Bluetooth Tether with Droid X and Droid 2

For the longest time, I have been fixated on tethering my PC to my Droid phone to access the Internet via WiFi that I overlooked an obvious way to make this work using Bluetooth.  This process uses the built in features in the Android OS and no app is necessary to make this work.  You can use your phone to access the Internet with your Notebook with the built in Android tools without adding anything to it.

First, you need to pair you phone with your notebook.  Go into the phone’s Bluetooth Settings and set the phone to be discoverable (will start a countdown to make it discoverable for the next minute or so).  Then go to your PC’s Bluetooth Icon in the System Tray and add a new device.  Your phone should show up at on that list when your PC searches for it and it will have you go through a pairing process to connect the phone to the PC (you will probably need to enter a randomly generating number on the PC into the phone).

When this is done, you will see your phone shows up in Devices and Printers on the PC and you can right click on this this phone, select Connect using -> Access point.  Viola, you are now connected to the Internet!  When you are done, right click on the phone and disconnect.  Note if a voice call comes in, you will lose connection to the Internet.  The Droid X (Verizon) cannot use the phone service and data service at the same time.  The call will come in if someone calls you, but the data service will drop during the call.

I have tried this and found it works with the following configurations:

PC:

• Windows 7 SP1

Phones:

• Motorola Droid X on Gingerbread
• Motorola Droid 2 on Froyo

If this does not work or the initial connection has a problem.  Power cycle the phone and that should clear up the problem.  That seems to happen pretty commonly on the D2 running Froyo, but I have not had that issue with my DX using Gingerbread.

 

 

 

 

 

Mint Menu Update for Maverick

Noticed on Maverick Merkat (v10.10) that the Software Sources was no longer in the System -> Administration menu.  Found this has been relocated to the Ubuntu Software Center under the Applications Menu.  Run this application and then look for it under the Edit Menu.

I was looking for this to update my previous blog on adding the Mint Menu to Ubuntu v10.10.    So using the following, you an add the Mint Menu to Ubuntu Merkat:

1. Add the following to your software sources: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/  julia main upstream import backport
2. Terminal: sudo apt-get install linuxmint-keyring
3. Terminal: sudo apt-get update
4. Terminal: sudo apt-get install mintmenu

A good icon to use for the menu is here: /usr/share/icons/Humanity-Dark/places/22/start-here.svg

Install MintMenu on Lucid

I really like the Linux Mint menu, but prefer the options I get with Ubuntu.  So really what I need is just the Linux Mint Menu on Ubuntu.  Here is how you do it:

1. Add the following to your software sources: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/  isadora main upstream import backport
2. Terminal: sudo apt-get install linuxmint-keyring
3. Terminal: sudo apt-get update
4. Terminal: sudo apt-get install mintmenu

Then just add the MintMenu to your panel!

PS: This is a good icon to use for the menu: /usr/share/icons/Humanity-Dark/places/22/start-here.svg

Lucid Windows Control Fix (Ubuntu 10.04)

The window controls being to the left on Lucid Lynx (Ubuntu v10.04) is very annoying.  Open your favorite terminal and type this in to move the controls to the right side of the window where they should be:

gconftool-2 –set /apps/metacity/general/button_layout –type string menu:minimize,maximize,close

More Info: http://www.khattam.info/2010/03/16/howto-move-the-minimize-maximize-close-buttons-to-the-right-in-ubuntu-10-04-lucid-lynx/

Tucan

Download Manager. Great Application for downloading files from file download services.

http://www.getdeb.net/app/tucan

Root Kit Tools

Excerpt from Bob Rankin’s Site:

F-Secure Blacklight is a rootkit detector that works by finding objects that are hidden from both users and security tools. BlackLight examines your system at a deep level and gives you the option to remove any nasty malware or rootkits that are detected.

Sophos Anti-Rootkit is an advanced rootkit detection program which can be operated from a friendly graphical interface or the command line.

Trend Micro Rootkit Buster scans your system’s hidden files, registry entries, active processes, driver software, and can even detect Master Boot Record rootkits.

Full Article Here: http://askbobrankin.com/how_to_remove_rootkits.html

How to set Static IP with Ubuntu

Found at: http://codesnippets.joyent.com/posts/show/319

Edit

/etc/network/interfaces

and adjust it to your needs (in this example setup I will use the IP address 192.168.0.100):

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# This is a list of hotpluggable network interfaces.
# They will be activated automatically by the hotplug subsystem.
mapping hotplug
        script grep
        map eth0

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
        address 192.168.0.100
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        network 192.168.0.0
        broadcast 192.168.0.255
        gateway 192.168.0.1

VMWare Tools on Ubuntu Virtual Machine

For Jaunty use the Ubuntu Repositories to install VMWare Tools on the Virtual Machine.

• sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools

RIP youtube vidoes with Jaunty

Install YouTuble Downloader:

sudo apt-get install youtube-dl

Then use this command line to download the video:

youtube-dl [options] video_url

There is a MAN file for youtube-dl in more options are needed.

To convert the file into MPG format:

First install FFMPEG encoder tool:

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg


Then run  convert the file like this:

ffmpeg -i old-file.flv new-file.mpg

More information on this can be found at:
http://tips.webdesign10.com/youtube-downloader-linux

Install Flash on Jaunty

Execute these commands to get Flash installed on Ubuntu 9.04

• sudo apt-get install swfdec-mozilla
• sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree