Develop Bugs

Complete Guide To Hacking, Tweaks & Mods For PDAs

Hi
I have been on this forum for awhile since I got my first PDA (XDA II) about 2 years ago but only a few months ago did I register when I got tired of waiting for other people to ask questions for the answers that I wanted.
Now I have an XDA Orbit, and all of these new terms are popping up... such as USPL, CID, etc.
Because I took a long break from the forums I need to catch up with everything, and thats very difficult since its hard to make out what people are talking about and referring to when talking on the forums. I can't really comprehend what people are saying because they are talking about things that I dont know (lol). I have looked through the wiki and it doesnt explain everything, and the acronyms section doesnt contain much.
Although the WiKi is a fantastic place where people can share their ideas as a community, I was hoping that someone could maybe upload a guide such as a text file explaining everything, including terms, what certain things are used for, etc.
One thing that confuses me is that someone managed to get a leaked WM5 rom that 02 use to unbrick devices. From what I've heard dumped ROMs are exactly the same except they cannot bypass the bootloader.. could someone explain why this is? What would be the point of the dumped ROM if it cannot bypass the bootloader - surely you wouldn't be able to flash the ROM?
This is just one of many questions I have - but by having everything explained I hope to work out answers for myself using the knowledge gained from learning all these technical terms.
Thanks for your time.

Well, as much as I know...
CID = Country ID and is used to 'lock' the device to a certain country/vendor id so that any other ROM downloaded to the device would render it useless, sometimes this screws up the bootloader and 'bricks' the device... much like a sim-lock with other carriers, but more serious.
USPL = A program used to circumvent the CID lock by providing a temporary SuperCID, so that other ROMs can be flashed without the aforementioned bricking. It has to be flashed to the device before any 'exterior' ROM download.
These terms have all probably come about after the release of B&B4 ROM by tom coden, which I must say is brill!
Hope this helps,
Pete

Thanks for the info, CID locks I assume are being put on newer PDAs since the XDA II or XDA IIs didnt have these measures?

I would guess so, although I haven't added cooked ROMs to any other device as yet...

Sorry to scrutinise every answer (lol) but does 'cooked' mean that the extended ROM has been edited? or is that baked ROM?

Not being the expert on this I assume a cooked ROM to be one that has been put together, more likely meaning one that is not from the original vendor.
E.g. HTC cooked a ROM in the first place, then O2 edited it and cooked their own etc...
Anyone? Am I right?

well from how i have seen it used over the last few days since i joined, i was assuming "cooked" meant hand made or modified by someone other than the device vendor/manufacturer/Microsoft

Yeah pretty much!

Come on everyone to organize wiki
I agree that it is very hard to get into this... I have been studying for hours these late days...
I just read the 2 necessary steps for begginers:
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=FAQ
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=BlueAngel_For_Beginners
I strongly recommend them!
back to the wiki... I think that we should be writting more there and try to be more organized and cross-linked.
Some kind of tree structure would help a lot.
Besides some topics (like the one for BA above) should be generalized to give basic ideas for all devices.
I am quite new to wikis but I feel that we should exploit/collaborate more this resource.
Regards.

Thanks for those links, they are very helpful! I managed to get a read of a few useful links aswell - they were in the Himalaya section...
Also, does anyone know how I can get rid of the notification that displays your balance after making/receiving a call?
e.g. Receive a call, talk or whatever, close the call, then the message: 'Your Balance Is £283.39' (lol just an example im not really that rich hehe) comes up. I was thinking I would have to tweak the registry to remove that..it must autodial the number that displays balance automatically after making a call.
Thanks

Newbie to smartphones-basics

After several searches, nothing explains the basic questions. How to upgrade, what are roms, and what steps to take to properly upgrade the software. I personally have a S710 (vox) and would like to upgrade windows and add some nice, SAFE, software, that wont make my new phone act all strange like sooooo many posts I read. It seems that so many add these features, and then there phone no longer works right. Is there a proper way to upgrade? Is there a tutorial somewhere that will walk someone new to smartphones through the process? And what are roms and why are they needed?
If anyone can help answer these questions it would be most helpful and I, and other "newbies", would be eternally grateful.
polarbair

explain please :)

Hi guys.
A noob here. Please be patient and just look trough my simple request.
I've got no clue on what spl, unsigned, signed, etc. word means.
I'm getting the diamond touch and wants it running as smooth as possible, but there are tons of different updates here which all says, do this spl, dont use unsigned, etc. So many different technical words that i have no clue on.
Is there a thread with some short explanations?
I'm not stupid so i should be able to read my way trough it and understand it. I just really want a fair chance of getting an update that suits my phone perfectly.

Suneee said:
Hi guys.
A noob here. Please be patient and just look trough my simple request.
I've got no clue on what spl, unsigned, signed, etc. word means.
I'm getting the diamond touch and wants it running as smooth as possible, but there are tons of different updates here which all says, do this spl, dont use unsigned, etc. So many different technical words that i have no clue on.
Is there a thread with some short explanations?
I'm not stupid so i should be able to read my way trough it and understand it. I just really want a fair chance of getting an update that suits my phone perfectly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're happy with your device's performance then you don't really need to worry about what any of these things means
You should also use a more descriptive name for your post next time!!

Hi,
Also a noob... but I found all my answers here.
There you go:
http://modmydiamond.info/
From that simple tutorial you can take advantage from what the friends here do... =)

Thanks
Thanks for the url, will be checking it out.
I'm a noob to the mobile dev world, i'm used to code on windows. Just needed a quick intro.
Like people have been saying the accelerometer, was slow. Therefore interested in increasing the speed.

[Q] Adding phone functionality to "inactive phone rom"

Hey everyone, I have a couple of questions. First off as you can see from my post count I'm a lurker. I can remove/install ROMs, the basics, but never have I tried to add/remove apps or functions to one. So I've found a ROM I love, but it was designed with inactive phones in mind, to make them into second life usable music/video players. It has no phone functionality because of this. The one I'm interested in is by frickinjerms - Ubersonic - I hope I can modify others work for my personal use. Guess that should be a question too.
Would it be ok to add in phone functionality or would it be easier to find one with that already and just remove the fluff I don't want and add what I do?
As I understand it, I can just add it back in, but I'm unsure what files go back in. Is there a resource that outlines that anywhere, or can anyone throw me a bone?
Is it ok to modify the work of others for your personal use without asking, or should you seek approval first out of proper etiquette?
I've been searching through XDA and other sites looking for some basic beginners stuff for cooking up ROMs, but have only come across limited collections. I'm toying with dsixda's Android Kitchen right now, but would love to find other resources. So any pointers to learning resources would be great too.
Thanks!

For the last one, I personally believe that its not necessary to ask before modifying a rom thats for your personal use because only you will know about it anyway, and people do it all the time
You only need to ask for permission if you're reposting your personal version of someone elses rom
Sent from my PG06100

CNexus said:
For the last one, I personally believe that its not necessary to ask before modifying a rom thats for your personal use because only you will know about it anyway, and people do it all the time
You only need to ask for permission if you're reposting your personal version of someone elses rom
Sent from my PG06100
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I figured that was likely the case I just wanted to clarify it for myself. I know people put in a lot of work on some of their ROMs and don't want to step on toes.
Thanks for the response.

You know you could use a rom that does have phone functionality. Just throwing that out there.

PlatinumPenguin said:
You know you could use a rom that does have phone functionality. Just throwing that out there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whats the point of flavors if you're forced to pick the one you don't like? Just throwing that out there.
I don't think my questions were unreasonable either. I'm not asking for someone to build me something, I'm asking for the fishing pole, not the fish.

Learning ROM Development - Where to even begin??

So I’ve been a member here since the Droid X days and I’ve learned a lot over the years with each device I’ve had but I never really looked into creating ROMs (I always wanted to learn but never got to it).
I know it’s going to be a learning process that takes some time but I’m looking for help on where I should start. Before anyone posts a whole bunch of random looks I’ll say right now that I am a complete beginner when it comes to this stuff. I’ve looked at a bunch on threads and it’s so overwhelming being completely new so I don’t know what’s relevant and what’s not.
From the research I’ve done today I learned about a program called Android Kitchen which from my understanding was used to create and compile ROMs. From what I found it looks like the original dev stopped updating it back in 2013. In the ChefCentral>Android forum it looks like someone else took over and maintains it for Linux. I also came across a variant there called “Assayyed_Kitchen”. Is this the same program just made by someone else? I don’t know you tell me? lol
I also plan to learn some Java in the coming months and Android App development. I don’t have a huge interest in making apps right now but who knows maybe I will down the road. I just figured learning Java can only help with learning to make ROMs? Do I even need to know any of it for this kind of stuff?
So basically I’m looking for some guidance on where to start as a complete beginner in learning ROM development. Even someone taking the time to type out a few basic steps explains what the whole process even involves from start to finish would help a lot. For example..
1. Download source
2. Open in this program and blah blah
3. Do your magic and customize this and that
4. Do some more magic and pack it back up and flash
Just understanding the steps would make a huge difference because then I know what to research and what to learn. Hoping this thread gets some good info in it and maybe at some point I can create a complete noob friendly guide in the OP to help others like me who don’t know where to begin. To anyone that takes the time to reply and help out.. THANK YOU!

aholeinthewor1d said:
So I’ve been a member here since the Droid X days and I’ve learned a lot over the years with each device I’ve had but I never really looked into creating ROMs (I always wanted to learn but never got to it).
I know it’s going to be a learning process that takes some time but I’m looking for help on where I should start. Before anyone posts a whole bunch of random looks I’ll say right now that I am a complete beginner when it comes to this stuff. I’ve looked at a bunch on threads and it’s so overwhelming being completely new so I don’t know what’s relevant and what’s not.
From the research I’ve done today I learned about a program called Android Kitchen which from my understanding was used to create and compile ROMs. From what I found it looks like the original dev stopped updating it back in 2013. In the ChefCentral>Android forum it looks like someone else took over and maintains it for Linux. I also came across a variant there called “Assayyed_Kitchen”. Is this the same program just made by someone else? I don’t know you tell me? lol
I also plan to learn some Java in the coming months and Android App development. I don’t have a huge interest in making apps right now but who knows maybe I will down the road. I just figured learning Java can only help with learning to make ROMs? Do I even need to know any of it for this kind of stuff?
So basically I’m looking for some guidance on where to start as a complete beginner in learning ROM development. Even someone taking the time to type out a few basic steps explains what the whole process even involves from start to finish would help a lot. For example..
1. Download source
2. Open in this program and blah blah
3. Do your magic and customize this and that
4. Do some more magic and pack it back up and flash
Just understanding the steps would make a huge difference because then I know what to research and what to learn. Hoping this thread gets some good info in it and maybe at some point I can create a complete noob friendly guide in the OP to help others like me who don’t know where to begin. To anyone that takes the time to reply and help out.. THANK YOU!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is my blog on the topic. I've also got some interesting* Android Security Research on there that acts as a good Segway into reverse engineering, etc.
The one I am linking is for 6.0.x, and I'll be updating it to 7.x soon, though, the only real difference is the branch you checkout (you should understand what this means after reading my guide), and you'll need to install OpenJDK8 instead of the linked 7 (as 7.x requires this).
http://odste.blogspot.com/2016/04/guide-to-compiling-android-on-ubuntu.html