Touchpad Indicator 0.9.5 Brings Important Bug Fixes

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Touchpad Indicator is an Ubuntu AppIndicator which, like the name suggests, allows you to easily enable or disable your laptop touchpad. This is useful if your laptop doesn't have a touchpad toggle key or if the key doesn't work.</b></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/touchpad-indicator-0.9.5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="touchpad indicator ubuntu" border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisNy9qddWjEDUTsaoycRj6qtEaDm6CzyWND_Lq1qS5qh2U37tKneGtXDheq8UxKZyqeVOL3CB73JnbF8mTANQqgKOswfmkqL2UjEglDkSYx9oGkIBroRAo58xmTeSNDo8E-3YnU6mDUOI/s320/touchpad-indicator-0.9.5.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The application comes with an optional keyboard shortcut to enable/disable the touchpad, can automatically disable the touchpad when a mouse is plugged in and more.</div><br /><a name="more"></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Touchpad Indicator 0.9.5</b>, release recently, introduces mouse wheel support for the AppIndicator so you can toggle the touchpad status by scrolling on the AppIndicator icon.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">That's the only new feature added in the latest Touchpad Indicator 0.9.5, but there are also many bug fixes: </div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">the touchpad is no longer reset to "on" when resuming from suspend;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">the autostart feature has been fixed;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">when using the "Disable touchpad when mouse plugged" option, if you unplug the mouse, the touchpad will now be enabled automatically;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">the keyboard shortcut should now work under Ubuntu 13.04;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">the bug that prevented some users from saving any changes made to the Touchpad Indicator preferences should be fixed;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">other bug fixes.</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Touchpad Indicator is developed by Lorenzo Carbonell from <a href="http://atareao.es/">atareao.es</a>, who's also behind other popular AppIndicators such as <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/12/get-htc-like-weather-clock-widget-in.html">My Weather Indicator</a> or <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/google-calendar-indicator-adds-options.html">Google Calendar Indicator</a>.</i></div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Install Touchpad Indicator in Ubuntu</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To add the Atareao PPA and install Touchpad in Ubuntu 13.10, 13.04 or 12.10, use the commands below:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install touchpad-indicator</code></pre><div style="text-align: justify;">There's also a package for Ubuntu 12.04 in the same PPA, but unfortunately it hasn't been updated to the latest Touchpad Indicator version, probably because of some dependency issues.</div><br /><b>Report any bugs you may find @ <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/touchpad-indicator">Launchpad</a>.</b><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>via <a href="http://www.atareao.es/ubuntu/habilita-o-inhabilita-el-touchpad-con-la-rueda-del-raton/">atareao.es</a></i></div>

Touchpad Indicator 0.9.5 Brings Important Bug Fixes

Touchpad Indicator is an Ubuntu AppIndicator which, like the name suggests, allows you to easily enable or disable your laptop touchpad. Thi...

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Improve Power Usage / Battery Life In Linux With TLP

<div style="text-align: justify;">There are various tweaks that you can apply to your laptop to save battery power, but many of them depend on the hardware, Linux distribution, some are outdated or too hard to apply for regular users and so on. <b><a href="http://linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-linux-advanced-power-management.html">TLP</a> is an advanced power management command line tool for Linux that tries to apply these settings / tweaks for you automatically, depending on your Linux distribution and hardware</b>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUoZHLkj-t53y8oc49a1R8Dq7EcZ3V-1TZDEvcpBQWvj1hD36KMhu0xLcfM7RE11gEQRVJaS5ZHj9PbBa8poA-xkO3GjLrX4Wf0PfFWtOb_evtdVnZHJc5bxbK8nXRTfz5wgc9aHPIQhoo/s1600/system76-ubuntu-laptop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ubuntu laptop" border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUoZHLkj-t53y8oc49a1R8Dq7EcZ3V-1TZDEvcpBQWvj1hD36KMhu0xLcfM7RE11gEQRVJaS5ZHj9PbBa8poA-xkO3GjLrX4Wf0PfFWtOb_evtdVnZHJc5bxbK8nXRTfz5wgc9aHPIQhoo/s320/system76-ubuntu-laptop.jpg" title="Ubuntu laptop" width="320" /></a></div></div><br /><a name="more"></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>TLP applies the following settings depending on the power source (battery / ac):</b></div><ul><li>Kernel laptop mode and dirty buffer timeouts;</li><li>Processor frequency scaling including "turbo boost" / "turbo core";</li><li>Power aware process scheduler for multi-core/hyper-threading;</li><li>Hard disk advanced power management level and spin down timeout (per disk);</li><li>SATA aggressive link power management (ALPM);</li><li>PCI Express active state power management (PCIe ASPM) – Linux 2.6.35 and above;</li><li>Runtime power management for PCI(e) bus devices – Linux 2.6.35 and above;</li><li>Radeon KMS power management – Linux 2.6.35 and above, not fglrx;</li><li>Wifi power saving mode – depending on kernel/driver;</li><li>Power off optical drive in drive bay (on battery).</li></ul><br /><b>Additional TLP functions:</b><br /><ul><li>I/O scheduler (per disk);</li><li>USB autosuspend with blacklist;</li><li>Audio power saving mode – hda_intel, ac97;</li><li>Enable or disable integrated wifi, bluetooth or wwan devices upon system startup and shutdown;</li><li>Restore radio device state on system startup (from previous shutdown);</li><li>Radio device wizard: switch radios upon network connect/disconnect and dock/undock;</li><li>Disable Wake On LAN;</li><li>WWAN state is restored after suspend/hibernate;</li><li>Undervolting of Intel processors – requires kernel with PHC-Patch;</li><li>Battery charge thresholds – ThinkPads only;</li><li>Recalibrate battery – ThinkPads only.</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">TLP applies these settings automatically on startup and every time you change the power source. To use it, all you have to do is install TLP, however, there are some settings that you can apply manually, overwriting the TLP default settings, such as enabling or disabling the WiFi, Bluetooth or Wwan (3G or UMTS) radios, switching between AC or battery settings, ignoring the actual power source, apply autosuspend for all attached USB devices or power off the optical drive. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are also some TinkPad-only settings that you can use, like temporarily changing the battery charge thresholds, temporarily set battery charge thresholds to factory settings, recalibrating the battery and more.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For more about these settings, see the TLP <a href="http://linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-linux-advanced-power-management.html">homepage</a> or consult the TLP manpage (type "<i>man tlp</i>" in a terminal).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I've only been using TLP for a couple of hours so I can't say yet how efficient this tool is regarding battery life, but I've noticed that my laptop's temperature is lower than before using TLP. You may have seen an icon on my Unity launcher in some posts on WebUpd8, which displays a number that's usually around 65 - that's <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/07/monitor-hardware-temperature-in-ubuntu.html">Psensor</a> and it displays the CPU temperature (Celsius; it's 165 degrees Fahrenheit) - here's an <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/04/get-ubuntu-touch-feeling-on-unity.html">example</a>. Well, after installing TLP, the CPU temperature didn't go past 55 degrees Celsius (135 degrees Fahrenheit), at least not yet, with regular desktop usage: using a browser with quite a few tabs open, a text editor and a few AppIndicators running, under Unity. This, of course, depends on various factors but so far this tool seems to do its job. Also, some Reddit users have <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/1cdg2h/ubuntu_battery_draining_issues/">reported</a> that TLP makes quite a big difference.</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Install TLP in Ubuntu</h2><br /><b>Before proceeding with the installation, there are a couple of things you need to do:</b><br /><ul><li>firstly, if you've added any power saving settings / scripts (e.g.: in <i>/etc/rc.local</i>), remove them or else TLP may not work properly;</li><li>remove laptop-mode-tools ("sudo apt-get remove laptop-mode-tools").</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Ubuntu (and Linux Mint, etc.) users can install TLP by using its official PPA. Add the PPA and install TLP using the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linrunner/tlp<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install tlp tlp-rdw</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">TLP will automatically start  upon system startup, but to avoid having to restart the system to get it running for the first time, you can start it (required only the first time) using the following command:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo tlp start</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>There are some optional packages you can install for some extra features:</b></div><ul><li><i>smartmontools</i> - needed to display disk drive S.M.A.R.T. data;</li><li><i>ethtool</i> - needed to disable wake on lan.</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Install these tools (available in the Ubuntu repositories) using the following command:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install smartmontools ethtool</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>There are also some ThinkPad only, optional packages you may need:</b></div><ul><li><i>tp-smapi-dkms</i> - needed for battery charge thresholds and ThinkPad specific status output of tlp-stat;</li><li><i>acpi-call-tools</i> - acpi-call is needed for battery charge thresholds on Sandy Bridge and newer models (X220/T420, X230/T430, etc.).</li></ul><br />Install these packages using the following command:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install tp-smapi-dkms acpi-call-tools</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Other Linux distributions: there are TLP packages for Debian 6.0+, Arch Linux, openSUSE 11.4+, Gentoo, Fedora 16+</b> - see the TLP <a href="http://linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-linux-advanced-power-management.html">homepage</a> for installation instructions. You can grab the source / report bugs @ <a href="https://github.com/linrunner/TLP">GitHub</a> </div><br />Make sure to also read the <a href="http://linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-faq.html">TLP FAQ</a>.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>application seen on <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/1cdg2h/ubuntu_battery_draining_issues/">Reddit</a>; image via <a href="https://www.system76.com/">system76.com</a></i></div>

Improve Power Usage / Battery Life In Linux With TLP

There are various tweaks that you can apply to your laptop to save battery power, but many of them depend on the hardware, Linux distributio...

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How To Use Hybrid Suspend In Ubuntu

<b>Firstly, here's what hybrid suspend does:</b><br /><ul><li>initially, the computer is suspended to RAM, which is quick to suspend / resume but it also uses some power</li><li>if the computer doesn't wake up after a configurable amount of time, suspend to disk is used so the computer stops using any power (it's the same as if it was powered off) - this is also known as hibernation</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Basically, <b>using the hybrid suspend method from this article, the system initially enters suspend which is quick to resume and after the time you set, the system hibernates so it no longer uses any battery power</b>. This is useful if for example you close the lid when you move from one room to another (between meetings, classrooms, etc.) and you need the system to resume quickly, but you also want to preserve battery power if you don't use it.</div><br /><a name="more"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">There is another "true" hybrid suspend method (available in Linux kernel 3.6 - Ubuntu 12.10 uses Linux kernel 3.5, so it's not in Ubuntu by default yet) in which the system suspends to both the RAM and hard disk in the same time, which is useful to get both a quick resume / suspend and be able to resume the computer in case of power loss or if the system runs out of battery, but the "true" hybrid suspend uses battery power so I prefer the hybrid suspend method in this post.</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Set up hybrid suspend in Ubuntu</h2><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJX2-u7drTqrRFzLlH-H0SBFGs1a-D7kxO3XYiWh1ZWECR-J4j9SsQm3YeyoTOXPkIuY5lZ9c9VvFNRiSucyrpzgEHRZVUbHPxxl0w8ZOA4jEFgWqPnpku-q33YjVzZtA_yoOHxdFi0PGy/s1600/ubuntu-hybrid-suspend.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="suspend ubuntu" border="0" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJX2-u7drTqrRFzLlH-H0SBFGs1a-D7kxO3XYiWh1ZWECR-J4j9SsQm3YeyoTOXPkIuY5lZ9c9VvFNRiSucyrpzgEHRZVUbHPxxl0w8ZOA4jEFgWqPnpku-q33YjVzZtA_yoOHxdFi0PGy/s320/ubuntu-hybrid-suspend.png" title="suspend ubuntu" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Before proceeding, please note that I've tested this in Ubuntu 12.10 and it's known to work in Ubuntu 12.04 as well, but I don't know if it works in older Ubuntu versions.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Firstly, check if your system supports hybrid suspend by running the following command in a terminal:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo pm-is-supported --suspend-hybrid && echo "hybrid suspend is supported" || echo "your system doesn't support hybrid suspend"</code></pre><br /><br />To enable hybrid suspend in Ubuntu, create a file called "<i>/etc/pm/config.d/00-use-suspend-hybrid</i>" - you can do it using the following command:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudoedit /etc/pm/config.d/00-use-suspend-hybrid</code></pre><br /><i>The above command uses the default (usually "nano") command line editor, but you can use a graphical text editor like Gedit if you want (e.g.: "gksu gedit /etc/pm/config.d/00-use-suspend-hybrid").</i><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">And paste the following in the newly opened file (use "Ctrl + Shift + V" to paste in a terminal):</div><pre class="source-code"><code># Always use suspend_hybrid instead of suspend<br />if [ "$METHOD" = "suspend" ]; then<br />METHOD=suspend_hybrid<br />fi<br />PM_HIBERNATE_DELAY=900 # time in seconds until hibernate (suspend to disk) occurs; 900 means 15 minutes</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Then, adjust the "PM_HIBERNATE_DELAY" value to whatever you want (this is the time in seconds until hibernate - suspend to disk - occurs), save the file (to save the file in Nano command line text editor and then exit, use: Ctrl + O, Enter, Ctrl + X) and your system should now use hybrid suspend instead of the regular suspend method.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Update: There's also a second method - "true" hybrid suspend</b>, which writes the image to both disk and RAM from the beginning, having the benefits that resuming will always be fast and that the machine will not wake up for a short time to hibernate for real. To use it, instead of he code above, paste the following in the <i>/etc/pm/config.d/00-use-suspend-hybrid</i> file:</div><br /><pre class="source-code"><code># WORKAROUND: always set the default hibernate mode first (normal mode)<br /># (not required if you have the patch mentioned by Rohan below (http://askubuntu.com/a/344879/169))<br />HIBERNATE_MODE=platform<br /><br /># Always use hibernate instead of suspend, but with "suspend to both"<br />if [ "$METHOD" = "suspend" ]; then<br /> METHOD=hibernate<br /> HIBERNATE_MODE=suspend<br />fi<br /><br /># Make sure to use the kernel's method, in case uswsusp is installed etc.<br />SLEEP_MODULE=kernel</code></pre><br />Then save the file (to save the file in Nano command line text editor and then exit, use: Ctrl + O, Enter, Ctrl + X) and that's it, your computer should now use "true" hybrid suspend.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>info via <a href="http://askubuntu.com/questions/145443/how-do-i-use-pm-suspend-hybrid-by-default-instead-of-pm-suspend">AskUbuntu</a> and <a href="http://daniel.hahler.de/use-hybrid-suspend-method-by-default">daniel.hahler.de</a></i></div>

How To Use Hybrid Suspend In Ubuntu

Firstly, here's what hybrid suspend does: initially, the computer is suspended to RAM, which is quick to suspend / resume but it also us...

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Install PowerTOP 2.1 In Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin Via PPA

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht1kSDwmTI4icFT2v89RTlMpL-ObVEs16b-BhnJB0fj1jYG0iQBh0SDn2SLu_tXopTsD-5oZAnPdVwzhT_IW32VOJO_ulfZcwgv2rJYg4_CFxLh7QMh2gid9z4KfnVsgj26Qx3HycvOOBu/s1600/powertop-overview.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="powertop" border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht1kSDwmTI4icFT2v89RTlMpL-ObVEs16b-BhnJB0fj1jYG0iQBh0SDn2SLu_tXopTsD-5oZAnPdVwzhT_IW32VOJO_ulfZcwgv2rJYg4_CFxLh7QMh2gid9z4KfnVsgj26Qx3HycvOOBu/s320/powertop-overview.png" title="powertop" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://01.org/powertop/">PowerTOP</a> is a command line tool that helps diagnose issues with power consumption and provides suggestions on how to improve power usage.</b></div><br /><a name="more"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">PowerTOP 2.1, released a few days ago, introduces support for Intel GPUs and for cores without P-states, a new manual page along with an option to specify workload to run during measurement and an option to suppress output to the terminal.</div><br /><br /><h2>Install PowerTOP 2.1 in Ubuntu 12.04 via PPA</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The latest PowerTOP 2.1 is available in the Ubuntu 12.10 official repositories, and for Ubuntu 12.04 in the main WebUpd8 PPA. Add the PPA and install PowerTOP 2.1 using the following commands:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install powertop</code></pre><br />The latest PowerTOP 2.1 source can be downloaded from <a href="https://01.org/powertop/">HERE</a>.<br /><br /><br /><br /><h2>Usage</h2><br />To use PowerTOP, you need to run it as root:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo powertop</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">PowerTOP doesn't just diagnose power consumption issues, but it can also provide solutions. On the Tunables tab, you can see what you can do to save some power:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihIlPZjwevRXmOfx7n3e7ejAJ44Hux_clvvEPxiOZqR58h2xVUjFzgZMddj9yRj8OTPJKQicPCcp1_tK-ih-85XOltAzkuis4MdFroL7fxwTEAPUrk7obkvi3AUxx_bvyjF9I0996TN9QM/s1600/powertop-tunables.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="powertop" border="0" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihIlPZjwevRXmOfx7n3e7ejAJ44Hux_clvvEPxiOZqR58h2xVUjFzgZMddj9yRj8OTPJKQicPCcp1_tK-ih-85XOltAzkuis4MdFroL7fxwTEAPUrk7obkvi3AUxx_bvyjF9I0996TN9QM/s320/powertop-tunables.png" title="powertop" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">However, most of the settings are not saved and they are lost after a reboot. You, can, however, make them permanent, by using the commands provided in the PowerTOP html report. To generate an HTML report, run the following command:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo powertop --html=powertop.html</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">This will generate an HTML page which you can open in your web browser:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIr2L9HyHDmm73zs1Tfg7vPSfX4uafjscB33cVt08LGtrI1H4ajzPGXzI3c0r_NdTm1M5Z3PnAcz2aoeW2JPtrH22ASnYCjiXuSR_Sc0cGEFBrc2vPa70Vdu53TmjqYVobY7BGV-37i8So/s1600/powertop-html.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="powertop html" border="0" height="124" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIr2L9HyHDmm73zs1Tfg7vPSfX4uafjscB33cVt08LGtrI1H4ajzPGXzI3c0r_NdTm1M5Z3PnAcz2aoeW2JPtrH22ASnYCjiXuSR_Sc0cGEFBrc2vPa70Vdu53TmjqYVobY7BGV-37i8So/s320/powertop-html.png" title="powertop html" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here, you can see various information related to power usage as well as a "Tuning" tab where the settings that need tuning are displayed, along with the commands required to apply them. Add these commands to the <i>/etc/rc.local</i> file to make them permanent.</div>

Install PowerTOP 2.1 In Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin Via PPA

PowerTOP is a command line tool that helps diagnose issues with power consumption and provides suggestions on how to improve power usage. P...

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Android-X86 4.0.4 (ICS) RC2 Released With ARM Translator, More [Android For Netbooks Or Laptops]

<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO3GQzcWrF1VzRvxFWAkptbaiN-tP4MZFaMAmsl-lkHShz0W8WU_lifCnNfvs_6Z4WDSk5mjvMPtTjC9q4kV1CVRUyJvk37aTM6pLfXq1dTppuC2fdnYNvgOIhr-N0Q7nFiY2cVaywxrQl/s1600/android-x86-4.0.4-rc2_3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="android-x86 4.0.4 RC2" border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO3GQzcWrF1VzRvxFWAkptbaiN-tP4MZFaMAmsl-lkHShz0W8WU_lifCnNfvs_6Z4WDSk5mjvMPtTjC9q4kV1CVRUyJvk37aTM6pLfXq1dTppuC2fdnYNvgOIhr-N0Q7nFiY2cVaywxrQl/s320/android-x86-4.0.4-rc2_3.png" title="android-x86 4.0.4 RC2" width="320" /></a></div><br /><i>The <a href="http://www.android-x86.org/">Android-X86</a> project provides Android optimized for X86 so you can install Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich on your netbook or laptop just like any other OS.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Android-x86 4.0.4 RC2, based on Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.4 has been released today with a few exciting changes, like an ARM translator that lets you run some ARM applications on Android-X86.</b></div><br /><a name="more"></a>Changes in Android X86 4.0.4 RC2 (since<a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/02/android-x86-40-rc1-released-android-ice.html"> Android-x86 4.0 RC1</a>):<br /><ul><li>Kernel 3.0.36 with more drivers and bug fixes.</li><li>Enable Dalvik JIT compiler support which should make apps faster</li><li>Support some 3G modem.</li><li>Ready to run arm translator. (You still need to install Intel’s libraries manually)</li><li>Physical keyboard layout selection.</li><li>Support two cameras.</li><li>Fake SD card is replaced by internal storage support.</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Since the latest Android-X86 uses an ARM translator, <b>not all ARM applications will work</b>, for instance, Google Chrome won't work. Angry Birds (as well as Amazing Alex) on the other hand, worked in my test using a custom Android-X86 build in VirtualBox, though it was kind of slow (probably because of VirtualBox):</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjosKqzW1qBGjyL07pHoXopXdDN6YwP148GLS3PaA3lgdMsJOi7pE7Mu0pIjdGYSEgwAJbgxgm4GSMNiuRwfgu5uZERYP20MOq6tDlSC-YPZ3bSMjELbdJNRBVktxF-AzDceu7v0BlGw6Xl/s1600/android-x86-angry-birds.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="android-x86 4.0.4 RC2 angry birds" border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjosKqzW1qBGjyL07pHoXopXdDN6YwP148GLS3PaA3lgdMsJOi7pE7Mu0pIjdGYSEgwAJbgxgm4GSMNiuRwfgu5uZERYP20MOq6tDlSC-YPZ3bSMjELbdJNRBVktxF-AzDceu7v0BlGw6Xl/s320/android-x86-angry-birds.png" title="android-x86 4.0.4 RC2 angry birds" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I'm sure there are readers who are wondering if Netflix works with this new Android-X86 release, but unfortunately I can't answer to this question because Netflix doesn't work in my country so if you try Netflix with Android-X86 4.0.4 RC2, let us know if it works in the comments!</div><br /><br /><b>Here is a video and a few more Android-X86 4.0.4 RC2 screenshots:</b><br /><br /><center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/CoVUEQiiSJQ" width="420"></iframe><br />(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoVUEQiiSJQ">direct video link</a>)</center><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUzJzO3FtZm9IVy7lD6DaN81dcs26n4cXUWUTqfQ9tPxa0Yoztq9iW6kHRHUJm1tBxIlzEB4bQzbhnXqpOy4KfkMGsozv8qw05Y8Qc_y6oq6FO5S6lgBYC43jkgnKVVIZ1eeigAxhxvDZx/s1600/android-x86-4.0.4-rc2_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="android-x86 4.0.4 RC2" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUzJzO3FtZm9IVy7lD6DaN81dcs26n4cXUWUTqfQ9tPxa0Yoztq9iW6kHRHUJm1tBxIlzEB4bQzbhnXqpOy4KfkMGsozv8qw05Y8Qc_y6oq6FO5S6lgBYC43jkgnKVVIZ1eeigAxhxvDZx/s320/android-x86-4.0.4-rc2_1.png" title="android-x86 4.0.4 RC2" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs48sNe2daIU_Wl7VsjK_hYvzq4YbgCEf3M4HKlHPWJhJmf5F7JrGqpCnnoA0xN90j6RgwZsHlcfChWYHBx9cm2siKO6vMbLp4XG_eVURHmHK_O7vCs6zaNaMTM_2RxnHeNqJ0LvNsXCPz/s1600/android-x86-4.0.4-rc2_2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="android-x86 4.0.4 RC2" border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs48sNe2daIU_Wl7VsjK_hYvzq4YbgCEf3M4HKlHPWJhJmf5F7JrGqpCnnoA0xN90j6RgwZsHlcfChWYHBx9cm2siKO6vMbLp4XG_eVURHmHK_O7vCs6zaNaMTM_2RxnHeNqJ0LvNsXCPz/s320/android-x86-4.0.4-rc2_2.png" title="android-x86 4.0.4 RC2" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilq7gZs2M9rN1DoS4_LDRlYJnb8Cc1DqAV8gbIfff8D-UcWj1JMBqMukII2SSw2t5TQwRIxq4GdsCuFcadLm8BW49uva9iaIxBasyoFbYDakR7MSmXyOGEIeTm4IqPVz6VIfIM8A2aL4_V/s1600/android-x86-4.0.4-rc2_4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="android-x86 4.0.4 RC2" border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilq7gZs2M9rN1DoS4_LDRlYJnb8Cc1DqAV8gbIfff8D-UcWj1JMBqMukII2SSw2t5TQwRIxq4GdsCuFcadLm8BW49uva9iaIxBasyoFbYDakR7MSmXyOGEIeTm4IqPVz6VIfIM8A2aL4_V/s320/android-x86-4.0.4-rc2_4.png" title="android-x86 4.0.4 RC2" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFyiQe4Zdwe9OlCUIY0Fu3Odp4tg4mkWGN36Omk5A8fDgWfW1A6IRiXMw-sObrTZyucMTno-9qqmP0TtpKzPbU07UlVVEV2fCDm8adfYQOY8UWMs9a69whVsOMMTQcrKNZQr6SEx2p8D_x/s1600/android-x86-4.0.4-rc2_5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="android-x86 4.0.4 RC2" border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFyiQe4Zdwe9OlCUIY0Fu3Odp4tg4mkWGN36Omk5A8fDgWfW1A6IRiXMw-sObrTZyucMTno-9qqmP0TtpKzPbU07UlVVEV2fCDm8adfYQOY8UWMs9a69whVsOMMTQcrKNZQr6SEx2p8D_x/s320/android-x86-4.0.4-rc2_5.png" title="android-x86 4.0.4 RC2" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><h2>Get ARM translator to work in Android-X86 4.0.4 RC2</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">To get the Intel ARM translator working in the latest Android-x86 4.0.4 RC2, you need to download 3 libraries from <a href="http://www.buildroid.org/blog/?p=198">Buildroid</a> and copy them into the system folder (so make sure you select to install the /system directory as read-write while installing Android-X86!):</div><br /><ul><li>Download <a href="http://www.buildroid.org/Download/libhoudini.so">libhoudini.so</a> and copy it to <i>/system/lib/</i></li><li>Download <a href="http://www.buildroid.org/Download/libdvm_houdini.so">libdvm_houdini.so</a> and copy it to <i>/system/lib/</i></li><li>Download the <a href="http://www.buildroid.org/Download/houdini_armlibs.tgz">arm libs</a>, extract the downloaded archive and copy the files to <i>/system/lib/arm/</i></li></ul><br /><h2>Download for VirtualBox</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The official Android-X86 builds do not have Ethernet support, so you won't have an Internet connection while running Android-X86 in VirtualBox. You can, however, use a custom Android-X86 4.0.4 RC2 build that adds Ethernet support: <a href="http://www.sendspace.com/file/t5a3aj">DOWNLOAD</a> (thanks to <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/android-x86/YmWjtOLLdDs/discussion">Ron M</a> for this build!). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This build has the ARM translator libraries build-in. This is a debug build so a red frame is displayed sometimes - the only way to avoid this is to <a href="http://www.android-x86.org/getsourcecode">compile Android-X86 from source</a> and apply the <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/android-x86/YmWjtOLLdDs/discussion">Ethernet patch</a> yourself (or search for a different Android-X86 4.0.4 RC2 ISO with Ethernet patch).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Important: </b>if the mouse isn't working, select from the VirtualBox menu: <i>Machine > Disable Mouse Integration</i>.</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Download Android-x86</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Android-x86 4.0 has been tested / it should work on AMD Brazos (MSI 110W), Asus EeePC or some Asus laptops/tablets and Tegav2 / Viewpad 10. These are the officially supported devices, but Android-x86 should work on others too. An old list of supported devices / hardware can be found <a href="http://www.android-x86.org/hardware-list">HERE</a>.</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://code.google.com/p/android-x86/downloads/list">Download Android-X86 4.0.4 RC2 </a></div><br /><br />Also see: <br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/02/android-x86-40-rc1-released-android-ice.html">Android-x86 4.0 RC1 Released (Android Ice Cream Sandwich Optimized For Netbooks / Laptops)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/03/how-to-dual-boot-android-x86-and-ubuntu.html">How To Dual-Boot Android-x86 And Ubuntu (With GRUB 2)</a></li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>via <a href="http://www.android-dev.ro/2012/07/16/android-x86-4-0-4-ice-cream-sandwich-rc2-is-released/">android-dev.ro</a></i></div>

Android-X86 4.0.4 (ICS) RC2 Released With ARM Translator, More [Android For Netbooks Or Laptops]

The Android-X86 project provides Android optimized for X86 so you can install Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich on your netbook or laptop ju...

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Calise Sets The Screen Backlight Based On Ambient Brightness

<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFA1Lkd1qptrf8jFaaEXqmmhTwS-R-FqYWlBdVNJk6f4Ap3hFo_jEikPq0XiGqj1x6o44_-p9O_FQTmG_sQduukrFsQAY4NEr16ooWnlyGhlo5xwCnygx55vHVr7iAdshHX5n9EfnVp9E/s1600/calise.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFA1Lkd1qptrf8jFaaEXqmmhTwS-R-FqYWlBdVNJk6f4Ap3hFo_jEikPq0XiGqj1x6o44_-p9O_FQTmG_sQduukrFsQAY4NEr16ooWnlyGhlo5xwCnygx55vHVr7iAdshHX5n9EfnVp9E/s320/calise.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><b>Calise (Camera Light Sensor) is an application that uses your computer's camera as a light sensor for obtaining the ambient brightness and then calculates and sets the correct backlight according to an user defined scale.</b></div><br /><b>Calise features:</b><br /><ul><li>command line, GUI (with tray icon) interfaces and daemon mode</li><li>profiles support</li><li>DBus service optimized with automatic dawn/sunset recognition and weather information by using latitude and longitude.</li></ul><br /><a name="more"></a>More info on Calise cam be found at its <a href="http://calise.sourceforge.net/">official website</a>.<br /><br /><br /><h2>Install and set up Calise</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Ubuntu 12.10, 12.04, 11.10, 11.04 and 10.10 users can install Calise from the main WebUpd8 PPA:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install calise</code></pre>Note: <i>I've only tested it in Ubuntu 12.04 because it can't be tested in VirtualBox.</i><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>After the installation completes, you must start the Calise calibration process</b> (but before you do, read the "Important" note below) using the following command:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>calise --calibrate</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Important:</b> before proceeding with step 3, you have to give write permissions to the file used for step 2 (the sysfs backlight path) using the following command:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo chmod 666 INTERFACE</code></pre>Where "INTERFACE" is the file you've selected under step 2 (example: <i>/sys/class/backlight/acpi_video1/brightness</i>). <br /><br />Then, continue with the remaining calibration steps.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Once you're done, you can run Calise from the menu / Dash. If you prefer to use the command line interface or the daemon mode, use the following commands to see the available options:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>calise --help #command line interface<br />calised --help #daemon mode</code></pre><br /><b>Arch Linux users can install Calise via <a href="http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=50801">AUR</a>.</b><br /><br /><b>Download Calise for other Linux distributions via <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/calise/files/">SourceForge</a>.</b>

Calise Sets The Screen Backlight Based On Ambient Brightness

Calise (Camera Light Sensor) is an application that uses your computer's camera as a light sensor for obtaining the ambient brightness a...

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