To ROOT and MOVE Apps to SD Card on Android Smartphones.

Many Android based Smartphone such as Lenovo 2010A do not allows installation or transfer of Apps to SD Card. These smartphones soon run on low phone-memory as we keep installing new Apps, updates and data. One of the solutions is to root your Android Smartphone and then use Apps such as Lucky Patcher. This blog us based on rooting steps mentioned in https://forum.xda-developers.com/general/rooting-roms/how-to-root-lenovo-a2010-custom-roms-t3288927 and usage of  Lucky Patcher to move Apps to SD Card. The blog is completely based on my experiment, and a bit risky, as you may have to RESET your Smartphone for recovering from any unstable state.

Requirements:

• Computer with Windows OS
• Backup your Contacts, Data and other important information from phone to SD Card or computer/laptop
• Enable the USB Debugging Mode on your Smartphone by clicking: Menu > Settings > Developer Options > USB Debugging Mode

• Battery at least 60%

Procedure:

1. Download the SuperSU zip file from https://yadi.sk/d/0WaK6e4Mkx5cx and copy it to theSD card of phone (or download it directly with the phone). Do not extract any files from the zip file, as we will use it as it is.

2. Install the latest MTK USB driver

Download from http://mtkusballdriver.com/download/mtk-usb-v1-0-1 and install on your computer:

Switch off your mobile and connect to PC over USB port. If Driver was installed successfully you will find MTP USB in Device Manager of Windows:

 

3. Disconnect Smartphone from the computer.
4. Download Recovery Image like Lenovo_A2010_TWRP-2.8.7.0_by_SevenMaxs.zip forLenovo A2010 (available at https://yadi.sk/d/0WaK6e4Mkx5cx ), and extract the files from the archive to computer. In fact we need only 2 files, “Recovery.img” and “MT6735M_Android_scatter.txt”

5. Download SP Flash Tool fromhttp://spflashtool.com/download/SP_Flash_Tool_v5.1628_Win.zip  and extract the files from the zip-archive. Now:
6. Double click flash_tool.exe
7. Browse Scatter Loading and select the scatter file of Smartphone (that is “MT6735M_Android_scatter.txt” file mentioned in above step).
8. Now we can see recovery check-box is checked and the recovery image (“Recovery.img”) path. Ensure all other check-boxes are unchecked.

• Switch off the Smartphone and connect this to the computer over USB cable
• Click the green Download button on top ( not the tab)
• Keep device connected and Switch on your device

6. Recovery mode:

 

• Disconnect Smartphone from the computer
• Switch off the Smartphone
• Keep in same time Volume (+) and powerbuttons in same time. After 3 second release the power button Then you will face the display below as like as android recovery screen. Now press Vol (+) Button for select recovery mode.
• Go to “Install” and select our Lenovo_A2010_TWRP-2.8.7.0_by_SevenMaxs.zip file on external_sd folder of device:

Swipe Sliders (if required):

7. Reboot. Your phone is now rooted.
8. If successful, you get # super use icon:

9. Moving Apps to SD card:
10. Download apk file of Lucky Patcher from https://lucky-patcher.en.uptodown.com/android
11. Ensure Installations from unknown sources setting is enabled on the Smartphone. Install the apk file.
12. Uninstall all Apps you wish to move to SD Card. Then, re-installthem and open Lucky Patcher. It will ask for root access, and SuperSu will pop-up a dialog box asking for allow/not-allow the root access to Lucky Patcher. Allow the root access to the Lucky Patcher.
13. Lucky Patcher will show location of Apps. We may select “Move to SD Card” for moving the App to SD Card.  

That’s all!!

Note:

1. Remove battery if at any stage Smartphone becomes unresponsive/hanged.
2.    If we reset Smartphone , keeping the Lenovo_A2010_TWRP-2.8.7.0_by_SevenMaxs.zip file in SD Card, the reset android phone would automatically get root SuperSu installed. For better stability, it may be more appropriate approach to RESET the Smartphone with ROOT and then install new Apps and move them to SD Card using Lucky Patcher.

(To Reset: Tap the menu button and go to Setting > Backup & reset >  Factory data reset) (remove SD card to avoid data loss)

How to clone or Image hard drives? How to migrate Windows installation and all installed applications to a new drive? Upgrading HDD to SDD?

You may be looking for Drive cloning or Imaging for creating a bootable backup of your computer’s disk drive or one or more partitions   or migrating from HDD to SDD.

Here are some tips:

1. Download and install DriveImage XML (http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm). It is free for Home use.
2. DriveImage XML also supports “Raw” mode, which is basically bit-by-bit cloning/imaging, useful when you intend to conduct some Data Recovery or Forensics too.
3. For creating a bootable backup of your drive, you just need to select “Backup”:

 

Note: Depending on you Windows version, you may have to run the DriveImage XML as “Run As Administrator”

4. If your target partition size is lesser than the source partition, OR you want to recreate/resize partitions at target drive, you can use EaseUS Partition Master (http://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/ ) . It is a free disk management tool (For Home use).
5. You may also try to migrate the newly cloned/imaged drive to another computer of similar manufacturer or hardware configuration. If you get any operating system error, you can use a bootable OS CD/DVD or create a bootable USB and try to repair the OS of the cloned/Imaged Disks.

 

To create a bootable Windows USB Flash Drive from ISO file of Windows, you can use Rufus (https://rufus.akeo.ie/ ). Rufus also supports UEFI and  GPT.

Note:

1. With Rufus, select FAT32 file systems, if your windows ISO file size is below 4 GB , otherwise select NTFS .
2. Depending on you Windows version, you may have to run Rufus as “Run As Administrator”
3. To detect portable USB Hard Drives: Click the Big White-Arrow (Format Options): and check: List Hard Drives

6. After repairing cloned/imaged drive on new computer, if you get Windows Login screen, but nothing happens after login. i.e. Task Manager works, you are able to run new Tasks such as calculator, cmd.exe but explorer.exe does not work.

 

Possible Reason:  At startup Windows looks into the registry and expects installation partition that is  C: (usually) for loading OS completely, however the new cloned partition gets drive letter of the portable drive (may be H:, or I:, or  J:, …, depending upon your computer).

 

Solution: Change drive letter (from H:, or I:, or  J:, …) to C: :

Run regedit32.exe (Registry Editor) through Task Manager and modify following setting:

a). Go to registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

b). Click MountedDevices, and go to Security  > Permissions.

Verify that Administrators have full control.

Close regedt32.exe, and then run regedit.exe.

a). go to registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

b). Find “\DosDevices\C:”. Right-click \DosDevices\C:, and then select Rename  to rename this to an unused drive letter “\DosDevices\Y:”.

c). Find the drive letter of your cloned partition. For example “\DosDevices\I:”. Right-click \DosDevices\I:, and rename it to “\DosDevices\C:”.

d). Select \DosDevices\Y:, and then name it back to “\DosDevices\I:”.

Close regedt.exe, and then run regedit32.exe. Change the permissions back to the previous setting for Administrators.

Restart the computer. Your computer should work normally.

 

 

7. In place of SATA interface, if you wish to boot the cloned drive over USB port (portable USB Hard Drive), you may use a good freeware application WinToUSB (http://www.easyuefi.com/wintousb/index.html ). WinToUSB can install/clone Windows to a USB drive with BIOS and UEFI supports.

Note: If you want to install Windows onto second HDD/SSD drive without using a CD/DVD/USB drive, or clone your current Windows OS installation to a HDD/SSD drive, you can also try WinToHDD (http://www.easyuefi.com/wintohdd/index.html ).

Black Screen of Death after upgrading ubuntu! How to roll back the upgrade?

If you get Black Screen of Death after upgrading ubuntu.
You may like to rollback or uninstall the upgrade.

To do so, first you need to run the computer in Recovery Mode:

• Reboot the computer
• At GRUB screen, select the line which starts with “Advanced options” and then line ending with “(recovery mode)”
• It will ask for username and password.
• On successful login, type following command:

        sudo apt-get remove –-auto-remove upgrade-system

             

 Note: if unable to run the above command, you may have to run following command before removing the upgrade:

 sudo dpkg –configure -a 

(If it doesn’t try running sudo apt-get install -f (to fix broken packages) and then try running sudo dpkg –configure -a again )

Reboot the computer! 

Installing ClamAV from Ubuntu Linux

Most malware are written for Windows because of  its market share, however irrespective of OS platform (Windows or Linux or Android or …), you need a good anti-malware application against viruses, worms, adware and other malware.

ClamAV is free and open source Anti-Virus, also available for Linux.

To install ClamAV,  open terminal and use below command line:

$ sudo apt-get install clamav clamtk

Once installed, you can access ClamAV from dashboard:

You may set some useful preferences:


To update virus definitions, type:

$ sudo freshclam

Extending hard disk volume of a VMware virtual machine. Solving error: Failed to expand the disk “C:\My Vurtual Machines\windows 8\Windows 8.vmdk”: One of the parameters supplied is invalid (0x100003e80).

1. Delete all snapshots. (Make sure you have backups)

2. Shutdown the Virtual Machine and use VMWware-vdiskmanager utiltiy (comes with VMWare Workstation) to extend partition.

Example: if you want to increase OS drive of your Windows 8.0 virtual machine (located at “D:\My Vurtual Machines\windows 8\Windows 8.vmdk” ) by 15GB then use following commmand:

C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation>vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -x 45Gb “C:\My Vurtual Machines\windows 8\Windows 8.vmdk”

3. If you are attempting to extend the OS drive, you can use some 3rd party partitioning software (such as Partition Magic or Paragon Partition Manager).  If you are increasing the size of a data-drive/partition,  you can use DISKPART commands in your Virtual Machine.

Example: for extending OS drive, use the 3rd party partitioning software, and allocate the unallocated space as “primary”: then merge it with ‘basic’ C-drive.

If you get error:

Failed to expand the disk  “C:\My Vurtual Machines\windows 8\Windows 8.vmdk”: One of the parameters supplied is invalid (0x100003e80).

Possibly, you have not created the vmdk file as of fixed size, instead selected option that would let the hard disk volume grow when become larger. So, there might be multiple .vmdk files, and therefore the vmware-vdiskmanager causes the above error.

Solution:

For this type of vmdk,

Select “Edit virtual machine settings” from VMWare Workstation. then, Hard disk > Utilities > Expand : now expand the hard disk to 45GB

After this, run the virtual machine. Right click the  Computer or My Computer: Select “Manage”

In “Computer Management”: select “Disk Management“: It will show 45GB as unallocatted volume.

Right click your OS-drive (C Drive) and select “Extend volume” and extend it ti complete 45GB.

That’s  all!!

Sometimes my Ubuntu laptop doesn’t detect my ADSL Modem based WiFi Access Point

http://www.technologydwell.com/2016/01/sometimes-my-ubuntu-laptop-doesnt.html

I am having dual OS (Windows & Ubuntu) in my Laptop, and a ADSL Modem based WiFi Access Point.
The WiFi Access Point always  works fine with Windows, however with Ubuntu sometimes (or infact most of the times) it is not being detected. Further, the Ubuntu always shows other surrounding WiFi networks.

Reason: The possible reason may be conflict of Channel or Frequency with other WiFi networks.

Solution:
Try to change following settings in your WiFi Access Point:
1. Change Channel from Auto to a fixed channel number. (for example: 07)
2. Change Channel bandwidth to 20Mhz to 20/40Mhz.
3. Restart the Access Point.

Windows 10 Black Screen problem: After upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10 screen goes to black. No cursor or pointer is visible.

—

Detailed blog at: http://www.technologydwell.com/2015/08/windows-10-after-upgrading-from-windows.html

After upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10, everything worked smoothly. However, suddenly after 10-15 minutes, the screen went blank and black (without any cursor or pointer). On forceful (button) reboot, the problem persists.

Reason: If everything was OK during upgrade, then one possible reason may be the Display Driver (provided by the OEM such as Intel) Problem. The current version of Display Driver may be having issues with the Windows 10 environment,

For example: Windows 10, tries to install the device drivers of second generation Intel Graphics Adapter, which are non-compitable.

Solution:  (**** go through the steps mentioned below. Final Solution is in my last Update (Jan 2016))

Simple solution is to run the System in Safe Mode and Uninstall the Device Driver.

this solution will be temporary, as the Windows 10 will look for updates of the display driver also and whenever it may update the display driver to the same problematic driver. As a workaround, you may have to  disable the auto-update of device drivers.

Note: Disabling auto updates of device drivers is just a workaround, not a recommended practice. Whenever the patch or stable version of the display driver is released, you should enable the auto-updates of the device drivers.

Steps:

1. Switch off Internet Modem or device.
2. Shutdown the system using Power button.
3. Power-on the system. Keep pressing F8 or F12/F11 to enter to Repair screen.
4. Windows will ask you to choose an option. Press Troubleshoot.
5. In the Troubleshoot, click Advanced options.
6. In the Advanced options, click Startup Settings.
7. You will be informed that you are about to restart in order to change several Windows options, including enabling Safe Mode. Click Restart.
8. On restart it will display nine startup settings, including Safe Mode. Press 4 of F4 for Safe Mode.
9. System will restart in Safe Mode.
10. Login and navigate to Control Panel > Programs & Features > Uninstall the Intel* Graphics Driver

   

           *or other 

10. It will ask to restart the system. Click restart
11. System will restart into Windows 10.

12. Now, to prevent Windows 10 from updating/restoring the same problematic Display Driver”

1. Go to start menu: Settings and search Advanced System Settings:

. ii. Open Click the Advanced System Settings  and select Hardware tab and click Device Installation Settings:

iii. Under Device Installation Settings, click on No, Let me choose what to do, then select Never Install Drivers from Windows Update:

1. Save Settings, a system reboot is required for the changes to take effect.

13. Now, you can switch on your Internet device or modem.

That’s all!

——————————————————————————————-

Update:

Windows may still automatically downloads and installs Drivers.

To get rid from the problem, turn ON “Download over metered connection”:

1) Open Settings

2) Select Devices

3) Select “Printers & Scanner” and use the slider to turn ON “Download over metered connection”

4) Similarly, select “Connected Devices” use the slider to turn ON “Download over metered connection”

——————————————————————————————-

Update (Jan 2016): With new windows 10 update, the screen again went black.

On exploring through the steps discussed above, I found that the non-supportive Intel* Graphics Driver was installed again by the update. Further, noticed that Microsoft has changed the below feature/option:

by :

SO, NOW WE CANNOT PREVENT WINDOWS FROM DOWNLOADING DEVICE DRIVERS.

 

———————————–

——————————————————————————————-

Update:

Windows may still automatically downloads and installs Drivers.

To get rid from the problem, turn ON “Download over metered connection”:

1) Open Settings

2) Select Devices

3) Select “Printers & Scanner” and use the slider to turn ON “Download over metered connection”

4) Similarly, select “Connected Devices” use the slider to turn ON “Download over metered connection”

——————————————————————————————-

Update (Jan 2016): With new windows 10 update, the screen again went black.

On exploring through the steps discussed above, I found that the non-supportive Intel* Graphics Driver was installed again by the update. Further, noticed that Microsoft has changed the below feature/option:

by :

SO, NOW WE CANNOT PREVENT WINDOWS FROM DOWNLOADING DEVICE DRIVERS.

——————————————–
Feb 2016:
update!!!
Finally got this solution:

Boot the computer in Safe Mode:
i.  Go to start menu: Settings and search Advanced System Settings:
ii. Open Click the Advanced System Settings  and select Hardware tab and click Device Manager Settings

iii. Disable the Display Driver

iv. Restart the computer!

 

 

 

 

 

How to play .avi or .mkv video chunks like .mkv.001, .mkv.002, .mkv.003, .mkv.00…? How to get entire movie in a single file?

 Usually Movies (Videos files) have huge sizes, so these are first splitted/divided into small chunks such as .avi.001, .avi.002, avi.00…. or .mkv.001,.mkv.002, .mkv.00…. before uploading online on a Website.

 There are two methods by which you can combine or join or merge these chunks into a single file:

 First method: there are software such as HJSplit (from http://www.freebyte.net/download/hjsplit.zip), that can be used for splitting and merging.

 Second Method: if you are having Windows operating system, you can follow following simple steps  to get the single file:

 1. First, ensure that you are having all the chunk files in a single folder.

2. Open Command Prompt and navigate to the above folder using “cd” command.

3. type following command:

copy /b movie.mkv.001+movie.mkv.002+...movie.mkv.00N  movie.mkv

[where  movie.mkv.00N is the last chunk file ]

4. Wait for few minutes till it gives: “file(s) were copied successfully” message.

 Now, if your VLC Player or Winodws Media Player (with right codec installed) is playing the newly created file  movie.mkv, then you can delete the file chunks. It will save your disk space!!

Installing Android Application outside of Google Play! Installing downloaded “.apk” file on Android!

If you are thinking of installing  an android application outside of Google Play, then following steps can help you:
1.    Navigate to Menu >Settings > Applications  and check “ Unknown Sources”
 

Note: once installation of your desired Android Application gets completed, you should un-check this feature again. Because this  will increase your attack surface by allowing installation of non-market malicious applications.

2.   Get the downloaded “.apk” file into your SD card and navigate to it by the file manager of your Phone.

If you don’t have file manager Application with your Phone, then you can ES File Explorer, or  ASTRO File Manager or  ICS File Explorer — Doggie.

3.    Open your file manager application and navigation to the “.apk” file and click it. Select “Install” option to install it.

Enable HTTPS/SSL feature on your Yahoo Mail Account for encrypted and secure email communication!

Like GMail, Yahoo Mail has also started to provide HTTPS/SSL communication feature. You should enable this option for secure email communications. This can protect you against taping and several kind of Man-In-the-Middle attacks.

To enable HTTPS/SSL on your Yahoo Mail Account, go to “Mail Options” on your Yahoo Mail account and select “General” then check “Turn On SSL”, and finally click to “Save: