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Tuesday, March 12, 2013
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How I made a "Chromebook" out of my old laptop, and got it all to work!
So, while this is not a complete "how-to" on how this will work or not for you, it's what I did. There are instructions below for adding Java, Flash, Google Talk, and mp3 and mp4 support. So, I have a Chromium OS notebook with Flash, Java, and more all working.
For my project, I was using an old Compaq Presario C700 laptop that I'd abandoned, because it was so old, slow, and annoying.
First, find a version of Chromium OS that you want to use. A couple of different versions are around that are popular, including Hexxah's and one from Dell that someone over there has written for Dell Mini 9 and 10 netbooks.
I started by trying to use Hexxeh's latest nightly build, but found that the touchpad on my old machine wouldn't work. I'd also, at the same time, download the Feb 20, 2013 build from Dell, along with the instructions text files, and noticed something about support for old touchpads, so I tried it second.
Follow the instructions for your original operating system listed on Hexxeh's site, or follow along on your Windows pc below:
Download the version you want (or both, like I did.)
Uncompress the version you download (I did this with 7zip on a Windows laptop).
Put a blank 4GB or larger USB stick into your machine, and use the Image Writer to select the IMG file you've decompressed, and write it to your USB stick.
Plug USB stick into target laptop, and cause the laptop to boot from the USB stick, not the internal drive. On my C700, I hit F10 to get into BIOS and modified the boot order, so it would boot from USB stick first.
Boot up to Chromium OS, login, and try it!
Now, are you ready to take the plunge, and get the OS onto your internal drive? The instructions included with the Dell download were again helpful:
7). From the running ChromiumOS desktop, type "ctrl-alt-t" get to a terminal window
From here, I had to login. I did this, using this Dell image, by using the login "chronos" with the password "dell1234", found earlier in the Dell instructions document. If you're using the Hexxeh builds, I believe his use "chronos" and "facepunch".
9). Back at the ChromiumOS desktop, press the power button to shutdown the Mini
10). Press the power button to start to the Mini 10v
11). Log in to the ChromiumOS desktop
12). If you want to transfer the USB image to your harddrive (THIS WILL WIPE YOUR HARDDRIVE!!!!) you can do the following:
0). ENSURE YOU ARE OK WIPING YOUR HARDDRIVE - Please make and verify any backups of your harddrive PRIOR to continuing forward.
0'). THE FOLLOWING STEPS WILL DESTROY ALL DATA ON YOUR HARDDRIVE - DO NOT PROCEED UNLESS YOU ARE OK WITH THAT.
a). Boot to your ChromiumOS USB key
b). Log in using the "dell" account (in step 6) above)
c). Type to get a terminal window
d). At the command prompt type: install
e). At the command prompt type: exit
f). Back at the graphical desktop, press the power button to initiate a shutdown
g). Remove the USB key
h). Boot the box - it should boot up via the HDD now into ChromiumOS
This stuff all seemed to work for me. After the d) line command, I had to wait a few minutes for the installation to take place. I expected this, but it wasn't clear in the instructions, so I'm mentioning it.
So, with any luck, you now have a bootable old laptop from Chromium OS, and some major missing features, such as Flash, Java, Google Talk, and more. For me, this made the laptop almost useless, other than to tinker around and look at things. In fact, this ruined my day tremendously.
I searched, and googled around for every possible way to get Flash into the OS, but was finding VERY little information. Until I found a couple things, combined the info, and then worked it into a solution.
Basically, to login to the Chrome shell as a root user, do this:
Enter the shell by Ctrl-Alt-F2 (Get out of shell by using Ctrl-Alt-F1)
Enter your login:
User: chronos
Password: dell1234
User chronos has sudo powers. So, we can switch to root use the password of cc
$ sudo su
2. Once landed in the root shell, the we can set the root password. But by default, the root file-system is mounted without write permission. So the root partition has be to be remounted with rw permission using the following command:
# mount -o remount,rw /
3. Reset the root password using the following command:
# passwd
4. Add the cronos to the wheel group, so that su - root (switching to root) is possible from the cronos user.
# vim /etc/group
append "cronos" or any other "username" to the 'wheel' group.
Here's another spot where this information may be easy for regular linux users, but not so much for me. So I had to figure it out.
I believe in line 9, it means "add the chronos user to the wheel group". When you type "vim /etc/group", you'll end up with a page with a bunch of lines. About 10 lines down or so is a line starting "wheel::" I used my arrow keys to go to that line, scroll to the end and type a couple keys, until it lets you edit. I added ",chronos" to the end of that line (no quotes).
Then, press "Esc" once, then type in ":x" and hit enter.
It should show that the file is written, and dump you back to the # prompt. If you've made a mistake or typed too many characters, or don't know what you did, you can hit "Esc" and then ":q!" instead of ":x" and it'll dump you out of the file, without saving changes. Then you can hit the up arrow once from the command prompt, and try again.
Now might be a good time to also change that "chronos" user password. From the # prompt, type "exit" to get back to the $ prompt. Then type "passwd" to change the chronos password to whatever you'd like. Follow the prompts for the old and then the new password you want.
But, none of this has gotten us to the place we need to be for installing that Flash, Java, and other stuff, right?
If not already at the # prompt, get back in from the $ prompt by typing "sudo su" and your new password. (See why we went through the unrelated-seeming password stuff first?) Now, you can run this command:
curl -L http://goo.gl/qPrfd | bash
Now, magic happens. You should see Flash, and Java and who knows what being downloaded from their respective sites, and installing onto your machine.
Voila! A perfectly (we hope) working "Chromebook", without spending a penny!
There doesn't seem to be a way (that I was able to find) to use the "Caffeine" solution listed in the "Easy Way", and on my fake "Chromebook", I couldn't make the top way work like written, either.
Monday, May 09, 2011
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Mac Antivirus products
The Mac media is all atwitter with talk of viruses coming to the Mac. Although one pundit took a few moments to point out that they've been talking of Apple malware for at least 6 years. http://daringfireball.net/2011/05/wolf
In any case, I thought I'd go over a couple of free choices for Mac Antivirus, for those users who you know will get something. I've also put a couple well-known paid versions at the bottom.
PC Tools iAntiVirus - http://www.iantivirus.com/
This tool is perhaps well-known in some circles, but even the Web site notes a 2008 copyright date, and many believe the program hasn't been updated since then, either. I've installed on my machine for a couple years, and it's never really done anything. NOT recommended.
ClamXav - http://www.clamxav.com/
ClamAV has long been a staple of opensource PC antivirus, and there's been a Mac version for some time that uses the same engine as the PC versions. I've had this on my home machine for a couple of years, and while I've never gotten any viruses, I also don't know if I would've gotten them without it. I have used the software repeatedly to scan files that I've downloaded for questionable sources, and no other Mac or PC antivirus has ever argued with what ClamXav had to say! I do like that definitions files and such appear to be regularly updated.
Sophos Antivirus for Mac Home Edition - http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-edition.aspx
With the recent "outbreaks" of virus problems, almost every article on the topic ends up quoting something from Sophos. Of course, Sophos is also hanging out the welcome banner with this free versino of their software for Mac. Sophos is a respected name in antivirus, so this might be a good pick.
Avast Mac Edition - $39.95 - http://www.avast.com/mac-edition
Avast Home Edition seems to work fine on PCs, and isn't as obtrusive there as products like AVG Free. If the Mac product is similar, then, okay. And Apple links to it in their software store! But, $40 is more than I'll pay.
VirusBarrierX6 - $49.95 - http://www.intego.com/virusbarrier/
Been around for quite awhile, and believes itself to be "the best antivirus for Macintosh." Also includes a ShamWow and registry cleaner, and for a limited time, includes a magnetic bracelet guaranteed to charm your socks off! Has an annoying interface, but MacWorld liked it, in 2008.
I've recently become fascinated with QR Codes, those things that look like this:
These little guys are like awesome bar codes, and can contain all kinds of information. The one above contains the link to this blog, for example. QR stands for Quick Response.
More complicated QR Codes, meaning that the random dots are more dense, etc., can contain all kinds of information. If you overdo it, as noted here, you'll end up with something like this:
That's up to 1852 characters of information. And, I can hardly hold my phone still enough for it to even read this code properly.
But, it seems that QR Codes are popping up everywhere. In fact, on my business email account, I've gone to putting a QR Code in the signature that contains my complete contact information.
QR Code Readers, such as found in the App Stores of iPhones (try QR Scanner or QR Reader for iPhone), Android (try Barcode Scanner), and PCs & Macs (try Desktop QR Code Reader), can see these codes, and respond accordingly. If it's a Web address, the scanner app will ask you if you want to open it in a Web browser. If it's contact information, your scanning software might ask you to add it to your Address Book or Contacts. On Android, you can even create a QR Code for a wireless network, telling the device the name of the network, or SSID, and the wireless key or encryption key needed to join that network. And, since it's all embedded in the QR Code, you don't even have to give the password out!
http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ has a simple QR Code generator, that you can create whatever you'd like, and save a copy for whatever you'd like to use it for. They'll even host the QR Codes you create, like the one above. QRStuff.com also has a bunch of handy tools, and a QR Code Generator.
So get to it. Download a QR Code Reader today, and try this QR Code first!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
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Ask Guy
A reader wrote to ask:
Ni-Cd. What is this kind of battery? Are there different sizes?
Well, I'm not sure I know why the reader wrote and asked, but I was in the mood to respond.
In fact, it seemed like so much fun, I'll open it up to anyone. If you have a question, about anything you think I might know about, simply write me and ask it. I'll do my best to choose some questions and answer them, particularly on slow days... Ask anything...
So, anyway, my answer:
These are Nickel-Cadmium batteries. They are an older type rechargeable battery, available in all of the usual sizes (A, AA, AAA, C, D, etc.). The downside of this technology, is that they often developed of a “memory”, whereby you could fully charge them, but not get full use out of them, if you did not first deplete every ounce of power from them.
A newer type of rechargeable battery that has largely replaced NiCad batteries is NMHi, or NiMH batteries, or Nickel Metal Hydride. These can be found at most major retailers, again, in all of the usual sizes. Allegedly they do not suffer from the memory effect, but, sometimes it still happens.
Both Ni-Cad and NiMH batteries also suffer from a condition whereby, even if fully charged, if left on a shelf and unused for a few months, the remaining charge is likely to be very low. So, just by sitting around, it’s like you’re using them up. These batteries also come from the store with no charge, and must be charged before first use.
The newest type of batteries that I’ve been using are called “hybrid” and have a couple different brand names. Rayovac’s brand is called simply Hybrid. http://www.rayovac.com/recharge/index.shtml Another one is Sanyo’s Eneloop brand. All of these come in the usual sizes.
The hybrid batteries come from the store fully charged and ready to go, and, once charged, hold their charge long after other rechargeables have lost all of theirs.
Finally, two other technologies for batteries are in widespread use, including lithium ion (Li-ion) and lithium ion polymer (Li-ion polymer). These are the kinds of batteries most often found in cell phones, and laptops, and I’m not aware that they’re available in the regular consumer sizes like A, AA, and such.
