• Installing Debian 6 on an Asus Eee PC 1015PE from a USB Flash Drive

    I used Universal USB Installer to put a copy of Debian 6 on an old 2GB flash drive so I could install it on my Asus Eee PC 1015PE netbook. I stuck the flash drive in the USB port and fired up the Eee PC. It proceeded to boot to Windows, even though the flash drive had been detected by the BIOS. I had already went to the BIOS (via F2) to make sure my first boot device was set to Removable Device. I rebooted, went back into the BIOS, and disabled the hard drive as a boot device. This time, instead of booting from the flash drive, I now see a message telling me to insert a valid boot device. I took the flash drive out, stuck it in another machine, and turned it on. The other machine boots into the Debian installer just fine. What’s a geek to do?

    Since the netbook has an AMI BIOS, I tried an old-school trick that AMI has favored for years. It turns out that the 1015PE has an undocumented feature (not listed on the BIOS screen): If you hit escape at the BIOS screen (repeatedly works best), it’ll bring up a one-time boot menu that lets you select from valid boot devices. My flash drive was listed there! I selected it, pressed enter, and after about a 20 minute install, my 1015PE is happily running Debian 6.

  • Free Utility to Generate MD5 and SHA1 Checksums in Windows XP/Vista/7/8

    It turns out that some time ago, Microsoft released a free command line utility called the File Checksum Integrity Verifier for generating MD5 and SHA1 checksums. Best of all, it’s really small (at less than 84 kilobytes) and doesn’t require installation (i.e. can be run from a flash drive).

    Microsoft is clear that this is an unsupported utility, but there’s no need for support as it is really easy to use. It will in no way modify your files! To generate MD5 or SHA1 checksums for a file, do the following:

    1. Download the fciv.exe file.
    2. Open a command line by pressing Windows Key and R at the same time, typing cmd, and pressing Enter.
    3. cd into the folder where you downloaded fciv.exe to.
    4. To get an MD5 Checksum for a file, type fciv pathToFileYouWantToCheck (refer to this post for an easy way to copy a file path that can then be pasted here)
    5. To get an SHA1 Checksum for a file, type fciv pathToFileYouWantToCheck -sha1

    Happy Checksuming!

  • What to do if you can’t update your Android SDK Tools because “folder failed to be renamed or moved”

    I got up bright and early this morning to update my Android SDKs (during HughesNet’s all-you-can-eat bandwidth time between 2am-7am). Much to my dismay, the Android Tools wouldn’t update from revision 15 to revision 17 because “a folder failed to be renamed or moved.” I have not had this problem updating in the past, so I was stumped.

    The folder that failed to be moved ended up being the tools folder in the Android SDK directory. The problem was that SDK Manager.exe had launched tools\android.bat which uses a whole bunch of files in the tools folder. Of course Android can’t move that folder if the program (and it’s dependencies) doing the updating are in the folder to be moved!

    Luckily the solution to this turned out to be really simple:

    1. Go the the android-sdk folder (wherever that may be on your system).
    2. Make a copy of the tools folder (my copy was called tools – Copy).
    3. Open the folder that is a copy (i.e. tools – Copy).
    4. Launch android.bat from that folder.
    5. The updater will launch and update whatever you tell it to.
    6. After the updates are finished, close the updater.
    7. You can then delete the tools – Copy folder and launch the SDK Manager like normal.
    8. Observe that everything updated.

    Such a simple solution to a goofy predicament!

  • February 14 is Not Just Valentine’s Day…

    …it’s “I Love Free Software Day” too. If you don’t know much about free software, click the lovely banner to find out more!

    I love Free Software!

  • Use Opera Mobile to Add Proxy Supported Web Browsing to a Kindle Fire without Having to Jailbreak

    I love my Kindle Fire, with one big exception: It does not support proxy servers. I use my fire in environments all the time (i.e. public schools) that require proxy support. While I haven’t solved the proxy problem system-wide, I have figured out a way to use Opera Mobile to add a proxy-supporting browser!

    Even though the steps below WILL NOT add proxy support to apps for the Kindle Fire, it IS possible to have a full-featured browser (Opera Mobile) on your Kindle Fire that supports proxies. Since Amazon won’t let you install Opera through it’s app store, here’s what you can do to install it and get it ready for proxies:

    1. Go to Kindle settings by tapping the cog in the upper right hand corner of the screen, then tapped More > Device > and turned “on” the Allow Installation of Applications from Unknown Sources
    2. Install the ES File Explorer from the Amazon App Store. (We’ll use this to install the Opera APK. It’s free and a good app to have around anyway.)
    3. Go to the Opera Mobile download page on a computer (not the Fire).
    4. In the Choose an application dropdown box, choose Opera Mobile 11.5 (Android 1.6+) then click the View Download Link button.
    5. Click the International link and save the APK file to your hard disk.
    6. Connect your Fire to your computer via USB.
    7. Copy the Opera APK file to your Fire
    8. Disconnect the Fire from USB
    9. Open ES Explorer on the Fire
    10. Navigate to where you copied the APK file to and open it (which will initiate an install, where you click “OK” to everything)
    11. Go back to the home screen and go to Apps. Launch Opera.
    12. In the Opera address bar, type opera:config
    13. In the HTTP server box, type the address of your proxy, a colon, and the proxy port (i.e. youProxyAddress:8080 ) [Note: You can type in proxies for HTTPS and FTP if you need proxy support for those as well ]
    14. Check the Use HTTP box (and HTTPS and FTP boxes if you need those)
    15. Click Save

    Now when you go to a page in Opera, you will be prompted to enter your Username and Password (for authenticated proxies). As I said earlier, this does not solve the problem with apps that need proxy support, but at least you can use a browser with proxies using this method.

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