to share your position during the travel in real time.

While it's moderately useful for long journeys as was evident on my holiday travel this weekend when my host was able to monitor my progress to their house 250+ miles away, I think this application can find great and effective use in postal and transportation sector.

It not only allows you to share your journey but also shows you when was your progress last viewed and who is viewing it right now.I provides you the control on who can have access to this real time view and for how long. You provide a timeframe for which you would prefer this monitoring to be available and then allows you to add more time in 15 minutes intervals. It integrates with phone contacts and has a very slick GUI.

All in all very impressed with this application and the fact that it's available for free is the icing on cake.

If you have an android phone, do lot of travelling and need to keep calling for your whereabouts, guess this application can save you on unnecessary calls while letting you concentrate on your journey.

Highly recommended application.

-Ankit.

MMC: Convert media files on Linux

2011-04-29T01:32:00.007+01:00

I have been using Mobile Media Converter for almost a year now and it is such a great tool. I think it is a must have at-least on Linux.

It not only converts almost all popular media formats into other formats but also has an inbuilt youtube video downloader which comes very handy for converting all the free official(and unofficial) song videos into MP3.

Let me spell it out, how it all works.

1. Download and Install MMC

Well you download and install MMC from this site - http://www.miksoft.net/mobileMediaConverterDown.htm

Scroll down to the part of screen that shows the following:

Now follow the instructions to add Medibuntu repo if you haven't already done so.

2. Download media:
Open youtube and search for a song that you want to have on you mp3 player. Copy the link from browser and open MMC. In Linux Mint follow Menu - All Applications - Sound & Video,
to open following window.

Now clicking on Add YouTube video will open following window:

Only in this window your link copied from youtube would be already populated.

Click on Download and wait till it downloads your song.

3. Convert it to MP3

Once downloaded the video gets added into the queue as shown in the following screenshot:

Now you can select the location where you want to store the mp3 and the conversion type as can be seen below.

This also shows how many other formats this nice little piece of software can handle.

Anyway, select MP3 Audio and click on Convert.

That's it all done.

Now I don't condone the download of any material with copyright, I do support use of anything that is legal. There are some really good official videos (like the one in this example) that can be converted into MP3 or even video formats to enjoy on a long journey.

- Ankit.

Logitech Ex100 - Wireless Keyboard and Mouse not working? Read on..

2011-04-24T18:06:00.004+01:00

Today for some unknown reason suddenly my Logitech Wireless Keyboard and Mouse - Model Number EX100 stopped working and very stubbornly denied to work despite my repeated attempts on all obvious and logical steps - resets, battery change and such.

After trawling through the internet for some time I figured that I am not alone in facing the issue but surely have been hit quite late by it. It appears Logitech was more than happy to replace it at one point.

Anyway, further forum hopping lead me to a post that felt like a very unlikely solution but I gave it a shot and should I say more? It worked indeed. So this post is not only for world but for my future reference.

With thanks to "Andromedia" on logitech forum, I present the solution that resurrected my dead keyboard and mouse.

For Keyboard:

Remove the batteries from the Keyboard.
Type on the keyboard for about 10 to 30 seconds.
Insert the batteries back into Keyboard.
Press Left Alt+Left Ctrl+F12 all at the same time and hold for about a second.
Now PRESS the Connect Button on Receiver. (DO NOT HOLD)
Now PRESS the Connect Button on Keyboard. (DO NOT HOLD)
Finally, Press "Esc" on Keyboard.

For Mouse:

PRESS the Connect Button on Receiver. (DO NOT HOLD)
Now PRESS the Connect Button on Mouse. (DO NOT HOLD)

That should do the trick. At least for me it did. :)

- Ankit.

Time for a bit of show-off

2011-04-17T21:19:00.005+01:00

Hey Hey I made an Android app named "Sai Satcharitra". It's a very basic app and all it does is helps people read Sai Satcharitra on their Android Smartphones, something that can also be achieved by maybe converting the text ino a pdf, epub file etc.

Anyhoo, all I wanted was to experiment with Android coding to see how much of that developer is still alive in this business project manager. It took me about 5 hours to complete it after understanding the nuances of Android SDK and refreshing my java coding skills which were quite minimal to start with ;-). I used to be more of a PL/SQL / Lotus Script / C++ kind of developer in my prime.

So well long story short, I paid the amount to be registered as developer so I can publish this app on android market all the while thinking that if people do find it useful, I will assume this amount and effort is my way of giving something as Charity in name of Sai Baba.

I published the app on Market on 26/03/2011 and then I was busy with all the work that spring brings with it. Then today when I checked my account I was happily surprised to see the stats. The app has been downloaded over 200 times with about 180 active installs.

It felt very good to see that many people are finding my work useful.I was a bit disappointed that of the 200+ downloads only 2 have given feedback but hey, I wasn't there fishing for reviews so as long as it helps someone, I am a happy dude.

Check out some screenshots:

Google Voice + SIP2SIP + Ikall = Free international Calls to known contacts

2011-02-20T23:07:00.002Z

Second post in succession on the topic but believe me when I get a new gadget I try getting all information and then once I have had the stuff working I have to make a post right away or I will forget and hence this post. This post also overrides the previous posts.

Right then, let's get down to business.

What do we aim to do?

We aim to make free international calls and there is nothing illegal in this set-up, not to my knowledge.

How?

Google has introduced Google Voice and allows free calls to all US numbers. This can be done using their google talk plugin in the gmail browser.

Pre-Requisites:

Gmail account - Preferably a new one and not the one you use for your day to day usage.
Ability to install X-Lite 4.0 which will require a machine running Windows PC directly or on virtualbox.
Ability to install Hotspot Shield if residing outside of USA.
An Android device at both source and destination of the call.

Steps:

1. Get a SIP number.

If outside of USA, install hotspot shield on windows machine by going to this site - http://www.hotspotshield.com .I am not sure how safe this is from spyware and all security perspective. I am not really worried about it as I carry out these things on virtualmachine using virtualbox and there is no real threat to my actual machine which runs on Linux. So if Windows is your primary machine you do it on your own risk.
Once installed, open the site www.sip2sip.info.Register on sip2sip using your new gmail account. Ensure that you select US Central as your region.
You will get an email from sip2sip on the new gmail account giving your login details which will be something like:

SIP address: 2233xxxxxx@sip2sip.info
Password: abcdabcdabcd

Open the email and click on the link provided for lgging in. Enter the login details provided and goto settings tab (3rd from left).
In the first field under SIP Account, enter a new easy to remember password and click SAVE.

This completes Step 1 and you have successfully created SIP number for yourself.

2. Get a US phone number using ipkall.

Go to the website http://www.ipkall.com and click on sign-up.
On the sign-up page complete the following details using the email from sip2sip:

SIP username: 2233xxxxxx
Hostname or IP address: sip2sip@info
Email Address: Preferably the email address you used to register at sip2sip
Password: Prefereably the same password as what you changed on sip2sip in Step 1-5.

Enter the human verification codes and click "Submit".
You will receive a mail with in your email account with a new US number with text of something to following effect:

Thank you for signing up. Your IPKall phone number is: 253-XXX-XXXX.
SIP Phone Number: 2233xxxxxx
SIP Proxy: sip2sip.info
Email: abcdefg@gmail.com
Password: qwerty

This completes Step 2. You have now received a US phone number that is linked to your sip2sip account.

3. Set-up Xlite / softphone to receive calls made to US phone number.

In order to activate Google Voice account, it is important to be able to receive call on the new phone number that we have created in Step 2 so install Xlite v4.0 from here - http://download.cnet.com/X-Lite/3000-2349_4-10547103.html
Once X-Lite is installed, open it and click on Softphone -> Account Settings.
Now fill the following fields:

Account Name: Fill your gmail username.
User ID: 2233xxxxxx
Domain: sip2sip.info
Password: sip2sip password (qwerty for this example)

Click OK at the bottom of the window.

This completes Step 3.

4. Activate Google Voice for this Gmail account.

Log into the google voice account - https://www.google.com/voice.
Provide a user pin to retrieve voicemails
Now provide the US phone number obtained in Step 2-4 (253-XXX-XXXX)
A window will be shown with two numbers and a button call now.
Click on Call Now and you should receive call on Xlite phone.
Accept the call on Xlite and enter the two numbers shown in google's window.
You will get confirmation that the numbers are correct and will be asked to set-up voice mail greeting or hang-up.
Hang-up now as you can set this up later.

Google Voice account is now set-up.

5. Configure Android to receive calls using Google Voice.

If you are using nexus S, good news, it has inbuilt capability to get the SIP calls though this can be also be done using SIPDROID on other android devices. For Nexus S you can follow the steps below:

Goto Settings -> Call Settings and under Internet Call Settings click on "Accounts".
Untick receive calls.
Click on Add Account.
Now in username enter the 2233xxxxxx provided by sip2sip
Enter the password used for sip2sip account in password field. (qwerty in this example)
Enter sip2sip.info in server.
Untick the "Set as primary account" field.
Click on Optional Settings and in Outbound proxy address enter proxy.sipthor.net
Press back button till you are back to call settings. Now under Internet Call Settings click on "Use Internet Calling" and select "Only for Internet Calls".

For SIPDROID once you have downloaded and installed it from android market, follow the steps below:

Open SIPDROID, and goto Settings ->SIP Account.
In Authorization Username enter: 2233xxxxxx@sip2sip.info
Enter the password used for sip2sip account in password field. (qwerty in this example)
In Server or Proxy enter - proxy.sipthor.net
In Domain enter sip2sip.info

Now save and exit. SIPDROID will register the VOIP and turn green.
Now from gtalk plugin in the browser from some other gmail account try to call US phone number obtained in Step 2-4 (253-XXX-XXXX). Your phone should ring and so should the Xlite.

If step 4 did not happen as expected, you need to review the configuration and once it does happen as expected, your set-up to recieve calls is completed.

6. Configure Android to make calls using Google Voice.

Download and install Google Voice Callback on android device - https://market.android.com/details?id=com.xinlu.gvdial&feature=search_result
Provide the gmail credentials for the application. This will perhaps explain my recommendation for a new gmail account. You will be giving login credentials to a third party application but since it's a new account with no confidential info, it should really be safe.
In the settings for when to use callback select "Ask Everytime" if you are outside of USA.
This is it. Try calling one of your USA contact and this application should make a call back and you should be able to talk for free to your US friends.

This is happy ending for those who don't have sight of our aim - make free international calls. For free international calls though you have reached a point where you will have dependency on person you are calling. Following 3 options will be possible:

If the person you are calling also has android device and they follow this tutorial they will have a US number which you can then store in your contacts against that person's name and from thereon you both can call each other absolutely free.
If your friend has a SIP enabled device, they can follow this tutorial and replace the set-up of Android device to setting up their own SIP device.
If above two are not viable options, you can ask your friend to call you on your international number through googletalk plugin in their web browser. Unfortunately this takes away the flexibility of you being able to call them but given the constraints this may still be a good option to talk for free.

Final words - I know it's a long post and looks complex but believe me if you do it right it takes roughly 20 minutes.

Hope you find the post helpful.

- Ankit.

Call US and several other countries free using Android

2011-02-19T00:29:00.004Z

That's right...with smartphones all that was possible using computers is increasingly becoming feasible through phones. I just now configured my Nexus S to make free phone calls over internet to USA. How you ask? Well here we go:

The site offering free calls to USA landlines and mobiles is www.voipstunt.com so I registered an account with this site.

Now Android 2.3 has inbuilt SIP support so I directly configured instead of downloading any app from market but it can be as easily done using sipdroid or csipsimple but anyway since there is good dialer integration I opted for direct route.

1. Goto Settings -> Call Settings and under Internet Call Settings click on "Accounts".
2. Untick receive calls.
3. Click on Add Account.
4. Now in username enter the username with which you have registered on voipstunt website.
5. Enter the password used for voipstunt account in password field.
6. Enter "sip.voipstunt.com" in server.
7. Untick the "Set as primary account" field.
8. Press back button till you are back to call settings. Now under Internet Call Settings click on "Use Internet Calling" and select "Ask Each Time".

This is it. All done. Try calling landline or mobile number of your US contact and before placing the call your phone will ask whether to place call over internet or cellular network. Choose internet and you are off to free calls.
-Ankit.

Part 1 - Configure Epson S515W on Linux Mint / Ubuntu 10.04

2010-11-13T14:06:00.007Z

**********UPDATE**********
While this tutorial will get your printer up and running, you should also follow Part 2 to ensure that it continues to work even after you have restarted your printer.

-Ankit
**********UPDATE**********

Lately I have not done much experiments and hence a stable system. I did not require any changes and all was well and then recently I changed over to Linux Mint which by the way is a UBUNTU derivative, very slick and very cool. Now after this reinstall I was able to get back all my previous installs and everything the usual way but scanning using Epson S515W was not out of the box and below are the steps I followed to get it working:

Step 1: Configure Printer
Step 2: Test Print a page
Step 3 - Install drivers and software for scanner
Step 4 - Test Scanner

Step 1: Configure Printer

This really works quite easily in all Ubuntu installs. Goto System > Administration > Printer

Now you can see my printer configured but when you will get this window, you wil only see Print_to_PDF. You should then Click on arrow next to ADD and select Printer. It will open the window below:

Again under Network Printer it may not show anything initially but if your printer is on and configured to your wireless router it will identify in a moment or two. If it does not, click on Find Network Printer.

Once your printer appears, click on it and then click on "Forward".

Step 2: Print a test Page

Open the Printer window again from System>Administration>Printer and double click on printer. It should open the following window:

Click on "Print Test Page". If it prints the ubuntu test page correctly your printer is configured. Mine was so I will not go more in details of alternative option. If you do want to know more let me know and I will put a post.

However if now you will try to scan you will find that scanner either is not identified or if it is it does not complete the scanning and printer gets hanged, so over to next steps then.

Step 3 - Install drivers and software for scanner

Goto the avasys site that provides downloads and navigate for your model or if you have the same as mine just click on the link below and then goto Downloads and select All In One Printers. On the next page scroll down all the way and select the radio button for your printer.

http://avasys.jp/eng/

Now these installs need to happen in a sequence and we don't need all deb files on the next page anyway so I will mention download and install in sequence as it should be done.

Printer Control

From the section "Download for Epson Stylus NX510/NX515/SX510W/SX515W/TX550W data package" download the data package iscan-data_1.4.0-1_all.deb.
Install this package now.
From the section "Download for Epson Stylus NX510/NX515/SX510W/SX515W/TX550W core package" download iscan_2.26.0-3.ltdl7_i386.deb.
Install this package now
From the section "Download for Epson Stylus NX510/NX515/SX510W/SX515W/TX550W network plugin package" download iscan-network-nt_1.1.0-2_i386.deb
Install this package now.
Now on your printer(actual machine not on laptop / computer) goto Settings (Press the button with Wrench and Screwdriver symbol as shown in the image Printer Control).
Using left arrow navigate to Network Settings (Computer and Printer icon)
Click OK button.
Using Down Arrow select "Confirm Settings" and click OK button.
Press Down Arrow twice and it should show the Printer IP Address. Note it Down. It will be something like 192.168.1.60.
Now back on your laptop open terminal and type gksudo nautilus. You will be asked your superuser password. Provide that. It will open the file explorer with admin privileges. Be extremely careful now, you do not want to delete anything in this privilege mode.
In the file explorer, click on "File System" and browse to the file path etc>sane.d and open the file named epkowa.conf. (Screenshot below)
In the file below usb and scsi add the line - net 1865 so for our example this will be net 192.168.1.60 1865. (In gedit it was line 12 for me.)
Save and close the file.
Close all windows.

Step 4 - Test Scanner

Now open Menu>All Applications>Graphics>Image Scan! for Linux

This should open the software window. Now click on preview to see that a document preview is produced. If it does you are all set. If not you must check the configuration of epkowa.conf and try again.

The preview of my 3.5 year olds drawing from scanner :

and the final scan is shown below:

Hope you find this post useful.

-Ankit.

Jagannath Hora on Linux - Play on Linux Magic

2010-05-03T22:19:00.003+01:00

JHora on my desktop

While I prefer Maitreya as it can run with Linux as native, quite a few of my friends have asked me if Jagannatha Hora will work on Linux and hence this post.

Right, when I tried last time around mid Oct'09, JHora was not working using wine. However, recently things have changed.

If you are not aware or have not used Play On Linux then you should try it out. It works. Anyway back to original topic, the steps to install Jagannatha Hora on Kubuntu 10.04 are as below. (I am mighty sure this will work on other linux machines but I have tried it only on Kubuntu 10.04 which is increasingly becoming my OS of choice.)

Step 1: Install Play On Linux (POL)
Step 2: Download Jagannatha Hora ( JH )
Step 3: Install JH using POL

1. Install Play On Linux (POL) - You can install using Package Manager - Synaptic or KPackagekit but you will most likely get a little older version. I installed using Synaptic but then updated it by downloading directly from the site or follow this link to download the version 3.7.6. This is latest at the time of writing but it may be best to just get it from the website here. Once downloaded and installed, we move to a very simple and straightforward Step 2.

2. Download Jagannatha Hora ( JH ) - I am sure if you have come here searching on net, you don't need introduction to this software but in any case I admire the author of this software Mr. P. V. R Narsimha Rao for various reasons. One I consider him my Guru and as I am just a beginner to the world of astrology I find his to book the best reference one can get. I purchased it in 2006 when it was not easily available in UK but now the book itself is included in the software. Though the topic of this post does not require mention of book, I will take a moment to write few words on it. As the author is an engineer from IIT, his approach to subject was structured much like an engineering book. Very logical flow that takes you through the concepts in a way I have not found in any other book till date. It does not mean I don't like other authors. It just means that I recommend this to any beginner as it makes the concepts easy to grasp. OK, now back to topic, if you don't already know, you can get this software by following this link - http://www.vedicastrologer.org/jh/

Once you download the zip file, extract it in the same folder. Just remember where you extracted. The file you have extracted will be named - jh_full_install.exe.

3. Install JH using POL - Open the Play on Linux software. In Kubuntu you will find it by clicking KLauncher -> Applications -> Games. Once it starts, click on "Install".

This will open a new window as shown below:

In this window, click on the line in lower left hand side corner - “Install a .pol or an unsupported application”. This will close the above window and open the window shown below:

(Please note that if this window does not close, it appears that Play On Linux has hanged. In such case click on cross to close that window and it will show an error message suggesting that “PlayOnLinux” is not responding or something to that effect but you select to force close it and you will still land up on the next window. I found that this problem went away when I installed the latest version 3.7.6.)

a) In this window select “Manual installation” and click on “Next”.

b) On the next window that appears, click “Forward”.

c) You will be presented with another window with choices. Default choice being – “Install a program in a new prefix”. Keep it selected or if it is not selected, select it and click on “Forward”,

d) Next will be presented a window asking name for wine prefix. Type “Jhora” and click “Forward”

e) On the next window, there will be two check-boxes. Leave them un-ticked, do nothing and click Forward.

f) Once prefix is created, you will be presented with this window. Browse to the the file extracted in step 2 and then press Forward.

g) Now it should start installing and once complete, it will ask if you want it to be shown on desktop. I chose Yes but it will be up to personal preference.

As you can see in the screenshot, Play On Linux can also be used to install Spotify and 7zip, but more importantly you can see that an entry for Jhora has now been created.

Finally on desktop you should be able to see the link for JH as can be seen in the screen-shot as shown in the beginning of this post..

You should now be able to use JH without any problems.

Hope you found this post useful.

-Ankit.

Install Maitreya - Vedic Astrology Software on Ubuntu / Kbuntu

2010-03-22T22:31:00.005Z

Maitreya on Ankit's Desktop

First I must thank the Maitreya developers for coming up with such a wonderful Vedic Astrology software that works on Linux. I am not aware of any other vedic astrology software that works on Linux. Next I have to say that the install instructions on the site (and in the tarball) are not written with a newbie in mind and I had to struggle a bit before I could get it to work. The compiling of source code is really similar for I guess all source codes in general on linux and in particular in Ubuntu / Kubuntu but thing is when you are new to the platform and probably have almost all required software in repositories you rarely come across a situation where you need to compile from a source code to install your favourite software. Anyway so without wasting time in chit-chat, below is the step by step installation of Maitreya 6 on Ubuntu / Kubuntu:

Download Maitreya 6 tarball.
Prepare the system for installing
Install wxWidgets 2.8 Dependencies
Configure and Build
Install
Create a desktop icon

1. Download Maitreya 6 tarball - From your browser goto http://maitreya.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/maitreya/ and click on the link "Download GNU tarball". This will download the maitreya.tar.gz file on your system.

2. Prepare the system for installing - I used the instructions from ubuntu help documentation that can be found here. However, I have documented the step that I used in sequence to achieve the objective.

Open the terminal.
Type - sudo apt-get install build-essential checkinstall
You will be asked for the password. Enter it.
Once system completes the above instruction and is ready to take next instruction then Type: sudo apt-get install cvs subversion git-core mercurial
Next type: sudo chown yourusername /usr/local/src Please note that here you need to put the your user name so don't just copy paste. So if say user name is "ankit" , you will type sudo chown ankit /usr/local/src
Next Type: sudo chmod u+rwx /usr/local/src

Now the system is prepared for installing.

3. Install wxWidgets 2.8 Dependencies - As mentioned on Maitreya site, the software depends on wxWidgets 2.8 and corresponding packages must be installed. On the site itself is given the code that needs to copied onto the terminal to achieve this.

Either from the site or from below select the text.
sudo apt-get install libwxbase2.8-0 libwxbase2.8-dev libwxgtk2.8-0 libwxgtk2.8-dev wx2.8-headers wx2.8-i18n
Press Ctrl+C
Goto Terminal window and press Ctrl+Shift+V or click on Edit from top menu and select Paste.
Press enter.
You may have to provide password.
This should now install wxWidgets 2.8

4. Configure and Build - There are few things that should be done before we start to configure the downloaded source code.

First goto the folder where maitreya.tar.gz file was downloaded in Step 1.
Now right click and select "Extract Archive To".
Select the location /usr/local/src
This will extract a folder named maiterya into the location /usr/local/src

The content downloaded may change in future but at the time of writing this article it has two folders maitreya5 and maitreya6. All next steps will assume that folders name maitreya6 is present in your download but if not you will just have to replace with whatever folder is inside the extracted maitreya folder.

Goto your termincal window and type: cd /usr/local/src/maitreya/maitreya6/trunk
Now type ./configure.
If it gives some bash error like permission denied or file does not exist etc try sh ./confgure. This is what worked from me though everywhere instructions were to just use without sh.
It will take a bit of time but it should complete without any error and end with some instructions about using "make".
Now type make on terminal.
It should be done with no errors if all steps were followed correctly so far.

5. Install - Again there were options around using sudo make install but the ubuntu help I have referred to (link above), suggested that checkinstall is better and it also creates a .deb file and I like the idea so that next time if I have to reinstall I don't need to do all this circus so I used the following and would recommend the same.

So in terminal window type sudo checkinstall.
When you run it it will ask some questions like doc-pak is not there, do you want to create?(Y) just type Y.
Then it shows some options and asks if you want to edit. I typed 2 to edit name and entered Maitreya.
It threw a warning that maitreya 6-1_i386 is not complaint with debian standard or something to that effect and I just pressed enter.
After this it was all fine and finally a message was shown telling a debian package has been created and to remove use dpkg ...

The software should now be installed and you can test it by clicking the file named Maitreya6 at Location - /usr/local/src/maitreya/maitreya6/trunk/src/gui. However if you want to access it easily from desktop there is just one more step.

6. Create a desktop icon - To create a desktop icon goto the folder /usr/local/src/maitreya/maitreya6/trunk and copy the file maitreya6.desktop and paste in on desktop.

This is it you have now installed the Maitreya software !!!

Audio problem in Wine under KDE 4.4.1 - Solved

2010-03-19T23:38:00.002Z

I was trying to install spotify on linux which used to work perfectly on Gnome and when I tried on KDE it was giving error box. I wrote winecfg on terminal and got following error:

fixme:jack:JACK_drvLoad error loading the jack library libjack.so.0, please install this library to use jack

After a bit of google I found the answer to be as simple as running this command on terminal:

sudo apt-get install libjack0

After this audio was working fine. Hope this helps few others.
=-=-=-=-=
Powered by Blogilo

Configure BlogTK 1.0 for blogger

2010-03-15T22:27:00.002Z

Right so I am happy with Blogilo, then why BlogTK?

It so happened that I was trying to edit my last post and for some unknown reason I was getting error in updating through Blogilo. I was not able to update through Blogilo and I think it is because of the snapshots included in the post.

Anyhoo...so I installed BlogTK and after entering the details I found it not connecting so I opened the gnome-blog and then when I was configuring its preference I saw the default entry in the field XML/RPC URL - http://www.blogger.com/api/RPC2

I opened BlogTK, Edit -> Accounts and Settings and then in Server URL entered - http://www.blogger.com/api/RPC2

Next entered username and password fields. Clicked Save and then OK. Now on main window File-> Connect and it showed the message connected to server at http://www.blogger.com/api/RPC2.
I was then able to edit the post however the Edit post etc were not all that great and meanwhile I found that Blogilo is working fine so am back to Blogilo.

Not a huge tip and am sure many might already know but it took me a while to work out the working configuration.

However, if someone knows better way to connect, please do let me know as BlogTK sure wasn't living up to the name and fame it has with this way of configuration so maybe there is a better way to do it.
=-=-=-=-=
Powered by Blogilo

KUBUNTU Blog Entry

2010-03-07T23:33:00.004Z

This is how my love for Kubuntu has started....and growing by the minute...

I was experimenting with different Linux distros and then I went ahead with Linux Mint – which is quite popular and is know as “ubuntu done right”. I liked it and started dwelling more and played around with themes and such before I figured it is becoming kind of prescriptive and thought will actually play with the a distro with KDE not too far from Ubuntu – Kubuntu and boy was I surprised with the difference … all to their own opinion but mine is KDE is one helluva beautiful thing....the stuff that is done here is simply amazing …. alright once I was done with dropping my jaw at every step I figured there is a bit of learning curve right from the word go and so before I start forgetting what all I have learnt I felt it will be safe jotting it all down and thus this post:

OK, so lets start with all the steps involved:

How to upgrade Ubuntu 9.10 to Kubuntu 9.10
Restoring the default panel at bottom of the screen?
Problems with system audio, you-tube audio and how it all finally started working for me.
Change the theme.
Change the splash screen
How I managed to change the Log-in Screen (KDM Screen)
Finally, This is how I changed my boot splash screen

Right so if any of this catches your fancy, please be my guest...:)

1. How to upgrade Ubuntu 9.10 to Kubuntu 9.10:

Plenty of information on the website and better presented at the one site than other. I liked the way it was explained here:

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/kde

This site is also a good source of information in general so well worth a bookmark.

2. Restoring the default panel at bottom of the screen?

Once I finished installing Kubuntu as per the instruction from above link, I started playing around and ended up deleting the panel thus learning about how to get that back. In the process I learnt important lesson on making a backup of setting as soon as you have configured system to your first level of satisfaction as if you do not take this precaution you will have to start all over again.

The steps I took were:as below:

◦ Goto Applications tab, click on Settings → Terminal and open the terminal, Type following commands:

◦ sudo cp -R ~/.kde .kde_backup

◦ sudo rm -rfv .kde

◦ kquitapp plasma-desktop

◦ sudo restart

This is it. Now once the system restarts, your panel will be in place. However you will have to put all your configuration again. So to avoid that in future, repeat first two steps and next time you end up in similar situation all you need to do is give this command sudo cp -R ~/.kde_backup .kde and you should be good to go.

3. Problems with system audio, you-tube audio and how it all finally started working for me.

When I opened a video on youtube, I was not getting any sound. After some googling with no results I tried this and again today after restoring panel the sound was gone and trying this made it work so I assume at-least for all Dell Inspiron 1525 this should work.

Open the voice control by clicking on volume icon in system tray and clicking on Mixer as and then unmute the “Headphone” as shown below:

After this I restarted the computer and logged into GNOME session, and played a youtube video. Sound was coming alright. I logged out from GNOME session and logged in again in KDE session and tried a video on youtube and it was working fine.

4. Change the theme and wallpaper.

To change the theme, it is quite simple. Just right click anywhere on desktop and select desktop settings, and under theme either select the available option or download from available options and install. For wallpaper also do the same thing.

5. Change the splash screen

Download the splash screen. I downloaded “Kcarbon” splash screen from

http://kde-look.org/index.php?xcontentmode=35x45 as it was going nicely with my desktop theme and wallpaper.

Once it was downloaded, I opened from Application Menu → Computer → System Settings → Appearance (under look and feel section) → Splash Screens to get to this screen and then click install, select location where you downloaded the tar file.

6. How I managed to change the Log-in Screen (KDM Screen)

***********UPDATE**************

1. Open the "System Settings" KDE application.
2. Choose the "Advanced" tab.
3. Go to "Login Manager".
4. Choose "Theme" tab.
5. Click on the "Install new theme" button.
6. Choose the compressed file and click ok.

*********************************

This one was rather flaky solution. I could not find anything that could change the initial background screen where we enter user credentials and password. This is called KDM Theme as I learnt while finding out how to do it. Several searches on google talked about something called KDM Theme Manager but they are all old mails and for new KDE 4+ it comes pre-installed and I did not know what to do. So I downloaded one of the KDM themes from http://kde-look.org and unzipped it into the following location as root.

kdesudo dolphin /usr/share/kde4/apps/kdm/themes/

Next, I renamed the folder “oxygen-air” as “oxygen-air_old” and the downloaded and unzipped folder as “oxygen-air”.

This is it. When I restarted I had the brand new KDM Theme to my satisfaction.:)

7. Finally, This is how I changed my boot splash screen:

I tried many suggestions but only after going through the whole GRUB2 entries as explained on this link I got the result I was looking for. However, I did have to do a little bit of trial and error so I will put the steps that finally worked for me. These may also come handy if you do not want to know in depth about all GRUB 2 stuff.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195275&highlight=grub2

In GIMP, open the image you want to show as the background when GRUB shows choices to select which OS you want to load at start-up
Now goto Image -> Scale and then enter height as 640, press tab.
Now save the image as a .png file.
in the terminal type - kdesudo dolphin /usr/share/images/desktop-base
Copy the image saved in step 3 and paste it in the desktop-base folder
Now in the terminal type - kdesudo kate /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme
This will open 05_debian_theme file with kate text editor.
Go to line 16 and find the following line and edit the highlighted area, replacing it with the name of image copied into desktop-base folder in Step 5

for i in {/boot/grub,/usr/share/images/desktop-base}/moreblue-orbit-grub.{png,tga} ; do

Save the file and in the terminal type: sudo update-grub2
sudo reboot

This is it. Now once the system boots you should be able to see the image as background.

O2 XDA Serra - Official HTC upgrade with TF3D of Touch Pro 2

2009-10-07T18:57:00.016+01:00

Click on the photo above to see it in its full glory !!!

Ever since I laid my hands on O2 XDA Serra aka HTC Raphael aka HTC Touch Pro , I have always loved the device despite it’s limitations on battery life and have found some really useful apps during my association with windows mobile (for last five years or so) which found their way onto Serra as well. While I have known for a while that we can flash ROMS, I was perhaps over protective when it came to Serra and never really went beyond doing a HardSPL for device but last Sunday when I was fiddling with the facebook application and SMS registration, I realised that each time I sent an SMS and then tried to open the internet explorer or opera they will just crash demanding a soft reset. I could instantly find the problem to be Kaspersky Anti-Virus(KAV) failure. It is not possible to remove KAV without a hard reset at least not to my knowledge. (A hard reset is what brings your device back to factory conditions). Now since a Hard Reset would mean lot of work in terms of reinstalling all my beloved apps etc, I figured I might as well see if there is some other ROM I could use. This is what triggered my quest.

What started as fixing the issue caused with a Kaspersky Anti Virus failure rendering crashes to internet browsers on my HTC Touch Pro ended in my pleasantly getting a complete device makeover and in the process making my gadget work way better than it was working before. Lovely GUI, great Facebook integration, faster boot time and most important of all a functional GPS, yes you read it right a functional GPS. The problem that plagued almost all handsets provided by O2.

I must start by saying that if it worked for me it must work for you but if it does not please don’t hold me responsible. Another thing you must know is doing a HardSPL strips your device of the warranty. There is a way of putting back the StockSPL for warranty reasons but I have not tried it but then it does not sound too complicated. You may also find views on forums that suggest installing a cooked ROM is better but as I said I am too much in love with the device to install flaky ROMs I actually opted for the official update ROM released by HTC and then gave it the touchflo3d of touch pro 2 and after some tweaks here and there which I will all list down, I am completely (I stress the word completely) satisfied with the final results.

Ok so now over to the process:

What are we trying to achieve?

1. To install the manufacturer provided ROM

2. To get the handset a good look and feel.

3. Ensure that GPS functions

4. To get phone address book integrated with face-book so you can get your contacts pictures from their FB profile onto your device.

5. To get Weather for the local city that may not be present in the default list.

6. Gmail sync to ensure Gmail is configured as push mail on your device.

7. The Google calendar sync to your on device outlook calendar.

What do we need?

1. A windows PC / laptop.

2. O2 XDA Serra / HTC Raphael / HTC Touch Pro

3. USB cable to connect XDA to PC / laptop

4. At least a 1 GB Mini SD Card. Considering you have XDA, you may want to get a bigger capacity memory card (of up to 8GB or 16GB…). I have a 8GB one.

5. Access to internet.

6. A good data plan that will ensure good use of the effort you are about to put in.

7. Downloaded cabs and

ROM.

You can either download all in bulk from here (http://www.mediafire.com/?l12vaj688qwh85w) (I have uploaded them for ease as a bundle) or follow the links and download individually under each section.

8. and as I always ask, lot of patience.

Steps:

1. HardSPL

2. Install HTC ROM

3. Install touchflo3d

4. Install Dialler

5. Install .net 3.5 and weather database editor

6. Configure Device

7. Configure Email

Step 1: HardSPL

Now to start, we will first need to apply HardSPL to the device. I do not know what the words SPL stand for but what I have come to understand after reading for hours on XDA-developer forums is that if you want to install ROM that is not provided by the vendor who sold you the device (O2 in my case), you will need to apply this HardSPL or you may either not be able to install the new ROM or may even be at risk of bricking your device. HardSPL is not complicated and all credit goes to developers at xda-developer community. You will have official instructions if you follow this link < http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=410150>.

For the sake of completeness, I am anyway including instructions here.

************text borrowed from XDA-developer website************

Instructions:

1) download Hard-SPL package from attachment, extract to an empty folder. make sure it's launched from a local drive (not through network drive, etc.)

2) you must Have Phone Synced with PC in Windows Mobile!

3) run RaphaelHardSPL-Unsigned_190_1_3.exe,

4) follow steps in the RUU, check device for prompts after PC shows loading bar.

5) it should go to black screen now.

6) SPL flashes, device automatically reboots, job done.

7) to confirm you got it installed, go into bootloader mode (tricolour screen!) and verify the screen shows 1.90.OliNex.

NOTE 1: you will not see the SPL version during normal boot, that is the OS version, not SPL!
to enter bootloader mode to see version: with the device turned on, press and hold the volume down button, then press the reset button with the stylus tip, then release the volume down button when bootloader tricolour screen appears.

NOTE 2: anyone having problems with the device entering SSPL automatically, please copy SSPLManual.exe from second attachment to the device and run it. then once the screen is black, run RUU manually. i.e. you run the RUU on the PC, if it isn't obvious.

NOTE 3: this is unsigned Hard-SPL. no limitations on flashing ROMs or radio packages. also, this has overwrite protection, if someone needs to revert to stock SPL for warranty reasons, we will soon post a stock SPL downgrade package.

NOTE 4: do not use this RUU for anything other than SPL flashing (i.e. hardspl or stock spl restore)!!! if you want to flash some other rom, then use customruu from: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=410761

---------

Step by step how to return to stock spl - for warranty reasons only!

0. be sure to first restore stock OS, and stock radio. stock SPL is always to be done last!!

1. download the stock spl package from this post.

2. also download the original hardspl from the attachments in this post.

3. run the hardspl exe but do not click anything in RUU yet. just let the hardspl EXE extract the files for flashing.

4. the SPL you want to revert to is a .NBH file, put the NBH in the extracted hardspl package, overwriting the original NBH file in it!

5. continue with the RUU (or if needed, run SSPL-Manual.exe manually, then run RUU when it goes to black screen), it goes to 100%, reboots, done.

+6. to verify, volume down + reset, see version number on tricolour screen, should now just say 1.90.0000.

************************************************************

Step 2: Install HTC ROM

Straight forward really. Connect your phone to the PC through the USB cable. Ensure that a connection is established with pc through active sync. Now double click on the ROM update utility (RUU) (RUU_Raphael_HTC_Europe_5.05.401.1_R2_Radio_Signed_Raphael_52.58.25.30_1.11.25.01_Ship) and it will guide you through the process.

If you want to directly download from HTC the link is http://www.htc.com/uk/SupportDownload.aspx?p_id=140&cat=2&dl_id=501

You will have to use the non-O2 serial number. The one I used was HT833K016924.

(Now if all went well what follows is the non-risky bit. To be honest I don’t even understand why we have to do this but then that’s the process and I was not about to experiment on my lovely instrument based on my limited knowledge led beliefs so I did this nonetheless.)

Once completed it will restart XDA. Once it reaches the screen where it asks to configure Stylus, do a Hard Reset by pressing the Volume down key and the enter key (Round centre key) simultaneously and pressing the reset key with your stylus. (Reset Key is a small hole at the bottom of your handset next to the charging slot.) Once the system switches off release the reset key but continue to hold Volume Down key and enter key.

It will now show a screen cautioning you that if you continue it will result in loss of data and if you wish to continue press Vol Up key. Press the Vol up key now. I don’t distinctly remember but I think it asked me twice to press Vol Up which I did. Basically just follow the instructions.

That should sort out the new ROM installation.

Now at this stage, you would have got rid of the O2 splash screen which has given way to elegant Touch Pro splash screen. This itself was an extreme form of happiness as I was not a huge fan of the O2 splash screen anyway. Ok you may want to take a moment with the new screen and play around. If you are happy and are not overly worried about facebook integration, I will recommend that you skip to Step 5. If however you want FB integration and would want a more Touch Pro 2 kind of interface there is still some work to be done. Moving on, then to Step 3.

Step 3: Install touchflo3d

************text borrowed from XDA-developer website************

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=542113

Instructions

1) Disable "TouchFLO 3D" from your Today items. Soft reset.

2) Go to System Settings, "Power", and uncheck all of the Options on the "Advanced" tab.

3) Install the "Gen.Y_Manila_R1_5.cab" (install may take 10 minutes or more). DO NOT RESTART.

4) Install Language Pack cab 0409 Gen.Y_Manila_R1_5. DO NOT RESTART.

5) Install the HTC Scroll_1_0_1914_2726 cab file. NOW SOFT RESET.

Done!

************************************************************

I did not install anything in the optional installs but if you would want to, you can follow the instructions on the post by Captain Throwback on the link above. The version I downloaded was R1.5 which is included in the pack.

Step 4: Install Dialler

I downloaded the dialler from ppcgeek forums, many thanks to them. It is not available on the link provided in xda-developer post. If you want to download from there, you will have to register on their site and do a bit of googling. Alternatively, it is included in the pack above, just the non confusing cab file named - .

Move it to your memory card on phone. Now from XDA go to the location where you saved it and click the cab to install it. It will take about 3 to 5 minutes.

Step 5: Install .net 3.5 and weather database editor

Copy the < NETCFv35.wm.armv4i> cab(.net 3.5) and < WeatherDatabaseEditor 1.1 Modified> cab(weather DB) onto the memory card on your device. Now first install .net 3.5 by clicking the cab file from the location where you copied it.

To install weather DB follow the steps below:

5.1. Install Weather Database Editor

5.2. find your locCode on http://www.accuweather.com. (Example: Accuweather URL for Northwich in

is : http://www.accuweather.com/world-index-forecast.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&loccode=EUR|UK|UK123|Northwich, The locCode is EUR|UK|UK123|Northwich)

5.3. Now open the weather DB on XDA, select your country and then select a city that begins with the same alphabet as your city and the one you are unlikely to use. For this example lets say - Nuneaton. Click on Edit -> Edit City.

5.4. Now change the name of city to the one you want and in “Accu Weather Code” Field enter the locCode obtained in Step 5.2. For our example it would be - EUR|UK|UK123|Northwich

5.5. Click on File and exit.

5.6. Go to Weather tab and add your city and update the weather.

(NOTE: Steps 5.7 to 5.9 are not relevant to you if you directly jumped to this section from Step 2 and have not installed the new TF3D)

5.7. Go to home page on XDA and click on watch, now click on “Add City” and add the local city.

5.8. Make this as your default city by clicking the radio button.

5.9 Now click on Menu-> Rearrange Cities and bring your local city to top of the list.

This is it, we will now move to next step.

Step 6: Configure Device

Many people don’t care to update the owner details but I think it is important to have that updated and hence my first step when I am done with initial installations and all is to update owner details. This ensures that if phone is lost and lands in honest hands you still have a chance of getting it back. It did happen to me so it isn’t a fairy tale…J

Click on Windows icon -> Settings-> All Settings ->Personal -> Owner Information and update these details. Ensure that the telephone number you enter is different than the one for this instrument else it pretty much defies the purpose of entering this information on the first place.

Next give your XDA a name. Click on Windows icon -> Settings-> All Settings -> System -> About. -> Device ID. Update your device name and description.

Personalise weather updates. Slide over to weather, add any other cities you are interested in and click update now.

I recommend that you install registry editor through the cab file provoded in my bundle named and a file Explorer named but these are completely optional

Your basic configuration is now complete.

Step 7: Configure Email

If you use hotmail or live and you have a good data plan (mine is unlimited internet usage) it may be a good idea to configure windows live as that ensures push mail so you have instant delivery of your mail as soon as it arrives into your handset. To do this, Click on Windows icon -> All Programmes -> Windows Live. Enter details and configure. Ensure that you change sync settings from “Manual” to “As soon as it comes” and the time schedule according to your needs.

Gmail has recently introduced Gmail Sync that can sync your email, calendar and address book. They have provided instructions but they were not exactly mapping to how it was shown on my device. I instead used the following route.

Connect your phone to your PC / laptop through ActiveSync and open Device Centre. Now click on Setup device -> Sync Setup and in server name enter m.google.com. enter your username and password. The SSL checkbox is clicked by default so let it remain. If it is not checked, please select it in the checkbox.

Save settings. Now under items to be synced, of the three : email, calendar and address book select whichever you want synced…(Remember if you set anything other than these three to be synced through exchange nothing will work on Google Sync). I did not want my address book sync with Gmail so I left it and for other two I changed the sync settings to Exchange server. This is it your email will now be delivered into outlook mailbox on your XDA. You may want to check in your Gmail settings that you have activated IMAP or else even though this setup is correct you will not get mails delivered.

Congratulations on successful completion of the whole process. Now enjoy the new look XDA with enhanced capabilities!!!

Sony VAIO N-VIDIA setup to make S-Video work

2009-09-16T21:06:00.009+01:00

************UPDATE for 9.10***************
For Ubuntu 9.10 I was just not able to get it work and finally I figured it out. The problem is with the latest Nvidia driver, the one that ubuntu says recommended. In order to make your TV Out work, you must uninstall the latest release version and install the one just lower than that. (The working version for me was 173.) Then follow these steps:
sudo nvidia-xconfig
sudo reboot
sudo nvidia-settings
Then follow the steps shown below. If you are lucky you wont need to refer Section A of this post at all. I did not have to do that !!!
Cheers,
Ankit
***************UPDATE for 9.10***************
S-Video did not work out of the box on ubuntu Sony Vaio combination but it was not difficult to have it sorted once the following steps were taken.

I am giving the steps to set-up TV-Out assuming your n-videa file is working fine, if not follow steps in Section A before completing steps below.

Step 1: Connect laptop and TV through S-Video Cable.
Step 2. System->Administration->Nvidia X-Server Settings
Step 3: Click on X-Server Display Configuration and then click on "Detect Displays". If you have connected fine, the screen should be something like this:

Step 4: Click on the TV icon, follwing screen will appear.

Step 5: Click on "Configure" and then select "Twinview"

Step 6: Now I found that keeping TV on left ensured that while using dailymotion fullscreen it will come on TV but keeping on right it came on laptop monitor so you may want to depending on ur preference change the location to left as shown below.

This is it.You should now be able to watch streaming video on ur TV...:)

Section A:

I found the most useful instructions below, but I did have to make few tweaks.

Source: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=98456

Right, I will walk step by step based on the guide from the source mentioned above and mention the changes / tweaks I did to make it work on my laptop. I am sure it should work with same conf on other VAIO as well.

Step 1: Aplication-> Accessories-> Terminal
Step 2: Type sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup
Step 3: You will need to enter password at this stage. Enter the password.
Step 4: Now Type: sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Difference in old and new xorg.conf files:
I used the following ommand on terminal to compare the old and new .conf files:

diff -u /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup /etc/X11/xorg.conf

The numbers between @@ represent Row number and column number. - stands for old and + for new.

*************************************
@@ -61,9 +61,9 @@
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
- ModelName "TV-0"
- HorizSync 28.0 - 55.0
- VertRefresh 43.0 - 72.0
+ ModelName "Nvidia Default Flat Panel"
+ HorizSync 29.0 - 49.0
+ VertRefresh 0.0 - 60.0
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
@@ -110,12 +110,14 @@

# Removed Option "TwinView" "0"
# Removed Option "metamodes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
+# Removed Option "TwinView" "1"
+# Removed Option "metamodes" "TV: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, DFP: nvidia-auto-select +1024+0"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
- Option "TwinView" "1"
- Option "metamodes" "TV: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, DFP: nvidia-auto-select +1024+0"
+ Option "TwinView" "0"
+ Option "metamodes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection

*************************************

Copy of my xorg.conf and xorg.conf.backup

xorg.conf - CURRENT - WORKING VERSION

*****************************
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Nvidia Default Flat Panel"
HorizSync 29.0 - 49.0
VertRefresh 0.0 - 60.0
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "TV-0"
HorizSync 28.0 - 55.0
VertRefresh 43.0 - 72.0
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "NoLogo" "True"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce Go 7400"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce Go 7400"
Option "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"
Option "TVStandard" "PAL-G"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "Monitor[1]"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Configured Video Device"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
EndSection

Section "Screen"

# Removed Option "TwinView" "0"
# Removed Option "metamodes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
# Removed Option "TwinView" "1"
# Removed Option "metamodes" "TV: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, DFP: nvidia-auto-select +1024+0"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen1"
Device "Device1"
Monitor "Monitor1"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "TV: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

*****************************

xorg.conf.backup - OLD COPY

*****************************
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "TV-0"
HorizSync 28.0 - 55.0
VertRefresh 43.0 - 72.0
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "TV-0"
HorizSync 28.0 - 55.0
VertRefresh 43.0 - 72.0
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "NoLogo" "True"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce Go 7400"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce Go 7400"
Option "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"
Option "TVStandard" "PAL-G"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "Monitor[1]"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Configured Video Device"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
EndSection

Section "Screen"

# Removed Option "TwinView" "0"
# Removed Option "metamodes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "1"
Option "metamodes" "TV: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, DFP: nvidia-auto-select +1024+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen1"
Device "Device1"
Monitor "Monitor1"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "TV: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection
*****************************

Sony VAIO FE21H Webcam on skype

2009-09-15T21:34:00.004+01:00

Alright friends not a huge tip but still I, being new fan of Ubuntu, installed it on my media laptop...Sony VAIO...

one might ask what is media laptop...well I had a bit of problem with my Sony VAIO some 1.5 years back and a key got stuck and as it goes with any Sony product there was no cheap solution at hand...

At that time for some reason it appeared like a motherboard issue and I just bought another Dell laptop...later I realised that it was a keyboard issue so I invested in a wireless keyboard and had two lappies at home just like that :)...I figured that with wireless keyboard VAIO laptop will make perfect companion to my 32" Samsung and hence it got the name of media laptop.

I use this laptop to browse without fear as I will never ever do any important work on it so am never worried of loosing..not that I ended up having any virus at all....and now with Linux I doubt if there will ever be any virus on this laptop....but anyway I have gone on a tangent...

What I started to tell was a tip on how we can make VAIO's inbuilt motioneye webcam to behave and the tip goes as below...

Incase ur webcam is not giving good images on ur Sony VAIO, u may want to try this:

1. Goto System->Preferences->Main Menu
2. In Main Menu window click on Internet in left hand navigation under "Menu" and then click on Skype" in right hand under "Items".
3. Now click on "Properties" button.
4. It will open a Launcher Properties dialogue box.
5. In third field "Command" replace "Skype" with this line:
bash -c 'LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype'

That is it. You should now have a properly working motioneye with skype.

There is more info on this link:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Webcam

Ciao !!!

Get Gmail as Push Email on Sony P990i

2009-08-13T21:13:00.004+01:00

While I have moved on from P990i which is now in safe hands of my dear wife, I remember doing some good amount of web searching and still had no idea how to set up push-mail on P990i.

I then thought I will configure a mail anyway and to my surprise the device is capable of enabling push-mail on it's own as I found while fiddling along. Anyway I have configured push-mail for wifey dear and she was mighty impressed...:-)

The steps I followed are as below:

Main Menu -> Tools -> Control Panel -> Messaging -> Email Accounts -> New
Fill Account Name as Gmail
Your Name as ..well... your name..:)
Email Address - Your gmail address
In Connection Type select IMAP from the drop down list.
Tick on Push email
Now goto "Inbox" Tab.
Type imap.gmail.com under "Incoming Server Address"
Type your email address "xyz@gmail.com" under "Username"
Enter your "password" under "Password"
Depending on you data plan you might want to put something else but I have unlimited internet plan so I have selected "No Restriction" under "Download Restrictions"
Limit number of Emails - I have selected 100, you can chose as per your needs.
Receive using Group - Select the group of internet account that has your phone provider configured. (I am assuming that you have already configured internet settings on your phone. If not that is a separate topic but you can easily find information on user manual so at the moment let's consider it as out of scope for this entry.)
Now goto "Outbox" Tab.
Type "smtp.gmail.com" under "Outgoing Server Address"
Tick the checkbox "Use SMTP Authentication"
Tick the checkbox "Use Inbox Login details"
Select the same internet group as above under "Send using Group"
Now click on the arrow next to "Email account" on top of the screen and click on "Advanced" from the dropdown list
Under "Incoming" tab Select "SSL" under the field "Secure connection"
Type "993" under field "Incoming mail port"
Next in "Outgoing" tab under "Secure Connection" filed select "TLS"
Type "587" under field "Outgoing mail port"
Tick the checkbox "Use MIME encoding"
Click on "Save"
Click on "Save" again
Now the screen will show Gmail listed as your email account.
On this screen again click on the arrow next to Email account on top of the screen and select "Always on Pushmail".
Tick the checkbox next to "Always On"
Select the timings and select the phone providers datasetting name under "Internet Account" and click "Save".

This is it. You are now all set to receive your mails on the go...

Have fun !!!

AAO A150L: Step by Step Installation Process for Linux4one

2009-08-11T22:12:00.008+01:00

Linux4one is the only Linux distro other than pre-installed Linpus that worked out of the box on my and two other Acer aspire one A150L which belonged to my friends. With the GUI same as that for Ubuntu Netbook Remix, it is a fantastic OS to have on your machine. The only downside I felt was that the icons looked little washed out compared to those on actual UNR but that is not so much of an issue. Everything pretty much worked out of the box which matters the most. I did find the splash screen at the time of start-up a little childish but again these are not major issues.

However if you would rather have a more professional look and feel, Ubuntu may be your choice. Refer to other post on step by step process for installing Ubuntu Netbook Remix but be forewarned that not everything works as well on UNR as of now, at least not for me. I am still working and finding out more on how these can work but given the fact that my knowledge of Linux is zero it can take some time. I have compiled these tutorials solely by hunting on net and felt this will be my way of giving back to community. I hope you find it useful. If you do find this useful, please don’t forget to put a comment. A thanks will be enough to keep me motivated.

Without further ado, the process is as below.

You will need:

Two 2GB card with a USB Card Reader or a 2GB USB stick formatted to FAT32
One 1GB card with a USB Card Reader or a 1GB USB stick formatted to FAT32
One PC / Laptop with optical drive (DVD Drive) and windows installed as this tutorial uses a Windows based laptop.
Ensure that you AAO is having a constant AC supply and you are not relying on battery.
Lot of patience

1. Create a recovery USB for Acer Aspire One A150L: (Optional)

This should be quite straight forward. Insert the recovery DVD that came with your Acer Aspire One A150. Connect the 2GB Card / USB stick and start the process.

On different laptops this may mean pressing a different function key (F1 to F12) but generally it will be F2, F8 or F12.

So once your laptop shows the first screen after switching on, at that time press the relevant key to enter the boot set-up, now goto boot and change the order of boot to select DVD as first preference. Now press F10 to save and exit.

Your laptop will now boot using the recovery DVD and should help you create the recovery USB.

It is best to once test if the recovery USB is working or not. You can do so by now plugging your recovery DVD into AAO and starting it, press F12 and change the boot order to make USB disk the first option. If the recovery USB is created properly it will start the recovery process.

If this does not happen, you are among the unfortunate few who received a faulty DVD as I have seen many posts around these. In such situations, you will find this blogpost very handy:

http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/12/acer-aspire-one-recovery-dvd.html

macles.blogspot.com has a wealth of information on how to customise Linpus Linux and everything on this site is explained very nicely so incase you want to stick to Linpus Linus, it is worth to bookmark this site.

Anyway, now one way or the other once your recovery USB is ready, we have minimised the risk of not being able to restore to factory conditions in case you do not like the end result of what we have set out to achieve.

2. Update BIOS Version to latest V.3309 (Optional)

You will be able to download the latest BIOS V.3309 from ACER website. The ftp link to the site is ftp://ftp.acer-euro.com/netbook/aspire_one_110/bios/ and http link is http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_one_150.html

Once you have downloaded the latest version, you will need to make a bootable USB. I used Unetbootin which will be used later on for creating installatioon USB for Linux4one as well so you will need to now download it from here.

After downloading, connect your 1 GB Card / USB stick and run the unetbootin-windows-357.exe file and select the screen as shown below:

With this setup achieved, click OK. Once this is completed, extract all the files from BIOS zip file into the root of USB Drive. Remember it is important to have it in Root.

Now connect this USB drive to your Acer Aspire One, reboot it and press F12 to select the bootable device.System will show an error message around missing CD ROm. Ignore it. The AAO150 screen will now show A prompt A>.

Type C: in front of A> and press enter. This should change your drive to C>. Now type 3309.BAT.

This should start the flashing of BIOS to V.3309. Once completed AAO150 will reboot.

This is it. Your BIOS should now be updated to latest version.

3. Create a installation USB for Linux4one v1.1:

While the latest version of Linux4one is 1.5 and is available for download I was unable to make a successful installation USB from available iso. Therefore, I downloaded the V1.1 from this link:

http://downloads.quellicheilpc.com/linux4one/1.1/index.html

I don't know how long this version will be hosted there so I will at a later point in time try and upload this iso to some other filehost as well.

Once you have downloaded the iso, plug your 2GB card / USB and start Unetbootin.

Select the Disk image radio button as shown in figure and select the path for linux4one iso image that you have downloaded.Select the USB Drive and click OK.

This will take some time but once done it will ask for a restart. Do NOT restart and cancel it.

Your installation USB is now ready.

4. Install Linux4one

(Official Guide - http://www.linux4one.it/forum/index.php?topic=163.0)

Now plug the Installation USB made above and plug it into your AAO150 and boot it. Press F12 and select the boot device.

Once the system starts booting throgh USB you will be presented with the options, select Option "Install Linux4One".

Now the only place which turns out confusing could be when during installation it asks for partitioning. I did not want dual boot so I picked up option 2 which installs on whole hard drive.If you are not a power user, I don't recommend having dual boot for AAO150 but that has to be your call.

Right, this will ensure that your Linux4one V1.1 is now installed. At this stage, you will reboot, configure location keyboard etc etc and restart once again.

Check that all is working as expected so far. Only thing that I found not responding well was microphone. It was not working for Skype and hence the next step.

5. Download update script for Linux4one v1.5

(Official Guide - http://www.linux4one.it/forum/index.php?topic=1194.0)

Download the script from here onto your AAO150L using mozilla browser.

Now on goto Accessories and click on "Terminal". As mozilla downloads directly to "Desktop" directory you will need to change your directore accordingly. The easiest way will be to click on the "Desktop" link in right hand side navigator on your main screen. This will open the browser, now note the path to Desktop. In my case it was /home/Ankit/Desktop/ so I gave the following commands:

cd /home/Ankit/Desktop/

tar -xjvf linux4one-1.5.tar.bz2

cd linux4one-1.5

sudo ./aggiornamento.sh

After this it will start installing and ask several questions that you just type Y and press enter.

At one point it will also ask do you want to uninstall mozilla and you answer Y as anyway we will install it again in next step.

Right now with V1.5 the browser provided is IceCat which is same as mozilla anyway.

This will take about good 15 to 20 minutes but at the end you would have got latest version of Linux4one installed.

6. Install Mozilla (Optional):

With Linux4one installed, more than half of the work is already done but with last step mozilla was uninstalled and if you are used to Mozilla and would want to install it back it is quite straight forward. Just goto Administration and select Synaptic Package Manager. It will then ask you to enter your password to perform administrative tasks. You must now enter the password that you gave during installation.

It will now open a window. In Search field enter "mozilla" and it will show several options listed. If you scroll you will find an entry "firefox" under package. When you select that you can read the discription that will be something like "Safe and easy web browser from Mozilla". Select the checkbox next to this entry and click "Mark for Installation". It will show you dependencies, just say yes to everything and then it will download and install Mozilla Browser for you.

7. Install and configure Skype

Goto www.skype.com and download the skype version for Ubuntu 7.04 - 8.04. Mozilla browser will download it to Desktop folder. Now once the download is complete right click on the downloaded file and click on "Open with "GDebi Package Installer". You will be asked for password, enter the password you gave during installation of Linux4one. After that Skype installation will begin. There will be some dialogue boxes on dependencies for which you just click Yes / OK.

Once skype is installed it will appear as an icon in your desktop under Internet. If you want it under favourite, right click the icon and select add to favourite. This can be done for all installed softwares.

Now open skype, login and at left side bottom corner click on skype settings, select Options. Now in Options select "Video Devices" and click on Test to check that Webcam is set correct.

Next click on "Sound Devices" and click on Make a sound Test and Make a test call. If all is configured fine you should hear a voice and a test call will be made and in test call you will be asked to speak and what you speak will be played back that you should be able to hear.

It did not work for me at first but when I selected HDA Intel (hw:Intel,0) in all three it worked. However for my friends netbook I had to do more circus and if you are not able to resolve your mic issues, it is time to move to next step.

8. Modify Mic settings (Remember : you need to do this only if in previous step mic did not work.)

(Official Guide - http://www.linux4one.it/forum/index.php?topic=212.0 )

While there is some explanation on Official guide it took me some time to figure out how to get those windows to look like they do in the screenshots there.

First goto Preferences and scroll down. You will see "Sound" icon. Click on this and change "Sound Playback" and "Sound Capture" to OSS.

Next change the "Device" to "Realtek ALC268 (OSS Mixer)

Now close this window and click on Volume icon in right hand corner of screen and then click on Edit and select device. Then for HDA Intel (ALSA Mixer) select all options that are not selected - Capture, Capture 1, Beep, Input, Input 1. I have borrowed the image from link above to keep information at one place.

Ensure that on last tab you select "Mic" and not "Front Mic". That is it. This should complete the mic settings. Now we need to check it in Skype. In official tutorial they suggest testing with recorder but that did not work for my friends AAO150 but skype did. I figure we anyway need it for skype so why bother with voice recorder at all. So over to next step then.

9. Test Skype

Test skype the same way we did in step 7 and see if it is working. Click on "Sound Devices" and click on Make a sound Test and Make a test call. If all is configured fine you should hear a voice and a test call will be made and in test call you will be asked to speak and what you speak will be played back that you should be able to hear.

If this does not work try different combinations from the dropdown one should definitely work.

10. Extra – Install Moneydance (Optional)

OK now is one piece of software that is not used by everyone. Moneydance is a moneymanagement tool. It is a paid software that I use for managing my finances and have grown quite fond of it and dependent on it at the same time and I really wanted this installed on my netbook and it was one of the not so easy things to install but with following instructions it should be piece of cake really.

a) Download linux version of Moneydance from this here. Mozilla will download it into your Desktop folder.

(http://www.moneydance.com/download/2008/installers/Moneydance_linux_x86.tar.gz)

b) Now goto Accessories -> Terminal.

c) Type cd /home/YourUserName/Desktop/ and press enter

d) Type tar xfvz Moneydance_linux_x86.tar.gz and press enter

e) It will print following kind of stuff:

Moneydance/
Moneydance/.install4j/
Moneydance/.install4j/i4jruntime.jar
Moneydance/Moneydance
Moneydance/.install4j/firstrun
Moneydance/.install4j/i4jparams.conf
Moneydance/.install4j/MessagesDefault
Moneydance/.install4j/user.jar
Moneydance/appsrc.jar
Moneydance/jcommon-1.0.12.jar
Moneydance/jfreechart-1.0.9.jar
Moneydance/license.txt
Moneydance/moneydance.jar
Moneydance/moneydance_icon32.png

f) Now it will present the command prompt again. Type cd Moneydance

g) Now Type ./Moneydance

It will display testing JVM in /usr and then open the Monedance software.

This is it software is now installed.

Unfortunately, this does not create any icon that you can directly click everytime and can only be run by clicking on Moneydance.sh file in Monedance folder. So to make it easy do the following.

a) Goto Prefrences -> Main Menu -> Favourites.

b) Now click on "New Item". It will open a dialogue box 4 fields. In second field Enter "Moneydance".

c) In third field click on Browse and navigate to Desktop->Moneydance->Moneydance.sh

d) If you want to change the icon click on icon and select the one that you want.

e) Click OK.

This is it you are all done.

Ensure that now you restart your Acer Aspire One 150 atleast three times before you start using as I noticed that it was only after three or four restarts that everything was well settled.

11. Thats it friends....Now Enjoy.

Please let me know if you are stuck somewhere and I might be able to help.