Hi guys,

If you are an owner of the Renesas 3 tablet, also known as NEC A9, Rena3, Cortex A9, oPad and tons of other names, you are probably as frustrated as I have been about the fact that it’s shipped with Android 2.2, with vague promises of an official 2.3 firmware by some websites.

Bad news – an official 2.3 firmware is not coming.

Bad news – an official ICS firmware is not coming.

However, I stumbled across a non-official 2.3.5 firmware for the Rena3, and it’s actually working great.

Downside – HD video will not play well on this tablet with 2.3 either. It simply does not have the graphical capacity needed hardware wise. A bit of a bummer if you, like me, happen to have 90% of all your video media in 720p or 1080p. TVersity and forced downscale of the video does the trick though, so don’t give up yet!

To make sure we have the same tablet, please have a look at the pictures at the end of this post, and also note that my tablet has bluebooth and GPS. If yours does not, we don’t have the same and this firmware might not function properly. Please drop me a comment to this post if you want to double check our tablet HW configurations before proceeding.

My mirror of the firmware is available at http://www.engren.se/android/rena3/M9_20111220.rar (md5 bd6b31a158e1774128a69d4b29ca23f7) - read my notes below!

Unrar the file to the root of your SD card.
It consists of 10 files: android-fs4.tar.gz, cramfs4, cramfs4.tar.gz, ff4, install.sh, sdboot.bin, uboot4.bin, uboot-sd.bin, uImage4, update.conf

Please note! This procedure will completely wipe out ALL of the files/programs on your device except for the default programs that come with Android. I suggest backing up your “paid” applications and a few other things beforehand using “Titanium Backup” or something simular.

First of all, make sure that your Rena3 device is fully charged. Rumour says that anything below 50% in charge might give unexpected results.

Power off your device.

Insert the SD card. Yes, it’s a bit of a pain to do this. A paper clip can help!

Now, hold down the “volume +” button on your device, while pressing and holding the power button until the blue light indicator is turned on. Until this light has come on, both buttons must be held down!

Once the blue light has come on, release both buttons and wait while some yellow text on the screen is displaying the progress.

Eventually, after 5-10 minutes, you will see that the last text printed says “INSTALL COMPLETED” or something simular. At this time, press the power button for 10 seconds until the device powers off.

You should now be able to boot your Rena3 tablet to 2.3.5.

Kevin Pugh over at TLC has collected some awesome information about installing ClockworkMod Recovery and a custom ROM by Tablet Republics pinkflozd. I’ve gotten permission from the missus to give the upgrade a shot, and I’ll try to get around to doing that later on this week. Was planning on it tonight, but some other stuff has come up.

The custom ROM I’ve been looking at is pinkflozds custom ROM. There’s a bunch of cool things included with this ROM, including (but not limited to):

Compatible with 4.0.3 and MagicCode!, SuperUser + BusyBox, All GAPPS Latest (20120205), Working Callendar Sync, Contacts 4.0.3 (People in drawer), SWAP Support, Browser 4.0.3 with working html5, Gmail 4.0.4, Cyanogen Music 1.0, Init.d Support, EXT4 mount improvements (IO Boost), DalvikVM Memory Tweaks, File scheduler set to CFQ, DNS Set to Google DNS, APN List (for 3G), Network Tweaks, CFQ Tweaks, Mount system with noatime (speed boost), Android [GEARS] v.2 Bootanimation, Maps 6.2, Market 3.4.4, Nova Launcher beta14

Mips Compiled Apps:
Hackers Keyboard v1.30rc4, DroidSSHd 0.6, Terminal Emulator 1.0.41, Connect Bot 1.7.1

Advanced Binaries Added/Updated:
Busybox Symlinks, Bash 4.2, Nano Text Editor, Sqlite3 3.7.10, Dropbear 0.53.1, sftp server, SSH, Unrar

Now I got you drewling, I guess. How to move forward?

The first step is to upgrade to v4.0.3, as per the instructions that I’ve published on this blog earlier.

The next step is to install ClockworkMod, and do a system backup. Probably a good thing to do prior to installing a custom ROM in case shit hits the fan. Instructions on how to do this can be found at http://androtab.info/mips/ingenic/clockworkmod

Instructions are said to be a bit confusing, so you want to do this:

1) Download recovery-signed.zip for the Ainol Paladin 7 (my copy of the file, md5 c0e072046a7b5e5f7b315c0e4d453288)

2) Rename the file to update.zip, and place it in the root of the SD card.

3) Install it from recovery:  turn the device off then reboot whilst holding the plus button in for a few seconds at the same time as the on button; then from the menu that appears choose to “install zip from SD card”; to make a selection use the Paladin’s volume + and – to navigate up and down; either the power or M button to select; the “previous” button to go back to previous menu.

4) Make a backup using ClockworkMod. To do this you simply need to reboot using ClockworkMod recovery (holding plus button again while turning on) and then choose the “backup and restore” then “backup” options from the menu. After the backup is competed it will then return you to the “reboot system now” menu item. Do this, just a regular reboot.

5) Download the Paladin custom ROM (my copy of the file, md5 bc9a98f72cd29db3f79ad191ba3b915e) and place it on the SD card. This is version 20120214 – a newer version might be available over at pinkflozd thread at TabletRepublic.

6) Install the custom ROM using the ClockworkMod Recovery *and* clear the Dalvik Cache. (Copy the zip to the root of the sd-card, reboot using ClockworkMod Recovery, choose “install zip from SD card”, select the newly downloaded zip, let the install complete, and once in the menu, go to advanced and “Wipe Dalvik Cache”. Then, reboot!

PS. If you follow these instructions, including clearing the Dalvik cache before rebooting, everything should work fine. There is a possibility you might have missed a step, you need to boot into the Recovery mode, and choose “wipe cache partition”, “Wipe Dalvik Cache” and “wipe data/factory reset”. This clears the tablet completely, and you need to reinstall all the apps not included.

There are many apps that don’t show up in market due to the Paladin being a MIPS processor based devices, you need other sources for the apk packages. These will be sources where you download the plain .APK files. Before downloading and installing any APK files, you need to install the Astro File Manager via Market. The Astro FM is needed to install the apk files from the SD card.

The reason we prefer the Astro FM is simply because you browse to the APK file, click it, and then press “install”. Voila!

One of the more decent (and trustworthy) sources for confirmed packages for the Ainol Paladin 7 is available over at Tablet Republic, in this thread. The packages listed as “No Magic Code needed” is confirmed to be working out of the box. Just download and install. For the other packages, you must download Magic Code v1.3 (or later) from the forum thread. Install it, open it, and then enable it – simply turn it on. It will be permanently activated even between reboots – until you decide to disable it. With Magic Code installed and enabled, you can install the other packages from this page using the Astro FM.

Enjoy!

Source: Kevin Pugh, techlovincodgers.com

A friend/ex-colleague of mine has been on the look-out for a decent web hotel that would be able to serve their need of WordPress, preferably with phpmyadmin and other web based tools for administering the server. I’ve left out phpmyadmin here, but I’d be happy to post a follow up if anyone wants to.

Just because of that, I figured I’d put together a small tutorial on how to create an OK VPS for a usual WordPress installation. The advantages of using a VPS is ofcourse that you can crank up the performance in case your WordPress site becomes very popular.

First of all, you need an account with GleSYS Internet Services AB – http://www.glesys.se/ – you can register online, and ofcourse, they accept Paypal payments so no need to hand out your card details anywhere.

Once registered, you go to server overview and select “Add new server”. You will then be presented with the following popup.

The first step towards getting your own WP VPS with GleSYS!

Depending on what you are looking for, you can choose between Xen and OpenVZ. In this example, I’ve chosen OpenVZ simply because it’s cheaper and available in Falkenberg, Stockholm, Amsterdam and New York City. GleSYS Xen service is only available in Falkenberg at the moment.

As the operating system, I’ve chosen CentOS 6 64bit. You might prefer another flavour for your Linux distribution, but please keep in mind that CentOS is basically a rebranded Red Hat – one of very few enterprise grade Linux distributions out there. I’d recommend CentOS any day simply because of the stability it provides.

Next step, you will configure the base bits of the server. Hostname, root password, amount of RAM, diskspace and how much you initially expect the server to be using in regards to transfer. I’ve chosen a minimalistic approach here – but if you have a very popular WordPress site, you might want to increase the CPU cores and amount of transfer already.

The next step is a basic summary of the options you have selected. It will also ask if you want the root password mail to the mail account that you used when you registered your account. I normally choose “no” on that option, but if you’re not using Lastpass to store your passwords, you might want to have it mailed.

Once you have confirmed the settings, and pressed the button marked “Create server now!”, you will be returned to the overview page. At the bottom of the page (rather hidden), you will find the current activity that is being performed on your account – and right now, it should be waiting for your server to be done with the installation. This might take a few minutes depending on the load on the server and other jobs in queue for other customers at the moment, so go grab another cup of coffee at this point.

Once completed, you will see your server active and running – but with a warning!

Have no fear, the warning simply means that you haven’t assigned any IP adress to your server yet – which means it’s not yet reachable.

Top right on your screen, you should have the choice “Ip adresses”. Click there, and you will be able to pick from the available IP addresses. Please pay attention to which of the available sites you are adding IP addresses from – because Falkenberg servers can only have Falkenberg IPs etc.

Repeat for IPv6 if you would like to have your site reachable over stable native IPv6. I know you want to, right? Good.

Now, in the server overview section again, you can choose to configure your virtual server. Second choice from the left on the server setup, icon to the left of the hostname. Click there, and you’ll bring up the following dialogue. Choose “Assign an IP address” on both IPv4 and IPv6. That’s where you’ll be able to assign your previously picked IP addresses to the server.

Once you’ve assigned your selected IPs to the server, the configuration will look something like this, and your server is at this point fully reachable on the Internet!

Now, time to get our hands dirty with some Linux and CentOS commands to get automated updates in place, Apache, MySQL, WordPress and other tools that you might be intrested in!

Use your favourite SSH client to log into the server. I prefer putty, but you might already have your favourite. Log into the server using the username “root” and the password that you selected. This should bring you right into the system, with the following prompt appearing on your screen, with the prompt blinking restlessly wanting you to do something:

[root@myhostname ~]# 

The first command to run is yum upgrade to bring your installation of CentOS 6 to the latest available. This process will be automated later on in this tutorial, but for now, let’s just get everything up to speed with the latest release to be able to move forward!

[root@myhostname ~]# yum upgrade

You will be prompted with the following text once you’ve typed yum upgrade

Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install 1 Package(s)
Upgrade 143 Package(s)

Total download size: 119 M
Is this ok [y/N]:

Press ‘y’, and the system will start upgrading. This might take a few minutes.

Once upgraded, you want to add a user that is not root. This is to avoid using the superuser user for anything really. If your root password happens to slip into the public, you have major problems!

The following will add the user ‘hans’, with home directory in /home – and we’ll also make sure to change the password to something that we’ll remember but that is hard to guess.

[root@myhostname ~]# adduser -d /home/hans -c "Hans Engren" -m hans
[root@myhostname ~]# passwd hans
Changing password for user hans.
New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

Now, before proceeding, follow the tutorial available at http://www.pendrivelinux.com/how-to-add-a-user-to-the-sudoers-list/ prior to moving on here. This ensures that your user will end up in the sudoers file, and you will never have to touch the root user again.

In order to make sure you don’t have to do complex scripting, I’ve taken the liberty to create some ready shell scripts for you, to be placed in different locations. I’ll try to explain each script for you.

yumupdate.sh should be placed in /etc/cron.daily/. This script will perform a ‘yum update’ once per day, to ensure that your system is always up to date with the latest updates and security patches around. Important!! => This is only for OS level – your WordPress installation will still have to be maintained and updated by yourself!

[root@myhostname ~]# wget -O /etc/cron.daily/yumupdate.sh http://www.engren.se/scripts/yumupdate.sh
[root@myhostname ~]# chmod +x /etc/cron.daily/yumupdate.sh

You also want to install rpmforge, so your system can use suPHP. suPHP is a pretty nifty Apache extension that ensures that only the user that owns a certain PHP script is allowed to run it. This means that nobody can sneak in bad scripts on your system and fool you into running them. Probably very little risk on a dedicated system like this, but I prefer to use this as a best practice.

[root@myhostname ~]# rpm --import http://apt.sw.be/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt
[root@myhostname ~]# cd /tmp
[root@myhostname tmp]# wget http://packages.sw.be/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm

Now, make sure that the rpmforge you downloaded is the right one.

[root@myhostname tmp]# rpm -K rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el6.rf.*.rpm

The result should say something like:

rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm: (sha1) dsa sha1 md5 gpg OK

Now, time to install the package.

[root@myhostname tmp]# rpm -i rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el6.rf.*.rpm

Move on with installing Apache, taking backups of the configuration file and autostarting Apache:

[root@myhostname tmp]# yum install httpd
[root@myhostname tmp]# cp /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf ~/httpd.conf.backup
[root@myhostname tmp]# /sbin/chkconfig --levels 235 httpd on

Moving on, we’re installing MySQL:

[root@myhostname tmp]# yum install mysql-server

The output will be something like this:

================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================================================
Installing:
mysql-server x86_64 5.1.61-1.el6_2.1 updates 8.1 M
Installing for dependencies:
mysql x86_64 5.1.61-1.el6_2.1 updates 881 k
mysql-libs x86_64 5.1.61-1.el6_2.1 updates 1.2 M
perl-DBD-MySQL x86_64 4.013-3.el6 base 134 k
perl-DBI x86_64 1.609-4.el6 base 705 k

Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install 5 Package(s)

Total download size: 11 M
Installed size: 32 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y

Ofcourse, you answer ‘y’ on this prompt. Once installed, you want to autostart MySQL too.

[root@myhostname tmp]# /sbin/chkconfig --levels 235 mysqld on

Then, let’s start MySQL and launch the configuration script mysql_secure_installation.

[root@myhostname tmp]# /etc/init.d/mysqld start
[root@myhostname tmp]# mysql_secure_installation

NOTE: RUNNING ALL PARTS OF THIS SCRIPT IS RECOMMENDED FOR ALL MySQL
SERVERS IN PRODUCTION USE! PLEASE READ EACH STEP CAREFULLY!
In order to log into MySQL to secure it, we'll need the current
password for the root user. If you've just installed MySQL, and
you haven't set the root password yet, the password will be blank,
so you should just press enter here.

Enter current password for root (enter for none):
OK, successfully used password, moving on...

Setting the root password ensures that nobody can log into the MySQL
root user without the proper authorisation.

Set root password? [Y/n] Y
New password:
Re-enter new password:
Password updated successfully!
Reloading privilege tables..
... Success!
By default, a MySQL installation has an anonymous user, allowing anyone
to log into MySQL without having to have a user account created for
them. This is intended only for testing, and to make the installation
go a bit smoother. You should remove them before moving into a
production environment.

Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] Y
... Success!

Normally, root should only be allowed to connect from 'localhost'. This
ensures that someone cannot guess at the root password from the network.

Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] Y
... Success!

By default, MySQL comes with a database named 'test' that anyone can
access. This is also intended only for testing, and should be removed
before moving into a production environment.

Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] Y
- Dropping test database...
... Success!
- Removing privileges on test database...
... Success!

Reloading the privilege tables will ensure that all changes made so far
will take effect immediately.

Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] y
... Success!

Cleaning up...

All done! If you've completed all of the above steps, your MySQL installation should now be as secure.

Thanks for using MySQL!

This has secured your database a bit, and we can now move on with creating the database for your WordPress. Use the MySQL database root password that you entered in the secure installation script previously.

[root@myhostname tmp]# mysql -u root -p
Enter password:
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 10
Server version: 5.1.61 Source distribution

Copyright (c) 2000, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql> create database wordpress;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> grant all on wordpress.* to 'myuser' identified by 'mypassword';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> flush privileges;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

That’s MySQL configured, with database created for WordPress. All good. Time to install PHP and suPHP.

[root@myhostname tmp]# yum install php php-pear php-mysql php-gd php-cli mod_suphp

Just answer ‘yes’ on the prompt that pops up, and you’ll have the necessary components installed.

The next step is to add a user for WordPress PHP files.

[root@myhostname tmp]# adduser -d /var/www/html -c "Wordpress" wordpress

You also want to ensure that you create a password for the wordpress user. Not having a password might be a bad idea, so setting a password for freshly created accounts is a good thing. You can chose something complicated here – you won’t be using it as WordPress 3 can do auto updates without an FTP account.

[root@myhostname tmp]# passwd wordpress

Follow the on screen instructions.

Next step, change ownership of /var/www/html:

[root@myhostname tmp]# chown wordpress:wordpress /var/www/html

Also, there are some files that you need to replace. I have prepared them for you, but in short, /etc/suphp.conf needs to have some options enclosed within quotes (“) and the package from rpmforge does not have that – and the Apache suphp.conf requires some modifications to override the built in PHP configuration and run it via suPHP instead.

[root@myhostname tmp]# wget -O /etc/suphp.conf http://www.engren.se/scripts/new-suphp.conf
[root@myhostname tmp]# wget -O /etc/httpd/conf.d/suphp.conf http://www.engren.se/scripts/suphp.conf
[root@myhostname tmp]# wget -O /var/www/html/phpinfo.php http://www.engren.se/scripts/info.php.txt
[root@myhostname tmp]# chown wordpress:wordpress /var/www/html/phpinfo.php

Now, restart Apache.

[root@myhostname tmp]# /etc/init.d/httpd restart

It’s now time to check if your PHP and Apache installation worked – much simpler than you might think!

Use a web browser, and browse to http://YOURIP/phpinfo.php

If you see something simular to this picture, PHP is installed and functional just as expected! If not, something failed – contact me either via the comments field or via mail and I’ll be happy to help you out.

This means it’s time to move ahead with the WordPress installation.

[root@myhostname tmp]# wget -O /usr/local/src/wordpress.tar.gz http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
[root@myhostname tmp]# cd /var/www/html
[root@myhostname html]# tar xfz /usr/local/src/wordpress.tar.gz
[root@myhostname html]# mv wordpress/* .
[root@myhostname html]# rmdir wordpress
[root@myhostname html]# chown -Rf wordpress:wordpress *

Congratulations, we’re almost done with the WordPress installation! Open up a browser, browse to http://YOURIP/ and follow these picture instructions for the remaining bits’n'pieces. It should be pretty clear from here on!

That’s it – you now have a working WordPress installation on a self-updating CentOS 6 system, where WP updates are working as expected from day 1, hosted on a VPS with GleSYS Internet Services, one of Swedens absolute top VPS providers.

For further information om how WordPress works, you can find that information here; http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/wordpress/wordpress_start.htm

Please let me know via mail or the comment field below if you feel that I have missed something in this document – or even if you just want to provide feedback if you used it.

Enjoy!

Features

• Combine your hard drives into one big storage pool.
• Create regular or duplicated folders on the pool. Duplicated folders protect your files against single drive failure.
• Shows up as a standard drive letter, so seamlessly works with client computer backups, media streaming and HomeGroups.
• Add and remove any drive at any time, even with existing non-pooled data. Existing data is not modified.
• All your data is stored in standard NTFS files. You can always get at your files even if you don’t have access to the DrivePool software.

Windows Home Server Integration

• Deeply integrated with the Windows Home Server.
• DrivePool folders are managed from the Windows Home Server Dashboard.
• Support for remote web access and media streaming.
• Support for putting the special Client Computer Backups folder on the pool, giving you unlimited storage space to backup all your computers.
• Windows Home Server folder permissions using the standard folder properties dialog.
• Easily move your existing Windows Home Server folders onto the pool using the standard move folder wizard.
• Support for the Windows Home Server installer means that you can install the add-in from any connected computer by simply running it.

Data Integrity

• The pool is self-contained.

  If your computer crashes, connect your pooled drives to another computer and access your pool instantly.

  Instantly access your pool after an operating system re-install.

• Duplicated files remain readable, even in the face of bad sectors or a broken hard drive.

Performance

• DrivePool communicates with the NTFS file system driver in the kernel directly, for the fastest speeds possible.
• When a duplicated file is being written to two separate disks, every write happens in parallel in order to minimize the impact on performance.
• Directories are listed by directly querying all the disks in parallel.
  • Fast algorithm capable of handling many tens of thousands of files in a single directory without slowing down.
  • Results are buffered into a master list, and as the master list is being built the results are returned to the application.

I’ve been using this add-in for quite some time now, and it’s been performing somewhat well. There has been having some hickups forcing me to reboot the server periodically to ensure that file access could be made at any time, but other than that, performance has been noticably better than I would have expected.

Now, Milestone 4 has been released. This changed the initial view that I saw at first, and it got me very happy. I think this is a good update and I can initially notice some very nice performance increases – changes.txt after this screenshot.

In short, if you’re using Windows Home Server 2011 and want the same storage flexibility as you did with Windows Home Server v1 where you easily could add a USB drive as a temporary fix for short storage while that 10kRPM disk is being delivered – you can and should get this add-in. Currently in beta, but stable enough to trust from where I’m seeing this.

1.0.0.5677
----------
* Fix for keeping integrated mode enabled after updating.
* [D] Fixed rename and overwrite issue. Was not allowing directory merging among other things.

1.0.0.5669
----------
* [D] Fixed compatibility issue with volume shadow copy service (for non-pooled drives).
      It is a good idea to reboot BEFORE upgrading to this version, just in case VSS is locked up.
      If VSS is locked up while upgrading, the upgrade will lock up:
        In that case, Reboot -> Dashboard -> Remove DrivePool -> Reboot -> Install latest build.
* Fixed M4 migration issue causing "Access denied" error.
* [D] Workaround for issue in rdbss (bug?) that denies a flush on a read-only handle.
      This incorrectly returns access denied errors for non-write operations.
      This only affects files accessed using a UNC share path, locally on the server.
      Accessing shares from remote or from the local drive letter does not trigger this problem.
* [D] When cloning directories, clone the owner properly.
* [D] Improved performance / accuracy of file size tracking.

1.0.0.5635
----------
* [D] Better support for empty pool. Treat as a disk that has 0 bytes free.
* Fixed Dashboard crash on missing disk.
* Added BitLocker support for pool parts (disabled by default - see .config).
* Fixed null reference when removing drives from an unmounted pool.
* Fixed pool condition UI bar getting stuck at 0.
* Fixed deadlock when 2 background services were attempting to start at the exact same time. Did not stall I/O.
* When removing a drive, show it as such, instead of missing disk.
* When removing a drive, report duplication warnings.
* Do not automatically duplicate when encountering an incomplete file if there are duplication warnings that need resolutions.
  Give the user a chance to view the warnings and resolve the issue.
  This does not affect nightly duplication runs (when there are unduplicated files present).
  This does not affect instant duplication runs when moving a file from a duplicated folder to a non-duplicated folder and vice versa.
  This does not affect duplication runs when adding a non-empty pooled disk, et al.
* Do not list system reserved volume in Pool tab.
* Volume name is now respected by DrivePool tabs.
* [D] Pool drive can now have a volume name.

1.0.0.5536
----------
* [D] Changed driver load order to address disappearing shares on reboot.
* [D] Fixed timestamp issue in disk driver. Was preventing installation from going through on some systems.
* Added new Drives sub-tab under the DrivePool tab. Shows disk space usage on all pooled drives.

1.0.0.5472
----------
* Tweaked folder details presenter.
* [D] Changed pool part initialization / refresh to be synchronous.

1.0.0.5452
----------
* [D] Added support for undocumented directory listing file system behavior having to do with indexed requests.
      Managed to keep the same parallelized performance aspect of the algorithm, while adding deterministic ordering of results.
      Indexed queries are not as fast as non-indexed queries, but they are rarer (E.g. Triggered by: XP, OS X, boxee, MS-DOS applications, ...),
      and are only issued for large directory listings.
* [D] Tightened up the directory listing algorithm code.

1.0.0.5449
----------
* Fixed installation issue, where if the previous M4 install failed in the middle, future installs would not work.
* [D] Fixed directory enumeration issue that was causing the WHS client backup engine to report damage in the backup database.
      Note that, when reproducing this issue, the backup database files were not actually damaged.

1.0.0.5421
----------
* [D] Fixed simple rename crash (E.g. when renaming from OS X).
* [D] Disk buffer fixes.
* Attempted to fix folder re-share on migration (unable to reproduce).

1.0.0.5417
----------
* [D] Fixed directory listing. Sometimes it would incorrectly tell the caller that there are no more files.
* [D] Changed disk buffer access one more time to use exception handling instead of relying on WDF.

1.0.0.5401
----------
* [D] Cleanup success code is now consistent with IRP.
* [D] Fixed crash in handling lock control.
* [D] Fixed virtual physical disk buffer access (was causing a number of crashes).
      This buffer is really meaningless, as we don't do much with it.

1.0.0.5387
----------
* [D] Fixed rename + replace issue. If an application requested to rename / move a file and replace the destination in one
      operation, then there was a chance that the destination file would not be replaced properly. The duplication engine
      would detect this later as a file conflict and offer to fix the situation be deleting the older file part.
* [D] Fixed crash when reading data.
* [D] Fixed crash when FAT32 (or other file systems) volumes are present or plugged in (such as USB thumb drives).
      There was a bug in the file system identification code.

1.0.0.5380
----------
* [D] Brand new file system driver, CoveFS.
    * Not based on old user mode / kernel mode hybrid FS approach.
    * 100% native solution, on par with the built-in file systems.
    * Built from scratch specifically for pooling.
    * Does not rely on any user mode service / program to function.
    * Mimics NTFS for many operations.
    * Direct file I/O pathways for ALL operations with Fast I/O support.
    * Fast directory listing using parallelized algorithm.
    * Pool loads at boot time, like regular file system over a virtual disk.
* [D] Brand new virtual disk drive.
    * Pool volume sits on this virtual drive.
    * You can mount drive letters to it, etc... Just like any other disk.
    * Shows up in computer / server management.
    * Full plug and play / power support.
* Pool is now mounted using a drive letter. You can work with it, like any other drive.
* Integrated UI.
    * Integrates elements of DrivePool into the default "Server Folders and Hard Drives" tab.
    * Allows you to fully manage your pool from the standard tabs.
    * Enhances the detail panes with information from the Windows Indexing service and DrivePool.
    * This UI mode is optional and can be turned off, which takes you to a M3-like UI.
* DrivePool overview tab.
    * Displays all the statistics for your pool in one place.
    * Links to various other related areas of the Dashboard.
    * Can be completely hidden in integrated mode for a native look and feel.
* DrivePool settings.
    * Integrated into standard Dashboard settings UI.
* Standard built-in wizards for add / move / delete folder.
    * Best compatability with the existing Microsoft code.
    * Full compatibility with media streaming / HomeGroups out of the box.
    * Client computer backups folder can be moved to the pool using the standard wizard.
* Background duplication.
    * Changes to file duplication happen in the background.
    * User is not forced to wait when setting the duplication status for a folder.
    * Files are duplicated using Background I/O (does not interfere with other disk access).
* Pool condition percent replaces balance ratio.
    * Pool condition indicates balance ratio and duplication status in one place.
    * Allows you to manually initiate balancing / duplication actions.
* Pool can function in 2 different duplication modes.
    * Real-time
        * Same idea as M3.
        * Files are duplicated as they are written.
        * Writes happen to 2 separate hard drives, in parallel.
    * Duplicate later
        * Files are always written to one hard drive.
        * Files that need to be duplicated are copied to the second drive during the nightly maintenance cycle.
        * This carries some restrictions. Naturally, files that are in use during the maintenance cycle cannot be duplicated.
        * The duplication maintenance cycle happens only once a day, at night, and only if this mode is enabled.
* Updated icon 
* All the other goodness from M3 is mostly still here.
    * Real-time folder size tracking.
    * Real-time pool balance ratio to let the algorithm know if balancing is "necessary".
    * Real-time pool usage pie chart.
    * Add / remove disks to the pool with existing data on them without altering the existing data.
    * Pooled files are stored as standard NTFS files on each pooled disk.

^^^ 1.0 BETA M4 ^^^

* [D] Fixed crash on enumerating disks.

Hi guys!

I know I’ve promised to get back to you with a more in depth review of this tablet, but I haven’t had much time to play with either of them. Or, well, I’ve had time – they have just been occupied by their owners. A positive sign for these tablets, I’d say!

I’ve just upgraded one of the tablets from ICS 4.0.1 to ICS 4.0.3, and as a result, a little bit quicker tablet. Unfortunally I have no changelog for what has changed between the two releases, but it seems to be quite alot. It’s recommendable if you have one of these.

As a reminder for myself and a redundant archive, I’ll copy the instructions and wise words from Colonel Zap;

1. Go to your settings and remember where to change the system language.
2. Download the update.zip here. (and yes, I mirrored the file too)
3. Copy the update.zip to the root of your sd-card. DO NOT UNPACK.
4. Tablet is off, sd-card is inserted. Press and hold Vol + and Power until update procedure starts.
5. Be patient, wait until update is complete and tablet reboots.
6. Go to the settings and change the language from Chinese to whatever you like (hope you didn’t skip step 1)
7. Enjoy!

As a positive side effect, svtplay mobile (website) actually shows HD content now. Not sure if this is the actual Paladin update or SVTPlay sorting out some more problems on their side. All good, either way.

Edit 2012-02-28;

Apparently, there is a ClockworkMod out for this tablet, together with other information on how to get Youtube running if you are struggling with that, in combination with a custom rom that has been released.

I have followed this up with another post and instructions on how to proceed here.

The future looks bright for Ainol Paladin users!

In the absense of finding the Onda Vi40, I’ve been getting pushed towards the Cube U9GT2, available for USD 260 from Merimobiles. Its all metal and glass, just as the Onda Vi40 – but overall performance is said to be slightly better. Also, ColonelZap prefers the Cube, and he is my tablet compass in this confusing world.

Videos and pictures after the specs ;

In the absense of finding a store that actually carries the Onda Vi40 tablet that I’ve been drewling over for quite some time now, I’ve been browsing around for small keyboards that could be used with the Onda Vi40 (and other tablets).

I’ve found an ultra mini wireless full qwerty keyboard with a touchpad, with full navigation keys, windows multimedia control – with a built in laserpointer with remote control. Looks awesome, and I can see so many other areas where I can use it besides using it for typing blog posts on my tablet… if I ever get one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJirgR-KTc8

Costs about USD 37 including shipping with Focalprice – and a horrible USD 69.99 if you would purchase it without purchasing a tablet at the same time from Merimobiles. I’d order from Focalprice if I were you – I’ve done several orders from there, and they have been most prompt with deliveries, and their customer service has always been very quick to reply if I have had any questions.