rabble rabble rabble

I was the lucky receiver of a Kindle Fire this holiday season from my kind aunt, and since it is an Android device, I made it my mission to customize it exactly to my liking. I’m working with a Kindle Fire loaded with 6.2.1. Beware that you could void your warranty.

EDIT: rooting the device will disable things like Amazon Prime Instant Streaming videos. I only found this out after rooting of course, and the kind people at Amazon were very helpful in telling me that I would have to unroot the device to get streaming back. You can still steam the Prime Instant videos through the web browser though, so don’t fret to much.

Objectives

• Root the device
• Install a recovery/boot manager application
• Install the Android Market and other Google Apps

I am not addressing loading Cyanogenmod 7 on here because I am going to wait until the ROM is more stable before loading it on my device.

Rooting

Rooting the Kindle Fire is a fairly simple device, no matter what OS you are using. The best tutorial I found for all OSes was posted on rootkindlefire.com (including pictures and videos in case you are extra confused). I will briefly go over the steps here:

1. Go to Settings/Device, and make sure your device is on version 6.2.1
2. In that same menu, change “Allow Installation of Applications” to “On”
3. Download KindleFireRootNew.zip and unzip it into your working directory. I would recommend creating a new folder for this process, since you will accumulate quite the number of files
4. If you do not already have adb setup from previous work with other Android devices, then you will have a couple extra steps, which will vary depending on your OS:
   1. Windows only: Install the driver for the Kindle, which can be found in the usb_driver folder
   2. All OSes: copy the adb_usb.ini file from the usb_driver folder to your .android folder in your user directory. For Windows, this can be found by typing %UserProfile% into your Explorer address bar. For Linux and Macs, it will be in your home directory at /home/[username]/.
5. Now copy the KindleFireRoot.apk file from your PC to your Kindle’s internal storage. You can install it by using a variety of apps like File Expert or ES File Explorer. It is up to you. Simply browse to the folder with the apk, select it, and install.
6. Open the app, and select the root option after acknowledging the credits (as you should, since these people put in a lot of time to make this easy for you!)
7. Finally, open a terminal/cmd prompt and browse to your KindleFireRootNew folder so you can execute the commands below. If you do not have adb installed already and you are running Linux or Mac, replace “adb” with “adb-linux” or “adb-mac”, depending on your OS. If you are running linux, make sure you execute the commands as root (type sudo -s to enter a root environment).
   
adb root
adb remount
adb push su /system/xbin/su
adb shell chown 0.0 /system/xbin/su
adb shell chmod 06755 /system/xbin/su
adb install Superuser.apk

   And you’re done!

Install the Recovery Manager

Installing a recovery manager will allow you to make full system backups and flash ROMs like Cyanogenmod, if you wish. For most Android devices, I would highly recommend Clockworkmod, but for the Kindle Fire, the TeamWin Recovery Project 2 (hereafter refered to as TWRP) is a much better choice, since it uses the touch screen instead of hardware buttons (which the Fire does not have) to navigate the menus.

Installing TWRP is not necessary for installing the Android Marketplace or other apps, but having it installed is a good idea if you plan on messing around with your system’s innards much. This way, you can restore a full system backup in case you drastically mess something up. I followed the steps found on rootkindlefire.com.

Be aware that this process can be a little buggy (at least, it was for me) and might require you to open up your device’s hardware. Please read through the steps and the troubleshooting section that follows before continuing with this section.

1. Open up a terminal/cmd prompt and type the following, replacing “adb” for the appropriate command, similar to the rooting process, as necessary:
   
adb shell
su
idme bootmode 4002
reboot

   Your Kindle should hang on the Kindle Fire logo after this. According to the guide, Windows users will have to reload the driver, as explained in the rooting process. Since I use Linux, I did not do this and cannot verify it for you.
2. Type the following into your terminal/cmd prompt, replacing “fastboot” with “fastbook-linux” or “fastbook-mac” as appropriate:
   
fastboot -i 0x1949 boot twrp-blaze-2.0.0RC0.img

   This installs TWRP on your Kindle Fire. When it finishes, select the “reboot” option
3. After it reboots, type the following, again replacing “fastboot” for the command appropriate to your OS:
   
fastboot -i 0x1949 oem idme bootmode 4000
fastboot reboot

   This will reset the boot mode for your Kindle so that it will boot normally. If your device does not reboot properly, see the troubleshooting section.
4. And you’re done! To enter TWRP, follow the instruction at the bottom of the screen with the hazard logo, which tells you to hold the power button (wait until the power button turns orange, then release). I would recommend entering TWRP and creating a full backup right away, just so that you have a clean copy to recover to in case anything happens at a later time.

Troubleshooting TWRP

I ran into an issue when installing TWRP, where it would hang on the hazard logo, and was undetectable by my computer. I was unable to boot into TWRP, or the Kindle’s original OS. If this happens to you, don’t worry! Your device is not bricked, it will just take some extra effort to get it back. I found this process on the evilsoapbox.com blog. I would highly recommend looking over the pictures that he posted under the section “Opening the case of your Fire”.

NOTE: Unfortunately, this process is only possible through Linux. If you do not have a Linux machine and are unfamiliar with the OS, I would highly recommend getting a copy of an Ubuntu LiveCD. This will allow you to boot into a Linux environment without installing it onto your machine.

1. Download the rekindle.zip file, which can be found at the bottom of this forum post.
2. Unzip to your working directory, and download a copy of TWRP into this folder. You could copy the one you have from your RootKindleFireNew.zip file, but my problem was fixed when I downloaded a fresh copy from their website instead of using the one I already had. This was quite possibly the reason I ran into this issue in the first place, as the download might have been oh-so-slightly corrupted.
3. Next type the following into your terminal/cmd prompt while in your working directory as root. You can enter a root environment by typing sudo -s:

   ./usbboot aboot.bin u-boot.bin; ./fastboot boot twrp-blaze-2.0.0RC0.img

   It should say something about “waiting for the device” at this point.

4. Remove the back plate from your Kindle. I found this process to work best by prying away the back with a butter knife, or something similarly dull and sturdy, and then carefully running an id card/gift card/some semi-sturdy plastic item down the side to pop out the clips. Be very careful, as you can easily break the clips or the pieces they snap into. I managed to only break one at the very end, since i started to remove the whole back before unsnapping the last one.
5. While it is not included on the evilsoapbox blog instructions, I removed the battery cable from the circuit board so that the Kindle had to be powered over USB. Without doing this, my computer never picked up the Kindle. Be very careful when removing the power cable, as it is a very tight space, and the plastic female end on the board is fairly weak.
6. Short the pin on your Kindle, as marked in the following picture, by putting one end of a paperclip on the pin, and the other on the silver box surrounding the nearby area (notice the two arrows). By following picture, I mean the picture that is not yet posted. I didn’t take a picture when my Kindle was open, and I’d rather not reopen it just for a picture. You can see a good picture here. I’ve emailed the blog author about posting it here, and will post a copy if/when he gives me permission
7. While holding the paperclip in place, plug in the usb cable to your Kindle Fire. The program you executed earlier should pick up the device and re-install TWRP. Once it is done installing, you can remove the paperclip. Be very careful in picking up the device, and power it off.
8. Reattach the battery cable, and make sure your Kindle boots. When it is, type the following commands, which are found in your KindleFireRootNew folder:
   
fastboot -i 0x1949 oem idme bootmode 4000
fastboot reboot

9. Finally, reassemble the back of your Kindle. Be careful you do not catch the red/white/blue twisted cable in the side. Again, I would highly recommend entering TWRP and making a full backup at this point.
10. Final Note: After my first full reboot without being plugged into an external power source, my Kindle refused to boot, and only the backlight would momentarily turn on. This fixed itself after leaving it plugged into the wall for a while. I’m not sure if this was a low battery problem, or if a second reboot was simply needed after this whole problem. I have not had the problem since, and I have done full reboots multiple times since, both with and without external power. Unfortunately, this is part of the risk of these kind of activities.

Installing the Android Market and Other Apps

It is fairly frustrating to have an Android device that cannot access the Android Marketplace, especially if you have other Android devices that you have already purchased apps for. You have two options to install apps from the Android Marketplace on your rooted Kindle Fire:

1. Make a backup of the apps you desire on your other Android device using something like ES File Explorer, and then transfer the apk to your Kindle over usb, dropbox, or some other method.
2. Install the Android Marketplace and install applications directly to the device through the Market app.

While the second method is much easier (once you have the market app installed, that is), some apps will not show up in the Market for your Kindle, as they might be deemed incompatible. I found most of the steps needed at this forum post and in this PC World article.

To install the Android Market onto your rooted Kindle Fire, go through the following steps:

1. Download this gapps.rar file to your Kindle. It contains the Marketplace, along with many other Google apps, such as Maps, G+, Gmail, Talk, Youtube, etc. You can install these through your file browser
2. Using File Expert, ES File Explorer, or whatever file browser you’re using, install the GoogleServiceFramework.apk
3. Download (or preferably, buy) Root Explorer. I did this buy purchasing the app on my Android phone, backing up and copying the apk over to my Kindle. You can find links to the apk online various places, but I’m not going to link to them here.
4. Using Root Explorer, copy the com.amarket.apk file from your gapps folder to the /system/app folder on your Kindle. Before hitting paste, you’ll have to hit “Mount R/W” at the top of the screen. The websites I link to reference using the Vending.apk file, but this is for the old Marketplace, and will not work
5. Long press on com.amarket.apk and select Permissions. Check Read for Owner, Group, and Others, and Write for Owner. The permissions should match those of the other apks in the /system/app folder.
6. Grab a copy of the Market Opener app and install it, since the Marketplace will not show up in the Kindle’s App menu after the first reboot.
7. Do a full reboot. If you encounter errors when accessing the Marketplace, do another reboot, and they should go away.

The only app that I have installed manually so far that is in the Android Marketplace normally, but is not listed for the Kindle was GTA3. It installs fine, but there is no sound ingame, and there is no way to exit the program without force-closing it through the Settings/Applications menu. Otherwise, it runs/plays/saves great!

Enjoy, and good luck!

Downloads

• KindleRootFireNew.zip – root kit for Kindle 6.2.1
• TeamWin Recovery Project 2 – recovery/boot manager for Kindle Fire
• rekindle.zip – boot-over-USB kit for Kindle, used for loading TWRP2
• Ubuntu LiveCD – in case you don’t run Linux
• File Expert – a great general purpose file manager for Kindle
• ES File Explorer – another great general purpose file manager for Kindle
• Root Explorer – another file explorer for Kindle, but also allows you to remount system folders and read/write from the Kindle
• gapps.rar – a rar of Google apps, including the Marketplace, Maps, Youtube, etc
• MarketOpener.apk – a shortcut to the Android Marketplace for Kindle (once it is installed)

Sources

• RootKindleFile.com blog post on rooting and installing TeamWin Recovery Project
• Team Win Recovery Project homepage
• Evilsoapbox.com Blog post on rooting the Kindle Fire, installing TWRP using the rekindle package, and instructions for installing Cyanogenmod using TWRP
• Forum post on using the rekindle package
• Slightly outdated forum post on installing the Android Marketplace
• Slightly outdated PCWorld article on installing the Android Marketplace
• Marketplace Opener homepage

One of our projects for my into to artificial intelligence class this semester was to create a sudoku solver using a MRV (minimum remaining values) heuristic and backtracking. It finds all possibilities for each square, then tries all possibilities for one of the squares with the lowest number of possible values. Here’s an example of it’s use (X6800 cpu):

$ time ./sudoku.pl puzzle.hard.txt
- - 8 7 4 - - - -
- 2 - - - 5 - - 4
- - 3 - - 2 1 - -
0 - - - - 1 2 - -
- 5 - 0 - - 4 - -
7 - - - - - - 0 1
- - - 8 1 - - - 0
- - - - - 0 5 - -
- - - 2 - - - 6 8

real 0m0.170s
user 0m0.167s
sys 0m0.000s

While it is not the most efficient, it will solve any hard-level sudoku puzzle of any size. It takes the puzzle file as an argument, or it will prompt you for the file path if you don’t include it. It will take puzzles with values that range from 0-9 and A-Z after that.

I’ve included in the tarball 2 harder puzzles that my program does not solve in anything close reasonable time (as in… it didn’t solve either one after running for 24 hours) if you’d like to try and improve the code yourself :). There are many ways you could improve the program, as talked about here (not my school/class). This is the website for the book we use in class – I’d highly recommend it for anybody interested in AI programming. Enjoy!

I was finally able to renew my contract and upgrade to a Droid 3 from my OG Droid (may it rest in peace). After lots of tweaking (which will never be done), I’ve decided to post what I’ve done, as it may help others.

Rooting

Of course the first thing to do is to root that beauty, right? Right? You can find instructions on how to do so using Windows, Mac, or Linux in this post at the rootzwiki.com forums.

Bloatware

One of the first complaints many people have about smartphones these days is the amount of bloatware that they come with. It’s almost as bad as buying a desktop computer a couple years ago (or a laptop today, for that matter)… The two things I found to be most useful in reducing bloat are:

1. Doing a factory reset as soon as you get your phone (no reason to configure things twice…). If you want to backup your settings, make sure you do it to an external SD card, not the internal storage, as this will be wiped with a factory reset.
2. If you rooted your phone (which you did, right? After doing the factory reset that is…), grab a copy of TitaniumBackup. You can use this to backup all of your data as well (make sure it’s to an SD card!!!) if you waited to do a factory reset.

After installing TitaniumBackup, the real fun begins. While it’s tempting to straight up uninstall unwanted apps, this can cause system instability, and since the bootloader is still locked, it is not possible to do a fresh reset if you mess something up. I found some great lists of apps you can safely freeze in this thread at the AndroidCentral forums. This post in particular is pretty comprehensive.

Removing the wrong apps can cause a boot-loop, and even leaving some frozen when doing a factory reset can cause a loop issue. I’ve seen it noted by some forum users that freezing the Backup Assistant app can cause a factory reset to go awry (probably because it is brought up during the setup process), so be sure to unfreeze it before a reset.

Here’s a list of apps I have frozen:

• Apps (Verizon Apps Store)
• Backup Assistant
• Backup Assistant Client
• Desk Home
• Email
• Email Authenticator
• Email Engine – freezing this causes the Calendar to crash when adding a new event
• Gallery (see next section for further explanation)
• Help Center
• Messaging
• Motorola Dock Service
• News
• Smart Dock
• Social Location
• Social Messaging
• Social Networking
• Social Sharing
• Social Status

These are only the ones I have frozen for now. I suspect that there are other things that can be frozen, such as the MOTOBLUR Indexing Service, but I have not tested these yet. You might not want to freeze some of these items if you use them, such as the Universal Inbox (Email) and the various Social applications. More on that later.

The Gallery

Personally, the Gallery app that comes with this phone is horrid. Makes me want to puke. Luckily, there’s an easy way to get the old Gallery back, as found here at the xda-developers forum. It worked beautifully for me.

Motorola Terms of Service

I’m not sure how many people actually read these things (I’m told not many do…), but this is one that needs to be read. When adding more accounts to your phone, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr and Yahoo!Mail through the built in “My Accounts”, the Gallery (the one that came with the phone), or the various built in Social apps, you are presented with two documents. I have not agreed to these documents because they describe, in great detail, how they will then collect all (ok, not all, but most) of your personal information, such as your:

• purchase history
• calendar
• social networking credentials
• SIM card ID
• location (via GPS, WiFi, or cell tower triangulation)

…among other things. It then says lower down that they will be using this information to provide you with information about things you might be interested in, and that it will be sharing it with third parties. And that your information will be subject to those party’s individual privacy policies. You can even check the second box (done for you already) so that you can share even more! Like your browsing history and demographics information from your social networks.

All in all, I do not like what these documents are saying. If you don’t believe me, read it yourself. If you don’t care about your personal information, then have fun! It saddens me greatly that Motorola would build in such a system to their phones, and is part of why I froze all of the built in Social apps, Universal Inbox, and the default Gallery, and the News app, since they are all integrated into this system.

Some Apps

As a quick aside, here are some of my favorite apps:

• LauncherPro homescreen replacement
• Subsonic music streamer and it’s accompanying server software.
• DroidWall is an Android iptables implementation. Root required.
• ConnectBot ssh client
• TitaniumBackup is a great backup tool, especially if you have root.
• Wifi Analyzer wifi scanning tool
• SetCPU is a great under/overclocking tool that I use to underclock and save battery. Unfortunatly, it has caused some system instability for me, so I wouldn’t recommend using it unless you want to fiddle around with it to find stable settings. I’ll update if I do find settings that work for me.

Have a good day!

So I forked a project on github for a Minecraft linux server init script. The original is also a fork from a script that can be found in the Minecraft Wiki.

The biggest change in my version was the reintegration of the update function from the original script, along with expanding it to check for CraftBukkit updates. Using this script to run my Minecraft server in RAM has been really nice, and it has made scheduling regular backups a breeze with cron jobs.

Since I’m a huge fan of Arch Linux, it was my distro of choice for creating a LiveCD (for me, a USB key). It’s pretty easy with Arch, using a wonderful tool called archiso. ISOs built with this tool will also have the ability to be either burned to a CD, OR put onto a USB key. Below, you can find a copy of the ISO I built and a tarball of the files needed to build it so you can use it as a template for your own build. Have fun!

Creating your live image

I followed the Arch Wiki page for archiso to build all of this. Be sure to read the wiki page for all of the details for each file – I’m only going to provide templates for your own build and my own finished files. For a basic setup, none of the template files need to be modified.

1. Create a working directory – mine is called “archlive”
2. Create a file called “Makefile”. Here’s a template. If you don’t modify anything, this file will build your ISO with the name “myarch[date].iso”
3. Create a file called “mkinitcpio.conf”. Here’s a template.
4. Create a file called “packages.list”. Here’s a template. This is where you specify which packages will be included in your live image. The template has a basic set that will get you started, but you can expand on this as much as you want.
5. Create a file called “isomounts”. Here’s a template.
6. Setup syslinux (your boot manager) by creating the folderboot-files/syslinux/ and then creating the file boot-files/syslinux/syslinux.cfg. Here’s a template for syslinux.cfg.
7. Create a folder called “overlay”. This will contain any files that you want to be copied into the root directory of your live image. When the ISO is created, any permissions/attributes will be copied as well, so make sure they are all owned by root, and any executables are set as such (chmod +x [file]).
8. Inside of the overlay folder, create an “etc” folder, and inside of that create your “fstab” file. Here’s a template.
9. Inside of the “overlay/etc” folder, create a file called “rc.conf”. If you don’t know what it does, check out the template.
10. Inside of the “overlay/etc” folder, create a file called “inittab”. If you don’t know what it does, here’s the Arch Wiki inittab page. Here’s a template.
11. Inside of the “overlay/etc” folder, create a file called “hosts”. Here’s a template.
12. Finally, once you have all of your files setup in your working directory, it’s time to compile the ISO. From your working directory (the one with your Makefile in it), type make all. If you encounter an error, or have to stop half-way through, type make clean before doing a make all again.
13. After a while (10-20 minutes even if you have a slow machine), your image will be generated inside of your folder. You can either burn this to a CD, or put it on a USB stick with this command:
    dd if=my-image.iso of=/dev/some-usb-drive bs=8M

And you’re done! There are maany changes you can make to this setup, which really is the point of making a custom LiveCD… So mess around with it, see what you can change!

My personal changes

• I added a second, regular user through the file overlay/etc/rc.d/setup, which also does some other boot time configs, such as checking permissions and copying the user’s files from the overlay/skel
• I added some personal scripts, aurget, and the Archiso PXE server program into overlay/usr/bin/
• I moved the Arch Linux install script from overlay/arch/ to overlay/usr/sbin.
• I added some config files, such as ones for vim, iptables, pacman, and aurget into overlay/etc/

Again, there is a lot you can do with this - so don't be afraid to just try something. Once you get it working, it's a good idea to make a copy of your working directory before making other changes if you are unsure what you are doing. Otherwise, you might end up having to start all over if you forget excatly what change broke your build. And just because the ISO is created without a hitch, doesn't mean that it will boot without a problem as well. If you're unsure with your changes, it's a good idea to compile the ISO and test your builds regularly.

Be sure to check out Archiso's example! Going through a working set of files is the best way to learn in my opinion. Also be aware that your Live image will be read only - while you can make changes to the system while booted, it will be reset when you reboot. I've included a link to a page on how to create a second writeable partition on your USB key if you want to have some storage on the same device.

Downloads

• My LiveCD/USB ISO
• My source files for building the above ISO
• Template files

Sources

• Arch Wiki's Archiso Page
• Arch Wiki's Arch as PXE Server Page
• Archiso's example
• Setting up multiple partitions on a usb key, including a bootable one

So I recently decided that I needed to buckle down and get an mp3 player that would hold a large portion of my library. I went with an Apple iPod Classic 160gb, because of the historical ability to sync iPods with media managers like Banshee and Amarok on linux. Unfortunately, this is not the case with this model. So after many hours of trial and tribulation, here is my final solution. Scroll down further if you’d like to see all of the methods I tried.

My Setup

• iPod Classic 160gb, Model: A1238, fresh out of the box
• 64bit Arch Linux

The Process

1. Plug your iPod into your computer with the USB cable
2. Install VirtualBox. If you are also running Arch, I’d highly recommend checking out the wiki page.
3. Setup a Windows machine in VirtualBox. Personally, I already had a WindowsXP virtual machine (VM) setup, so that is what I used. If you are unfamiliar with this process, check out this tutorial.
4. After you have Windows setup in VirtualBox, you need to enable the USB and add a filter for your iPod. First, make sure your VM is powered off so that you can change the settings. Then right click on the machine in the manager, and hit Settings. Under settings, click on the USB category on the left. You should have a screen that looks like this:
   On the right hand side, click on the button with the green plus.  It says “Add Filter From Device” when you mouse over it.  From there, select your iPod – it will say something like “Apple Inc. iPod [0001]“.  If you have USB 2.0, you’ll want to check the “Enable USB 2.0 Controller” box above the filter list.  Your screen should look like this now (I have USB 2.0, so I checked the box):



5. Now boot your VM. Once it is booted, you’ll want to install foobar2000, which is an amazing music player if you are a Windows user. But we’re just going to use it since it’s much faster than iTunes. If you’re unfamiliar with this process, check out this tutorial, which also includes the steps of getting foobar2000 to sync with your iPod
6. WARNING: If you have a fresh-out-of-the-box iPod, you’ll have to install iTunes first so that you can go through the License Agreements and such, otherwise you can’t do anything with your iPod.
7. After installing foobar2000, you’ll also need to download the iPod plugin (I used the most recent stable, which was 0.6.8.9 as of this writing) and the Nero ACC Codec if you want to have foobar2000 automatically convert songs that are not iPod compatible.
8. To install the iPod plugin, simply unzip the file you downloaded and place the “foo_dop.dll” file in the plugin folder (default is C:\Program Files\foobar2000\components\)
9. To install the Nero ACC Codec, unzip the file and place the win32\neroAccEnc.exe file in the foobar2000 install folder. If you put the exe here, foobar2000 will automatically pick it up. If it didn’t, or you want to keep the exe somewhere else, go to Preference/iPod Manager/Conversion in foobar2000 and locate the exe for it
10. Now to share your library with your VM – at the top of your VM, you should have the VirtualBox menus (They include Machine, Devices, and Help). Click on Devices/Shared Folders. Then click the folder with the green plus on the right hand side, and browse to your music. Make sure you check the “Auto-mount” and “Make Permanent” options so that your folder will always be connected whenever you boot your VM. Once that is complete, you can find your shared folder under \\VBOXSVR on your VM. For convenience’s sake, right click on your music folder and hit “Map Network Drive” and then “Finish”. Your shared music should now show up as a network drive under My Computer.
11. Now to add your library to foobar2000 – in foobar2000, hit Library/Configure. Then click Add, click on the drive we just mapped in My Computer, then click OK.
12. foobar2000 will now start processing your library. When it’s done (or even while it’s still processing), you can then right click on an artist, album, or individual song, go to iPod/Send to iPod. You can also have it sync a playlist with your iPod under File/iPod (among many other options).
13. BAM! You’re done! :)

Things I tried that didn’t work

• gtkpod, Banshee, and Amarok on my linux install
• iTunes (kept freezing on processing artwork and the gapless crap), yamipod, froddlepod and poddox in my WindowsXP VM

Back when I was a Windows user oh-so-long-ago and had an iPod (the 60gb photo when it first came out), I was a big fan of YamiPod, but it didn’t like this 160gb model.

Good luck!

EDIT: Since tethering is now built in to phones with 2.2 and up, this is not really needed. I would recommend rooting to avoid extra service charges though.

If you’re stuck in an area with no internet connection except your Android phone, you can use your phone as a proxy for your laptop’s internet connection.

Setup on Android

First, you need to enable USB Debugging by going to Settings/Applications/Development/ and clicking the checkbox.  Be sure to plug your Android device into your computer with the USB cable.

Next, you need to install Proxoid.  You can do this by searching the market on your phone, or scanning the barcode to the right.

The final step is to open up the application, and check the “Start/Stop Proxoid” box.

Tethering the Phone

The first thing you need is the Android SDK.  Download it and extract the contents into /opt/android/

As root, create the file /etc/udev/rules.d/90-android.rules
with these contents:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0666"

Now as root, create the file /usr/sbin/tether
with these contents (or download it here):

#!/bin/bash
/opt/android/tools/adb kill-server
/opt/android/tools/adb start-server
/opt/android/tools/adb devices
/opt/android/tools/adb forward tcp:8080 tcp:8080

Make sure you make the file executable:
chmod 744 /usr/sbin/tether

Finally, run the program tether as root.

If you’re having issues, try running each command in the tether file individually so you can see any error messages.

If you don’t setup the “Run as a service” section below, type

killall adb

as root to disconnect your tether.

Setting up the proxy in Firefox

Go to Edit/Preferences/Advanced/Network/Settings…

Under the HTTP Proxy, type “localhost”, and under Port type “8080″ so it looks like the screenshot below:

Hit “Ok” twice to get out of your Preferences window, and you should be good to go!

Optional: Make it a service in Arch Linux

You can do this in other Linux distros as well, but for Arch you can download this file to /etc/rc.d/tetherd.

As root, chmod it as such to make it executable:

chmod 744 /etc/rc.d/tetherd

Now you can start tether automatically as a service by putting it in your rc.conf file, or manually by typing:

/etc/rc.d/tetherd { start | stop | restart }

Enjoy!

Further Reading

• Linux-Magazine.com Article on Tethering your Android
• Proxoid Website
• Android SDK
• Create a custom init.d script
• Setup Proxoid with Windows XP

Most people find themselves accessing the internet from somewhere besides their home, and often times there are restrictions on the network that disable some protocols, or maybe block some websites you’d like to see.  An easy way to get around this is to forward your web session over an ssh session.  This can be done in any OS… the only requirement being that you have an ssh server setup outside of the network you are currently on.  The port I’ve chosen (8080) is arbitrary – you can choose anything above 1024.

Windows

Download putty, and type the name of your ssh server in the Host Name field.  Now select (Under “Category:”) Connection/SSH/Tunnels.

Under source port, enter “8080″ and select “Dynamic” under that.  Next, hit “Add”, which should add “D8080″ under “Forwarded Ports”.  Now hit open, and login to your machine.

Finally, you need to setup Firefox to go through your proxy.  Go to: Tools/Options/Advanced/Network/Settings…

Enter “localhost” under the SOCKS Host and “8080″ under the Port.  Make sure that SOCKS v5 is selected under that.

Hit “Ok” a couple times to get out of your configuration windows, and you’re good to go!

Linux/Mac

Now things are a little simpler under Linux/Mac.  All you need is ssh.  Simply type in terminal:
ssh -D8080 username@host.com

And set your browser’s proxy settings like we did above for Windows.

Further Reading

• SOCKS on Wikipedia
• Forwarding specific ports on Linux/Mac
• Setup an SSH Server in Windows
• Setup an SSH Server in Ubuntu
• Configure your Linux SSH server

While many people enjoy using their GUI, sometimes it is just not efficient to do so.  Or maybe you don’ t have the resources to load an X-Window manager… So  I present to you some very useful programs that don’t need X.

System Tools

• htop – like top (processes monitor), but with colors and an improved interface
• iftop - instead of monitoring processes, it monitors your ethernet devices and displays connection speeds and average transfer rates
• mkisofs and cdrecord - make an ISO and then burn it to disc!
• screen – a terminal multiplexer that allows you to manage virtual terminal sessions within your one session.  Think of it as multiple desktops for the terminal.
• smbstatus – if you run a Samba server/share on your machine, you can see here who’s connecting to it and what files they have open
• wireless-tools – gives you a couple programs including iwconfig and iwlist that make it easy to connect to a wireless AP through terminal
• wpa_supplicant – needed if you want to connect to a WPA encrypted AP with the wireless-tools.  Here’s a quick tutorial.

Internet

• finch – chat with your friends (or enemies) with this terminal version of Pidgin
• irssi - an amazing slick little IRC chat client
• lynx and elinks – both are text based web browsers so you can cruise the web without those pesky graphics
• mutt – read your Gmail (or other mail) from the terminal.  Mutt supports IMAP, POP3, and SSL Certificates, among other things.
• rtorrent - this torrent client is great for sending to the background with screen, and even watches folder for new torrent files.  Check out this user guide for help.

Media

• mplayer/mencoder- did you know that it was not only a media player, but that you could convert video, audio, or even rip dvds?  Doh!
• moc - gives you a nice ncurses interface for playing music on your terminal
• ushare – share your media with your Xbox 360 or PS3.  There’s also a web and telnet interface you can use once you’ve started the program.

Be sure to check the man pages for all the features these programs offer!  And don’t forget to explore the programs that are already on your machine – you’d be surprised and what’s there already.

Further reading:

• CLI-Apps.org
• Wicked Cool Shell Scripts
• tuXfiles – Linux command line introduction
• CLI Cheat Sheet #1
• CLI Cheat Sheet #2
• GNU Linux CLI Introduction
• LinuxCommand.org

While this specifically refers to an ASA5505, many Cisco devices will use the same code.  I will be focusing on the code specific to the VPN, but you can find the whole process here on the Cisco website:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/security/asa/asa80/configuration/guide/site2sit.html

Overveiw

Here is an example of the configuration lines needed for a site-to-site VPN:

hostname(config)# isakmp policy 1 authentication pre-share
hostname(config)# isakmp policy 1 encryption 3des
hostname(config)# isakmp policy 1 hash sha
hostname(config)# isakmp policy 1 group 2
hostname(config)# isakmp policy 1 lifetime 43200
hostname(config)# isakmp enable outside
hostname(config)# crypto ipsec transform set FirstSet esp-3des esp-md5-hmac
hostname(config)# access-list l2l_list extended permit ip 192.168.0.0 255.255.0.0 150.150.0.0 255.255.0.0
hostname(config)# tunnel-group 10.10.4.108 type ipsec-l2l
hostname(config)# tunnel-group 10.10.4.108 ipsec-attributes
hostname(config-ipsec)# pre-shared-key 44kkaol59636jnfx
hostname(config)# crypto map abcmap 1 match address l2l_list
hostname(config)# crypto map abcmap 1 set peer 10.10.4.108
hostname(config)# crypto map abcmap 1 set transform-set FirstSet
hostname(config)# crypto map abcmap interface outside

Next I will explain the config part by part, with links in case you’d like to actually learn the details.

ISAKMP Policy

hostname(config)# isakmp policy 1 authentication pre-share
hostname(config)# isakmp policy 1 encryption 3des
hostname(config)# isakmp policy 1 hash sha
hostname(config)# isakmp policy 1 group 2
hostname(config)# isakmp policy 1 lifetime 43200
hostname(config)# isakmp enable outside

These lines establish that:

• It is the first policy to be processed
• The VPN will be established using a pre-shared key, which we will define later.
• The encryption will be 3DES (commonly verbally referred to as “triple-des”)
• The hash used will be SHA
• The Diffie-Hellman group will be Group 2
• The lifetime is 43200 seconds
• ISAKMP is enabled on the outside interface

The key point here is that both parties in the VPN must use the same standards for their policy.  You can find all of the options on Cisco’s website.

Further reading:

• Wikipedia’s Diffie-Hellman page
• Wikipedia’s ISAKMP page
• Wikipedia’s Cryptographic hash function page
• Cisco’s Diffie-Hellman Group 5 page

Transform Set

hostname(config)# crypto ipsec transform set FirstSet esp-3des esp-md5-hmac

This line creates a set of standards called “FirstSet” that uses 3DES for encryption and MD5 for authentication.  Both parties must use identical transform sets for communication to occur.  Your options for encryption and authentication are exactly the same as ISAKMP, except with slightly different syntax.  You can find all of the options on Cisco’s website.

Access List

hostname(config)# access-list l2l_list extended permit ip 192.168.0.0 255.255.0.0 150.150.0.0 255.255.0.0

Here you define who is allowed to access your network once the VPN is established.  The list is named “l2l_list”, and it allows the subnet 192.168.0.0/16  (your side) to access 150.150.0.0/16 (their side).  The site you are establishing a VPN with should enter a similar line with the IP ranges switched, for example:

hostname2(config)# access-list l2l_list extended permit ip 150.150.0.0 255.255.0.0 192.168.0.0 255.255.0.0

Further reading:

• Wikipedia’s Subnetwork page
• IP Subnetting Tutorial
• Cisco’s IP Addressing and Subnetting page
• IPCalc – online version of the linux tool

Tunnel Groups

hostname(config)# tunnel-group 10.10.4.108 type ipsec-l2l
hostname(config)# tunnel-group 10.10.4.108 ipsec-attributes
hostname(config-ipsec)# pre-shared-key 44kkaol59636jnfx

Next we create the tunnel group, which is a container for your connection and security settings.  The IP 10.10.4.108 is where you will be connecting to, and ipsec-l2l specifies that it will be a LAN-to-LAN.  If you were creating a remote access connection, you would type ipsec-ra.  Your pre-shared key should be something random, NOT what is shown here.  Think of it as a password, and treat it as such.  If you cannot think of a key, check out this password generator.

Crypto Maps

hostname(config)# crypto map abcmap 1 match address l2l_list
hostname(config)# crypto map abcmap 1 set peer 10.10.4.108
hostname(config)# crypto map abcmap 1 set transform-set FirstSet
hostname(config)# crypto map abcmap interface outside

Finally, we create the crypto map.   Similar to the ISAKMP policy, you can specify a name like “abcmap” and set a process priority, which in this case is 1.  The peer needs to be the same IP as specified in your tunnel-group above.  Here is where we implement our transform-set as well, and finally set it to our outside interface.

Conclusion

Make sure you write it to memory:

hostname(config)# write memory

If you mistype a command and need to remove it, simply type “no” before the command and re-enter it.  If you’d like to see all the specific options for any particular command, just type a question mark and your Cisco device should list them for you.  Such as:

hostname(config)# crypto map ?

You can view the current list of active VPNs with the following command:

hostname(config)# show vpn-sessiondb (remote|l2l|svc)

For Remote, LAN-2-LAN, or SSL VPN Connections accordingly.

Have fun!