Popcon Rom - Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General

I have a Samsung fridge that has a TV in it. This TV runs windows CE and a program called "POPCON" (I think it means popular convergence). I want to modify the rom so that I can get it to boot up with a desktop instead of the POPCON. If I need POPCON then I'll place an icon on the desktop. I can get access to the .hv files (default, boot, and such) but never worked with CE before. It also runs the TV signal wireless via 802.11b and that would let me connect it to my wireless network if I want to pull down info while in the kitchen. I can get into the "Windows" folder and see explorer.exe and a whole bunch of other files, the POPCON is in its own partition or drive but there are a bunch of .exe files in the parent folder that run the POPCON application.
There are two drives
\ - I suspect this is root, size is 55megs with 51megs available, type is TFAT
popcon is the name of the other partition and it doesn't show a size but is FAT32
Almost every .ini files states "[email protected]\Windows\ceshell.dll,-20488" so i'm a bit lost as to how CE boots up.
Now, before you think that I paid a bundle for this, your wrong. The fridge is worth about $3,500 but since the guys a Lowes didn't have a clue how to set it up upon delivery, they brought it back and marked it down as damaged electronics for $850. I scooped it up in a heartbeat, read the book and now have a great TV with a fridge stuck to it.
If anyone could help, it would be greatly appriceated.

Related

WM5 / XP System Restore Theory.

I just noticed, i was looking through the windows folder and i found the filed i wanted to rename to force it to fail loading for a test,
using resco i cleared the readonly flag.
i renamed the file
within 2 seconds the screen refreshed and the original file was there again aswell as the renamed one.
this is similar to xp's prefetch where you can delete system specific files and it will replace them itself, in theory delete the windows folder and it will rebuild itself back to a working system, i went through it on a W2003 Advanced Server course aswell.
if this repairing action could be halted, it would open the devices modding capabilities somewhat.
This is NOT prefetch.
Prefetch is when windows loads some programs into ram ready to run them at boot time. This means its quicker to run word etc when you choose it, so booting takes longer and running word is quicker.
and in theory, if you delete the windows folder, it will be deleted and windows will quickly crash, and not boot again.
It does NOT have the power to re-create copies of deleted files from nowhere!
This magical self generation of windows files is not taught on "W2003 Advanced Server course" or any other, I suggest you ask for your money back.
cool
Pyrofer, thanx for the well needed humour, u made me laugh with your comments.
You are thinking about the System File Checker thingy. On Windows (not on WM5) there is a directory with a copy of all the system files. If you replace or delete a system file then windows picks up on it and restores the file. As Pyrofer said, its not magical and its not prefetch
Paul
Pyrofer, I think you should get some facts straight before typing,
as a test for me, check you got system restore running, go into your windows installation folder and MOVE notepad.exe to somewhere else, low and behold notepad.exe reappears in the windows installation folder.
http://www.theeldergeek.com/system_volume_information_folder1.htm
That link may educate you a little more
or this one
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309531
have you been on any computer courses, maybe you should, as its obvious you know very little about modern operating systems, I may have got the prefetch incorrectly named and should have been clearly explained to the now obvious non technical network engineer, but atleast i know what the systems are capable of.
If WM5 is using the extended_rom as the system restore like and this can be stopped, alot of tidying up from the windows folder will make more ram avaliable
This magical self generation of windows files is not taught on "W2003 Advanced Server course" or any other, I suggest you ask for your money back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you done the course? maybe you should and you'll find out yourself that windows is more capable than you think.
GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT BEFORE SHOOTING PEOPLE DOWN IN FLAMES TW4T
System Restore / System Volume Information has nothing to do with the system file protection feature you are describing. They are 2 entirely seperate things. The feature you are actually taking about is described here;
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=222193
WM5 does not have either of these features, the extended rom only contains OEM cab files and operator settings, WM5 has no advanced features like this at all.
There are a number of possible explanations, rom files cannot be deleted, but some can be masked by another file of the same name, you can then delete or rename the 2nd file exposing the 1st file in rom. I have seen this behaviour in WM2003.
Paul
thanks psneddon, thats the system i was trying to find the name of, if that can be stopped from happening.
Thanks for having a go at my knowledge, its always nice to see that you did exactly what you accused me of...
"System Restore / System Volume Information has nothing to do with the system file protection feature you are describing. They are 2 entirely seperate things"
And you agreed with this comment, ie, admitted that in your correction of your post, where you slagged me off, you still got it wrong.
So, in two posts you got them both wrong, in my post i stated a list of correct facts. I never said there was no feature to restore wnidows files, i said that it wasnt prefetch and it wasnt.
ALso, I wasnt "BEFORE SHOOTING PEOPLE DOWN IN FLAMES " and using all caps to shout, I was simply trying to point out your mistakes in a humerous way, obviously my humour went over your head.
I didnt flame you, or call you a twat.
Im sorry if I managed to offend you and understand that humour is a very subjective thing, at least one person here got the joke, so lets just end it here please.
I accept your apology, maybe some smileys around the humor parts would help me a little :lol: and maybe i did fly off the handle a little after nearlly getting killed on my way to work this morning. :roll:
WFP ( Windows File Protection ) does exist, ive now researched into it a little and its been around for a while, and you can delete the contents of the windows folder or system32 and it will replace it all (windows o/s related anyway).
What i was implying was that the universal could be using a similar system to this, ie, getting missing files from the rom and putting them back, and like WFP, this comes with an overhead on performance as it has to continually monitor specific folders for the changes.
I know replacing a file with a blank renamed file blocks this from happening but this can cause issues down the line, like replacing the imate today skins, yer renaming txt files and replacing them stops them from being recreated, but you can still choose them in the today skin manager.
Anyway i've had enough caffine now, lets get the Univeral up to the standards that the advertising led us to believe.

Samsung Fridge with wireless TV

This may seem like a strange request but I have this wireless TV, it just so happens that it is attached to a refridgerator. Its made by Samsung and the TV is called an "I.C.E. Pad" and it runs its own software called Popcon. Being the curious engineer that I am, I found a USB connector on it and decided to plug it in. After connecting I noticed that it's just Windows CE that runs this popcon software at startup. Is there a way that I can interrupt the boot process in one of the .hv files to have this thing come up into explorer instead of the popcon software? In the windows folder there is a user.hv, default.hv and boot.hv files, I was told that these are the registry files and the boot.hv is where they startup is. The reason why I want to do this is because the TV runs on 802.11b wireless and would be nice if I can use this as a tablet when not using the TV and I could just run the popcon software when needed. I am in no way experienced with windows mobile or CE and would like to see if someone could help me. I've been able to dump just about everything of the two partitions onto my computer to play with them, just a few DLL's that won't copy due to sharing violations. Thanks for any help.
you should check out some GPS forums, they have more experience with Windows CE devices since a lot of GPS PNA devices are build on Win CE. There you will be able to find some tools to interrupt the boot process I suppose. A lot of PNA devices can boot custom software by using special files and folders on the storage card, do you have a storage card?
good luck...
VOODOOS!L
There is a connector next to the USB connector but have no idea what is for but a storage card woudn't fit, no matter what kind.
I'll try the GPS forums, thanks.
I ran into similar issues with a post I made about my own WinCE device. The thing about this forum is, there are loads of people who can answer questions about Windows Mobile, which is based on WinCE, but actually a seperate OS, since they share a kernel but much else is different.
Good luck finding some help with your WinCE device, but it seems most people here are only in their comfort area when talking about the Windows Mobile OS, which is only *based on* WinCE and is otherwise a completely different OS.

Microsoft (MS) eReader Issues and a Fix

Not much has been said about the Microsoft (MS) ereader app on this forum (that I could find), but I found an extensive discussion on a Microsoft forum (http://social.answers.microsoft.com...e/thread/49DD09A8-3B32-4F97-AAA3-2585818F03DF). The problem is that MS Reader does not work well with WM6.5. Several people, including me, have been told by MS support staff that MS Reader does not work with WM6.5. That is not quite correct. There are activation issues (see below), but the main problem is that DRM/locked (copyrighted) books cannot be opened on WM6.5 systems such as the HTC HD2. Trying to do so will cause the program to hang and a soft reset is necessary. I was able to open and read unlocked, public domain books in the LIT format.
The current version of MS Reader for smartphones is 3.4.2. (See http://www.microsoft.com/reader/downloads/ppc.aspx) It was intended for WM6.0 and WM6.1. Changes in WM6.5 apparently conflict with the reading of DRM books.
A number of HD2 users experienced problems activating MS Reader. Apparently, a file - OEMInfo.xml - was missing. This file is required for the activation process. The missing file may be due to replacing the stock ROM. My HD2 with stock ROM 2.13.531.1 has the file, and I was able to install and activate the MS Reader. If the file is not available from HTC, the link above has references on how to obtain the file. (I tried contacting the person referred to, but never heard from her.) If you want to use MS Reader to read your old LIT files, first make sure you have the OEMInfo.xml file in the Windows folder, or try to obtain a copy.
There are some programs that can convert LIT files to other formats that other ereader apps support, but these converters will not convert DRM/locked files. My solution was to use the ConvertLit program's "down convert" feature. I used the GUI version of the program because it was "easier" to use (see http://dukelupus.pri.ee/convertlit.php). With this program on my PC, I was able to unlock or decrypt the DRM books I had purchased over the years. I consider this "fair use" since it for my personal use and I don't make the files available to anyone else.
You will need to have the desktop version of MS Reader installed and activated on your PC (http://www.microsoft.com/reader/downloads/pc.aspx). I am able to read my DRM books with the desktop version on my Vista PC. (Please read and follow the directions on the MS Reader website for using PCs with Vista to activate MS Reader on the PC or smartphone. It requires running your browser in Administrator mode. Windows 7 PCs have a different set of problems. I can't even get a Win7 PC to recognize my HD2, but that is another issue.)
Next, install the ConvertLit GUI program and start it. Also start the desktop MS Reader program. Select a LIT file in ConvertLit, in the My Library folder under My Documents by default. Select your output folder or check the box to use the input folder. The converted file will be renamed so you don't lose your original file. Click on the Downconvert button at the top. The first time you do this, you will be prompted that the keys.txt file is missing. Also, you may be asked to select a DRM book in MS Reader. Open the MS Reader library and select any DRM/locked book. You are asked if you want to use the Key Convert program. Click Yes to any prompts. After a short time, you should get a message that the keys.txt file has been created. Close the dialog for the key conversion program.
You may still get an error message that the keys.txt file is missing when you again click the Downconvert button. I believe the keys.txt file got created in the My Library folder. You may need to copy this file to the ConvertLit folder under Program Files on your PC. The error message indicates where the file is needed. Once I did that, I was able to select a LIT file, click the Downconvert button, and get a decrypted file, slightly smaller than the original file. I copied the file to my HD2 using my PC's File Explorer. (I also removed the locked copy already on my HD2 that would not work.) I was able to open and read the file with no problem. I was even able to convert multiple books at one time.
The advantage to this process is that is does not require converting the file to another format, although ConvertLit can do that after unlocking the file.
One issue with the MS Reader is page turning. The program was designed for hardware buttons or the D-ring to change pages. These don't exist on most new smartphones. It is necessary to tap on the turn page links at the bottom of the screen. This takes some practice and occasionally multiple taps.
With both Amazon and Barnes & Noble providing ebook readers for various other OS's, I would not be surprised to see them on the new WindowsPhone 7 phones in the near future.. But I will be surprised if we see an upgrade of the MS Reader for LIT files. Taking your LIT files to a WinPhone7 system probably will require converting files to another format that has a WM7 supported ereader program.
I bought an DRM'd book a while back and it was in M$ Reader format. I've gotten it to work on my desktop but never have on my Hd2 (or before that on my Toshiba). I do have my HD2 activated (what a pain) but it's worthless in my opinion.
mknewman said:
I bought an DRM'd book a while back and it was in M$ Reader format. I've gotten it to work on my desktop but never have on my Hd2 (or before that on my Toshiba). I do have my HD2 activated (what a pain) but it's worthless in my opinion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The method I describe above may not be worth the time and effort for one or two locked MS reader LIT books, but if you have a number of them as I did, it is very useful. I now have my DRM books unlocked and readable on my HD2.

[Q] What is an old/broken blackstone good for?

Hello,
Today I found my old broken (digitizer not working) touch HD sleeping in a dusty box... and I kind of felt sad for it.
All the hardware on the phone is working just fine except for the touch pannel
So I was thinking, is it possible to make some good use of it without investing any money for repair (it's just not worth it, as I have the brilliant HD2 since the day it got realeased)?
Having a non-working digitizer doesn't leave a lot of options but here is an idea:
Car tracking device? - have it installed in my car, constantly charging from the car battery, listening to GPS and sending coordinates over gsm data to my PC/server.
1. The blackstone have a GPS and you can install a simple data only SIM card from your provider, allowing your device to connect to a remote server over the internet and send important data - like gps coordinates.
2. It's still possible to install any custom rom you like.
3. There is a way to skip initial touch calibration screen: make an empty text file and rename it to "welcome.not" and place it in the root ot your sd card. (Thanks to Chef_Tony for pointing that out!)
4. There is a way to control the device via PC and a USB cable: after hard reset your device default usb connection mode will be ActiveSync. Then run the free MyMobiler application on the PC and it will automatically install on the usb connected device, allowing you to fully control it via your PC mouse and keyboard. (Thanks to Chef_Tony for pointing that out!)
I'm sure that I'm not the first nor the only one that came up with an idea like this, but I couldn't find any topic on it. I also know there are many brilliant developers in XDA that make loads of awesome apps for our HTC devices.
So, any ideas?
Shouts to:
Chef_Tony
Best wishes,
Xeno
new digitizer is about $8.. buy it, fix it at home and sell it for $100
yes, you can always replace the digitizer and have a fine phone.
but anyways, since your plan seems pretty interesting, here is some basic input to help you:
3. you can bypass the OOBE. all you need to do is, create an empty txt file on your pc, "untitled.txt" and rename it to "Welcome.not", (yes, change the extension to "not") and put it in the root of the sd card, then the welcome wizard should be skipped after a hard reset, and so you don't need to align the screen.
4. after a hard reset, the default option for a usb connection is activesync. then you can run MyMobiler on your pc, it will install on the device automatically and you can control the device on your pc's screen with keyboard and mouse.
so you can still use it for anything you like, if you control it over the pc and preconfigure it to meet your needs.
sleby said:
new digitizer is about $8.. buy it, fix it at home and sell it for $100
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I gave it a shot few months ago and I failed The problem was that the digitizer is literally glued to the lcd panel, and detaching it is a REAL pain the butt (I almost broke it). Anyway, after reassembly the new touch screen didn't work and I gave up. I cursed myself later on when I found the topic here in XDA forums that the best way is to buy a digitizer+lcd combo...
Chef_Tony said:
yes, you can always replace the digitizer and have a fine phone.
but anyways, since your plan seems pretty interesting, here is some basic input to help you:
3. you can bypass the OOBE. all you need to do is, create an empty txt file on your pc, "untitled.txt" and rename it to "Welcome.not", (yes, change the extension to "not") and put it in the root of the sd card, then the welcome wizard should be skipped after a hard reset, and so you don't need to align the screen.
4. after a hard reset, the default option for a usb connection is activesync. then you can run MyMobiler on your pc, it will install on the device automatically and you can control the device on your pc's screen with keyboard and mouse.
so you can still use it for anything you like, if you control it over the pc and preconfigure it to meet your needs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you fine sir for the light on the topic. I'll make sure to add this in the first post
Every new idea/info will be of great value reaching the goals of this thread
Ok, putting a welcome.not file on the root of the sd card did the trick as promised. I conneced the device to my PC via usb and as expected it connected via ActiveSync by default.
Unfortunatelly MyMobiler was unable to install the mobile part of the app automatically - it poped a message on the phone "This program is from an unknown publisher..." and it's now waiting for confirmation to continue the execution of the app... and it's pretty impossible to confirm this with a broken touch pannel
I believe there is a registry workaround for this, but it should be set by default in a cooked rom? I'm using the latest WWE rom from HTC.com.
It will be great if some good chef could mod this rom and make this annoying message go away
1. i just had an idea on how to get mymobiler running. i cannot promise, that it'll work, but it certainly doesn't hurt.
having the latest mymobiler on your pc, you see different files there, some of which are named:
remote.exe
remote.exe.40
remote.exe.50
when you connect the device in activesync mode, and set it up for syncing (at least notes or browser favorites, something that does not actually mess with your pim data), you will see the blackstone in "My Computer". entering it, you have the storage home drive and the storage card. by enabling "Show hidden files" and disabling "Hide system files" in your windows explorer, you should be able to access the windows folder of the device. then you can copy the file remote.exe.50 there, rename it to remote.exe (the .40 file is for wm2003, the .50 file for wm5 or greater, but you need to remove the extension to make it executable).
and then, since you cannot make shortcuts yet, copy the file again to \Windows\StartUp\
thereby making it run automaticly, when the device boots. then soft reset, and i am fairly certain, you should be able to run mymobiler.
from there on, you could disable the signature warning for future programs.
EDIT: apparently, the startup folder is victim to the certification warning as well. still i leave this paragraph, as i find it interesting as to how mymobiler works.
2. another idea would be to just flash any cooked rom found here on the forum. all of them have this stupid signature warning disabled and are ready to run mymobiler out of the box.
3. my third idea to get it running is trying to modify the responsible reg key:
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Security\Policies\Policies\0000101a
it is a dword key, where the value '0' is activated warning, and '1' means, the warning is disabled.
in the 2577.zip in the attachment, you will find a reg key, that changes this value and also a cab file to do the same thing.
on a device with an ARM cpu, the folder 2577\ on the storage card will be monitored for autorun.exe and execute it, when the card is inserted. i also packed 3 different autorun.exe files in there, one by me, one by navigon, and one by igo, hoping at least one of them would work with a proper certificate. what you'd need to do, is extract it, and copy it to the storage card, so the path is \Storage Card\2577\Autorun.exe
autorun classic works with the CFG.txt, which is also included and changed to work, as long as your rom is WWE and the storage card is actually named \Storage Card\, if not, edit the path.
until now, i was unable to run it, because the autorun.exe files aren't signed with a trusted certificate either, but i'll give other people time to post ideas, and rethink the thing, maybe i can make it work for you.
still i think, if you are gonna use the device for a few little features, you are not required to use the stock rom, so flashing another rom, which then does not have the certification warning would be the easiest way to go for everyone involved.
Connect it to your PC and use it as a monitoring tool!
Can come handy when benchmarking.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=695298

[Q] it appears that I have two copies of win 8 on my pc how do I delete one?

Okay so I just decided to upgrade from win 7 to win 8 pro. I ran into some issues. I had to make several attempts I was having monitor issues. Actually it was stupid everything went fine but I have a dvi monitor and a hdmi tv hooked up I only use the tv when watching videos or movies but I guess that it defaulted to the hdmi device because I got a blank screen on my monitor but I could see the mouse. I had the tv off do I didn't realize iut but it was working fine on that until I got online and it automatically found the driver for the monitor. So anyway that problem is fixed but somehow in all my attempts I must have installed win 8 two times because when I boot it gives me the option of two different win 8 like if I had fedora or ubuntu installed but with two win 8. so I figured no problem just delete one. So I went into the disk tools and found the partition manager but it only shows two partitions. the small system partition that has to be there and my c partition with win 8.
Can two versions of windows be on the same partition? Does anyone know how to find the other copy? I always select the first one on the list.
Oh my pc is a dell xps 410 and it is an old man. But it is still going strong with upgrades
core 2 duo 1.86 ghz 4 gig ram 64 bit os I have had every release of windows since xp sp3 currently win pro.
I appreciate any help you guys can give me
Charlie
It may just be listed twice in the bootloader. Use bcdedit (as admin) and check each entry. You should find two "Windows Boot Loader" entries. Each will have a device, path, osdevice, and systemroot listed (among other things). If those all contain the same value between both entries, there's no files to delete. Next check for any other differences; there may not be any meaningful ones (the identifier is not meaningful). If you don't see any reason to keep both of them, delete one. You can use "bcdedit /? delete" for help.
GoodDayToDie said:
It may just be listed twice in the bootloader. Use bcdedit (as admin) and check each entry. You should find two "Windows Boot Loader" entries. Each will have a device, path, osdevice, and systemroot listed (among other things). If those all contain the same value between both entries, there's no files to delete. Next check for any other differences; there may not be any meaningful ones (the identifier is not meaningful). If you don't see any reason to keep both of them, delete one. You can use "bcdedit /? delete" for help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your help with this. Where would I type bcdedit? Is there a start box somewhere like in 7 and I haven't seen it yet?; I am still not too familiar with 8 yet I just got it but I will have it down in no time.
It's a command line tool. Just right-click on the Start button (mouse to lower left corner, then right-click) and choose "Command Prompt (Admin)" to launch an admin prompt (you can also do it from Start search the same as on Vista or Win7; just open the Start screen and type "cmd" or "command" and it will appear; right-click and choose "Run as Administrator").
The "Run" dialog is also still present - Win+R displays it, as it has for years - but with the new Start right-click menu (which can also be accessed via Win+X) I find I haven't needed it much.
wow I see there is alot that I have to learn about win8 thank you for all the tips. Is there a good guide out there that any of you would recomend? I usually learn best when people tell me but if I am interested enough (like I am with this) I can learn from a book.
Well here is what I get when I typed it in. I could not copy and past the text so I took a whole window snipit. Okay I cant seenm to figure out how to put it in. I would hate to have to type that all. I used the windows snipit tool. So can someone tell this idiot how to attach the pic. I saved it to my desktop. Do i use insert image and type the path to my desktop? why cant I just copy the text and past it. The would be easy darn it.
Charlie
To copy out of the terminal, right-click, select Mark, then highlight the text and right-click. You can then paste it elsewhere as normal. It's also possible to set QuickEdit mode on CMD (in Properties), which allows marking without first selecting it by right-click.

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