Wednesday 29-05-2013

Mount a Nexus 7 on Linux Mint

These are the steps I did to mount and access the Nexus 7 as an storage device on Linux MInt.
They are basically the instructions given here How do I connect a Nexus 7 to transfer files? but with my own data & customizations.

First of all install:
sudo apt-get install mtp-tools mtpfs 

Then connect the Nexus 7 to the Linux box, and get the some custom values:

mtp-detect | grep idVendor
mtp-detect | grep idProduct

Get the actual values:

   idVendor: 18d1
   idProduct: 4e41

Then create the text file:
sudo emacs /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules

With this content:
SUBSYSTEM==”usb”, ATTR{idVendor}==”18d1”, ATTR{idProduct}=="4e41”, MODE=”0666″

And then:
sudo service udev restart
sudo mkdir /media/Nexus7
sudo chmod a+rwx /media/Nexus7
sudo adduser YOUR.USERNAME.HERE fuse

Edit the fuse configuration file:

sudo emacs /etc/fuse.conf

It has to look like this:

# Set the maximum number of FUSE mounts allowed to non-root users.
# The default is 1000.
#
#mount_max = 1000

# Allow non-root users to specify the 'allow_other' or 'allow_root'
# mount options.
#
user_allow_other

Add this to your ~/.bashrc file, so you simplify the process of mounting and un-mounting the Nexus 7:

alias n7_connect='mtpfs -o allow_other /media/Nexus7'
alias n7_disconnect='fusermount -u /media/Nexus7'

And then reboot your Linux box..

Then, to mount, on the Terminal, type:

n7_connect ENTER

And to unmount yadda yadda.

Things work A Ok, although the transfer speeds seems a little slow.

Watching too much TV

Left the reading aside for a couple of days and took on watching a couple of series that I needed to take a look.
For once, finished the two last seasons -being the last one the end of the series as well- of "Entourage".
Although the sugar coated end its a bit too sweet to swallow, I loved it, Ari Gold is by far the best character.

Another one, and this was a first for me -except for a casual glimpse here and there on TV- was "New Girl", with my beloved Zooey.
Goofy but hilarious.

More Nexus Than Human

Got me a nice used Nexus 7 today.
32 GB, WiFi only.
Haven't played that much yet, but got a few apps as well a bunch of files in there already.
First app was Kindle, followed by Last.fm and last, but not least, specially when it comes to getting my own ebooks to show on the Kindle app, the ES File Explorer File Manager.
To mount the Nexus 7 on the Linux lappie, the instructions here How do I connect a Nexus 7 to transfer files?, but even after mounting the Nexus, I wasn't able to reach the "kindle" directory -to copy my .mobi files- on the root of the Nexus' file system.

Wednesday 22-05-2013

The current Linux Mint desktop

Haven't changed that much since the last one, I'm using another theme, a subdued green one, called "Greybiance", which comes stock with the Cinnamon desktop.

And so it goes the Sixth...

By far the best episode was "Drive". or at least that was the one that got stuck with me.
The use of the new chemical suits, with the kino flo lights inside the helmets, along with the trademark flashlights was totally awesome.
Right now I'm on the seventh season, and if IIRC, this when the thing simply slopes dooooownnnn,

21 K and counting!

A little more than a month to jump a notch with another thousand plays...

Nose dive

These last couple of days weather has been amazing around here.
Temperature plummeted last Wednesday and remained more or less like that.
May the summer never come back again.

Wednesday 15-05-2013

gsetting the Unity

A couple of Unity settings I've setup on the Thinkpad T60 so far.

gsettings set com.canonical.indicator.datetime show-date true
gsettings set com.canonical.indicator.datetime show-day true
gsettings set com.canonical.indicator.datetime time-format 24-hour
gsettings set com.canonical.indicator.session show-real-name-on-panel false
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-key-theme "Emacs"
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface toolbar-style icons
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface text-scaling-factor "0.8"

Most of those a close to a trademark of the stuff I configure on every box, except for the first four, which are Unity specific.

Cloudy Atlas

Last night got to see the Cloud Atlas movie, don't know how, but the local DVD rental store has a totally legit copy already.
It sucks all across the 600 years, the six stories and the 3 hours it runs.

More Mitchell, more reading...

Finished "Cloud Atlas" a couple of days ago, and after re-reading it a bit, jumped right onto another of Mitchell's books, Black Swan Green.
This one doesn't seem to have a chapter written in post apocalyptic hawaiian lingo.
I freaking love the Kindle, I'm reading a lot, but I mean a lot lot more, since I got it last December.

Give Unity a chance

Installed Precise, a plain vanilla one this time, on the Thinkpad T60 a couple of days ago.

Wanted to give it a spin and use a real Global menu once again.
It seems quite snappy, even on the T60.
Guess its a keeper.

Wednesday 08-05-2013

Global Menu on MATE: Fail!

Tried to make the Ubuntu's own Global Menu solution to get going on MATE, to no avail...
Used the instructions given here: HOW TO GET A GLOBAL MENU IN MATE DESKTOP.
(Specifically, the last post as of today...)
Which says to do this on a MATE 32 bits:

sudo apt-get install indicator-sound-gtk2\
indicator-application-gtk2 indicator-datetime-gtk2\
indicator-session-gtk2 indicator-messages-gtk2\
firefox-globalmenu indicator-appmenu appmenu-gtk\
appmenu-gtk3 appmenu-qt

Followed by a reboot.
The desktop never got back :)
After login, it belched an error, it couldn't start GNOME, and died.
So, commands over the internet... Caveat Emptor ;)
Luckily that was on a box that was planned to reboot.

Soylent Green is Soap!

Currently reading it, about 80% done.
I simply love it.
The mixed genre is amazing, I particularly love Gibson's influences on the chapter "An Orison of Sonmi~451", and the Hawaii post-ap setting for "Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After" (although that has been the most difficult thing I've read in English so far).
I want to see how it delivers on the cinema.

Stuff I miss on Cinnamon/ MATE

Simply things, no big deal, but nevertheless...

• Global Menu solution
• Google Calendar integration

The Global Menu one seems to be a little hope that some day I'll be able to get one up & running (easily) on MATE; on Cinnamon there are no news so far.

As for the Google Calendar integration (with the Panel's calendar), I have no news  whatsoever.

Xubuntu: a little testing on the T60

Made an Xubuntu install on the Thinkpad T60 (using a feeble 500 GB SATA HDD from the old Vaio.)
Went with the LTS release (Xubuntu 12.04), upgraded to XFCE 4.10, and then tried to enable its Global Menu option, but the thing went nowhere...
Guess I'll have to stick to Linux MATE for the lightweight Desktop Environment solution on the Thinkpad T60.