Hi Happy readers,

Those of you that have a WM5 or WM6 device know the horror of Picsel - yes that interminable wait as you watch the spinner on your screen whilst it loads.

I have a nice easy solution for you!

This registry hack reverts all image views back to the default WM5/6 built-in viewer.

I suggest using “Mobile Registry Editor” by Breaksoft for this.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\bmpimage\Shell\Open\Command

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\bmpimage\Shell\DRMOpen\Command

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\gifimage\Shell\Open\Command

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\gifimage\Shell\DRMOpen\Command

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\jpgimage\Shell\Open\Command

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\jpgimage\Shell\DRMOpen\Command

Change the "Default" value from “picselifv.exe” “%1″ компютри втора употребаto “pimg.exe” “%1″

This takes instant effect, and makes for a much happier user :o)

Paul

6th June 08

Hi All,

Well once again I have a new phone!

It seems that Orange UK wanted to upgrade my business account (saving me £2000+ per year) and give me 6 new phones in the process!

The one I decided to play with is the HTC Touch, and obviously I had to get under the bonnet and have a little ‘tweak’ :o)

Unlocking

Ok, this is pretty straighforward. All you need to do is run two apps on the HTC, and one on your PC to recover the 8-digit lock code.

Here are the exact steps:-

• Download this Zip file, and unpack into a folder on your desktop. [HTC Unlocker]
• Connect your Phone and establish the usual Activesync Connection.
• Browse the the ‘My Documents’ folder on the phone and place the Cert_SPCS.cab and the EnableRapi.cab in there
• Run Cert_SPCS.cab and EnableRapi.cab by using “File Explorer” -Click through any warnings
• ON YOUR PC: Run Touch_Unlock.exe
• A few moments later you will seea file appear in the folder called Unlock_Result.exe
• Open HxD.exe and drag Unlock_Result.exe onto it.
• Look for your IMEI Number (its under your battery) and find it in the Hex File. The 8 Digits that appear after it are the unlock code.
• Place a Sim card from a different provider in your phone, and enter the 8 digit number when prompted (I had to do this twice on my phone)

As you can see, my unlock code was 55644428, but obviously that is tied to my IMEI number (before you try it!) - you will also note that I wiped out the last 4 digits of my IMEI (didn’t want the world to know that info!)

Bluetooth DUN (Dial Up Networking)

As you will know from my previous experiences with trying to get my TomTom working on the Samsung i600, it is almost impossible due to the BT DUN being removed from WM6. Well all is not lost my friends - it seems that on the HTC Touch (and maybe other HTC phones as well), you can install a .cab file that restores this functionality.

Instructions again:-

• Download the WM6 BT DUN Cabinet File [WM6 BT DUN]
• Unzip to Desktop on your PC
• Browse your HTC through ActiveSync and place in “My Documents” on the phone
• ON THE PHONE:Using File Explorer, run the WM6_BT_DUN.cab file and click through any warnings
• Reset your phone
• Run TomTom’s “New Phone” process.

I would recommend updating your TomTom using the TomTom Home application first. These updates seem to really help when it comes to setting up phones, and mine even downloaded the (600 contact!) telephone directory off my HTC without a hitch.

Dear Avid Reader,

Since getting my Eee PC, I’ve been reading about the ability to overclock the FSB (Front Side Bus). This bus has the capability of running at 100mhz (as opposed to the default 70mhz). The net effect of this is that the CPU speed increases to 900 Mhz from the normal 630 Mhz (which is 70% of 900 Mhz of course!). You must if course be running Ubuntu to do this!

Once you have downloaded the scripts from [here], run the following commands from within the unpacked archive:

sudo ./tweak-gnome.sh
sudo ./install.sh all

Then reboot your EeePC

After doing this, Pressing Fn-F6 will automatically enable the FSB increase, and various other fixes for the EeePC will start working, namely;

• Asus Eee kernel modules
• ACPI support (suspend, hotkeys)
• overclocking code
• Wifi support
• Sound
• Boot speed
• Additional software sources
• Skype two way video

All this can be found on the Ubuntu Eee Wiki located here: http://ubuntu-eee.tuxfamily.org/

Now I know that I have already told you how to do a lot of this in my article about installing Ubuntu on an EeePC, but this does take a lot of the hassle out of it, and it definately gets the overclocking working!

Bluetooth

There has been lots of mods popping up lately that allows you to install a Bluetooth dongle inside your EeePC utilising the additional USB connections that are hidden on the motherboard… well you could of course use a tiny USB dongle like this. You can pick these up for £10, and its a lot less hassle than getting the soldering iron out! One supplier is Novatech [link]

---

IMPORTANT NOTICE: It seems that a few users have managed to completely ‘brick’ their i600’s by putting i607 software on them (or visa-versa) - The two flash files are not interchangeable - if you use the wrong flash file on your phone, you may well permanantly ‘brick’ it. Please also note: The information provided here is based on my own experience of upgrading my i600. You use this information at your own risk. The instructions here are for a European i600 **NOT** a USA i607. If you try this on an AT&T i607, you *will* brick your phone.

---

Dearest Fanboys (and girls),As you know; I am a great fan of my Samsung SGH-i600, but I have a little bad news for you… The *Free* WM6 Upgrade that is supplied on the Samsung Website [link] will not work on the ‘Orange’ branded units, or even those that have been ‘debranded’ :o( - I have tested this using the various methods (and wiping my phone on each occasion!) in order to prove that it can’t be done.

Curse you Orange, and curse your nasty branded interfaces….

However…. A look at the MoDaCo Wiki [Link] shows a WM6 Flash (not official) !!! - So… I downloaded the 60Mb File, and lo and behold, WM6 on my Samsung - Wooo Hoooooo.

Here are the instructions in Full:-

Please Note: This is entirely at your own risk, and any damage caused directly or indirectly by this information is entirely your responsibility. If you brick your phone, don’t come crying to me - you have been warned!

• Make sure you have ActiveSync 4.5 or higher installed.
• BACKUP YOUR PHONE -Use ActiveSync to backup the contacts, and browse to the phone for images / mp3’s etc.
  
• Download the Modem Driver (required for ‘Flashing’) [ZIP] and install it.
• Download the i600UXXGG2 WM6 RAR file and unpack [Link]
• Ensure that you ‘disable‘ the USB Connection in the ActiveSync Connection Settings whilst you attempt this.
• Place phone into ‘Flasher Mode’ (click on image for larger view)
• Run the WM6 upgrader - Ensure that you have a fully charged battery, and that you don’t interrupt the (rather long) upgrade process - it will say complete several times… wait until the ‘Flasher’ screen disappears off the phone. (NOTE: Can take up to 5 mins)
  
• Wait for phone to reboot - it takes about 5 mins to complete the process - be patient whilst its on the Windows Mobile Screen!!!
• Wait for the phone to reboot again… (normal startup speed this time!)
• Restore the USB connection in ActiveSync
• Restore all your images / mp3s and re-sync your contacts.

Once completed, if you should see version CE OS 5.2.1437 - i600UXXGG2

You’ll notice it says 5.2 - well that is the official internal version number for WM6!

Impressions;

Well… you’ll notice that some of the icons have been improved. There is a new ‘Windows Live’ screen (Search and Live login), a Live Messenger icon and it seems a bit faster. I’ll update this as I use it over the next few days….

Some more Blackjack / SGH-i600 goodies for you;

1. Samsung i600 User Guide [PDF]
2. Modem Driver (required for ‘Flashing’) [ZIP]
3. Alternative WM6 Upgrade Instructions (if you haven’t got a UK ‘Orange’ version… Grrr) [Link]
   

Click on the Pic to see a bigger version

Hi All,

Well I went and got myself an Asus Eee PC the other day. What a fantastic piece of kit… but I have to say I didn’t like the OS much. You either have a ‘fisher price’ Xandros Linux desktop, or a Xandros KDE based one… Personally (and I am new to linux) I prefer Ubuntu’s Gnome-based layout.

Now in theory, this shouldn’t be too hard, but in order to make sure that this all works properly, I spent a great deal of time researching the process at EeeUser.com and various other sites.

This is my ‘How to’

1. Reboot your Eee PC and ensure that the boot sequence is set to ATAPI CD Rom as the first choice.
2. Plug in a USB CD Caddy and insert your Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon Live CD (Download Here)
3. Once booted, click on Applications, Terminal and type gconf-editor
4. Browse to apps/compiz/plugins/move/allscreens/options and uncheck constrain_y (Full details Here) - This allows you to move any window up beyond the height of the screen, which is very much needed during this install.
5. Double Click on the “Install” Icon on the Desktop. Any time a window doesn’t fit, hold down the Alt key and drag the window off the top of the screen so you can see the buttons.
6. Go through all the normal bits until you get to the Partitioning. Select manual and delete all the existing partitions. Create one partition of 4001Mb that is EXT2 and has a mount point of “/” - Ignore any “swap partition” warnings.
7. Complete Install (answering any obvious questions accordingly)
8. Reboot (after removing the CD)
9. Redo Step 4 again (it gets lost in the install)
10. Acknowledge the Athos “Restricted Driver” message
11. Minimise Disk Writes (All obtained from Eeeuser.com) by doing the following:-
    1. Adding the following to /etc/fstab tmpfs /var/log tmpfs defaults,noatime 0 0
    2. Repeat for /tmp, /var/lock, /var/run and /var/tmp
    3. Set defaults,noatime 0 2 on the main ext2 partition (See HERE for more details) to prevent excessive wear and tear on your SSD
    4. If you ignored me and added a swap partition as well, then edit the /etc/sysctl.conf and add a line at the end that says vm.swappiness=0 this will tell the OS to use RAM in preference to Swap files.
    5. Go into Add/Remove, and remove the pointless applications that are taking up room on your little 4Gb SSD… I removed the following:-
12. 1. Most of the games (Really…How often are you actually going to play these?)
    2. F-spot Photo Manager (I user Flikr, so not needed)
    3. OnBoard (on-screen keyboard… not needed as we have one!)
    4. Orca (I can see just fine thank you…)
    5. Xsane (Nope… no scanners or faxes plugged into my Eee)
13. Get your GMAIL all set up (Samsung tips here apply equally well… http://www.internet-tools.co.uk/blog/index.php?s=gmail)

Ok. So we have a working Eee PC running Ubuntu, but there are a few things ‘Broken’…. Battery Indicator, Wireless Lan, Webcam, Power Buttons, Lid sensor, Skype…..

Go the the Eeeuser.com site HERE to fix these issues (far to long to cut’n'paste here) and pn Samiux’s Blog HERE

But things I did fix from the Eeeuser site were:-

• Wireless network (via ndiswrapper method)
• Suspend/Resume/Power Down issues
• Webcam support (you have to enable it in the BIOS for Ubuntu to see it - it will reboot twice once enabled)

Click on the Pic to see a bigger version

The next thing was to make sure that everything took up as little space as possible. These were the steps I took:-

• Installed the ‘Littlefox’ theme into FireFox (takes up much less screen real-estate)
• Went into Appearance Preferences and set:-
  • All the fonts to 8pt
  • Icons to “Icon Only” (no text)
• Adjusted mouse sensitivity (wasn’t detecting my touchpad-taps very well)
• Set both status bars to 19 pixels in height
• Added my networked HP printer (I use a wireless gateway adapter connected to the Ethernet port on the OfficeJet)

Then I added some goodies…

• Enabled all the repositories in System, Administration, Software Sources
• Updated everything by going into System, Administration, Update Manager
• Installed all the BlueTooth stuff (so I can beam from my Samsung to the Eee PC)
• Installed Camorama (Web Cam Capture and Test App)
• Installed v2 of Skype (it has webcam support under linux)

And thats it…. all working, and I am in fact completing this blog entry on my Eee PC with Ubuntu!

Click on the Pic to see a bigger version

27th November - NOTE: When installing the ndiswrapper, make sure you place the ndis folder that you downloaded from the cd/website somewhere sensible! I deleted the folder (thinking that ndiswrapper would copy the relevant files somewhere) and spent 2 hours trying to get my wireless lan working again

29th November - Added some screenshots of it in action.

30th November - Firstly… sorry if you haven’t been able to view this blog… Fasthosts cobbled my MySQL server Secondly… I have had a minor problem (irritating, more than an issue) where the Eee PC will randomly reboot during the initial boot sequence. Essentially it gets ’stuck’ about 20% through the first Ubuntu progress bar, and then reboots just fine. Haven’t sussed what it is yet, but it only happened after I enabled the Webcam in the BIOS…