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I have a T-Mobile MDA, and am about to hard reset it to wipe out all TMO customizations. I know how to prevent the extended rom from loading after the hard reset, but what I don't know is what, if anything, I need to install out of the ext rom, and in what order they should be installed if it matters. Also, are there programs from other extended roms that should be installed in place of the TMO customizations?
Thanks.
i have the latest qtek rom installed, without extended rom oder customizations. i personally don't need anything of this trash from T-Mobile or any other provider. they don't intigrate useful tools or settings, they only do good work in making the device as unusable as possible
Consider new ROM
If you are doing this, you might consider the new ROM for T-Mobile,
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=44631
I haven't done this yet, and I am skeptical of claims of increased speed (one gets those from hard resets which clear out junk in the registry) but people are pretty happy with it.
Hi All,
I bought Cartystudios Ultimate Theft Alert after reading about it on this site. It is indeed a good product but theres a problem when using it on the atom.
If a thief hard resets the device, the protection is lost.
apparently, on most devices, its possible to put the file in the extended rom, so that if its hard reset, the app loads and runs the checks to see if the sim has been changed.
I've managed to locate the hidden partition using the unlocker but placing the files has no effect. Is it possible to edit anything that will run the uta application when the device is hard reset? Can the autoinst.dat file be edited to change which progs r run on startup?
anyone?
I don't see any reason to put autoinstalled program after hard reset. Usually, you use programs that need serials... so during startup, you must input these serials... that need time&serial list... that you must store anythere... To my mind the better way, use SPB backup programm, which create self extract application, that :wink: autoinstall all programs, that you need after hard reset.
yes under ordinary circumstances, you're correct...
however, this program is to help you recover your phone when it's stolen.
I dont even need it to install upon hard reset, it would be enough if it would just run after hard reset as it is an exe file.
Basically i need some way to run exe files from the extended rom upon hard reset...kind of the way the auto configurator always runs, or the o2 install app runs
anyone managed to cook this into ATOM?
anyone manage to locate the autoinst.dat or config.txt for customisation?
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.
I'm using mine for PIE Cache...that way it is still on the device and trims a milisecond off my surfing plus I can let it get pretty big without worrying.
What do you use yours for?
I've been filling up my newly unlocked extended rom with all of my applications.
I am running WM Black 2.0, and there were several files in the extended rom which were run on the first bootup. Is it safe to delete these files now as long as I dont plan on doing any hard resets?
Thanks,
-Kai
invictive said:
I've been filling up my newly unlocked extended rom with all of my applications.
I am running WM Black 2.0, and there were several files in the extended rom which were run on the first bootup. Is it safe to delete these files now as long as I dont plan on doing any hard resets?
Thanks,
-Kai
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Black 2.0 doesn't do anything to your EXT ROM so if you do a hard reset the OS ROM won't trigger the EXT Rom autorun.exe
You'll need to run auto.exe or the separate cab files in your ext rom yourself.
I just deleted my files from my ext rom. I keep a back up on my laptop but I wasn't using files...I only needed the shoestring cab and I used a cab to setup my carrier settings. The other stuff was crap so I dumped it.
I was trying to install IIWPO.
After I copied IIWPO.cab into the "Extended_ROM2" directory, I clicked on the "Extended ROM2" directory and it was blank.
I performed a soft reset, and now it looks like some files are there (but not IIWPO), but some of the files seem to have garbled names.
I'm using a cingular 8125:
ROM version: 2.25.11.1 WWE
ROM Date: 5/11/06
Radio version: 02.25.11
Protocol version: 4.1.13.12
ExtROM version: 2.25.11.102
Questions:
1. Can I & should I try to recover the files in this directory? I don't care about the Cingular stuff in that directory, as long as the unit still boots & can access Cingular phone & internet service.
2. Am I at risk of bricking the phone?
3. Is it safe to hit the reset button on the side of the phone?
4. If I am not at risk of bricking the phone, is the phone still able to be reset to manufacturer defaults by clearing the storage (Settings -> System -> Clear storage) and doing a fresh install like I have done 100x in the past or is it possible that the installation files are corrupt? (ie are they in this extended rom directory?)
FYI: the phone is still locked and CID locked, although I did download (but not run) lokiwiz03a.zip.
Right now the phone seems to work (minus the IIWPO)
Disclaimer: I only have a very rudimentary knowledge of this stuff.
I would do a hard reset and start over... first off.. unlock your device.. lol.
If I do a hard reset isn't there a risk of bricking the phone? The hard reset runs many of the programs in the extended rom, correct? Any idea as to the answers to my other questions?
A hard reset I don't beleive will brick your phone.. .. But just to be sure, read up a little bit, a hard reset restores your phone to original form.. erases pretty much everything and reverts it back... since your rom is 2.25.0001 which is the cingular windows mobile 5 carrier rom it will clear all your settings and saved information and put it right back to where you started.
In answer to one of your questions.. alot of the rom installation files are unnaccessable, so I beleive it is safe to hard reset.. again.. read up on it.. because as with ANYTHING you never know.
I thought that the extended room doesn't get touched on a hard reset (the premise as to why iiwpo works).
So you are saying that a hard reset will put back all of the corrupted files that are in extended rom?
Some of the files are reporting to be over a gb each, so if I think its important to fix.
Can anyone confirm for sure that a hard reset will rebuild tbis directory?
yeah Im not sure about that, I just know whenever I had ANY problem.. that seemed to me like it was potentially phone-killing I did a hard reset.. thats why I said to read around and see if you can find anything similar... I'm not 100%.
hamm3r said:
I thought that the extended room doesn't get touched on a hard reset (the premise as to why iiwpo works).
So you are saying that a hard reset will put back all of the corrupted files that are in extended rom?
Some of the files are reporting to be over a gb each, so if I think its important to fix.
Can anyone confirm for sure that a hard reset will rebuild tbis directory?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, let me clear some issues
A hard-reset does NOT brick a phone and does NOT restore the extended_rom, it only erases the USER area. What will happen, in this case, is that after hard-resetting there will be no files in extended_rom to customize the ROM with all the garbage Service Providers like to push (and sometimes, unfortunately, some useful fixes or network configuration)
@ hamm3r
What you have done is you tried to write to a protected zone (not possible from SPL 1.06 and beyond) and although you thought you did, you saw the result upon rebooting the device - it got corrupted. The FAT is no longer readable and therefore files appear to be GB in size. The only solution is to flash a new extended_rom in case you want to use it when hard-resetting the phone and that can be done by flashing just the extended_rom (using my tool - check signature) or by flashing a complete RUU package - which must be the same you have now (official) since the phone is CID locked
cheers