HTC Desire Z upgrade to ICS

Well now that I've managed to downgrade and root my HTC Desire Z, I think its time to start pushing newer roms to check how the phone takes the upgrades. this is purely for testing purposes.

The write up for downgrade and rooting can be found at the following link.

So the first step is to find a ROM thats stable enough to test. After reading up different forums I thought to stick with Andromadus Mimicry rom.
* http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1714187

Here's the summary of the steps that I followed.

1. Download the relevant files (Rom and gaaps)
*http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1714187#post27494282

2. Move the downloaded files to the same place as the "adb" executable
*./adb push mimicry-1.5.0.zip /mnt/sdcard/
*./adb push gapps-ics-20120429-signed.zip /mnt/sdcard/

3. Make a nandroid backup for your current rom
* ./adb reboot recovery
* go to 'backup and restore' on the CWM menu
* select 'backup'

4. Clear cache and wipe all data
* from CWM screen choose 'wipe data/factory reset'
* once thats done select 'wipe cache partition'

5. Install the ROM and GAAPS
* from CWM menu select 'install zip from SD card'
* from CWM menu select 'choose zip from SD card'
* select the mimicry zip first
* follow the graphical installer steps and finish the installation (i didn't choose the wifi calling option for T-Mobile)
* once done choose gaaps zip file from CWM menu
* once both installations are done run './adb reboot recovery'
* and select 'reboot system now'
* have patience this will take some time :)

All good to go. Im going to test this Rom for few days before updating it to KitKat next.

Rooting and upgrading HTC desire Z (v2.3.3) using OS X

Found my old HTC Desire Z phone lying around and thought I'd learn how to root/upgrade the phone and get some usage out of it. I've never wanted to root this device before so all articles that Im reading now is seems to be somewhat outdated. Because of all the reading involved I'm documenting the steps I took for future reference. :)

Steps:
1. Read on installing ADB on your Mac. and all useful information on the reference sections.
http://htc-one.wonderhowto.com/how-to/install-adb-fastboot-mac-os-x-send-commands-your-htc-one-0151178/
*I didnt run the install script, instead i decided to use the executable within the folder it self. eg "./edb devices"

2. ADB for dummies
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=879701

3. Read on downgrading to stock rom.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1178912
*go to the last page of comments to find the latest links for stockimg download, as the links on the main article doesnt work any more.

4. As Im going to update it to CM based image, follow the CM guide for getting a permanent root on your desire Z. And once the rooting is done install CM7 and google apps for CM7.
https://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_vision#Rooting_the_Desire_Z
*get the missing files from the link below http://www.desire.tode.cz/how-to-root-htc-desire-z-g2-vision/

If you follow all the steps carefully this will be a breeze. It took me more time for me to find the old ROM than to run all the scripts accordingly.

This ROM is truly stable and a pleasure to work with. However I will try to upgrade it to ICS based rom and see how well that performs.

upgrading to vagrant 1.2.x

Its been a while since i've done any updates on my vagarant installations.

Seems like the project has improved alot for the past six months specially in supporting multiple providers easily, i decided to upgrade my vagarant installation to the latest. here are the steps i followed.

1. download the latest package from vagrant
http://downloads.vagrantup.com/tags/v1.2.2

2. install the package using the osx package manager

3. update the vagrantfile to reflect the changes they made to config
Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.box = "ubuntu_precise64"
  config.vm.provider :virtualbox do |vb|
    vb.customize ["setextradata", :id, "VBoxInternal2/SharedFoldersEnableSymlinksCreate/v-root", "1"]   
  end
  config.vm.network :forwarded_port, guest: 1337, host: 5001
  config.vm.provision :chef_solo do |chef|
    chef.cookbooks_path = "cookbooks"
    chef.add_recipe("nodejs")
  end
end

4. it seems like with the latest update they require medata file within the box, so i decided to add my base box once again
vagrant box add ubuntu_precise64 {{path to .box file}}

5. Success.
vagrant up

 This should work seamlessly. I'm planning to try out #puppet instead of #chef in my setup. i will write down my notes on it on a future article. 

Vagrant , chef and Node

This is a note to myself, mostly to make sure I will not forget what I learned during set-up of the dev environment for NodeJs development. If you find it useful feel free to drop a comment on the post.

Steps followed:

1. installed vagrant and virtualbox using the osx package manager
2. Execute 'vagrant init' using terminal
3. This will create a sample 'Vagrantfile' config file
(as i didnt have the base VM downloaded yet, i had to download it )
4.vagrant box add ubuntu_lucid64 http://files.vagrantup.com/lucid64.box
5. Add the following line to Vagrantfile
config.vm.box = "ubuntu_lucid64"
6. Enable port forwarding to access the VM through the local IP address. (where 1337 is the port in the VM and 5001 is the port of the host machine)
config.vm.forward_port 1337, 5001
7. Create a folder named 'cookbooks' within the project folder
8. Download the nodejs recipe from chef community and put it to cookbooks folder
9. Add the following lines to the vagrantfile
config.vm.provision :chef_solo do |chef|
 chef.cookbooks_path = "cookbooks"
 chef.add_recipe("nodejs")
end
10. Execute 'vagrant up'
11. Execute 'vagrant ssh'
12. When you try to install node modules using npm within the VM you will always get error msgs saying "symlinks failure" (this is because virtualbox VMs cannot create symlinks with its default settings). so include the following line on the vagrantfile in order to change the default settings.
config.vm.customize ["setextradata", :id, "VBoxInternal2/SharedFoldersEnableSymlinksCreate/v-root", "1"]
13. Execute 'vagrant reload'
14. Write an node server which listens to 0.0.0.0:1337
var http = require('http');
var url = require('url');
http.createServer(function(req,res){
}).listen(1337,'0.0.0.0');
15. Test the connection by visiting localhost:5001 from your host machine browser.
16. Done!!

Points to remember when writing the node scripts:

1. If you are writing a server listening to a port using NodeJs make sure its listening to the IP address '0.0.0.0:1337' (otherwise you will not be able to access the site using hostmachineip:5001)

Todo:

1. Write a custom receipe for installing required packages using npm within the VM
2. find out how to install node using a binary saved in the local machine than rebuilding from the source - already completed. http://rarepraveen.blogspot.com/2012/12/vagrant-chef-and-node-part-2.html
3. write a separate blog post on how I used 'node dbox' (node library for dropbox APIs) to write a sample application

Okay that's it for the moment. If you know any tips that could help another dev's life easier feel free to share them as comments.