Database Users

ROM upgrade - how to create your own rom-questions ???

hi i have been looking through this formu but cannot really find what i am after. sorry in advance but if it was covered in other threads please give links.
i would like to upgrade my rom (current i am using pre-installed tmobile mda pro rom) to something batter. the problem is there is so many things in this forum that makes me conufused.
Is it possible (probably it is- but how) to upgrade my ROM by creating my own ROM eg take the best radio rom and extended rom with the stuff i want eg some application i am using right now - instead of normal keyboard get resco keyboard and instead of file explorer get resco explorer and so on and on and put them to the extended rom .
is there any soft to do it ? can someone provide me with links where i can find out something more about ROM cos wiki isnt really helpful and seems to be out of date.
any help wanted !
cheers, cudo
ps. or put tomtom to the extRom...rom that would feauture all the good stuff.

what a pity nobady is willing to help me..maybe u vac just point me to some accurate threads within this forum, if ther are some.
cheers, cudo

To put another Radio ROM in is trivial.
Take out the other two (ExtROM and OS) ROM images and just flash in the Radio file. I did this and didn't even need a hard reset.
To put TomTom into your ExtROM is easy too.
Once you have done your hard reset with your new ROM images and the ExtROM has loaded, you have 10MB of space that you can reclaim. There are instructions at the top of this forum for unlocking the ExtROM and making it appear as another memory area.
Please use backup software regularly so that you don't have to reflash the unit until the next OS upgrade.
Creating a ROM image is more hard work, and I don't know for sure that all the information is accurate. This is only my understanding of the process.
Install the programs that you want in your ROM to your PDA and make a note of the locations of all files and registry entries that are installed.
Take a recent ROM image and unpack it to your desktop.
Delete the programs that you don't want to install, and then search through the hives for the entries that relate to those programs. Delete those too.
Put the files and registry entries of the programs you are putting into your ROM into their post-installed locations.
Rebuild the ROM image.
Flash it in.
Hopefully this won't break your PDA if you get it wrong, I'm guessing that this is very much a trial and error process.
I haven't tried this.
Use this information at your own risk, it could break your PDA.

how do i separate the rom images from each other..i mean radio, os and extended roms ? when i unzip the UNI_TMUK_130114_130232_11003_WWE_BL101_Ship i am getting loads of files but cannot see the right ones.
cheers, cudo

/extended rom/

how do i get to the extended rom directory? i have a t-mobile mda and have total commander (reg editor) installed. I can't find the /extended rom/ directory and also don't really understand what is or what it is there for. i know this might sound like a remedial question to HTC Wizard experts, but if someone could help me I'd greatly appreciate it. Also, if it matters, I'm running xelecin's custom 2.26 ROM.
Thanks.

You won't see it by browsing.. just type in "/extended_rom" and TC will open it. Don't forget the underscore (_) character..
Gee - my first post!

thanks. i entered "/extended_rom" and it brought me to the directory. now that i know how to find it, what is it exactly there for? What is it's purpose. Also, can you access it from activesync? Thanks again for answering these questions.. i'm a beginner with PPCs, but I'm curious about how they work.
Thanks again.

Use the advanced search feature (under the search option tab) to look within the wizard updating forum for the term "extended rom", and you can start to understand how some of the rom developers utilize it (There are 12 pages of entries). These guys are the real 'wizards' - I could not begin to explain the way they do (I'm too new myself).

Your extended ROM contains all of your customizations. If it is a stock ROM it will have all of your carrier customizations. If you have a cooked Ext ROM it could have lots of things. One of the benefits is that if you have to completely clear out the storage it would re-install all the customizations that were in the ext rom.

barrydavisjr said:
...One of the benefits is that if you have to completely clear out the storage it would re-install all the customizations that were in the ext rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so, in simple terms, if you were doing a hard reset (or clear storage in settings), the extended rom directory retains the files, and installs them if they are .cab files.. am I getting warm? Thanks for the info.

you got it. The carriers put it there so that one wouldn't have to call into tech support if you had to do a hard reset.

ok. i get this now. just a couple more questions..
-Do the .CAB files have to be in the main directory (/extended_rom/) or can they be in any subfolder?
-I was reading somewhere that it's a read-only directory.. is there a way to delete files, if so, can you delete the files one at a time or all once?
-finally, can you access the directory from active sync?
Thanks for all the help. I appreciate it.

As far as I know it is unable to be accessed through Active sync. And yes you can delete them off one by one. I would reccomend reading up on it. Faria has produced a wondrful guide on how to cook your extended ROM. When you delete a cab you also have to change the config settings in the notepad file. I have dabbled a little but Faria's guide will help you more.

!!!WARNING!!! if you delete the files from your ext rom and do a hard reset none of the carrier customizations will be installed.. furthermore.. you will not gain any extra space by deleting the cabs, it is a read only partition.. also with that being said, if you try to delete a file from there or add one you take a great risk of corrupting the ext rom and you will be forced to reflash the rom in order to get them back.

just one more question.. I have xelecin's 2.26 custom rom on my MDA. I'm thinking of switching over to either molski's or faria's latest rom. when i flash those roms, the extended rom from the current rom i'm using gets replaced with the custom rom's extended rom, right? does that make sense? Thanks for putting up with my dumb questions and actually answering them! Oh yeah, when i installed the rom i'm using now it did a CID unlock before flashing, so i assume my phone is still unlocked, right?
Thanks again for all the help. i really appreciate it.

thats right. - you'll get the new extended rom.

Extended Rom Contents
I only install a portion of the T-Mobile customization, which I accomplish by preventing the install of the extended rom. I have copied onto my miniSD the files I want to install, and then I just manually run the cabs from there. (Actually, that would erase them, so I copy them first.)
Then you can experiment with other ROMs, still getting the customizations that you need. Here is my thread on this topic:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=272613
I no longer install MP-Shorcut-MMS1-Voice-CV-TMUS-060404.CAB because that just adds MMS to the Messaging app and a shortcut for making voice tags and I don't use MMS.
By the way, it is really useful to install things like Total Commander, Memmaid, weather programs, RSS readers, Zagat, and so on to the miniSD, because then they don't need to be reinstalled after a hard reset. The only thing I have to do is add the shortcuts back, because shortcuts are erased after a hard reset. These programs will no longer auto-update, since nothing can run automatically from the miniSD, but with memmaid you can create automatic updates if you like.
Your backup program should always run from main memory! Also, programs that affect the today screen should also be run from main memory for increased speed. Pretty much everything else can go on the miniSD.

Automating Program Installs

Hey all,
I have a question.
I have been playing with my 8125 a lot lately and am constantly resetting my device. What I want to know is I have one main machine that I do all my application installs via active sync that way when I hard reset my device I just have to go to add remove programs in active sync and re-check all the programs I want to put back on my phone.
Here is what I want.
I don’t want to have to tell the phone where to install the applications (I want it to default to storage card without any prompts.) and.. I don’t want any confirmation prompts ie: security unsigned, approve this application to be installed, this application was installed properly… etc.. I want to streamline the process so I can just tick the check boxes for my apps, let them download and that’s it. Currently after refreshing I have to spend quite a bit of time clicking “ok” … storage card…. Ok… storage card… ok… I think you get it.
Thanks much!

I've seen a lot of different reg keys out there that may accomplis this. Is there a way to disable the notifications and pre-set the install path peramaters?

sledwrecker said:
I've seen a lot of different reg keys out there that may accomplis this. Is there a way to disable the notifications and pre-set the install path peramaters?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can do this with WinCE Cab manager

If you really reset your device that often why don't you use SPB BACKUP? A reinstallation of all your apps wouldn't be necessary - just load your backup and you're ready to go!

Ya I did think of that but here is my issue.
the reason I am constantly hard reseting is because I am changing and playing with roms pretty much on a daily basis. I've been cooking my own roms trying to come up with what works best for me and what is closest to RTM. Thus why I am always re-installing apps.
So if I use SPB backup (which I have) it saves system settings and such right? So if I am switching roms all the time will it break my device?
Thanks guys! I'm new to the forum here I just got my first PPC phone a couple weeks ago but I've been an avid windows mobile (smartphone) user for years and have worked on WM platforms as beta tester.
Gotta love this stuff!!!

sledwrecker said:
So if I use SPB backup (which I have) it saves system settings and such right? So if I am switching roms all the time will it break my device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you are exactly right, and so many people seem to miss this... Spb Backup, Sprite Backup, etc are full backups that backup and restore the registry and all. If you restore this from one rom to a different rom you are likely to break something (may not be obvious at first, but you have a very good chance of things being broken inside the registry that you will trip up on at some point).
So yeah, the only way around this (without building your own extended rom and such) is to create a folder (or set of folders) on your SD card with all the cabs, files, and settings that you need for when your flash a new rom. Then run through that to set things up. You can also use ActiveSync to reinstall apps (just check them all and it will put them all back on) but you have to remember which ones (if any) require a reset of your device as that can cause probs with the others that are installing (if all done together).

Yep,
but at least you can import contacts, email and pim data that way quite easy!
Since you continiously flash your device: there will be no other solution but reinstalling your applications again and again. You might want to look around for a CAB extractor and then create your own CABs with all the progs you would like to have in one large CAB ???
One such CAB Installer Creator is: WinCE CAB Manager
Take a closer look at MolskiBiz_DevPack and you will find a utility to extract CAB files. It will be a bit work to add all the registry values to the Installer you're going to create but finally you might save a lot of time since you only run 1 installation instead of xxx ...

This is good, I have been playing with wince cab and it is a solution.
Now I'm going to work on making my extended roms.. will this work? I did a full recover of my apps through active sync just an hour or two ago and it reported total size of all cabs as just over 112megs. That means I'd be flashing a MONSTER rom and would it even be possible?
2gig mini SD card.
thanks

I tried before to add some apps (cab installers) to a personalized extended rom but it never worked the way I wanted it to. You might have seen that you always have to give some inputs when ever you install programs, sometimes you get ask if you really want to install the app, sometimes you need to choose a location. So, if you add CAB installers UNCHANGED to the extended ROM it just won't install because during extended rom installation you have no way of providing that information.

Backup and ROM-Update. How to?

Hello Forum!
I would like to update Leo's ROM (HTC, German Stock-ROM) from 1.43.407.1 to 1.48.407.1. BUT, I don't want to install all programs and tweak my baby again (not to forget all the emails and outlook settings, SMS etc.). Is there a way of doing a backup, which can effectively "survive" a ROM update, or is this simply not possible without coruption? Normally I use Sprite Backup 6.5.5 for my phone backup, but it does not tell me to many things about what will happen if a backup would be applied to the phone after ROM update. By the way. I don't think Sprite Backup will backup the ROM itself but just the other data on the internal memory, does it?
Thank you in advance folks!
Studebaker

hi,
spritebackup is trying to be smart on restore, so you can chose how it should behaive on restoring after romupdate. when i remember it rigth there are 3 or 4 options to choose from when you start a restore, they are listed at there website and in the manual/helpfile.

Hello madbird,
Yes, I noticed that. I just want to make sure that it really does work even after ROM update. What I do not want is problems afterwards. Anybody tried already?
Thanks guys!
Studebaker

I have been using SPB Backup's ROM upgrade mode on my Polaris for restoring of my settings & applications over sequential ROM upgrades.
Apart from some minor issues it really saved me a lot of reconfiguring time.
Naturally I haven't been able to try it on Leo, since custom ROMs can't be flashed yet.

Studebaker72 said:
Hello Forum!
I would like to update Leo's ROM (HTC, German Stock-ROM) from 1.43.407.1 to 1.48.407.1. BUT, I don't want to install all programs and tweak my baby again (not to forget all the emails and outlook settings, SMS etc.). Is there a way of doing a backup, which can effectively "survive" a ROM update, or is this simply not possible without coruption? Normally I use Sprite Backup 6.5.5 for my phone backup, but it does not tell me to many things about what will happen if a backup would be applied to the phone after ROM update. By the way. I don't think Sprite Backup will backup the ROM itself but just the other data on the internal memory, does it?
Thank you in advance folks!
Studebaker
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In order to restore and at the same time 100% incorporate all changes introduced by the rom upgrade you need 2 additional procedures (apart from a backup software).
1) Overwrite the new registry over the old registry
2) Overwrite the new double copy files over the old double copy files.
The first Step can be easily done in the following way
After upgrading you install Resco Registry.
You export the entire registry.
You restore the old backup image
Finally you re-import the previously exported reg file.
This will overwrite all keys that were changed during the rom upgrade.
Regarding the second step, let me quickly explain to you what I mean with double copy files.
After hard resetting your device and during the first boot, a customization tool is running in the background that copies some files from the rom (and the windows folder) to the storage memory (and different folders).
If you restore the previous rom image, these files will be overwritten with old versions. You can partially overcome this issue if the double copy files are both found in the same directory (f.e. Opera9.exe and OperaL.exe in Windows folder).
In this case you delete the duplicated file in storage and apart from releasing some mbs of free space you also use the latest version, which always resides in rom. This procedure can not be followed with files and folders that are copied during the customization process from Windows folder to other folders.
In order to overcome this issue and to be able to restore a previous image incorporating at the same time all the changes introduced by the upgrade, we have to find a way and activate the customization tool after completing the restore process. In this way the double copy files will be re-overwritten with the newer ones.
Check also this thread.
Finally another way to rebuild your system without much effort is to setup Sashimi once and then use it to quickly reinstall everything.

Hello Step2p!
Thank you so much for taking some time for that really interesting answer. The registry, yes, I guesses that could be a problem. Please let me comment to your points, because I'm in no way an expert in that:
The first Step can be easily done in the following way:
-After upgrading you install Resco Registry. => OK
-You export the entire registry. => Ahm, OK...
-You restore the old backup image => Yes, because I want to have my tweaked registry from the "old" ROM back.
-Finally you re-import the previously exported reg file. => Ouch. Than my tweaked and modified entries will all be gone. Right?
This will overwrite all keys that were changed during the rom upgrade. => And also all the former ones will be overwriten by new ones??
Did I get that right? After your procedure my old tweaks will be history, just because the new registry that we will have remaining at last will be pure as snow. New and unmodified.
Thanks again,
Studebaker

Studebaker72 said:
Hello Step2p!
Thank you so much for taking some time for that really interesting answer. The registry, yes, I guesses that could be a problem. Please let me comment to your points, because I'm in no way an expert in that:
The first Step can be easily done in the following way:
-After upgrading you install Resco Registry. => OK
-You export the entire registry. => Ahm, OK...
-You restore the old backup image => Yes, because I want to have my tweaked registry from the "old" ROM back.
-Finally you re-import the previously exported reg file. => Ouch. Than my tweaked and modified entries will all be gone. Right?
This will overwrite all keys that were changed during the rom upgrade. => And also all the former ones will be overwriten by new ones??
Did I get that right? After your procedure my old tweaks will be history, just because the new registry that we will have remaining at last will be pure as snow. New and unmodified.
Thanks again,
Studebaker
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you will lose all system registry tweaks (but not 3rd party tweaks). Unfortunately it is almost impossible to have the latest registry without losing these tweaks.
But updating the registry is an important step, because many of the bug fixes are actually registry tweaks that we never find.
In order to overcome this issue you have 2 options
1) Use an application like BsB tweaks which allows you to quickly setup the main registry tweaks
2) Create a reg file (or better a cab file) with all the tweaks that you are doing. After importing the registry you can run it in order to re-overwrite the tweaks.

Oh yes, a cab file sounds great to restore my tweaks! I just have no idea how to do that. How to convert my registry tweaks into a cab file, is there some software available to do the trick? Sorry for my stupid questions, that's like rocket science for me....

WinCe CabManager is very easy to use.
If you find it difficult you can export your keys using Resco Registry and then join the individual keys using a text editor.

Yes! said:
I have been using SPB Backup's ROM upgrade mode on my Polaris for restoring of my settings & applications over sequential ROM upgrades.
Apart from some minor issues it really saved me a lot of reconfiguring time.
Naturally I haven't been able to try it on Leo, since custom ROMs can't be flashed yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello Yes!
May I ask what kind of "minor issues" you are refering to?
Thank you!
Studebaker

Studebaker72 said:
Hello Yes!
May I ask what kind of "minor issues" you are refering to?
Thank you!
Studebaker
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, firstly i had some issues with the mail accounts.
After restoring in ROM upgrade mode all mail accounts were available and working. However it seemed like their configuration had not been fully restored.
When i wanted to modify an account (i.e. synch frequency) i had to completely reconfigure the accont, since its configuration wasn't there.
The issue only became noticeable when the account option need to be adjusted.
Secondly i also had the feeling (might be subjective) that the cycle of backing up, upgrading, restoring (in ROM upgrade mode), backing up (from previously restored rom), upgrading, restoring (in ROM upgrade mode) etc....pollutes the image somehow.
I have gone through the cycle for 5 or 6 upgrades without noticeable problems, but i'm not sure how it will behave after more cycles or after a major upgrade.
For so far i've only used ROM upgrade restores on my Polaris but i will try it on my Leo tonight.
I will post my findings here after upgrading.

Thank you, that is very interresting! Sprite Backup is a very powerful tool, no doubt! But to recover every little detail after a ROM update seems too good to be true. The registry scares me, the registry from the 1.48 might not be identical to the 1.43. But the backup will plaster all the old settings over it, can that be OK?? Who knows...

[Q] Solution to delete cabs/other files that are part of (original) ROM?

Hello,
I am currently using an xda touch diamond that I have been configuring and
maintaining etc. with much devotion over the last ~two years... For that reason, I understandably fear flashing. However, I am running into the hardly-any-space-on-internal-storage-left-problem, and subsequently have been heavily searching for solutions that might enable the deletion of individual rom-files. I think I read twenty times, no, it's not possible. So my question is: Would it be possible to clone the complete device without any data/config loss whatsoever into a file (simililar to what sprite backup does), and in advance of flashing/whatever you will call the complete restore process actually DELETE certain files that used to be undeletable on the device itself.
Thanks for answering this....
Matthias

me1235 said:
Hello,
I am currently using an xda touch diamond that I have been configuring and
maintaining etc. with much devotion over the last ~two years... For that reason, I understandably fear flashing. However, I am running into the hardly-any-space-on-internal-storage-left-problem, and subsequently have been heavily searching for solutions that might enable the deletion of individual rom-files. I think I read twenty times, no, it's not possible. So my question is: Would it be possible to clone the complete device without any data/config loss whatsoever into a file (simililar to what sprite backup does), and in advance of flashing/whatever you will call the complete restore process actually DELETE certain files that used to be undeletable on the device itself.
Thanks for answering this....
Matthias
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You yourself are describing a 'playful' method of building a new ROM!
This is what ROM cooks do when a ROM is made. They remove or edit - files or folders that are inbuilt and add their custom folders to it and 'cook' it. So in a sense the answer is 'YES' you can remove what you don't like in your ROM. But NO you can't do it by your suggested method. You can cook a ROM yourself or ask a cook on forum to do you a favour and delete unwanted files from your ROM and you can flash custom ROM with better space on it - Flashing is not that bad to be honest! I have done it on my WinMo - uncountable times! More than the number of times you might have changed your wallpaper!
So just make sure you read instructions on how to do it. Back up all your data on storage card and contacts too! - there you are ready to go!
After first flash of new ROM you won't take more than 2 hours making your phone as it is! (and you get faster with each flash!)

yes, drupad2drupad is right,
what I would add, I know what you mean, been facing the same decision. Spend year customizing and didn't want to loose it, on the other hand phone become slow and full. Well if there was a simple solution to this, this forum would be 95% smaller. there isn't any universal solution.
you will loose something. some settings, (registry or config files), some customizing. etc.
by using different backup programs or by setting them differently, you can trigger how much to backup, and how much to revert. BUT if you backup everything, (all registry and all files) after flashing you are right where you was. no big change.
what I do is I copy all int.memory to SD card, export all registry, backup only messages (contacts and calendar are in file pim.vol, if you end all programs and disable today plugins, you should be able to copy there and back this too, not loosing nothing by backup converting)
then flashing new rom, restore messages, copy pim.vol back and then slowly, restoring setting for each program I care to do so.
it's either a file in \program files or in \windows or a part of registry. there you open your big exported reg file, search for a name of program and cut,paste to empty reg file and import.
I made a backup script to do this automatically, but it's not possible to make it universal, it will backup only those programs it's set to backup.
back to you question about deleting rom files. you can, after a fashion, but deleting such will only add info to ignore this rom file. which means, rom file stays, but is not visible. thought, you can clean your int memory. removing temp and accumulated useless files, moving programs you use rarely to SD, but this is very time consuming and advance thing to do.

thanks
first of all, thanks to the two of you for such devoted answers! thanks a lot , really.
My guess is it will take me (I'm quite obsessive) 6-10 hours -- research etc. to make sure everything will definitely go fine and finally restore everything to the prior state. Never having messed around with flashing etc., I think it's too much effort to gain some lousy 20 mb.
I still really appreciate your answers. It's a shame there is no universal method to do this is a few steps, with some utility, for everyone...
So I was wondering, what do you think, on a system like the touch diamond, running windows mobile 6.1, with I think ~100 mb internal storage, how many mb should in your opinion at any point in time be free space, to ensure things are running smooth? (And, I suppose/hope flash memory deterioration due to little space left is not that much of an issue...)
Else I'd go as far as "donating" some chrismas bucks to some kindred spirit in guiding me through the process, I just don't have the nerve to do this, for 10 mb... never again will I buy a device that has too small internal storage!
thanks to everyone...
matthias
(edit) ps.: I find it funny that the files in rom can store data (like the 16 MB mxip initdb.vol which is said to carry contacs I believe) - for the novice, like myself, it's kind of difficult to understand why files can be written to, but not decreased in size to free up memory somehow - or do they have a "size limit" / "fixed size"?) but anyway, you need not comment on this.

There is a way that you can reduce your file storage size quite easily....
Thanks to AnDim, see here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=377514.
Do the following steps:
1. Use a back-up tool such as Resco Backup and make a back-up on your storage card.
2. Use Total Commander and copy all of the files in your Windows directory that are NOT part of the ROM. You can do this quite easily by chosing the "Hide files in Rom" part. Then copy and save these files on your desktop.
3. Use AnDim's HTC ROM Image Editor. Open your original rom with this (I hope you have it).
4. Add the files you copied from your desktop to the rom you opened with AnDim's tool.
5. Delete any duplicate files that were in the original rom from the ones you just copied.
6. Save the new rom and flash it.
7. Use Resco Back-up to restore your original rom.
8. Use Total Commander to delete the files created by Resco Back-Up in your Windows folder that you had previously added to the rom.
After all of this, you will find you have much more storage space and a quicker rom because all of the files you added that overwrote a rom file will no longer have duplicate files and also rom files take up less storage space.
Good luck!

hi mitsi,
thanks for that post, highly appreciated! this looks like a solution to the problem I described -- After doing some time-consuming cleanup, I now have some ~10 MB free, so I think I'll wait for this to decrease down to let's say 5MB in the future, and then follow your steps -- which seem to be advanced, but feasible. This is really a great hint. Hope others who run into the same problem will find this thread helpful too. I'm really impressed with quality and helpfulness in this forum, outstanding. Will have to go out and help others where I can now to compensate for my bad conscience
Grüße nach Berlin aus dem Schwarzwald!
M.

I recommend using SPB backup.
I used that program to do what you wanted to do ever since I used Axim x5 (currently TP2).
I have it set up so it automatically make a backup every week on Sunday, so just in case if something goes wrong (bad cab or driver) I can have most of important changes and not LOSE a thing.
So, good luck : )