Announcement: Wizard Rom-Packer Kitchen V2.0

[edhaas]

Welcome to the Wizard Rom-Packer Kitchen V2.0, with "Squeezer" technology!

Please read all the way through before starting, even if you've used a previous version.

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

This kitchen is easy to use, but is really meant for those with some previous work with other kitchens,like faria's or 004's or Molski's. (If I've left someone out, I'm sorry about that.) This kitchen is based on Bepe's Hermes kitchen, which has incorporated tadzio's reworking of maimach's imgfs tools. This allows the rom to be packed more efficiently, and thus more packages and files to be burned into the rom. The savings is not trivial, a few megabytes at least.

In addition, I have added a new Squeezer module, based on open-source UPX technology, which actually compresses Office .exe files, freeing even more room in the rom (a few more meg), and actually decreasing load times!

Although the Wizard Rom is not quite as malleable as the Hermes in that the extra space is not translated into additional user storage memory, at least the additional freeware, shareware, themes, etc. which can be burned to the rom do not have to reduce the user storage space.

I hope over time to enhance this further, as new innovations become available, (maybe someone will figure out a way to repartition the Wizard Rom?). Also, perhaps adding some way of automatically generating the xip directory. If you have suggestions feel free to let me know about them.

Error checking is not extensive, so be sure to keep your old rom available to fall back to! Check the size of the generated .nbf file. If its around 59 mb you are close to the limit. Be ready to re-flash in bootloader mode (after paring some packages or files) if the program exits before the 100% mark.

How to use:

Download your favorite base rom, at this point one from another kitchen, which has already been broken down to SYS, OEM, and ROM directories. Delete the SYS, OEM, and ROM directories from my kitchen, and copy the ones from the other kitchen in there instead.

Make a copy of the SYS\OFFICE directory in case of later problems (not likely).

An additional caution/strong recommendation is to delete the /autoupdate package from your roms. This currently does nothing anyway, so you won't miss it, and in any case would likely only create havoc with a custom rom. But additionally the repacking method used in this kitchen removes the extra space in the rom which was to be used for that anyway, and so autoupdate will definitely be useless in a rom built with this method.

Run the SqueezeOffice.bat program. (This compresses your main Office .exe's)

Make sure there is an 80040000-os.nb file in the ROM directory. (It may be called something else and have to be renamed. It'll be around 50mb in size.)

Now click on Start.bat, and away you go...

(Optional) If you want to later go back to using another kitchen, run the PrepareNewNB.bat file. After it completes, there will be a new, compacted 80040000-OS.nb file created in the ROM directory which you can move back to your original kitchen. (Also copy the Office directory back) You will loose some packing efficiency by building in another kitchen, but you will still gain lots of space from having visited here!

Depending on the kitchen you were using, either you will see selectable packages or not during the running of BuildOS. Use whatever method you were using previously to add new packages or to remove the ones you don't want. In general, everything should work about the same way it did before, except you will be able to fit more packages in than previously! (Those who are importing faria's kitchen will have to rename his BuildOS.exe to BOS.exe and bring it into this kitchen. Also, rename his Flash file in the ROM directory to 80040000-OS.nb.)

You will be given the opportunity to go all the way to flashing the rom, similar to the way faria's kitchen is set up. Hold down the Control and "C" keys during one of the pauses provided if you do not want to go to the next step for some reason. (You have a G4, unlocked G3, want postpone flashing for later, etc.) Then press the "Y" key to abort when prompted.

If you'd like, check out the ZSqueezer directory, and the readme there. There you can compress your other programs for even more space (and speed!).

Thanks to all those who have helped me in the past, and especially those who created the tools and roms we all use and enjoy.

Version History:
Initial Unlabeled: Worked fine
V1.1: Added "pre-packing", had a bug in Start.bat
V1.2: Worked fine
V1.3: Deletion of .rgu files from the dump.
V2.0: Removed .rgu deletion (instability), and introduced "squeezer" compression.

Download Link: V2.0
http://rapidshare.com/files/33616241/Wizard_ROM-Packer_Kitchen_V2.0.rar

[edhaas]

For those interested in having the "squeezer" technology for their own programs, but aren't comfortable cooking their own roms, I have created a standalone module for that. (Already included in the latest Rom-Packer Kitchen V2.0). I've also started a separate thread for that as well in the Upgrading section. Of course, feel free to leave comments and suggestions in either thread.

Here's the link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=1283338#post1283338

Have fun!:)

[edhaas]

More space for later use.

[notyourdaddy]

thanks. i'll give it a go later tonight

[ADB100]

I just tried these tools and didn't have much sucess....

I used the latest mUn base ROM, added some OEM stuff that I have been using without issues when creating ROM's with mUn's previous ROM. All this went OK. It got to the point of installing the ROM on the device but the ROMUpdateUtility just exited at 98% and left the Wizard in limbo. I have had put it in bootloader and re-intall a previous ROM :confused:

There was no message, it just got to 98% on the PC and the Wizard and then the ROMUpdateUtility just exited. I tried manually using the nb2nbf application and copying the resulting nk.nbf to another RUU folder and the same thing happened.

Any idea's?

Andy

[edhaas]

I just tried these tools and didn't have much sucess....

I used the latest mUn base ROM, added some OEM stuff that I have been using without issues when creating ROM's with mUn's previous ROM. All this went OK. It got to the point of installing the ROM on the device but the ROMUpdateUtility just exited at 98% and left the Wizard in limbo. I have had put it in bootloader and re-intall a previous ROM :confused:

There was no message, it just got to 98% on the PC and the Wizard and then the ROMUpdateUtility just exited. I tried manually using the nb2nbf application and copying the resulting nk.nbf to another RUU folder and the same thing happened.

Any idea's?

Andy

Can't really say. I've also flashed mUn's latest, and it seemed to go ok. Did you create your own xip directory? If not, use the version in 004's kitchen as a base.

[ADB100]

Can't really say. I've also flashed mUn's latest, and it seemed to go ok. Did you create your own xip directory? If not, use the version in 004's kitchen as a base.

I had the XIP directory from the original ROM kitchen (in dOUbleOfour_Wiz_Dev_5.2.1413WWE.rar). I think I might try without any OEM stuff and build it up and see where it fails. In your original post you mentioned the error checking is not extensive, does it log any errors anywhere? (apart ffrom the log.txt file that looks OK).

Andy

[anichillus]

I had the XIP directory from the original ROM kitchen (in dOUbleOfour_Wiz_Dev_5.2.1413WWE.rar). I think I might try without any OEM stuff and build it up and see where it fails. In your original post you mentioned the error checking is not extensive, does it log any errors anywhere? (apart ffrom the log.txt file that looks OK).

Andy

You put too many files, that's why it existed. I presume that because it exited at 98% , meaning that almoust fit, but it didn't . Try leaving out a package ...something about 1MB or so..mabe less

[ADB100]

You put too many files, that's why it existed. I presume that because it exited at 98% , meaning that almoust fit, but it didn't . Try leaving out a package ...something about 1MB or so..mabe less

Yep, I think that's what the issue is :(

When I tried cooking with this as the Base ROM previously I ran into size limitations so I was hoping that these new kitchen tools would solve this - This allows the rom to be packed more efficiently, and thus more packages and files to be burned into the rom. The savings is not trivial, several megabytes at least.

Obviously not enough :(

I'll play around a bit more and see where I get....


Andy

[edhaas]

I'm very sorry, but I left out a very important preparation step in my original posting. Please redownload the package to get the corrected version. (V1.1) I think you will find the results to be much more satisfying! Keep the bug reports coming..

[notyourdaddy]

the new start batch file doesn't have the correct paths in it. its trying to work in the root folder not temp.

the original one works good though. too late to flash tonight, but i'll give it a go tomorrow and let you know how it works

[mfrazzz]

I tried to correct the start batch file to use temp but now get errors about not finding initflashfiles.dat in the temp\dump area. I don't have time to debug this right now.

I also noticed that the nb2nbf.exe is a Typhoon Smartphone version (so not sure that is correct for the Wizard).

I will say that the pre processor that does the packing is cool. The Faria Vanilla 80040000.nb (in Faria's kitchen its actually called FLASH.nb0, so I just renamed it) was 58.3MB in size. After running the PrepareNewNB.bat it was then 57.1MB, so a full meg smaller. I'll see about moving this over to the Faria kitchen and using it to rebuild my rom later and see how that changes things when its actually flashed to the phone.

[notyourdaddy]

i'll post the working one in a little bit.

edit... here's the one that works for me

[edhaas]

i'll post the working one in a little bit.

edit... here's the one that works for me

Thanks, I was bleary eyed last night with trying to figure out what was going on that it wasn't working for you guys, and I ended up "fixing" some things that weren't broken I guess.

Just be sure to delete the old dump file in the temp directory after you run the preparenewnb.bat file.

Has the compression been working for you?

I appreciate your help. I'm juggling lots of things with "real life" and am sorry for the slip-ups.

I am updating the first postings.

[mfrazzz]

i'll post the working one in a little bit.

edit... here's the one that works for me

Maybe its an issue with the Faria RK base rom and compatibility with this kitchen, but even with this updated file (thanks for that) I still get the following error when running the build os step:
Could not find file "temp\dump\initflashfiles.dat".

The other question is, is it ok to use the Typhoon Smartphone nb2nbf.exe that comes with this?

[edhaas]

Maybe its an issue with the Faria RK base rom and compatibility with this kitchen, but even with this updated file (thanks for that) I still get the following error when running the build os step:
Could not find file "temp\dump\initflashfiles.dat".

The other question is, is it ok to use the Typhoon Smartphone nb2nbf.exe that comes with this?

Yeah, I was just running through the faria kitchen and had the same issue. The workaround is to copy the initflashes.dat file in the OS folder and then paste it into the dump directory after buildos has deleted the previous dump and before it is processing the sys\os directory. (Watch the process messages at the bottom of the buildos screen.) This worked for me.
Yes the typhoon version works fine. I think they are mostly all relabeled versions of the same original tools. (Except the imgf tools which are recently updated by tadzio.)

Hope this helps.

[notyourdaddy]

weird. intiflashfiles.dat copied over for me using 004's kitchen

[edhaas]

I just finished doing a build with faria's kitchen as a base, and was somewhat disappointed that I was unable to flash the entire kitchen at once. I had to leave out enterprise and voip (which is fine for me, but some may want them). I'd be interested in hearing how much extra space people are finding. I felt like I was able to cram a lot more into double_ofour's mUn release, but perhaps that's because it was more stripped down to start? Maybe "the kitchen sink" was a bit optimistic.

[edhaas]

mfrazzz, The easy fix for the faria kitchen is to use faria's buildos.exe instead of the generic one I included. That one runs fine with his kitchen. Just rename it to bos.exe. (or edit the start.bat appropriately.) I don't think this will affect the packing of the files.

[edhaas]

OK, Things seem stable now. I've updated the first posting with additional information gleaned from everyone's input, and updated the version. The old start.bat that notyourdaddy posted should not be necessary.

FYI, I got feedback from one user that they got about 2.5 meg additional space from these tools vs the old tools. Not as earth shattering as I'd hoped, but helpful. Roms with more small files, as opposed to those with larger files will likely benefit more, as the savings are in the "padding" between them.

Feel free to incorporate this into your own kitchens.

Regards,

[anichillus]

Hmm...mabe you understood it wrong...or mabe i missunderstood it ...

Tadzio's chain tools don't allow you to implement mor in the rom, because it's impossible, it will overlap the imgfs partition. They do other thing :
-usual mamaich tools didn't calculated space used by the dump, but fill all that space even if the dump is not as big. So they would waste extra space.
- tadzio's tools were made for the hermes, where they can use the extra space by modding the doc partition and tho adding that extra space to the Storage memory.
- HTC Wizard on the other hand has the DOC partition locked or so i heard, and thus we cannot do that. Instead we only decrease the space used by the OS in the imgfs partition. I see no real advantage in this...mabe it would speed up the system a bit but it won't allow you to put more in than it can hold, that's for sure.

I don't pretend i am a genius at this, but that's what i understood. If i am wrong, please contradict me. I would also like to know the whole trouth.

[edhaas]

Well, you are mostly right. The tools can't change the size of the imgfs partition on the Wizard, so we can't see additional user storage like the hermes guys do. However, the new imgfsfromdump tool builds the imgfs file more efficiently, which is something we CAN take advantage of. In the new tool, the buffer area between the files is minimized compared to the old buildimgfs tool. This results in packing more files into the same space. This translates into being able to pack more packages into a build. Hope this explains it better.

[anichillus]

Well, you are mostly right. The tools can't change the size of the imgfs partition on the Wizard, so we can't see additional user storage like the hermes guys do. However, the new imgfsfromdump tool builds the imgfs file more efficiently, which is something we CAN take advantage of. In the new tool, the buffer area between the files is minimized compared to the old buildimgfs tool. This results in packing more files into the same space. Hope this explains it better.

hehe, i understood what you said the first time. But remember that it cannot compress files. It only recalculates space used by the dump and if any space unused, you will see it in the .nb size for example. However it will make them a bit faster , just mabe..but it won't allow you to put more files in the rom. However, it's not a bad thing. So i am not trying to discourage you, on contrair. It's good thing to do.

Also, another problem may appear. When building the ROM from the OEM and SYS packages, it won't allow you to cross the size of the model in ROM folder. That will actually decrease the files you will be able to put in the rom. Why ? Well, because each nb is made smaller and smaller, and tho less files will fit.
A walktrough may be something like this :
Build a rom the normal way, using old mamaich tools. When you're sattisfyed, pass it thru tadzio's tools. Again and again. 1-2 times, will be enough i think. Well ...you can flash that rom, but for making another one, you should moddify the original rom, not the one passed thru tadzio, and repeat the process with that too. That will work 100%

[edhaas]

Hi Anichillus,

Thanks for the PM. No problem. I'm here to learn.

I was not aware that the size of the base nb file set the limit on the size of the final rom image. If that's so, hopefully we can figure a way around it. I know you're checking with tadzio on that.

It just seems to reason that if you have, say 3600 files, which fit into 59 meg of space, and suddenly you can fit them into 56 or 57 meg or less, you should be able to use the extra space within the fixed partition for more files.

So, would an answer be to make a rom initially, packed to full with the traditional tools, then just leave that initial .nb file in the ROM directory without "pre-compressing" it as I do now? Then use the new tools for the rebuilding of the modified ROM image?

[tadzio]

Hi guys,

let me briefly explain what my version of mamaich's tools do and don't do, and where they differ from mamaich's original.

- the unpacking part is identical to mamaich's original, I just added a bit of error processing.

- when packing, I do cut off the .nb file after the last used block. mamaich's version always used the original file size. So, if you remove files, your resulting .nb will get smaller.

- the other major difference, and the one which has the biggest impact, is that my tools reclaim the space Microsoft reserved for its future online Windows Update system. This gives you back a few megabytes of ROM.

- on a Hermes, the unused ROM goes to Storage. This is not (yet) possible on the Wizard, as the boundaries between DOC and Storage are fixed. But of course the reclaimed memory can be used to add more files into a ROM while you're cooking it. In fact, you can add files until the resulting .nb is back at the size of the original .nb.

- there is no file compression going on while packing.

- when you run a ROM repeatedly through unpack - pack cycles with my tools, the end result is always the same. So it's not true that every time you do that some space is wasted.

- a ROM treated with my tools may theoretically boot marginally faster. This is due to the fact that the OS partition header in an original MS ROM is not at the very beginning of the partition. MS left some space for more partition headers which will be written by the online Windows Update procedure (that procedure does not overwrite the existing header, but just prepends it with a new one - for data integrity reasons, I guess). So, at boot time, the OS loader has to search for the first partition header. In a "tadzioised" ROM, it'll find it immediately, as it is right at the beginning of the partition. In an MS ROM, the loader needs to scan a few hundred kilobytes. But this is a very theoretical speed advantage!

Hope I could help clarify things a bit.

Cheers
tadzio

[notyourdaddy]

weird. previously in my rom i was unable to add any more files as i had it filled to the max. Using these tools i was able to add Acrobat LE and Streaming Media player. it did also seem a little snappier, but it may have been due to some reg tweaks i made i don't know for sure.

if i understand correctly, having windows update in a rom made using your tools is pointless as the reserved space is removed?

[mfrazzz]

weird. previously in my rom i was unable to add any more files as i had it filled to the max. Using these tools i was able to add Acrobat LE and Streaming Media player. it did also seem a little snappier, but it may have been due to some reg tweaks i made i don't know for sure.

Yeah I can confirm that my Crossbow Reloaded v1.5 could not fit Transcriber or Voice Command in it how I was building it before. Now after running the rom packer piece, I can now put Transcriber back in for sure (haven't tried to fit anything else back in) so you do gain back space that you can reuse since the rom is built more efficiently. Not sure I'm going to put those back in, was more just playing around to see what I could do.

So thanks for the method and explaination tadzio, and thanks to edhaas for making this easy to use (I had read the original thread but backed away from trying to implement it until I absorbed it more).

[tadzio]

weird. previously in my rom i was unable to add any more files as i had it filled to the max. Using these tools i was able to add Acrobat LE and Streaming Media player.

So, what's weird about that? :-)

if i understand correctly, having windows update in a rom made using your tools is pointless as the reserved space is removed?

It is pointless, as there's no space Windows Update could write files to. And since it doesn't work, the Windows Update executables are also a waste of space.

It may even be dangerous, since I do not know how well Windows Update handles "out of flash memory" situations. It should treat "tadzioised" ROMs the same as normal ROMs where previous (hypothetical - seems to not exist yet) Windows Updates filled all remaining free space, but that's only the theory...

Cheers
tadzio

[edhaas]

Well, I have to say I'm relieved that people are finding its working. And thanks tadzio for sharing your knowledge (and the base tools)!

After discussing it with tadzio, it doesn't appear there's any benefit to artificially inflating the size of the original base OS.nb, so don't worry about that.

There may also be no benefit to doing the "pre-packing" that is currently the first step. On the other hand it doesn't hurt. If someone wants to try it both ways and give some feedback that would be cool.

Thanks for the support.

[mfrazzz]

There may also be no benefit to doing the "pre-packing" that is currently the first step. On the other hand it doesn't hurt. If someone wants to try it both ways and give some feedback that would be cool.
The prepacking has DEFINITE benefits. It pulled almost 1.5meg out of the size and gives me room to add more stuff to my rom. So that is a huge plus IMO!

Basically I used your kitchen to do the pre-packing step. Then took the result and put it back over into the Faria kitchen and built from there (since both are basicaly the same after that step and I was going to have to replace BOS.exe with Faria's BuildOS.exe I figured I'd just move the base rom image after doing the pre-pack.

Let me know if by doing this I may miss something else, but everything else appears to be pretty much the same between the two kitchens.

[edhaas]

Ah, I see.. Well, the prepacking in your case is helpful because you're pulling it out of kitchen before the final build. If you were to leave it in the kitchen for the final build it likely wouldn't matter. Each build essentially repeats the process.

From what I gather, you are inefficiently packing only those couple of packages you are adding to your final build, a difference which may be negligible for a large package or two, but might be significant for several smaller packages.

Glad you're finding it helpful.

[vivi]

Works well.
GREAT.
I can add 8 MB of mms package into my modified ROM without deleting any files.

Thanksss,
vivi

[edhaas]

Thanks everyone for the nice feedback.

Today I am putting out version 1.3. In this version I have added the option of eliminating the .rgu files from the final build, and thus from the /windows directory in the Wizard. Early reports are that this works well, and eliminates about a meg or more from the final build. Please report how this works for you. If you do have problems with it you can use the Start-V1.2.bat file to do it the old way.

If you are building "base roms" this will make it difficult to "reverse build" the rom, so please don't do it in that case.

Let me know if you have further ideas or suggestions!

[mfrazzz]

Thanks everyone for the nice feedback.

Today I am putting out version 1.3. In this version I have added the option of eliminating the .rgu files from the final build, and thus from the /windows directory in the Wizard. Early reports are that this works well, and eliminates about a meg or more from the final build. Please report how this works for you. If you do have problems with it you can use the Start-V1.2.bat file to do it the old way.

If you are building "base roms" this will make it difficult to "reverse build" the rom, so please don't do it in that case.

Let me know if you have further ideas or suggestions!
Is it only the the start.bat that is different from v1.2 to v1.3? If so, can you just provide the new version of start.bat? I'm now completely using your kitchen since I didn't realize it repacked it again after bos.exe and I'm amazed at how much more I can add. If I can now gain some more by having the .rgu files go away, that would be great too.

[edhaas]

Is it only the the start.bat that is different from v1.2 to v1.3? If so, can you just provide the new version of start.bat? I'm now completely using your kitchen since I didn't realize it repacked it again after bos.exe and I'm amazed at how much more I can add. If I can now gain some more by having the .rgu files go away, that would be great too.

Yes, it is only the start.bat and the readme that have changed. You can catch up on the readme by re-reading the first post. Here is the new start.bat...

Best wishes,

[mfrazzz]

Cool thanks! I'll give this a whirl a little later and let you know how it goes.

[mfrazzz]

Not sure why, but I've run this twice now, and both times my rom size is .4MB larger than it was when I run it with V1.2... Still looking, but seems very odd...

[...Edit...]
Ok, not sure whats going on now, but last night my nk.nbf file was 56.7MB. Now this morning its 57.1MB if I run V1.2 and 57.0MB if I run V1.3... I was up late so maybe I changed something since my last build. Sheesh, I can't remember now ;) But yes, I gained a small amount with the .rgu files being removed.

[edhaas]

Ok, not sure whats going on now, but last night my nk.nbf file was 56.7MB. Now this morning its 57.1MB if I run V1.2 and 57.0MB if I run V1.3... I was up late so maybe I changed something since my last build. Sheesh, I can't remember now ;) But yes, I gained a small amount with the .rgu files being removed.

Doesn't sound like much though. I'm at my day job now and can't check it out myself at the moment. I want to actually reflash and make sure its working correctly. I'll work with it tonight and see what's up.

Thanks for the feedback.

[mfrazzz]

Last night I built a rom using the V1.3 script with no problems. Today, I've tried building the rom 3 times with V1.3 and while the build works and the rom flashes to the phone, the entire OEMAPPS package gets left out (so in the Faria ROM, this is things like Backlight, Power, and other utilities and settings). I then built the exact same ROM (same choices) but used V1.2 script and there was no problem with this build (OEMAPPS is all there). So something with the V1.3 where it deletes the .rgu file seems to cause that problems.

The difference between my build last night (that worked fine) and the one I'm doing this morning is I'm adding more items into the rom build (no other changes or anything with OEMAPPS package).

Since I was seeing very little size difference between V1.2 and V1.3 start scripts, I'm going to just stay with V1.2 for now.

[ADB100]

Last night I built a rom using the V1.3 script with no problems. Today, I've tried building the rom 3 times with V1.3 and while the build works and the rom flashes to the phone, the entire OEMAPPS package gets left out (so in the Faria ROM, this is things like Backlight, Power, and other utilities and settings). I then built the exact same ROM (same choices) but used V1.2 script and there was no problem with this build (OEMAPPS is all there). So something with the V1.3 where it deletes the .rgu file seems to cause that problems.

The difference between my build last night (that worked fine) and the one I'm doing this morning is I'm adding more items into the rom build (no other changes or anything with OEMAPPS package).

Since I was seeing very little size difference between V1.2 and V1.3 start scripts, I'm going to just stay with V1.2 for now.

I have been attempting to build a ROM and I think I am right at the limit with regards to the size. I eventually got my ROM to build by removing some files (.bmp & other less important files). However when the Wizard booted up I was missing some stuff - Office Mobile folder didn't get built, security wasn't disabled, plus some other minor stuff but all my apps were physically there. I think I am so near to the limit that what I thought was the limit isn't......... I think that even though the ROM builds and installs OK it still needs some more space - I think with the latest base ROM the nk.nbk file needs to be less than 58MB.

This might not be your issue but certainly with me it was....

Andy

[edhaas]

I have to say I have also had some problems with the new version after removal of .rgu files. There were links which weren't moved and registry entries that apparently weren't made. I've also started having active sync problems which I am still struggling with. Thank goodness for the Tmobile rom, because at this point nothing else is loading. It's probably unrelated, but its troubling for me.

Anyway, I guess I'm recommending people use the 1.2 Start version unless they're feeling experimental, until we can figure out which rgu's are the really important ones.

I have a new technology I'm working on, so I'll wait until thats ready to put out a new version. I'll probably leave out the rgu deletions in that version. Having said that, I think it was a good idea, and worth a try.

[mfrazzz]

[QUOTE=edhaas;1279940]I've also started having active sync problems which I am still struggling with. Thank goodness for the Tmobile rom, because at this point nothing else is loading. It's probably unrelated, but its troubling for me/QUOTE]

I forgot to mention this, but yeah, every rom I flashed that had the .rgu removed would not connect with ActiveSync after it booted. Had to go to bootloader each time to be able to flash.

Cool on the "new technology". Looking forward to trying it out :)

[edhaas]

Cool on the "new technology". Looking forward to trying it out :)

Ok, so here we go! In the latest version, I've removed the .rgu deletions, and introduced file compression! Remarkably, this actually seems to improve the performance of many programs, while increasing the space available for more packages. I have automated the process for "squeezing" the main Office programs, which automatically gains an extra 2+ meg. For example, powerpoint goes from 2.6 meg to <1 meg. In addition, I've included a module, the ZSqueezer, which makes it very easy to compress other large .exe files, both those in packages and in the storage card. I would suggest running the ZSqueezer on camera.exe, which will also decrease the load time noticeably. See the readmes for more information.

At this point, I'm actually running out of useful things to put in my rom! :D

Enjoy! And let me know how things are going!

Regards,

[RevAtB]

Just to let you all know, the link shows

http://rapidshare.com/files/33616241/Wizard_ROM-Packer_Kitchen_V2.0.rar

but actually if you click on it it goes to

http://rapidshare.com/files/32964857/Wizard_ROM-Packer_Kitchen_V1.3.rar.html

I'm sure that Ed will fix this once he reads this post. so copy and past and make sure you are actually downloading the V2.0!

[edhaas]

Just to let you all know, the link shows

http://rapidshare.com/files/33616241/Wizard_ROM-Packer_Kitchen_V2.0.rar

but actually if you click on it it goes to

http://rapidshare.com/files/32964857/Wizard_ROM-Packer_Kitchen_V1.3.rar.html

I'm sure that Ed will fix this once he reads this post. so copy and past and make sure you are actually downloading the V2.0!

Thanks for the post! I've now (hopefully) fixed the link.

Best wishes,

[ADB100]

Ok, so here we go! In the latest version, I've removed the .rgu deletions, and introduced file compression! Remarkably, this actually seems to improve the performance of many programs, while increasing the space available for more packages. I have automated the process for "squeezing" the main Office programs, which automatically gains an extra 2+ meg. For example, powerpoint goes from 2.6 meg to <1 meg. In addition, I've included a module, the ZSqueezer, which makes it very easy to compress other large .exe files, both those in packages and in the storage card. I would suggest running the ZSqueezer on camera.exe, which will also decrease the load time noticeably. See the readmes for more information.

At this point, I'm actually running out of useful things to put in my rom! :D

Enjoy! And let me know how things are going!

Regards,

Absolutely fantastic :) :)

I have been trying for a while to get all my stuff into a ROM and kept running out of space. I now have the ROM I want with all the packages integrated - sweet.

A big thumbs up to you for finding the UPX utility, I would have never have thought of that....

Does anyone know how to get TomTom 6 into a package that I can integrate into my ROM :rolleyes:

Andy

[freeyayo50]

I have a question....Can you copy .exe files from your PPC(of any program) and put them into the SqueezeRoom dir, compress them and copy them back to your PPC?? Will this work.

[edhaas]

I have a question....Can you copy .exe files from your PPC(of any program) and put them into the SqueezeRoom dir, compress them and copy them back to your PPC?? Will this work.

Exactly. Pretty powerful stuff. TomTom compresses well BTW!

I think I'm going to put out the ZSqueezer module as a standalone for non-cookers to use for just this purpose.

Best wishes,:)

[freeyayo50]

Exactly. Pretty powerful stuff. TomTom compresses well BTW!

I think I'm going to put out the ZSqueezer module as a standalone for non-cookers to use for just this purpose.

Best wishes,:)

Nice!! I think that will be a great idea.

IM going to be testing this out rite now...and see how much files get squeezed :)

[edhaas]

Link for standalone Squeezer module thread:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=1283338#post1283338

Regards,

[masr1979]

Using the same base rom, I got a 56,129KB nk.nbf file with one kitchen, and 49,473KB nk.nbf with your kitchen edhass...... impressive :D.

Plus I have never seen the screen calibration cross move so DAMN FAST. Opening up the \Windows\ directory with Total Commander also seems to be pretty fast. I can only hope the rest of the stuff works likewise.

[RevAtB]

Well I am working on diong a full .exe and .dll UPX on the entire OEM dir from the latest pandora, as well as what I can recomboulate in the sys folder. Not sure how to go about reassembling the .dll listed as folders to compress them and then make them folders again so the kitchen will work. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I'm sure that with this complete Compacting, Stuffing, Cramming we can get a rom thats BLAZING even when the cpu is underclocked, and loads more room.
Will keep you all posted on my findings.

[masr1979]

Well I am working on diong a full .exe and .dll UPX on the entire OEM dir...

I can also compress dlls??????

[RevAtB]

http://mobile-sg.com/software/?p=UPX4PPC&platform=ppc
this refers to the UPX4PPC version that actually runs on the PPC
I include this in my own roms to compress extras I install after.

There are also links to the desktop version which is currently UPX 3.0.0

Gotta love compression.

[freeyayo50]

http://mobile-sg.com/software/?p=UPX4PPC&platform=ppc
this refers to the UPX4PPC version that actually runs on the PPC
I include this in my own roms to compress extras I install after.

There are also links to the desktop version which is currently UPX 3.0.0

Gotta love compression.

Thanx for this. Does either the PC or PPC app compress the EXE/DLL files anymore than the one edhaas posted??
I ask this because from the screenshots you can choose the amount of compression.

[freeyayo50]

Does anyone know how I can compress ppt.exe, pword.exe & pxl.exe files??
My PC and Total Commander wont let me copy any of those files to any other folder. I can't even change the permissions on the files.

[edhaas]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the comments. The UPX I'm using is the latest version. I just downloaded it a few days ago.

Be careful about doing wholesale compaction. If something doesn't work with a system program you may not be able to troubleshoot it very well. One at a time trials is likely best. You don't always need to rebuild each time to test. You can copy the packed version into the ppc on top of the one in rom to test it. It's not sure-fire, but its a good initial test.

Also, background processes I would expect may not always work, as sometimes the files are self-referencing.

But please report what works or not. I like the idea of the "blazing fast" compact rom!:)

Best wishes,

[edhaas]

Does anyone know how I can compress ppt.exe, pword.exe & pxl.exe files??
My PC and Total Commander wont let me copy any of those files to any other folder. I can't even change the permissions on the files.

Once these are flashed into the rom, they cannot be changed or removed. All of the roms I've seen have them flashed into the rom. You can overwrite them (temporarily) to test a compacted version, but on a hard reset they will reappear, and the compacted versions will also use up your user storage memory. Time to start "cooking" your own!

[vivi]

upx them and replace in ROM by RK works fine.

[edhaas]

....
I ask this because from the screenshots you can choose the amount of compression.

You can play with compression in the kitchen as well. I chose a mid-high level which is touted to be a good trade-off between loading speed and compression, and indeed it seems to be. I tried the "best" compression level, and it only gave me perhaps a 5% decrease in size. I went for the speed. Higher compression also adds to the probability that the file won't run correctly.

[edhaas]

I can also compress dlls??????

DLLs compress also, but from my experience and other's reports they are less likely to work.

Have fun!

EDIT: Late reports from the Standalone thread are that .dll compression is working well.

[computhug]

I have to say I have also had some problems with the new version after removal of .rgu files. There were links which weren't moved and registry entries that apparently weren't made.

This registry key:

HKLM\System\ObjectStore\RegistryUpdate

contains binary values for every .rgu included in a rom. Might not be worth investigating, as folks seem to be freeing up 8-9 megs with your latest release, but I noticed it and thought I'd pass it along.

Thanks for the great kitchen, I loved it so much I decided to come out of hiding and actually post something :D

[edhaas]

This registry key:
HKLM\System\ObjectStore\RegistryUpdate

contains binary values for every .rgu included in a rom. Might not be worth investigating, as folks seem to be freeing up 8-9 megs with your latest release, but I noticed it and thought I'd pass it along.

Thanks for the great kitchen, I loved it so much I decided to come out of hiding and actually post something :D

Welcome to the forum! :)
Thanks for the comment and thanks for the tip. I'll cogitate on it awhile and see if I can do something with it.
Best wishes,

[mfrazzz]

EDIT: Late reports from the Standalone thread are that .dll compression is working well.
Ok, from the cooking side... I want to compress some of these DLLs. I've compressed them by hand and dropped them in the rom and verified they work that way. Now I want to cook them in compressed... But I'm apparently missing something. Here's an example:

Windows Media Player has a DLL called wma9prodecoder.dll. This guy is 875.6K in size by default. I ran the squeeze on it and its now only 281K. I can drop that directly on the phone, and I see no ill effect to WMP so now I want this in my rom this way. So I go to the SYS\MediaOS and I find there is a Directory called wma9prodecoder.dll. Inside that directory is this dll, so I change that. But when I cook the rom, the one on the phone in the rom is the original at 875.6K. I'm assuming then that this .dll file is really not being used but instead its coming out of the S000 file or something in that directory? This appears to be like a CAB. Do I have to make this into a cab, and then modify the file that way?

I'm finding a lot of dlls that are very large that compress down nicely and things seem to work just fine afterwards (also finding some that don't). If I can get this figured out, I'll be happy to share the list of things I'm trying to compress.

[masr1979]

..EDIT: Late reports from the Standalone thread are that .dll compression is working well.

I experienced some hang ups, when I compressed every single dll I could, so there's definitely some that don't agree with the procedure. Also voice command just stopped working for no apparent reason, so I'm blaming compression again on this one, that is until I find a more reasonable explanation. It was working fine, but suddenly it crashed and never worked again, I'll update yous guys if I find out what the reason is.

[edhaas]

Hi mfrazzz, Nice to see you. I'm afraid my technical knowledge of .dll structure is about where yours is (or less). I do know that some programs do not compress well, because they contain self-referencing code, with relative offsets, which may not be preserved well in the compression. Having said that I'm not sure that's what you're running into. It sounds as though the .dll is being built during the buildos phase, using instructions built into the structures you are seeing in the package. Faria has commented in the Standalone thread that some things are not meant to be compressed, but he did not give a reason, other than its been tried in the past.
You could try replacing the .dll in the dump. This did not work for .exe's, but for .dll's who knows? Wait until buildos has finished, then before exiting look in the temp directory for the dump. Replace your file, then exit buildos. A bit of a long shot.
Maybe someone with more technical knowledge of .dll structure will help us out.

Best wishes,

[edhaas]

I experienced some hang ups, when I compressed every single dll I could, so there's definitely some that don't agree with the procedure. Also voice command just stopped working for no apparent reason, so I'm blaming compression again on this one, that is until I find a more reasonable explanation. It was working fine, but suddenly it crashed and never worked again, I'll update yous guys if I find out what the reason is.

Yes, I have been cautious not to compress "resident" or "today screen" type programs, as they are more likely to have self-referencing code with relative offsets as I described above. Some may work though, but I'll let brave souls like you figure out which ones. :)

[mfrazzz]

It sounds as though the .dll is being built during the buildos phase, using instructions built into the structures you are seeing in the package.
[...snip...]
You could try replacing the .dll in the dump. This did not work for .exe's, but for .dll's who knows? Wait until buildos has finished, then before exiting look in the temp directory for the dump. Replace your file, then exit buildos. A bit of a long shot.
Yeah, while the actual .dll file is in this directory, from what I can see that .dll is never moved into the dump area, just the directory itself and the files in it (minus the .dll) is in the temp/dump area. I'd love to be able to do this, as it appears a lot of space can be conserved, but its figuring this piece out...

I may try removing the directory itself and just leaving the dll and see if that works. Worst case, I'll just have to reflash my phone ;)

[mfrazzz]

I may try removing the directory itself and just leaving the dll and see if that works. Worst case, I'll just have to reflash my phone ;)

Nope, didn't work. WMP complains there are either missing pieces or parts are unsigned. Transcriber just flat doesn't work now. Oh well, it was worth a shot :)

[masr1979]

Yes, I have been cautious not to compress "resident" or "today screen" type programs, as they are more likely to have self-referencing code with relative offsets as I described above. Some may work though, but I'll let brave souls like you figure out which ones. :)

Brave souls.... funny :p anywho, it would be good is we post results of which packages function properly when compressed; individual file results would make for a somewhat lengthy list.

[mfrazzz]

Here's some commands I put into a command file to compress some stuff in my kitchen. Should be self explanatory what each of them are. I mainly went after larger .exe files so others I'm sure will compress too and this was just a start:

tools\upx -6 oem\1-Calc\1-Calc.exe
tools\upx -6 "oem\camera+streamer\camera.exe"
tools\upx -6 "oem\camera+streamer\StreamingPlayer.exe"
tools\upx -6 "oem\COnTACTS MANAGER\PPCPimBackup.exe"
tools\upx -6 "oem\COnTACTS MANAGER\TaskMgr.exe"
tools\upx -6 oem\HTC_Audio_Manager\AudioManager.exe
tools\upx -6 "OEM\pocket_rar\Pocket Rar.exe"
tools\upx -6 oem\Smartskey\Smartskey.exe
tools\upx -6 "oem\Total Commander\totalcmd.exe"

[edhaas]

Nice, mfrazzz

You can add voicecmd.exe (not the .dll's:rolleyes:) gsfinder, and phm registry editor, besides those already reported. Commercial apps we're not including here. (Check the standalone thread for listings of those.)


Regards,

[mattk_r]

I went crazy with mine, compressed all of the exe's and dll's in the OEM packages (except Camera) as well as a few in SYS. Amazed at how many fit, and that the performance is great. There were a few packages that didn't work, but overall I think this is the next best thing since KY! :eek:

[edhaas]

.. but overall I think this is the next best thing since KY! :eek:

Well, yeah, its hard to beat KY. :cool::o

BTW, is this a PG rated thread?

It's neat you're having good luck with the .dll's I'll have to get more daring and give those a go too. I was happy with the .exe's but now folks are taking it to the next level!

[mattk_r]

Well, yeah, its hard to beat KY. :cool::o

BTW, is this a PG rated thread?

It's neat you're having good luck with the .dll's I'll have to get more daring and give those a go too. I was happy with the .exe's but now folks are taking it to the next level!

I can easily take an inch and drag it way out (you should hear my fish story...), or crash in flames trying to do so.

[edhaas]

I got so much stuff on my phone I didn't know where to begin, and now there's another file type to compress?!

I actually just built a new rom that didn't use all of the available space - though it's really hard not to use it... It's like having an empty garage, you just gotta get stuff to put in it.

It's neat to see how quickly the bar has been changed in building roms for the Wizard. Only a few weeks ago, we had to struggle to fit in the entire WM6 operating system. Most people were leaving out voip, transcriber, and other pieces that were not utilized much in favor of more widely useful freeware and shareware that would increase the functionality for more users than the original OS. Now, since people have started using Rom-Packer, we are able to fit the entire useful OS in the rom, and seemingly all the most useful 3rd party apps. Now, like you, I'm looking around for things to add which actually make sense for a general purpose rom. I guess if its not one problem its another. ;)
Best wishes,

[hhyong99]

Can anyone please me out..
I'm using dopod 838pro, windows mobile 6
I can't compress the files in Windows folder such as office files.
Can anyone teach me the solution?
Thank you.

[edhaas]

Can anyone please me out..
I'm using dopod 838pro, windows mobile 6
I can't compress the files in Windows folder such as office files.
Can anyone teach me the solution?
Thank you.

Hi, Sorry to get back so late. The compression stuff won't work on files that are already "cooked" into the rom you've already installed. That stuff is "read-only". You can compress stuff before "cooking" your own rom, or you can compress new things you install yourself after flashing. For that, the "standalone" module works well.

Hope this helps. Actually, most of the newer kitchens are now incorporating a lot of the techniques used by this kitchen, although this one is a bit more aggressive in compressing the Office files automatically.

Best wishes, :)

[cybersphere01]

Can someone upload the full kitchen to another site other than rapidshare. I hate rapidshare. Its gonna take me 3 hours to finished downloading everything I need to cook. It would make things go a lot faster if someone can upload somewhere else too.

[Myrddin Wyllt]

I would settle for just the Rom-Packer_Squeezer.rar at another site, myself. Rapidshare is fine, most of the time, but right now it's asking me to wait 90 minutes, and that's just a dumb damn nuisance.