Changing the build.prop on a X5A-G

The following procedure will make Skype work on a X5A-G, make sure that the unit is using the screen space properly (no more big icons) and possibly make it a bit smoother.

Make sure you are rooted, and that adb recognises the device.

Type the following to download the build.prop file to your harddrive:

 adb -d pull /system/build.prop  

Open the build.prop file with a text editor and set the following properties as follows:

 dalvik.vm.heapsize=32m  
 ro.sf.lcd_density=160  
 ro.kernel.android.checkjni=0  

And add the following line at the end

 dalvik.vm.execution-mode=int:fast  

Save it, and type the following to send the file back to the device.

 adb -d remount  
 adb -d push build.prop /system/build.prop  
 adb -d reboot  

If you get any error messages after the "adb -d remount" line, then you do not have root...

Edit: fixed missing '=' sign in the 'dalvik.vm.execution-mode=int:fast' line...

HSG X5A and ADB Drivers

Similar to the previous posts about the Desire Z and Android devices in general, the lines you need to follow the following procedure to get a HSG X5A (which  is actually a decent device which can playback full HD with no problems):

1. Make sure you have updated the SDK and the USB driver to the latest version.
2. Open the android_winusb.inf file (located under the android-sdk-windows\usb_driver directory) using a text editor. I personally prefer Notepad++.
3. Add the following lines under the [Google.NTx86] and [Google.NTamd64] sections:

;
;HSG X5A
%SingleAdbInterface%        = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_DEED
%CompositeAdbInterface%     = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_DEED&MI_01
;

4. Save the file
5. Try to install the driver again.

This might work with other HSG tablets (or their rebrands).

HTC Desire Z (AKA HTC Vision AKA T-Mobile G2) and ADB drivers

I just got myself a Desire Z and once again the ADB drivers fail to install in windows.

It is the same problem described and solved in this post.

To fix:
1. Make sure you have updated the SDK and the USB driver to the latest version.
2. Open the android_winusb.inf file (located under the android-sdk-windows\usb_driver directory) using a text editor. I personally prefer Notepad++.
3. Add the following lines under the [Google.NTx86] and [Google.NTamd64] sections:

 ;Desire Z  
 %SingleAdbInterface%    = USB_Install, USB\VID_0BB4&PID_0C91  
 %CompositeAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_0BB4&PID_0C91&MI_01  
 ;  

4. Save the file
5. Try to install the driver again.

If it still fails to load, follow the instructions from this post to find the correct VID and PID of your phone.

"Unable to open connection to server" error when connecting to Exchange on Android 2.2

There seems to be a problem when using the default Android Email application to connect to an Exchange Server 2010 SP1.

When you go through the setup procedure and enter all necessary info to setup a new account on the phone, the setup will eventually fail throwing a "Setup could not finish" "Unable to open connection to server." message.

On the server side, the following log is generated:

 RequestBody :   
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>  
 <FolderSync xmlns="FolderHierarchy:">  
      <SyncKey>0</SyncKey>  
 </FolderSync>  
   
 AccessState :   
 Blocked  
   
 AccessStateReason :   
 Policy  
   
 ResponseHeader :   
 HTTP/1.1 449 Retry after sending a PROVISION command  
 MS-Server-ActiveSync: 14.1  

Google is aware of this (http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=11177) and they calim to have fixed it but it is unknown when an update will be pushed.

The interesting thing though is that the Email application which is included with the 2.2 emulator seems to be working fine. So what we will do is extract the Email.apk from the emulator and install it on the phone.

Requirements: Rooted device, installed ADB and Android 2.2 Emulator.
Note: This will remove any improvements a ROM developer has included in Email.apk.
Disclaimer: I am not responsible if by doing this you damage your phone/data/life in an way. Backup your data first, preferably by making a Nandroid backup.

Autostart script changes for Calibre 0.7.27

In version 0.7.27 of calibre, the "auto reload" command has been unbundled from "--develop". As a result, the script in the previous post has to be updated. Only the script changes, the rest of the procedure is the same.

The "DEMON_ARGS" line changes from

  DAEMON_ARGS="--develop --with-library=$CONTENT --pidfile=$PIDFILE --port=$PORT --max-cover=$MAX_COVER --daemonize"   

to

 DAEMON_ARGS="--auto-reload --with-library=$CONTENT --pidfile=$PIDFILE --port=$PORT --max-cover=$MAX_COVER --daemonize" 

The full updated script can be found after the break:

Downloading and Parsing the IEEE MAC address OUI to a CSV in VB.Net

The following function will parse a OUI file and create a CSV file where each line will contain the first six characters of MAC address and the company they are registered to. To see how a OUI file looks like click here (it is a couple megabytes long).A function to download the OUI (or any file via HTTP) is also provided after the break.

It takes two parameters: "FileInPath" is the location of the OUI file and "FileOutPath" is the path of the CSVyou want to save to. If no file is there, one will be created automatically.

AxVLCPlugin2, Visual Basic 2008 and Windows 7 64bit - clr20r3 and REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG

I've been writing an application to monitor multiple streams in VB 2008 and I started using the AxVLCPlugin2 which comes with VLC.

It is a nice plugin and apart from a few problems (it will not go fullsceen in version 1.1.4 for example) works fine for any stream that VLC supports.

I do most of my work on a 32bit XP box at work, but sometimes I like to work on projects at home using my 64bit Win7 PC.

For most projects this works fine, but on this one every time I started the application it would crash telling me that an error with an "EvenType: clr20r3" has occurred. It also gives a lot of information about the crash but nothing useful to point to the source of the error.

Assuming that the problem was that the application could not find VLC or that the AxVLCPlugin2 was not recognised, I fired up Visual Studio, cleaned up the project and tried to recompile - at which point VS proclaimed that "Class not registered (Exception from HRESULT:0x80040154 (REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG))".

No matter how many times I removed the reference an added it again, the error remained the same.

The solution was quite simple though.

Go to the "Project properties -> Compile" and set the platform to "x86" instead of "Any CPU". This allowed the application to successfully compile and run on the 64bit Win7 pc, without breaking it for the 32bit.

If "x86" does not appear in the combobox, open the configuration manager (Build -> Configuration Manager).

In the Configuration Manager dialogue, select "New" from the "Active Solution Platform" combobox.

In the new dialogue, select "x86" and "Copy Setting from Any CPU" and leave the checkbox ticked.

Keep in mind that this will create a new directory under the "<project>/bin/" folder of your project called "x86" which will contain new debug and release subdirectories. So make sure that if you have any shortcuts to your executables pointing to the old "<project>/bin/release" or "<project>/bin/debug" folders they are updated accordingly.