Technical Issues & Help

Using the LOG on a USB-key drive with a portable application browser

The LOG Offline can be used with a portable browser (known as portable application)

portable - carried or moved with ease
application - a computer program like a web browser or word processor

A portable application is a computer program that you can carry around with you on a portable device and use on any Windows computer. When your USB flash drive, portable hard drive, iPod or other portable device is plugged in, you have access to your software and personal data just as you would on your own PC. And when you unplug the device, none of your personal data is left behind.

No Special Hardware - Use any USB flash drive, portable hard drive, iPod/MP3 player, etc.

No Additional Software - Just download and run one of the following browser :

Mobile Mozilla: http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable and then install Gears on Mobile Mozilla, through this Add-on https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/13492
or Mobile Google Chrome: http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/google_chrome_portable

Installing the LOG with the portable browser selected by us

Go to the 'DOWNLOAD

' page and follow instruction

Installing the LOG with the portable browser of choice

(Mobile Firefox or Google Chrome)

Download the browser of choice (see link above)
Install the browser on a folder on your computer or on the USB-Key drive
Launch the browser from that location
In the address bar, type http://log.logcluster.org/, you will then see the Home page of the LOG.
Click the 'DOWNLOAD' or ENABLE GEARS (depending of your browser) at the bottom of the Home page
A message, clickable, is appearing requesting the 'ENABLE GEARS' - Click it
A pop-up requesting confirmation (from Gears) appear - Check the 'I Trust the site' and 'ALLOW ' button
Go at the end of the page and click 'UPDATE' button
The LOG is being downloaded to the users empty container (filling it with he latest version of the LOG)
When all progress pages are done (xx/xx numbers), the LOG is updated and available locally
Save the page 'www.log.logcluster.org' in a bookmark or put it as default home page in the selected browser.
Now, the LOG is ready to be seen off-line and on-line through that browser. Just reach it with your bookmark or, if you did so, it will appear as the default home page of your mobile browser

Error during installation

If you downloaded the guide from the download page

Depending on your computer configuration, it is possible that you will receive an error message from the installation package (a self-extract zip) informing you that some files have not been successfully extracted.

Do the following:

Disregard this message
Go into the location you have selected during the installation (Usually 'Desktop', 'C:\' drive or 'My Computer')
Go to the folder created ('PortableLOG') during the installation.
Launch the application 'LOG_Portable'.
Click 'update' from the LOG itself. This will recover the missing files.

Note: The folder created include LOG content + the running application. You can move/copy this folder to an USB or an external drive in order to access the LOG from any other computer - Doing regular updates, will ensure you always have the latest version of the LOG

Stay Safe

Removing Your Drive - When you're done, exit your portable browswer (Firefox or Google Chrome) and then wait for the activity light on your removable drive to stop flashing. This may take a minute or more on slow drives or computers. Then select the 'Safely remove [device]' option from the icon in the system tray. If you remove the drive while it is writing, you may lose data.

Using the LOG from a pen-drive (USB-Key)

HD tune

Performances of using the LOG from a pen-drive (USB-Key) will depend on the quality of the drive itself.

Here is a small windows utility for drive benchmark: http://www.hdtune.com/

Note: usually a pen-drive of around 20 MB/s read speed and 7MB/s write speed are considered good solutions

Good Brands for USB-Key drive

http://www.kingston.com/flash/datatraveler_home.asp

http://www.corsair.com/products/flash.aspx

http://tech.tbreak.com/2009/12/transcend-introduces-jetflash-600-high-speed-usb-flash-drive/

Performances:

In order to run your portable application with higher performance, you should use an empty USB Pen-drive with USB 2.0 standard. (it will run from a USB 1.0 but with lower performances)

Some USB pen drive sold on the market are loaded with manufacturer application, enabling easy removal and files management from the USB. Although , using the mobile LOG will work with an USB loaded with native application, it is reccomended to re-format (in FAT32 - see below) the USB before using it. indeed, native applocation may required read/writing on the USB constantly. This result in a lower performance for the LOG launched from the USB-Key drive.

Disk format (FAT32 or NTFS)

http://portableapps.com/node/8381

http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/information/usb-flash-drive-comparison-part-2-fat32-vs-ntfs-vs-exfat/

FAT32 seems the best solution

Staying safe with portable application (LOG on the USB-Key drive)

Some suggestions for staying safe from PortableApps.com

An important thing to keep in mind when using portable applications is that they can be used to spread viruses between machines. While this isn't as much of an issue when you own or are responsible for the machines you are using it on (say work and home), it can be a very big issue when you use a portable app on an untrusted or unknown machine (school, internet cafe, etc). For this reason, it is important that you practice Safe Portable App-ing!

The Checklist:

Use a solid antivirus program on your primary PC and keep its virus definitions up to date.
Use a solid antivirus program on your portable device, like ClamWin Portable, and keep its virus definitions up to date.
Scan your PC and portable drive for viruses on a regular basis.
Whenever you plug your portable drive into an unknown computer, it's a good idea to assume that it could now be infected with a virus. If the PC has a virus that is currently in memory, it may attempt to infect your portable applications as soon as you plug it in.
When you then plug your portable drive into another computer (after an unknown), you should first scan it for viruses before running any of your applications. (Most antivirus software will make this available to you by right-clicking on your drive in Explorer or My Computer.) That way, if it is infected, you'll know before you run your applications and the new computer will not be infected.
Always wait until the drive access light has stopped blinking and then click the icon in your system tray to 'Safely Remove' your device. Don't just remove it. Just because the application's window is closed doesn't mean the app has fully closed and finished writing to the disk.
Back up on a regular basis. Witht he portable LOG, the backup can be as simple as moving the Portable LOG folder (and its content) from the USB-Key drive to your computer.

If you follow these simple rules, you'll be able to enjoy your portable LOG without getting stuck with a virus or losing your data. As always, there is still the risk of getting a new virus that your antivirus program can't yet detect, but the probability would be relatively low, and you run the same risk whenever you download a file from the internet.