XDA2i Guide to cooking the Extended ROM

[GBird]

I finally found a method for backing up and modifying the Extended ROM on an XDA2i device.

http://en.pdamobiz.com/en/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=373&PN=1

Unfortunately, although this method is able to do most of what I want, some of the cab files do not self-extract successfully during the reset process.

Graham. -- Issue resolved. No spaces allowed in Cab file name --

Before you ask, yes the cab files do self-extract successfully if tried manually (i.e. outside of the reset process).

If anyone has any ideas why some cab files work and others do not, please let me know.

[sparcle]

I played with the information in the article yesterday.. Some information in the article is incorrect. They state the ext. rom is 24 MB but when following the steps on the website this is incorrect !

Sure, extra drive reports a 24 MB drive but the what's backuped to the SD card doesn't include the whole 24 MB the ext. rom supposedly has !

What I'm typing below is more guess work than knowledge.
"d2s 80000000 3BF0000" probably means "dump to SD card" for a total length of 80000000 hex starting at 3BF0000 hex.

80000000 hex is 2147483648 in decimal. These aren't the amount in bytes that are copied.. I to honest it I have no real idea in what it are but when dividing it by 1024^2/100 you get 20,48. The / 100 is something I made up since that gives me about the amount in MBs I can put in the ext. ROM without having corrupted files. I don't want to experiment with larger values since I haven't studied the tools that are used in the article enough yet.

In short, be sure not to put more than say 20 MB in the ext. ROM and most likely your problems are solved. I personally put an executable sprite backup file in the ext ROM, packaged it in a way it will be copied to storage and run from there. It's the most effective way I could think of to fill an extended ROM. Simply with a fully installed but clean backup of the pocket pc.

Anyhow, that's it for now.

[GBird]

I considered it being a problem with size and reduced the amount of data in the Extended ROM by a huge amount (deleted several of the cab files that I did not need).
This reduced it down to around 13Mb for what it's worth.

All of the files installed to the ROM ok, but when the process which reads the Config.txt file reached the parts regarding two of the cabs I wanted to install, the files failed to self-extract without giving any feedback.

Several other cab files I wanted to install worked fine.

What all this means is that the problem (probably) lies somewhere other than the size of the Extended ROM.

Thanks for the post sparcle and if you find out anything more please let me know.

If anyone else can help here, please feel free to contribute.

Graham.

[Chan]

As above guide:

CE Rom size is 2700000 (hex)
Total backup size is 3BF0000 (hex)

So extended rom size is 3BF0000-2700000 = 14F0000 (hex) or 21,954,560 (dec)

So extended rom size shall not be over than 21,954,560 in total space.

-----------------------

But itsme's document

http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=AlpineRomStructure

82700000-83f00000 extended rom

So backup range shall be 3F00000. (size = 66060288 (dec) which you can not use 64mb card, you have to use 128mb card to backup)

So sorry, I'll ask my friend ruchonburi to recheck again.

[GBird]

Just a quick note on the sizes you gave above:

83,f00,000 - 82,700,000 = 1,800,000 (hex)
= 25,165,824 (dec) (24Mb) for the extended rom.

83,f00,000 - 80,000,000
= 3,f00,000 (hex) = 63Mb for the whole rom

The document given at the site uses:
80,000,000 to 83,bf0,000 which may miss some of the extended ROM, which may explain my problem.

I will try using the numbers from wiki and see if it works.

Cheers,
Graham.

[GBird]

I tried using d2s 80000000 3f00000 to create the SD Card backup initially and I still had the same problem with some CAB files extracting successfully and some not.

Graham.

[GBird]

Looks like the issue may lie with spaces in the CAB filenames.

If it is I will kick myself for not realising it sooner and then post here to let you know.

Graham.

[GBird]

Ouch, ouch, ouch....

I've finished kicking myself.
The problem was indeed the space in the cab filename.

On the plus side it means that the process works fine.

Graham.

[clustered]

i just want to ask......by cooking Ext Rom....how much free space that can be use after that???? does it effect any upgrade in the future????

[GBird]

The Extended ROM is an area that you cannot normally write to and is not considered part of the memory (as far as I am aware) under Settings/Memory.

By cooking the ROM you can alter what applications get installed when the device is hard reset. The installed applications will take up their normal memory allocation so in that respect it will reduce the amount of memory available to further applications.

It is possible to increase the amount of memory available by cooking the ROM as there may be elements of the Extended ROM that came with the device that you do not actually want installed. This is done either by removing the relevant cab file completely or by removing the relevant entry from the Config.txt file (both should be done, but one or the other will have the same effect).

Hope this helps,
Graham.

[clustered]

gbird, thanks very much for that information. im sorry because asking question just about benefit, not about how and why. thanks again! :)

[miket39]

Hi fellow alpine owners

I'm keen to follow your tips and do some work in the kitchen.
I have downloaded all the relevant articles from the link provided so thankyou for that.

However i'm reluctant to take the first step with the thought of a unrecoverable disaster on my hands. MY NEW XDA2i!! So before i get started i thought i would consult the experts for any tips and traps for young players.

I've bought myself a large enough quality SD card to dump to.
I guess the aim of the exercise is to a remove unwanted programs and install some of the cool features of Special Edition ROM 1.2 including that really excellent anti theft tool.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated, with what to remove/ install and how thanks in advance.

Miket

ROM version 1.11.00
ROM date 01/27/05
Radio version 1.03.00
Protocol Version 1337.42
ExtROM version 1.11.162 WWE

[GBird]

First tip, use the process to back up the ROM of the device and keep it very safe.

Since all you will be playing with is the Extended ROM (and not messing with the OS Rom or Radio Rom) the good news is that if you removed all of the files from the Extended Rom you would still be able to boot the device. This gives you an opportunity to remove files to see what they install. If it goes really wrong, you can restore the Extended Rom from the SD card backup.

The XDA2i device does have a lot of room on it for additional items so you can add in extra Cab files or Exe files if you wish. You need to modify the Config.txt file to make the Extended Rom run these extras.

As for which files do what, there is a lot of info available around this site and others and I am afraid I do not have time to go into it at the moment.

I will see if I get some time over the next few days, but work is a little hectic at the moment.

Hope you have fun,
Graham.

[miket39]

Thanks for the speedy reply Graham

Will endevour to make backup this evening and start chopping up extended ROM.
Any thoughts on the instructions provided by this web site.

http://en.pdamobiz.com/en/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=373&PN=1

Obviously a highly regarded PDA hacker.

I will be working through these. It's a bumber that XDA2i is so arkward.

Thanks for now
Miket

[GBird]

The page is pretty good (that's why I pointed at it) :)

RomUpdate
The only bit that is a bit short on description is the stuff regarding using the romupdate tool at the top.

If you need a more complete description of this tool then I would take a look at:
http://en.pdamobiz.com/en/forum/PDAforum_posts.asp?TID=62&PN=1&TPN=2
Be aware that the addresses for the d2s command are different for the XDA2 and XDA2i

Rom Structure
The memory address information for the Alpine (XDA2i) is available at this site:
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=AlpineRomStructure

RomUpdate Commands
There is also a page describing some of the commands available in the romupdate tool:
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=HimalayaBootloaderCommands

XDA2 Cab Files
This site has a description of some of the XDA2 cab files which may interest you (though the XDA2i uses different cab files, some of which have similar names):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=6470

Soft Reset in the Config.txt File
The last bit I'm going to mention here is that the last item in the Config.txt file soft resets the device. If you remove this item for some reason then adding the line "RST: Reset" on the end of the Config.txt file will soft reset the device automatically for you.


Hope these are of use to you, I know they were all of use to me,
Graham.

[miket39]

Absolutely excellent thanks Graham
Have got as far as using the split tool.
Xp is throwing a 16bit error my way, so i will have to resolve that before i can go any further.

Are you suggesting that when i re-build extended ROM to include "RST:Reset" on the last line in config.txt?

Anyway it's time for bed.
Thanks for the great links, will read through these tomorrow.

Miket

[GBird]

With regards to the RST: Reset command, it is sometimes useful to soft reset the device at the end of the configuration.

This is because some of the Cab files will probably modify the registry and most of these changes will not be picked up until the device is soft reset (the device is still usable, just not using the changes).

Most of the builds that you may come across already do this as a last step in one of their Executables so they do not always include the reset line in the config file. Adding this line to the end will ensure that a soft reset always happens so that registry changes will be used.

Be warned, soft resetting the device will halt the configuration build at that point, so anything after the reset command will never happen.

I hope this makes some sense :)

Graham.

[miket39]

Hi again Graham
Finally sorted 16 bit issues with the PC. Have loaded SPLIT ROM and created the 3 components. Particularly ext.img
I have also created the virtual drive "X" with "ext.img"
File\properties tells me this is a 24MB file. All good until i wish to open. PC asks if i wish to format disk, i'm not able to read contents any ideas.
TA
Mike

[miket39]

I thought i would try downloading the cooked rom off en.pdamobiz.com as a test. The extended rom opened up perfectly in virtual drive creator. Mine however is an exact match size wise but wont open.

HMMM

I guess the next step is work out what i need and dont need in extended ROM. Assuming i can get past this stage.
Any guidance here would be appreciated.

Miket

[animelover]

Hello guys!


I'd like to modify my german extROM too but I have a little problem: when I'm starting the ntrw.exe (it lay in the basement of my HDD, in C:\) it closes itself!
So I mean, I can't use the ntrw.exe from the PDA-Miz guide to write the ROM-image to my HDD!


What can I do?


Thanks in advance
animelover from germany

[GBird]

Miket,

I'm not an expert with these tools by a long way and it might be worth contacting the folks who wrote the tools you're having trouble with (where possible) or the folks who wrote the websites I refer to (again where possible).

It sounds as though you may be grabbing a corrupted ext.img file from your pda, which (and I'm making a guess here) might mean that you've typed the d2s command incorrectly (for XDA2i, the command is d2s 80000000 3f00000).

I know that the method worked fine for me with the XDA2i's I have here so I am not sure how to fix your problem, sorry.


Animelover,

ntrw is a command line tool. The easiest method to use it is to start a command window, navigate to the location of ntrw and type the following:
Ntrw read <filename> <drive>

For example, if the sdcard is available as drive "F", then the following command:
Ntrw read rom.nb1 f:
would create a file called rom.nb1 in the ntrw directory.

Split is also a command line utility which requires a filename as an argument (rom.nb1 from the above example for instance) in order to create the three files you will need.

Hope this helps,
Graham.

[animelover]

Yes, you're right. I know this but I forgot it at the moment! :oops:

I must use my brain more often! 8)

[miket39]

Thanks graham

I will fart about and see what happens
must be something dumb.

I see someone has posted another download customisation method, which looks interesting.

Is there directory or a thread you could point me to that has a cab file listings??

TA
Again
Miket

[GBird]

I don't know of a list of what the cab files on the XDA2i do (though there may be one out there somewhere). If I find one I will post it here and I would appreciate it if you would too so that I can update the top post.

I haven't noticed another method (I don't have a lot of time at the moment) so please feel free to post a link to the page for anyone who ends up here and I will attach it to the top post.

Graham.

[animelover]

Yeeehaaa, it works very fine!!! Now I have the german settings from T-Mobile in my Ext-ROM! :D :D :D :D :D

Thank you very much, guys! You're the best!

[Wesone]

Yo GBIRD,

this is the config file text of a O2 XDAIIi

EXEC:\Extended_ROM\TPDisable.exe
CAB: \Extended_ROM\BA_cm_rm_map_o2_v3.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\BackpackDriver.sa.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\Caller_ID_Alpine_Generic_WWE_RC16.CA B
CAB: \Extended_ROM\CV2.41.386_wwe.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\Delete_shortcut.sa.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\SmartDialing_Alpine_Generic_WWE_RC13 .CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\PhonePad_Alpine_Generic_WWE_RC11.CAB
CAB:
\Extended_ROM\CAB-TaoJava-10.1.4.127-Alpine-O2Music-ENU-01Apr05-MMP1051-v101.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\O2UK_removeACCEPT_12212004.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\VideoMMSB22.sa.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\O2UK_PIE_homepage.sa.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\O2UK_Regional_TimeZone.sa.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\O2UK_RingTone.sa.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\Patch_Camera_9650.sa.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\Patch_Eraphone.sa.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\Patch_Update_SIM_Mgr_2.2.1.0.sa.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\Alpine_SMS05272005.sa.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\PressKey.sa.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\wap.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\Certificate.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\version.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\IPV4_132.sa.CAB
EXEC:\Extended_ROM\TPEnable.exe
CAB: \Extended_ROM\v36024_install.ARM.CAB

any idea what i can safely remove?

I am living in belgium so i dont need anything from the o2 crap

thnx in advance!

[GBird]

Wesone,

Before I start a small disclaimer :)
USE OF THIS INFORMATION IS AT YOUR OWN RISK
I would advise making sure you have a backup of the original files so that they can be restored if something goes wrong.
I've put this up here as I figured people might just happen on the information and I don't want to catch fall out if I say something that is wrong here. I am still testing and playing around with the XDA2i Rom builds so none of this is by any means definitive. Also, the work I am doing involves installing a custom application on a device so I am disabling a lot of the standard functionality (this means I am less concerned over some of the Cabs than other people might be).

You can remove all of the Cab files from the list if you wish.
This will leave you with a completely blank install and there may be items that fix issues with the device that you have removed so I would not advise this.

As for the list of files:
EXEC:\Extended_ROM\TPDisable.exe
Disables the touch screen

CAB: \Extended_ROM\BA_cm_rm_map_o2_v3.CAB
Not sure but I have removed this

CAB: \Extended_ROM\BackpackDriver.sa.CAB
Not sure. I have left this in the Rom build

CAB: \Extended_ROM\Caller_ID_Alpine_Generic_WWE_RC16.CA B
I would assume this installs caller id. Since I dont use this I have removed it

CAB: \Extended_ROM\CV2.41.386_wwe.CAB
No idea. Removed

CAB: \Extended_ROM\Delete_shortcut.sa.CAB
I would assume this deletes a shortcut somewhere on the device. Since I have my own tool for file manipulation in the Rom build I have removed this one.

CAB: \Extended_ROM\SmartDialing_Alpine_Generic_WWE_RC13 .CAB
Not sure what smart dialling is but I have left it on the Rom

CAB: \Extended_ROM\PhonePad_Alpine_Generic_WWE_RC11.CAB
Not sure. I have deleted this one though

CAB:
\Extended_ROM\CAB-TaoJava-10.1.4.127-Alpine-O2Music-ENU-01Apr05-MMP1051-v101.CAB
Installs Java music stuff? Removed as I am not using music or java

CAB: \Extended_ROM\O2UK_removeACCEPT_12212004.CAB
No idea. Removed as it sounds odd

CAB: \Extended_ROM\VideoMMSB22.sa.CAB
I am not using video so I removed this

CAB: \Extended_ROM\O2UK_PIE_homepage.sa.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\O2UK_Regional_TimeZone.sa.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\O2UK_RingTone.sa.CAB
I have removed all of the O2 files as I have no interest in them

CAB: \Extended_ROM\Patch_Camera_9650.sa.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\Patch_Eraphone.sa.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\Patch_Update_SIM_Mgr_2.2.1.0.sa.CAB
I have left all of the patch files as they could be important

CAB: \Extended_ROM\Alpine_SMS05272005.sa.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\PressKey.sa.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\wap.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\Certificate.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\version.CAB
CAB: \Extended_ROM\IPV4_132.sa.CAB
Unsure. Left in the Rom

EXEC:\Extended_ROM\TPEnable.exe
Enables the touch screen. Very important if TPDisable has been fired!

CAB: \Extended_ROM\v36024_install.ARM.CAB
I have removed this since I do not want the O2 settings installed. If you remove this then you should bear in mind that the device will not soft reset at the end of the install ("RST: Reset" can achieve this though). You should also bear in mind that the connection settings will almost certainly need sorting out if this line is omitted.

My selections as to what I have left in the Rom and taken out are somewhat arbitrary but if it helps you in any way then feel free to take a look.

Graham.