Remove superfluous apps from Lenovo Yoga Smart Tab
June 5, 2020 - Reading time: 2 minutes
I tried to deactivate several apps which I did not use on my Lenovo Yoga Smart Tab. Unfortunately the Play Store displayed updates for them soon after and they were activated again by some kind of magic.
To remove the apps I do not want on my device I connected via
adb shell
and uninstalled them by running the following commands:
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.android.chrome
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.calendar
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.microsoft.office.outlook
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.youtube
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.photos
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.tachyon # Google Duo
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.magazines
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.googleassistant
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.lenovo.screenassistant
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.wellbeing # Digital Wellbeing
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.nbu.files # Files
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.gm # GMail
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.docs # Google Drive
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.skype.raider # Skype
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.videos # Google Play Videos
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.music # Google Play Music
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.podcasts
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.android.contacts
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.keep
Packages can be searched with
pm list packages | grep SEARCH_TERM
Viewing the output of a C64 on a laptop via an STK1160 based video grabber
January 22, 2020 - Reading time: 2 minutes
I bought a cheap (< €15) USB 2.0 video grabber which is based on the SyntekSTK1160 chipset. My goal was to display the output of my Commodore 64 on the screen of my laptop. The cable which connects the C64 with the video grabber allows me to use an s-video signal.
Fixing failure of software upload to µController
December 5, 2019 - Reading time: ~1 minute
If uploading software from the Arduino IDE or the commandline via avrdude to a microcontroller like an Arduino or an ESP8266 fails due to missing access rights ("Permission denied"), what helps is either
sudo chmod a+rw /dev/ttyUSB0
or adding the user to the group "dialout":
sudo usermod -a -G dialout theuser
Repairing the file system of Debian after hard shutdown
October 14, 2019 - Reading time: ~1 minute
Sometimes after a hard shutdown the file system of my laptop is corrupted and Debian starts in maintenance mode.
What helps is repairing the file system using the command
fsck -y /dev/sda1
See: https://serverfault.com/questions/348315/debian-system-wont-boot-due-to-corrupt-file-system
Changing the RAM chip of the Super Snapshot V5
September 4, 2019 - Reading time: 2 minutes
The manual of the Super Snapshot V5 mentions that the 8kB RAM chip of the cartridge can be upgraded to 32kB. Back in the days™ it was possible to send the cartridge to LMS Technologies. Nowadays this is not an option anymore and I was happy to find an article by Chris Kobayashi which describes the required steps. Since the article does not contain any illustrations, I decided to share some photos I took when I changed the RAM of my Super Snapshot V5.
Re-soldering the reset button of the Super Snapshot V5
April 23, 2018 - Reading time: 2 minutes
In an act of clumsiness I pulled off the cables connecting the reset button of my Super Snapshot V5 and the PCB. I asked Twitter and Mastodon for help, but to no avail. The search engine of my choice also did not come up with any helpful link. Luckily information about the Commodore 64 is all over the web. Read more