Category: Other

Samsung Fascinate + CM7 + usb tethering

CyanogenModI was recently needing Internet access on a desktop PC with Windows XP SP3 installed using a Samsung Fascinate running CyanogenMod 7(CM7). USB tethering had work easily using under Windows 7, but Windows XP would not recognize the USB device. Digging through dozens of posts and forums I found  the information from Google. Google as a help topic for installing Android based phones as USB modem interface using the tetherxp.inf file. I downloaded the file, and tried plugging in my Fascinate, enabled USB tethering, and still could not get Windows XP to recognize the USB device for tethering. So, here was a simple fix I got to get this working.

I opened up the the tetherxp.inf file and save a few of the usb identifiers for installing the device. You will see a line like this.

[AndroidDevices]
; Google Nexus One without adb
%AndroidDevice%    = RNDIS, USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E13

I then opened Device Manager in Windows XP by right-clicking on My Computer->Properties, click on Hardware tab, and then Device Manger button. There was the unrecognized USB device with the yellow question mark icon. I right-clicked on the item and chose Properties. Then click on the Details tab at the top. Here I could see the USB device ID. I copied those values into my tetherxp.inf file to see what would happen. My section of tetherxp.inf now looks like:

[AndroidDevices]
;Samsung Fascinate i500
%AndroidDevice%    = RNDIS, USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E24
 
[AndroidDevices.NT.5.1]
; Samsung Fascinate i500 with adb
%AndroidDevice%    = RNDIS.NT.5.1, USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E24

Saved the file. Back on the Details tab, I clicked on the Driver tab for the device, and clicked Update Driver button. Choose the tetherxp.inf you have saved. Windows XP will propmpt to accept to install and unsigned driver. Click Continue Anyway. It will proceed to install the device and will be named Android USB/RNDIS Ethernet. Your computer should then be able to connect now being tethered via the USB cable.

FreeNAS + Mercurial

mercurial logoI was recently tinkering around with Mercurial and getting my feet wet using a distributed source version control. I have been using Subversion for about the past year, and has served me well. I wanted to get involved with some of the projects hosted on Bitbucket.org in order to fork some projects.  The are a number of useful Codeigniter projects and zen-cart addons on there as well. One of the main ideas behind using a DSVC is not needing a centralized server. This seems great, if you are doing your work where will you have access to the network at some point to push/pull those changesets.  I work from a couple locations and need to be able to push/pull those changes. Pricing plans on Bitbucket.org are very reasonable, but I needed to host a few extra private repositories. Got me thinking to install mercurial on that FreeNAS box sitting quietly in my basement.  I am currently using FreeNAS .69. If you are running another build of FreeNAS, you will need to find the appropriate packages for your build. Continue reading FreeNAS + Mercurial

Setup WAMP and SVN Subversion on Windows

Say you work on a desktop and a laptop computer, and you synchronize your laptop. Edit some files, save, and upload. Everything is fine. Now you get home or back in the office, sit down at the desktop, and forget to synchronize. You edit the files some more, upload, and save. Uh-oh, now you lost the changes you made on your laptop. You’ll have to get a copy off the laptop, and find all the changes you made. Ever done this? Version Control makes this scenario so much easier to resolve.
Update (2010-09-29): I’ve recently moved onto using mercurial for any new projects. Please let me know if you have any issues with the newer SVN server installers. I haven’t had a chance to update mine to the latest version. However, this tutorial should still work.
Continue reading Setup WAMP and SVN Subversion on Windows

Thunderbird 3 Search Not Working

Mozilla recently had Thunderbird 3 Release Candidate 2 available for download. I was Thunderbird3interested in trying out the new version. I upgraded my XP machine from version 2 to the Release Candidate version. Upgrade completed successfully. I opened up Thunderbird, and all of my emails were imported fine after the upgrade, and the program proceeded to index all of my emails.

I thought I would test out some the new features being touted in the new release. To my frustration, the new search feature would never complete. I would start typing in a search phrase, and then click on one of the terms suggested to me by sqlite. Thundbird opened a new tabbed, and the interface just showed my search criteria at the top with a dialog in the middle reading “Searching…”. The first couple of tries, I thought there was no matching criteria because Thunderbird’s search seemed to never complete. Continue reading Thunderbird 3 Search Not Working