A few updates

I have been very busy as of late, mostly at work.  That said, I have been working on a few projects of note.

First, I am in process of getting everything migrated over to a new server.  Yes, I am dumping GoDaddy and Squarespace for a self run Linode.

Pertaining to the first point, I have been working on getting Teamspeak and Minecraft working on there first, then the others.  In my escapades here I have run into a few issues I had to overcome, and with that comes the third point.

Third, and lastly, I am going to be doing a video series on running, adminning, and tricks to RHEL (and its clones) servers.  I will eventually get to desktop orientated tasks (GNOME 3 has a bundle of hidden gems).  The idea is to use the RHEL docs as a guide, and step thru the commands with commentary.  GNOME3 (and Cinnamon for that matter) have screencasting software built in, so this will be rather easy. 

My first few videos will be getting RHEL6.2 installed and prepped.  There are steps to locking down your setup that should be obvious, but from what I have been seeing around -- rarely implemented.  Another will be on creating custom daemons.  Another is on Red Hat's new SPICE protocol for VMs.  This is going to be a good one :D  If you haven't tried SPICE, you are missing on alot of power there.  Think warp drive for thin client, or remote VM shares.  I was blown away a few months back when I first tried it out.

Any other ideas are welcome, but for starting out, the first dozen or so are pretty much in stone, so don't fret if your idea isn't done immediately.  My time lately has been short, so I am limited to a few videos a week tops once I get the Linode done (first priority, I a pissing alot of cash away by not using it).

Pulseaudio quirks -- possible fix.

If you run into an issue with PA where you reboot and no sound, there is a potentially easy fix.  Kill your ~/.pulse/ directory.  Thats all I had to do in the end (after pissing 2 hours away).  Alot of people had inadvertently misled me with bad updates, but the trouble shooting trick that you would need to do is figure out WHERE the problem really lies.

• Kernel
• Pulse
• Pulse Plugin

I noted that the kernel could see all my devices, as lsusb and lspci showed them properly.

When I tried to load pulse, thats when the fireworks began.  A yum reinstall and downgrade proved not worthwhile.  After a bit more digging around, I noticed that one trick can kill a few birds with barely a pebble -- vaping the .pulse config folder.

Well that problem has been neutralized, and I figure that I see alot of nifty sound hacks that can easily run you down this path, and alot of people that say PA worked fine for a while, now its broke.  Perhaps this is/was the solution.

Atrix 4G Unlock Instructions

Sadly until I do some extensive research, I am unable to locate a viable solution using GNU/Linux as the host OS.  For the process I needed to use Windows.  The process works fine, but I would vastly prefer a solution on GNU/Linux or BSD, of which I located ones with tools that no longer existed at the mentioned/linked location.  Once I can do this on GNU/Linux, I will post the steps, and host the files so that dead filesharing hosts or changed links are a non-issue.

That said, here we go!

Unlocking:

1. Read over the following links, as they are handy and will have useful info for the remainder of this whole process -- General Atrix 4G Modding info    Unlock procedure that I followed
2. Backup your data folder on the Atrix itself.  This will go bye-bye when you are unlocking.
3. Download and install the Windows Motorola Drivers
4. Download the unlock tool
5. Unzip the archive.  Open the file that was enclosed called MAIN.BAT
6. Follow the instructions.
7. Note -- there may be a part in which you will error out with a missing/unbootable OS 'ERROR 0x1000' message.  Thats normal.  Get back into FASTBOOT mode as instructed earlier in the procedure.  You may continue along then just fine.  I did run into this, and had no issues.  There are some allusions to other errors that can crop up that can be alleviated by just continuing.

Some Notes to keep in mind:

1. If you rooted your device, when complete, re-root.
2. If you installed CWM recovery, you may need to reinstall to fix things.  CWM recovery requires an unlocked and rooted device to properly install and function.  The ROMManager utility did the trick for me, and did not need to go hunting for other recovery ROMs.  That said, I don't have nandroid support, which most others tout as a main feature.  So, perhaps I should :P
3. And a forewarning, any use of CWM recovery to do backups or restores will require the unit to be plugged into a charger -- not a PC.

Atrix 4G Root instructions

I recently broke down and couldn't tolerate a non-rooted Android device in my possesion.  THe steps on linux and OSX are quite simple.  Eventually when a ROM that suits my taste is out of development, I will detail how to install and a review on what I think of it.  Sofar, there is a CyanogenMod v7 ROM out in testing that supposedly is essentially ready for prime time.  The fingerprint reader and WebTop do not function, but progress is being made.

On to the rooting!

1. On your Atrix running Android 2.3.4, goto Settings -> Applications -> Development -> USB Debugging and tick that box.
2. Download and extract the following tools.
3. Naviagate in a terminal or in the GUI to that location.
4. Run 'run_to_root_your_droid3.sh' (yes it says Droid3, but works for the Atrix 4G too)
5. Follow the instructions that the prompt gives you.  This is in a terminal window.
6. For me, I had to set the USB mode to Windows Media Sync for the process to kick in.
7. The Atrix 4G will reboot several times, if the process doesn't proceed, unlock the phone.  It will automatically continue.
8. If you are uncertain as to the success of the rooting procedure, install and run 'Root Checker Basic' from JOEYKRIM off the App Store and it will say either way the result of your rooting.
9. Done!

 Furter reading:

CyanogenMod Atrix Page

Original Instructions I followed

Linux Tip -- m4a to mp3 converter

Install via your package manager the program "Sound Converter".  You can then add individual songs or folders of songs to convert.

Beats the long and hard way of transcode or faad on the terminal :D