android | digital nomad

Installing Ubuntu Phone (Touch) on Nexus 7 LTE

Post author:Leo Gaggl
Post published:May 11, 2015
Post category:documentation mobile work
Post comments:0 Comments

Add SDK repository sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-sdk-team/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install ubuntu-device-flash Enable USB Debugging on the device Make sure you have developer mode enabled (see http://developer.android.com/tools/device.html if you are unsure). Navigate to Settings > Developer options Enable USB Debugging. When a device is connected, you will be prompted in Android to authorize it. Unlock Bootloader adb reboot bootloader fastboot oem unlock fastboot reboot Check that you have the right device adb shell grep ro.product.name /system/build.prop > mydevicedata \ && adb shell grep ro.product.device /system/build.prop >> mydevicedata \ && adb shell grep build.id /system/build.prop >> mydevicedata ro.product.name=razorg ro.product.device=deb ro.build.id=KTU84P Check which channels are available ubuntu-device-flash --server="http://system-image.tasemnice.eu" query --list-channels --device=deb ubuntu-device-flash --server="http://system-image.tasemnice.eu" query --list-channels --device=deb ubuntu-touch/ubuntu-rtm/14.09 ubuntu-touch/ubuntu-rtm/14.09-proposed ubuntu-touch/utopic ubuntu-touch/utopic-proposed ubuntu-touch/vivid ubuntu-touch/vivid-proposed ubuntu-touch/devel (alias to ubuntu-touch/vivid) ubuntu-touch/devel-proposed (alias to ubuntu-touch/vivid-proposed) ubuntu-touch/ubuntu-rtm/devel (alias to ubuntu-touch/ubuntu-rtm/14.09) ubuntu-touch/ubuntu-rtm/devel-proposed (alias to ubuntu-touch/ubuntu-rtm/14.09-proposed) In my case I am going for the currently stable 'ubuntu-touch/vivid' channel. Install Ubuntu Touch ubuntu-device-flash --server="http://system-image.tasemnice.eu" touch --channel="ubuntu-touch/vivid" --bootstrap References Ubuntu Devices: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/Devices

CyanogenMod 12 on Sony Xperia Z2

Post author:Leo Gaggl
Post published:February 21, 2015
Post category:documentation mobile
Post comments:2 Comments

Just a quick update of the previous article on "Sony Xperia Z2 upgrading to CyanogenMod 11". One thing is that CM now included the custom recovery and you do not need to download any other custom recoveries ! Download the CM 12 ZIP file for Sony Xperia Z2 (sirius) and extract the 'boot.img' file Download link: https://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=sirius Get the device into fastboot (bootloader mode) fastboot -i 0xfce flash boot boot.img fastboot reboot Install CyanogenMod Choose the “Install zip from sdcard –> Install from sideload” option adb sideload cm-12-20150219-NIGHTLY-sirius.zip After the install has finished choose the “Reboot system now” option.

Vodafone LTE mobile data on Cyanogen Mod

Post author:Leo Gaggl
Post published:August 23, 2014
Post category:documentation mobile
Post comments:1 Comment

I have had some issues recently with getting LTE (4G) connectivity on the Vodafone Australia Network using CyanogenMod 11 on multiple devices (http://forum.cyanogenmod.org/topic/92919-no-4g-signal-on-vodafone-au/). Turns out that it was an APN issue after all. The APN provisioned by default when the Voda SIM card is inserted (vfinternet.au) does not work for the LTE Data Network. It works with GPRS & WCDMA, but fails to connect when the phone is set to prefer LTE (4G) Networks and they are actually available. It means that the handset will loose mobile data connectivity altogether. There are various APN Settings floating around on the interwebs, but any I tried previously did not fix the issue. Ater needing to call Vodafone support for another device (on GPE Stock Android) that was experiencing the same issue I got given these APN Settings: Settings --> Mobile Networks --> Access Point Names APN Name: Vodafone AU APN URI: live.vodafone.com Leave all other settings at default (for MMS settings see the link to VF Support below). I have tested this for 2 days and works beautifully. The correct APN settings can be found here: http://support.vodafone.com.au/articles/FAQ/APN-Settings

Sony Xperia Z2 upgrading to CyanogenMod 11

Post author:Leo Gaggl
Post published:August 17, 2014
Post category:documentation mobile
Post comments:3 Comments

Contrary to my normal inclinations not to buy anything but Stock Android phones I ended up with a Sony Xperia Z2 in a hurry over the weekend (it's a long story...). It appears to be quite a decent handset (with a pretty good camera actually) and one of the main reason to choose this over the other options was that is was one of the few high-end devices which already had a CM snapshot rather than just nightly releases. However similar to their colleagues at Samsung the Sony people also opted to stuff all sorts of crap-ware bloat onto the Android base OS. It appears not to be as bad as the Samsung (who are the kings of crap) mods, but for somebody used to the clean Android experience it's just very annoying. So I opted to flash it straight to CyanogenMod. by epct414 Prerequisites You need the Android SDK installed and on your Path - see one of my other posts on how to do this. Get Bootloader Unlock Code Another annoying step which is not required with Google Nexus series. http://unlockbootloader.sonyericsson.com/instructions You will need to enter and confirm your email (WTF?) and need your IMEI number and at the end of the process you will get an update key that is required below. Put phone into bootloader (fastboot) mode Insert one end of the USB cable into your PC. Turn off the device and wait at least 5 seconds. Press and hold the Volume Down button and plug…

Finding a private location check-in service

Post author:Leo Gaggl
Post published:July 23, 2014
Post category:miscellaneus mobile
Post comments:3 Comments

Foursquare decided that it was too hard for them to compete with location services like Yelp and split their app into two separate apps. Whilst that might make sense to the 4Square CEO and his VC masters, it makes no sense from a users perspective. Foursquare can be a bit of a battery hog already, and having 2 apps to open and "annoy" you with notifications is not an improvement by any means. And if I wanted Foursquare to be Yelp - I would have used Yelp in the first place. So no - I do not want to install another separate check-in App (called Swarm). One battery hogging location app was enough. by leogaggl The other argument used by 4Square's CEO is that he didn't want users confused about the "gamification" aspects of 4Square. I personally think that this is highly patronising to the Foursquare user base. I am sure most users would be able to work out what it is useful for. Since I have always used 4Square mainly as a means to get some analytics of my movements and historic record of where I was at what time (I always downloaded my checkins to Thinkup on my own server) I was trying to find something that would fit the same use case. Meet Ushahidi (http://www.ushahidi.com/) - an excellent geo-coded "reporting" service developed in Kenya. I have been following this project for years already. Dynamic Timeline Track your reports on the map and over time, filter your data…

Upgrading Nokia X to CyanogenMod 11 (via Ubuntu)

Post author:Leo Gaggl
Post published:June 17, 2014
Post category:documentation mobile
Post comments:2 Comments

The Nokia X seems to be a nice piece of hardware for just around $125 AUD. Nothing spectacular in terms of computing power, but much better build quality than your average cheap Chinese Android clone. I have always been a fan of Nokia hardware until they decided to commit suicide by firstly adding CEO Stephen Elop and ditching all of their software for Windows Mobile. The problem with the device out of the box is that is has a horribly butchered version of Android. And by horribly I mean way worse than the usual bloat and crapware that poor Samsung, HTC or Sony users are normally subjected to. Hopefully this is only Nokia's first step to a more open platform, but I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. Before committing to buy this device I made sure that I could flash it to CyanogenMod as soon as it arrives. Sidenote: I purchased from Mobicity AU - which turned out to be a big mistake. Do yourself a favour and go somewhere else unless you have weeks to wait. Boot Mode - Nokia X Nokia Recovery Mode: 1. Turn off your device 2. Press Volume + and Power Button 15 seconds Dependencies If you haven't got the Android SDK or tools yet you need to install sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb android-tools-fastboot USB Configuration sudo vim /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules #add the following line SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0421", MODE="0666", OWNER="plugdev" sudo service udev restart vim ~/.android/adb_usb.ini #add at the end of the file 0x0421 sudo adb…

Upgrade Rikomagic MK902 Android MiniPC from Ubuntu

Post author:Leo Gaggl
Post published:June 15, 2014
Post category:development
Post comments:10 Comments

If there would be an Oscar for the WORST firmware upgrade procedure (and associated drivers, documentation and general quality of software) Rikomagic should win this by a country mile ! Since all the information I found on the interwebs said Linux was not supported I ended up borrowing friends notebooks (as I don't own any Windows machinery anymore). My main Toshiba Ultrabook seemed to have issues with picking up the USB from a Windows Virtual Machine). After not being able to get the absolute crap USB drivers that come with the firmware download with any of the machines (Vista & Win7_64) I was ready to throw in the towel and put the purchase of this unit (in hindsight I would not do it again anyway) down as a total waste. I tried a last search on upgrading using Linux it turns out there was a very recent Rockchip Linux Upgrade Tool release. Download Upgrade Tool http://dl.radxa.com/rock/tools/linux/Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.16.zip Dependencies If you haven't got the Android SDK or tools yet you need to install sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb android-tools-fastboot USB Configuration sudo vim /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules #add the following line SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="2207", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev" Restart udev sudo udevadm control --reload-rules vim ~/.android/adb_usb.ini #add at the end of the file 0x2207 Restart the adb server adb kill-server adb start-server You should be able to test with adb devices The output should be like the following: adb devices * daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 * * daemon started successfully * List of devices…

Android SDK issues on Ubuntu 14.04 64bit

Post author:Leo Gaggl
Post published:May 18, 2014
Post category:documentation
Post comments:1 Comment

Since the upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty Tahr) I have had issues running the Android SDK Tools. For example this error: ./adb bash: ./adb: No such file or directory Check the multi-arch architectures installed on the system. sudo dpkg --print-architecture Mine only showed 'amd64'. Turns out you need to add the i386 architecture and install libc6:i386,libncurses5:i386,libstdc++6:i386 library packages. sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install libc6:i386 libncurses5:i386 libstdc++6:i386 sudo ./adb

Synology OpenVPN connection from Android

Post author:Leo Gaggl
Post published:April 24, 2014
Post category:documentation
Post comments:1 Comment

Connecting securely to your home network has always been a bit of a challenge since common home ADSL routers not normally contain any VPN Servers (those which do contain such are generally PPTP servers which I would hardly call secure these days). Which is probably a good thing as they would be horribly out of date considering the firmware release policies of retail router manufacturers. You could run/maintain your own dedicated server, but for most home networks that is overkill and out of the technical depth of most hobbyists. However NAS Appliances are becoming more useful in home networks for storage and other common tasks. I have had good experiences with Synology NAS devices over a number of years and the latest iteration also has a very useful VPN Server package available based on OpenVPN (as most Synology Apps are common Open Source components). Server Requirements This is a very straight forward procedure via the Synology Web UI (http://www.synology.com/en-uk/support/tutorials/459#t3.2) Installing the VPN Server via Synology Package Manager Enabling OpenVPN Server Export the certificate using the button "Export configuration" (openvpn.zip) and extract the CA Certificate file (ca.crt) Forward UDP Port 1194 from your modem/router to the Synology NAS Make sure your Diskstation user account has OpenVPN privileges Android Client Configuration This part turned out a little more difficult than I expected. Initially I tried the "OpenVPN Connect" app by OpenVPN.net the makers of OpenVPN. However this seems to have no facility to edit the configuration and would not work at all…

Connection Android 4.x MTP mass storage to Ubuntu 12.x

Post author:Leo Gaggl
Post published:March 23, 2013
Post category:documentation
Post comments:3 Comments

The ability to connect Android 4.+ devices to Ubuntu using the USB Mass Storage interface has always been a pain. With Ubuntu 13.04 a new MTP back-end (gvfs-mtp) is going to be introduced, but I have had some issues with the 13.04 Beta so I found this backport PPA to Ubuntu 12.04 and 12.10 sudo add-apt-repository ppa:langdalepl/gvfs-mtp sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install gvfs sudo apt-get upgrade Kudos to Phillip Langdale for the work and maintaining the PPA !