Vmware Player is slow under Ubuntu 16 host, Part 2.

So it seems the issue I talked about some week ago, wasn't fixed. Windows is still slow, the hard disk always working at 100% load. Not so slow, because the fix explained in my previous post seems to mitigate the problem, but still slow. Since I was using many Virtual Machines on that box without any problem since longtime, well before my upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04, I guessed the problem was the kernel. Continue reading

Vmware Player is slow under Ubuntu 16 host

So you just upgraded your Ubuntu box and found that all your VmWare Windows Boxes are extremely slow? The symptom is your Windows task manager showning 100% usage of your disk, and the WIndows Instrumentation showing very long lags, says, up to 2.5seconds (yes, seconds) to respond to a disk request. This makes the box practically unusable. Perhaps your vmware logs are shoing a lot of lines like scsi0:0: Command READ(10) took 2. Continue reading

Flashing an AllWinner device via LiveSuit from Windows 8

Flashing an AllWinner device using the LiveSuit tool from Windows 8 isn’t as obvious as it seems. First, as usual with a new operating system, not all drivers works and you must find the “right” version. Second, as the previous issue wasn’t enough, with Windows 8 isn’t possible without some trick to install an “unsigned” driver. “unsigned” driver means a device driver that isn’t approved by Microsoft; on previous Windows versions, when installing an unsigned driver Windows asked for approval to the user. Continue reading

Annoying crapware on Java Updates (a.k.a. Ask.com toolbar)

Tired of this annoying ask.com toolbar being installed every time Java gets updated? Here’s the solution: Open a notepad, copy-and-paste this code and save it on a file called “disable_java_sponsors.reg”.  Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft] "SPONSORS"="DISABLE" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\JavaSoft] "SPONSORS"="DISABLE"  Then double-click on the new file, answer “yes” to the question about merging the registry and say bye to these annoying crapware. Next time you update Java, the ask. Continue reading