getting rid of extrom

[Chef_Tony]

hi,

this might be a stupid question being asked and answered 20 times before but i didn't find anything and that's why i'm asking here in particular:

is there a way to get rid of the extrom?

i did this with my blueangel before and it was easy and since the universal has too little memory for my needs and the programs in my extrom suck, i want to do it with that device too. plus i don't want the extrom to be flashed and compiled into a nbf file, but, again, comparable to the extrom for the blueangel i want it to be pt simply on the sd card, which brings the enormous advantage to be highly customizable and i don't need to carry around cabs (in the moment for programs that i don't want anyway) while i don't have space for the programs i need.

so my actual question would be:
- can i use repart_doc.exe and xda-unlock.cab to resize the extrom to 128kb and put an extrom on the sd card instead?
- does the extrom have the same format as on the blueangel (autorun.exe, cfg.txt, bunch of cabs)?
- can i do that in wm6.1, because on the BA i had to go back to wm2003 and couldn't do it in wm5 and above?

greetz, Chef_Tony

[-Jonny-]

Don't think that by getting rid of extrom you will increase your memory. I think maybe blueangel was able to change amount of memory used between storage and program. This is not possible on uni, and it's set at 64MB a piece.
Perhaps wiki:MemoryStorageTypes (http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=MemoryStorageTypes) will help.

[Chef_Tony]

the point is: it is generally possible, i know that from the blueangel, and it has nothing to do with the ratio of "program memory" to "storage memory" because that only exists for ramdisks, like back in the day in wm2003. the extrom is always a part of the storage space, just that it's hidden and locked by default, and with the blueangel you could easily resize it.
to explain a little more, since apparently this is not known to universal users:
the blueangel in wm2003 has:
32mb rom
112mb ram (program memory and ramdisk storage space, dynamically, still both lost in power failure)
44mb storage
16mb extrom

for wm6.5:
32mb rom (nothing changed so far)
112mb ram (ONLY program memory, RAM like known from the pc)
60mb storage (old storage space + old extrom made to one partition, usable for installing programs and storing files.)

don't get me wrong, i appreciate your answer, it just doesn't quite get my point.
and about your link:
let me quote a small passage:

ExtendedROM

Type: Internal Storage
Size: Is usually 9.96MB
What: Extra memory which doesn't survive a soft-reset.
Use: Anything you don't mind losing :)
eh?: This could be considered as a RAMDrive on a PC (that is, in that it's volatile, but not that it takes up any Program Memory)
+info: I use this for all cache (eg PIExplorer, Opera etc)

NB. Again, this is either made available or wasted space you can't use (see FlashDisk NB).


really? the extrom is lost after a soft reset? and how does it install the system enhancements after a hard reset? /irony

the contents of that article are simply wrong. or maybe something got mixed up...

i will just give it a try with the blueangel's tools, and if it works, i will re-post because it will revolutionize the way to look at roms, like it did in the BA section, although i fairly doubt that it would work since i can impossibly be the first to think of something like this.

thanks for your answer,

cheers,
Chef_Tony

[Chef_Tony]

ok, i fugured out how to unhide and unlock the extrom and deleted the contents. if i manage to join the former extrom, now "storage" with the original storage space, i finally can use the full memory potential of the device. if anyone wants to give me a hint, i would really appreciate it. probably then, the extrom can also be installed from the sd card and my original plan, not to carry around useless cab files, finally worked.

[-Jonny-]

You are right, I've changed the wiki. Storage does survive soft rest (I wonder if it survives a hard-reset).
VNint did some tutorial on combined storage - can be found here (http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=CookingCombineStorage). And Cotulla made a ROM - can be found here (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=468776).
Hope this is helpful.

[PaulKen]

great to have you here at the Universal forum Chef_Tony. Sorry I can't offer any technical assistance, just came to give some encouragement:)

Keep up the good work!

[orb3000]

You are right, I've changed the wiki. Storage does survive soft rest (I wonder if it survives a hard-reset).
VNint did some tutorial on combined storage - can be found here (http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=CookingCombineStorage). And Cotulla made a ROM - can be found here (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=468776).
Hope this is helpful.

Great change -Jonny-!!!
It is getting better every day!