I opened up the the tetherxp.inf file and save a few of the usb identifiers for installing the device. You will see a line like this.

[AndroidDevices]
; Google Nexus One without adb
%AndroidDevice%    = RNDIS, USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E13

I then opened Device Manager in Windows XP by right-clicking on My Computer->Properties, click on Hardware tab, and then Device Manger button. There was the unrecognized USB device with the yellow question mark icon. I right-clicked on the item and chose Properties. Then click on the Details tab at the top. Here I could see the USB device ID. I copied those values into my tetherxp.inf file to see what would happen. My section of tetherxp.inf now looks like:

[AndroidDevices]
;Samsung Fascinate i500
%AndroidDevice%    = RNDIS, USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E24
 
[AndroidDevices.NT.5.1]
; Samsung Fascinate i500 with adb
%AndroidDevice%    = RNDIS.NT.5.1, USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E24

Saved the file. Back on the Details tab, I clicked on the Driver tab for the device, and clicked Update Driver button. Choose the tetherxp.inf you have saved. Windows XP will propmpt to accept to install and unsigned driver. Click Continue Anyway. It will proceed to install the device and will be named Android USB/RNDIS Ethernet. Your computer should then be able to connect now being tethered via the USB cable.

1. Mecurial 1.5.4
2. Python 2.6.5
3. Libiconv 1.13.1
4. Gettext 0.18

Download each of the files to your desktop, and login into your FreeNAS webGUI. Then navigate to System->Packages. Click on the “Add” icon to install a new package. On the next screen you will see a browse button and install button.

Click to Enlarge

You will need to install the packages in the correct order to satisfy their dependencies. Click on the “Browse” button, then “Install” button for each in this order:

1. libiconv-1.13.1_1.tbz
2. gettext-0.18_1.tbz
3. python26-2.6.5.tbz
4. mercurial-1.5.4.tbz

Congratulations you now have mercurial installed on your FreeNAS box. You starting hosting your own repositories. I create a folder in my FreeNAS drive and issued a:

$hg init

I copied a few files in the folder from my laptop using Windows Explorer and then typed:

$hg add
$hg commit -m "Import new files into repo"

Now I clone the repo to my laptop using

$hg clone ssh://user:pass@freenas/path/to/repo local-folder

If you omit the user and pass from the url, your will be prompted for them. This seemed like it would be a little more difficult to do as there is very little documentation on the FreeNAS website about packages. I was unable to find any other posts about this setup, so I hope someone else will find it useful.

I’ve been putting off for quite some time setting up version control for the various websites I work on. I was finding myself sometimes editing a file, saving my changes, and getting uploaded to the site to find I had made an error or broke another feature. I’ve been using Dreamweaver to do my php coding and css editing, and enjoyed the easy benefit of using the synchronize feature.  Dreamweaver makes it easy to get the lastest edits off the server, and have a local copy to work on. Dreamweaver will also save automatically back via FTP. However, it makes for a better WYSIWYG editor than a development environment, and does not offer any backup option.

I tried out a few PHP IDE’s like Netbeans. Wow, coding became alot simpler with the advantages of code completion and hints. Unfortunately, I didn’t seem to find an IDE that uses the synchronization feature, but all support SVN version control. I decided to take the plunge and setup my computers to harness the advantages of version control.

I’ve been using WAMP on several computers, and makes it just as easy to setup as it was in Ubuntu. WAMP is a pre-configured Apache, MySQL, PHP, phpMyAdmin, and SQLiteManager stack for Windows. You can setup a webserver in under 5 mins on your windows box. I have set this up on both Windows Vista x64 and Windows XP SP3. I followed several guides online, and each seemed to be missing a piece here or there. Also, beware of the SVN 1 click installer. The download contains a version of Subversion that’s not compatible with Apache 2.2.11 included with WAMP. I learned this the hard way.

Summary of Folder Layout

c:\clients\project1 -> Working Copy
c:\svn -> Subversion Installation
c:\svnrepos -> Repository Parent Location
c:\svnrepos\project1 -> Sample Repository
c:\wamp ->WAMP Installation
c:\wamp\www\project1 -> Live Copy
c:\Program Files\TortoiseSVN ->TortoiseSVN Installation

You will need 3 things to get a WAMP + Subversion up and running.

1. Wamp v2.0i
2. Subversion
3. TortoiseSVN v1.6.6

First, you need to install each of the packages. During the install of Subversion, select “Bind to Apache 2.2.x”. I chose to install subversion to:

c:\svn

Try to prevent using spaces in your file paths to eliminate any problems in Apache. This will provide the right files to be installed that will work with the version of Apache that’s installed by WAMP. Now, that you have the packages installed, it’s time to marry WAMP with SVN. You will need to copy files between folders.

Copy mod_authz_svn.so and mod_dav_svn.so from

c:\svn\bin to C:\wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.2.11\modules

Copy intl3_svn.dll and libdb44.dll

c:\svn\bin to C:\wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.2.11\bin

Now click on the white half circle tray icon for WAMP->Apache->httpd.conf. We need to add these modules into Apache’s configuration file. Find the lines:

#LoadModule dav_module modules/mod_dav.so
#LoadModule dav_fs_module modules/mod_dav_fs.so

Change to:

LoadModule dav_module modules/mod_dav.so
LoadModule dav_fs_module modules/mod_dav_fs.so
LoadModule dav_svn_module modules/mod_dav_svn.so
LoadModule authz_svn_module modules/mod_authz_svn.so

Save the file. Click on the WAMP tray icon again, and then click Restart All Services. Wait for the icon to turn all white again. When it does you are ready to proceed with setting up your first repository. If you have trouble, try exiting WAMP, and then start the application again.
Now you need to create a repository folder. I chose:

c:\svnrepos

Since I will be hosting multiple projects go ahead and create another subfolder:

c:\svnrepos\project1

Now let’s create the repository by right clicking on the c:\svnrepos\project1 folder->TortoiseSVN->Create Repository Here. You will get a confirmation that folder was created successfully.
Update 2010-02-01:
I’ve noticed the latest build of TortoiseSVN is not creating compatible version for Apache, but will the command line version will work.
Open command line, and type:

cd c:\svnrepos\
svnadmin create c:\svnrepos\project1

Time to setup Apache to allow browsing of the repository. Click on the WAMP icon->Apache->httpd.conf. Scroll to the bottom of the file and above:

Include "c:/wamp/alias/*"

Add:

<Location /svn>
	DAV svn
	SVNParentPath C:/svnrepos
</Location>

Save the file. Leave it open, and click on WAMP tray icon->Restart All Services. Wait for icon to turn all white again. Now you should be able to navigate to http://localhost/svn/project1. If successful, you should see a blank directory listing for project1 – Revision 0.

If you don’t require any authentication, you are done. Go have some fun and enjoy your free SVN repository. In Windows Explorer navigate again to c:\svnrepos\project1, right click on folder->TortoiseSVN->Repo-browser. In the right-hand pane right click again->Create directory. Then type in trunk. Repeat to create folders branches and tags. Now start importing your files into the trunk folder. Do this by right-click in right pane->Add File(Folder). Choose a file/folder, add a comment and click okay. You now have started your repository. You can refresh the browser page and check out the changes.

Ready to add user authentication? It’s easy to setup a basic user/password method. First we need to create a password file for Apache to protect the browsing of the repository. Create the password file by using the command line:

cd C:\wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.2.11\bin
htpasswd -c svnpasswd username

Open httpd.conf file again. You need to add a few commands to the block at the bottom of the file. Below the line:

SVNParentPath C:/svnrepos

Add:

AuthType Basic
AuthName "Subversion Repository"
AuthUserFile bin/svnpasswd
Require valid-user

Click on WAMP tray icon->Restart All Services. Refresh your browser page and you should be asked for your login credentials. Congrats! Remember this authentication method only protects browsing. It does not control who can read/write/edit/commit/delete file from the repository.

Putting It All Together

We’ve got WAMP/SVN up and running, but how do you use this? Here’s what I am doing right now. Get all the files imported into your repository /trunk folder using TortoiseSVN. I created folder for my working copies that I will be developing and testing. I used:

c:\clients

Navigate to this folder create a new folder (ie. project1). Right click on folder->SVN Checkout . Fill out as shown:

Click OK, and all the files from the repository will be copied/downloaded to the folder. In order to be able to debug/test your working copy, create an alias that points to that folder. I use an alias because I use my WAMP webroot for serving real pages. Right click WAMP tray icon->Apache->Alias directories->Add alias. A command prompt will open, type in alias and the path to the folder using forward slashes.

svnproject1 [Press Enter]
c:/clients/project1

Point your browser to http://localhost/svn/project1, and you should see your test site. You have a separate method to test your working copy. Make some changes/edits of files. Commit your changes to the repository by right click on the folder:

c:\clients\project1

Choose SVN Commit, enter a comment, and click OK. Once you have a working copy you would like to move to live, navigate to:

c:\wamp\www

Right click in Windows Explorer->SVN Checkout and fill out as shown:

Click OK, and the latest revision will be copied to the folder. Browse http://localhost/project1. You are running a live copy. Whenever you’ve ready to roll out an update, just right click on the folder->SVN Update. All changes will be synchronized.

I am running this setup at work for one of our small internal web applications. I have the repository on my computer. I’ve created a working copy. I work on adding some new reports, or improving the UI with some jQuery. Test it locally, and fix any bugs. Open a ssh session to the server an issue “svn update” in the webroot, and the applications are updated without going down.

I thought I would test out some the new features being touted in the new release. To my frustration, the new search feature would never complete. I would start typing in a search phrase, and then click on one of the terms suggested to me by sqlite. Thundbird opened a new tabbed, and the interface just showed my search criteria at the top with a dialog in the middle reading “Searching…”. The first couple of tries, I thought there was no matching criteria because Thunderbird’s search seemed to never complete.

My next step was to scour the new and old message boards from Mozilla. Nothing matched my same problem. A number of people have mentioned and posted about long indexing times for accounts with a lot of email messages. I have about 2000 messages saved on my computer, so it was nearly as large as other users.

A few days passed, and I had kind of given up on the new search feature. Then, the update was pushed to me via automatic update with the final build. I upgraded several other computers from version 2 to the final public release version 3. The other workstations’ search worked flawlessly. I decided to attempt the search function on my computer.

First Solution Attempt:

I opened my Application Data/Thunderbird/Profiles/(random).default/Mail and deleted the .msf files from each of my accounts. Reopened Thunderbird and the program proceeded to rebuild its index files. After it completed, search was still not working. Same result of “Searching…” which never finished.

Second Solution Attempt:

I tried uninstalling the program, and then reinstalled the program. Still no luck.

Final Solution:

I decided one more go. I opened my Application Data/Thunderbird/Profiles/(random).default folder and deleted the file global-messages-db.sqlite, and then restarted Thunderbird. I waited a few minutes for the indexing to complete. To my surprise, search worked perfectly. I am glad the feature is now working.

Hopefully,  anyone else experiences this issue with Thunderbird 3 search will be able to solve this problem.

Download Thunderbird 3

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