Android is moving away from USB Mass Storage. You will no longer be able to plug in a USB cable and have your Android show up as a USB disk. There are some good technical reasons for this, but it is a pain if you want to copy some files to your phone. The new system – MTP – isn’t automagically detected in Ubuntu. This is something which is likely to be fixed in later versions of Ubuntu – but for now you’ll have to hack around it.

The crazy cats at omgUbuntu have a tutorial which I have adapted for the Samasung Galaxy S (running ICS from teamhacksung).

First, install the MTP tools.

sudo apt-get install mtp-tools mtpfs

Connect the phone to the computer using USB.

To check that MTP is installed and working, run the command

mtp-detect

You should see a spool of text as MTP detects the phone.

To create the rules which allow Ubuntu to detect the phone, create a new rule file like so:

sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules

Add in this line of text

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="04e8", ATTR{idProduct}=="6860", MODE="0666"

If you’re using a different device, run this command to get the correct idVendor and idProduct:

mtp-detect | grep idVendor
mtp-detect | grep idProduct

We’ll need to restart udev so it can pick up the new rule.

sudo service udev restart

Then create a directory in your filesystem which you can use to access your phone.

sudo mkdir /media/GalaxyS
sudo chmod a+rwx /media/GalaxyS

Now we need to add ourselves to fuse.

sudo adduser YOURUSERNAME fuse
sudo nano /etc/fuse.conf

The last line probably reads

#user_allow_other

Remove the “#” so you’re left with:

user_allow_other

Save the file.

We’re going to create two commands “android-connect” and “android-disconnect”. When run, these will allow you to connect to your phone, then safely disconnect.

echo "alias android-connect=\"mtpfs -o allow_other /media/GalaxyS\"" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "alias android-disconnect=\"fusermount -u /media/GalaxyS\"" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Restart the computer. Make sure the phone is connected via USB. Open a terminal and run

android-connect

Open your file manager and go to “/media/GalaxyS”

Once you’re done, disconnect the device by running

android-disconnect

Using Florian Diesch’s tutorial at Ask Ubuntu, I’ve come up with this simple guide to get your keyboard working.

1. Open a terminal. Sorry, this is all going to be command prompt based!
2. Install the program evtest

   sudo apt-get install evtest

3. You will need to find which input “event” corresponds to your keyboard. Run the following command

   sudo evtest /dev/input/event5

   When you press the scroll key on your keyboard, you should see an output like

   Event: time 1325072953.278713, type 4 (Misc), code 4 (ScanCode), value c022e
   Event: time 1325072953.278729, type 1 (Key), code 109 (PageDown), value 1
   Event: time 1325072953.278752, -------------- Report Sync ------------
   

   If you don’t, cancel (using CTRL+C) and try another event number. Start at event0 and work your way up.

4. Let’s see what the keys are currently mapped to. Type the command

   sudo /lib/udev/keymap -i input/event5

   (or whatever “event” number you need). You should see an output like

   scan code: 0xC022D   key code: zoomin
   scan code: 0xC022E   key code: zoomout

5. We need to create a file which contains the new keymapping. To do this, type

   sudo nano /lib/udev/keymaps/microsoft-4000

6. Insert the following two lines into the file

   0xC022D pageup
   0xC022E pagedown

   If you would rather scroll line-by-line, you can use

   0xC022D up
   0xC022E down

   Save the file by pressing CTRL+X.

7. Now, let’s implement the remapped keys. Type

   sudo /lib/udev/keymap input/event5 /lib/udev/keymaps/microsoft-4000

8. Your scroll buttons should now be working! If not… errr… try again?
9. Assuming it is working, we need to make this permanent so that we don’t have to type in a command every time we reboot. To open the keymapping file, type

   sudo nano /lib/udev/rules.d/95-keymap.rules

10. Scroll through the file until you see

    #
    # The following are external USB keyboards
    #
    
    LABEL="keyboard_usbcheck"
    

    Past in the following line

    ENV{ID_VENDOR_ID}=="045e", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="00db", RUN+="keymap $name microsoft-4000"

    The line needs to be above

    GOTO="keyboard_end"

    Save the file (CTRL+X).

11. Reboot.

Hey presto! Your keys will now obey your commands.

These notes show (which are mostly for my benefit) show you how to install it and configure your multimedia keyboard so the play/pause key controls the music on Spotify.

Download Spotify for Linux. It’s available in 32bit or 64bit.

Double click on the .deb that has been downloaded and it should install. Nice and easy!

To get the multimedia keys working, we need to follow the instructions in this tutorial and the codes described at lnxscene.

Install xbindkeys.

sudo apt-get install xbindkeys

Create the default configuration file for xbindkeys.

xbindkeys --defaults > /home/edent/.xbindkeysrc

Edit the configuration file for xbindkeys.

nano ~/.xbindkeysrc

Add these lines:

"dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.PlayPause"
XF86AudioPlay
"dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Stop"
XF86AudioStop

Run xbindkeys to see if it all works

xbindkeys

Now, when Spotify is running, pressing th eplay/pause key will make your music start or stop.

You will need to set xbindkeys to run automagically on startup.

On Ubuntu, System -> Preferences -> Startup Applications.

Done!

I’ve got a great little IP security camera – the Y-Cam. It’s Internet accessible, so it can email me photos of any suspicious behaviour. It will also stream video and audio to a number of devices – including mobiles.

Under Linux, it’s very easy to get the video and audio via mplayer.

mplayer http://username:password@example.com/stream.asf

And we get this rather spiffy video playing.

In fact, there are a number of streams available (depending on camera), including RTSP and 3GP. The ASF stream seems the most Linux friendly.

It’s also possible to save the video to a file – so if you catch a miscreant in the act of pilfering, you have video and audio evidence.

mplayer http://user:password@example.com/stream.asf
    -dumpstream -dumpfile ycam.asf

You now have a file which can be played back.

What I can’t seem to work out is how to do the two together. I want a command which will show me the video and at the same time save it to disk.

So, fearless Internet commentors – any helpful suggestions?

Adding File Size

This shows the sizes of the eBook files.

Screenshot shows a demonstration using the free “Hacking The BBC” eBook.

Escaping Ampersands

Because I’m a nerd, I believe in making valid HTML. That means that & should properly be written as &

More

Both patches should be in the official version soon. More to come!

I love Calibre, it’s the perfect eBook management tool. It comes with a built in WWW server so you can easily access your library on the go. The only problem is that this really only works if you have a single machine dedicated to Calibre. For various reasons, I don’t have a single machine.

I have a desktop, laptop, and server. The Calibre Library is just a database with a set of files and folders – so all three machines sync via DropBox. As long as I don’t have the Calibre program open on my desktop and laptop at the same time, everything is hunky-dory.

However, having Calibre running on the server buggers everything up. So, I’m using a separate program – Calibre-PHP Content Server.

Installation was relatively simple, assuming you’ve already got apache and PHP installed, you’ll also need GD, SQLite3, and Smarty.

This was how I installed them on Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install smarty php5-gd php5-sqlite php5-sqlite3sqlite3

Configuration is slightly confusing. Copy the config_default.php to config_local.php and edit it.

$config['library_dir'] = '/data/Dropbox/eBooks/Calibre Library';
$config['smarty_dir'] = '/data/smarty-cache';
$config['smarty'] = '/usr/share/php/smarty';


The library directory must be readable to the webserver (chmod a+r) and all the directories above it have to be searchable (chmod a+x).

The “smarty_dir” is where the cache is stored. It needs two sub-folders, smarty_cache and smarty_templates_c. Both of these directories must be writable by the webserver.

That should be it. There’s help available at the official help thread.

I’ve been very impressed with how well Ubuntu runs on the Lenovo ThinkPad X200. Everything worked out of the box – with the exception of the fingerprint reader (AuthenTec AES2810).

Now, I know that fingerprint readers can easily be defeated by jelly-babies, but it annoys me when something doesn’t work.

The manufacturer of the fingerprint reader has a great developer community, so I contacted them. Here’s their response:

Linux support for AES devices is not yet available.

But based on the increasing number of requests we are currently considering to release the technical specification to the Linux community to be able to integrate selected AES sensor devices to the Open Source projects.

We still need to finalize the related discussions with our legal team regarding NDA requirement for the particular developers and clarify all remaining concerns.

I will make a note to let you know once we come to a conclusion and will be ready to move forward.

Another plan is to extend our BSAPI SDK (currently supporting our TC devices under Windows/Linux/Mac) with AES devices support. The BSAPI is available for free download in it’s Lite version.

However, it’s not all good news:

since it is hard to predict how exactly and when we will decide to provide the support at the end I would suggest to be careful when blogging about it to avoid false expectations in the community.

I realise that Linux is currently a niche OS – but lack of open software support is a serious omission from any hardware manufacturer. I learned this to my cost when Creative stopped supporting the Hollywood DXR3 card – it was a cracking bit of hardware, but Creative decided that they didn’t care about pissing off customers who had Windows XP.

If a hardware manufacturer won’t allow you to use their hardware with any software you choose – guess what; it’s not your hardware. You may have thought you bought it from them, but you didn’t. You are only renting it until they decide they no longer want to support you.

Unhandled page fault on read access to 0x00000068 at address 0x7bc34e57

After lots of fruitless digging around, I discovered that the issue is with the Facebook integration!

The fix is simple. Visit the Facebook Applications Page, remove Spotify.

I’ve noted this error on the WINE Site.

If you’re a premium Spotify user, you can run their Linux Preview of Spotify

I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Linux user. All my machines run some variant of Linux, usually Ubuntu. So, when a new client asked me to to use Windows XP I nearly quit on the spot! But, after a week of using the ageing OS, it strikes me there are a number of things that XP does better than Ubuntu.

I was able to sideload Ubuntu using Wubi, so these issues all relate to the same machine. All of these issues are relevant to me and may not reflect the typical user.

Multiple Monitor Support

I’ve been using multiple monitors in XP for over 10 years.

Linux has slowly been catching up, but it’s still not quite as good as XP.

Windows XP Multi-Monitors

XP detected my monitors instantly, no reboot or config file configuring required. It also recovered swiftly when I unplugged my monitor. Ubuntu has come a long way since I started using it, but it often chokes if a monitors is suddenly connected or removed.

Bluetooth

BlueTooth is universally rubbish. It’s a protocol designed by committee with no regard for end users. It’s always painful to use. But it’s more usable on XP than Ubuntu.

Sharing files doesn’t require esoteric package installation – and setting up audio was easy.

Mouse Key Remapping

As per one of my previous posts, I need to remap my mouse’s keys. There is literally no way to do this in Ubuntu other than to futz around on the command-line and add arcane commands to mysterious text files.

XP isn’t perfect, but has several programs – including this one which came with my mouse – to help.

This is a highly requested feature in Ubuntu and surely can’t be too hard to implement.

Extended Keyboard Controls

I use a Microsoft 4000 Ergonomic keyboard and most of the buttons work on Ubuntu. The problem lies in a bug first reported in 2007 – X11 won’t recognise keycodes about 255. There are some hacky work arounds, but it’s really unsatisfactory that newer hardware won’t work in Linux.

Android Debugging / Hacking

Doing Android debugging in XP just involved plugging the phone into a USB cable.
Android Debugging on Ubuntu? Get thee to the command line and hope that UDEV hasn’t changed since the guide you’re following was written!

First noted 2.5 years ago.

Indeed, all the good Android hacking or upgrading tools seem to require Windows. Some work in WINE, some don’t. I’m usually quite happy with the selection of software that Linux has – but for some esoteric software, Windows is often the only way.

Overall

I love Ubuntu, and I wouldn’t return to XP for anything. But it’s obvious there are a number of basic flaws which aren’t being fixed. I see this a lot – in Android especially – that the cool new features which are fun to program are given priority over fixing the rather basic bugs.

The two big contenders I could find are Ubuntu One and Dropbox.

Both allow me to map a drive and seamlessly sync my files just by copying them in there. I don’t need to worry about regularly running a “sync” command. Just drag, drop, done.

Quick Comparison

There Can Be Only One

I really really wanted to go with Ubuntu One. It’s cheaper and the money I pay for it would support my favourite Linux distribution. For US$90 I could get 60GB and feel good about paying for Linux.

But it’s not to be. Dropbox wins on three counts.

Mobile

Firstly, Dropbox Mobile is supported on a wide range of phones. Sure, I only use Android now, but I may move back to BlackBerry. Bizarrely, Ubuntu One Mobile only works for syncing music and contacts. So, no pictures, documents, movies. Far too limited for me.

Command Line

Secondly, command line options. I run a headless server at home which is primarily used for storing the household’s music, movies, and photos. It runs Xebian – a Debian variant. Yet it seems that Ubuntu One only works on Ubuntu machines. While I kind of understand the logic behind that – it’s a business limiting decision.
By contrast, Dropbox works fine on the command line of just about any Linux distro.

I never run Windows or Mac. But, I’m sure one day a job will mandate that I do – so it makes sense to go with the one with wider support.

Security

Both services use SSL to encrypt during transmission – but Dropbox uses Amazon S3 to keep the contents of the files secure.
While I’m sure Amazon has its problems, Ubuntu One doesn’t keep its files encrypted and makes no mention of physical security.

Other Options

I’m aware that I could buy several gigs of space via a cloud server somewhere and treat my filesystem as a giant SVN. But this has an easy to use front end, paid support, and apps for my mobiles.

That said, if you can convince me there’s a better option – please let me know!

You can sign up to Dropbox using my referral link – that way, we both get extra space.

Very Easy – Pictures

Wouldn’t it be great to view pictures on your Kindle?  Well?  OK – pictures, perhaps not so much – but comics?  Yes please!

For best results, image files should be the same resolution as the Kindle. 600px * 800px – and grey-scale.

Let’s use the XKCD comics – mostly because they’re already the right size and mostly in black and white. And they’re awesome.

This hack can be done in under 30 seconds.

1. Plug you Kindle into your computer using the USB cable.
2. In the root folder, create a new folder called “pictures”
3. In the new folder, create another folder called “XKCD”
4. Copy the pictures into the XKCD folder.
5. Eject the Kindle & unplug it.
6. From the Kindle home screen, press ALT and Z at the same time.
7. The screen will now show an XKCD book.  You can scroll through the pages using the normal page scroll buttons.
8. You can also change the size of the pictures.

Very Easy – Screenshots

Hold down ALT, SHIFT, G, at the same time. Done.
The .gif files are stored in your documents folder.

Very Easy – Diagnostic Information

To get this diagnostic information do the following.

• Turn the Kindle on and unlock it.
• Press Menu
• Press Settings
• Hold down the Alt key
• While holding down Alt, type Y Q Q
• Ta da!

You can also type R Q Q to get this screen.

Easy – Jail Breaking and Screensavers

These are fairly easy hacks. Copy a file onto your Kindle and hit update.
For up todate files and instructions, visit the MobileRead Wiki on Kindle Jailbreaking.

Found This Useful?

If you’ve enjoyed this post, or found it useful – you can buy an Amazon Kindle via my referral link.

Nokia phones "running" Android

Is this just a hapless Photoshop mistake – or a sign of things to come?!?!?!?!

It’s a daft graphic designer – obviously. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take the possibility of Nokia devices running Android seriously. Oh, don’t get me wrong, Nokia will never ship and Android powered phone – they’ve invested too much in Symbian and MeeGo for that. But Nokia devices will run Android.

A few years ago, I coaxed my Nokia N810 into running a prototype version of Android – NitDroid. The project has been resurrected by Stephen Hyde at NITDroid.com.

This latest video shows the Nokia N900 running Android’s FroYo.

Why Is This Useful?

Nokia coined the term “Mobile Computer” for its range of phones. Computers aren’t hermetically sealed consumer devices. They allow the customer to modify both hardware and software. You would be understandably upset if the computer you bought last year wouldn’t let you install the latest version of Windows, MacOS, or Linux. But that’s the situation mobile phone customers are faced with today.

The Android G1 has been abandoned by HTC and T-Mobile – much to the chagrin of customers.
The HTC Hero has only been grudgingly updated to Android 2.1.
Nokia left the N800 and N810 to rot. Nokia regularly stops development of its “mobile computer” software even when the devices are in active use.

Mobile phone manufacturers exist to sell phones. They don’t get any extra revenue for releasing new firmware. Indeed, the cost of developing, testing, and shipping new firmware is prohibitively expensive. Not to mention dealing with customer complaints when things inevitably go wrong.

We are finally in a position to change that mindset. Hackers (in the original sense of the word) are now able to create custom firmware for new phones. Take a look at the XDA Developer Forums. Almost every Android phone released can have an improved firmware running on it.

True, a significantly older phone may not have hardware capable of running bleeding edge code – but it’s enough to give it a new lease of life.

I’d love it if Nokia updated the N95 8GB firmware. The hardware is still incredibly capable.

In these tough economic times, it makes perfect sense to focus efforts on software, rather than hardware.

Look at the PS3 or the Xbox 360. A single model with firmware updates to increase its functionality.

Rather than tooling up a factory for a 6 month run of hardware – phone manufacturers should be looking to keep churning out a limited number of models of high spec phones for years. As manufacturing efficiencies improve, the hardware becomes cheaper and – like the PS3 and Xbox – cheaper models can be produced.

The PS3 came out in November 2006. Nearly 4 years ago. Can you think of a phone released four years ago which is still in production – let alone receiving firmware updates? The original iPhone was released in 2007 – it got a firmware update earlier this year but won’t be receiving iOS4. Also, you can’t buy a new iPhone 2G. Apple aren’t in the business of selling inexpensive hardware.

The Future

I predict – or rather, I hope – we will see the following pattern emerge. Either from Google or Nokia.

• An insanely expensive and over-spec’d phone will be released.  I expect in the £500 – £1,000 range.
• A public roadmap for its OS will be released – new features promised every 3-6 months.
• A guarantee that official firmware development will continue for at least 3 years.
• The OS will be sufficiently open to allow “homebrew” firmware to run.  Hackers will jump at it.
• The hardware will sell – poorly at first.
• As production efficiencies are found, the price will come down.  The hardware capabilities will stay compatible with older models.
• The firmware will progress based upon consumer need, manufacturer desire and what hackers manage to achieve.
• At around the 18 month mark, major new features in the firmware will be announced.  This keeps the MNO happy as they don’t have to subsidise the cost of new hardware for customers coming to the end of their contracts.
• At the 2 year mark, the next hardware revision will be launched.  More memory and megapixels – cheaper price.
• If the hardware is still selling, expect others to follow.

The fly in the ointment for this is continuous manufacturer profitability.  Apple, I understand, gets a cut of call and text revenue.  Google gets a cut of apps sold.  Microsoft and Sony sell licences for releasing games on their platform.

Would this “super phone” have to sell firmware updates?  Would MNOs subsidise firmware rather than hardware?  Would customers part-exchange  an unfashionably old phone for the latest model?

Or will we be stuck with phones that are thrown on the scrap-heap by their creator in order to force us into buying the latest model?

One thing’s for certain.  Where there are hackers – there will always be updates.

I was having a bit of trouble installing it on my XNAS – running Xebian Linux, so I’ve written this as an aide-mémoire. I hope you find it useful.

Install Ruby and Ruby Gems

apt-get install ruby rubygems

Download and install the latest version of Rake

wget http://rubygems.org/downloads/rake-0.8.7.gem
gem install rake

Download and install the latest version of Mocha

wget http://rubygems.org/downloads/mocha-0.9.8.gem
gem install mocha-0.9.8.gem

Download and install the latest version of iplayer-dl

wget http://rubygems.org/downloads/iplayer-dl-0.1.19.gem
gem install iplayer-dl-0.1.19.gem 

Done!

To download a show,

iplayer-dl [pid]

To find the pid, visit an iPlayer page like

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00s0vs1/Doctor_Who_Confidential_Series_5_All_about_the_Girl/

The pid is the weird string of letters and numbers before the episode name. So, in this case, to download the video, you just type

iplayer-dl b00s0vs1

If you want to download several files using only one command, you would type

iplayer-dl b00s0vs1 b123abc bdef456

Rather than getting bogged down in philosophy, I refer to the reason people choose Microsoft Windows to do anything public facing.

Advertisers obviously care enough about their message to craft 30 second videos, they invest millions on infrastructure to support showing them. Then they take a totally unsuitable and unstable method for playing them back – why?

It’s a phenomena I repeatedly see. Advertising screens around the world which are really only displaying one message.

They’re saying “Windows – The Worst Way To Get Your Message Across”.

However, it’s not just Windows which has the problem – each of these three photos show a PC which has failed to POST correctly. So they are stuck – forever displaying their inadequacies to thousands of passers-by. (Click to embiggen)

My real rant isn’t about Windows – it’s about the design and thinking behind such advertising screens. It would appear that each screen is driven by its own PC. What madness! The cost of hardware – let alone software – must be phenomenal.

At the moment, each screen displays exactly the same content as its neighbour. There’s no reason why a single computer couldn’t be used to drive all the screens.

I say exactly the same – the screens get progressively out of sync as the day goes on. Presumably the separate PCs don’t communicate with one and other.

The next thing that bothers me is the use of Windows.

These screens aren’t using an embedded version of Windows – they’re using XP. Now, XP is a fine OS – but it is bloated in terms of what is needed. All that is needed is a small embedded device which can be loaded with video files and set to play back.

It doesn’t need a desktop OS.  It doesn’t need anything more complicated than a display, video codecs and an Ethernet port.  This is the sort of thing for which Linux is perfect.

So, why?  Why has this system been allowed to develop?  Every day I see another screen which is broken, out of sync, or crashed.  Why has such a fragile and expensive solution become so prevalent?

The majority of these photos show TFL advertising screens managed by CBS Outdoor.  I really do wonder if they ever wander through the tube and see what a shoddy experience they are delivering.

In order to visualise the data, I have to manually upload the files to the Green Energy Options MyEnergy site.  Rather than a simple web based uploader – GEO have decided to go with Adobe Air as their platform for uploading and viewing the data.

Here are the steps I had to take to get the service working – as you will see, it wasn’t easy and ultimately failed.

The site asks me to install some software in order to upload the files.  My Operating System is Ubuntu Linux – I was afraid this software would be Microsoft Windows only and I’d have to use WINE.

Let's go!

Then the site tells me I’ll need to install Adobe Air.  Luckily, this can be done through the browser.

Nice and Easy?

The installation through the browser was fairly swift and painless.

Installation of Air

The installer popped up some fairly scary warning messages.  If you’re going to be asking people to install your software, you need to make it as easy as possible to get.  Signing and certifying your software will reduce “error” messages like this and increase confidence in your product.  Without it, I’ve no way of knowing that your site isn’t compromised.

DANGER, WILL ROBINSON

True to the installer’s word, I ended up with an icon on my desktop.

Desktop Icon

So, I double click…

This looks hopefull...

The software has a think before popping up this helpful error message.

...DENIED!

I know what you’re thinking.  “The silly sod has forgotten to plug the SD card in.”  Ummm…. nope!

SD card inserted

The SD card is inserted – using the supplied reader – and my system has identified and mounted it correctly.

At this point, I’m stuck.  So I give up.

What’s so frustrating is that it doesn’t have to be this way.  I’ve no idea what the benefits are of Adobe Air – but asking your users to install something new is always problematic.  Plain old Flash – which has its fair share of problems under Linux – allows you to upload multiple files – take a look at the standard WordPress image uploader.

WordPress Multiple Select

As with everything – Keep It Simple and Stupid.  Do your users really want to install extra software for your product? Do they really need to? Is there another, simpler way which gets the same results?

I’m sure – uber-hacker that I am – that I’ll figure out a way to make it work. But the point is, I shouldn’t have to.

Amarillo Roll is a 3D game in the same style as Super Monkey Ball. You tip your phone to move the armadillo around the course. The graphics are stunning. Reminiscent of early Xbox games. The one thing the photos don’t do is convey the speed of gameplay – it’s fast!

The game is a tech demo from Qualcomm. You can download Armadillo Roll directly from the Marketplace to your phone or view more information about it.

The premise is very simple.  There are blocks bouncing around the screen. You have a limited number of shots to remove a set number of them.

Each shot creates an explosion which, if it touches another block, causes that to explode.

This can cause a helpful chain reaction.

One of the many wonderful things about this game is how it pits you against other players.  Rather than posting high scores, it shows you how many other people have reached the level.

Being the massive geek that I am, I’ve graphed how player levels drop off.  I’m only skilled enough to get to level 89. Must try harder.

What I find fascinating is how steady the player numbers are until each big drop-off. Obviously, at least 50,000 people have downloaded the game, but only 371 players who’ve made it as far as I have.

Anyway, if you have an Android device, have a play with Prime – it’s a great little game.

So, when I heard that some clever hackers had ported Google’s Android OS to the N810, I leapt at the chance to reinvigorate my sadly neglected Internet Tablet..

There are various tutorials on the web, but here’s my quick & pain free howto for people running Ubuntu. This is based on the instructions from the Nitdroid Homepage and the InternetTabletTalk forums.

You will need…

• A Nokia N810 (this should also work with the N800 and the N770)
• USB and Charging cables.
• A computer running Ubuntu (or most other flavours of Linux)
• A working Internet connection.
• NERVES OF STEEL! (Not really, it’s very simple to reflash the N810 if you do mess up.)

So here’s the HOWTO:

1. Back up any files you want to keep from your N810. We’re going to be wiping it clean.
2. Remove any SD cards you’ve got from the N810.
3. Make sure the battery is fully charged.
4. Create a folder on your computer called “Nitdroid”.
5. Download the following files (or newer if available)
6. The flasher – this allows you to flash the hardware (you may need a different version if you’re running 64bit or PPC).
7. The Android filesystem
8. The Andoid OS
9. Connect your N810 to your computer via USB, switch the N810 on.
10. If you haven’t got it already, install and run gparted.
11. You need to create 3 partitions, the first must be FAT32, the third must be ext3 with a minimum size of 128MB. See the picture for an example.
12. Take a note of the device name – in this example, it’s /dev/sdb
13. We need to mount the ext3 filesystem we’ve created – go to the command line and type
    

    sudo mount -t ext3 /dev/sdb3 /android

    Remember to change /dev/sdb3 to whatever your device is actually called.

14. We now need to go to the “/android” directory and extract the filesystem to it. At the command line, type
    

    cd /android

    Then
    

    sudo tar -xjpvf /home/$USER/Desktop/nitdroid/rootfs-nitdroid.tar.bz

    Remember to change $USER to your username – or change the whole path to where you downloaded the nitdroid files.

15. Once complete, you unmount the filesystem by typing
    

    sudo umount /android

16. We’re ready to flash! Hurrah!
17. Turn off the N810, unplug it from the power and USB cables.
18. We need to make the flashing software executable so type
    

    chmod a+x flasher-3.0-static

19. Plug the N810 into the USB cable but leave it switched off.
20. Run the flashing software (yes, with the N810 turned off) by typing
    

    sudo ./flasher-3.0-static -f -k zImage-nitdroid-n8x0 –enable-rd-mode -R

21. You will see the following message
    

    flasher v0.9.0 (Jan 19 2007)
    Suitable USB device not found, waiting

    This means that the flashing software is looking for the N810.

22. On the N810, hold down the “Switch” button (The one which looks like two overlapping squares, just under the camera). With the button held down, push the power button.
23. You’ll see some messages on your PC’s screen indicating that the device is being flashed. Let go of the buttons.
24. Wait.
25. Wait a little while longer.
26. Have a biscuit to calm your nerves.
27. It should be over and done with in less than a minute.
28. Once it’s complete, unplug the N810. Power it off, then on again. You should see this screen.
29. It takes about 5 minutes for the first boot to complete. If it takes substantially longer than that, read the troubleshooting section.
30. TADA! You now have Android on your N810.WiFi works – as do the keyboard and touchscreen. At the moment, sound, BlueTooth & GPS don’t. There are a few random crashes, and the performance leaves a little to be desired. Much like the original Maemo software!

Troubleshooting.
If it all goes wrong, here’s how to get your N810 back to the latest official firmware.

• Download the latest official firmware from http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/nokia_N810.php
• Plug the N810 into the USB cable but leave it switched off.
• Run the flashing software (yes, with the N810 turned off) by typing
  

  sudo ./flasher-3.0 -F RX-44_DIABLO_5.2008.43-7_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f -R

  Remember to replace “RX-44….” with the name of the latest software.

• You will see the following message
  

  flasher v0.9.0 (Jan 19 2007)
  Suitable USB device not found, waiting

  This means that the flashing software is looking for the N810.

• On the N810, hold down the “Switch” button (The one which looks like two overlapping squares, just under the camera). With the button held down, push the power button.
• Wait. You will have a factory fresh N810 in a matter of minutes.

Enjoy!

While doing this, I found a lot of badly presented and conflicting information. This is my attempt to right that wrong. I’ve attempted to add some of these steps to the Wiki, but it’s not accepting changes at the moment.

This tutorial assumes you are using Xebian and an original Xbox.

The Aim:
Build a headless Linux server with 1.5TB storage space, Bit Torrent, Samba Sharing and other stuff.

Kit you will need.
1) A chipped Xbox. This is a bit of a cop out. There are many excellent tutorials around on how to chip an Xbox. If you’re not comfortable soldering around your Xbox – you can buy pre-chipped ones on eBay or the AVForums.

2) Some large IDE hard drives. The Xbox will take a maximum of 2 IDE devices. The largest drive I could find were 750GB each. You may be able to go larger using a SATA/PATA converter.

3) An ATA power Y-splitter. The Xbox’s DVD drive has a proprietary power connector. You’ll need a splitter if you want to power more than 1 HDD.

4) A set of torx screw drivers

6) Nerves of steel!

So… Let’s begin.

I chose Xebian Linux because it’s based on Debian. This means that all the packages are very well maintained. You should get a large range of programs with frequent security updates. The Xebian Basic distribution (which we’ll be using) doesn’t give you a GUI. You get command line access only. It might be a bit scary – but it keeps everything running quickly on the Xbox’s modest hardware.

There is an excellent tutorial on the Xbox Linux Wiki. However, some of the information is out of date.

Here’s what you need to do.
Download the latest version of Xebian Basic.
Burn the ISO on to a CD or DVD that you are sure your Xbox will read.
Remove the Xbox’s original HDD – replace with your massive HDD.
Boot using the Cromwell BIOS (or other method to boot unsigned content).
Select the DVD drive.
Linux will now boot! Hurrah!
This is the point of no return. Once these next few steps are complete, your Xbox will be a Linux machine. You will not be able to play Xbox games on it.
Type

XBOXLinuxInstall

Linux will start installing.
You will want to choose Option 3. This will take over the whole disk for Linux.
Answer the questions as they arise (set the IP address etc).

You can now remove the DVD drive (with the power off!) and replace it with another HDD.

You are now, technically, done. Xebian is installed. You (almost) have an xNAS. However, it is not (currently) very useful.

There are two things we need to do to get this Xbox in a usable state.
1) Set up the DNS.
By default, Xebian points to an outdated DNS entry. You will want to modify this to point to your DNS server.
Type

nano /etc/resolv.conf

This opens the file in the nano editor. This is a very simple editor – much easier to use than emacs or vi.
Edit it to say

nameserver 208.67.222.222
nameserver 208.67.220.220

The IP addresses there point to the OpenDNS Servers – perfect if your ISP is a bit poor at providing a DNS service or you’re going to be changing your network configuration frequently.

2) Edit the update sources.

Because Xebian is based on Debian, we can update it in the same way as we would a normal Debian system.
Unfortunately, Xebian uses a rather outdated sources.list (the file which tells Xebian where to look for updates).
Luckily, it is very easy for us to update this!

First, go to http://www.debian.org/mirror/list and find your nearest mirror. So, if you’re in the UK, choose ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/

For this example, we’ll be using nano – feel free to use your favourite text editor.

To open the sources file, type

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

You should see a file which looks like this

deb http://ftp.at.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free

deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free
deb-src http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-free

Replace it with a file that looks like this (substitute your nearest mirror)

deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free

deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-free

Save the file and exit.

Updating is a three step process.

To get a list of updates, type

apt-get update

To upgrade to the latest version, type

apt-get upgrade

(You may need to answer some questions from the upgrader – if you don’t know what you’re doing, accept the default option.)

Finally, to upgrade to the latest distribution, type

apt-get dist-upgrade

That’s it – you have upgraded successfully!
Whenever you want to check for updates, type

apt-get update

Then

apt-get upgrade

Tada! All done!

Here she is in all her glory

Up next – setting it up for Samba, Bit Torrent and other fun stuff.