Long Time, No Post...Linux note

Quick reminder on how to access USB stick from the portable UBUNTU installation sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt for usb drive works rw

Change Systems

Last fall after a System update to my 2012 Nexus 7 tablet, it was un-usable ever after. And there was no good way to downgrade.

To try and find some use for this tablet coaster, this week I installed Ubuntu touch on it.  BUT that was never really developed for that model so it was VERY beta, and only slightly better than the lag-ey tablet it had become.

For the record this was the most helpful for installing Ubuntu Touch on the Nexus 7 from an Ubuntu machine, after I rooted it from my windows machine

http://pocketnow.com/2013/02/22/install-ubuntu-nexus-7

---

However when I first started the Ubuntu tablet adventure I ended up using Windows to install the Skipsoft Android Toolkit on my Windows laptop. Which I found to be a very easy way to unlock and root a Nexus 7 tablet.

So After the Ubuntu touch tablet fail I looked for a way to install a working Android OS back on the tablet. Here is how I had to restore to a more primitive Android OS

Even though was able to use the Windows software to root my Nexus 7 I had to use an Ubuntu OS to install the Ubuntu touch on the tablet. And I also found that to put it back to Android it was dependent on having a Ubuntu boot OS, for the Android OS re-install.

­
In this video, it will show how to Return your Google Nexus 7 to Stock Android (thus uninstalling Ubuntu Linux).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkT089qv1vs

You will need to go and download the Stock Android image from the following website:
https://developers.google.com/android...

Image will download into the downloads folder. Go to the Downloads folder, and extract the files to the same directory, and then run the following commands on your Ubuntu Terminal:

1-) cd nakasi-jzo54k (make sure you get the right file name)
2-) sudo ./flash-all.sh

Watch the show, and you will be done in less than 5 minutes. 

---

So it is pretty weird that a company would force a download on a tablet that made it useless. AND made it impossible to downgrade.

So the work around is to "root" the device which is kind of hacking it, AND then to get one of their old images and set it back to a more simple OS. AND then you have to install "Disable Service" to stop any automatic ystem upgrades

GRUB RESTORE

note to myself on how to restore the grub boot loader for Ubuntu

1. Pop in the Live CD, boot from it until you reach the desktop.
2. Open a terminal Window
3. Type "sudo grub"
4. Type "find /vmlinuz” and determine where the linux partition is as in (hd0,4)
5. Type "root (hd0,4)" which I think puts you in that partition
6. Type "setup (hd0)" "quit".
7. Type “quit”

I don't know if this will work on Grub2

---

I am planning to buy a copy of Windows7 and when I install it I plan to also tryout the new Ubuntu 10.04. So this info might come in handy.

The Not So Wonderfull Land of OS

So I think I'm pretty sharp now with my ubuntu ThinkPad.
I think I know what I'm doing.
So I decide I will install a Windows OS now, on the drive with the already installed Ubuntu Operating System (OS).
Well..."they" are right. It is easier to install Linux for a dual boot if you put the Linux on second.

In tring to fix the master boot record (MBR) so I could start the dual boot menu, somehow I ruined the partition table and made both installation unreadable.

Sooooo...I had to start ALL over with Ubuntu AND Windows. But it means I have relearn how to get my digital video camera working in Ubuntu.

Many, many hours of work, which is a bit silly because I have my old perfectly fine Hard Drive in my bag. But I want to see if I can live (mostly) in the Ubuntu world.

By the way I never got a disk for my Vista OS but fortuanately I was gifted with a registered XP CD.

On a completely unrelated matter, the picture above is from the desktop of a pirated version of XP which I found on the net while searching for ways to dual boot.

An Open Source Window

I was a able to run DVD Shrink on my Ubuntu OS through WINE to start step one of a backup of a movie DVD. This created the Video_TS and Audio_TS folders with the needed files to create an ISO image of the DVD.

But IMG Classic would not run under WINE so a bit of Googling I found out the command to create an ISO file from the audio and video files created by DVD Shrink...

mkisofs -dvd-video -udf -o dvd.iso DONNIE_DARKO_D1

where the last part is the folder just below the one you start the command with in the terminal window.

THEN I had to find DVD burning software to make a DVD from the ISO image. I would have thought all this would be part of a normal installation of Ubuntu. But I guess you have to look for such things in the Windows world so maybe it not so strange at all. The ISO to DVD disk software I used was Brasero.

1. DVD Shrink (Windows app in WINE)
2. mkisofs (commands in a terminal window)
3. Brasero (to put the ISO on a DVD)

Anyway it all worked out and it is only a little bit more complicated than in Windows, but maybe I can simplify it later.

Aikdio, but who's counting, not me!

At Aikdio last night I discovered I had not noted my attendance for over two months.

-----------------------------------------------------

I ended up with a spare SATA hard drive for my Lenovo R60 and formatted it with Ubuntu. Linux is lightyears beyond the installation from when I first played with it maybe over 10 years ago. I remember downloading may dozens of 3 ½ inch floppies for slackware and then having to recompile the kernel time after time. And all the pain of getting the modem, printer and sound card to work. It took weeks and weeks, and then I would simply go back to Windows.

The Ubuntu installation was pretty darn good, but I did have to do some Googling to find out how to get my wireless to work (an amazingly simple fix)

Tonight I got my digital video to work with the Ubuntu video editor and then I finally got a VPN connection going to my work network. The vpn was a little bit of a challenge but it works pretty well now.

I found that Manga studio (Windows edition) works with WINE and I read online that you can also get DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter to work in WINE. And I need that to make my DVD “backups”.

I may go back to my Vista disk but I'll see how long this Ubuntu installation keeps me satisfied.

The picture is a screen shot of the