UPXing the Heck out of a ROM - Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking

Hey guys. I've done some UPXing on my ROMs, but in my next ROM build, I want to UPX everything that is UPX'able. I've read about issues with certain DLL's causing the device not to boot when UPXed. I've had issues with programs when MUI files are compressed. I know I can pretty much compress any EXE that I want, but which DLL's are safe and which aren't? Which DLL's should I avoid compressing? I need your personal experiences to find out which DLL's didn't compress without problems. Thanks for your contribution guys!
Also, does anyone know of a way to UPX a module? Can you just UPX the file within it? Can I convert it to a file, UPX it and then convert it to a module again?
Herald Owners:
This is all for a Herald ROM I'm working on.
New OEM, new SYS, new laguage MUI packs, all compatible with my current kitchen.

Related

AtomLife ROMs extract! Help pls

Hi all,
I am trying to port the mediaplus from AtomLife ROMs which has the second version of mediaplus with icons in circle.
I was successfull in extracting the imgfs.bin but there is onemore file ExROM.img which is not giving up.
I Tried
1. winimage
2. extended drive creator
3. scooter kitchen tools
but i am not able to look into the contents, it has the required _QHiddenPartition directory which has all the theme and image files for FMRadio/Mediaplus and Equaliser.
can anybody help me .
regards
Shreedhara
Mediaplus is very tricky..the images are in Ext ROM..but the links to executables are somewhere from the XIP section..any way keep working
Well
I don't think u understand my problem.
I was able to run the Mediaplus(v1.0) app on my Eten M700 earlier when I had WM5 on my eten.
But after I changed it to WM6, I want something new and hence I am trying to get the Atom Life Mediaplus (v2.0), which is better looking than the earlier one.
But SInce the latest ROM's from O2 have differenct format
It contains
lot of asm.mbss files (Motherboard assembly ) and FLASH.DIO and ExROM.img
with XLDR.nb and EBoot.nb0 files also.
But that Extended rom is hardnut to crack, it does not open at all for any tools we have here.
That'swhy I asked for help, so that I can extract it.

How to cook?

Hi Chefs,
I want to cook a BigStorage/Light Edition of the new O2 Germany Rom. What should i do?
My my first thoughts: I extract the os.nb of the exe file, load it in the Rom Koch...OK, now, it's getting difficult...I want to remove for example Feedback, ringtones, example pics and vids, old office, games, windows live, homezone plugin etc. I don't know, which files i have to delete. Is there a list, which files belong to which programms?
Can i brick my phone, if i delete a wrong file?
Is it dangerous to flash my hermes with a selfcoocked rom (BADBLOCKS)?
Is that the right way to create a big storage rom?
What shouldnt i forget?
thnx
PS: pleas don't flame me...
Pello
Nobody can me help a little?
pello said:
Nobody can me help a little?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you have HardSPL as the bootloader before you flash and are just flashing OS only upgrades you should be ok...
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=HTC_Hermes
jepp...ok, thats nice, so i can try without bricking my hermes.
can i just delete the files without changing user/default registry/flashinitfiles?
Is there a documentation for which files belong to which app, for example WindowsLive?
Windows live stuff is normally in directories called "WindowsLive*" inside the SYS folder.
Just play about, it's a fun way to learn and with HardSPL you shouldn't brick your device (for example I messed up a splash screen creation by not adding the padding required for the hermes. Looked horrible, didn't boot, but put it into three color bootloader screen and was able to flash a fixed version easily).
sorry I didn't reply in the other thread.
the software is somewhat modular - in that if you remove all of the Windows Live folders or Entertainment folders, you should remove all of that component.
Under /SYS/SQM is a .rgu file. The first entry is "Enabled"=dword:00000001. Change that to 00000000 to disable feedback.
Note that some kitchens uses an options.xml to allow BuildOS to determine what gets installed. The one for the files in /SYS uses a single one in /SYS.
I'd suggest grabbing a kitchen and following the directions. If you got HardSPL installed, and are careful, you should do well.
I "bricked" my phone twice in the first hour I started because I tried flashing a Wizard formated extended rom to the Hermes... gotta learn somehow
thnx mattk...
can i use the bepes rom kitchen or pandoras rom kitchen only with the included WM6Rom or can i swap the OEM,SYS Folders and the os.nb with the included?
What should i do with the XIP Folder?

Custom Smartphone ROMS

Does anyone know how to make custom roms for devices like the Excalibur or other Smartphones. I want to remove a lot of the clutter and add some applications of my own.
JAmerican
Not there yet AFAIK.
The closest I have gotten is extracting the rom components and mixing them. I took the HTC Splash, the HTC Radio, and the T-Mobile OS; made a custom ruu and flashed successfully. Now my Dash shows HTC Screen when it boots and I have the updated Radio. I managed to dump the T-Mobile OS, but haven't been able to rebuild. HTCRT by Dark Simpson will create the ruu_signed.nbh for use with the uspl though. NBHEXTRACT will break the nbh into its components. Tried the HYPERCORE tools, that's how I got the dump of the OS, but cannot do the xip parts with these tools for some reason. PKG Tool works. Have the OEM and SYS folders, but XIP comes up empty.
This is something I hope to see... I mean why even bother with getting the HTC unbranded version if we can remove all the clutter ourselves?
momentarylapseofreason said:
This is something I hope to see... I mean why even bother with getting the HTC unbranded version if we can remove all the clutter ourselves?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bug fixes! Even if you build a custom rom, you would want to start with the latest available OS to get in on whatever bug fixes have been added. Then you would rip it apart and add/remove whatever you wanted. Sometimes the new OS would also have added/improved features, but the bug fixes is the main one.
mar11974 said:
The closest I have gotten is extracting the rom components and mixing them. I took the HTC Splash, the HTC Radio, and the T-Mobile OS; made a custom ruu and flashed successfully. Now my Dash shows HTC Screen when it boots and I have the updated Radio. I managed to dump the T-Mobile OS, but haven't been able to rebuild. HTCRT by Dark Simpson will create the ruu_signed.nbh for use with the uspl though. NBHEXTRACT will break the nbh into its components. Tried the HYPERCORE tools, that's how I got the dump of the OS, but cannot do the xip parts with these tools for some reason. PKG Tool works. Have the OEM and SYS folders, but XIP comes up empty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the insight. I reached as for as extracting the .NBH into .NB files with OS, GSM etc. How do you extract these. The PKG Tool didn't work for me and the Hypercore tools aren't working right either.
JAmerican
Hey all,
I was able to downgrade to WM5 and I am starting to understand a few things regarding ROM building but I still don't know how to edit the Windows.nb or OS.nb file. Can anyone offer suggestions. I am trying to optimize it so that there is less clutter.
JAmerican
I was able to extract the the OS.nb before and edit it, but unfortunately, it was not fully extracted as i was hoping, at first i thought i was able to fully extract it, but when i tried to reflash again the OS, it was flashed normally but not as functional as normal one, many were not included, the Start Menu seems to be incomplete, no keypad lock, no quickapp etc... so i came up with a conclusion that it was not fully extracted..even the initflashfiles.dat were not present on the dumped files, i thought that file was the only one missing and i tried to manually copy it from /Windows/ directory and put it on the dumped files folder..but it wasn't a success.
Anyone successful to fully extract the OS? I'm slowly compiling a kitchen for Excalibur and the full extraction of the OS is only the missing part of the kitchen and i'm stuck with it. Once it is up and found a solution, then we can come up with cooked roms for Excalibur.
da_mayhem said:
I was able to extract the the OS.nb before and edit it, but unfortunately, it was not fully extracted as i was hoping, at first i thought i was able to fully extract it, but when i tried to reflash again the OS, it was flashed normally but not as functional as normal one, many were not included, the Start Menu seems to be incomplete, no keypad lock, no quickapp etc... so i came up with a conclusion that it was not fully extracted..even the initflashfiles.dat were not present on the dumped files, i thought that file was the only one missing and i tried to manually copy it from /Windows/ directory and put it on the dumped files folder..but it wasn't a success.
Anyone successful to fully extract the OS? I'm slowly compiling a kitchen for Excalibur and the full extraction of the OS is only the missing part of the kitchen and i'm stuck with it. Once it is up and found a solution, then we can come up with cooked roms for Excalibur.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool. I went back to WM5 to see if it was more efficient but with all the lack of features (email instant search, alpha-dialing, file syncing, etc.) It was not worth it. I went back to WM6. I hope we can get some cook ROMS soon. I really want more usable RAM. Could you give me the exact steps you used to extract the ROM? I tried HyperCore but it doesn't work for me for some reason.
JAmerican
JAmerican said:
Cool. I went back to WM5 to see if it was more efficient but with all the lack of features (email instant search, alpha-dialing, file syncing, etc.) It was not worth it. I went back to WM6. I hope we can get some cook ROMS soon. I really want more usable RAM. Could you give me the exact steps you used to extract the ROM? I tried HyperCore but it doesn't work for me for some reason.
JAmerican
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this mate:
Aserg's Imgfs Tools, attached on THIS thread
Place OS.nb on the same folder then execute !UI_wwe.cmd
Choose P - Unpack OS.nb <for Herald-Prophet> to dump-folder
the ROM will be dumped on the "dump" folder, but i don't think it's a complete dump, if there's anyone knows how to do the complete dump, please share
da_mayhem said:
Try this mate:
Aserg's Imgfs Tools, attached on THIS thread
Place OS.nb on the same folder then execute !UI_wwe.cmd
Choose P - Unpack OS.nb <for Herald-Prophet> to dump-folder
the ROM will be dumped on the "dump" folder, but i don't think it's a complete dump, if there's anyone knows how to do the complete dump, please share
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for sharing! I was finally able to dump it. Now to see if I can mess around and get it to build! Wish me luck .
JAmerican
You can easily build it again, but the question again is, are the files on the dump folder complete? i wish you luck mate! keep us posted.
da_mayhem said:
You can easily build it again, but the question again is, are the files on the dump folder complete? i wish you luck mate! keep us posted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I deleted some files from the ROM and rebuilt it but it was in .NBA format. I don't remember exactly what I did but I think I renamed the file to .NB and made a .NBH file out of it. Then Flashed my device. I got as far as the WM screen and was stuck there. I reflashed with the Standard WM6 ROM from T-Mobile. .
I'll try some more messing around. I really want to get some cooked roms for Smartphone edition.
JAmerican
Your right about files missing. I was able to extract the ROM and its packages and get two folders (ROM and SYS) along with other packages. The program I used (Package Tool) states that I am missing the following files:
[Missing Files]
SYS\MSXIPKernel
MODULE: busenum.dll
MODULE: cachefilt.dll
MODULE: certmod.dll
MODULE: coredll.dll
MODULE: device.exe
MODULE: devmgr.dll
MODULE: diskcache.dll
MODULE: encfilt.dll
MODULE: fatfsd.dll
MODULE: fatutil.dll
MODULE: filesys.exe
MODULE: fsdmgr.dll
MODULE: fsreplxfilt.dll
MODULE: hd.dll
MODULE: imgfs.dll
MODULE: mspart.dll
MODULE: osaxst0.dll
MODULE: pm.dll
MODULE: regenum.dll
SYS\WinCENLS_WWE
File: wince.nls
OEM\LangDB
File: initflashfiles.dat
File: mxip_lang.vol
OEM\OEMXIPKERNEL
File: boot.hv
File: boot.rgu
MODULE: cecompr.dll
MODULE: ceddk.dll
MODULE: HtcFsdspy.dll
File: mxip_initdb.vol
MODULE: nk.exe
MODULE: ONDisk.dll
and these files are in the Windows folder as well as other locations on my device. The only problem is that the device denies me access to these files. Is there a way to access these DLLs with a powerful file manager. I tried Resco and Total Commander to no avail. Anyway to trick the device into allowing me to copy these files?
Thanks.
JAmerican
I believe there is a need for a simple ROM cooking procedure on devices such as Excalibur and Vox. I'm thinking of a "Norton Ghost" procedure to backup and restore the entire OS and User Filesystem partitions.
The ROM cook procedure would then be something like this:
1. customize the device (all changes stored on device memory of course)
2. backup OS partition (using special USPL)
3. backup User File System (using special USPL)
And a user would just do this:
1. restore OS partition (using RUU)
2. restore User File System (using RUU)
3. personalize device
Does that sound acceptable?
Ok so I was able to extract the T-Mobile WM6 ROM, I was able to use the Package Tool to get it seperated into a SYS and OEM folder. I deleted things like Live Messenger and Windows Live. I put the updated version of Live Search in ROM. I only added one other application, CeleTask. I didn't want to put too much work into tweaking this thing and find it not working. I am downloading the CreateOS.exe and CreateROM.bat files and will try to compile this thing. Wish me luck.
JAmerican
jockyw2001 said:
I believe there is a need for a simple ROM cooking procedure on devices such as Excalibur and Vox. I'm thinking of a "Norton Ghost" procedure to backup and restore the entire OS and User Filesystem partitions.
The ROM cook procedure would then be something like this:
1. customize the device (all changes stored on device memory of course)
2. backup OS partition (using special USPL)
3. backup User File System (using special USPL)
And a user would just do this:
1. restore OS partition (using RUU)
2. restore User File System (using RUU)
3. personalize device
Does that sound acceptable?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey friend. I know this is not appropriate place to post this, but since you know my situation on the wifi of my phone. Would it be possible to put a working reverse flash of a tmobile dash onto mine and fix the wifi. I have tried everything. And you have been very helpful and it is much appreciated.
keep up the progress guys, i can't wait to try some of the cooked roms from users on this site
Good luck, i can't wait either....
Hey guys,
I used a tool to try and convert my unpacked ROM back to a packed (one folder ROM) and it deleted all my progress. Go figure. So I have to basically start all over again. This time though, instead of making all the changes. I am just going to remove like myFaves, update LiveSearch and add one of my own applications as well as one of my favorite applications and see if I can flash my Dash with it.
Somewhat but its my fault for not backing up.
JAmerican

dsm files

I am planning to use the Core/Hypercore and/or Pandora's Kitchens to play around with the latest AT&T ROM.
The following is something that has always confused me to some extent in the past.
If I want to delete or change the files that are part of any particular package, I imagine that I need to create a new .DSM file to go along with the changes/deletions I might make.
The HyperCore kitchen provides a utility to rebuild the .DSM file, but from what I can see, the new .DSM file created is nothing like the original. It seems to be lacking a lot of binary information that exists in the original...prior to the file listing.
First...Is it safe to NOT create a new .DSM file if I simply want to delete files from a particular package?
Second...If I merely change some icon/bmp resources in any of the files, and the name remains the same...do I need to create a new .DSM for that package?
And finally...as there seem to be differences between existing .DSMs and the ones that are created by the Core utility, can I really trust the new ones I generate?
Any help/guidance would be appreciated...thank you.
-pvs

How gets the final registry configured?

I'm pretty new to this cooking but learned a lot in the past week. I got a slimmed down rom running without problems, compressed some stuff. It works great.
However I can't figure out the registry. For example, I can edit the .rgu files directly with success. But if I add a .rgu myself, the values get overwritten with the defaults. I know they get added because I created some check values.
So basically my question is, can I add my own .rgu or .provxml file and where or do I need to edit the default .rgu files each time when cooking a new rom?
roufneck said:
I'm pretty new to this cooking but learned a lot in the past week. I got a slimmed down rom running without problems, compressed some stuff. It works great.
However I can't figure out the registry. For example, I can edit the .rgu files directly with success. But if I add a .rgu myself, the values get overwritten with the defaults. I know they get added because I created some check values.
So basically my question is, can I add my own .rgu or .provxml file and where or do I need to edit the default .rgu files each time when cooking a new rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Under SYS, I normally create my own customization folder which gets executed last (alphabetically).. e.g. folder called zzz_Customization. I then put my customization RGU and provxmls there. Nothing in the OEMs or SYS can overwrite them except for provxmls.
Actually I think the RGUs in the XIP can overwrite them but I have not tried it.
Forgot to say thanx for the tip. I got it working now.
Better use provxmls, since they get implemented last.
You can also resort to mortscripting, as it's becoming more and more popular.
A.

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