Light 6.0 or 6.1 ROM with rgu files...please? - P3600 ROM Development

Please will someone post ONE rom without removing .rgu files before posting.
I just want to cook my own ROM.
...
Cmon, guys

I was about to create the exact same thread.
Until a few month ago, I used to re-cook the roms I downloaded here to get rid of the unusefull applications and add my customisation.
Now that wm6.1 is out, I wanted to switch to it but I was unable to find a rom with this f*** dsm and rgu that are mandatory for a clean cooking.
Cookers, why the hell are you removing this files ?!?
Is it to save a few kb which is stupid regarding the pain in the ass trying to improve the rom after this suppression ? (Or did I miss a major revolution in the cooking process that make them unusefull to create packages and registry hives ?)
So could anybody give an advice for a good ROM (light and fast) where this RGU and DSM remains ?

Exactly,
recently I switched from Prophet from Trinity.
I couldn't wait to compare its performances to previous device, but was unpleasantly surprised to see that almost NONE of the ROMs posted in Trinity section is editable.
On the contrary Prophet ROM section is way more advanced.
In the end, I thought that ROMs are (at least ones posted here) kind of public property, and that the they shouldn't be locked (by removing rgu files prior to posting, or putting the time code on them!!!). If you want to sell them - then go apply for job at Micr0s0ft.
On the other hand - I can understand that someone is affraid that someone will overtake his/her work and claim it as their own. But again, we are here to help to each, and I never personally published any of my own modified ROMs - due to respect to the author. It would be good practice that someone who makes modification - always mentiones which ROM is used as a base for development.
Just imagine what would happen if Bepe, Mamaich, Olipro and other real developers made their tools just for themselves!
Cheers!

There's something I can't understand...
Why do you need to edit released ROMs, when you have access to ROM kitchens?
My best guess is that you don't want to spend endless hours figuring out the best tweaks, solving problems, creating packages, and so on, when you can have it all done by others.
Remember one thing:
None of the cookers here are releasing ROMs for profit. We do it as courtesy, to help the less skilled, so they can also have a more updated and efficient system running on their devices.
Cookers aren't by any means obliged to reveal their little secrets, which for you may seem trivial, but in fact, it may be the sum of many hours testing.
Cooking with a untouched kitchen is a good way to get to know how things work, and to improve your own cooking skills. So it's not respectful of you to say that cookers have to release their ROMs editable, or any other related demand for that matter, whether you release your edits or not.
It's the cookers choice to release a ROM as he see fit, and it's the user choice to use it or not.
I don't have a problem with the so called "competition", since I'm not here to compete. I'm not here to win, rather to provide an alternative. But it's hard for me to give up my work just like that.
I wouldn't have any problem providing a kitchen, but unfortunately my main source is XDA-Developers, so I also rely on others to get a base for my work. My skill level is not yet that high, but I'm always trying to improve myself.
I'm sorry if I'm offending someone, but I needed to speak my mind...

FInixNOver said:
There's something I can't understand...
Why do you need to edit released ROMs, when you have access to ROM kitchens?
My best guess is that you don't want to spend endless hours figuring out the best tweaks, solving problems, creating packages, and so on, when you can have it all done by others.
Remember one thing:
None of the cookers here are releasing ROMs for profit. We do it as courtesy, to help the less skilled, so they can also have a more updated and efficient system running on their devices.
Cookers aren't by any means obliged to reveal their little secrets, which for you may seem trivial, but in fact, it may be the sum of many hours testing.
Cooking with a untouched kitchen is a good way to get to know how things work, and to improve your own cooking skills. So it's not respectful of you to say that cookers have to release their ROMs editable, or any other related demand for that matter, whether you release your edits or not.
It's the cookers choice to release a ROM as he see fit, and it's the user choice to use it or not.
I don't have a problem with the so called "competition", since I'm not here to compete. I'm not here to win, rather to provide an alternative. But it's hard for me to give up my work just like that.
I wouldn't have any problem providing a kitchen, but unfortunately my main source is XDA-Developers, so I also rely on others to get a base for my work. My skill level is not yet that high, but I'm always trying to improve myself.
I'm sorry if I'm offending someone, but I needed to speak my mind...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 you've said everything

Hi, FInixNOver,
well I am glad you replied. Although better anything than nothing.
Watch now:
"Why do you need to edit released ROMs, when you have access to ROM kitchens?"
Well, why do you need kitchens (and tools) - why don't you develop them by yourself?
You say
"So it's not respectful of you to say that cookers have to release their ROMs editable, or any other related demand for that matter, whether you release your edits or not".
No one said they have to. But after hours of testing and achieving something which only you succeeded to - to keep it as a secret? And not share it with the "less skilled" on the forum? I understand if someone invested hours in artistic-visual development of the ROM - everyone will recognize that as effort - but removing .rgu files used for creating the registry during ROM building - is creative???
Or when I dump the ROM and see the folder named "Don't touch my ROM"?
Cmon, thats pure blsht!!!
What if someone makes "Don't touch my Hard-SPL"?

phnikola said:
Hi, FInixNOver,
well I am glad you replied. Although better anything than nothing.
Watch now:
"Why do you need to edit released ROMs, when you have access to ROM kitchens?"
Well, why do you need kitchens (and tools) - why don't you develop them by yourself?
You say
"So it's not respectful of you to say that cookers have to release their ROMs editable, or any other related demand for that matter, whether you release your edits or not".
No one said they have to. But after hours of testing and achieving something which only you succeeded to - to keep it as a secret? And not share it with the "less skilled" on the forum? I understand if someone invested hours in artistic-visual development of the ROM - everyone will recognize that as effort - but removing .rgu files used for creating the registry during ROM building - is creative???
Or when I dump the ROM and see the folder named "Don't touch my ROM"?
Cmon, thats pure blsht!!!
What if someone makes "Don't touch my Hard-SPL"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may be right about the tools, without them it would have been very hard to get many of the tasks completed successfully and probably I wouldn't have even started cooking.
But, how on earth would you be able to build a ROM without a kitchen?!! You certainly cannot make an omelet without the eggs, now can you?
And I never demanded any tools from anyone or even kitchen. When I have a request or something to say, I usually politely ask or give a suggestion.
You should try to create you own ROM before making assumptions about what cookers should keep a secret or not. Then you'll notice that cookers help each other whenever possible (e.g. when something important is fixed).
And I do share my findings, mainly in my ROMs obviously!! That doesn't mean I have to expose all my work. It's necessary to research a bit. You'll find it rewarding.
Also, almost all of the art work in my ROMs is my hard work, and it's painful to see it scattered around without so much as a credit (I'm not asking to be paid or anything). So, why not protect my work?
Tweaks? That's a whole different subject, the ones you may find helpful other may not, it's up to each one to use the one that will best suit your needs.
You will also learn, that most times, a cooker will not mess with the RGUs in a kitchen. Instead, a brand new package is created just for registry tweaks, this way the changes are easily tracked down. This being said, I can easily build a ROM, that you'll be able to dump and repackage, but you won't find my registry tweaks. Would that work for you? Because, I find this process to be more deceiving than providing the ROM without RGUs and DSMs.
You're making it sound like I say less skilled persons in a bad way. Every user is a potential cooker. Everything is available. Sometimes, you just have to dig a little deeper.
Some find it to hard to learn, others get what they need from the available options, others, well... they're just too damn lazy. But hey, everyone's got their reason, and who the hell am I to judge them?!!
"Don't touch my hard SPL"
This is a funny one!!! You have quite a mess in you attic. You're mixing 2 very different subjects...
I know one thing!! I wasn't fully satisfied, with the options I had, so I decided to get my hands dirty and do it myself. I learn everyday, and I have yet plenty to learn.
My conscience rests easy, as I've made some contributions, maybe not very important ones, but never the less...
I released some fine ROM(not perfect, I'm well aware of that) if I may say so, and made some users happy.
I don't want to start a war or anything. This all subject of protecting or not the cooker's work has already been extensively discussed, and I gave my opinion about it.
In the end I can say:
I've paid my dues. Have you?

OK, I wont argue anymore but will not change my oppinion either.
I am closing this thread by posting HTC Trinity - Complete Cooking tutorial for begginers in the forum.
Maybe my debts will be payed now!
Now let us be more useful and post comments and EDITABLE ROMs!
In the end - I would do that for you as a forum member
Cheers!

FInixNOver said:
There's something I can't understand...
Why do you need to edit released ROMs, when you have access to ROM kitchens?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To my mind, kitchen are not made to cook a rom but to learn to the newbies how it works. It's far from beeing a good solution to realy cleanly cook roms (often buggy, not possible to have an up to date OS, ...). However it's really instructive and it's great work from the creators of theese kitchens.
FInixNOver said:
My best guess is that you don't want to spend endless hours figuring out the best tweaks, solving problems, creating packages, and so on, when you can have it all done by others.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's right but it's exactly the point of development, saving hours by using existing libraries to be able to create something realy new that's not another copy of something existing.
Do you know the meaning of a Community of Practice or did you forgot the first function of this board ?
Moreover, you must know that it's way more painfull to cook a rom without kitchen than with a kitchen, even if the result is best.
Finally, this kind of "protection" is quite useless as the rom is still dumpable and editable, it's just a bit more painfull as you need to find the missing files from other roms or from packages.
I was curently working on a rom editor to enable cookers to save time cooking rom with a GUI but I think I will stop the project for a time to try to develop a tool that will be able to recreate the missing dsm, rgu and packages.sof to proove:
1) I'm not a lazy lamer
2) Sharing knowledge is much more profitable for the community than keeping it for itself (even if it has already been done a hundred of times by bepe and so many other on this board)
However, don't think I don't respect cookers work but I think this point stands against this board main function, this will be my way to pay my dues
@phnikola : I found this rom http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=391450&highlight=KAEW working quite well (light, fast, stable and recent build) where the rgu, dsm and .sof are still existing. If you want to use another ROM, just copy all the rgu, dsm and packages.sof from this one to the dump directory of the other rom

Peace
@ phnikola
I welcome your gesture and I'll be more than happy to make some contribution, to make it the best tutorial that I never had.
@ tonio94
Well, my understanding of kitchen is the set that includes the ROM files, packages, tools (whether they are batch files, or fancy tools) used to edit and build the ROM. As I say that's only my understanding of it. I may as well be wrong. And I'm very thankful for the effort and hard work put into developing all the tools that can make our cooking experience so much better
I think you're missing my point. I'm all in favour of sharing. And I try to do it as much as I can, but you may also be aware that even though programmers may use the same libraries, they often protect their final work, so that other cannot take credit for it.
The same happens with ROMs. Altough I'm using the same base as many others to create my ROMs, the final result is different from cooker to cooker, and I can only speak for myself when I say that the main reason for protecting my work is to avoid having my work ripped off.
I have absolutely nothing against making available the kitchen as bug free as possible, so that everyone can make their own customization of it.
I'm well aware that this protection can only slowdown the process of editing the ROM, but it's a way to make it a bit harder for others (I mean only the ones whose sole purpose is to take someone elses's work as their own), to take my work.
Sometimes, just because of a handfull of gready people that take other people work and make it their own without any credits, the rest of the community ends up paying for it.
I wish I had some developer/programmer skils, so i could make a bigger contribution to this community, but unfortunately I've never learned that (however I'm hoping to work on it someday).
In the whole spirit of sharing, I'm going to release some treats, just to prove that it's was never my intention to undermine the work of new cookers (what am i saying?!! I'm also a new cooker!! and a noob for that matter ), I just wanted to protect myself.

FInixNOver said:
In the whole spirit of sharing, I'm going to release some treats, just to prove that it's was never my intention to undermine the work of new cookers (what am i saying?!! I'm also a new cooker!! and a noob for that matter ), I just wanted to protect myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a respect to that, mate
I think your ROMs are among the best. Keep up the good work
Cheers!

tonio94 said:
@phnikola : I found this rom http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=391450&highlight=KAEW working quite well (light, fast, stable and recent build) where the rgu, dsm and .sof are still existing. If you want to use another ROM, just copy all the rgu, dsm and packages.sof from this one to the dump directory of the other rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot, tonio94!
Will try it as soon as download completes

FInixNOver said:
@ phnikola
In the whole spirit of sharing, I'm going to release some treats, just to prove that it's was never my intention to undermine the work of new cookers (what am i saying?!! I'm also a new cooker!! and a noob for that matter ), I just wanted to protect myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi FInixNOver
I don't normally get involved in these threads, but once again I have to admire the way you avoid an argument with yet another member of the community who seems to just take, take, take.
Had he and others bothered to have a look at not just the quantity and quality of ROMs you produce for everyone but the feedback and replies you give on a daily basis to people with problems, maybe he would have a clearer idea as to who the givers are in this forum.
You guys give up your time and effort for free so that others (including myself) can benefit and enjoy the fruits of your work. To show any anger or frustration is ridiculous. At least 70% of the people in Trinity forums have tried and enjoyed your ROMs. And yet still they expect you to give more. Incredible...
Mattster.

Mattster_spv said:
Hi FInixNOver
I don't normally get involved in these threads, but once again I have to admire the way you avoid an argument with yet another member of the community who seems to just take, take, take.
Had he and others bothered to have a look at not just the quantity and quality of ROMs you produce for everyone but the feedback and replies you give on a daily basis to people with problems, maybe he would have a clearer idea as to who the givers are in this forum.
You guys give up your time and effort for free so that others (including myself) can benefit and enjoy the fruits of your work. To show any anger or frustration is ridiculous. At least 70% of the people in Trinity forums have tried and enjoyed your ROMs. And yet still they expect you to give more. Incredible...
Mattster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man, I already posted that his ROMs are excellent, but you have a real problem with your selfesteem. Anyway we came to agreement - so be more useful and post in another thread

Related

Bug tracker website? Would that help? (I'm offering)

Ok. Short story of what I want to do and why.
I am a developer and I feel that I don't contribute enough to this fantastic site and its users. After the recent unpleasantness I went away and thought about what it is that I could do to try and fix this. My idea is a site or section of the wiki built specifically to track bugs and issues in new roms (I was specifically thinking WMXL but there is no reason this can't be used for all of them).
I am currently working on my own XML based site with PHP5 driving and if people think it will be useful I'd write and host this service before I continued with my own site (hopefully before WMXL 0.30 is released).
I want to try and restrict the way people enter and search the information relating to problems with new roms and try to cut out the background noise. I was thinking about having fields such as ROM version (drop down list), radio version (text box), boot loader (drop down list), main program affected (text box), extent of interference (drop down list), description of problem (text area), how to reproduce error (mandatory text area!).
This will hopefully encourage more people to think about what might be causing the problem rather than just posting what they cant do and expecting someone else to work everything out. Forcing a description of how to recreate the problem will hopefully find most users not needing to post after they work it out, and if the recreation steps dont work then the post will be closed. Hopefully people will think enough that I will be able to moderate this forum (type thing) myself and maybe someone in another timezone (closer to the UK) can take care of it while im asleep.
No one can stop n00bs posting silly questions but hopefully we can reduce the amount this annoys everyone else.
Sorry it took so long to describe my idea.
Maz
UPDATE: STARTED!
I got started as soon as I'd got a couple of replies but I still need you all.
For the chef's and other brilliant people:
1. What info do you need with each ticket to try solve them?
2. Do you want to be the only one to close tickets? Or should the submitter be able to?
3. What info do you want to store for the roms to filter to the smallest pool of specific tickets?
For the users:
1. How do you want to be able to search this?
I DON'T ASK FOR DONATIONS! ALL I ASK IS THAT PEOPLE SEARCH BEFORE SUBMITTING!
---------------
http://maz.net.au/
Bugzilla? yes please
This is a very good idea. In fact, I think that we need too a place to store the temporary fixes generated after each ROM publishing. It will be a good place for this too.
Good Idea.
It Would Help A Lot, Sounds Like Finding Answers Would Be Easier And Should Cut Down On The Hostile Atmosphere.
Cheers
Yes, very good idea.
This become easyest forum for everyone.
If it would be of any use, i can host this on one of our UK servers so we get very good speeds? I know 'iammaz' has said he can host it but he is in Australia so for the UK guys it might be a tad slow.
If not then no worries, but just trying to do my bit!
jaso2005 said:
If it would be of any use, i can host this on one of our UK servers so we get very good speeds? I know 'iammaz' has said he can host it but he is in Australia so for the UK guys it might be a tad slow.
If not then no worries, but just trying to do my bit!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cheers and I'm sure everyone appreciates the offer. My site is hosted in the US. At the moment this is being built as a module to my current CMS. Whether or not this adds too much overhead I won't know until I try. The problem will be if I use too much cpu time im sure it's against the ToS with my hosting company and they will shut me down.
I hope that I will have it built as a stand alone object by then and anyone else can take this and run this on php5 hosting or in fact I could run it as web services from my personal server at home.
Progress goes well. Just working on possible searching and indexing algorithms to make searching fast and useful.
Maz
-------------------
I can't believe I forget to type this.
http://maz.net.au/
Great idea
It's 2am. I'm piking for the night. I'm expecting a phone call at 7am tomorrow so will be back into it then for 5 or 6 hours. Hopefully will be almost done by the end of that.
I need to work out how you want to have logins work. I don't think i can make it authenticate against this forum (i havent tried integrating with vBulletin before). Do I allow open registration? do I try make it force you to register the same name but PM'ing the password to that username here? do i manually add people as they ask and restrict the group?
let me know in the next 6 hours or so.
Maz
----------------------
Badly styled CMS can be seen here. (new version looks so much better )
http://maz.net.au/
Open registration, but obviously grant privileges to those of us who classify as developers.
Olipro said:
Open registration, but obviously grant privileges to those of us who classify as developers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And super-user privileges for the chef's for bug tickets that apply to their cooked roms.
Maz
----------------
hard at work again at http://maz.net.au/

Call to the rom Developers [Rom Developers Read This]

It would be great building a rom based on the Benchmarks of the roms wich you can find here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=406640
The Chefs need to work together and exchange what they did in specific to get good scores in the sectors they lead and have best results.
I would exchange my knowledge. Please join this Project and lets make a fantastic rom.
What do you think about this ?
I think about a meeting on a chat with only developrs and we exchange our thoughts and knowledge.
Do you think it'd be that simple for everyone to agree upon which tweaks to enable, which ones leave out, as well as applications?
Some of them are standard procedure, but the rest depends on each different chef.
The first question would be: a light ROM, or a full-feature packed, at the cost of performance?
For my part, I usually cripple most of my ROMs to the mininum, adding afterwards only the apps I need.
Registry tweaking also is quite aggressive.
I don't like all the bloat in most of the ROMs, but that's what most users are looking for.
As for eye candy, I never integrate it at the cost of performance.
So the question would be: what do CHEFS want VS what do USERS want.
If you want to take this to the next level, you'll have to set a date for the meeting.
I'd recommend IRC, since not many ppl use jabber. MSN sucks, so...
adwinp said:
Do you think it'd be that simple for everyone to agree upon which tweaks to enable, which ones leave out, as well as applications?
Some of them are standard procedure, but the rest depends on each different chef.
The first question would be: a light ROM, or a full-feature packed, at the cost of performance?
For my part, I usually cripple most of my ROMs to the mininum, adding afterwards only the apps I need.
Registry tweaking also is quite aggressive.
I don't like all the bloat in most of the ROMs, but that's what most users are looking for.
As for eye candy, I never integrate it at the cost of performance.
So the question would be: what do CHEFS want VS what do USERS want.
If you want to take this to the next level, you'll have to set a date for the meeting.
I'd recommend IRC, since not many ppl use jabber. MSN sucks, so...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I do think research will lead to a certain extra insight.
For example: I tested the recent Swtos ROMs: they are (real) fast, all three of them.
Why? Is it because he left something out, did he combine things, did he add something? (please tell us Swtos...)
The problem with this kind of collaboration is that cooks have to share their work. And their time...
Well, most experienced chefs have pretty established routines for performance gains.
Here's a quick MUST DO checklist for a good ROM:
1: remove bloat
2: tweak registry (services, caches, etc...)
3: DSM grouping
4: G'Reloc
5: Pagepool
Anybody with a little advanced knowledge of the windows internals can handle the first 2 tasks.
adwinp said:
Well, most experienced chefs have pretty established routines for performance gains.
Here's a quick MUST DO checklist for a good ROM:
1: remove bloat
2: tweak registry (services, caches, etc...)
3: DSM grouping
4: G'Reloc
5: Pagepool
Anybody with a little advanced knowledge of the windows internals can handle the first 2 tasks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't that "lock" your ROM and come in contradiction with most thoughts exposed in the locked ROM thread?
tnyynt said:
Doesn't that "lock" your ROM and come in contradiction with most thoughts exposed in the locked ROM thread?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it does, then again, it's not a compulsory step.
Every chef has his own preferences.
tnyynt said:
Doesn't that "lock" your ROM and come in contradiction with most thoughts exposed in the locked ROM thread?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
May better to publish "Tree" of project (OEM,SYS,etc)?
Nothing new - look to opensource
But who will moderate it?
It is the big work, I think.
There are many tutorials, documents and even video presentations on the forum. Kitchens may differ according to device but the basic principles are the same. Search for them and do lots of research!
tnyynt said:
There are many tutorials, documents and even video presentations on the forum. Kitchens may differ according to device but the basic principles are the same. Search for them and do lots of research!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess they are not asking about how to cook a ROM... but they try to invite people (especially ROM chefs) to collaborate... and sharing how is the best way to cook a good ROM...

ThemesDroid - Website Progress Updates, Dream Theme Warehouse

i would love to see a website specifically for g1 themes. with images of all themes, all linking back to the developer. as well as all themes and other downloads being hosted on local server, instead of having to use FTP services like megashares etc.
if anyone with web development/programming experience would be interested in assisting me it would be appreciated, and i think a site of this nature would benefit the android global community as a whole.
may i also state that i have a server with enough bandwidth and server space to handle the high traffic volume that follows a site like this.
i see some great possibilities with this, but in order to get it off the ground i will need some help.
I would love to say yes but my web dev skills have never been used in a real environment.
I would like to see something like this get off the ground. Its such a great idea.
although i do not have a crazy lot of time i do have an extra website that i currently do not use. Its good for a little less than a year and i "could" use iWeb or something to put a site together since it would take crazy less time. Its unlimited everything so i could host the .zip files right on it and just have people download from there. If enough people would use it though. I would def have to have everyone's permission though as i am not getting in trouble with people over something like this. if its something some of these Theme devs would enjoy i could use my current site on DreamHost and allow the download straight from the site with Pictures. Could have a page for each one of them too. Let me know as i would be willing to do this so it would be 100% easier to find things.
Email me at [email protected]
I would be willing to put the time in too since i could add an Ad at the top for some income towards the renew cost if necessary. And i do know what i am doing but it would def have to be a use site not just something 10 people use. www.edgewoodcma.org is my newest site i got up and running for a church.
thats pretty much the idea, it doenst really matter which server is used, however i do have a little over 2 years on mine, but it is unlimited just as yours is. however i do not think a page made in iWeb or something will work quite as nicely as something designed for dynamic updating by many devs.
im looking into a PHP CMS engine that will allow devs to name their .zip files and upload with a thumbnail of the theme. and have the site automatically post the new theme with the naming convention used in the .zip and show the thumbnail as a link to the direct download from the server.
i wanted to try and stay away from another forum site, as well. this is the forum site for android pretty much, we may have a discussion area in the theme site, however the downloads and updates will be on another portion of the page as to eliminate the need to sift through threads to find the themes you want.
The reason i posted that i would be willing to make and update the site is so that useless things will be kept out. I would be willing to accept all photos and .zip files in my email then post onto the site so that duplicates and useless things are kept to a minimum. I would also make multiple sections showing what update you are running (i.e. RC33, ADP 1.5, Dude, ect) and a complete breakdown so that it is as easily as possible to do things. The reason i would use iWeb is because of its simplicity. You could update a site within 2minutes for whatever is needed. I could update anywhere in a matter of minutes which would mean more thing up and running. Just an idea though as i too am wishing it was far easier to locate things instead of sifting through hundreds of posts to find the one decent theme out off 100.
that sounds great, will iWeb allow you to create dynamic websites for the dev to upload his work? or will you manage the whole thing as a static database (updated when devs send you their work)?
if you wish to create this, then please do. i shall continue to look for a permanent, maintenance free*, catalogue of themes. but until an engine is created for that purpose your offer sounds perfect. the android community desperately needs someplace organized to find these themes.
thank you for your offer, if you would like any sort of graphic help just let me know and ill do my best.
Dynamic sounds best, you could accept members (ie theme creators) and only have have control over posting themes and updates to their own themes?
We are actually working on this right now. Just purchased themesdroid.com a couple days ago.
We have a dedicated server we are going to be running it on. We are actively developing the site now. Perhaps we should combine our efforts.
awesome, let me know if you need any help, or any server space etc.
id love to help in any way i can.
--peace
It does seem like a good idea, although I have read in the past something about "why have many resources in many places"...one central location for it all is great, so it would have to have many advantages for it to work. I know instant thumbnails would be 1 (forums it doesnt work like that). Local files is another. Purchasable is probably something considerable.
Ive built for big corps before, and know a lot about that stuff. If you guys need help with doing anything I know almost any solution. Something like "if you donate you get extras" or something, and only those that did donate can get certain things. Helps the developers for their time and effort (like the apps, makes sense).
We are currently investigating a couple options for ThemesDroid.com. We have started working on a download site from the ground up, but we are also looking for possible alternatives. Does anyone know of any decent open source CMS/DMS systems? We have not seen anything that was worth a darn, but if anyone knows of a good one then there is no sense in reinventing the wheel.
kronarq said:
We are currently investigating a couple options for ThemesDroid.com. We have started working on a download site from the ground up, but we are also looking for possible alternatives. Does anyone know of any decent open source CMS/DMS systems? We have not seen anything that was worth a darn, but if anyone knows of a good one then there is no sense in reinventing the wheel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are you looking for in this CMS/DMS system?
well php-fusion is always a safe choice, there was something new... what was it.. http://expressionengine.com/
Ive always found Joomla to be the most flexible system to date, complicated but it will do 'everything' your looking it to do. It has great theme support as well (great flexibility for customizablity). Very secure too.
@malaeus, sorry to say but php-anything is almost always a bad choice, they have many loops/hackable holes.
Xoops is good too. Drupal is good. Or if you have a M$ server (asp), dot net nuke is good, has many add-ons for great flexibility.
Just some suggestions for you guys (btw, all those are free [opensource like android ]
I've been building Drupal sites for years now... if you guys need help, let me know.
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/6613/demo1z.png
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/3173/demo2.jpg
Started it 3 hours ago, thats how quick and easy it is. Its just a demo to show you what you can do with it. If you like cool, if not I at least recommend you check out joomla, thats what I created that with (there is no "starting from ground up" with it, its just there to "put the stuff in"). That template is free too (there are plenty out there, I also make my own which takes time). Just threw it together because I had the last three hours off from work and wanted to play with it again.
Drupals good, but I just dont think it has the best of plugins, they are ....awkward or something I dont know.
@kdf2883: Something geared towards downloads. Something preferably lightweight compared to Joomla/Drupal etc
@theslam08: I currently have a test of Joomla + DocMan I have been playing with, but Joomla seems like overkill for what we are doing. It doesn't all our needs so we would still have to modify it yet it does a bunch of junk we don't need. Then there's the usual update every week or get hacked bit...
We are leaning towards just doing everything from scratch. I could have a Joomla site up in a day or two or we can give it a couple weeks to build our own system from the ground up. What do you guys think?
for something like this, we may want to try something as simple as wordpress. each post would be a new theme, images and text would include server direct download link. its at least one of the most compatible backbones i can think of.
i have little to no experience in drupal and joomla etc. however when it comes to the design aspect of the website, thats closing in on my specialty.
@slam nice job on that layout btw. especially considering time spent.
Look at the Lock 2.0 themes site. They use WordPress and in my opinion it's a mess.

[UPDATED 02/18/10] A call to all chefs!!!

Hi there!
There are members here who have successfully cooked for the Vogue with each one using the kitchen that he prefers, while there are many others who have researched for hours and still have trouble setting up a kitchen.
Anyone who tried to do this without prior knowledge surely remembers how much effort is needed to learn all the steps, since the cooking process is quite complicated and there are many new things to learn. Even if one managed to setup a kitchen he might still have no idea how to port a new build to the kitchen. I have also found it difficult to learn what exactly do you need to keep from the original ROM that was shipped with the device and which of those old files can we get rid of. And the list goes on and on...
Many would love to enjoy the thrill of building their own custom ROM with the programs that they find useful, and to be able to tweak it the way they prefer.
I'm calling here on all of you who have experience cooking for the Vogue to please share your knowledge here.
If you have a kitchen setup that you would like to share, I'm sure that many members would love to make use of it!
See post #18 for a description of ROM XIP SYS OEM and LANG. Thanks to egzthunder1.
UPDATE 02/18/10
From my own personal experience and as others have mentioned in the first few posts of this thread, the easiest kitchen for a new chef is the PPCKitchen.
STEP 1: You can register at ppckitchen.org and download the latest version of the kitchen. After installing the kitchen you will need to run the updater. It will take a few seconds while it connects to the server. After that you will have an option of downloading different files. In order to cook a working ROM you will need to go to ROM Kitchens\Vogue and download the following Vogue Carrier Kitchen files, Vogue Kitchen Core, Vogue Drivers. (I don't believe you need Generic OEM Kitchen files in the above directory). Of course you will also need at least one of the Windows Mobile builds from the same directory (ROM Kitchens\Vogue).
Although the builds that show up in the updater are pretty new, yet the latest builds will not show up. In the future after having successfully cooked a ROM with one of the more stable builds from the updater, you can go get the latest builds from the PPCK website at Windows Mobile Build Discussions\Test SYS Builds. *Advanced PPCk Users only*. For now I would stick to the builds that show up in the updater.
There are also OEM files that you can download with the updater. These files have different programs that you will be able to add to your ROM. You can download PPCKitchen OEM's, PPCKitchen 240x320 OEM's, Non Freeware OEM's (don't get exited it's only a trial!), and User submitted OEM's. You don't need any of these so you can download them and check if you want the programs that's inside, if not you can delete the whole file from your kitchen folder that's in your PPCK folder.
The kitchen is very easy to use and you can now build a basic ROM.
I hope to add more to this mini tutorial within the next few days.
I agree 100%, I think it would be great if some of the experienced chefs could drop some knowledge on the rest of us, if not only so we can keep pumping out new ROMs for our Vogues.
Head over to PPCKitchen.org they have a tutorial and everything you need to cook roms, its also the easiest to use in my opinion.
As you may have noticed over the past few days, I have been trying to keep the forum a little cleaner by asking people who open new threads with questions to simply ask them in a sticked Q&A thread. This request also falls under that same premise. Please do not open new threads asking questions. Threads should only be opened to contribute to the site (roms, kitchens, skins, guides, apps, etc). Thanks.
Barogi44 said:
Head over to PPCKitchen.org they have a tutorial and everything you need to cook roms, its also the easiest to use in my opinion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also have been using the PPCkitchen and agree that it's the easiest, but I have found that it's also somewhat limiting and think it would be a good idea if those using the Ervius VK or any other kitchen would be able to help others.
egzthunder1 said:
As you may have noticed over the past few days, I have been trying to keep the forum a little cleaner by asking people who open new threads with questions to simply ask them in a sticked Q&A thread. This request also falls under that same premise. Please do not open new threads asking questions. Threads should only be opened to contribute to the site (roms, kitchens, skins, guides, apps, etc). Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, didn't mean to make a mess while your trying to clear things up. It must be frustrating, sort of like cleaning up the floor and having somebody walk in tracking dirt on the freshly cleaned floor!
I just thought that this would be a Tutorial type of thread where members could come and add their little bits of knowledge until we would have a lot of info gathered in one spot. Personally I still think that it's not another simple Q&A thread, although your welcome to disagree and to remove this thread if you want. I'm still hoping that this thread will become a guide for all newcomers to cooking.
When I get home tonight, I will give you a heads up on how i use PPCKitchen. I cook for personal use only and don't publish roms. In short, all I do is use is a modified version of Vin's Generic_OEM. By modified, I take out things I don't need and insert things I want. When I used to flash manila roms, this was critical as his MANILA folder has every thing needed. Now that I don't use MANILA (I replaced it it SPB Mobile Shell 3.5.3 (I LUV IT!). When a new WM build comes out, I simply pop them files in the appropriate places and run it. I am currently in love with 23529.
If your interested in what I'm doing, you can start by downloading Vin's Generic_OEM from his 28014 Thread. Just search for Generic_OEM in the thread.
Lewy1 said:
Sorry, didn't mean to make a mess while your trying to clear things up. It must be frustrating, sort of like cleaning up the floor and having somebody walk in tracking dirt on the freshly cleaned floor!
I just thought that this would be a Tutorial type of thread where members could come and add their little bits of knowledge until we would have a lot of info gathered in one spot. Personally I still think that it's not another simple Q&A thread, although your welcome to disagree and to remove this thread if you want. I'm still hoping that this thread will become a guide for all newcomers to cooking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know what your intentions were and I do not disagree with you. But there are a few things that need to be considered for making a "cooking guide" for this particular section of the site...
*There are only 3 (4 at best) active chefs for this section: Nag, Barogi, vin (if he decides to fully return), and myself. I believe that NFS will not return (personal unfounded belief).
*Most of the above chefs use PPCK. I am not saying that they don't use others like VK, but the info on cooking will be pretty much the same that you can find in the PPCK website.
*There are a slew of tutorials floating around the site (not just the Vogue section, but throughout XDA), which have a lot (and I do mean a lot) of information on how to cook.
*Cooking with other kitchens is far more involved than simply dropping build packages into PPCK. You can even get down to the nitty gritty of hex editing your rom to get more stuff out of it (ie, there is a hex change in the BA roms that allow you to have more ram available).
*Lastly, since the Vogue uses newer style roms (nbh, as opposed to older formats like nbf), learning how to cook from scratch would be kinda a waste of time (believe me, I spent the last month learning how to port a newer rom to the Blue Angel and it isn't as simple as you may think).
One of the mods (I can't remember which one right now) has a series of posts with tools, tutorials, and a bunch of other things needed to cook. What we could do is simply make a one or two post sticky with the links to the different tutorials on xda as well as on other sites (ppcgeeks has a 1100+ pages thread that talks about cooking and porting). I will see if I can get my hands on those and get them in here if that is ok with you.
egzthunder1 said:
One of the mods (I can't remember which one right now) has a series of posts with tools, tutorials, and a bunch of other things needed to cook. What we could do is simply make a one or two post sticky with the links to the different tutorials on xda as well as on other sites (ppcgeeks has a 1100+ pages thread that talks about cooking and porting). I will see if I can get my hands on those and get them in here if that is ok with you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that's perfectly fine with me. I have seen most of the stuff that you mentioned and was actually thinking along the same lines as you. If I can I will add my own little bit of knowledge like links to the various kitchens and so on. By the way there is a new kitchen, Oskitchen with new UI by airxtreme (original kitchen by Ondraster). It looks like it will be easy to use and has just been modified for the Vogue, and I'm hoping to give it a try tonight.
Lewy1 said:
Thanks, that's perfectly fine with me. I have seen most of the stuff that you mentioned and was actually thinking along the same lines as you. If I can I will add my own little bit of knowledge like links to the various kitchens and so on. By the way there is a new kitchen, Oskitchen with new GUI by airxtreme (original kitchen by Ondraster). It looks like it will be easy to use and has just been modified for the Vogue, and I'm hoping to give it a try tonight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I did see that one. I had tried oskitchen before and it isn't too bad (still preferred Ervius though). However, this new UI seems a little more user friendly...
Start out with PPCK. It works well, most users will not notice the limitations.
Biggest thing with making your own ROM's is getting all of the Reg edits that need to be included.
Good Luck! PS Start with build 23529 it seems to be really stable and fast!
First post updated with mini tutorial.
Lmiller1708 said:
Biggest thing with making your own ROM's is getting all of the Reg edits that need to be included.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Perhaps we can use this thread to gather up those types of regedits in one place. It would also be good to have guides for new cooks on how to add things like EzInput 2.1 (with working vibration) and Long Press End Key, BT Pan and Alarm functionality (while plugged in). Most of the newer roms have old or incomplete implementations of these features. vin was the last person to get many of these features all together in one place. With the age of the Vogue many of the cooks are trading up to newer devices and much of that knowledge is getting lost.
codf4ther said:
Perhaps we can use this thread to gather up those types of regedits in one place. It would also be good to have guides for new cooks on how to add things like EzInput 2.1 (with working vibration) and Long Press End Key, BT Pan and Alarm functionality (while plugged in). Most of the newer roms have old or incomplete implementations of these features. vin was the last person to get many of these features all together in one place. With the age of the Vogue many of the cooks are trading up to newer devices and much of that knowledge is getting lost.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you talking bout me ?
egzthunder1 said:
Are you talking bout me ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No sir, not trying to single anyone out. I've tried pretty much every rom released here and on PPCGeeks I haven't tried your latest ones labeled MetroPCS. I'll flash you latest tonight and try it out for a few days.
just uploaded 28230. Try that one and let me know if you like it...
btw, I was joking... don't sweat it. I don't get so easily offended
tharris297 said:
When I get home tonight, I will give you a heads up on how i use PPCKitchen. I cook for personal use only and don't publish roms. In short, all I do is use is a modified version of Vin's Generic_OEM. By modified, I take out things I don't need and insert things I want. When I used to flash manila roms, this was critical as his MANILA folder has every thing needed. Now that I don't use MANILA (I replaced it it SPB Mobile Shell 3.5.3 (I LUV IT!). When a new WM build comes out, I simply pop them files in the appropriate places and run it. I am currently in love with 23529.
If your interested in what I'm doing, you can start by downloading Vin's Generic_OEM from his 28014 Thread. Just search for Generic_OEM in the thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know if you sent this over via PM but I'd be interested in reading it too. I tried replacing the Generic_OEM.rar in the kitchen folder with the one from vin, but the kitchen won't startup after i do that.
codf4ther said:
I don't know if you sent this over via PM but I'd be interested in reading it too. I tried replacing the Generic_OEM.rar in the kitchen folder with the one from vin, but the kitchen won't startup after i do that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason is that Vin's packages are not "kitchen ready". What he posted is in essence a dump of the Mega rom. The packages have to be worked on in a one by one basis to get them to work with PPCK. There is a nice guide on how to do that in the forum at PPCKitchen.org.
Hey Lewy1,
You are off to a good start. I have been giving your idea some thought and if you truly want this to be a "learning resource" for new chefs, you may want to start by describing a few basic concepts as well.
[highlight]ROM[/highlight]
In essence the Operating System with all the necessary files and programs that make up for what you have on your device. This contains things that are general to all devices as well as certain files and folders that are specific to each particular device (hence, the reason why you cannot flash a rom from a Blue Angel into a Vogue and vice-versa). Once a rom is obtained by dumping it, the dump will have a bunch of folders and files, which need to be turned into something "cookable". There exist several applications that can (and must be used) in order to accomplish this.
After all the things in the "dump" are sorted out and manipulated, the rom will essentially turn into 4 main parts: XIP, SYS, OEM, and Lang packages.
[highlight]XIP[/highlight]
The XIP is what holds the core of the OS. This is what holds the Native Kernel of the particular device as well. In order to port a rom to a device, one cannot simply replace the XIP with a new one. The XIP of the new OS must be "implanted" into the XIP of the base rom of the device. The reason for this is that there are many files that can simply be replaced in the XIP, but some must remain untouched as they hold key elements for the proper functioning of the device (Native Kernel).
[highlight]SYS[/highlight]
The SYS folder will have packages with software that the device may or may not need to run properly. This holds things such as the Shell (your UI), Office, core applications, etc. A lot of these packages can be removed from the SYS in order to make space for other apps that the chef maybe interested in having. However, great care must be taken when removing/adding packages since some packages are needed for the device to even be able to boot. Likewise, having too many packages will render the rom un-flashable since most devices have a specific size of rom that they cannot go over. In the case of latter devices, the available space for rom has gone up dramatically. For instance, the Vogue has roughly 90 MB of space for the rom. This is more than plenty to cook a lot of apps without too many issues. There are older devices such as the Blue Angel, where the size of the rom is limited to 32 MB, which forces most cooks to remove packages and compress things as much as possible to even have a bootable rom (keep in mind that most of the time, builds are coming with more and more space requirements).
On top of all this, there are the resolution requirements. Most packages will come with a second folder of a similar name with the resolution added. For example, Base will have another folder called Base_96DPI. The chef will have to be careful on what he/she puts to be cooked as having different resolution packages can make the device either not boot, or look weird (out of scale images) if it does boot
[highlight]OEM[/highlight]
The OEM normally holds fixes and programs that the cook could not fit in the SYS. It also hold drivers, sometimes even Language packs among other things.
[highlight]Lang[/highlight]
These are language and location specific modules. The chefs use the location modules to make roms for different languages and locations. It is usually a four character code that determines which country/language the rom is made for. For instance, 0409 is WWE.
There are many other basic concepts (such as Virtual Memory allocation) that could be discussed, but for now, these basic definitions should help the average person understand what they are dealing with when they see a new set of packages coming out on PPCK,
Hope this helps the cause
egzthunder1 said:
Hey Lewy1,
You are off to a good start. I have been giving your idea some thought and if you truly want this to be a "learning resource" for new chefs, you may want to start by describing a few basic concepts as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! Great Info I'll add it to the first post.

[Q] Paranoia me !

I've had several smart phone's in the past all of them with several different roms but still i am wondering.
I have never experianced any of these things but how easy is it for a builder of a rom to obtain info like passwords, usernames or make expansive texting on your phone.
If this is all possible is this happened in the passed and what happened to these builders:
How can i prevent that?
or what can i do to check stuff like that.
I think there is enough brains around these forums to check these things and i think they are checked but still I want to know.....
No one?
Keesjansma2 said:
I've had several smart phone's in the past all of them with several different roms but still i am wondering.
I have never experianced any of these things but how easy is it for a builder of a rom to obtain info like passwords, usernames or make expansive texting on your phone.
If this is all possible is this happened in the passed and what happened to these builders:
How can i prevent that?
or what can i do to check stuff like that.
I think there is enough brains around these forums to check these things and i think they are checked but still I want to know.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you install a ROM you implicitly trust the developer, he could have installed whatever he wanted on your phone. So basically yes, you're absolutely right. Not all people who cook ROM are experienced, so they, sometimes, may be doing things without understand what they're are doing, exposing you to security risk.
Let's talk about prevention now.
Comments : when you choose a popular ROM it's probable that someone will alert other people if the ROM is doing something suspicious.
Source: The most obvious way and the most efficiently is to look at the source if the developer released it, that's hard, but not impossible since you only need to look to the specific source of your device and not to Cyanogenmod/AOSP sources (you're trusting these ones). If the source is on Github you could see what he changed from the original Kernel or what he change at every release. BTW Someone could share his code but you're not sure that the ROM has not being modified.
Trust: You need to trust someone, so choose well. Remember that even stock rom could have been altered to spy you, especially if you live in a country with limited freedom of speech.
If you're really paranoid then build your ROM, but that's not easy and you need a lot of time, otherwise stick with popular ROM from people that the community trusts.
Thanks Darkorn, I hoped that rommakers were checked more then that they where trusted.
But there are so much roms out there that it cant be all checked exhaustive . It answered my question with questions wether to go on this way or not..... and maybe go try and make my own rom.

Categories

Resources