Archive for the ‘Operating Systems’ Category

Getting the Android Emulators to work in Windows, Visual Studio, and Xamarin

Posted: December 2, 2017 in Development, Intel, Microsoft, Mobile, Operating Systems, Programming, Software Development, tablet, teaching, tip, Windows, Xamarin
Tags: android, development, Eleven Fifty Academy, emulation, emulator, Intel, Intel HAXM, Mobile, processor, troubleshooting, virtualization, VTI-X, Windows, Xamarin

As part of my .NET 301 Advanced class at the fantastic Eleven Fifty Academy, I teach Xamarin development. It’s sometimes tough, as every student has a different machine. Some have PCs, others have Macs running Parallels or Bootcamp. Some – many – have Intel processors, while others have AMD. I try to recommend students come to the class with Intel processors, due to the accelerated Android emulator benefit Intel’s HAXM – Hardware Acceleration Manager – provides. This blog entry is a running list of how I’ve solved getting the emulator running on so many machines. I hope the list helps you, too.

This list will be updated from time to time, as I find new bypasses. At this time, the list is targeted primarily for machines with an Intel processor. Those with AMD and Windows are likely stuck with the ARM emulators. Umm, sorry. I welcome solutions, there, too, please!

Last updated: December 4, 2017

Make sure you’re building from a path that’s ultimate length is less than 248 characters.

That odd Windows problem of long file paths bites us again here. Many new developers tend to build under c:\users\username\documents\Visual Studio 2017\projectname. Add to that the name of the project, and all its subfolders, and the eventual DLLs and executable are out of reach of various processes.

I suggest in this case you have a folder such as c:\dev\ and build your projects under there. That’s solved many launch and compile issues.

Use the x86 emulators.

If you have an Intel processor, then use the x86 and x64 based emulators instead of ARM. They’re considerably faster, as long as you have a) an Intel processor with virtualization abilities, which I believe all or most modern Intel processors do, and b) Intel’s HAXM installed.

Make sure VTI-X / Hardware Virtualization is enabled.

Intel’s HAXM – which you can download here – won’t run if the processor’s virtualization is disabled. You need to tackle this in the BIOS. That varies per machine. Many devices seem to chip with the feature disabled. Enabling it will enable HAXM to work.

Uninstall the Mobile Development with .NET Workload using the Visual Studio Installer, and reinstall.

Yes, I’m suggesting Uninstall + Reinstall. This has worked well in the class. Go to Start, then Visual Studio Installer, and uncheck the box. Restart afterwards. Then reinstall, and restart.

Mobile Development Workload Screenshot

Use the Xamarin Android SDK Manager.

The Xamarin team has built a much better Android SDK Manager than Google’s. It’s easy to install HAXM, update Build Tools and Platforms, and so forth. Use it instead and dealing with tool version conflicts may be a thing of the past.

Make sure you’re using the latest version of Visual Studio.

Bugs are fixed all the time, especially with Xamarin. Make sure you’re running the latest bits and your problems may be solved.

Experiment with Hyper-V Enabled and Disabled.

I’ve generally had issues with virtualization when Hyper-V is enabled. If you’re having trouble with it enabled, try with it disabled.

To enable/disable Hyper-V, go to Start, then type Windows Features. Choose Turn Windows Features On or Off. When the selection list comes up, toggle the Hyper-V feature accordingly.

Note: You may need to disable Windows Device Guard before you can disable Hyper-V. Thanks to Matt Soucoup for this tip.

Use a real device.

As a mobile developer, you should never trust the emulators to reflect the real thing. If you can’t get the emulators to work, and even if you can, you have the option of picking up an Android phone or tablet for cheap. Get one and test with it. If you’re not clear on how to set up Developer Mode on Android devices, it’s pretty simple. Check out Google’s article on the subject.

Try Xamarin’s HAXM and emulator troubleshooting guide.

The Xamarin folks have a guide, too.

If all else fails, use the ARM processors.

This is your last resort. If you don’t have an Intel processor, or a real device available, use the ARM processors. They’re insanely slow. I’ve heard there’s an x86 emulator from AMD, yet it’s supposedly only available for Linux. Not sure why that decision was made, but moving on… 🙂

Have another solution?

Have a suggestion, solution, or feature I’ve left out? Let me know and I’ll update!

Having trouble getting an ultra-wide or 4K display working on your Surface Book? Try this…

Posted: July 29, 2016 in Consumer Electronics, Development, Displays, HDMI, Operating Systems, tip, Upgrade, Windows
Tags: 4K, Adapter, Compatibility, Display, fix, HDMI, LG, MiniDP, Monitor, Surface, Surface Book, Surface Pro, tip, UltraWide, Windows 10

I recently purchased an LG UltraWide 21:9 display. Why an ultra-wide and not 4K? a) I write code for a living and this is a great way to get two windows full size side-by-side without an extra monitor. b) It was only $130 instead of $400 due to a Best Buy sale. Sold!

I get home, connect it to my Surface Book, and nothing works. The screen just blinks on and off, on and off, blinkety blink, blinkety blink. No Bueno. Changing the cable made the blinkety blink go away, but the display control panel would suggest trying different settings, and wouldn’t light things up.

My friend Shane recommended I get an Active MiniDP to HDMI adapter. So I bought one on Amazon. Still, I didn’t want to wait… that’s 2 days with Prime shipping, and not fast enough.

So, I looked into the MiniDP adapter I was using. I found out it only supports up to 1080P! Maybe it’s DP 1.1 or something. Whatever it is, it couldn’t support a 2560×1440 or thereabouts display.

Fry’s had the answer – I made sure I found a MiniDP to HDMI adapter that clearly stated it supports 4K and MiniDP 1.2. The particular product I purchased was the Cirago Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Display Adapter.

I got home and the adapter worked flawlessly.

I hope that helps anyone having a similar issue!

SkyDrive Bug: Deleting Items fills Recycle Bin on ALL Connected Devices

Posted: December 28, 2013 in Apps, fix, Operating Systems, SkyDrive, tablet, Windows 8
Tags: bug, drive space, recycle bin, SkyDrive, tablet, windows 8, Windows 8.1

I’ve posted this in Microsoft’s forums, but in case anyone else is running into this issue, I’d like to know…

Situation:

– I have a home security camera. All motion detected photos are saved to a folder on a home machine, located in my local SkyDrive folder. I forgot to clean up this folder, so there were hundreds of thousands (~90 gigs) of files in the individual daily folders in this folder.

– On SkyDrive.com, to speed up the delete process, I deleted all folders I no longer wanted. Remember, this is 90 gigs or so. I figured this would delete those files from my home machine.

– Upon deletion, SkyDrive started copying all those deleted files to *every connected device’s Recycle Bin*, including my Windows tablet with its scant 32 gig drive!!!

– Now all my machines’ primary drives are filling up due to the Recycle Bin being filled by SkyDrive. This is especially troubling on the tablet, which is crashing often due to being out of space as it fills up every 30 mins or so, syncing over WiFi. No, I don’t have SkyDrive set to sync any folders to that device.

– All machines are running Windows 8.1. The tablet came with 8.1, and the desktops and laptop were upgraded to 8.1 from 8.0.

Bug:

– If a file is deleted on SkyDrive, it should not immediately be transferred to all connected devices. This is especially true for tablets.

Solutions / Workarounds:

– None known.

– Feature request possibility: This should be a feature that can be enabled or disabled, and disabled by default.

– Fix: Microsoft should disable the copying of deleted files to all connected devices, and come up with a better solution for handling this scenario.

I’m looking forward to feedback, as this has caused tremendous amounts of trouble in my ability to use Windows devices. It’s almost pointless to have a Windows tablet, since my online SkyDrive activity is not cognisent (sp?) of what device types to which its connected.

Thanks,

-Auri

Having WiFi issues with Dell Venue Pro 8? Uninstall Microsoft Patch KB2887595 and KB2903939

Posted: December 9, 2013 in Computers and Internet, Dell, fix, Operating Systems, tablet, Venue Pro, WiFi, Windows, Windows 8
Tags: dell, tablet, venue pro 8, wi-fi fix, wifi fix, windows 8, wireless fix

UPDATE (13-Dec-2013): Microsoft has a fix: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-networking/dell-venue-pro-loses-wireless-connection-after/bc8a1426-fdb8-466d-b074-c80a06e70d76 and direct link to update http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40755

UPDATE (10-Dec-2013): Updated to include fix for WiFi problems caused by latest Patch Tuesday installs.

My WiFi stopped working on my Dell Venue Pro 8. Uninstalling Microsoft Updates KB2887595 and KB2903939 fixed the problem.

TIP: After uninstalling these updates, you can go back to Windows Update via the method below, scan for updates, then right-click the updates and select Hide this Update so Windows doesn’t repeatedly try to reinstall it.

To do this:

1. On the Start menu, swipe down to All Applications

2. Scroll all the way right and tap Control Panel

3. When Control Panel appears on the desktop, search for Windows Update by typing in the search box, and tap it

4. On the left pane there will be an option for View Installed Updates. Tap it.

5. Find Update for Microsoft Windows (KB2887595) and tap it, then tap Uninstall. If you also have update KB2903939, don’t restart yet. Otherwise, skip to step 7.

6. Find Update for Microsoft Windows (KB2903939) and tap it, then tap Uninstall.

7. Restart.

8. Your WiFi should be working again.

Things I’ve learned about the Dell Venue 8 Pro Windows tablet

Posted: December 9, 2013 in Command Prompt, Computers and Internet, Dell, DOS, Intel, Microsoft, Mobile, Operating Systems, tablet, tip, Upgrade, Venue Pro, Windows, Windows 8
Tags: dell, expand, gigabytes, hack, hard drive, microsoft, ssd, storage, store, tip, upgrade, venue pro, windows 8

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I picked up a Dell Venue 8 Pro for $99 as part of Microsoft’s 12 Days of Presents spree. Here are some tips & tricks for the more techy folks out there:

How to Access the BIOS

Press the power button once. Then hold down the Volume Down button until the Dell logo disappears. You don’t need a keyboard – it has an on-screen mouse mapped to the touch screen. Cool, eh?

To access the Advanced settings of the BIOS, follow the instructions through Step 7 below:

How to Speed Up SSD Disk Access by Modifying the EFI / BIOS

Thanks to Sasha for the following steps, which can increase speeds by over 50%!

1) From Windows, bring up the charms (swipe in from right)
2) Select Settings -> Change PC Settings, or Start, then All Apps, then PC Settings.
3) Choose Update and Recovery -> Recovery
4) Under Advanced Startup, select Restart Now
5) From this blue menu, select Troubleshoot, then select Advanced Options
6) Select UEFI Firmware Settings, then click Restart
7) Now, the BIOS shows up, hit the on-screen ESC button ONLY ONCE.
8) You’re now in the Main “tab”, with a vertical list of options, from here you must select Advanced, this lets you see all the BIOS settings and is different from hitting the Advanced tab across the top.
9) Select LPSS & SCC Configuration
10) Select SCC eMMC 4.5 HS200 Support and select Enabled (Mine was disabled by default)
12) Select DDR50 Support for SDCard and select Enabled (Mine was disabled by default)
13) Press F10 on the on-screen keyboard to save, then Save Settings and Exit and you’re all set.

Getting Back ~5 Gigabytes of Space by Removing Recovery Partition

The Dell Recovery Partition is essential for restoring your machine should something catastrophic happen. To add insult to injury, Dell often runs out of stock of recovery media, and won’t send you such after a year or two has passed. That’s hit me before, and it’s not fun. So, make sure you’ve backed it up!

Once you’ve backed up that recovery partition, there’s no point in keeping it. Get those gigs back!

Here’s how:

NOTE: Make sure you have at least 50% of your battery left for this process. I wouldn’t do this when hitting the lower ends of the battery spectrum.

Go to All Applications and scroll all the way right to the Dell group. Tap the My Dell application.
Click Backup, even if it says no backup software is installed.
Click the Download Local Backup button. This will provide a link to download Dell Backup and Recovery, which you should download and install. Basically, once you click the Download button, select Run and wait for Setup to do its job. This process can take a long time. Even the download appears to be huge. It’s probably downloading the latest recovery data, but that’s just a guess.
After the software has installed, it will request a restart. So, restart the tablet.
Go to All Applications and back to the Dell group. Note the new Dell Backup and… option. Tap it.
Wait a few moments for the cool clock animation to complete, then agree to whatever terms are presented, or not.
Tap the Reinstall Disks option. This is the equivalent of a Factory Restore partition backup.
Tap USB Flash Drive, which is probably the only real option you have with this unit. This includes use of the Micro SD card, which is what I used, since I didn’t have a USB adapter handy. If you decide to use an external burner, that’s cool, too. But… why?
Select your USB drive, or the MicroSD card. I backed up to an 8 GB MicroSD. Dell estimates the backup at 4.03 GB, so 8 GB should suit you just fine.
Tap Start, then tap Yes when asked if you’re sure about wiping out the USB or MicroSD drive. Of course you’re sure! (right?)
Wait until it’s done.
When it’s complete, click OK, and put the backup media in a safe place. I put it in my Venue Pro’s box.
Go back to Start, then All Programs, then Desktop.
Hold down on the Start button and select Command Prompt (Admin).
Type diskpart to launch the Disk Partition manager.
Type list partition to see the available partitions.
Type select partition X, where X is the number of the approximately 4 gigabyte recovery partition. On my Venue, it was 6.
Make sure you see “Partition X is now the selected partition”!!!
Type delete partition override and hit enter.
You should be greeting with “DiskPart successfully deleted the selected partition.”
Type exit to quit DiskPart, then exit again to quit Command Prompt.
Now that the partition is gone, we need to expand the size of the main partition.
Open an Explorer window and long press This PC, then select Manage.
When Computer Management appears, select Disk Management under Storage.
You should see the 4.64 gigabytes or so we freed up showing as Unallocated.
Long press your C: drive and select Extend Volume….
The Extend Volume Wizard appears. Click Next.
You’ll be asked where the space to extend the volume should come from. Everything should already be filled out to assign the maximum unallocated space. Simply tap Next or adjust as desired and click Next.
The wizard will confirm the extension settings. Click Finish.
There you go! Your C: drive is now almost five gigabytes larger!

UPDATE: You can also back up to a USB drive by acquiring a USB OTG, or “On-The-Go”, adapter. Pick one up from Fry’s, SKU number 7582626, here. This will also enable you to use thumb drives and such on your Dell Venue 8 Pro.

Disable the Annoying Backlight

Dell’s power management settings for the backlight are wretched, making the display dim almost all the time. Let’s get around that, shall we?

Swipe out the charms menu, then select Settings, then Change PC Settings on the bottom.
Select PC and devices.
Select Power and sleep.
Set Adjust my screen brightness automatically to Off.

Reporter’s Notebook: CEATEC Day 1

Posted: October 1, 2013 in Apps, Automotive, Bezel, Car, CEATEC, Clarion, Components, Computers and Internet, Consumer Electronics, Displays, Distracted Driving, Elderly, Fujitsu, HTML5, Huawei, Insurance, Intel, Japan, Makuhari, Mazda, MeeGo, Mirror, Mitsubishi, Mobile, Operating Systems, Panic Alarm, Reporter's Notebook, Sharp, Show Floor, Social, Sony, Telematics, Tizen, Toyota, Upgrade, Web

Below are my notes from Day 1 of the CEATEC show in Makuhari, Japan.

Sony Info-Eye + Sony Social Live

Sony showcased two unique social apps, Info Eye and Social Live, part of their Smart Social Camera initiative.

Info Eye takes an image and analyzes it for different types of information, surfacing that information in different views. For example, take a photo of the Eiffel Tower and you are presented with different "views" of the data. The first view may be related photos of the French attraction, such as a view from the top, or the Eiffel Tower Restaurant. Change views and you’re presented with a map of Paris. Continue to the next view and see your friends’ comments on social networks about the attraction. It certainly is an innovative approach to automatically get benefits from simple photo taking – photos you normally wouldn’t look at again anyway.

A video is worth thousands of pictures, and you already know what those are worth:

And in case you simply want a picture:

Social Live is like a live video feed, streamed from your phone to various social services. While the example of a live marriage proposal wasn’t so realistic, Social Live still has great consumer applications. For example, set a social live link on Facebook and your friends could view your video feed while you tour the Champs Elise in Paris, without your needing to initiate a Skype call. It’s similar to having a live broadcast stream ready to go at any time.

3D 4K Everywhere!

3D didn’t entice the world – again – so, why not re-use all that marketing material, swapping 4K for 3D? No, it’s not that bad, and 4K is beautiful, but it’s just too early, too expensive, as is almost every evolutionary technology like this. Just for fun I made a collage of the various offerings. Component innovation is once again creating products at a pace greater than the consumers’ willingness to adopt.

Tizen IVI Solutions at Intel

Intel had a sizeable display of Tizen OS based In-Vehicle Infotainment solutions at its booth. Apparently Intel had 800 developers working on Tizen while partnered with Nokia on the OS-formerly-known-as-MeeGo. The most interesting Tizen demonstration was Obigo’s HTML5-based IVI solution. On a related note, Samsung is apparently folding their Bada OS into Tizen. It will be interesting to see whether it makes any difference in the global mobile OS movement, still dominated by Android, then iOS, then Windows Phone.

Obigo’s HTML5-based In-Vehicle-Infotainment Solution

Obigo’s solution is to automotive application development what PhoneGap is to standard mobile application development. Developers build widgets using HTML5 + JavaScript, accessing vehicle data and services via an abstraction layer provided by the Obigo engine. Apps in Obigo’s system are called widgets. Nothing appears to prevent Obigo from bringing this solution to Android, so look for that possibility on the various Android vehicle head units coming to market. Hyundai and Toyota will be the first integrators of the system.

Apparently Japanese Car Insurance is Very Expensive

Another solution shown at the Intel Tizen display was a driving habits monitor capable of sending an email to your insurance company with said information. The goal would be to lower insurance rates. The solution was a hokey implementation at best, but at least I’ve learned insurance is expensive here as well.

Fujitsu Elderly Care Cloud

In an effort to keep Japan’s increasingly elderly population in touch with their families, Fujitsu has created a "Senior Cloud." The benefit to seniors will apparently be video and photo communication and sharing services with their family, alongside healthcare detail sharing services. I couldn’t get a demo, but it sounds like a good idea. For the next 10-20 years, anyway – by then, the "elderly" will have become the people who know how to do these things.

ModCrew iPhone Waterproofing Coat

ModCrew displayed a nano-coating solution for iPhones (only), rendering your fruit phone washable.

Omron Basil Thermometer with DoCoMo Health Smartphone App

Omron has a unique line of basil thermometers, with pleasant shapes and colors, targeted (obviously) towards women. The devices, among other Omron health device solutions, can all transmit their data via NFC to phones and tablets. Using an app from NTT DoCoMo, health data can be consolidated and analyzed, and health advice can be provided.

All health components gather data to recommend healthy choices.

Huawei Phone with Panic Alarm

Chinese consumer and mobile electronics provider Huawei showcased their HW-01D feature phone with a built-in panic alarm. Targeted towards women, children, and the elderly, the device has a pull tab that sets off a loud, yet oddly pleasant, siren to scare away would-be perpetrators.

Fujitsu Finger Link

Fujitsu’s Finger Link solution uses a top-mounted camera to convert physical objects to virtual objects, enabling you to organize and relate such items for later manipulation. For example, put 3 Post It notes down and they are converted to digital representations, automatically recognized as separate objects. Tap each related item and drag a line between others similar to the first. Tap a button on the projected interface and now they’re related, moveable, sharable, and more.

Fujitsu Sleepiness Detection Sensor

A hot item in vehicles displayed at CEATEC this year was detection of distracted driving. Fujitsu’s component detects eyes moving away from the road, a downward or upward motion possibly signifying the driver is drowsy. The component is for use by automotive integrators.

Fujitsu big data + open data quiet service, LOD utilization Platform

Fujitsu showcased an open LOD utilization platform for quickly and easily mining and analyzing the data from many Open Data sources all at once, visually. The back-end is using the SPARQL query language.

Mitsubishi 4K LaserVue

Mitsubishi showcased a prototype 4K Red Laser + LED backlit display, enabling a beautiful, beyond photorealistic video display. Standing in front of the reference unit, I actually felt like I was looking through a window – the colors were amazingly vivid and lifelike.

Mitsubishi elevator skyscraper swap detection system

Mitsubishi also showcased a solution for preventing elevator stalls in swaying skyscrapers. Their sensor moves the elevator cart to a non-swaying or less-swaying floor to prevent service outages, keeping the elevators running as efficiently as possible, and giving you one less excuse to miss that meeting.

Mitsubishi 100Gbps optical transmission technology

Mitsubishi showcased a 100 gigabit/second inter-city optical interconnect solution, with a range up to 9000 kilometers.

Mitsubishi Vector Graphics Accelerating GPU

Who says you need multi-core ARM processors running over 1 GHz + powerful GPUs for beautiful embedded device interfaces? Mitsubishi sure doesn’t. They showcased a GPU running at a scant 96 MHz, accelerating vector graphics display at up to 60 frames per second. Incredibly responsive interfaces for elevators and boat tachometers were displayed. The target is rich user interfaces with incredibly low power consumption.

Related notes:

DIAFINE GUI Japanese Site| English Translation

Mitsubishi Rear Projection Display for Automotive

It’s no surprise Mitsubishi is proposing rear projection solutions for automotive – RP is one of the company’s strengths. What they propose is curved surfaces to provide an interface that matches the interior of the vehicle. Also possible is 3D-like interfaces, as shown below.

Sharp Frameless TV Concept

A display with no bezel? Sharp’s frameless concept showcases how beautiful such a solution would be. That it in the center.

Sharp Mirror Type Display

Also on display (ahem) was the Mirror Type Display, with a display built into a mirror. Have I said display enough times?

Pioneer Wireless Blu-ray Drive

That shiny new ultrabook is pretty svelte, isn’t it? What’s that? You want to watch a Blu-ray? That’s fine – just use Pioneer’s BDR-WFS05J solution to wirelessly connect to the Blu-ray drive across the room and stream the data over 802.11N, as long as it’s in its dock. The unit also supports USB 2 and 3. Ships at the end of September.

Toyota Smart Home HEMS Using Kinect

Toyota showcased a smart home energy management system (HEMS) using Kinect to interact with various residents.

Toyota Concept Vehicles

I don’t know much about the following one-person electric riders, but they looked cool, so enjoy the photos.

Clarion Smart Access + EcoAccel

Determining whether you’re driving Green, or "Eco" as they say in Japan, can be difficult. Clarion’s EcoAccel app, which runs on their Android-powered head unit, reads ODB2 sensor data to rate your Eco driving habits. It’s an entertaining way to enhance the eco-friendliness of your driving routine. The representative said there are no current plans to bring this product Stateside, but I’m hoping they change their mind. After all, ODB2 data is pretty easy to read, even if it’s not entirely standardized.

Mazda Heads Up Cockpit

While the HUD component is nothing to write home about, Mazda’s approach of keeping everything at eye level, while re-organizing the shift knob to also be easily manipulated was a welcome safe-driving-meets-ergonomics approach. Better yet, they will be shipping this in their Axela vehicles, meaning less expensive vehicles may be readily receiving technology to deter distracted driving. They call this the Heads Up Cockpit with a Concentration Center Display.

Mazda Connect System

Mazda also showcased the Mazda Connect system, enabling car communication and software components to be "easily" upgraded as new features are available. Whether this will be an insanely expensive solution, akin to Samsung’s upgradeable TV approach, remains to be seen.

It’s fascinating to see how some of the most innovative products are coming from what used to be one of the least innovative industries: automotive.

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