The BIOS of guest computers in VirtualBox doesn’t support booting from a USB device, and in this case users can’t boot off their (usually Linux equipped) USB thumb-drives or hard disks.

This is a mini tutorial that includes a temporary workaround until that feature is implemented (I am not sure if it’s a planned feature, it just might be)

The problem

I found myself in a similar situation when I needed to boot off my external USB HDD (which has Xubuntu installed) on an old PC which has motherboard-integrated USB 1.x ports, and (PCI) on-card USB 2.x ports. I was able to boot through one of the USB 1.x ports (a process that took forever to finish, and the system was so sluggish) but not one of the USB 2.x ports because they required drivers to be used.

The Solution

After searching the internet, this guide helped me create a Bootable CD that includes the Linux kernel and some other stuff including the USB driver needed to use a bootable USB device. This CD boots up and loads the USB driver then continues the boot process from any USB device.

I used that very method to boot my USB HDD in VirtualBox:

After creating a new virtual machine, I selected the USB section of that device’s settings and added a new USB device which is my Verbatim HDD:

Then I started the machine, mounted the bootable CD I created previously, and selected it so that the virtual machive would boot from it:

And it worked!

Important Note

On the old PC which I was trying to solve the problem with originally, the boot CD didn’t detect my USB HDD at first, but when I created another one applying the Using UUID tip in the guide’s comments, it worked, and I used that same (newer) CD with VirtualBox so that might be a requirement…

My impressions

Linux is a much more flexible OS than average commercial OSes : first I was able to create a custom version that is meant to boot, load USB drivers and continue booting from a USB device, and the system itself runs on a variety of systems (since it’s installed on a USB device) including a virtual system.

A new theme is ready! Something to refresh your phone :)

S60v3 Version

Here are some screen shots:

DOWNLOAD (Unsigned)

The theme should be compatible with all S60v3 phones (S60v3 and FP1/FP2)

Special thanks

For the kind testers who spent some of their time helping out, thanks Snakey and Suomimies112 ! (members of SymbianFreak)

I always thought that KDE contains great wallpapers, so with the 4.3 version (codenamed Caizen) released yesterday, I went searching for a way to get the included wallpapers.

Wallpaper Hunt

Now, at the beginning I thought I would have to download the whole package that contains them, such as Ubuntu’s kdewallpapers (sized about 40MB) or the KDE kdeartwork source code package (~63MB)…

But then a little search around got me the idea of searching the official KDE Source Repository and I found what I was looking for :)

So, here it is, and without further ado, the directory that contains the KDE 4.3 wallpapers in various resolutions:

http://websvn.kde.org/branches/KDE/4.3/kdeartwork/wallpapers/

Examples

—

For more info about KDE 4.3, check the official press release.

Kore by Lawand out now!, I hope you like it :)

S60v3 Version

Here are some screen shots:

DOWNLOAD (Unsigned)

The theme should be compatible with all S60v3 phones (S60v3 and FP1/FP2)

Since the wallpaper (Kore) -which is a great PC wallpaper BTW- (created  by Code2) is licensed under GPL, my theme (a derived work) is also licensed under GPL which means that this theme is free and open-source (FOSS) software and that you (as the user) have the right to access what resembles that “source code” of the theme which is in this case the Carbide.ui project files, which can be found here:

DOWNLOAD the Carbide.ui project files

Special thanks

For the brave testers who helped my bring the theme a step closer to perfection, thanks devilwasabi, MrNOKIA, avisek, jimmys20 and especially Snakey ! (members of SymbianFreak)

As an improvement to my Nostalgia theme, I made black edition which also fixes some bugs…

S60v3 Version

Here are some screen shots:

DOWNLOAD (Unsigned)

The theme should be compatible with all S60v3 phones (S60v3 and FP1/FP2), though it might look different in FP2 then what is looks like in screenshots…

After the heavy media coverage of the recent Swine Influenza (a.k.a Swine flu) outbreak, I wanted to know what this hall thing all about, so I googled Swine Flu hoping to find a Wikipedia article, and the third result was a what I wanted.

So, while checking the article I was impressed because it was so thorough and detailed (for one, it includes 60+ references) considering the freshness of the exploit of the virus, not to mention that articles about the virus are covered in other 54 languages, while the Mexican government announced it about a week ago!, I guess we can call this an infection :)

This reflects the popularity of Wikipedia and the level of public awareness in it’s importance as an information source which introduces unknown concepts/things to readers.

Go Wikipedia! ( and get better soon :) )

Today, my and the Funny Guys team have finished the final touches on the new photo blog, Funny Dudes.

The blog already has more than 20 hilariously-funny pictures that you don’t want to miss, so give it a look!

Here are some samples:

The Night Before The Exam

Hi-Tech Tragedy

Old Bobo Using A Laptop Computer

See you there :)

My favorite mobile web browser, Opera Mini turned out to be deployable under desktop platforms such as Microsoft Windows and here are the steps to do so:

Installation

~you can alternatively download the Opera Mini for Windows Installer package below~

1. Be sure you have the latest Java Runtime Environment (JRE) for Windows installed.
2. Download and extract the latest release of MicroEmulator to a desired directory. You want the actual program, not the source files. If you need a compatible compression utility, I suggest 7-Zip. Be sure to completely decompress and un-archive the entire archive, which could require a couple of steps depending upon the compression utility used.
3. Download the Opera Mini *.jad and *.jar files to the apps directory (in MicroEmulater’s extraction directory). i.e. “microemulator-2.0.3/apps/”
4. Launch “microemulator.jar” in the directory by double clicking the file. If it fails to load, verify you have the latest JRE installed (step 1). If it still fails, you can instead try using “java -jar microemulator.jar” from the command line in the directory.
5. [optional] With MicroEmulator now open, click options, select device, then add. Navigate to the directory where MicroEmulator is installed, then enter the devices directory. Select the “microemu-device-resizable.jar” device file, then click open. Set the newly selected device as the default. Click OK to proceed.
6. [optional] (You can instead maximize the window) Click the resize button in the lower right-hand corner of MicroEmulator. Enter your desired dimensions, such as the common 800×600 or 1024×768. Click OK. The MicroEmulator interface will scale to the entered dimensions.
7. Click file, click open JAD file, navigate to the required directory if needed, select the Opera Mini Jad file (i.e. “opera-mini-4.2.13337-advanced-en.jad”), then click open.
8. An Opera Mini selection should now appear in the MicroEmulator interface. Select it, and click start. Opera Mini should load.

~If you want to enable the ability to save web pages (in OBML format) and/or download files, the following steps are for you, otherwise you’re done~

1. Right click “microemulator.jar” and select create shortcut
   
2. [optional] Rename the shortcut into “Opera Mini”
3. Right click the shortcut and choose “Properties”
4. Change the “Target” field to (copy the whole bolded line):
   C:\WINDOWS\system32\java.exe -cp microemulator.jar;lib/microemu-jsr-75.jar org.microemu.app.Main –impl org.microemu.cldc.file.FileSystem org.microemu.examples.fcview.FCViewMIDlet apps\opera-mini-4.2.13337-advanced-en.jad
   (you might need to change “opera-mini-4.2.13337-advanced-en.jad” in the last line if you have a different version, and I am assuming that you installed Java in the same place I installed it, which is the default)
5. Copy and replace the “config2.xml” file into “C:\Documents and Settings\<your user name>\.microemulator\”
6. You’re all set. You can use the shortcut (named Opera Mini) to launch MicroEmulater with Opera Mini already opened (step 7 of the first group is no longer necessary)

~some steps are retrieved from a forum thread~

Opera Mini under MicroEmulator

Extras

Windows Installer

You can download this Windows Installer instead of performing all previous steps manually :)

You just need to make sure Java Runtime Environment (JRE) for Windows installed, then install Opera Mini for Windows, run it for the first time (using the Opera Mini shortcut found in the installation directory), then copy and replace the “config2.xml” file into “C:\Documents and Settings\<your user name>\.microemulator\” and you’re all set.

You might also want to perform steps 5 and 6 of the first group :)

Note that this installer doesn’t necessary contain the latest versions of MicroEmulator and/or Opera Mini. Version currently included are: 2.0.3 and 4.2.13337-advanced-en respectively.

Text Input

Click the text field, enter the text you want, then use F1 for “Abort” and F2 for “OK”. (Thanks Martin!)

I heard that this is fixed in the beta of the next version of MicroEmulator.

Proxy

You can configure Opera Mini to connect through a proxy server, downloading the alternative “config2.xml” file and changing the following lines of it (search for them):

<system-property name="http.proxyHost" value="webcache.mydomain.com"></system-property>
<system-property name="http.proxyPort" value="8080"></system-property>

So that “webcache.mydomain.com” would be replaced by your desired HTTP Proxy, and “8080″ would be replaced by it’s corresponding port.

The Benefits

Opera Mini web browser is essentially a user interface. Much of the actual processing is done via Opera’s intermediate servers, with content optimized and compressed on the back-end for delivery over the Internet to the Opera Mini front-end. Which also means that the content can’t be filtered by ISPs (at least without meaning to specifically filter Opera Mini), thus there are no blocked websites.

Despite being designed for smart phones and similar hand held devices, there are a couple of good reasons for deploying Opera Mini on the Windows platform. Most importantly, web developers can verify their code against the Opera Mini rendering engine. Opera Mini can also provide a rather nice alternative web browser in bandwidth-limited situations, such as using a dial-up connection, since Opera’s intermediate servers optimize and compress content.

Update (2009-08-27):

• Added steps necessary to activate the Save Page / Download Files features (step 3 is updated, pay attention)
• Added the Windows installer
• Added the Text Input tip
• Added help to connect through a proxy

Recently, I have became in charge of maintaining an all-in-one compiled-help-file (CHM) version of the C++ FAQ Lite Online C++ tutorial.

I am glad of that, because I always thought of the tutorial as being a very informing guide that tackles the ins and outs of C++ and being a definitive guide that all C++ programmers should read. And so, I wanted to distribute it in a flexible format to those I advise to read it.

You can download your copy here.

If you are curious about how Linux distributions are organized, and interested in learning more about it’s development, you will find this tutorial enjoyable and informative.

A step-by-step walk through to building a complete customized Linux distribution from plain source code, providing a very interesting and informing experience, but requiring some basic skills such as

• Using the command line (shell) to copy or move files and directories.
• listing directory and file contents.
• Change the current directory.
• As well as a reasonable knowledge of using and installing Linux software.

Check it out: Linux From Scratch