Related
There are a lot of great things on this web site, but not much for the real newbie. This submission is to help newbies get up to speed. The concepts and some details here can help almost any newbie with any PDA.
I’ve worked with computers for 30 years since they were driven by “audio cassette” tapes. BUT I’m a PDA newbie! When I got my PDA, a Cingular 8525 (HTC Hermes), I compared it to my last cell phone and was amazed that it had a color screen. I had no clue how I was supposed to get it to do what I wanted it to do. Since I‘m retired, I spent long hours on many days researching, finding free software, and learning and doing things to make it what I wanted. These are the results. I’m not going to go into all the research, just give you the findings and actions. Read your manual or download one from the Internet to learn the very basics of your phone. Try every possible button, menu and program to see what they do. Don‘t be afraid to crash your PDA at this point so long as you know how to do a Hard Reset (HR). I’m not going to give keystrokes on how to find the following data. Just don’t transfer important information to the PDA until later.
First, decide what you need to do versus what you would like it to do. Here’s what I wanted. I travel a lot and wanted a mini computer I could do MS Office work on, access the Internet to take care of business, call home on, find my way in strange locations, and enjoy a little. IOW, do what my desktop does except I wanted to carry it in my pocket.
One thing that will happen while you are doing all the following is that many of the PDA programs will show up as installations in your “Add/Remove Program” program in your Control Panel on your desktop. Since this includes entries going into your registry, it can lead to different problems. I use Norton Ghost back up to totally back up my system drive, let things happen as they will, then restore it back to normal when I’m all done. Then I install only ActiveSync, MyMobiler and Remote Keyboard plus a few others than I want to sync with when I connect occasionally. You should strongly consider doing this yourself.
First, I found out what I had - A full install of WM6 with several programs I really didn’t want and a real problem when I began loading program I wanted - not enough memory. The device says I have 64 Mb of RAM and 128 Mb of Flash memory (this is the “hard disk” storage available). When I looked at memory allocation it said:
Storage Program
Total 44.77 48.77
In Use 10.96 23.55
Free 33.81 25.20
This means out of the 128 Mb of storage 44.77 + 48.77 = 93.54 Mb were available and being used. Where’s the rest? Being taken up by the Extended ROM which holds the installation and system programs you are safer NOT playing with unless you know how to - like RegEdit, Task Manager (not Task), etc. These are system “hidden” files you can play with and really screw up your PDA. With “AdvancedConfiguration” you can set Extended ROM to be read and used. Also, almost ½ of the total available area set aside for Program installation on the hard disk was already used. I tried and found I could NOT delete or move any of the originally loaded files in “Windows” folder. We’re stuck with the bloat.
I haven’t found out for sure but (someone correct me here, please) the Storage seems to be used for a dedicated operating Page File or programs loaded into active operating memory type of work based on how many running programs you have running right now and the Program refers to the actual Flash (hard disk) space set aside for installations. Think of your desktop as having only a 50 Mb hard disk and having to have the operating system, Page File and programs plus storage on it. Doesn’t leave much.
A neat little trick I learned is that when you do a HR and are reinstalling the OS it pauses for 3 seconds with an explanation screen at one point before going on to install other proprietary programs (some of which were junk to me). If you want to know what was different, back up all your personal data and do a HR and let it run fully. Check all the Settings and Programs screens to write down what you have. Do it again but push the Soft Reset (SR) pin in the hole when it gets to that 3 second pause and let it reboot. It will stop the extended installation. When you do this you will find the numbers are now:
Storage Program
Total 44.77 48.77
In Use 5.77 22.85
Free 39.00 25.92
IOW, you cut your Page File use (running programs loaded into memory) by ½ but you didn’t really change what was taking up your Flash memory. That’s because during the install every program is loaded into the “Windows” directory and then installed or not. If not installed, they just sit there and can’t be deleted or moved.
In order to change this memory bloat I had to find a different way. The only way I could find was to “cook” my phone and hope it didn’t turn into a “brick” to throw away or send back to the factory for a fix. I began looking at what was available. Keep in mind that I had written down ALL the programs installed by WM6 full and WM6 Lite (fast SR at 3 second screen). I had decided what I would like to have and what I didn’t need or want. This is important to do before this next step.
I am very experienced at installing lots of OSs over the years from CP/M (really, really old), DOS, Windows XT up to Windows XP (very different from XT) and tweaking the hell out of them. Doing it on the PDA had me a little concerned because it’s so tiny and different (so what, right?). I learned that it really is about the same as my desktop in setup and running. The first time I did it, I was worried and then surprised at how easy and straight forward it was. If you are concerned about this step and have this particular PDA, go to http://www.america.htc.com/support/8525/software-downloads.html , download the most current OS and do an install from your desktop to PDA with it. If your phone bricks send it to the factory, it’s their system. Once you’ve done it, it’s much less worrying. If you have a different phone do a little Google research and/or read more on this forum for your particular phone.
I researched different ROM cooks to see what they had compared to what I wanted. I came up with Shamanix and K-Flex as most likely for me. Their installs went just as easily and safely as the WM6 did. Don’t look at just the pretty colors, look at what programs they have and how they function doing what you want. Do some “WM6 FREE SOFTWARE” Google searches to find out what is available out there and what you can get it to do. Here are the test results with both Full install and Lite install:
Shamanix K-Flex
Full Lite Full Lite
Total 66.18 50.77 66.18 50.77 66.80 44.77 66.80 44.77
In Use 2.66 21.00 2.63 18.77 9.11 28.52 2.78 23.19
Free 63.52 29.77 63.55 31.99 57.69 20.25 64.01 25.70
FIRST - Now 66.18 + 50.77 = 110.95 for Shamanix and 66.80 + 44.77 = 111.57 for K-Flex versus only 93.54 Mb for WM6. Suddenly the OS installation files squeezed out an extra 18 Mb of Flash storage for other things. That’s a LOT when many programs average as little as 200 Kb (fit 90 in that free space). Next, K-Flex used almost as much Flash (hard disk) storage as WM6 but Shamanix only used 18.77 in the Lite install which freed up almost 6 Mb for more programs.
Sounds good, right? Remember, check what each OS provides, how you like the looks and what you want on you PDA. Since camera, media and online gaming usage are not important to me, Shamanix Lite is best for me. It still requires a few additional installs to replace what it doesn’t provide but that’s better than the bloat.
(PLEASE CONTINUE ON NEXT REPLY)
2nd half of first post
(Continued from beginning of thread)
Next, I bought a 2 Gb microSD card. That’s great for storage, but I want to install programs to that location, especially the ones I don’t use very often and can run slow safely (cards are much slower than RAM). Save the Flash storage for anything that needs processing speed like music, video, gaming, etc. Once you have a card installed, every time you want to install a program, it asks where to install. If you have access to ER enabled you can select from Device, Extended ROM or Storage Card. Use Storage Card as 1st, and Device 2nd. I tweak installation folders on my desktop but on the PDA you can’t. If it’s going to the Storage Card it will create the proper folder automatically like most Windows installations do in Program Files. Also, if you already have it loaded, it will tell you it must uninstall the prior one before it can install the new one. Actually, they’ve made PDA pretty idiot proof which is a good thing.
Before I go any further, here are two almost mandatory FREE programs you MUST HAVE!!!! MyMobiler and Remote Keyboard can be found many places. Both will allow you to connect your PDA to your desktop with a USB cable and set your PDA aside while you do everything on your desktop. It gives you a copy of the PDA screen on your monitor you can zoom plus use the normal mouse and keyboard on so long as the mouse is hovering over the PDA screen. Sooooo muchchch eeesieeer!!!!!!! In fact, it should be your first two installs before anything else!
Here’s a helpful hit on installing programs. Many times an installation program will come as a .exe file you run from your desktop. What it usually does is extract and create a folder that will hold a couple of files ending in .CAB. Then it will copy the appropriate .CAB to your mobile device. Then it will run the .CAB for installation. The .CAB is the important part. All the rest essentially sets up your desktop to run the .CAB on your PDA. Many times the installation program will be a .ZIP, .RAR, or other compressed file or even a .CAB file. If it’s a compressed file, uncompress it and look for the .CAB. When looking at .CAB files you will often find several with identical names except for the few letters just before the “.CAB”. These are the same but designed for different types of operating systems. I’m sorry I can’t rediscover the link for the details (maybe someone reading this will give us the link later) but I did learn that those with .ARM, .ARM4, Xscale, or rarely PXA, OMAP, or Samsung S3C24xx are for the newer PDAs running WM5 or WM6. Every PPC2000-2003 and every smartphone on the market (at least that I know of) is an ARM device. The others are for older system. If in doubt, try to run each one. The ones that are incorrect will NOT install. Only the one that IS correct will. From then on you will know which type to copy to your PDA. Once copied to a named folder (I use “Install CABs”) on the Storage Card, they can be simply clicked on at any time and installed. To regain memory or stop using it, use “Remove Programs” in Settings/System to get rid of them. You can reinstall anytime later.
One thing I did was move almost all of the CAB files for the programs I wanted to a designated folder on the Storage Card. One suggestion from others is to rename each CAB with a “#-“ in front of the name with the number corresponding to importance of that CAB to you. That way, when you do a reinstall, or HR, out in the field, your CABs are with you and you can see which ones should be loaded first. This works well if there is some conflict with installs one after another. Personally, I haven’t run into that so I rename them to a shorter name that identifies what it is (e.g. in35prtv33.24.arm4.cab becomes PocketPool.cab). The next thing I do is use the settings or preferences in each program to make a folder on the Storage Card the default folder - like My Documents, Favorites, Downloads, etc. Now they won’t be lost if I have to HR the PDA.
Along with the information in the above paragraphs, I do something else because I’m gone when I’m most using my PDA. On the Storage Card (a copy on each card I have) is the installed programs in the normal “Program” folder which are my operating files and a copy of the “Install CABs” folder which also includes a backup of my Contacts. One additional item is a “Serials” folder in the “Install CABs” folder. This has a .txt file of all the registration codes I need plus copies of all the altered (cracked) files I need if I have to reinstall anything on the road. So long as I can Hard Reset my phone, I can reinstall everything back to normal and continue as I need. Since I have several Storage Cards this is on each card. The balance of the Storage cards will have different eBooks, music, DVDs, etc. that don’t all fit on one card. That way, I have several backups of critical files plus entertainment as needed. I use a small dot of different colored paint on the bottom edge of each card so I can tell which card is in the phone at any time.
With all the above, if my PDA freezes or stops working properly, the universal fix-it is to do a Hard Reset. If that doesn’t work, I’m SOL. If it does I’m in business. All I do is a HR (Lite) and soft reset at the 3 second warning. Then I go back into my Storage Card and reinstall those programs I need to get back to where I can work.
Once you have things loaded and working properly, you can consider tweaking the system. During this process you may have found multiple editions of software you want to use like three different registry editors, five different tweak programs, etc. Go ahead and compare and see which ones you want and delete the rest. On a PDA it’s fairly easy. When everything is said and done, you can do a clean HR and only load those specific versions you want and have a fresh, clean, trim system to backup as your first installation process.
Finally, so you can see the results I came up with in this process, here’s a list of the programs I installed. All are on and working. None of them have to be cleared before I can have room to open another one. These are the final versions of similar programs such that there is minimal overlap but expanded utility when more than one is installed.
Sound Pocket Dictate
Mortgage CALC
WkTASK
Touch Caller
Tao Java
GSFinder+
Pocket Mechanic
Adobe Reader
ActiveX Flash 7
Sompy Media Player
enAlarmPPC
True Term Translator
TT Swedish-English
TT Spanish-English
TT Portugese-English
TT Italian-English
TT German-English
TT French-English
Town Compass US Travel Directory
Town Compass DataViewer
Tagalog for Travelers
SKTools
Paris Guide
Metro
mCity Tours
Google Maps
Flashlight Colors
UniSync
Spb Pocket Plus
tGetFile.dll
MIcrosoft .NET CF 2.0
Maufait Instafind
DinaSoft Tap Text
DinaSoft MemMaid
DinaSoft HandyMenu
CallFirewall
Tab Web Viewer (IE)
Dictionary Manager
Schap's Advanced Config 2.0
Yahtz
Warefare Incorporated
Vision Quest
Trivial Pursuit
Super Wild Wild Words
Space Adventure in Infinite Space
Smart Mahjongg
Dames are Trouble Game
Word Mojo
Ultimate Bowling Fighter
Mazera
Mars Need Cows
Hellfire
Bzzz
Realms
1001 Crossword Puzzle
Xplodus
Xonix
Pocket Spades
Patience
JumpyBall
Hot Death Uno
Advanced Lines
Here are my original results on memory usage.
Storage Program
Total 44.77 48.77
In Use 5.77 22.85
Free 39.00 25.92
Here are the final results
Storage Program
Total 66.18 50.77
In Use 36.55 25.77
Free 29.63 25.00
In other words, by opening and freeing the Extended ROM, Putting as much on the Storage Card as possible and applying a few tweaks for caching and folder locations, I still have almost as much of both Storage and Program Memory as I started with to run almost anything without having to remove and reinstall programs on the fly.
It’s a lot easier than you think and idiot proof in most cases. Don’t fear playing with your PDA and making it what you want. Have fun and ENJOY!
Dr. Ken Rich
I can't figure out a better place to post, and GTablet "tech support" (when your tech support guy doesn't know what a partition is, you're in trouble) is a joke, so you guys are stuck!
1. Downloaded and installed Adobe from hand...[whatever] It runs, but it won't read any .pdf files from our LAN. Varying messages, including "not supported media type".
2. It sees that the microSD card is inserted (bought just for this). I wrote a pdf file (readable off the card by several linux pdf readers as well as Acroread/windows) on it with my windows machine, but can't actually see it or read anything on it with the GTablet.
NOTE: it can not actually SEE (as in visible subdirectory/folder or equivalent) the card or anything on it. No automount? There seems to be no obvious way to mount it by hand.
3. It can see directory entries for .pdf and .avi files on other machines on our network but it can't read them. (pdf="No application available" avi="Not supported media type"). Same for .flac files. It can, however play .mp3 and .wma files from other machines on our LAN.
Since I bought it mostly to read downloaded .pdf files from the Gutenberg Project and wish to watch downloaded .avi lectures (both are legitimate!!!), any of these is a deal-killer all by itself.
4. We have successfully copied a .pdf file to the internal "hard drive" (and were able to it read with Adobe) but we were given no choice about the destination -- hard drive (or subdirectory thereupon) or SD card. Can it also not write to the SD card? Did Viewsonic give us a microSD slot for purely decorative purposes? Having to write stuff from the network to the unit is considerably slower than just writing it to the SD card.
Part of the problem may be that we are not used to dealing with the windows GUI, which this unit resembles. We ARE, however, slackware linux knowledgeable and I'm quite familiar with X. This is really basic stuff here, why should it be so difficult or possibly impossible?
There are undoubtedly other problems, but we've only been experimenting for 24 hours If no solution arises to these (and other) problems, it's going back.
Seems you are niche driven anyways, so an Android tablet is probably at least six months away from making you happy, as more drivers and the framework are updated. Based on what you use the device for, the Archos 101 will not be enough either, since half the ram and much slower cpu than the Gtablet.
My reasons for returning today are more basic:
1. Bluetooth input devices do not work
2. Accelerometer is screwed up
I am actually getting another one though, since current new purchases have a 60 day window. Plenty of room to see if those issues are fixed. (For current one, have cleared the internal space, reset the device and all boxed up).
Frankly, I have grown attached to the Gtablet; kind of like a girlfriend or wife who abuses you, but does just ENOUGH to keep you hooked
There are other issues with the G, but I can deal with those. Still want the 60 day window, none the less.
Android is actually much closer to Slackware than it is to Windows -- just look under the hood and much of what you'll see is very familar. It's actually a Linux kernel.
The Adobe Reader issue sound like the common (for Android tablets) issue where any app that uses a database-based way to access data cannot find anything on /sdcard2, which is your microSD card. Some apps allow you to browse the directory structure all the way up to "/" and those would work. I don't really use PDF's but I do use EPUB's from PG. For those, I just use Aldiko and just make due with the fact that the files need to be on /sdcard/ebooks (again, Aldiko has that same problem).
For LAN access, i'm stuck in the same boat -- using Astro or Estrongs for that? I have yet to find a good file mounting solution. There's a tool in the real Google Market called "CIFSManager" which should do a proper mount, but it requires a driver file for our specific kernel which does not exist yet. And the "mount" command doesn't work for the same reason.
Also a heads up that you can't mount EXT2/3/4 thumb drives, even though Android itself uses EXT3. You are stuck with FAT32, which is annoying.
For FLAC files, I have a solution for you -- look for the app "Andless" in the Market or Google code. Plays FLAC, and allows you to browse into /sdcard2 - I doesn't have a pretty interface, but it does work. I use Vorbis primarily and it works with Andless (32GB storage doesn't bode quite well with lossless files).
Just keep in mind that some of your issues won't be fixed with a Galaxy Tab (at least not yet) -- these are inherent Android flaws given that it was build with phones in mind. the EXT2/3/4 access does work in the Archos 101, however.
Not much improvement...
Thanks for your fast reply...
The main thing right now is to determine whether some of the hardware is broken so I can return it. I don't want to download a lot of stuff if the thing is bad right out of the box. I'll make a more thoughtful reply later.
The file explorer won't even SEE a fat32 thumbdrive in the USB slot. No sign at all.
If I connect its USB slot with the one on a computer, it sees it immediately -- it shows up on my computer as /dev/sdd with no partition. We can select 'write to/from the computer', but there doesn't seem to actually be a way to do the copying. Am I missing something obvious or is something broken?
Downloading estrongs even as we speak...I think... The only thing I've downloaded so far is Adobe, that that seemed to happen more or less by accident Got the 'downloaded' message and there it was.
Estrongs didn't appear to work. Got the 'downloaded' message, but it seems to be unfindable. ES still running.
More attempts to mount the SD card -- messages like 'preparing to mount the sd card', but ultimately the thing is invisible. If you pull it out it gives some kind of message like 'removing sd card', but it was NEVER actually there.
SD card in, but the message is "sd card unmounted or not present".
Was this thing rushed to market for the Xmas season in the HOPE that they'd eventually be able to make everything work before the villagers rose up with torches and pitchforks? If you want to watch movies on it, wouldn't it be nice if both you AND a friend could actually hear them without buying an earphone splitter?
It would be nice if the helpdroid, like his counterparts at the hard drive manufacturers' help lines, would walk you through a few simple diagnostics and then ship you a new drive. Bet that's not gonna happen here!
More tomorrow, maybe...
I tried to make the subject as small as possible while still stating my point.
Basically I work with a device a lot that runs some machinery. There is a file that is sometimes updated to run the machinery better, we usually update the file on the device when some aspects of the equipment are changed. The file is pushed onto the device using software on my laptop. The software on the laptop is written in C++. I want to make a light version to run on my android phone.
My idea is to create a simple program to run on my android phone that will push the file onto the device after it's edited for changes to the equipment. I opened the C++ exe program in a decompiler (rec4) and I started trying to dig through the code, there are soooo many lines of code in this program, and I don't even know what string to look for. I'm trying to find the exact string that pushes the file to the string so I will know how to write the exact thing in an android program language for my phone only to push the file to the device after I plug it in through the USB connection. That way I have a simplified version of the program running on my phone solely for pushing the file to the device, instead of carrying my laptop around all the time to push a little file.
In a nutshell, after I have described why I need this, I'll simplify everything. A program I have is written in C++ and it pushes a simple file to the flash memory of a device that runs some equipment. I want to be able to push the file from my phone instead of my laptop. So I want to know the string to look for that would push a file onto flash memory.
How the program works. If I have the program already running when I plug in the USB, I have to select "file", then "establish connection" so that it connects, The program appears on my laptop to reconfigure it. I search for the new file to replace the old one and send it to the device. By default the program tries over COM1. It has to be changed for my laptop because it's new and doesn't have the com1 connection, I have a USB adapter that I use.
I hope I explained this well enough, it's really not as complicated as I'm making it out to be.
So does anyone know where I can look up the C++ command arguments to push the file onto the device? And also what the command arguments would be for android to push the file onto the device via USB?
Hello,
If you are a developer you might want to look at this link:
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/usb/package-summary.html
If you aren't, I am afraid this isn't going to be as simple as looking for strings in a decompiled program and translating the code to different languages. You might want to get a developer to make this application for you.
If possible can you also give more info on this device? Is it like you plug in the device to your laptop and you can access it like any USB memory drive? Or the device can only be accessed using that program?
Edit:
The android.hardware.usb was apparently introduced in Android 3.1. So you won't be able to use that to make an application that you described for your phone...
The device basically controls an advanced machine with multiple inputs sensors and output and switches. It has it's own power supply, it just needs updating every now and then to refine/change the cycles and rotations. I contacted the company that makes the device, and they said they haven't made any software to run on android. They couldn't give me any information on how the laptop program communicates with the device. It seems like the file that needs editing is just stored back on the device in flash memory. When the laptop is plugged in and a connection is established, the information that makes up the configuration file appears on the laptop program from the device. I don't know if the program pulls and reads the file, or if the device copies it to the laptop. It's probably the laptop that reads it.
I'm not a developer, I know a little about programming from college, and I have enough patience to sit and read or watch videos until I know how to make something that works. I know a guy that talks a lot about making android programs, maybe I can ask him for pointers.
My android phone has a mini USB port, what's the new thing that's in android 3.1 that's not in my 2.2 regarding USB? Is the USB on the android 2.2 limited in what it can do? I know mine can tether and transfer files, but is that something that the computer does instead of the phone?
I'm trying to find another HTC HD2, I sold mine and I shouldn't have. I've heard a little about people putting android 3.1 on the HD2, I'm not sure if that's true, but I'll look more into it.
If its a file that the device is reading the data from, you'd also have to find out how the data is exactly being stored in the file. I guess this could be figured out through the decompiled program or maybe if you can access the file yourself somehow.
The thing is that the package(android.hardware.usb) that allows you to write applications in which your phone can act as a USB host(I guess this is what you want your phone to behave like in this case) was introduced in Android 3.1 and its not present in Android 2.2.
That doesn't necessarily mean that you cannot have such an application on your phone. It just means that you cannot use the Android Java API to make something like this. I am not too sure how it can be done but I guess it is possible to make an application like the one you want that runs on a rooted phone maybe?
I am sure anyone can learn to write programs/applications but its just that you'd have to put in a lot of time and effort to make something like this. If you are in no rush to have the application ready then its fine if you learn to make it yourself. And since its a custom made application and the people who made it aren't willing to help you by giving info on it just makes it that much harder for you.
yeah, when I get another HD2 it's getting rooted with android, I just have to find one. Since I sold mine they have made it to where you can run android off of internal memory, so I'm itching to get it back.
The laptop program also has the option to save the configuration file locally, I haven't thought about looking through that. I didn't think it would tell me much.
So theoretically, if I were to write a program for the android phone with usb transfer capability to the device in question would it work? It doesn't bother me if I have to root my phone.
If the device is reading data in from the file, and you wish to write a program that creates this file, you will have to take care that the program you are making writes the file in very same format and saves the file back in the same location on the device where it will look for this file later.
If you made this application for an android device that has USB Hosting capabilities, it should work (as far as I know).
The question is: How can you get your phone to have USB Hosting capability? I don't know if rooting your phone would do it. You'll have to find out about this.
I'm not creating the file..I just want to make a program to push the file.
My /Removable/MicroSD is starting to corrupt. I've been editing scripts on my MicroSD with ES note editor. It started today with files not overwriting other files with the same name, then progressed into edited files saved with corrupt or no data at all, then a few files disappeared, then a directory became corrupt and I could not see a file that ES told me I was overwriting with another file with the same name, and now I am loosing full directories. Is this a partition issue or is the whole card going/gone bad? The card is as factory shipped. I have never formatted or partitioned it.
I have unmounted and remounted the card. That allowed me to edit and save for a few hours. Then another corrupted file happened. I just took the card out and reinserted it as this fixed a similar problem I had a while ago but it only happened once and went away until now, so we'll see if it just wasn't seated properly. One of the 2 directories that disappeared came back after reinserting the card but the second is still missing. I had already backed up my scripts, and now I will back up the entire card to disk.
Does this sound like its going or gone South, or will pulling all the data off, formatting the card, and putting it all back on work to fix it? Is it safe to trust this card anymore or should I RMA it as it should still be under warranty? Its a Sandisk 64 SDXC and not "officially" compatible and was wondering about that as well. I've had it for about 6 mos. I had hoped by spending the little extra $ and picking a name brand it would be more reliable but I guess I got a bad one despite the on-average Sandisk quality. Any advice would be appreciated.
So far, I've only once suspected my microSD (as in yoru case a 64 GB Sandisk UHS-1 Class card) to have gone bad. (Re)formatted it with Gparted (was running data2sd at the time, kicked that out, too) and it has been going strong since without a single hitch.
I'd try and format it, doesn't hurt, only takes time, and it satisfies your tinkering needs at the same time.
MartyHulskemper said:
So far, I've only once suspected my microSD (as in yoru case a 64 GB Sandisk UHS-1 Class card) to have gone bad. (Re)formatted it with Gparted (was running data2sd at the time, kicked that out, too) and it has been going strong since without a single hitch.
I'd try and format it, doesn't hurt, only takes time, and it satisfies your tinkering needs at the same time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. What is interesting and seems far-fetched to be coincidental is the corrupted directories are the directories that I am constantly editing and saving files to - My scripts dir and its sub-directories. Guess they mean it when they say flash was not designed to be constantly written to. I can't *believe* I have cycled it to its limit just editing scripts over a 6 mos span. I couldn't have saved files more than a couple thousand times if that.
Waterproof**, x-ray proof**, temperature proof**, shockproof**, but NOT write-proof**
Double directories? This is getting out of hand!
Well I am backing up my MicroSD now, and I just ran across two directories with the same name in the same folder? Two "Scripts". How is this possible? One had files, the other was blank? How can the OS allow this to happen? When it copied to Windows, a (1) was appended to the directory name of the second duplicate.
Just for S&G, I tried to copy a file from one into the other and Windows errored saying something like "device is busy or has been disconnected."
If I had files in both directories and I cd to that directory, which one would I get (trick question)? I believe the dups are only on Windows. I don't think the device actually sees both directories. At least it doesn't show them to me in ES. Bizarre corruption. That surely might explain why files in this directory were getting corrupted. Or maybe the corruption of the files was responsible for the double directories. Time for a format (and a beer) for sure.
Let this be a word to the wise:
So yes I am going to format this, but I wanted to play with this problem a bit and see what I could figure out. As I predicted, and made about my 5th backup just in case, here's what just happened.
1. When there were Script dir duplicates, I could copy from the one with files.
2. I deleted the one without files (predicting it may delete both, but it only deleted the blank one as intended but...)
3. The remaining Script dir could not be copied from, nor a new sub-directory created inside. File names could not be changed. Actually it did allow me to make a copy, but the target directory was blank.
4. Deleted the second Script directory. Now the B2R script is lost forever (no just kidding, I have 5 backups at least)
5. Copied one of my backup copies of Scripts back to the card
6. Now its fine (until I can format it), I can copy from it and create sub-dirs inside it, etc. But I will be working off another copy in Internal storage until I format this card.
7. So the lesson here is ALWAYS make a backup before something glitches out on you because it eventually will and you will need it, or choose to be SOL; life is full of choices. And if it has already glitched out on you, make a second backup of your critical files just in case something like this happens to you and you've made incremental changes. Without my backups I would be loosing about 3 months work in just this one folder alone. It contains every script I have ever written and a bunch of example scripts to learn from.
@_that to comment, but this is what I think happened: This must be some kind of corrupt FAT problem. Very similar to the recovery blob not being found by the bootloader issue from a recent post, but instead of a partition problem its a file allocation table problem, as they reside on the same partition in my case, quote _that below:
"I have a new theory about why this happens: partition tables mismatch. In other words: The location where the recovery writes the blob is not the same as where the bootloader expects it. Thus the bootloader ignores your blob."
It seems the empty directory was the directory the system thought the files were in. Once that directory was removed, the actual one (as the human perceives; as seen in ES) containing files no longer contained them, as far as the OS was concerned. So by deleting the one you effectively deleted the other because its impossible that can can coexist and both be functional. I thought something like this would happen and it did. Like I said earlier, its Miller time.
elfaure said:
7. So the lesson here is ALWAYS make a backup before something glitches out on you because it eventually will and you will need it, or choose to be SOL; life is full of choices. And if it has already glitched out on you, make a second backup of your critical files just in case something like this happens to you and you've made incremental changes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good advice. Always make one backup more than you think you need.
elfaure said:
This must be some kind of corrupt FAT problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably. ExFAT is a proprietary and patented Microsoft filesystem, and support for it in our TF700 is through a proprietary closed-source third-party kernel module that contains this licensed "technology".
You could try running chkdsk in Windows on the card to detect and fix filesystem errors.
_that said:
Good advice. Always make one backup more than you think you need.
Probably. ExFAT is a proprietary and patented Microsoft filesystem, and support for it in our TF700 is through a proprietary closed-source third-party kernel module that contains this licensed "technology".
You could try running chkdsk in Windows on the card to detect and fix filesystem errors.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny how they don't even support exFAT in XP without an extension. Maybe it was developed after XP was released. I would assume it is supported by default in W7 and above?
Question: Do you know what is the su password for the terminal app in GParted Live? Or is this limited to GNU staff use??
Do I "sudo gparted" or "sudo passwd root" and set a new password??
elfaure said:
Funny how they don't even support exFAT in XP without an extension. Maybe it was developed after XP was released. I would assume it is supported by default in W7 and above?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good guess. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT
elfaure said:
Question: Do you know what is the su password for the terminal app in GParted Live? Or is this limited to GNU staff use??
Do I "sudo gparted" or "sudo passwd root" and set a new password??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=gparted+live+root+password
GParted live is based on Debian live, and the default account is "user", with password "live". There is no root password, so if you need root privileges, login as "user", then run "sudo" to get root privileges.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can run "sudo -i" to just get a root shell if you want.
_that said:
Good guess. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=gparted+live+root+password
You can run "sudo -i" to just get a root shell if you want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like my windows\system32 dir has a 2004 date on it. So just before it came out. Nice they have a patch now.
lmgtfy.com is very cool! I've never seen _that before. Really a good way to say "why can't YOU just Google it YOURSELF". Yes, I already followed the same link to get the commands I asked about.
I couldn't figure out a way to get a Logitech bluetooth mouse working in Gparted Live. Probably need linux drivers?
elfaure said:
I couldn't figure out a way to get a Logitech bluetooth mouse working in Gparted Live. Probably need linux drivers?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a live distro for partitioning stuff, not for supporting all kinds of exotic hardware. Most likely it doesn't even have any bluetooth stack. Use a full desktop distribution like Mint if you want support for bluetooth input devices.
_that said:
That's a live distro for partitioning stuff, not for supporting all kinds of exotic hardware. Most likely it doesn't even have any bluetooth stack. Use a full desktop distribution like Mint if you want support for bluetooth input devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I figured as much but I thought you possibly have a trick.
Cinnamon or Mate desktop? Live iso version available somewhere (couldn't find one)? Never mind, I think I got it. I don't need you to send me another lmgtfy link. But still, Cinnamon or Mate desktop?
Ok, here's my problem. I need to make a bootable CD (not DVD). The iso for Mint 15 Cinnamon is 923MB. It won't fit on a 700MB CD, and my PC can't boot off DVD or USB. Any suggestions besides having to partition a HDD to install a dual-boot configuration which I don't want to have to do just to run Linux once in a while. I would like a Live CD instead. Reduced size minimal distro somewhere to be found?
Ok, found one here for Linux Mint 13 Maya. Hope its not someone's hack. But I think its a better option than Plop. I don't want to start hacking my Windows PC all up just to get Linux. If its any more hassle than burning a CD I'll just use GParted with a corded mouse.
Only 7 available seeds for this torrent, and only 1 is up now. Popular item! (ha). Had it going with 4 but I was hogging too much bandwidth and had to pause fpr a bit then restart. When it restarted, looks like 3 of my seeds blew away in the wind. Looks like tomorrow then...I was hoping to burn the iso and play with it tonight. Oh wait, just got another 1 back. Now were up to 100kB/s. Whoopee
**********************************************************************************************************
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=110933 (last link goes to next link)
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=103449&p=604069
elfaure said:
Ok, here's my problem. I need to make a bootable CD (not DVD). The iso for Mint 15 Cinnamon is 923MB. It won't fit on a 700MB CD, and my PC can't boot off DVD or USB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have a strange PC. Or no DVD drive?
All PCs that I know (that have been produced in this millennium) can boot from DVD or USB with correct BIOS setting and a correctly formatted bootable medium.
_that said:
You have a strange PC. Or no DVD drive?
All PCs that I know (that have been produced in this millennium) can boot from DVD or USB with correct BIOS setting and a correctly formatted bootable medium.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I know. I'm cheap and old school with PCs, what can I say. The rest of my devices are current offering. I haven't bought a new PC for over 10 years. Its an older "failed" CAD station that was slated for the dumpster about 3 years ago, then being about 3-4 years old, because our admin was too lazy to test for a simple problem - a failed RAM SIMM. I resurrected it, replaced the failed 512 SIMM and added two more, added a scavenged drive (now 3), and now its my home $100 desktop (replacing the free Pentium I had but was too slow to use). It already had the Quadro FX 3800 video card with a dual core Xeon CPU @ 3.33 GHz. But no DVD drive, only CD drive. BIOS does not support boot from USB either.
Its faster than my old work Dell Precision 690 before I got my new 6-core Xeon T3500. So those were my limitations to work with. And I think I found the best possible solution with Mint 13 Maya iso CD. Looks like Mint 15 just was released. Beautiful OS by the way, I checked out some uTube on it last night. Can't wait to test drive it. Might even make an MS defector out of me. Linux seems to run well on older hardware with slower CPUs vs Windows on the same hardware, so I'm hoping it can breath new life into this semi-archaic box I call my desktop. Now you see why I'm on the tablet so much.
Hey @_that
You were right again. It is a DVD drive. In XP Pro SP2 it was just a CD but after installing SP3 it shows up now as a DVD/CD. Getting Mint 15 32 bit now instead. The DVD drive bay load door is scratched and faded, so I couldn't tell just by looking at it, and was going off what Windows device manager was showing in its tree. I did initially pop a DVD in and it couldn't read it which further substantiated that it was a CD and I never questioned it. Turns out the DVD I tested it with was a DL, and this is only a SL DVD drive. Now I have a 1.7GB limitation, not 700MB which opens up most iso options. But I still have no boot from USB option in my BIOS. I'll look to see if there's an updated BIOS available to open up that option. It would be very nice to have a few thumb drives with different Linux distros to test drive, and a puppy Linux on my key chain.
Sent from my ADR6350 using xda app-developers app
Live Mint 15 Mate
Hey @_that-
Coming to you live from Linux Mint 15 Mate. I guess when running this off a live CD, there is no way to copy a file to /etc is there? I opened it as administrator, and it still wouldn't let me copy the file because this directory is on the CD, not the HDD, correct? I was trying to get my Synergy connected between my MS PC and my other PC running live Linux so I can share my mouse and keyboard seamlessly without my KVM switch. I'm impressed with how easy this is to setup. Also with your ability to see me as a Windows transitional user, and point me to Mint and not Ubuntu. I like it.
elfaure said:
Coming to you live from Linux Mint 15 Mate. I guess when running this off a live CD, there is no way to copy a file to /etc is there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know about the live environment - it's normally only used to install the OS to a real hard drive. I find it still strange that your PC doesn't support booting from USB. Maybe that's a sign that you really should install Linux on a HDD.
elfaure said:
I was trying to get my Synergy connected between my MS PC and my other PC running live Linux so I can share my mouse and keyboard seamlessly without my KVM switch. I'm impressed with how easy this is to setup. Also with your ability to see me as a Windows transitional user, and point me to Mint and not Ubuntu. I like it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2 monitors, 1 keyboard, 1 mouse? Yes, Synergy is nice.
And why Mint: I simply don't agree with Mark Shuttleworth's direction where he is taking Ubuntu - fortunately there are alternatives in the OSS world. I consider Mint as the "sane", i.e. actually usable, version of Ubuntu.
_that said:
I don't know about the live environment - it's normally only used to install the OS to a real hard drive. I find it still strange that your PC doesn't support booting from USB. Maybe that's a sign that you really should install Linux on a HDD.
2 monitors, 1 keyboard, 1 mouse? Yes, Synergy is nice.
And why Mint: I simply don't agree with Mark Shuttleworth's direction where he is taking Ubuntu - fortunately there are alternatives in the OSS world. I consider Mint as the "sane", i.e. actually usable, version of Ubuntu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, this is my work environment now. I have two Dell Precisions, one a 690 and the other a T3500. You got it, two monitors, 1 kb, 1 mouse. Downloading and installing Wine now. I am interested to see if I can run Solidworks on Linux thru Wine. Wow, Linux had come a long way. "sudo apt-get install synergy". All the terminal commands I learned for Android are very useful now, thanks!
ps-"sudo -i" works like a charm.
[Edit] Doesn't look like SW wants to run on Linux loaded thru Wine. I figured as much, but it was worth a try.
Video is not bad at all, despite all I've read. They really must have clean it up for 15. Picture is good, sound is good, seeking is a bit slow, and my biggest complaint is there is no stretch or zoom to fill the entire screen. You have to select from predefined aspect ratios and get as close as you can. Android has better tools in this area than Mint, or maybe it more closely matches a standard aspect ratio like 16:9 for 1920 x 1200 is close (1.77 vs 1.6). Ok, _that's it for the day. Got to get some real work done here now.
Regarding the live environment, its used all the time to test drive different Linux distros before deciding which one to finally install. That's the beauty of a free open OS and a 50 cent DVD and its advantage over a flash card in this case, if you wanted to test 3-5 different ones (back and forth, not sequentially) before deciding on *the one* to finally install to HDD.
elfaure said:
Video is not bad at all, despite all I've read. They really must have clean it up for 15. Picture is good, sound is good, seeking is a bit slow, and my biggest complaint is there is no stretch or zoom to fill the entire screen. You have to select from predefined aspect ratios and get as close as you can. Android has better tools in this area than Mint, or maybe it more closely matches a standard aspect ratio like 16:9 for 1920 x 1200 is close (1.77 vs 1.6).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no idea what you are talking about. There are lots of media players to choose from, and all that I know have a fullscreen mode.
_that said:
I have no idea what you are talking about. There are lots of media players to choose from, and all that I know have a fullscreen mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I mean is by toggling full screen in Mint, its less than full screen because the movie aspect ratio of its recorded resolution is preserved in the scaling function. So there are still black bands either high/low or left/right if you don't play with the player aspect ratio (4:3 vs 16:9) to best match that of your movie in the distros fullscreen mode with the stock player. Which ever limits to extents first in the scaling horiz or vertical DPI defines the "fullscreen" size you get which is less than a full screen. A zoom function does not but a stretch function does override the recorded aspect ratio to fill the full screen (I'm talking about TV's and Dice/BS/MX Player features now, not what's in the Linux default distro player) so with stretch you can get a distorted picture (disproportionate scaling) but not with zoom. These are not included in the stock distro player.
elfaure said:
What I mean is by toggling full screen in Mint...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am using mplayer for video playback - I don't know if that is still included in end-user-focused distros like Mint, but it's one of the most powerful video players that exist. Mplayer has no GUI at all (everything is controlled via the keyboard) - and the "f" key toggles between fullscreen and window.
Hey Everyone,
I thought about posting this into the mobile kepler thread because thats where I started from. However, no one else running mobile kepler seems to have this issue.
I have a macbook pro running windows 8 in boot camp. I installed steam (beta client enabled), geforce experience and the latest beta graphics drivers. Games work great while playing on the laptop (burnout, GTA 4 and Half Life). The registry hack to skip mobile GPU check works to enable streaming to the shield. When go into shield streaming on the shield, it sees the laptop and games. I can pick Steam and it changes the resolution on the laptop and steam opens and goes into big picture mode.
Sound and video stream to the shield fine. But I can't control anything with the shield. I can control anything with the touchscreen or with the controller. If i go into settings in big picture mode (with the mouse on the computer), I can click on Controllers and it says none detected. This is the case in every game as well. Sound and video make it to the shield without issue, but I can't control anything.
I have tried restarting, reinstalling geforce experience, trying non-beta graphics drivers, etc. Nothing seems to work. I had also installed Splashtop streamer (just because I use that product on every machine I have) and I thought that might be conflicting with things. But uninstalling it did not help.
Has anyone experience this? Anything I can try to get it to work?
There are other people reporting similar issues on the GeForce forums. There are two issues that I've seen.
1. SecureBoot incompatibility - seems unlikely for you since the Mac's EFI version doesn't support it.
2. Short file name issue
The way that NVIDIA gets their input DLL loaded into every process is using a registry value that only supports short file names. If short file names are disabled for some reason, it won't be able to load the DLL and the controller won't work.
There's more info in the forum links from this post. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=44678873&postcount=40
Thanks for your reply. I did some research after posting and found those two items you mentioned. Mine Mac is booting in Legacy mode so thats not the issue. I tried the short name recommendation which was to change 8dot3name to 0 (mine was originally set at 2) and then uninstall geforce experience and drivers, delete the Nvidia folder from both program files folders and then restart and reinstall. That hasn't solved the problem. I also tried changing it back to 2 and and doing the same with no success.
Supposedly NVIDIA is testing a fix internally and it should be out this month. I'm just worried that my issue has something to do with boot camp. I have seen others with MacBook pros on here getting this to work and I don't really see what the difference is between their setup and mine that is causing this to not work.
Does windows keep logs of errors of things it couldn't load? I imagine if the registry was telling windows to start something but it couldn't find it on the disk (due to short names) it would throw an error right? (sorry, I'm mostly a mac guy so I don't know what the PC equivalent to Console.app is)
jeffburg said:
Does windows keep logs of errors of things it couldn't load? I imagine if the registry was telling windows to start something but it couldn't find it on the disk (due to short names) it would throw an error right? (sorry, I'm mostly a mac guy so I don't know what the PC equivalent to Console.app is)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is console.app the terminal? If so on windows its cmd (hold windows key + R to open the run dialog, enter cmd, OK) but windows cmd is vastly inferior to the mac terminal in my opinion (I am a windows guy, just saying, the windows command line isnt as good as the one on UNIX like systems).
The windows event log can be opened from control panel. http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/wi...ack-down-issues-that-cause-slower-boot-times/.
Console looks to be equivalent event viewer. Thanks for the suggestion. I should be able to inspect it tonight and look for errors loading the rxinput dll file.
Wow. What an annoying issue. So the problem was that my Program Files folders don't have short name. On top of that when I try to give them short names with admin prompt and fsutil file setshortname it says permission is denied. I'm assuming this is because the Programs files folders are super super system folders.
I tried using %PROGRAMFILES% in the registry entries for rxinput.dll but that didn't work either. So I found the jankiest workaround ever. I copied the dll to the C drive root and then linked the registry to that file. (I actually copied the both dll files. one is under Program Files X86 and on under regular)
Now it works!!!!!
Jankiest workarund ever... but it works.
jeffburg said:
Wow. What an annoying issue. So the problem was that my Program Files folders don't have short name. On top of that when I try to give them short names with admin prompt and fsutil file setshortname it says permission is denied. I'm assuming this is because the Programs files folders are super super system folders.
I tried using %PROGRAMFILES% in the registry entries for rxinput.dll but that didn't work either. So I found the jankiest workaround ever. I copied the dll to the C drive root and then linked the registry to that file. (I actually copied the both dll files. one is under Program Files X86 and on under regular)
Now it works!!!!!
Jankiest workarund ever... but it works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, bit of an odd one. Good that you got it sorted though :good:
With windows you often have to take "but it works" as the correct solution There probably is a better way in this case (taking ownership of program files and then trying to make the changes you require first before resetting the ownership is what I would have looked at doing) but if it works now your probably best to just leave it rather than tempting the computer to say no again