Database Users

Remote Application Install

Hi Everyone,
I am just starting to explore developing software for mobile devices. I want to be able to develop an application, generate a CAB file, copy them to a selected device and the make the device automatically expand and install the CAB file.
Does anyone know of an easy way of automating the installation of a CAB file on devices - this is basically so that the end user does not have to be involved in the installation of new software.
Thanks
Dan

I'm interested in it too!
Do you mean that you want to remotely update the software installed in the mobile? Do you plan to send the new installation file by GPRS?

You can't push files over GPRS unless you have a VPN or similar tunnel (most people don't.)
While developing I like to run Eiichiro Ito's ftpd for Windows CE (works with any version from 2.0 to 5.0 - http://www.oohito.com/wince/arm_j.htm) and I have a rule in my Makefile which automatically uploads the new binary to the storage card, ready to run.
Of course if you only want your program to check for updates and install them automatically, then it is just a matter of making it check a website and download available updates each time it is run. This requires extra code in your application but it's the only way to do it for released software. Also it will annoy the user by trying to connect to GPRS every time they run the program.

It sounds like to me you want to know how to make a cab file. Is that right?
If so I can offer some code. The part about getting the cab to automatically work is not so easy. Unless you have some process already running that expects the cab, what will execute it?(unless of cource you mean the device is synched)
Give more detail.

How can one scan and modify every IP packet that goes thru PPP (dial-up)?

Hello. I want to scan and modify every IP packet that goes thru PPP (dial-up) (or thru all interfaces if easier). I've done a lot of research and found that maybe the only way to achieve this on lousy wince is to patch the OS itself...I am an x86 programmer and I've done this relatively easily on winxp...
P.S. How can one debug wince os code in ROM with software debuggers?
P.P.S. So far I don't have any solution to my problem so it would be a success to do this even with one device (I have htc universal for tests...)

Today I've finally downloaded the platform builder and so called "Shared" code of wince 6.0...To my surprise I found ARM4 .lib files instead of source code for everything that I needed to look in (ip*.*) . However there is a binmod utility and other stuff for editing rom that you might need. I don't need to modify rom since i can neither debug ROM nor have it's source even from a different version of wince (I need for 5.0). M$ is sh*t as usual.

It is the har work to modify ppp packets on pocket pc (wince).
Yo can try the passthru sample in PB:
\PUBLIC\COMMON\OAK\DRIVERS\NETSAMP\PASSTHRU
and
\WINCE500\PUBLIC\COMMON\OAK\DRIVERS\NETSAMP\ASYNCMAC
i think you have to modify the drivers.
good luck !

VB.Net + mdb-Databases (Access) on WM6

How can I open Access Databases in VB.Net for WM6?
I want to use sql-commands to read, edit and write to the database
is this possible? thank you for help!
greetz SciLor

Ok, I have no idea about these things but I will still try it
Maybe this?
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=38ed2670-a70a-43b3-87f3-7ab67b56cbf2

Thank you that might be what i search know i need to know how to access on on the DLL's

i do not believe that compact framework differs from normal .net
when it comes to oleDB interface
i would check out
codeguru.com for code about conecting to an access db

Thank you for the site! very useful
I will try to find something, but my problem is i never used vb.net in connection with databases

i cant help you with anything vb related as i hate vb
but if you need a connection string
http://www.connectionstrings.com/

I only read about sdf files... these databases suck, i dont want to work with different file types on my computer and my phone

Portable Database
i'm using SQLite on my wharehouse program it's free fast and your database file is portable meaning you can access the data on your mobile as well as your destop, if you are coding in .net there is a net wrapper availiable too, you can connect with the database similar way as if it was sqlce database so i found it pretty easy, and the sql syntax is like typical SQL. you have to get a query analyzer separetaly though, or build your own it's not hard to implement.
So try Googling for SQLite and the .Net Wrapper basicaly you need only the Wrapper, and copy the wrapper .dll to your device in your app directory.
Ps. There are many open source projects availiable to learn how to use it just search
Ps2.Sorry for my bad english.

Getting started with ROMs

I want to modify the messaging program but I've not done any WM coding before. I've looked at a number of posts on the forum and taken a look at the wiki but I'm still totally confused about where to start.
My current view is that I need to:
Extract the messaging program from the ROM I'm using
Is this possible? If so, what tools do I need? I found a few utilities that look promising on the wiki but there is no documentation for them so I've got no idea how to use them.
Disassemble the program
Can I do this with Visual Studio? Ideally I would like to step through the execution to find the bits I need to change, can I do that with the extracted program in the WM emulator? Or can I do it directly on my PDA?
Patch the program
I can probably figure this bit out by myself.
Get the patched program onto my PDA
As the program is in ROM, I'm assuming I'll have to re-make the ROM. Or can ROM files be updated/overwritten without rebuilding the ROM?
Each of those steps is assuming the previous one is the correct approach and is actually possible. I'm not looking for hand holding at every step, just some good pointers to relevant information and tools. Thanks.

0. - which programm you want to hack ?
1. What type of PDA you use ?
for example - for hx4700 -
prepare_imgfs.exe dump.dat
viewimgfs.exe imgfs_raw_data.bin
2. IDA - diassemble, or Visual Studio for debugging - if you know how
3. What type of PDA you use ?
for example - for hx4700 - like vivi kitchen.
4. ...

Thanks for your reply.
0. - which programm you want to hack ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The messaging program, is it called Outlook Mobile? Do you know if it is native or managed code? If not, what's the easiest way to tell?
1. What type of PDA you use ?
for example - for hx4700
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got a Kaiser. Currently running "udK 8.0 R0 Vega" ROM (WM6.1). Forgot to mention that in my previous post.
IDA - diassemble, or Visual Studio for debugging - if you know how
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does IDA support remote debugging on Windows Mobile? Also, are there any restrictions on what you can debug in VS, ie. do they stop you from debugging things you don't have the source for or are Microsoft applications (eg. Outlook) restricted from debugging in some way?
I'm finding it really hard to get decent information on these kinds of things. If I actually manage to get anywhere with this then I'll write up some kind of guide for the wiki.

Ok, I've used this tool to extract the ROM and get a file called 00_OS.nb. I then got these tools and managed to dump the NB file so that I now have all of the files inside the ROM.
I've been playing about with IDA but when I try and run poutlook.exe in the debugger, it runs but exits straight away (ie. it doesn't create a window on the PDA). I tried copying poutlook.exe onto my device but it doesn't run, I think I need to get it running from the exe before I do anymore IDA stuff. I remember reading somewhere that executables in the ROM image have been manipulated in some way (addresses rewritten or relocated or something), is that what is affecting it? Or do I need to run some additional tool on the extracted exe before it will run standalone?
How do I get an executable extracted from the ROM to run on my device? Or do I have to roll it all up into a ROM for it to work?

[Q] Debugging extracted WinCE6 binaries in emulator

Hi,
I extracted several executables (EXEs and DLLs) from the firmware image of a WinCE6 device.
In addition to that, I also build my own WinCE6 image with VS2005 that is running in the Device Emulator.
Now, what I'm planning to do is copy some of the extracted executable files to my emulator image and run them there.
For instance, it already worked to copy the "zlib.dll" to the emulated image and then load it with some customly written code.
However, this only works for a few DLLs. Most of them just crash.
I believe this is because of the memory mapping.
As you might know, WinCE6 has its own address space for shared libraries.
Typically they are loaded to the 0x40000000 region whereas libraries that are not shared are loaded to the address space of the application itself (i.e. 0x100000000 region).
While the DLLs from my own image mostly map to the 0x100000000 region, most of the extracted DLLs are loaded to the shared memory region which seems to cause problems.
Initially, the extracted zlib.dll did not work in the emulator image either.
However, increasing the RAM size of the emulator image did the trick.
Yet, the emulator supports at most 256MB of RAM. So further increasing the RAM size for DLLs that do not work yet is not an option.
Did anyone else try to run extracted binaries in an emulator environment ?
My ultimate goal is to run these extracted executables inside my emulated environment, so that I can debug and reverse engineer the code.
Is it possible to change the memory mapping of a DLL so that, instead of being loaded to the 0x40000000 shared region, it is loaded to the process space ?

There is a nifty freeware PE editor called CFF Explorer currently version VII.
http://www.ntcore.com/exsuite.php
One of the options under the Rebuilder tab is to change the Image Base of an object and rebuild it.
Make sure you are only doing this to a copy of your DLL. It's a long shot but it may work.
Good Luck.

Hi,
stephj said:
There is a nifty freeware PE editor called CFF Explorer currently version VII.
One of the options under the Rebuilder tab is to change the Image Base of an object and rebuild it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cool, thanks !
I just tried it, but unfortunately the "New Image Base" functionality is greyed out.
I guess it's because the DLL I'm trying to change is not for x86_32/x86_64, but for the ARM platform.
Do you also debug WinCE stuff ?
I'm currently trying to get IDA Pro working with WinCE.
It seems to have debug support through ActiveSync.

The 5x5 and Life programs listed in my signature both have a separate CE version, but they were ported over to CE after I had shaken all the bugs out of the WinMo version in the WinMo Emulator and on the device itself.
The CE versions were only tested on the CE emulator, and given a quick spin round the block to make sure it all works. I do not have a 'real' CE device to test them on.
I have a copy of IDA Pro, but is only the freeware version, not the full blown paid-for versions. I don't know whether the free version has full CE debug support, I'll have to have a try sometime.

Testing in CE-Emulator is not enough at all
stephj said:
The CE versions were only tested on the CE emulator, and given a quick spin round the block to make sure it all works. I do not have a 'real' CE device to test them on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably these CE-Emulator tests were not enough at all, because for example your SUDOKU does NOT work properly on my 800x480px sized unit based on CE 6.0 Professional. FileDialogs not populated, etc pp
Do not worry, I mainly are playing flash games, IMHO the better type of gaming applications ...

Only 5x5 and Life have versions specifically built ising the Windows CE SDK.
The others don't, as they were built using the Windows Mobile SDK.
Is it really surprising that it looks crap or doesn't work properly, if you try and run it under the wrong platform?
Likewise, CE versions look crap when run under Windows Mobile.