2011. március 26., szombat

YONIP Kernel

Respect!

Well, now, the most discussed thread on samdroid.net forum is Banjo's kernel, called YONIP kernel. It's for Cyanogenmod 8.3 and Spicagenmod, I'll show you how this kernel improve your phone.

NOTE: Banjo said this kernel is NOT WORKING ON ALL PHONES, BUT YOU CAN TRY IT ON YOURS.

  • This kernel is an overclocked kernel, which means if you apply this kernel, your phone's processor's clock will run on 1GHz.
  • It can provide better battery life.
  • In Banjo's opinion the touchscreen will be sensitive.
  • It makes your phone faster.
Tom3q wrote the framebuffer driver for Spica, that's why you can choose from 2 color depth, 16BPP and 24BPP.
  • 16BPP: I think it's the standard color depth, you can make screenshot if you are in 16BPP
  • 24BPP: Prettier colors, but you can't make screenshots.
Banjo makes his kernels with 2 schedulers. CFS and BFS. Banjo recommends that you'd better to convert your phone's filesystems to ext2/ext4. I suggest system&cache to ext2, data to ext4.(BFS is not compatible with RFS, and with the conversion the phone reaches better results in I/O operations, BFS can be maybe unstable, but responsive and fast) //I wrote about BFS in a previous post

CFS: Completely Fair Scheduler, it's the mainline Linux scheduler, you can read an article about CFS in Wikipedia. CFS is stable, and provides better battery life.

If you want to install this kernel, first make a backup from your working configuration! Before applying kernel, make a Wipe Dalvik-cache. You have to remove all the tweaks(pixiebob tweaks, ckMod ssswitch etc.)


Golden rule: Nobody is responsible if you transform your phone into a brick!

You can see the download links @samdroid.

Have a nice day! :-)


2011. március 25., péntek

Sitrep about my phone.

Hi!

I thought I share my running configuration on my phone. Now, my phone's running Cyanogenmod 8.3, but I thought I migrate my phone's NAND flash storage to ext2/ext4 from Samsung's RFS filesystem, and try "Brain Fuck Scheduler "kernels.

The idea

The idea came from a hungarian developer called Xmister, he developed and shared the idea on samdroid.net forum. Thanks to him :-)
Why is it good?

Well, it can increase the I/O operation numbers, which you can see in Quadrant Standard Edition app.

Will it reduce my phone's flash's lifetime?

The answer is no. It didn't use much more the NAND than the RFS filesystem or YAFFS2. If I remember correctly, RFS is based on VFAT.

How to migrate, and what is BFS?

In standard Cyanogenmod 8.3 recovery you can convert your filesystems. I suggest system and cache to ext2, data to ext4. You won't lose any data, because the conversion method makes backup from your existing data. You need 350-400MB of free space on your SDcard. After the conversion you can delete the backup files. The whole conversion takes 5 minutes.
BFS: Brain Fuck Scheduler. A CPU scheduler, which was developed by an austral anesthesiologist, Con Kolivas. BFS is not compatible with RFS, that's why we converted the filesystems. The BFS-kernels make the phones very responsive and fast :-)

The samdroid.net kernel makers(Lukiqq, ch33kybutt(but he told me he no longer develop to our phones), Banjo,Xmister) made kernels with BFS, I use ckmod.004BFS(download it from here), it's very stable, makes the phone very fast, I recommend it. If you want to use Lukiqq's kernel, download it from here. I'll create a particular thread about Banjo's YONIP kernel a bit later.
There isn't any updates about Xmister's kernel, but you can also download his kernel from here.

Good luck good work :-)


My Ubuntu desktop (Ubuntu 10.04)

Hello!

I thought I drop few lines about my PC's desktop. I used Ubuntu 10.04 with Linux Mint 10 desktop before, but now I'm using Ubuntu with Gnome-do dock, Conky, and I also use Compiz Fusion desktop effects.

The dock can be installed with sudo apt-get install gnome-do command.



My desktop   

Enabling Compiz Fusion is not so difficult. Open a terminal, and execute this command: sudo apt-get install compiz compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-fusion-plugins-extra fusion-icon emerald
I'm using this effects. You can set up this things in Compizconfig-Settings-Manager.
  • Wobbly Windows
  • Desktop Cube
  • Rotate Cube
  • Animation Add-ons
  • 3D Windows
  • Water effect
  • Paint fire on screen
  • Shift switcher
and the previously adjusted settings by compiz. You can customize each settings :-) You can set up every window-managing possiblities such as Open animation, close animation, minimize effect etc.
You can do this in Animations menu. Try it :-)

And the panel called Conky. Conky is an "Advanced System Monitoring Tool". It can display the system usage, hard disk usage, memory usage and there are much more possiblities as you or me can imagine.
You can install Conky with sudo apt-get install conky command. You will have to edit your own, or download and modify an other person's configuration. My configuration is SethConky, you can download it from here.
You will have to find a howto-file in the archive, it explains you how to set up your conky. :-)

Good luck, have a nice theming-time :-)

2011. március 22., kedd

Cut mp3 files with mp3cut

Hey!

On the other day I had to cut and save to an other file a part of mp3 file. It worked with Virtual DJ, because I had to cut just a 30sec. part. I listened to 30 sec. and that's it.

But how do you cut a 30 min. lenght part? Do you listen to 30 min.?

Probably not.

There is a great program, called mp3cut, which allows you to cut parts in a given interval. In Ubuntu you can install with this command: sudo apt-get install poc-streamer (because mp3cut is a part of poc-streamer package)

You can run mp3cut from terminal, and here's the syntax:

mp3cut -o outputfile.mp3 -t hh:mm:ss-hh:mm:ss inputfile.mp3

Example: There is an mp3 file, and we would like to cut a part from 00:05:00 to 00:07:00.

mp3cut -o outputfile.mp3 -t 05:00-07:00 inputfile.mp3

And that's it :)
Use and enjoy :)


2011. március 21., hétfő

Ubuntu 10.04 BURG install (or on 10.04 based distros)

Hallo!

This post's topic is: How to install BURG on your Ubuntu 10.04.

So, what's BURG? Burg is the Brand New Bootloader Based on GRUB. But we can comprehend as a GRUB with nice theme.

How to install it?

It's not so difficult, just follow this few steps. Add the BURG repository into yours then install BURG.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bean123ch/burg
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install burg-pc burg burg-themes burg-emu

During the install the installer will ask for the destination disk (where to install BURG)

Complete! Now, you can test BURG with the sudo burg-emu -D command. You can see the beautiful BURG :) Choose theme with pushing the F2 button.

Optional: If you experience problems with BURG appearance (low resolution), follow this steps.

(1) Open a terminal and execute sudo nano(or gedit never mind) /boot/burg/burg.cfg
(2) Search for set_gfxmode=640x480 line
(3) Modify the resolution to your desktop's resolution
(4) Save and restart to see changes :)

The original article is from Ubuntugeek, many thanks! =))


2 AVI to 1

Hey!

There are 2 AVI files with the same encoding. How to merge it into just 1 AVI?

The solution is: avimerge. Avimerge can be found in transcode package that you can install with sudo apt-get install transcode command.

Move the 2 avi files into a directory then change directory with cd <where the avi files are>

Then execute this command: 

avimerge -i avifile1.avi avifile2.avi -o avifile-complete.avi

It takes about 2 minutes with my old(5 years old) machine, so not a long process.

Good work :)


2011. március 20., vasárnap

Youtube to mp3 download - Potoc method

Hi!

I often see the problem that people cannot download from youtube to mp3 under windows.

I've got a method that you can download under Linux! (I use Ubuntu)

This method provides you that you can download from youtube to mp3 with 192kbps bitrate.
You need Firefox, with Easy Youtube Video Downloader plugin, ffmpeg, lame, mencoder.
Install the Firefox plugin under Tools-->Extensions(or Add-ons I don't know exactly)

then open a terminal and type this: sudo apt-get install ffmpeg mencoder lame

Type your password and let the apt-get install this stuff.

How it works?

Open a YouTube video. You can see the extension's button under the video screen. Click on it and download the video in .mp4 into your desktop. Then run my script using sh youtube.sh command. It'll rip the audio into a 192 kbps bitrate mp3.
The script


#!/bin/bash
mv /home/potoc/Desktop/*.mp4 /home/potoc
for i in *.mp4
do
newname=`echo "$i" | sed 's/.mp4/.mp3/'`
ffmpeg -i "$i" temp.wav
lame -h -b 192 "temp.wav" "$newname"
rm temp.wav
done
mv *.mp3 /media/Potoc/YouTube
rm /home/potoc/*.mp4
echo "MP3 file can be found in /media/Potoc/YouTube directory."
echo "##########  Potoc modified script  ##########"


Please, copy this text into a text editor(for ex. gedit) then save it to your home directory with youtube.sh name. Then give execution rights to the script with the chmod a+x youtube.sh command. Replace my directory names with yours.

So the complete method:
(1) Download the video in mp4 with the Firefox extension.
(2) Open a terminal, then type sh youtube.sh
(3) Enjoy =)

PS: This technique can be used under Windows, but you will have to convert mp4 to mp3 with an other application.

DD-WRT on my TP-Link TL-WR741ND

Hey boys and girls!

I bought a router about 2 months ago to share my internet connection in my house and be able to play LAN games with my little brother :)

I chose the TP-Link TL-WR741ND v2 router, because it has great specifications such as wireless lite-n, QOS and so on. As you know this router is capable to run DD-WRT, which is az open-source firmware based on Linux.

I have used the router for 2 days, but I got angry that my router disconnected from internet in 20-30 minutes. I was afraid about flashing DD-WRT but I was also angry about this disconnecting-problem. I tried to flash newer official tp-link ROM to my router, but it didn't solved my problem. So I decided to flash DD-WRT.

The method is
If you want to flash firmware, do it on your own risk!
I am not responsible if you transform your router into a brick!
I've got this model:


(1) Download firmware for your router from DD-WRT Router Database site. Use the search, and download the appropriate firmware for 741ND. You will found 2 firmwares. factory-to-ddwrt.bin and webflash.bin. Download the factory-to-ddwrt.bin file to your computer. Don't be afraid about version numbers, the v1.x firmware is okay for v2, too.
(2) Do a 30/30/30 reset. Plug the adaptor in to your router. Hold the reset button for 30 seconds, then pull out the adaptor wire, but hold the reset button for 30 seconds, then plug in the adaptor wire again, but hold the reset button for 30 seconds.
(3) Pull out the WAN cable from your router, but don't pull out the LAN cable. For flashing use wired connection. ATTENTION: DON'T DISCONNECT ROUTER FROM COMPUTER  DURING FLASHING. DON'T PULL OUT ADAPTOR CABLE!
(4) Log in into your router. Use the 192.168.1.1 IP address. The default username and password is admin. Go to firmware update. Browse your downloaded factory-to-ddwrt.bin file. Then upload the firmware. BE PATIENT! I REPEAT MYSELF, DON'T DISCONNECT ROUTER FROM COMPUTER AND DON'T PULL OUT ADAPTOR CABLE! The firmware uploading takes about 1-2 minutes. After it, wait 5 minutes, for the browser redirecting (to the router new DD-WRT admin screen) then do a 30/30/30 reset again
(5) Set up your router :)

The new firmware improved the wireless range, and my router isn't as warm as before flashing DD-WRT.
I am glad that Linux controls my router :)

Good luck :)

Screenshot:





My first steps

Helloo :)

Well, I would like to tell you my "getting started" story :)

Last year, in April I bought my Samsung Galaxy Spica phone. In hungarian currency it was 50.000 HUF =~260 USD.

I chose this phone because of the Android System that I wanted to recognize.

My phone's factory firmware was Android 1.5, I have used it for 2-3 weeks, and I found a forum called forum.samdroid.net, which owner is a russian man, LeshaK. He started to develop to our phone, he made the first rooted kernels and main modifications, and I decided to join to this forum.

LeshaK and the great other developers improved our phone's performance, now we have stable 2.2 froyo(because Samsung said that they won't release newer firmwares for Spica than Android 2.1). We also have Android 2.3 with some bugs, but it's good, too.

A hungarian man, Criminal ported Cyanogenmod to our phone, so hungarian people are interested in our Spica, too. :)

I think Spica is a strong midrange phone, I didn't regret to buy it :)

All the best!


Introduction

Hey everybody!

My name's Peter Benczek. I'm 18 years old, I'm from Hungary from Bucsu. Bucsu is a village near Szombathely.

I'm a student in a secondary technical school of informathics. I'm interested in Linux and Android so much. This blog's main goal is that I want to share my knowledge with other people. 

I learn English every day. I'll take the final exam, so I can speak rather good English. But I can make grammar-mistakes. Please, don't dislike me :)

I hope to you like this blog.

Best regards,

Peter Benczek aka. Pötöc