JDPFu.com 2025

That’s the only thing that went wrong when they seized megaupload. Sure, it had a lot of pirated content but it had perfectly legal uses too. Users can’t even get their files back but you shouldn’t depend on online services like that.

I’d never heard of megaupload until I started playing with Android. I’d be curious to learn the percentages of perfectly legal content compared to content proven to be in violation of copyrights in most countries. Suspicion is not enough.

This article claims that only 5% of content on RapidShare, a similar service, is illegal. The rapidshare guy said that percentage of illegal content is not the right statistic. Instead he says to look at what the company does regarding following the DMCA laws. Do they take down content when properly notified? That’s what the law requires. It doesn’t matter if some organizations don’t like that. That is the law.

BTW, I didn’t say this, but please, please, please, do not use Acrobat Reader to open and view any PDF files, especially from unknown sources. This is extremely dangerous behavior. After all, opening specially crafted PDF files was the main way that people root-ed their iPhones.

Use some other PDF viewer … evince or PDF-Xchange or pretty much anything else. Please.

The other thing to note – if you follow these instructions to root your Acer, know that everything will be wiped on the internal SD drive.

• Gmail – gone
• locally installed apps – gone
• Global settings – gone
  basically, the OS is factory reset.

So if you want to save anything, be certain you back that stuff up before you begin.

There’s something really cool about

1. kicking off a VNCSERVER process on my Acer A500 , then
2. connecting to that VNC session from anywhere on the LAN or even using an Android VNC client.

I’m staring a an Ubuntu 10.04 BackTrack5 GUI running on ARM – the full Gnome2 GUI like you’d see running on an x86 machine. It feels like Linux, except I’m running as root and my apt-get update appears to have swapped out an ARM-base Firefox with an x86 version – not really helpful.

# file ./firefox-bin 

./firefox-bin: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.9, stripped

Still, this is really cool. I can’t wait to show this off at the local LUG meeting(s).

I’ve seen links to Ubuntu 12.04 alpha2 for ARM, but I’m not certain which I should grab at this point.

Finally a way to have my Linux fix on ARM.

If you would rather attempt this with an Ubuntu 9.10 version, not the Backtrack5 customized version, there are Ubuntu ARM instructions here that explain how to get a Galaxy Tab 10" running ARM-Ubuntu. At this point, I haven’t tried this on the Acer, but I will. The download of the Ubuntu-ARM distro is 633MB (40 more minutes) – so it appears to be a fairly stock installation. More later.

Ok, I move the Ubuntu.zip files over to my Acer and kicked it off. Only at this point did I uncover it is Ubuntu 9.10, meh. The update failed too – 9.10 is too old to have a repo anymore.

Here’s the ubuntu-based backtrack5 image running in a chroot slice under Android v3.2.1. In the version I have running, there are a few issues:

• using “m” on the keyboard displays the “mail” program option from the menubar every time. It doesn’t matter where I’m typing. Any word with “m” inside causes this.
• Terminal programs stopped working for some reason. On the initial use, both gnome-terminal and xterm appeared to work perfectly. They stopped working at all along the way.
• apt-get upgrade replaced the ARM version of firefox with an x86 version. Not good.
• df doesn’t work.
• repositories are lacking in many popular programs. Any other program I tried to install wasn’t available in the repository, for example, thunderbird.

The good thing is that plugging a USB mouse in works fairly well.
The bad thing is I have a USB keyboard in a protective portfolio case using the full-sized USB already. This case is designed to hold most 10" tablets. Either a USB hub or bluetooth mouse are needed. Finger control instead of the mouse isn’t practical. Sometimes it works, but it isn’t consistent.

The link to mega upload stopped working.. or just doesnt load.

So the first link in this article isn’t working anymore. Google for the exact file name – good luck.

I removed this from my device and decided to use a VPN+VNC back to my home systems instead for security reasons. When traveling outside my home country (not that it is any great freedom loving place anymore), I prefer to not have any sensitive private or corporate data with me. For me, it is easier to connect with a tunnel, then launch a local VNC app to connect to a server back home to check email on my normal desktop.

Running a chroot on Android was fine, but the mouse and keyboard control was never 100%.

Related – I found that using Terminal IDE an Android app, was able to give me almost everything I expected from a Linux bash interface.

• Bash
• rsync
• ssh with keys
  Obviously, it isn’t a full Linux environment, but with these things and a USB keyboard connected, I’ve been pretty happy. Tab completion works over an ssh connection back to my normal servers. I can’t ask for too much more.

I did have to find a customized VNC app that includes keyboard support so the non-alphabet keys worked. Keys like CNTL, ALT, Tab, ESC, DEL, all work with this keyboard, but only when running the patched VNC app.

I’m almost as quick a typist using it as on my trusty IBM 101M, almost. I use a keyboard something like this:

The actual keyboard I use is not available anymore. I’m a happy camper with it. Much better than any Bluetooth keyboard I’ve used. The BT keyboards always dropped characters.

To root a stock ICS 4.0.3 install from Acer on an A500, follow these simple instructions.

I tested the instructions here. 15 minutes from search to root and I didn’t loose any prior data that I can see.