Stag Hacks

A lot of people seem to be having trouble with the YouTube application in the HTC Droid Eris, specifically after the first update.

All or most videos do not play in the YouTube app shipped with the HTC Droid Eris.

I have tested this and have confirmed that this is a bug.

Here are some things to note:

1) This is not a problem with the phone.

-Do not return your phone because the problem will arise again when you update.

2) This is not a problem with Android.

-Videos in the browser still play. I’ve read one report of videos not playing in the browser, but it was obvious that the person either did not wait long enough, their connection went out or was too slow, or was witness to a different problem [highly unlikely]

3) This problem does not involve video quality, but video quality may be a factor in why people are witnessing the problem.

4) Seeing as no one on other devices seems to be having this problem [Droid, G1, etc] it would appear that it is not likely a problem of Verizon or Android developers, but the possibility exists.

We Blaim:

The bug seems to be in the YouTube app. Using deductive reasoning, we can conclude this is probably HTC’s fault. The Motorola Droid does not have this problem. Both the Droid Eris and Droid are carried by Verizon and run Android. The problem exists in only one device. Unless Verizon has something to do with device updates, the problem isn’t involved with Verizon or Android. It would appear that HTC is the problem. Something to note: The HTC Droid Eris contains many HTC-modded items (Widgets, UI, etc) that supposedly enhance the experience. I don’t doubt the YouTube app could have been modded by HTC as well.

EDIT: Other evidence of HTC as the culprit: This problem has been reported on many other (but not all) HTC Android phones.

Whats Happening:

All things to do with the Internet have time-outs. If a connection is lost, or there is a problem with the stream, the application only waits around for a certain amount of time before it gives up. Usually this time-out period is reasonably long enough to compensate slow connections, slow server response, etc.

What I’ve found is that the time-out period in the YouTube app has been made so short that the app gives up almost before it tries. When someone selects a video, it begins downloading like any normal video would, but the app gives up before waiting long enough for any data to come in.

This explains why:

1. Circumstance: People have noted that lower-quality YouTube videos sometimes play.

Explanation: The video is of smaller size, streams faster, therefore just making it past the time-out.

2. Circumstance: Some people find videos play more often when using a wifi-connection as opposed to a 3G connection.

Explanation: If one’s home Internet is faster than the 3G wireless internet speed, video may download into the device fast enough that the YouTube app doesn’t give up.

3. Circumstance: After repeatedly trying to play a video, the video will sometimes/eventually play.

Explanation: Internet speeds vary over time. If the speed happens to peak at the same time you are trying to play a video, the video might make it past the time-out.

4. Circumstance: Once a video does finally play, it will play again and again.

Explanation: Enough of the video is stored in the devices cache to play the video without downloading it. If you try another video, then go back to the one that played, the one that played will no longer play because the cache was cleared (at least from my experience).

I have personally experienced all of these except 3 (perhaps I didn’t try hard enough) and 2 (My home Internet connection is about as fast as my 3G connection).

Workaround:

I was able to make every video I tried, play. Heres how:

Step 1: Click on a video.
Step 2: Immediately click the menu button.
Step 3: Immediately click the “more” option.
Step 4: The scrolling context menu pops up.

All four of these steps have to occur BEFORE the video error message pops up or your video will not play. For some reason, pulling up the context menu really fast causes the application to ignore its timeout. The loading “circle-like” icon will continue to display behind the menu until the video loads and begins playing.

Step 5: Once the video begins playing, click the back button to close the menu.

It may take a few tries to get this right. However, it is much easier to just use m.youtube.com. Be patient when you see the loading circle, videos sometimes take between 30 seconds to 1 minute to begin streaming (depending on your connection speed).

Actual Solutions:

1) I will be notifying all three possible involved parties [HTC, Verizon, and Android], but I understand that it could be a while before they get an official update fix.

2) I would be nice to see a FREE third-party YouTube app hit the Android Market. As well as thrid-party alternatives for other apps that ship with the phone. That way, when problems like this happen, people have something to turn to. However, we DO have that handy m.youtube.com. On the iphone/ipod touch, I actually prefer the mobile YouTube over the native app. It provides more functionality and options.

3) HACK: I’m going to see if I can somehow grab the Droid’s YouTube app, and install it into the Droid Eris. If I succeed, I will post all findings right here on StagHacks.com.

People Having This Problem:

These are links from the first five pages of the Google search: “youtube videos wont play droid eris”

http://www.google.com/m?hl=en&gl=us&client=ms-android-verizon&source=android-browser-key&q=youtube+videos+wont+play+droid+eris
http://androidforums.com/htc-droid-eris/30729-my-eris-doesnt-play-youtube-other-internet-videos.html
http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Android-Devices/HTC-Droid-Eris-Cannot-Play-YouTube-Videos-Error-Message/m-p/139502
http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Android-Devices/Youtube-not-playing-on-Droid/td-p/134110
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/htc-droid-eris/9635-youtube-com-issues-2.html
http://forum.androidcentral.com/htc-droid-eris/4870-eris-cannot-play-youtube-videos.html
http://androidforums.com/htc-droid-eris/26958-most-youtube-videos-not-working-after-update.html
http://androidforums.com/htc-droid-eris/27472-droid-eris-messing-up-after-update.html
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/youtube/thread?tid=049b6f701bca5a25&hl=en
http://forums.crackberry.com/showthread.php?t=391585
http://community.vzw.com/t5/Android-Devices/Youtube-not-playing-on-Droid/m-p/135774
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/droideris
http://community.vzw.com/t5/Android-Devices/Youtube-not-playing-on-Droid/m-p/134452
http://theurbanblend.com/main/?p=366

Sign The Petition:

I hope all this information sheds some light on the topic and helps as many people as possible.
-PenguinPower247

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to everyone!

We were going to announce that we were going to begin writing posts on Android (and related devices), but we never got around to it.

But we are beginning to write post on Android and related devices. Staghacks now has access to the Motorola Droid, HTC Droid Eris (rebrand of HTC Hero), and limited access to the HTC G1 (Google Phone). Expect a lot of Android coverage within the coming months.

Staghacks also has a New Years resolution: To write more posts than ever and come up with a new design!

So expect some great new content in 2010! We want to make 2010 our biggest year yet.

On behalf of all StagHacks writers,
PenguinPower247

If you have Ubuntu 9.04 or are experiencing the following problem on any other distro, you will want to read this. This is such an easy fix. It takes two minutes.

It appears a lot of people are having problems getting Brasero to burn their DVD projects. The burn button is greyed-out and a message displays saying that the right plugins are not installed.

A simple look in the HELP tells me this:

“In order to use all the potential of the video project, you need to install all GStreamer’s plugins, ffmpeg, vcdimager, and dvdauthor. See your operating system documentation for more information on how to install all these applications.”

Apparently Brasero makes you have ALL of those backends before it lets you do any DVD project burning.

All of those can be found in the Synaptic Package Manager. [System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager]

I knew I had GStreamer and ffmpeg, so I did a search for “dvdauthor” and found I had that also. I searched for “vcdimager” and found that was not installed. I installed it and now everything is fine.

So just make sure you have all of those “dependencies”. The Brasero package maintainer really should make all of those official required dependencies so that people don’t get confused.

Lessons:
1. Look in help files, they help.

Hope this helps.
-PenguinPower247

What operating system do you use, and how much time (in hours) do you spend on the computer per day? [Please vote only ONCE]

• More than 9, Linux
• More than 9, Mac OS
• More than 9, Windows
• Between 6 and 9, Linux
• Between 6 and 9, Mac OS
• Between 6 and 9, Windows
• Between 3 and 6, Linux
• Between 3 and 6, Mac OS
• Between 3 and 6, Windows
• Less than 3, Linux
• Less than 3, Mac OS
• Less than 3, Windows

View Results
Create a Blog Poll

SO its time for a new post….FINALLY. I searched and searched this topic, and I found no good, working information on the topic for the longest time. Back when I was running OpenSUSE Linux, this was so easy, but I could not find that tutorial anywhere. So as for Ubuntu, I came accross these two posts. Don’t bother reading them unless you need more information. I will outline everything for you here on StagHacks.

http://freakass.co.cc/2009/06/14/how-to-record-desktop-with-internal-audio-ubuntu-904-with-jack-pulseaudio/

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=548178

There are two differences between these posts, and mine:

1. They involve permanently routing all PulseAudio output to Jack, mine does not.
2. In my tutorial, you do not need to go outside of any official Ubuntu repos in order to achieve the goal.

Lets get started:

0. Open a terminal. [Applications > Accessories > Terminal] It will automatically be pointing to your home folder. Leave it there.

1. It should be automatically installed, but lets make sure anyway. Install PulseAudio 9.14
sudo apt-get install pulseaudio

2. Now we need to get everything needed to build PulseAudio 9.14 from source.

• sudo apt-get build-dep pulseaudio <---Get all the dependencies needed to build PulseAudio from source.
• sudo apt-get install libjack-dev <---Install the Jack development library.
• sudo apt-get source pulseaudio <---Download the PulseAudio source code.
• cd pulseaudio-0.9.14 <---Change directory to the pulseaudio-0.9.14 directory.
• sudo ./configure --with-jack <---Configure the PulseAudio source code with Jack support.
• If after completing this tutorial, it doesn’t work, go back to this step and do these two extra commands. Hopefully it will work.
  • sudo make
  • sudo make install
• cd src <---Change directory to the src directory (pulseaudi-0.9.14/src).

3. Now we have to build the two PulseAudio modules “module-jack-sink” and “module-jack-source” and copy them to the “/usr/lib/pulse-0.9/modules” directory.

• sudo make module-jack-source.la <---Make the Jack-source module.
• sudo make module-jack-sink.la <---Make the Jack-sink module.
• sudo cp .libs/module-jack-source.so /usr/lib/pulse-0.9/modules/module-jack-source.so <---Copy the Jack-source module to the right directory.
• sudo cp .libs/module-jack-sink.so /usr/lib/pulse-0.9/modules/module-jack-sink.so <---Copy the Jack-sink module to the right directory.

4. Now we have to make a script that Jack Control will run when starting the Jack Server. All this script will do is load “module-jack-sink” and “module-jack-source” when Jack starts.

• Create a text file in your home directory called “jack_startup”. This file can really be located anywhere and called anything.
• Open and copy the following to it:

  
#load pulseaudio jack modules
#!/bin/bash
# Jack modules
pactl load-module module-jack-sink channels=2
pactl load-module module-jack-source channels=2


• Save it, make it executable, and now open Jack Control.
• Click “Setup…”
• Go to the “Options” tab.
• Check the box next to “Execute script after Startup”
• In the textbox type the path of your “jack_startup” script. Ex. “/home/joesusername/jack_startup”
• Click “Ok”. Quit Jack Control. Start it again. Start the server.
• If you go to Pulse Audio Volume Control, you’ll now see there is a Jack Sink, and Jack Source available.

I hope that people in need find this tutorial the answer.
-PenguinPower247

As well as this site i have just started my own website for uploading and downloading games for lots of emulators and i need anyone who is interested in uploading to contact me a.s.a.p. at aaronwalwyn@btinternet.com. The site is a work in progress and can be currently found at http://actionroms.wordpress.com .
and now added forums which can be found here
For more infomation contact me via email.

-Actionman1995

A few days ago I was helping a fellow jailbreak their iPod Touch (1st Gen). As I was doing this, I realized how easy it was. It just took a few minutes, a forced DFU mode, and BaM. Jailbroken. It was the second easiest jailbreak in the history of jailbreaks.

The number one easiest jailbreak involved the first firmware version 1.1 (iPod). All one would have to do was to go to www.jailbreakme.com on their iPod and then you were jailbroken in a minute. Unfortunately, Apple got smarter.

The next jailbreak was a little more difficult (1.2), adding just one more step (oktoprep) to help jailbreak. The next one was what created a doozy.

Here is the post that got me my job at iPodTouchHacks.com on March 8th, 2007. It is how us hackers in the past jailbroke 1.1.3.

Detailed Instructions on How to Jailbreak 1.1.3

1. Restore your iPod Touch to Firmware 1.1.1

• Download the firmware at http://www.applewb.com/2008/03/04/list-of-all-iphone-and-ipod-touch-firmwares-10-102-111-112-113-114/
• Plug in your iPod
• Run iTunes
• When your iPod pops up, hold shift (option key for Mac users) and click restore
• Select the file you just downloaded and wait for your iPod to be restored
• Don’t add music or name your iPod yet.
• Unplug it after it has been restored (wait until you get to the screen that says Set Up Your iPod).

If your iPod had an unknown error when you tried to restore, you have two options.

1) This is a little trick that worked for me. Restore the firmware to 1.1.3 (download it at http://appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net/content.info.apple.com/iPod/SBML/osx/061-4060.20080115.9Iuh5/iPod1,1_1.1.3_4A93_Restore.ipsw), then add just a few songs to it and sync it. Now try the restore to 1.1.1

2) Put your iPod into DFU mode. This is tricky, but it worked for me once. Go to http://dermapthera.wordpress.com/2008/01/27/how-to-make-your-ipod-touch-in-dfu-mode/

• Once it is in firmware 1.1.1
• On your iPod, go to Settings
• Click General
• Turn Auto-Lock to Never

2. Install AppSnap

• On your iPod, open Safari (it will ask you to choose your WiFi, do it)
• Go to the website www.jailbreakme.com
• Install AppSnapp
• Let it run and it will reset springboard
• Unlock your iPod and see it jailbroken

3. Install BSD Subsystem

• Open Installer. You will get an upgrade pop-up, do it. It will also say donate, but click later unless you really want to do that now
• Once done, go to the Install tab and under All Packages install BSD Subsystem
• Click the home button to refresh your iPod

4. Add Sources

• In Installer, click on the Sources tab
• Click edit, then add the source http://www.ijailbreak.com/repo.plist
• Click the home button
• Turn off your iPod
• Turn it back on

5. Jailbreak it to 1.1.3

• In Installer, go to the Install tab, then go to iJailBreakMobile
• Click iJaliBreakMobile 1.1.1 and install it
• Once installed, click the home button
• Before running this program, make sure you have a lot of charge as it will take 30 minutes to an hour, depending on your WiFi Connection
• Click iJailbreak and wait for it to do its thing
• When it is done, it will restart your iPod
• If it doesn’t, and you wait more than five minutes, the hold the power and home buttons until it turns off, then turn it back on

6. Fixing Stuff

• In Installer, go to Install, All Packages, then install BSD Subsystem (I know you already did this, but it was deleted during the upgrade)
• In Installer, go to Install, iJailbreakMobile, then install Remove 1.1.3 Upgrade…
• In Installer, go to Install, iJailbreakMobile, then install iPod touch Software Up… (this will get you the wiggly feature and install the iPod Touch Software Upgrade), click home and click iJailbreak (it will do its thing and then restart your iPod)
• In Installer, go to Install, iJailbreakMobile, then install Fix Mail Passwords
• Add the source http://sleepers.net/iphonerepo
• In Installer, go to Install, All Packages, then install BossTool
• Once installed, click home and let the iPod refresh
• Click BossTools, Free Disk Space, then Relocate Fonts
• You can then uninstall BossTool in Installer in the Uninstall tab

7. Sync with iTunes

• Plug in your iPod and sync with iTunes (you can now add your stuff)
• Everything is now DONE

As you may have noticed i have added a link to my YouTube Channel in the top right-hand side. on my channel you will find tutorials for hacks and soon there will also be video reviews for a range of products. Also anyone wishing to help review products please leave a comment with your e-mail address.
-Actionman1995

Parts of this post refer to Actionman1995’s post on jailbreaking the ipod touch with 3.0 firmware.

It seems that (on Windows Vista Home Premium at least) his section on libUSB is not needed. I just did a jailbreak with RedSn0w 0.7.2 and beforehand I did nothing with libUSB.

Also, you don’t have to worry about closing RedSn0w after it says its finished. I just closed it right when it said finish (twice on two different jailbreaks) and everything seems to work fine.

I did however discover there is a bug with RedSn0w that (according to a message i recieved in Cydia) may be fixed in a future release of RedSn0w. As for now, I accidentally discovered a workaround.

According to Cydia, installing Cydia and Icy from RedSn0w while jailbreaking cause a corruption of some sort in a file that somehow has to do with Cydia knowing what version of Cydia is intalled. This happened and caused tons of problems (I couldn’t install anything through Icy or Cydia and Cydia refused to update itself as it spit back errors). Now everything is working fine. Here’s what I did.

I, having never hacked my ipod before, thought re-jailbreaking it, would be the same as restoring it. I was wrong, but it worked. When I re-jailbroke it, I only checked the Cydia checkbox. I suppose this just re-installed Cydia and fiixed that file, while leaving Icy the same. Either way, I can now install from both installers.

So to install both installers, you can chose to do it the way I did it:
1. Run RedSn0w once with both boxes checked.
2. Re-run RedSn0w with only Cydia checked.

or try your own way with your own combinations. Feel free to comment this post with your results and combinations. I imagine checking one box after the other would also make this work, but I can’t be sure. I don’t have time to test all the combinations.

I hope you all found this of some help.
-PenguinPower247

Please note that by doing the jailbreak you forfit your warrenty for your iPod touch. StagHacks and it’s authors take no resposibility for any damage caused to your property while attempting to jailbreak your iDevice and therefore you continue with this guide at your own risk. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

This guide is for an iPod touch 2G the 3.x firmware.

This guide was originally for the 3.x firmware and will need to be adpted for 2.x
Here’s another tutorial i wrote for jailbreaking on 2.x firmware

To begin with download the following things:-
redsn0w 0.7 – http://download.server-land.com/redsn0w/redsn0w-win_0.7.1.zip
iPodTouch 3.0 firmware – https://buy.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/touchLandingPage

The first thing you need to do is upgrade your iPod touch firmware to the official 3.0 firmware the normal way, don’t put into DFU mode or you will lose all your stuff, when it’s done just check to see if all your apps work because sometimes after upgrading the apps don’t work, if you have this problem then you will have to restore your ipod to factory setting then upgrade then re-sync your iPod.

Next open any folder and navigate to folder and search options
Select the view tab
check the box which says: show hidden files and folders

Next extract the redsn0w .zip folder to your desktop and run the file called redsn0w
select the browse button
navigate to: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPod Software Updates
select the 3.0 firmware it should be called iPod2,1_3.0_7A341_Restore

Follow the remaining on screen instructions to jailbreak your iPod touch.

Please Note: after the computer process has finished your iPod will say on the screen that it is downloading jailbreak data, although the computer program says it’s finished i suggest you leave the redsn0w program running and keep your iPod connected to the computer.

I will add pictures later if i can.
-Actionman1995