Android development in Windows, using Android Studio

Recently I have a try on Android Wear in the workshop, using the sample given from Google IO. I downloaded the sample and followed the instructions given.

As the official support on Eclipse ADT is going to end soon, I have to pick-up the new skill on the official Android Studio IDE. I was getting this error message after building it, saying:

Error:Error: com.android.ide.common.process.ProcessException: org.gradle.process.internal.ExecException: Process 'command 'C:\Users\gan\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\build-tools\21.1.2\aapt.exe'' finished with non-zero exit value 42

on this file:

C:\Users\gan\Desktop\gan\project\AndroidStudio\android-codelab-watchface-master\android-codelab-watchface-master\1-base\build\intermediates\exploded-aar\com.google.android.gms\play-services-base\6.5.87\res\drawable-xhdpi\common_signin_btn_text_focus_light.9.png ERROR: Unable to open PNG file

However, other people using SDK version 21 ran fine without error. It is quite weird.
Some said it's SDK issue, some said it's gradle issue. I have tried few of them but no luck. I also thought it could be this "C:\Users\gan\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\build-tools\21.1.2\aapt.exe" file having execution-right issue, but running it from command-line found no issue at all.

I was suggested by instructor, that it could be this image "common_signin_btn_text_focus_light.9.png" was the main culprit. So I was intended to replace with another dummy image. After finding a new dummy file and when I tried to replace it, I was getting another error message from Windows: "Destination Path Too Long"

That gave me the idea, it could be the Windows OS cannot handle the path which is too long, thus causing the the Android building process failed. By renaming to a shorter name, and it works!

Running Windows 7 Beta in Virtual PC 2007

After taking more than 12 hours (yes, I subscribed a low cost package from ISP) to download the Windows 7 Beta ISO (see my previous post), finally i can play around with it. Installing it on my existing OS will be too risky, thus Virtual PC comes to my mind.

As rumour says, I tried it using a guest OS as Windows Vista and it works. Say not more and let's see some steps and screenshots.

1) After creating a new vmc & vhc files, capture the ISO downloaded. You can follow tutorial here. The setup will be started. When it asks for guest OS, choose Windows Vista.

2) You might need to adjust the RAM for installation to run smoothly.

3) Now, you see it is loading files and starting Windows.


4) Choose the language to install, ..., etc.

5) And Windows 7 Beta is installed successfully.

6) ScreenSaver cannot be loaded for Virtual PC with standard VGA virtualized.

7) Some basic themes for customization. I see it as a competition with wincustomize.

8) MS Paint get a Ribbon-look.

9) Our "Show Desktop" now resides on bottom-right.

10) And we can try the Internet Explorer 8 Beta as well.

Windows 7 Beta is out

So fast, Microsoft released Windows Vista 2 years ago, now we have another new Windows OS release, a.k.a Windows 7, in beta form to public. You can get it here:

a) Windows 7 Beta 32-bit (downloading)

b) Windows 7 Beta 64-bit (not yet tested)

For more information, you can visit this site.

This site have offered various tips to let you play around with it.

1) How to Dual Boot Windows 7 with XP or Vista

2) Windows 7 Product Keys Available--for Some

#p/s: For Windows developer, the Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1: BETA, or the so called Platform SDK v7.0, is released as well.

Review of notorious bugs on Windows pre-WU era

Remember these: Code Red, The SQL Slammer bug, The Blaster Worm bug, The Sasser bug? This article : Worst Windows flaws of the past decade , bring you back to the notorious moments on Windows OS platform, pre-WU(Windows Update) era!

Windows OS 7: A milestone 3 (build 6780) release?

Time flies, now we have Windows OS 7 milestone 3 (build 6780) release. From the screenshots, we can see MS have revamped the MS WordPad, MS Paint, MS Calculator to a Office-like application. Soon, all the apps in OS 7 will be filled with ribbons. (Following images are external links from UX Evangelist, I hold no rights)



Details of multi-touch technology is discussed here as well.

Getting started with Installation of Windows XP Embedded (2)

From the last post, we now proceed to build the XPe image.

Part (C) Building Windows XP Embedded Image:
1) (Actually you need it since Part (A)) Get the CD installer from: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/embedded/downloads/default.mspx

2) You might need to register to get the product key at MS: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/embedded/eval/getregistration.mspx

3) Insert the Dics 1. Browse to "Tools Setup" in left pane. Click to install.

4) You might need to insert product key, mentioned at step (4).

5) Browse to "Database Engine Setup" and click to install. This will install MSDE.

6) Browse to "Database Setup" this time. Click to install.

7) If you did not follow step (5) & (6), you might get this error message.

8) Once the installation done, launch the Microsoft Component Designer.

9) Import the hardware information xml file we created on Part (B).

10) Go to "Select Prototype Component", expand the Software/Test & Development node and select the Selector Prototype component. From the File menu, choose Save to save your component. A file with extension SLD is created with your component definition

11) From the Tools menu, choose Component Database Manager to open this tool.

12) Select Import and choose the SLD file that you just create. Make sure it imports successfully.

13) Now we launch the Microsoft Target Designer. Create new configuration.

14) From the list of component, right-click on the component we newly create and select "Add".

15) Add extra component, We will use the Kiosk/Gaming Console macro component, a design template that can be found under Design Templates.

16) Add the Runtime Quick Start Helper Component that will speed up the process..

17) To build our image, press F5 to check dependencies. All necessary underlying components are added to the image.

18) Expand the User Interface Core component and select settings. The settings appear in the details pane. Select to Show Run on Start Menu, Show All Programs List on Start Menu, and any other settings you want to apply.

19) We can now build the image. Hit F7. You might be asked for dependencies check.

20) Once the image building success, we got the file we want.

21) We need to copy the image file to the root drive of VPC we created and formatted at Part (A). You can download it from MSDN.

22) We can exit the command prompt in VPC by typing EXIT to reboot. Detach the CD installer. Here we got Windows XP Embeded.

23) The first boot will go through the First Boot Agent (FBA) process, which builds the machine registry, enumerates the device drivers, registers all components, and so on..

24) Reboot done and we got our desktop.

25) We also can browse to root folder. Done.

26) Whew! what a lengthy installation. Luckily, MS have simplify it.

Getting started with Installation of Windows XP Embedded

Recently I am busy with table partitioning and JBoss/Hibernate projects, thus I could not post any new post. While the project approaching the end of completion, I found there's an article on Windows XP Embedded (XPe) installation setup: How to Demonstrate Windows XP Embedded using Virtual PC . Thus I go to my CD rack and find back my installation CD I get last time (1 year ago), from a seminar organized by local MS.

From a beginner perspective, I found this tutorial is quite useful, but could be better. Thus I came out with this setup guide to patch the missing part of the link above. Without more words, let get started:

Part (A) VPC setup

(This part I won't elaborate more, here are steps exerpt from link above):

1) To create a new Virtual PC (VPC) machine, click the New button in the Virtual PC console.

2) A New Virtual Machine Wizard opens (Figure 2). This wizard will guide you through the steps to configure your virtual machine.

3) Because we are creating a new operating system from scratch, choose the Create a virtual machine button.
4) In the Name and location field, enter the path and file name for your project. The file will be saved with the .vmc extension.

5) In the Operating System field, choose Windows XP as the operating system for the VPC machine. Windows XP Embedded and Windows XP Professional use the same binary files.

6) Select the RAM amount for the virtual machine. The default amount (128 MB) is sufficient; however, you can adjust the amount.

7) Choose the A new virtual hard disk button to create a new virtual hard disk that will store the operating system image.

8) In the Name and location field, type the name and path for the file that will contain your Virtual PC machine's hard disk. This file will be approximately 300 MB in size.

9) (From this part onwards is for partitioning the disk) Type the following command from a command prompt:

• DISKPART

10) Type the following commands to create the partition:

• SELECT DISK 0
• CLEAN
• CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

11) Type the following command to verify the partition:

• LIST PARTITION

12) Type the following commands to verify that the partition is active:

• SELECT PARTITION 1
• ACTIVE

13) Type EXIT to quit DISKPART.

14) Type EXIT again to reboot Windows PE.

Part (B) Capturing the Hardware Information:

1) From VPC console, start the vpc setup from part (A). Insert Disc 1 into CD-Rom and capture it through VPC menu: CD>Use physical drive .

2) Once it captures the installer, the installation starts.

3) Read the EULA.txt for legal acknowledgement.

4) Back to your host machine, open command prompt and type "IPCONFIG" to get your local IP address.

5) Back to the VPC and try to ping from it, you might need to turn off the Firewall.

6) Back to host machine again, and right-click the CD-Rom and select "Share".

7) Click "Advanced Sharing"

8) Check the "Share this folder". Click "OK" to exit.

9) You can confirm again by typing the UNC address, to verify the CD installer can be accessed from network sharing.

10) You also need a admin account with password. Go to "Control Panel">"User Accounts" to create password, if you did not set it previously.

11) Create a folder at host machine, let's say: C:\VPC\XPe\XPeImages (try to use a folder without space between it, you can reduce your trouble later), and right-click, select "Share":

11) Select the appropriate user.

11) Now, use the "net use" command for the subsequent command to access it. (From TechNet) The function of "net use" is : Connects a computer to or disconnects a computer from a shared resource, or displays information about computer connections. The command also controls persistent net connections. Used without parameters, net use retrieves a list of network connections.

12) "Shared Folders" cannot be used since Virtual Machine Additions have not installed yet.

12) Execute the "TAP command to generate the hardware component information to the shared folder mentioned in step (11). This file is an XML files with all the virtual hardware information for this VPC. We are going to use this file in the part (C) for building Windows XPe image file.

13) You are done for this part (B).

Will continue part (C) to a new post ...