First Impressions of FireFox 3 on Linux

I've been using the latest version of FireFox 2 (version 2.0.0.14) since it hit the Ubuntu repos. On June 27, I decided to upgrade to 3.0 final. I didn't want to, really, until certain addons (not to mention my absolute favorite FF2 theme) had been upgraded with 3.0 compatibility. But FF2 was being so slow with the "memory leaks" that it's become known for lately, I figured I owed it to myself to try it.

First, the deal breakers for me. Obviously, the Vista Black theme by Internauta2000 on DeviantArt. I've loved this theme since I first discovered it, and haven't been satisfied with any other theme I've tried. My most used extension recently, Tab Groups, does one thing and does it well. It simply adds a second row of tabs that group main tabs together. Unfortunately, it does not support FF3 yet. And I can't wait until it does.

When I upgraded to FF3, I made sure to have my system monitor (KSysGuard) open to monitor memory usage. Typically, after a period of sustained usage, FF2 would reach roughly 450MB of memory on linux; on Windows, I've seen it eating up to 800MB. Just a few hours after running around with FF3, though, I noticed it was creeping into the 400MB range. Needless to say, I was starting to be disappointed. Right now, though, and without a restart, I'm seeing only 152MB usage. And the overall experience is much smoother. With FF2, especially during a large memory footprint, it would constantly lock up. When it wasn't locked up, it would hesitantly load and scroll pages. No longer. FF3 loads pages perceivably faster, and there are no glitches in scrolling.

But there's still the matter of those deal breakers. Until Tab Groups gets an update, I've started using FaviconizeTab, which reduces tabs from icon-and-text to icon-only, on a tab-by-tab basis. Mainly just a way to keep all my tabs (which often reach double digits) visible on the tab bar. For my theme, I've converted (oh, so temporarily, mind you ;) ) to the AquaTint Black Gloss theme. It doesn't hold a candle to Vista Black, but it's close enough for now.

Overall, though, the upgrade to FF3 is one that everyone should make. If you have a favorite extension that isn't yet compatible, find an equivalent or an alternative. Or, in the case of FireBug, find the latest development version. If you have a favorite theme that isn't compatible yet, contact the author and ask if they have an update planned (and be sure to say please and thank you ;) ). Most importantly, just do it. You won't regret it.

Use Google for UnitConversions

Recently I was doing some quick google-research on sheet paper sizes; I came across a wikipedia image which showed A-sheet sizes -- in millimeters. Being an American who prefers to deal in inches, I did a Google search to get the inch equivalent of 210mm. I expected to find a website that could provide such a conversion for me -- and I found it sooner than I expected: I suppose this feature has been around for quite a while (I found a forum thread dated from '05), but it's such a small feature that it can easily be overlooked. Or, more likely, not seen at all except by those few who have a need for it. ;)

Linux-compatible wifi cards?

If you're in the market for a wifi card (be it desktop or notebook) and you're an avid Linux user, you may be interested in knowing if a card will work with linux before you commit to the buy. The authors of passys.nl have set up a user-contributed list of wireless cards and their linux compatibility. You can search the database by manufacturer, chipset, or card interface, and the results are color-coded for easy skimming.

Flashing a WRT

To complement my recent XBox softmodding project, I bought a Linksys WRT54G router to install DD-WRT on. For those not in the know, DD-WRT is a third-party, linux-based, model-specific router firmware. It basically does to routers what Ubuntu does to your desktop or notebook, XBMC does to your XBox, and RockBox does to your MP3 player: it unleashes it from the chains of crippling OEM firmware, and unlocks all (or most) of its potential. In the case of DD-WRT, you can control wifi strength, implement QoS, and, with the right settings, use it as a wireless bridge for the modded XBox in your living room. :)

As always, it helps to have the right tools. There are tons of guides to installing DD-WRT, but the one that I ultimately (and successfully) followed was the official DD-WRT installation guide. Given that, you need to know what feature set you want. The Standard version has all the main bells and whistles, minus a couple mass-user-nonessential features, and weighs in at just over 3MB, thus requiring the standard 4MB of flash memory. The Mini version has enough to make you want to install it over your standard firmware, at a lighter requirement of 2MB of flash memory. Check out the file versions for all the details. If you're going for a WWRT54G and want the standard set, then you'll want something between a v1.0 and a v4.0, inclusive. If you look at the Linksys compatibility table, you'll notice that the flash memory and RAM are cut right in half starting with v5.0. Any WRT54G v5.0 or later will require you to install the mini or micro distros (unless you install a card reader or something like that). You'll also notice that v4.0 takes a step down in processing power, from 216MHz to 200MHz. These cutoff points, in my mind, make WRT54G versions 2.2, 3.0, and 3.1 the ideal versions to grab, especially for a first attempt. I ended up getting a v3.0 off of eBay, go figure.

Once you've got your router and guide handy, have fun flashing. Be sure to use Internet Explorer and a wired connection to the router (disable your computer's wifi to be safe) so as not to brick your router. Also keep in mind that, just because you have 4MB flash memory, that doesn't mean that the Linksys firmware will let you use it. Upgrade to the DD-WRT Mini Generic version first; once that's running, you can then upgrade to DD-WRT Standard Generic. Don't use the WRT54G-specific files for an upgrade via the Linksys web interface, as those files are meant for use with TFTP flashes. Follow your guide to a fault and don't panic if something doesn't go right.

Once you've fixed yourself up with DD-WRT, you can turn your WRT into a wireless bridge with 5, count 'em, 5 ethernet ports. As with the installation, there are many guides to turning the router into a bridge, but the one I had success with was the official DD-WRT Wireless Bridging guide. Once you have your bridge set up (be sure to disassociate your computer with the router, and reassociate with it, to ensure that the bridge is working properly), you can head to Setup -> Basic Setup and check Assign WAN Port to Switch. This, theoretically, makes the "internet" port on the router act like a fifth ethernet switch. Although I haven't tested it yet, so I guess I shouldn't be promoting it too heavily. :)

XBox Project, Phase 3: Softmodding

Softmodding the XBox, provided you have the right tools, is as easy as installing a program in Windows. Run the given installer, following the step-by-step, and hope everything goes right. Usually it does, until something isn't clearly explained, and then you have to troubleshoot it. Although the key phrase there is "having the right tools".

First things first, you must have the right game and a good walkthrough. There are three games that are exploitable; I used MechAssault, which has to have a disc number of MS02301L. You can get this off of eBay for $20-25 with the disc number explicitly listed; you may be able to get it for less if you can spot it without the number being mentioned. I've also heard of people getting it for $3 or so from a local GameStop, so there's a decent profit to be made if you get it that way. Though I could have used LifeHacker's guide, I ended up using chunkhead's guides at afterdawn.com. The advantage is that he provides a downloadable package containing the AR software and prefab game exploit softmod installers (a lot of guides I found gave you a softmod exploit that you had to insert into a gamesave. Even more pointed you to the #xbins IRC channel, which sends you to an FTP server, which I found most unhelpful. These are pre-built). Check out how to use a USB drive as a memory card to get the softmod installer onto your USB drive; be sure to read through the thread, not just the first post, if you run into problems with the AR software. When you have the files ready, head over to his softmod guide. The screenshots in the second guide don't exactly match the software from the first guide, but they're similar enough that you should be able to figure things out.

Getting the exploits is simple enough: download the zip archive provided at the guide. However, for the sake of completeness, I will describe my experiences while following the LifeHacker guide. First, you must log on to an IRC channel, #xbins, on the Efnet servers. I used Mibbit.com, a web-based IRC client, to sign on to one of the two available Efnet servers. Once there, every guide out there says to PM the bot with the !list command (run "/msg xbins !list"). However, the channel message itself says to !list in-channel to get the FTP login details. Once that's done, the bot PMs you the FTP server and login details, and away you go. I used FileZilla to connect. This worked fine, until I tried to download a file, at which point I would start getting "access denied to user" errors. No matter what I tried, no matter what settings I used, this would always happen. Of course, you have to re-receive the login details after each connection, successful or not. Oh, and if you !list too fast, the bot will kick or ban you from the channel. So you can imagine how frustrating it can be. Yes, there are desirous files on that FTP server that are not provided by chunkhead's guide (such as DVD2XBox, LinksBoks, and other apps), but I found that you can find them on the various torrent sites. And, of course, XBMC you can actually download from T3CH's website.

Now, before you can start moving gamesaves around, you have to format the USB drive with the XBox; simply plug it into your hybrid cable, plug that into the XBox, turn the XBox on. Navigate to Memory on the dashboard. You'll get an error saying either that the memory card was formatted (I got this for my 1GB), or that the memory card may be damaged (I got this for my 4GB). If it says that it's damaged, it may recognize it a second time (unplug the USB drive and plug it back in; worked with my 4GB). Once that's done, it should show up to the side of the main "hard drive" memory source. Move the USB drive to the computer with the AR software on it.

Now, about the Action Replay software, and working with a USB drive. First thing you may want to know is that this probably won't work with wine on linux; I couldn't make it work, anyway. The first afterdawn.com guide contains the AR 1.31 installer and a 1.40 upgrade. Run them in that order. Then follow the directions for using USBView.exe to get your Vendor ID and Product ID, and put those into the appropriate file. Now, you have to understand, the contents of this file specify what devices the AR software looks for as a valid Memory Card. However, it won't work until the drivers are updated to look for them. Simply editing the file won't do it; you have to install the file. Chunkhead's guide has screenshots for Vista, but I floundered around for forever trying to get it to work under XP. After you've edited the file, open the device manager and identify your flash drive. Right click it, select "Update driver...". If it asks you to connect to the internet, select "No, not this time" and click Next. On the next page, select "Install from a list or specific location", then Next. This is the part where I kept getting hung up; do NOT tell the wizard to search in the AR directory for the file! Instead, select "Don't search. I will choose the driver to install", then Next. On the next page, click the "Have Disk..." button, browse to the AR file you edited, and click OK. In the drivers list, a new item will appear that is obviously not your standard computer stuff; select that and click Next. The wizard should then copy and install the necessary stuff. Fire up AR, and you should be good to go; simply drag the appropriate files from your Desktop to the "Memory Card" column, and AR should copy it over to the drive.

Once the files are on the USB drive, move the drive over to the XBox again. Navigate back to memory in your dashboard, and select the "memory card". For each item, press the D-Pad to the right, and you should have the option to Copy the gamesave (took me a while to figure that out, too). Selecting Copy will then give you the choice of where to copy it to, just go with the hard drive. Once both files are saved, load your game and run the exploit.

While in the SID (Softmod Installer Deluxe), make sure you perform all necessary backups. If you feel the need to look at the file system (for example, to make sure your eeprom.bin is backed up), there is a file manager available on the main menu. Otherwise, just follow chunkhead's guide as closely as possible. When you're done, you should be able to boot to your dashboard of choice; mine is UnleashX, though I'm hoping to replace it with XBMC at some point.

When my softmod install was finished, I didn't have an E:\Apps directory, like everyone said I should have. It's safe to simply create this directory through FTP and move your apps into it. XBMC comes in two flavors; the stable version 2.0.1, and the latest SVN build. While the latest build may have more features, I'm finding that I prefer the older stable version, because it allows me to switch back to UnleashX, amongst other reasons (why was this feature taken out??). The latest version of DVD2XBox (0.7.8) doesn't work on my system; it just hangs on the splash screen. I downloaded 0.7.6, and it works great (you can get it from the torrents). I've also downloaded LinksBoks, but haven't gotten around to properly testing it out yet.

So this concludes my hectic softmodding week. As a supplement, I plan on installing DD-WRT onto a Linksys router that I've recently bought and turning it into a bridge so the XBox can go in the living room, under the TV. So much for a weekend project, eh?

XBox Project, Phase 2: Hardmodding

This is probably the hardest step involved in this process. Two days of frustration and troubleshooting have resulted in two working XBox/USB hybrid cables, a fried XBox Controller, and a fried 512MB USB flash drive. Yes, fried, complete with that burnt electronics smell, and a distinct lack of functionality. But perhaps I should tell my story :)

I gathered my breakaway cable, 2ft USB cable, scissors, and electrical tape. Theoretically, this would be simple: strip the insulation off the cable, strip each of the four wires inside each cable, tape matching colored wires together, tape it up all nice, and voila. Not so. The first issue came when I opened up the USB cable; rather than the standard black, white, red, and green wires, I was greeted with red, blue, brown, and yellow wires. So I did a little googling, and found a forum user who had come across this same issue. He had mapped out the nonstandard colors to the standard colors, and apparently it worked for him. The combos were (from USB to XBox), red to red, brown to white, yellow to green, and blue to black. So, I connected up my wires according to his info, plugged my 1GB drive to the XBox male to USB female cable and ... nothing. Not even enough power to light up the LED on the drive.

So I posted to an XBox hardmodding forum asking for help and advice. The only thing we came up with was that the wires were not hooked up right. While it made sense that getting the power and ground wires mixed would be damaging, the person who responded to my post said that mixing the data wires wouldn't matter. So I found a multimeter that I could use to test power flow. I did a simple test; the power and ground cables connect to the outer pins of the connector, so I just tested for which pin was connected to the red wire (for power) to make sure I had the cables hooked up right. Contrary to my first source's info, the brown wire was ground, and the blue wire data. I swapped those and, while waiting for a response on my thread, constructed the other cable (USB male to XBox female). plugged the two USB connectors together and tested a controller on the XBox -- no go. So, in slight frustration, I plugged the USB male connector into my PC, just to see if it would work. Again, nothing (not surprisingly).

I unplugged the cable from the computer, disconnected the controller, connected the controller to my still-good breakaway cable, and plugged it into the XBox, and it started vibrating uncontrollably. Obviously not a good sign, and I hurriedly unplugged it. And then I notice the smell. I've smelled burnt out electronics (mostly box fans that stopped turning while the engine was still on), and that was what I smelled now. I plugged the controller back in, to test if any controls still worked, and nothing. So I now have a vibrating paperweight. I'm not sure if the controller was fried when I had the ground and data wires switched, or the power and ground wires switched, though I suspect it was the power/ground that did it.

At this point I was slightly frustrated, having fried a controller, when the horrific thought struck me: I had also had my flash drive plugged into these erroneous configurations. I quickly plugged the drive into my PC, fervently hoping that it would work. And it didn't. The LED came on, but the system wouldn't recognize it. Since I run on Kubuntu, I was monitoring my /dev directory for signs of device sdb and sdb1; these never showed up. At this, I fired up google to find a hardware support forum, and posted another request for help. The time I spent waiting for a response, I left the flash drive in my computer, in the hopes that it would somehow come back to life. And, lo and behold, it started working again shortly after I submitted the post. Of course, while the drive was not working, I also went and ordered a new 1GB U3-enabled Cruzer Micro from eBay, adding another $9 to the total project price. Figures.

Once I got the flash drive to work relatively stably (it was initially giving me all sorts of grief by being sporadically recognized by my system, and spontaneously inaccessible), I tried it again in my hybrid cable. At this point, I had solved the issue with the power and ground wires (turns out the red was ground and the brown was power, which was completely unintuitive), and figured the data cables were fine (switching them up doesn't matter, right?). The drive's LED lit up now, but it refused to be recognized by the XBox.

Fast forward several hours of switching between playing XBox games and performing various multimeter tests on every possible pin and wire of the cables. For some reason, in my intense frustration, I decide to re-swap the power and ground wires, just to see if that would work. In addition to my 1GB drive, I also have a 4GB and a 512MB. I wasn't about to fry my 4GB, and didn't want to chance my 1GB, so I plugged in the 512MB. No light, so I unplugged it, and yet again I smell that accursed smell of burn. My frustration building, I plug the drive into my computer, and nothing. No LED, no sdb, nothing. So, add a 512MB flash drive to the list of Fry's Electronics. Finally, I decided to swap the data cables (what've I got to lose, right?), aided with google-found diagrams of USB pins. Plugged in my now-working 1GB and, like magic, XBox says "memory card formatted". Good freakin' grief.

So, after much severe frustration, here are the CORRECT combinations for the wires, in case you come across an old USB cable with crap color codes:

• USB to XBox
• red to black
• blue to white
• brown to red
• yellow to green

However, do not take my word for it!!! This worked for me, but that other color scheme apparently worked for that other user. The best thing to do is to get a multimeter, gather a bunch of USB pin diagrams, and test extensively before plugging anything in to your hybrid cables. Of course, if you manage to get a standardly-colored cable, consider yourself extremely lucky, and get those cables modded and wrapped up as quickly as possible.

Here's a picture of the final product: You can see all the pictures I took during the process in my XBox Project Flickr photoset.

XBox Project, Phase 1: The Materials

A while back, LifeHacker posted an article on how to turn your xbox into a killer media center. Since that article, I have dreamt of such a thing. About a week ago (shortly after receiving a bunch of b-day money, muwhaha :D ), I decided to take the plunge.

The goal is to take an original XBox, make some small modifications, and install an alternative dashboard in order to unleash the full potential of this small computer. To start off, I'm going to splice an XBox breakaway cable with a USB extension cable. This will create two new cables: XBox male to USB female, and USB male to XBox controller. This will allow me to use a compatible flash drive as a memory card, and the XBox controller as a PC game controller. And, when I need two-player functionality, I can plug the USB ends together, re-enabling XBox compatibility on the controller. I'll then use the flash-drive-as-a-memory-card idea to install an alternative dashboard using a security loophole in a game.

This all rests, of course, on the idea that mass-reported internet information is accurate. In this case, that the XBox controller is a modified USB device. Since many people report this as having worked (both the controller on the PC and the flash drives on the XBox), I'm going to assume that this is accurate.

This all, however, does not come free. Here's what I've spent so far:

• XBox - $60. Also came with four games, two controllers, and the DVD playback kit.
• MechAssault - $17.10. Disc # MS02301L, one of the three games that allow you to softmod an XBox.
• 2 6-ft USB Extension cables - $6. I'll only use one, but you can never have too many USB cables :)

All of these came from eBay, and prices listed include shipping (all prices are USD). The MA game was actually a $19 BIN auction, but PayPal gave me a 10% off coupon code. I should be able to resell it (if I want to) for $20-25 after I'm done. XBoxes, based on my experience, go for $50-70, depending on what they come with, usually controllers. I should be able to recoup some of the XBox cost by selling off some of the games and the DVD kit once I have XBMC installed. Regarding the USB cables, I'm actually going to use a black 2-ft USB extension cable that I already had, but I had to buy something to replace it. And, if anything goes wrong, you can buy extra breakaway cables for $2-5 from eBay. A local gaming store may also have them.

Additional stuff I will need include:

• Electrician's Tape - Since I don't currently have a working soldering iron, nor am I confident with one :)
• Scissors - to cut apart the cords
• 1GB SanDisk Micro Cruzer, U3 capable - to use as a memory drive. I've already got one of these lying around, and have long since removed the U3 junk.
• Cable strippers - depending on how I decide to strip the cables (strippers, scissors, razor knife, teeth, etc :) )

140 characters, are you kidding me???

After long holding back from joining Twitter, for fear of the addiction that it would surely cause, my self-control finally wore down and I signed up. First thing I notice? I only get 140 characters for each "twit"! This will not be possible; I find it sometimes difficult to obey 500-character limits on some forums, let alone a single thought in 140 characters. I'll have to do something like ... um ... posting three twits in a row. Goody, goody. :)

Also, what do I do about links? I'll surely have links to articles and stuff every few twits. I guess I'll be making extensive use of tinyurl.com.

Well, at any rate, wish me luck ... follow me ... do whatever you fellow twitters do ...

Oh, and to top it all off, I also registered on FriendFeed.

I thought only Windows did this?

I ran aptitude dist-upgrade last night, and shortly after the update I received this surprising notification: I did notice that a kernel update was in the mix, so maybe installation reboots are exclusive to kernel updates, but it was a surprising notification nonetheless.