ICS on HD2: Camera Now Somewhat Works!

December 31, 2011 digitaleagle Google Phone, HTC HD2, Uncategorized Leave a comment

This is a nice Christmas present: the camera now somewhat works on Tytung’s ICS Rom.

Here’s a screenshot just after I took a picture:

The preview doesn’t work. As you can see, it is just black. You can see the tiny thumbnail of the Christmas tree picture that I took though. When I select the thumbnail, it comes up like this:

Unfortunately, the phone keeps rebooting with the Camera application. I still not exactly sure what causes it. I tried to capture a log, but the app/phone wouldn’t cooperate. EdJones88 posted a work around to keep it from rebooting, but it is kind of impractical as far as I am concerned.

You can checkout my list of ICS Roms and watch as the ROM developers get things working.

Software to Watch: Vi Everywhere!

December 31, 2011 digitaleagle gVim, Software to Watch, Uncategorized 1 Comment

I made an effort several years ago to learn the vi key commands, and I have learned to like that user interface. The key combinations may take a bit to learn, but once you learn them, you can move around and edit quickly. I am always up for adding the Vi interface to more and more.

I found a web browser that uses similar key combinations:

S3hh Blog: Vimprobable web browser

You can read more about Vimprobable on the SourceForge Project Homepage.

To install the browser, I added the repository with this command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:serge-hallyn/vimprobable
sudo apt-get update

I used the Software Center to install it:

Or, you could just run:

sudo apt-get install vimprobable2

After it installs, you should find it in your menu:

Here’s what the browser looks like:

You can use J and K to move up and down in the page. o will open a page in the current window. / will search. f will follow links. y will copy the URL of your current page. H goes back to the previous page. You see the complete list on the Keybindings page.

The f command is pretty cool. You can select your link with a number. I pressed f on the project home page and I can go to the keybindings page by pressing 4.

The open command will also search when you don’t enter a URL. I typed “o digitaleagle”, and I got this:

If you’re not ready to bite off a whole new browser, you can settle for a plugin. S3hh also mentions a few more plugins to Chrome and Firefox:

I’ll spend some time messing with the vrome. I’ll have to report back after some time using it.

If I had a request for a vim-like tool, I would ask for a compiz-fusion tool. I want something where I can use vim-like keyboard shortcuts to navigate and control windows. Maybe it could use the F12 key or scroll lock instead of Escape.

If you’re still not satisfied with these tools, here are some more that I ran across in my search. (I didn’t have a chance to try all of them out):

Swype Works on ICS for me

December 20, 2011 digitaleagle Google Phone, HTC HD2, Uncategorized Leave a comment

I read on Engadget that Swipe was having some troubles on Android 4.0/Ice Cream Sandwich. Of course, they are talking about the Galaxy Nexus, and I am running it on my HD2, so maybe that is why it is different. Here’s what it looks like:

I installed the Swype from their beta website. If you want to get your own you can head here:

Swype Beta

Here’s a few more screenshots:

And here’s the actual settings for Swype.

Troubleshooting: Fixing Mono Compiler Issue

December 9, 2011 digitaleagle Gnome-RDP, Hacking, Uncategorized 2 Comments

I tried to open Gnome-RDP in Monodevelop, and this is the error that I get:

Could not obtain a C# compiler. C# compiler not found for Mono / .NET 3.5.

The fix is to simply change the compiler target on the project’s properties. Right click on the project and choose “Options”.

Then, change the runtime version.

Changing it to 4.0 fixes the project.

You may need to accept a message like this:

References

Ask Ubuntu: Could not obtain c# compiler error when using monodevelop

Installing MS Office on Ubuntu 11.10

December 8, 2011 digitaleagle Microsoft Office, Uncategorized, Wine 6 Comments

To exist in a world dominated by Microsoft products, you have to be able to coexist with others using those products. That includes connecting to shares via Samba, using remote desktop, and opening Office documents. When it comes to office documents, Libre Office does the job for the most part. I have had pretty good success using Libre Office even with Microsoft Office files. The problem comes when you bounce a document back and forth between Libre Office and Microsoft Office.

If you are working in a team with other Microsoft Office users, you are going to have to break down and install Microsoft Office. Below you will see the screenshots of how I installed Office. At the end, you can find other methods.

List of Ice Cream Sandwich ROMs for HD2

December 5, 2011 digitaleagle Google Phone, HTC HD2, Uncategorized 2 Comments

I have seen a flurry of activity on the XDA Forums for development of Ice Cream Sandwich/Android 4.0. So, I wanted to create my own little list of ROM threads.

Here’s a list of what I have found so far:

Update:

Jama’s Android 4.0.2 AOSP ICS CM9

If you want to watch the fun with me, check out this list of ROMS:

HTC HD2 ROMS

Note: I found an article on Engadget that suggests that we need to wait until January for ICS on Cyanogen.

On a side note, Engadget pointed out that my old phone (the G1) now has ICS, too! ICS is getting around!

VMWare won’t compile!

November 30, 2011 digitaleagle Uncategorized, Virtualization 1 Comment

I just had an issue with VMWare where the kernel modules would not compile. Here’s the details and the solution:

Details of the Error:

I get the “Unable to Start Services” and the Virtual Network Device has a warning symbol next to it:

Digging around in the log, this is the closest thing that I could find to an error:


vthread-3| I120: Host is Linux 2.6.41.1-1.fc15.x86_64 Fedora release 15 (Lovelock)
vthread-3| I120: Msg_Reset:
vthread-3| I120: [msg.dictionary.load.openFailed] Cannot open file "/usr/lib/vmware/settings": No such file or directory.
vthread-3| I120: ----------------------------------------
vthread-3| I120: PREF Optional preferences file not found at /usr/lib/vmware/settings. Using default values.
vthread-3| I120: Msg_Reset:
vthread-3| I120: [msg.dictionary.load.openFailed] Cannot open file "/home/skp/.vmware/config": No such file or directory.
vthread-3| I120: ----------------------------------------
vthread-3| I120: PREF Optional preferences file not found at /home/skp/.vmware/config. Using default values.
vthread-3| W110: Logging to /tmp/vmware-root/modconfig-2658.log
vthread-3| I120: modconf query interface initialized
vthread-3| I120: modconf library initialized
vthread-3| I120: Your GCC version: 4.6
vthread-3| I120: Validating path /lib/modules/preferred/build/include for kernel release 2.6.41.1-1.fc15.x86_64
vthread-3| I120: Failed to find /lib/modules/preferred/build/include/linux/version.h
vthread-3| I120: Failed version test: /lib/modules/preferred/build/include/linux/version.h not found.
vthread-3| I120: Validating path /lib/modules/2.6.41.1-1.fc15.x86_64/build/include for kernel release 2.6.41.1-1.fc15.x86_64
vthread-3| I120: Your GCC version: 4.6
vthread-3| I120: Your GCC version: 4.6

I can’t start the services manually:

$ sudo service vmware start
Starting vmware (via systemctl):  Job failed. See system logs and 'systemctl status' for details.
                                                           [FAILED]

If you start vmware from the command line, you’ll see this error buried in the output:

/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmnet-only/compat_netdevice.h:220:1: error: conflicting types for ‘netif_queue_stopped’

Here’s just a little more information about my system (Fedora 15):

$ uname -r
2.6.41.1-1.fc15.x86_64

Here’s my VMWare version:

$ vmplayer --version
VMware Player 4.0.1 build-528992

Applying the Fix

I found a post that suggested several fixes. First, I installed the hal package:

sudo yum install hal

I don’t know if that contributed toward the solution or not.

I had to downgrade to an earlier version of VMWare. To do so, I had to uninstall my current version with:

sudo vmware-installer -u vmware-player

After downloading the previous version, I installed it with:

sudo bash VMware-Player-4.0.0-471780.x86_64.txt

Next, I found a post with a patch.

cd /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source
sudo cp vmnet.tar backup_vmnet.tar
sudo wget -O vmnet.tar "http://forums.fedoraforum.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=22156&d=1321890579"

Then, I compiled the modules with:

sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all

I still got messages about the service not being able to start, but it still ran and booted my virtual machine.

Failed Attempt #1

While the above instructions solved my problem, let me walk you through some of the other things I tried. That might give you some more ideas if what worked for me didn’t work for you.

I found a post that suggested uninstalling and reinstalling. So, here is the how I did it:

First, I had to determine the exact name of what was installed:

$ vmware-installer -l
Product Name         Product Version
==================== ====================
vmware-player        4.0.1.528992

Then, here is the command:

sudo vmware-installer -u vmware-player

And after I downloaded the latest version, I had a “txt” file. It is really a script, so I ran it like this:

sudo bash VMware-Player-4.0.1-528992.x86_64.txt

Failed Attempt #2

Here’s something that I tried in case it might help you. It didn’t help me any.

I downloaded a patch from Weltall’s blog: vmware8linux31fix.tar.gz. Then, I extracted and ran the patch:

[skp@pecan vmwarefix]$ tar -xzvf vmware8linux31fix.tar.gz
vmware3.1.0.patch
patch-modules_3.1.0.sh
[skp@pecan vmwarefix]$ ls
patch-modules_3.1.0.sh  vmware3.1.0.patch  vmware8linux31fix.tar.gz
[skp@pecan vmwarefix]$ sudo ./patch-modules_3.1.0.sh
Sorry, this script is only for VMWare WorkStation 8.0.0 or VMWare Player 4.0.0.
Exiting

The error message indicates it is looking for a particular version, so I just adjusted the script a little bit. At the top of the script, I changed the version number:

Next, I just got another error message:

[skp@pecan vmwarefix]$ sudo ./patch-modules_3.1.0.sh
/usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/.patched found. You have already patched your sources. Exiting

Failed Attempt #3

I found a post that suggested that someone was missing a bunch of packages. That gave me an idea to try to find what package included version.h. Then, this post suggested that they were in the Linux headers package. I did have the headers installed:

$ rpm -q kernel-headers-`uname -r`
kernel-headers-2.6.41.1-1.fc15.x86_64

I tried to install this:

sudo yum install buildsys-build-rpmfusion-kerneldevpkgs-current

Again, this didn’t work. The packages installed, but vmware still wouldn’t build.

Resources

Ice Cream Sandwich on HD2

November 28, 2011 digitaleagle Google Phone, HTC HD2, Uncategorized Leave a comment

Thanks to TyTung, I now have Ice Cream Sandwich / Android 4.0 running on my phone!

You can view his work here:

Below are some thoughts on my experiences so far:

TamperMonkey Fixed!

November 15, 2011 digitaleagle Chrome, GreaseMonkey/TamperMonkey, Uncategorized Leave a comment

I recently had an issue with Tamper Monkey, jQuery, subdomains. You can view the issue here:

tampermonkey.net: subdomain + jQuery issue

Basically, my page would load jQuery plugins when I hit the page directly from my site. But, if I hit the page via a subdomain off the website, the plugin would not load. Any javascript that used that plugin would err as if the plugin did not exist. When I disabled TamperMonkey and reloaded the page, everything would work through the subdomain again.

You can try it with this tech test. This is without the subdomain:

http://example.digitaleagle.net/subdomain.php

This is through the subdomain:

http://example.digitaleagle.net/subdomain.php

You should get alert dialogs when the page loads and when you click the button.

The fix is to use the Beta version of Tamper Monkey. This latest version fixes the bug. You can download it from here.

Also, just FYI, here is my original thread asking for help:

jQuery Plugin won’t work on Subdomain

WebEx in Fedora 15 (64 bit)

November 10, 2011 digitaleagle Firefox, Java, Uncategorized, WebEx 10 Comments

At one point, I thought WebEx was working natively in 64-bit Linux. Either I am mistaken or it no longer works on 64-bit. So, I decided to dust off my old 32-bit hack where you install 32-bit versions of Java and Firefox to make it all work.

Earlier, I had thought I would use my regular 64-bit installation, and I had posted my hooking Java up to Firefox for WebEx. I was rightly corrected on troshlyak’s blog. The 64-bit will work, but you can’t share your desktop or view another’s desktop. So, I am back to the old way. So, here’s what I did…

I downloaded the two programs:

Java 7 SDK (32 bit)
Firefox (32 bit)

I created a directory in ~/bin/webex to hold it all. Under that, I put the Java SDK under the “jdk1.7.0_01” directory. Then, I put Firefox under “firefox”.

Environment Script:

I created this script in ~/bin/webex/env.sh:

#!/bin/sh

export WEBEX_HOME=~/bin/webex
export JDK_HOME=$WEBEX_HOME/jdk1.7.0_01
export JAVA_HOME=$JDK_HOME/jre
export FIREFOX_HOME=$WEBEX_HOME/firefox
export MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH=$FIREFOX_HOME/plugins
export PATH=$FIREFOX_HOME:$JAVA_HOME/bin/:$JDK_HOME/bin/:$PATH

To make sure you have it right, you can check it like this:

[skp@pecan bin]$ . ~/bin/webex/env.sh
[skp@pecan bin]$ which java
~/bin/webex/jdk1.7.0_01/jre/bin/java
[skp@pecan bin]$ java -version
java version "1.7.0_01"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_01-b08)
Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (build 21.1-b02, mixed mode)

Now, you can link in the Java plugin like this:

mkdir $MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH
ln -s $JAVA_HOME/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so $MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH/libnpjp2.so

Now, fire up firefox. Note you may be asked to create the WebEx profile. Make sure you create a profile with the same name you use on the command line so it won’t ask you again.

firefox --no-remote -P WebEx http://java.com/en/download/testjava.jsp

This should give you a successful Java applet working on the test page. You also should see the architecture as i386.

Finally, I created a ~/bin/webex.sh script to launch webex easily for me.

#!/bin/bash

cd ~/bin/webex
. ./env.sh
firefox --no-remote -P WebEx

And you should be good to go.