Old Phone - new Android

Old Phone - new Android

I've been increasingly frustrated by the speed at which my old Smartphone has been responding lately and wanted to find a solution before heading into the new year. The phone is a 2012 HTC One S and I'm well used to it but the usage is getting sluggish and I was wondering if it would be better to wipe it, or replace it.

I looked at a replacement M8 handset for €499, or a budget chinese smartphone for under €200 as options. One thing I was interested in however was to try to use an unofficial Android variant I'd been hearing about. I'd never tried unlocking my phone before except to use other operator sims, rather than the one I'd purchased it with. Cyanogen Mod had been one I'd come across a few times but I had NO idea how to go about installing it. Turns out it WAS as hard as I suspected!!! But next time around it will be easier and I'm keeping notes in this post to help me and anyone else out interested in the activity!

Needless to say this is unsupported by Google, the smartphone manufacturer and anyone else! The risk is poor quality phone calls, crashing phone, malfunctioning devices etc. There was only one way to find out though!

So Cyanogen has a good wiki with walk through for most main phone types. They also have an easy installer but this had been recently pulled due to a security issue. I had to go old school.

I used Easy Backup & Restore to take a backup of my contacts, messages etc. and put the backup file on the SD Card.

The main wiki page for Cyanogen is as follows:

https://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Main_Page

They have forums here:

http://forum.cyanogenmod.org

There is a list of pre-compiled builds or you can make you own (!). I used the Latest Release and Recovery build for my phone as listed here:

https://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=ville

If you can find you own smart phone in the list on the left at least you know you're not on your own! The Forum has a sub section dedicated to each phone. Read first to see what the known issues are and you may or may not encounter them but best be forewarned!!

The main install guide I used was:

https://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_ville

This walked me through the main steps except unlocking the HTC itself. I needed to create an account on HTCDEV for that:

http://htcdev.com/bootloader/

Now I seemed to need a Linux O/S. I tried using Ubuntu 5.10 on VMware Workstation but the USB kept dropping as "unrecognised" when the Phone was booted into "fastboot" mode. I ended up installing Ubuntu on my Intel NUC using a USB created with rufus:

https://rufus.akeo.ie

This takes the Ubuntu ISO and puts it on the USB in Bios or UEFI mode. I used UEFI and after the install, Ubuntu was up and running. I could now plug in my HTC to the NUC and start getting the tools to operate. After pointing at a local update site in Ubuntu I could install adb & fastboot:

apt-get install android-developer-adb
apt-get install android-developer-fastboot

(I think they are the commands above, Ubuntu will help you if you try to use the commands and the packages are missing).

HTC's site offered a fastboot binary as part of the unlock process and I used this instead of the downloaded one to retrieve the unlock code from the phone.

If you enable USB Debugging you can issue a command "adb reboot bootloader" and once rebooted the command "fastboot device" should list the phone. Try "fastboot oem device-info" or "fastboot oem get_identifer_token" to get the key. Put this into the HTC site (you need to be logged on and have a verified dev account) and remove any spaces and INFO words and it should email you a bin file. Give this to Linux and follow the remaining steps from the HTC dev site to finish the unlock process. Sorry, I didn't think to record the steps but it's well documented. I'm sure there's a similar process for other phones.

Now, you can use the downloaded Recovery File and once that is up and running you upload the main image and Google Apps image to your phone and choose the upgrade option for each, browse to the files, and reboot:

http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Google_Apps#Downloads

I installed the main OS, then installed the boot.img, booted into the new OS and then went back to recovery mode to install the Google Apps I'd forgotten about!

Next it's Restore time. I used Easy Backup & Recovery and the only issue was having to reselect the backup file each time for each category I wanted to restore. Doing this a few times I got back all my contacts, call history, messages etc. By installing Google Apps which gives you Google Play access I could install my favourite apps, download a new Theme from Cyanogen and away I went. Phone call quality was fine and photos also worked. The SD Card preserves a few things like my photos etc but all told it took about a day to go from 4.1.1 to 5.1.1 and I've now been able to install some Apps that wouldn't work on the older Android OS.

It's still day one so don't know how this will work out but the smartphone is more responsive now and flows between menus and apps very nicely. The new UI breathes life back into an old phone and despite the learning curve it was worthwhile and saved me some money. I'm also bloatware free which was another bonus. I had to skip updating all the crap apps I didn't want but couldn't uninstall before. Would I do this with a brand new phone? Probably not, but for an older one where the manufacturer has stopped releasing updates for over two years and you are wide open to security vulnerabilities, this may be one way to respond, while getting better control options not normally exposed to end users.

I hope this gives you an insight into the process. It may be possible to do this with Windows but I found the Ubuntu approach interesting and had the spare hardware once VMware Workstation proved unsuitable.

Thanks to everyone over at Cyanogen Mod for all their hard work and for opening up later Android versions to those of us with older handsets! They are working on CM 13 which gives Marshmallow, mine is now using 12.1 which is Lollipop. You can opt for more beta releases but obviously be prepared for bugs and stability issues.....

Installing HP Cloudsystem 9.0 - Part 9

Installing HP Cloudsystem 9.0 - Part 9

I'm using my Lab to learn about Cloudsystem 9.0 from time to time. One of the difficulties I find is that it can take up to an hour to power on the Cloudsystem 9.0 appliances by hand! Shutting them down by contrast is easy! I looked into scripting some of this using Powercli and have come up with the scripts below to accomplish most of what I'm after.

To start we'll set up the ma1 appliance to be able to use public keys when connecting to all the other appliances. Then using plink we can call the ma1 appliance from Powercli to shutdown each of the appliances or run initialization commands on startup.

Disclaimer - I'm doing this in a Lab, check with your Linux guru's & HP Support before touching Production. Use as your own risk!

Putty/SSH into cs-mgmt1 (ma1) and create a new public key:

ssh-keygen -t rsa

Press enter a few times to get the key generated (no passphrase required). Now copy the key to each of the appliances & test as you go:

ssh-copy-id cloudadmin@ua1
ssh cloudadmin@ua1  (this should log you onto ua1 without prompting for a password)
exit
ssh-copy-id cloudadmin@mona3
ssh cloudadmin@mona3
ssh-copy-id cloudadmin@mona2
ssh cloudadmin@mona2
ssh-copy-id cloudadmin@mona1
ssh cloudadmin@mona1
ssh-copy-id cloudadmin@ea3
ssh cloudadmin@ea3
ssh-copy-id cloudadmin@ea2
ssh cloudadmin@ea2
ssh-copy-id cloudadmin@ea1
ssh cloudadmin@ea1
ssh-copy-id cloudadmin@cc2
cloudadmin@cc2
ssh-copy-id cloudadmin@cc1
cloudadmin@cc1
ssh-copy-id cloudadmin@cmc
cloudadmin@cmc
ssh-copy-id cloudadmin@ma3
cloudadmin@ma3
ssh-copy-id cloudadmin@ma2
cloudadmin@ma2
ssh-copy-id cloudadmin@ma1
cloudadmin@ma1

Now grab plink.exe or the full putty installer and put it in your windows path. Launch/Relaunch PowerCLI and test the script below - update the passwords first though!

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

Now for the Shutdown CS9 Script:

# Script to shutdown HP Cloudsystem 9.0 Lab - Created by Michael Russell 11-12-15
connect-viserver labvc.lab.local -username administrator -password YourVCPasswordHere
echo "shutting down ovsvapp vm on compute host"
get-vm -name ovsvapp-compute.lab.local | shutdown-vmguest -confirm:$false
echo "shutting down compute.lab.local host"
get-vmhost -name compute.lab.local | stop-vmhost -confirm:$false -force
echo "shutting down the update appliance"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw YourPasswordHere cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ua1 sudo shutdown -h now"
Start-sleep -s 10
echo "shutting down the monitoring appliances"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw YourPasswordHere cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@mona3 sudo shutdown -h now"
Start-sleep -s 10
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw YourPasswordHere cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@mona2 sudo shutdown -h now"
Start-sleep -s 10
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw YourPasswordHere cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@mona1 sudo shutdown -h now"
Start-sleep -s 10
echo "shutting down the Enterprise Appliances"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw YourPasswordHere cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea3 sudo shutdown -h now"
Start-sleep -s 10
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw YourPasswordHere cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea2 sudo shutdown -h now"
Start-sleep -s 10
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw YourPasswordHere cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea1 sudo shutdown -h now"
Start-sleep -s 10
echo "shutting down the Cloud Controller Appliances"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw YourPasswordHere cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@cc2 sudo shutdown -h now"
Start-sleep -s 10
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw YourPasswordHere cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@cc1 sudo shutdown -h now"
Start-sleep -s 10
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw YourPasswordHere cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@cmc sudo shutdown -h now"
Start-sleep -s 10
echo "shutting down the Management Appliances"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw YourPasswordHere cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ma3 sudo shutdown -h now"
Start-sleep -s 10
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw YourPasswordHere cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ma2 sudo shutdown -h now"
Start-sleep -s 10
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw YourPasswordHere cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ma1 sudo shutdown -h now"
pause

So in PowerCli you execute it as "./Labshut.ps1" for instance and wait for it to complete. Replace "YourPasswordHere" with you own Lab password as set in the First Time Setup wizard.



The power up script is more complex but essentially you issue a power on VM command, set a suitable wait timer and execute various checks and you're done. You maybe have a harder time tracking issues as the os refresh generates a LOT of screen activity. Put more pause statements in if you wish, I've left mine until the very end so it's all automated.


# Script to startup HP Cloudsystem 9.0 Lab - Created by Michael Russell 17-12-15
echo "starting up ovsvapp vm on compute host"
get-vm -name ovsvapp-compute.lab.local | start-vm -confirm:$false

# Management Appliance #1
echo "starting up ma1/cs-mgmt1 vm on management host"
get-vm -name cs-mgmt1 | start-vm -confirm:$false
# cs-mgmt1 power up timings to logon 3:06
Start-sleep -s 300
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo service mysql bootstrap-pxc"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo service mysql status"

# Management Appliance #2
echo "starting up ma2/cs-mgmt2 vm on management host"
get-vm -name cs-mgmt2 | start-vm -confirm:$false
# cs-mgmt2 power up timings to logon 1:50
Start-sleep -s 300
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ma2 sudo service mysql status"

# Management Appliance #3
echo "starting up ma3/cs-mgmt3 vm on management host"
get-vm -name cs-mgmt3 | start-vm -confirm:$false
# cs-mgmt3 power up timings to logon 2:43
Start-sleep -s 300
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ma3 sudo service mysql status"

# Management Appliance Refresh
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo os-refresh-config"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ma2 sudo os-refresh-config"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ma3 sudo os-refresh-config"

# Cloud Controller #1
echo "starting up cs-cloud1 vm on management host"
get-vm -name cs-cloud1 | start-vm -confirm:$false
# cs-cloud1 power up timings to logon 3:40
Start-sleep -s 300
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@cmc sudo service mysql bootstrap-pxc"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@cmc sudo service mysql status"

# Cloud Controller #2 & #3
echo "starting up cs-cloud2 & cs-cloud3 vms on management host"
get-vm -name cs-cloud2 | start-vm -confirm:$false
Start-sleep -s 10
get-vm -name cs-cloud3 | start-vm -confirm:$false
# cs-cloud2 power up timings to logon 2:43
# cs-cloud3 power up timings to logon 2:47
Start-sleep -s 300
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@cc1 sudo service mysql status"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@cc2 sudo service mysql status"

# Cloud Controller Appliance Refresh
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@cmc sudo os-refresh-config"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@cc1 sudo os-refresh-config"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@cc2 sudo os-refresh-config"

# Enterprise Appliance #1
echo "starting up ea1/cs-enterprise1 vm on management host"
get-vm -name cs-enterprise1 | start-vm -confirm:$false
# cs-enterprise1 power up timings to logon 12:40
Start-sleep -s 900
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea1 sudo service mysql bootstrap-pxc"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea1 sudo service mysql status"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea1 sudo -u csauser /usr/local/hp/csa/scripts/elasticsearch start"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea1 sudo -u csauser /usr/local/hp/csa/scripts/msvc start"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea1 sudo service csa restart"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea1 sudo service mpp restart"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea1 sudo service HPOOCentral restart"

# Enterprise Appliance #2 & #3
echo "starting up ea2/cs-enterprise2 & ea3/cs-enterprise3 vms on management host"
get-vm -name cs-enterprise2 | start-vm -confirm:$false
Start-sleep -s 10
get-vm -name cs-enterprise3 | start-vm -confirm:$false
# cs-enterprise2 power up timings to logon 11:31
# cs-enterprise3 power up timings to logon 0:46
Start-sleep -s 900
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea2 sudo service mysql status"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea2 sudo -u csauser /usr/local/hp/csa/scripts/elasticsearch start"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea2 sudo -u csauser /usr/local/hp/csa/scripts/msvc start"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea2 sudo service csa restart"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea2 sudo service mpp restart"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea2 sudo service HPOOCentral restart"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea3 sudo service mysql status"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea3 sudo -u csauser /usr/local/hp/csa/scripts/elasticsearch start"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea3 sudo -u csauser /usr/local/hp/csa/scripts/msvc start"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea3 sudo service csa restart"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea3 sudo service mpp restart"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@ea3 sudo service HPOOCentral restart"

# Monitoring Appliance #1
echo "starting up mona1/cs-monitor1 vm on management host"
get-vm -name cs-monitor1 | start-vm -confirm:$false
# cs-enterprise1 power up timings to logon 16:00
Start-sleep -s 1200
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@mona1 sudo service mysql bootstrap-pxc"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@mona1 sudo service mysql status"

# Monitoring Appliance #2 & #3
echo "starting up mona2/cs-monitor2 & mona3/cs-monitor3 vms on management host"
get-vm -name cs-monitor2 | start-vm -confirm:$false
Start-sleep -s 10
get-vm -name cs-monitor3 | start-vm -confirm:$false
# cs-enterprise2 power up timings to logon 11:40
# cs-enterprise3 power up timings to logon 9:21
Start-sleep -s 900
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@mona2 sudo service mysql bootstrap-pxc"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@mona2 sudo service mysql status"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@mona3 sudo service mysql bootstrap-pxc"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@mona3 sudo service mysql status"
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@mona1 sudo service mysql status"

echo "check output for errors and perform manual direct ssh fix if you see error: The server quit without updating PID file, or, MySQL (Percona XtraDB Cluster) is stopped. Check log."

# Update Appliance #1
echo "starting up ua1/cs-update1 vm on management host"
get-vm -name cs-update1 | start-vm -confirm:$false
# cs-enterprise1 power up timings to logon 0:25
Start-sleep -s 60
plink -ssh -l cloudadmin -pw <cloudadmin password> cs-mgmt1.lab.local "sudo ssh cloudadmin@mona1 sudo os-refresh-config"

echo "All Cloud Appliances should now have started, please check consoles for errors"
pause

Replace the <cloudadmin password> with your Lab password as set during the first time setup. You can tweak values based on your own lab performance / findings. The script above takes me 1 hour 40 minutes but you can edit the sleep timers to reduce this.....

The Consoles URL Summary is as follows:

Foundation Console:
http://192.168.10.80
(admin/<cloudadmin password>)
Kibana Activity Dashboard:
http://192.168.10.80:81/#/dashboard/file/activity
Kibana Log Dashboard:
http://192.168.10.80:81/index.html#/dashboard/file/logstash.json
Monitoring Dashboard:
http://192.168.10.80:9090/auth/login/?next=/monitoring/

HA Proxy (Health Check for Management Appliances):
http://192.168.10.80:1993

Openstack Console:
https://192.168.12.200/project/
(admin/<cloudadmin password>)

Cloud Controller HA Proxy:
http://192.168.10.81:1993

Enterprise HA Proxy:
http://192.168.10.82:1993

CSA:
https://192.168.12.201:8444/csa/login
(Admin/cloud)


Consumer CSA Marketplace Portal:
https://192.168.12.201:8089/org/CSA_CONSUMER
(consumer/cloud)

Operations Orchestration:
http://192.168.10.82:9090/oo/login/login-form
(administrator/<cloudadmin password>)

Have Fun!