Author Archives: Jethro Carr

Android OpenVPN & Jelly Bean

Last night my Galaxy Nexus finally got the Jelly Bean update pushed to it via Over-The-Air – I’m not sure why it’s taken until now to get it, but ICS has been working fine so I never bothered to build Android from source again.

It was slightly disturbing that the update came down over 3G data, whilst I have a fair bit of cap, a lot of NZders are on pretty low cellphone datacaps and the update is around 160MB.

The upgrade was pretty seamless, however it broke my Openvpn for Android setup, preventing me from connecting to any of my servers or email. According to the application, there is a known issue that when the OS updates, you need to re-establish the trust relationship with the Android keystore, which you can do by editing the VPN and re-selecting the certificate and selecting “allow”.

Unfortunately, that didn’t work for me, it would keep repeating the error and refusing to run. There wasn’t much useful in adb logcat either:

I/ActivityManager(  303): Displayed de.blinkt.openvpn/.MainActivity: +213ms
I/ActivityManager(  303): START {act=android.intent.action.MAIN cmp=de.blinkt.openvpn/.LaunchVPN (has extras) u=0} from pid 4071
I/ActivityManager(  303): START {flg=0x20000 cmp=de.blinkt.openvpn/.LogWindow u=0} from pid 4071
I/keystore(  130): uid: 1000 action: t -> 1 state: 1 -> 1 retry: 4
I/keystore(  130): uid: 1000 action: x -> 1 state: 1 -> 1 retry: 4
V/OpenSSL-keystore( 4071): keystore_bind_fn
V/OpenSSL-keystore( 4071): keystore_engine_setup
V/OpenSSL-keystore( 4071): keystore_loadkey(0x5c30c3d0, "1000_USRPKEY_mobile-jethro", 0x0, 0x0)
I/keystore(  130): uid: 10067 action: b -> 7 state: 1 -> 1 retry: 4
W/keystore_client( 4071): Error from keystore: 7
V/OpenSSL-keystore( 4071): Cannot get public key for 1000_USRPKEY_mobile-jethro

I had a read and came across this bug report in Android, suggesting that the names of some certificates could be a problem.

My certificate was mobile-jethro.p12, so I named it to mobile.p12 and imported it again – which resolved the problem! Bit of a nasty character handling bug it seems….

RS232 Shifter Board

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As part of my project to make an Arduino based watchdog for my home server, I went and picked up a proper soldering iron today and assembled the RS232 Shifter Circuit I had purchased from Sparkfun/Mindkits.

I ended up getting a Goot soldering iron – it wasn’t too cheap, but the reviews I was reading online suggested it was the next best thing to a proper soldering station and a quality Japanese tool. It’s also 46W, so much better for the lead-free solder I’m using, compared to the crappy 15W DSE brand generic iron I was using previously.

Tool of the gods.

It made a massive difference to the soldering efforts, the lead-free solder melted without issue and flowed smoothly – plus the fine point conical tip made getting the solder into key areas a lot easier.

The tips are changeable and I’ve been advised by an electronics fixing friend to get a set of tip types, as certain ones suit different tasks better than others.

Whilst the new soldering iron is a huge improvement, my soldering skill is still a bit poor, I had a few text-book joins where the solder flowed perfectly and bonded with a smooth shiny surface, but a lot of my joins tend to be slightly one sided, where the solder hasn’t flowed right around the components lead and PCB hole which makes then a bit weak.

I’m also tending to leave too much solder on the component lead, which leaves larger joins than really needed, so need to work on how much solder I apply.

Parents, avert your children’s eyes from this soldering monstrosity!

On the flip side, the top looks great ;-)

After constructing the circuit, I gave it a test by connecting the TX and RX of the shifter circuit to the TX and RX on the Arduino, which basically uses the Arduino as an UART to RS232(over USB) adapter.

Then I connected the new DB9 port to my laptop and typed messages into the Arduino serial monitor, to have them passed through my new circuit and into my laptop’s DB9 port.

Amazingly, things worked first time and I’m able to successfully receive data via the shifter board – in my quick test TX from the shifter board wasn’t working, but it may have been a serial speed/config issue that I just need to tweak in the OS, rather than the board itself.

Arduino IDE to Minicom via an Arduino, my new shifter circuit and my laptop’s USB to RS232 adapter.

The next step is connecting this shifter circuit to the digital I/O ports on the Arduino and using the software serial library to add a second serial port to the device. I can then do the same to the HTC Magic serial break out and I’ll basically have an Arduno with 3 serial ports in total – the onboard UART, the DB9 PC via shifter and the HTC magic.

Once that’s done, it’s just a case of writing the software needed to turn the collection of hacks into a hardware watchdog and serial remote access system. :-)

And once that’s all working, I’ll build a final solution using one of the Arduino prototyping shields from Freetronics, which will include all the shifter circuitry onboard and just provide a 2×5 IEC pin header to plug a ribbon cable directly into the server’s motherboard serial port header.

I might have too many cables….

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This is what happens when you’re a computer geek for 10+ yrs…..

Lost in the endless boxes of cables

Escape from Auckland!

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We finally managed to complete the move out last weekend! I don’t know how we managed to collect so much stuff in just 11 months, but we managed to fill my Starlet and an entire van with all Lisa’s stuff…

Broken down the office, next few weeks is living on the laptop only.

When boxing up all my stuff I realized that most of this is going into storage or being sold, very little that I’ll actually be taking with me to AU.

Most important part of the flat ;-) Sadly this will be staying in NZ rather than coming with us due to the size of it :-(

Books add so much weight. :-( There’s not a lot that I want to take – going to look at getting something like a Kindle for future books, but at the same time, there are things like code references or coffee tables books I really want to take. :-(

Sitting inside on outdoor furniture is all class. ;-)

It’s Mac World! They managed to escape my presence without getting Linux installed on them…. this time. ;-)

This is about half the stuff loaded into the van…

Had a pretty good drive down to Wellington, but of course it now means that I have to go through all my stuff and finish selling off things on Trademe, I don’t really want to end up storing lots of stuff at my parents place, particularly since any computer equipment would be obsoleted within a few years.

Also selling off my trusty Toyota Starlet and pretty much anything computer related that isn’t my laptop or my server, so keep watching my TradeMe listings over the next couple of weeks.

Next stop: Melbourne! I’m flying over on the 15th of September with the aim of lining up some work, with Lisa following me over as soon as I get something signed and a flat sorted.

Pestogate

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I hate it when the supermarket runs out of the larger 350g Pesto containers – particularly when they charge $2.57 per 100g vs $5.11 per 100g depending which size container is purchased…

PESTOGATE!

Incidentally the above pictured Genoese-brand pesto is the most delicious thing that has ever graced the shelves of the supermarket, I will literally scoop this stuff into my mouth with my hands at times.

Android alarm UI WTF

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I like Android, but there are a few times the UX (User Experience) is a bit messed up compared with the way the user thinks. For example, take the newly introduced alarm clock time selection interface added in ICS:

So the alarm time selection gives me the ability to drag the time up/down, simple enough, most users understand dragging on touch screen devices. However if one decides to tap the up/down buttons instead…

I guess the developer decided that the up button should increase the time and the down should decrease which would make sense if it wasn’t for the fact that the user can see the preceding and following numbers which changes their perspective from the arrows being for numerical incrementing to the arrows being for sliding/rotating the displayed numbers on screen.

It’s even more annoying since it worked logically on pre-ICS devices only to be changed and broken in this confusing manner. :-(

Auckland Sky Tower

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For my last day at work, I was lucky enough to get a task to go up the Auckland Sky Tower to perform some maintenance in the data center up there – despite living in Auckland for the past 12 months, I hadn’t yet gone up the sky tower; no thanks to the excessively high fees to visit the viewing deck.

The Auckland Sky Tower Data Center is located high up on levels 47 and 48 and is a popular location for routers and peering, thanks to the great line of sight range for any wireless telcos or microwave point-to-point links and is also the home of the Auckland Peering Exchange.

It’s one of the weirder data centers I’ve been in to thanks to the floor to ceiling windows with sun streaming in and the odd bungy jumper flying past the windows on the northern side.

I got some great pictures out over the city from up there – sorry no rack pictures however, didn’t want to upset anyone by posting pictures of their racked equipment.

They’re beaming the bits into my brain!

Looking out over the Viaduct with Takapuna in the distance.

Looking over the CBD – the line in the middle of the picture is the bungy jump wire.

Middle of the CBD and the port. Devonport in the distance, with Rangitoto behind that.

Weird looking microwave transmitters.

Auckland harbor bridge and the viaduct.

Motorway to the south of the harbor bridge.

Mmmmm non-ionising radiation :-D

When I buy a house I’m totally installing cable run trays like this for all my servers.

Dreamiest blogger ever!

Panorama!

Over all a very cool trip and considering it’s free to go up (if you have equipment racked there) and parking is free for data center customers in the sky tower, it’s the best value observation level around. ;-)

Goodbye mighty steed

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Sadly with my move to AU, I now have to make the painful decision to sell my 1997 Toyota Starlet, the mighty steed that has lead to many great travels with me.

I have a listing up on Trademe with all the details, if you’re interested in a great economical vehicle take a look, or flick it through to any friends whom are. ;-)

Car is currently in Wellington, but if you live anywhere in the North Island, it’s an easy trip to get it home.

Goodbye environmentally destructive, war-causing friend.

Welly Plans

Getting there!

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Whilst I’ve been selling off a lot of stuff lately, I started attacking the apartment properly this weekend and the evenings since, going with a system of 3 piles – stuff to take to Melbourne, stuff to store in Wellington and stuff to sell/donate/trash.

The Melbourne pile is actually really small, at the moment I might be taking as little as some clothes, my laptop, some books and a router. I’ve cut down the stuff to store in Wellington a lot, mostly just a few boxes of personal stuff I want to keep (mementos, books, Libretto laptop collection).

I haven’t decided whether I want to take my IBM Model M keyboards yet or not, they’re amazing keyboards, but part of me is pondering going laptop-only whilst in AU – giving my laptop only a go this week as I’ve now packed away the keyboards and LCDs.

OMG look at all the desk space now!

OCD box organization.My label maker and I are having a lot of fun together with this move.

Couches are gone, lounge looks like even more of a bombsite.

The computer desk, TV and bed have now sold, but still need to sell the dining table, otherwise it’s going to have to squeeze into the van heading to Hawkes Bay and to be sold from there. :-/

Other items that haven’t sold, I’ll re-try from Wellington, along with a lot of additional things I have down there.

Meanwhile I’m loving the new found minimalism in my flat, I kind of want to go to Melbourne and have an empty apartment with nothing but my laptop and a stereo.

I’m particularly resistant to having a TV again, I find them a real intrusion into regular life – when there isn’t one around, I’m much more productive and do useful things or read, rather than blobbing – even when it’s not set to recieve TV broadcasts, they just consume so much space and become a focal point of the lounge.

I am taking my Mac Mini to use as a media center, but may just attach a large 27″ computer panel to it when in AU to watch movies when wanted – just pondering the best way to setup my flat that it’s still easy to watch stuff when desired, but in such a way that the media center isn’t the focal point of the lounge – I really want to spend my time in AU being way more productive and creating lots more content, rather than consuming.

Of course considering that my big KVM and file server is going to stay behind in NZ, I’m going to have much less access to my content, which may force me to do useful things like blog and code more. :-)