Parallels Desktop v3

Well after a lot of effort trying to get a USB memory key to work under the Windows XP virtual machine... I did google for the error "USB device you are trying to connect to the virtual machine" and found out I needed to upgrade from version 2.5 to 3 since I'm running OSX 10.4.10 (according to the Parallels page).

It certainly fixed the problem :)

List of programs (or alternatives) not available for OS X:

• DreamboxManagerSuite
• Nokia PC Suite

Windows XP on Parallels

I've finally gotten around to installing Windows XP on my MacBook under Parallels!

But you are probably asking why...? I am not an MS fan, but there are some programs out there I want to run which isn't available for the Mac (and there's not alternatives). I'm not talking about programs such as Picasa2 (why isn't that available for the Mac!?) but utilities programs and specifically those that allow me to mess about with satellites and PVRs ;)

Pascal Programming

So you want to learn to program? One of the best programming languages to start off learning from scratch is Pascal... you can get Free Pascal from freepascal.org for the Mac OS X (Intel and PowerPC versions) which can be integrated with Xcode.

My preferred (compiled) programming language of choice is C on a Unix platform but hey...

gcc on PowerPC

So I'm hoping to compile some programs on my MacMini, which is a PowerPC not Intel... I can't find gcc or make anywhere... they are near identical:

MacMini Mac OS X 10.4.10
Darwin Kernel Version 8.10.0: Wed May 23 16:50:59 PDT 2007; root:xnu-792.21.3~1/RELEASE_PPC Power Macintosh powerpc

MacBook Mac OS X 10.4.10
Darwin Kernel Version 8.10.1: Wed May 23 16:33:00 PDT 2007; root:xnu-792.22.5~1/RELEASE_I386 i386 i386

Anyway, I found out that you can download the developer tool kit from 'ADC' - Apple Developer Connection website, but I need to register... so done that and downloaded the latest Xcode Tools and I am installing it now...

Done, and hey presto... gcc and make is there!

Knoppix and Humax 9200T

Serial Firmware Update

Unfortunately the Humax 9200T PVR does not support the Apple platform for its manual firmware update. I have just managed to update the Hummy using my MacIntel MacBook. This is how I did it... WhatI did was boot my MacBook using a Knoppix (v5) LiveCD and using my Prolific USB to Serial converted flashed the latest firmware using the Linux version of FlashWriter 4!

What you need:
1. Knoppix 5 Live CD from Knoppix or you can get it here.
2. FlashWriter 4 for Linux from Humax Community or here.
3. A Prolific USB to Serial cable (pl2303) (or supported USB to Serial cables*) from Scan.
4. A female to female null modem cable such as this one from eBay.
5. A USB memory stick such as this one from Scan.

What to do:
1. Boot up your MacIntel and insert the USB stick and initialise it as a FAT32 device (open a terminal and issue this command 'newfs_msdos -v FAT_VOLUME_NAME -F 32 /dev/USBSTICK' where USBSTICK is the device name e.g. disk1.
2. Download the Knoppix 5 LiveCD and burn the ISO to a CDR.
3. Download the firmware from the Humax HCSA site or here, unpack it and save it to the USB stick.
4. Download the FlashWriter 4, unpack it (or get it here) and save the Linux binary to the USB stick.
5. Insert the Knoppix 5 LiveCD you've just burnt and restart your MacIntel holding down the C key to boot from it.
6. When Knoppix has booted and detected your USB Stick, open a shell (terminal) console and change directory to that USB stick, e.g. cd /media/sdb1 (you might have to double-click on the USB stick's icon for it to get mounted).
7. Power-off your Hummy (switch at the back). Insert the null modem cable to Hummy serial port. Connect other end of null modem cable to USB to Serial cable, plug cable into MacIntel USB port.
8. Knoppix will recognise the USB to Serial cable but you will need to type 'modprobe pl2303' (or similar*) in the terminal console for it to assign it a TTY device name.
9. For my Prolific USB to Serial cable, typing 'dmesg' in the terminal console after inserting the device will bring up the log which says 'usb 2-1: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0'. In other word the device has been assigned '/dev/ttyUSB0' (your device might have a different assignment - take note). Because flashwriter has been programmed to only look at devices /dev/ttyS0 to /dev/ttyS3 only, we have to link (point) our device to one of these. So in the terminal console, change to root - type 'su', and then link the devices - 'ln -s /dev/ttyUSB0 /dev/ttyS0'. This effectively assigns our device as COM port 1. If we issued 'ln -s /dev/ttyUSB0 /dev/ttyS1' then it assigns it to COM port 2.
10. Issue this flash command in the terminal console: './flashwriter 1 115200 PGXTF10015_all.hdf' where the '1' is the COM port and 'PGXTF10015_all.hdf' is the firmware update file (i.e. replace '1' and 'PGXTF10015_all.hdf' where appropriate with the COM port and firmware update file. The program will sit there waiting for you to turn the Hummy on.
11. Turn on the Hummy at the back and you will see the numbers flash in the terminal console and on the Hummy, the display will change, L10, L20, etc and then D10, D20, followed by P10, P20, etc. (the flash sequence) and then END.
12. You can power-cycle the Hummy when you see the END on the front display. Your box has been updated! :)

* Knoppix 5 currently support these USB serial devices:
aircable, airprime, ark3116, belkin_sa, cp2101, cyberjack, cypress_m8, digi_acceleport, empeg, ftdi_sio, funsoft, garmin_gps, hp4x, io_edgeport, io_ti, ipaq, ipw, ir-usb, keyspan, keyspan_pda, kl5kusb105, kobil_sct, mct_u232, mos7720, mos7840, navman, omninet, option, pl2303, safe_serial, sierra, ti_usb_3410_5052, usbserial, visor, whiteheat. These are the Knoppix USB/serial kernel modules - you might need to find out the specific brand of cables they are built for.

Any questions? Please post a comment.

Speed of connected USB

From the Finder GO menu, select Utilities. In this folder, start System Profiler.

Under the USB entry there is speed info for the specify attached device.