Using development builds of Firefox Nightly

Using Firefox Nightly as my default web browser lets me test the Firefox development changes every day. Firefox Nightly is built from the latest code changes in mozilla-central repository every night. You can learn more about Mozilla Firefox development builds here.

If you are interested to participate in Firefox development, it is good start to use Firefox Nightly or building Firefox from the sources. You can report new bugs you spot in development builds of Firefox Nightly. You can find simple bugs to fix and test new patches.

In this blog post, I'll explain how to install Firefox Nightly and run multiple version of Firefox on gnu/Linux computer. These instructions will also apply to other operating systems. You might need to substitute the paths to Firefox program to match your operating system.

If you are using Mozilla Ubuntu Daily PPA, You can remove those PPA packages safely with 'ppa-purge' command.

 $ sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa

Firefox Nightly on gnu/Linux

Download the Firefox Nightly for gnu/Linux from nightly.mozilla.org. Uncompress the tar.bz2 archive to a directory on your computer. I usually place my programs in /opt/ partition, but you can choose any different directory.

Here is the Firefox Nightly program path /opt/Firefox-Nightly/firefox on my computer. Make sure you have write permission to your Firefox Nightly directory, otherwise you'll have problems while installing the nightly updates.

You can now launch Firefox Nightly using following command /opt/firefox-nightly/firefox -P --no-remote . The -P option starts the Mozilla Profile Manager and --no-remote starts a new instance of Firefox.

Next lets set Firefox Nightly as the default browser with update-alternatives program, this program makes changes to symlinks on Debian/Ubuntu operating systems.

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gnome-www-browser gnome-www-browser /opt/firefox-nightly/firefox 10


$ sudo update-alternatives --config gnome-www-browser 
There are 5 choices for the alternative gnome-www-browser (providing /usr/bin/gnome-www-browser).

  Selection    Path                          Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
  0            /usr/bin/google-chrome         200       auto mode
  1            /opt/firefox-nightly/firefox   10        manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/chromium-browser      40        manual mode
  3            /usr/bin/epiphany-browser      85        manual mode
* 4            /usr/bin/firefox               40        manual mode
  5            /usr/bin/google-chrome         200       manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 1
update-alternatives: using /opt/firefox-nightly/firefox to provide /usr/bin/gnome-www-browser (gnome-www-browser) in manual mode.

# Launch Firefox Nightly and choose your default profile.
$ /opt/firefox-nightly/firefox -P --no-remote 

For other operating system, read How to make Firefox default on support.mozilla.org website.

How to run multiple Firefox Browsers

If you want to use multiple versions of Firefox at the same time. For example, You want to use Firefox Nightly along side the Firefox Stable version or test a localized version of Firefox for your language.

Open your system terminal and launch Firefox with following command firefox -P --no-remote and choose a different profile for this instance of Firefox.

You can learn more about Firefox Profiles here on Multiple Firefox Profiles page on Mozilla Developer Network (MDN).

Have fun testing Mozilla Firefox Nightly! Don't forget to report bugs and send patches!

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Barcamp Phnom Penh 5

Last year we kick-started Mozilla Firefox Aurora Khmer localization effort at Barcamp Phnom Penh 4. Now a year later, Thanks to efforts of Mozilla Khmer L10N team and invaluable support of several people from various organizations. We have a successful release of Firefox Khmer.

Barcamp Phnom Penh is community organized two day un-conference held in the capital city of Cambodia. Walking around Barcamp Phnom Penh at University of Puthisastra in central Phnom Penh, you'll encounter young Cambodian's engaging in social media on latest smart phones and tablets everywhere. There are numerous booths advertising smart phones, right next English language schools, Media and NGO organizations.

At Barcamp Phnom Penh 5 this year there was marked improvement in quality of talks. The technology related talks were really in-depth and encouraged participation from audience. Cambodia has good English language penetration, learning English ensures better livelihood. In country where 50% of population live below the poverty line, the Cambodian youth have an insatiable thirst for learning and making a better life. This spirit attracts me to Cambodia time and again.

Firefox Khmer, FirefoxOS and Web API

On the first day of Barcamp Phnom Penh, I talked Mozilla mission and future of Web, As a platform. The demo of development version of FirefoxOS phone was well received.

The next day Vannak ENG talked about the about Mozilla localization and walked the audience through various steps of translating Firefox. It was great to see people hanging out after the talk to interact with Vannak. Such interactions help us build a good contributor community and help keep the Firefox translations update-to-date every 6 weeks

At the end of Barcamp Phnom Penh, I gave lightening talk titled '6 kick-ass things you can do with your browser'. The talk provided a whirlwind tour of Mozilla Web API and their status.

Khmer Language support in Firefox Mobile on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)

I met Danh Hong, the creator Khmer Web Fonts and we talked about the font rendering issues in Firefox Mobile(Bug 793474) running on Android Jelly Bean (4.x). These issues are now resolved in new HarfBuzz update (Bug 780409)

Few other issues in Khmer language support remain. Android Jelly Bean (4.1) supports Khmer rendering well, but Khmer fonts are not shipped with Android. You need to use third party app to install them.

On Desktop computers, though high quality Khmer fonts are available for various operating systems. There is lack of proper documentation about the installation process and the license are not very clear.

Upcoming Barcamps in Cambodia

The barcamp camp team deserves a pat on the back for organizing yet another fantastic event. Next year they are organizing five Barcamps all over Cambodia.

• BarCamp Angkor Siem Reap): 23-24 February 2013, www.angkor.barcampcambodia.org


• BarCamp Battambang : 25-26 May 2013, www.bb.barcampcambodia.org


• BarCamp Kampong Cham : 24-25 August 2013, www.kc.barcampcambodia.org


• BarCamp Phnom Penh : 19-20 October 2013, www.barcampphnompenh.org


• BarCamp Sihanoukville (The Beach): 7-8 December 2013 www.sv.barcampcambodia.org

Perhaps I'll try organize a hands-on workshop on web technologies at Hacker Space Phnom Penh or Small World Phnom Penh. If you are interested, get in touch with me.

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CyanogenMod 10 Installation on Google Nexus 7

You got a Nexus 7 tablet. Are you ready to unlock the devices true potential. In this post you'll learn how to update the Nexus 7 tablet to latest Android Jelly Bean (Android 4.1/4.2) firmware from CyanogenMod project.

These instructions are from Truong Anh Tuan and team's CyanogemMod 10 installation on Google Nexus 7 running Jelly Bean 4.2 stock firmware at recent CyanogenMod Bootcamp in Hanoi. Thank you for sharing your notes.

‏Before you get started consider backing up your tablet data using Android apps such as Titanium Backup. Alternatively you can copy the data manually by connecting the tablet to your computer with an USB cable.

Disclaimer: Installing third-party firmware will void your device warranty and if something goes wrong it could make your device unusable. The installation process will wipe data/apps, Please backup everything. You have been warned!

Prerequisites: What do you need?

• gnu/Linux computer with Android SDK and Fastboot installed.


• Download the required files for Nexus 7 Grouper model:
  1. Clockwork Recovery 6.0.1.9(link)
  
  
  2. CyanogenMod CM10 and
  
  
  3. Google Apps for CM10
  
  

Installing CyanogenMod 10 on Nexus 7 tablet

1. Enable USB debugging mode: Go to System Settings > About tablet. Tap “Build number” seven times until you get a 'You are a developer!' dialog.


2. Connect your device to the computer with an USB cable and copy the previously downloaded files to devices sdcard using the 'adb' program.
   
   

   
   sudo adb push recovery-clockwork-6.0.1.9-grouper.img /sdcard
   sudo adb push cm-10-20121123-NIGHTLY-grouper.zip /sdcard
   sudo adb push Google Apps.zip /sdcard
   

   
   
   


3. Unlock the Nexus 7 bootloader:
   
   

   Reboot to bootloader:

   sudo adb reboot bootloader

   Unlock the bootloader:

   sudo fastboot oem unlock



4. Install ClockWorkMod(CWM) Recovery:
   
   

    sudo fastboot flash recovery recovery-clockwork-6.0.1.9-grouper.img



5. Install CyanogenMod 10 Nightly Build and Google apps
   
   
   1. Select wipe data/factory reset.
   
   
   2. Select Install zip from sdcard and choose Cyanogenmod 10 Nightlies.zip file
   
   
   3. Select Install zip from sdcard and choose Google Apps.zip file
   
   

That's all folks!. Reboot your tablet and if everything goes well, the Nexus 7 will boot into CM10. Don't forget you can automatically download and install nightly builds via CyanogenMod OTA update feature.

For more information, Please read the original blog post and Unlock, Root & Install Cyanogenmod 10 Nightlies guide.

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CyanogenMod Bootcamp in Hanoi

Back in Hanoi after a long trip, it is time to do yet another hack event. This weekend I organized an CyanogenMod Bootcamp. If you haven't heard about CyanogenMod project, it is an aftermarket firmware for a number of cell phones based on the open-source Android operating system.

We got two Samsung Galaxy S2 mobile phones and a Nexus 7 tablet to work with at the bootcamp. The goal was to try to install CM10 Android Jelly Bean on devices without bricking them. The three teams worked in parallel and jotted down their notes on etherpad.

Before you start, Understand the basic terminology. Now Get, Set .. Go!

Nexus 7 running CM10 Android Jelly Bean

Samsung Galaxy S2 I9100 running CM10 (Nightly release)

Samsung Galaxy S2 I9100G running Android 4 Jelly Bean CM10 (Stable release)

Keep watching this space for detailed instructions on how to install Android 4.0 Jelly Bean on these devices.

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Kinect-Powered Interactive Ads Display System

Spotted this interaction Ads display in a shopping mall in Warsaw. Watch the video here

Marketed by Lemon & Orange, this Kinect powered gesture controlled interaction display shows talk bubbles with products over the heads of shoppers walking by.

It is a nice hack. No, it doesn't read minds.

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GNOME Asia Summit 2012, Hong Kong

The city of Hong Kong hosted the Gnome Asia Summit this year. GNOME is a popular open source desktop environment for gnu/Linux Operating System. This annual event attracts people from diverse open source communities across Asia.

GNOME Asia Summit kicked off with the pre-event GNOME Design Workshop. The workshop helped GNOME contributors and developers understand GNOME environment design process. The workshop was intended for novice and experience UX designers, graphic artists and experienced desktop users.

The usability of the Open Source desktop environments has always left something to be desired. The keynote talks at the event delivered by GNOME Developers were very interesting. The GNOME community which was mired by conversation and dissent. Recently the developers revamping the software under the 'Every Detail Matters' initiative. Efforts to bring new UX paradigms into GNOME are also in full swing. Check out the GNOME team mock-ups here.

3D software used to create eye-popping prototypes. Don't believe me, check out this YouTube video Channel.

Graphical User Interface's visual elements such as icons, graphics are being re-designed. You can look at the latest icon theme from the GNOME project here. Graphic designers can use Inkscape and Blender to create high-quality visual graphices. You can download the basic symbolic gnome icon set from here.

In the last few years, Javascript programming language had become very popular. Today applications written in Javascript are just as fast as native applications. Gnome-shell window manager is written using Javascript, thanks to GObject Introspection libraries such as Gjs and Seed. This means you can use your web development skills to enhance and extend your GNOME Desktop functionality.

The Gnome-shell add-ons is integrated closely with the Gnome Extensions service. It lets you share your extensions easily, search and enabling new features is a breeze.

The summit also featured talks related to teaching Open Hardware concepts, Gnome Accessibility, Community development and Gender equality in Open Source communities and Localization tools and GNOME predictive text input system

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Startup Investment Hour in Hanoi

Opportunities abound for those who think big in Vietnam. Recently 5Desire, a local startup accelerator organized Startup Investment hour. The event attracted a large gathering of young bright eyed entrepreneurs in Hanoi City.

After some informal social networking over a cup of coffee. The event kicked off with an interactive session on investment opportunists for startups in Vietnam. Four startups did elevator pitches and fending some real hard questions from the investor panel and the audience.

Startup culture in this booming economy is still in its infant stage. Events like do help young entrepreneurs learn more about the opportunities startups with some great ideas.

View more pictures from the event on 5Desire page

.

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Buying Arduino in Hong Kong

Didn't expect it would be so hard to buy Arudino open source prototyping platform hardware in Hong Kong. On a brief stopover in Hong Kong to attend Gnome Asia 2012. It would take a lot of time to hunt for Arduino boards in Hong Kong's famed electronics markets. It would be wise to do some homework before hitting the markets.

Got a lucky break while digging through the Dimsum Labs facebook page. Found the Candy Chan's shop address in Sham Shui Po in Kawloon. The shop's website lists all the Arduino boards, shields and various electronic components. Navigating the maze of shops in Sham Shui Po is not for faint hearted. You won't have any problems finding these shops with the direction given below.

• Tell How Technologies



• G37, Wonder Building, 161-175 Fuk Wa Street, Shamshuipo, Kawloon, Hong Kong


• Phone: 27427881 / 68085307 / 86-15012528870


• Email:tellhow37 (at) yahoo (dot) com (dot) hk


• Website: www.tellhow-tech.com

Take the MRT to the Sham Shui Po station, exit through Gate D2 on to Fuk Wa street. You will find yourself facing the Golden Computer Center, the Wonder building is on your right. You will find the shop on the ground floor of this building.

Stumbled upon Man Wai-Yun's shop that offered a large collection of sensors, kits from DFRobot.com. You need to wait few days for the components to be shipped in from Taiwan.

• Rainbow Computer Peripherals



• LG No.60, Golden Building 146-152 Fuk Wah Street, Kawloon, Hong Kong


• Phone: 2728-1819


• Email: info (at) abcde (dot) com


• Website: www.rcpcomputer.com

The shop in the basement level of the Golden Computer Center. The best way to find the shop would be to ask the guard at security desk to guide you to the shop No. 60.

It is easy to find open hardware online but finding a shop that stocks them would be really hard. Next time I'll buy the open hardware online at DealExtreme.com .

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Hanoi Co-Working Space Now Open

Good news for digital nomads around the world. Hanoi now has a co-working space. 5Desire startup incubator and consulting company helped us create this co-working space. Register here and come prop yourself up on a couch for free!.

If you are feeling generous we could definitely use some money for a dedicated high-speed Internet connection and a coffee machine.

Hanoi Co-Working Space: How came to be ?

I had moved to Vietnam two years ago. Had been looking for a co-working space in Hanoi ever since. Working out of bedroom at night and coffee shops by day just works, but soon you'll start craving for some company of your own kind. Finally after a year of work the co-working space is now a reality. A big hug to all my friends in Vietnam and across the world for all the support.

Barcamper Preetam Rai once shared his vision of building a inter network of hackerspaces, co-working spaces and startups across South East Asia. These spaces could be a harbinger of innovation, exchange of ideas and foster new startups.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think?

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Ideas for Improving Locale Management in Firefox

Mozilla Firefox Localization project spans 90+ languages across the planet. If you haven't used Firefox in a different language, try downloading a language pack and change Firefox user interface language by editing general.useragent.locale preference setting using about:config. Captian Caveman created an easy to use Quick Locale Switcher Firefox addon for this purpose.

In this post, I'll explore some ideas to improve the locale management experience inside Firefox. The idea adds unified search, installation and language switching capabilities to Firefox Language panel. You will find Firefox Language panel under Tools > Addons menu. Currently the language panel on Firefox Nightly build looks like this.

Firefox Language Panel Mockup

The mockup below describes searching, installing and switching locales workflow. This is similar to existing Firefox Add-ons workflow.

• Enable Firefox Language Tab:Make Tools > Languages visible at all times. Currently Firefox hides this dialog when no language packs are installed.


• Switch Firefox Default Language: Default Language Switch button "Default Language is 'English (US)', Do you want to change the language of Firefox?"


• Search Languages: Modify search box to limit search to language packs on addons.mozilla.org.


• Language Management: Provide Switch Locale toggle button next to each installed language pack.


• Switch Language for this session only:Allow users to switch locale for this session only.


• Get New Language: List download-able Locale packs on the main screen.

Please share your thoughts, suggestion and criticism using the comment form below.

If you are a Firefox hacker looking for something new to hack on, this is your lucky day! .

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Samsung Galaxy S2 Accessories For Presentations

In this post we'll explore some effective presentations techniques using Samsung Galaxy S2 accessories. Use the Droid@Screen (See this blog post) program to display the mobile phone screen on my computer during my presentations. This program works by taking a continues series of screenshots of the phone screen. There are some problems with this design, there is noticeable delay during application interaction and the video performance is not great on my Lenovo X120e Ubuntu computer.

You can not demonstrate audio and video capabilities of the mobile phone using such software. Planning to give a talk about using Firefox Mobile with Android 4 screen-reader and existing solutions doesn't work for me.

Samsung Galaxy S2 HDTV Adapter

This adapter allow you to plug in your phone directly into HDMI large displays and digital projectors. The mobile phone AC charger powers the adapter and no additional audio cable is needed. The Samsung HDMI adapters are available for Samsung Galaxy phones and tablet models.

This works really great if you are planning to setup large screen display in a exhibition booth. Connect the phone to large screen display with HDMI cable and play your video demo in a loop.

Samsung Galaxy S2 Power Pack

The Samsung Power Pack comes handy when phone runs out of battery in the middle of the presentation. It does extend the battery life of the phone during the presentation or an extending application testing session.

Few caveats using these accessories. The HDMI adapter will not work when the phone is attached to the power pack .

This power pack has some issue with power sensing, sometimes it starts and stops charging with annoying beeps every 10 seconds. And you need to press locking mechanism tight to get the phone to charge. Hope someone at Samsung fixes this problem.

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Unset Google Chrome as default browser on Ubuntu

Update: After further investigation, I found is the problem is in google-chrome application not in Chromium-browser. My Mistake!

Dietrich Ayala brought this problem to my attention. For some reason google-chrome browser constantly makes itself the default browser on Ubuntu 10.10 and later versions. This is annoying when you are testing Firefox Nightly Ubuntu builds. You can choose to remove the google-chrome, but that is not a solution.

First, I tried to reproduce this problem on multiple Ubuntu machines. To reproduce this problem, installed Firefox nightly using Firefox Nightly PPA. Remove any other browsers expect google-chrome.

It took very long time to find the solution to this problem. The chromium-browser package adds /usr/local/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache which supersedes the default system application settings. The solution is edit this file and make it read-only using chattr command.

$ sudo nano /usr/local/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache 
[MIME Cache]
application/earthviewer=google-earth.desktop;
application/keyhole=google-earth.desktop;
application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml=google-earth.desktop;
application/vnd.google-earth.kmz=google-earth.desktop;
application/xhtml_xml=google-chrome.desktop;
text/html=google-chrome.desktop;
text/xml=google-chrome.desktop;
x-scheme-handler/ftp=google-chrome.desktop;
x-scheme-handler/http=google-chrome.desktop;
x-scheme-handler/https=google-chrome.desktop;

#Remove all the google-chrome entries, like this.
[MIME Cache]
application/earthviewer=google-earth.desktop;
application/keyhole=google-earth.desktop;
application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml=google-earth.desktop;
application/vnd.google-earth.kmz=google-earth.desktop;

# Make it read-only even for super-user
sudo chattr +i /usr/local/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache

After making these changes. Open Firefox Nightly and make it the default browser. Now this system setting will remain unchanged.

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Getting Started with Arduino in Hanoi

Spent the weekend learning basic electronics with Arudino open source prototyping platform. La 4uatrieme creative lab organized a two day Arduino workshop in Hanoi.

Designer and teacher Eoin Kinsella delivered a very interactive workshop. We learnt basic electronics, Arduino hardware and software environment by tinkering examples from the popular Getting Started with Arduino book. We spent the day building simple prototypes with sensors, switches and LED's on solderless breadboard and programed it using Arduino development environment.

The Arduino IDE on Linux is not well tested. During the workshop I found a minor bug in Arduino package in Ubuntu and fixed it right away.

The inexpensive Arudino hardware makes it easy to build interaction design and physical computing prototypes. With 3D printing services such as Shapeways you can now bring your ideas to life much faster than ever.

You can buy Arduino hardware in Vietnam from Soatec (www.sotatec.com) in Ho Chi Minh city.

Watch Arduino The Documentary (2010)

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Arduino workshop in Hanoi (May 2012)

La 4uatrième: Arduino workshop 12th/13th May at la 4uatrieme//Hộ...: Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.



 Read More

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ClockworkMod (CWM) Recovery Backup and Restore Android Phone Firmware

In my last post, I introduced ClockworkMod (CWM) Recovery to backup your phone firmware. It is a good idea to copy these backup files to your computer for safe keeping.

You will find the ClockworkMod(CWM) Recovery firmware backups in this location on your phones internal memory.

/sdcard/clockworkmod/backup

You'll need Dobrica Pavlinušić's shell script to copy the ClockworkMod(CWM) Recovery backups to your computer. For some unknown path related issue the standard Unix 'cp' will not work. You won't be able to copy these backup files to your computer, however you can copy files from computer to phone without any problem.

#!/bin/sh -x

sdcard=/sdcard/clockworkmod/

adb shell ls -1 -d $sdcard/backup/* | sed "s!$sdcard/*!!" | tr -d '\r' > /tmp/backup.android
ls -1 -d backup/* > /tmp/backup.disk
diff -uw /tmp/backup.android /tmp/backup.disk | grep -- '^-backup' | sed 's/^-//' | \
xargs -i sh -xc "mkdir -p {} && adb pull $sdcard/{} {}"

To restore your phone firmware from your backups. Copy the ClockworkMod(CWM) Recovery files to the backup directory on the phone. Reboot the phone into recovery mode and use the Backup / Restore option to restore the firm.

Lately, I use this technique to deploy Boot2Gecko quickly onto compatible phones when the Boot2Gecko builds breaks. The new B2GBuilds.org project started nightly build of Boot2Gecko, you might want to check it out. Personally I would prefer the B2GBuilds.org project builds Cyanogenmod style otapackages instead. Support for this is coming soon, watch this space.

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Install Android 4.0 Cyanogenmod 9 Firmware on Galaxy S2 Phone

There is lot of information on Internet about Cyanogenmod, after-market mobile phone firmware installation. However some of this information incomplete and misleading. My first attempt to install Cyanogenmod 9 phone failed. The phone screen played the booting animation in an endless loop. Let me share my installation notes here, this might save you from pulling your hair or worse chucking the phone out of the window.

Disclaimer: Installing third-party firmware will void your phone warranty and if something goes wrong it could make your phone unusable. The installation process will wipe data/apps, Please backup everything.!

Before you get started consider backing up your phone data using Samsung Kies or Android apps such as Titanium Backup. Alternatively you can copy the data manually by connecting the phone to your computer with an USB cable.

Prerequisites: What do you need?

1. Install Android SDK. We'll use the nifty adb program to manage the phone and debug any problems.


2. Install phone flashing program, Heimdall on Linux or Odin utility for Windows OS.


3. Download Clockwork Recovery recovery-clockwork-4.0.1.4-galaxys2.tar. (Please use GT-I9100G_ClockworkMod-Recovery-5.0.2.8.tar file for Samsung Galaxy S2 GT-I1900G phones.)


4. Download latest Cyanogenmod9 from Cynogenmod download page.


5. Download gapps-ics-20120422 from goo.im.This package provides standard Google Android applications such as Google Play (A.K.A Google Market).

Installing Clockworkmod(CWM) Recovery

This is an essential tool for our work. The Clockwork Recovery is modified version of the kernel that provides advanced features such as backup/restore phone ROM's and installing Cynogenmod updates. If you plan to dual boot your phone with different Android versions or Mozilla's Boot2Gecko.

The first step to flash ClockworkMod (CWM) onto your phone using heimdall or 0din program.

Unzip recovery-clockwork-4.0.1.4-galaxys2.tar archive and flash it with heimdall command line flashing utility for Samsung phones.

# Download clockworkmod 
$ wget http://cmw.22aaf3.com/c1/recovery/recovery-clockwork-4.0.1.4-galaxys2.tar

# Unzip it 
$ unzip recovery-clockwork-4.0.1.4-galaxys2.tar


#Connect and reboot the phone into download mode with:
$ adb reboot download

heimdall flash --kernel zImage

Please wait for the phone to reboot. If it doesn't work the first time, try again.

Now you can boot into the recovery mode by pressing Volume Up, Home and Power buttons together until Galaxy S2 logo appears on the phone screen. You can navigation the recovery mode screen by using volume up and volume down keys and power button to select an option.

Backup your Phones original ROM

Restart the phone and enter recovery mode. Select Backup/Restore menu and choose Backup. This provide a safety net, you can always restore the original ROM in case the Cyanogenmod 9 installation fails.

Installing CyanogenMod9 Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich(ICS) on Samsung Galaxy S2

Connect your phone to your computer and transfer the previously downloaded files Cyanogenmod 9 and Gapps files. Restart the phone and enter recovery mode by pressing Volume Up, Home and Power buttons together. Follow the steps below to install the Android ICS on your phone.

1. Select wipe data/factory reset


2. Select wipe cache partition


3. Select Advanced Menu and choose wipe dalvik cache


4. Select Install zip from sdcard and choose update-cm-9-XXX-XXX-XXX-signed.zip file.


5. Select Install zip from sdcard and choose gapps-ics-2012XXXX-signed.zip file. Reboot phone

That's all folks! Don't forget to share your experiences by leaving a comment here.

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Building Boot2Gecko(B2G) on Ubuntu

You heard about Mozilla Boot2Gecko(B2G) mobile operating system. Boot2Gecko's Gaia user interface is developed entirely using HTML, CSS and Javascript web technologies. If you are an experienced web developer you can contribute to Gaia UI and develop new Boot2Gecko applications with ease. In this post I'll explain how to setup the Boot2Gecko (B2G) development environment on your personal computer.

You can run Boot2Gecko(B2G) inside an emulator or inside a Firefox web browser. Using Boot2Gecko(B2G) with QEMU emulator is very resource intensive, so we will focus on the later in this post. I'll assume you are comfortable with Mozilla build environment. So, get that pot of coffee brewing and prepare for a long night of hacking.

Building Boot2Gecko(B2G) Firefox App

Before you start, let us make sure that you have all the prerequisites for building Firefox on your computer. Please have a look at the build prerequisites for your Linux, Window and OSX operating system.

# Let get the source code 
# Download mozilla-central repository 

$ hg clone http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central mozilla-central

# Download the Gaia source code 

$ git clone https://github.com/mozilla-b2g/gaia gaia

# Change directory and create our profile 

$ cd gaia 

$ make profile 


# Change directory into your mozilla-central directory

$ cd mozilla-central


# Create a .mozconfig file inside your mozilla-central directory: 

$ nano .mozconfig 
mk_add_options MOZ_OBJDIR=../b2g-build
mk_add_options MOZ_MAKE_FLAGS="-j9 -s"
ac_add_options --enable-application=b2g
ac_add_options --disable-libjpeg-turbo
ac_add_options --enable-b2g-ril
ac_add_options --with-ccache=/usr/bin/ccache 

# Build the Firefox B2G app and wait for the build to finish 

$ make -f client.mk build 


# Create a simple b2g bash script to launch B2G app; change paths you suit your environment
# Note: Have to use to -safe-mode option due to bug on my Ubuntu box 
 
#!/bin/sh 
export B2G_HOMESCREEN=http://homescreen.gaiamobile.org/
/home/arky/src/b2g-build/dist/bin/b2g -profile /home/arky/src/gaia/profile

If everything goes well. You should have boot2gecko running inside a firefox now.

Customizing Firefox B2G App

For better Boot2Gecko (B2G) experience, we will customize Firefox features offline cache and touch events using a custom Firefox profile.

Create a Custom Firefox Profile

You can use dist/bin/b2g -ProfileManager option to launch Firefox Profile Manager. Create a new profile called 'b2g'. Now we can add customizations to this new profile.

On Linux computers, the profile is created under ~/.mozilla/b2g/ directory. You can find the information about location of firefox profiles for your operating system here.

You launch B2G with your new custom profile using the '-P' option. Modify your B2G bash script and add the custom profile option. dist/bin/b2g -P b2g

Disable offline cache

Create a user.js file inside your custom 'b2g' firefox profile directory. Add the following line to disable offline cache.

user_pref('browser.cache.offline.enable', false);

Enabling Touch events

Add the following line in your user.js file inside your custom 'b2g' Firefox profile directory to enable touch events.

 user_pref('dom.w3c_touch_events.enabled', true);

That's it. You now have a Boot2Gecko(B2G) running inside Firefox on your computer. Happy Hacking!

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It's Finally Here! Beercamp Hanoi

Beercamp, the tech-cultural revolution that has spread across Asia is finally coming to Hanoi.

It's like Barcamp-but with more beer. And every month too. We will hold the inaugural Beercamp event this Saturday, March 17th 2012, 5:30pm at The Windmill 31 Đặng Trần Côn, Đống Đa, Hanoi.

What is a Beercamp?

Beercamp is about people and connections. There is no topic, no agenda: the focus is on meeting up and finding common interests. It’s an reason for geeks to get out and socialize. It’s a chilled-out atmosphere where we can talk shop and talk business, and a way to stay in touch with the community and what’s happening.

Seriously: it's a great way to chill out, talk about what matters and meet other geeks in a fun, beery environment.

Beercamp Hanoi Event Details

• Date: Saturday, March 17, 2012


• Time: 5:30 PM till 7:30 PM


• Cost: Free Event (Buy your own drink, better get me to buy you one :)


• Venue: The Windmill, 31 Đặng Trần Côn, Đống Đa, Hanoi Phone: +84 4 38233774


• Google Map: http://g.co/maps/6nn7b


• Directions: Heading West on Cát Linh turn left immediately after Tôn Đức Thắng


• About the Venue: Czech-style brewery restaurant built around a large courtyard. The home brew beer costs around 28,000VND. You also have food and non-alcoholic beverages available on the menu. We'll be sitting outside so dress warmly.


• Contact: Arky (@playingwithsid)


• Email: HITMANARKY (AT) GMAIL (DOT) COM

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Watch this space for updates and future beercamp announcements.

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How to Fix Samsung Kies connection problem

Update (Aug 17,2013): Testing Samsung Kies on MS Windows 7. The Samsung Kies connects after a while or only intermittently. Please see the comments below for possible solutions.

Samsung mobile phone users are familiar with this error. Kies is a personal computer sync software that enables you manage your Samsung phone, similar to iTunes software for Apple iPhones. Samsung Kies software refuses to connect your device and gives this cryptic message.

Reconnect the device in Samsung Kies (PC Studio) mode. Current connection Mode not supported by Kies

Spent an hour raking my brains, then the obvious solution presented itself. Turn off USB Debugging Mode. You will find this setting under Settings > Applications > Development.

Visual Guide to Android USB Development Settings

Samsung Kies software uses MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) mode to talk to your Android device. Enabling USB debugging setting changes your android device to use USB transfer mode.

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Samsung Galaxy S2 GT-i9100G: Review, Firmware, Software Update, Rooting

Mozilla Mobile Test Drivers program lent me a Samsung Galaxy SII mobile phone to test the nightly builds of Firefox Mobile. This Android 2.3.6 (Gingerbread) phone runs off a powerful dual core A9 1.2 GHz processor with a good responsive capacitive touch screen. The device is impressive and attracts a lot of attention everywhere.

Samsung Galaxy S2 Android 4.0 (ICS) Update

On March 10, 2012 Samsung will release an firmware update for Android 4.0 code named Ice Cream Sandwich. You will find the upgrade information here on Samsung website.

Android 4.0 promises to offer better accessibility and internationalisation support. You can navigate the android phone built-in screen reader using touch gestures. There is much better rendering support for Asian languages and additional Unicode fonts are bundled with the release.

Cyanogenmod Firmware for Samsung Galaxy S2 (GT-I9100G)

The Cyanogenmod has been boon for mobile phone technophiles. The project provides customised firmware for wide variety of phones. Unfortunately Samsung Galaxy S2 (GT-i9100G) is not well support by Cyanogenmod project. Why? Samsung had changed the hardware specification of this model and none of Cyanogenmod developers have this phone model to work on.

Last week, Yang and I spent an afternoon looking for compatible firmwares to root Samsung Galaxy S2 (GT-i9100G) . After few failed attempts we found that MyGKernelV1.1.1_CWM5.tar version managed to give us root access to the phone.

Installing Boot2Gecko on Samsung Galaxy S2 (GT-I9100G)

You have heard of Mozilla Boot2Gecko. The Mozilla entry into smart phone market was unveiled at Mobile World Congress last week. Build with HTML5, CSS and Javascript, it allows web developers an open phone stack for their applications.

The Mobile World Congress Boot2Gecko videos shows a Samsung Galaxy S2 running Boot2Gecko. You should take note that this Samsung Galaxy S II model is GT-I9100. The Boot2Gecko developers use Samsung Galaxy S2 as their development platform.

Since Cyanogenmod scripts are used for Boot2gecko installation. You won't be able to install it on Samsung Galaxy S2 (GT-I9100G) without lot of hacking. Recently there has been a lot of talk about people dying to install Book2Gecko on Samsung Galaxy S2. Caveat Emptor.

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How to display your Android screen on your desktop

A good screen capture tool is essential for Android developers. It is invaluable while making presentations as I recently discovered during my talk about Firefox Mobile Testing.

Thanks to flyingclimber for introducing me to Droid@Screen. This tool enables you to display your android screen on your desktop in portrait/landscape mode and does image scaling too. Making screen shots and videos of your android device is also supported. If the video performance is not so good, try changing the frame-rate settings.

To use Droid@Screen, you need Java and Android SDK installed on your computer. Download this droidAtScreen-0.5.1.jar file from here or from this mirror and run it by typing this command in your terminal. Make sure you have enabled 'USB Debugging' on your Android device.

# Download the program 
$ wget http://blog.ribomation.com/download/http://blog.ribomation.com/wp-content/files/droidAtScreen-1.0.1.jar

# Launch Droid@Screen from command-line
$ java -jar droidAtScreen-0.5.1.jar

The software prompts you for the location of your Android SDK adb.

Connect your phone and select the device name from the Droid@Screen menu. And you are done.

Video Tutorial of Droid@Screen

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Barcamp Hanoi 2012 is Here!

A year ago I never heard of barcamps. My ideal conference meant sitting among spiderweb of power cables and writing strings of computer code with bunch of geeks. Things changed when I moved to Vietnam. In this part of world the best conferences are barcamps. So I started attended Barcamps in Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia and in Vietnam.

At these Barcamp friends would ask me, when we will have a barcamp in Hanoi. The last barcamp in Hanoi was organized in 2009. Things soon feel into place when I met Christoph Kruppa at Barcamp Saigon (Winter) 2011. He connected me to few people in Hanoi who also wanted to another barcamp in Hanoi.

And today I am happy to tell all friends, Barcamp Hanoi is here. Don't forget to come and attend it.

Barcamp Hanoi 2012 Event Details

• Date: Sunday, 22 April 2012


• Location: FPT University 15B Tôn Thất Thuyết, Cau Giay District Hanoi, Vietnam map


• Website : http://www.barcamphanoi.org/
  
• Twitter: @barcamphanoi


• Twitter hashtag: #barcamphanoi
  

What is a barcamp ?

BarCamp is a user-generated event — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — focusing on technology as well as teaching and learning.

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Firefox Developer Tools at FOSS@HUS

FOSS@HUS is annual technology festival organized by the Hanoi University of Sciences, Hanoi. This event encourages the students of the university to learn and contribute to the Free and Open Source software. This year, the event featured talks on Fedora community, LibreOffice, Open Street Map (OSM) and Open VoIP solutions.

Mozilla Firefox Developer Tools

The Mozilla Firefox Developer tools talk introduced the features that help accelerate web development. The Mozilla Firefox design is driven by user needs. The new developers tools are good example of such focus. The talk encouraged audience to download the Nightly, Aurora builds of Mozilla Firefox and try out Web Inspector, Web Console, Scratchpad Javascript editor and Style inspector. Written in Javascript these web developers tools are great for budding Firefox hackers.

Firefox Web developer tools

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Yang helped translate the talk in Vietnamese

The FOSS@HUS organisers and speakers

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Barcamp Saigon (Winter) 2011

Attending Barcamp Saigon gives you a glimpse of the new Vietnam. As you travel from the Ho Chi Minh city center towards the RMIT International University, the overloaded motor bikes and street hawkers in large conical hats are soon replaced by swank cars and posh apartment buildings. The Barcamp Saigon registration desk was already bustling with people when I arrived at RMIT campus. Everywhere you look, you will see fresh young faces. You can see the aspiration of the country in the faces.

Traveled from my home in Hanoi to attend Barcamp Saigon on December 11, 2011. Walking through the main hall of the Barcamp Camp, you'll see students, IT professionals, expats working in technology startups. The Barcamp Saigon itself is organized by a group of expats and local volunteers.

There are Job boards advertising new positions in startups, online book seller Tiki.vn's booth, RMIT education booth and free coffee from a new cafe outlet in the main hall. The Kindle Fire on display at Tiki.vn's booth was certainly drawing quite a lot of interest. Judging by the Barcamp talks, there seems to be a marked interest in the technology, gaming and entrepreneurship.

Event Registration Desk

Main Hall

Barcampers at the opening Session

Voting for the Talks

Electronic Arts (EA) talk

Technology Entrepreneurship, Startups, Angel Investors in Vietnam

Internet Governance in Vietnam

Skunkworks.vn Gamification talk

Javascript Libraries Talk

The Javascript talk in Vietnamese attracted a large crowd. Talking to people at the barcamp made me realize the need for Mozilla developer engagement in the region. My conversation with the Ubuntu community members, Teachers, Students expressed their interest for such engagement. Later on I meetup with Lilly Nguyen from UCLA to learn about her experiences with FLOSS communities in Vietnam.

Mozilla Engagement at Barcamp Saigon

We managed to schedule two Mozilla talks at Barcamp Saigon. Participants learnt about the story behind Mozilla project and how to contribute to Mozilla software. Vu Hung gave a talk about Mozilla Vietnamese localization project and I talked about testing the latest Firefox Mobile for Android.

The Mozilla Story

Mozilla Vietnamese Localization

Vu Hung contributes Vietnamese translations to Mozilla Firefox and other FLOSS projects such as LibreOffice. In this Vietnamese language talk he explained various aspects of Mozilla Localization; the software and the challenges of localization. Thanks to volunteer efforts Mozilla Firefox is available in Vietnamese. The talk encouraged people to join and help translate Vietnamese localization of Mozilla software.

Vu Hung Localization talk

Testing Mozilla Firefox Mobile

The talk introduced the Mozilla Mobile Test Drivers program. The program aims to attract early adopters to try out Firefox mobile nightly and report problems. The response was positive, there were very few Android devices capable of running Mobile Firefox around. However I except this to change very soon here in Vietnam.

Firefox mobile Get, Set .... Test

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We had good number of people attend the talk. Ubuntu Vietnam community was also present in the room. At the end of the session I invited Ubuntu Vietnam community to briefly present their work to the audience.

Ubuntu-VN Community Talk

Developing IT Community in Saigon

Unlike other barcamp talks, this interactive session discussed various ideas for developing an active IT community in Saigon. The participants decided to start a new community called 'Creative Saigon' to further this goal. I was really happy that my suggestion 'Creative Saigon' got the most votes. Guess the offer of 'Free Beer' also helped.

Towards the end of the discussion, I put forth a challenge to be pro-active about developing the IT community by starting right now. Would anyone join me for the first Beercamp Saigon next day?. As expected no one showed up at the Beercamp Saigon expect for my friends from Hanoi Lilly and Mieh. As of writing this post, Beercamp Saigon is a regular event in Ho Chi Minh City.

Wrapping Up The Barcamp

The highlight of the evening was not announcing results for the best barcamp talk, but blowing up the digital projectors light bulb in the main auditorium. The MC decided to play the Korean Girl Band 'Bring the boy out' video while waiting for the results. That was one *hot* video indeed.

Taking the feedback from the barcampers was important part of the evening. We heard people share the best and worst thing about the Barcamp Saigon. The Barcamps regular fixture Preetam Rai encouraged everyone to participate in the upcoming Barcamps in Cambodia. Someone asked 'What about Barcamp Hanoi?' Well, we are going to have one in the next few months.

Let us hear some feedback

Barcamp's changed my life

I didn't get my Barcamp Saigon T-shirt

Preetam Rai at Barcamp Saigon

Come join us at Barcamps in Cambodia

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