Tutorial to upgrade your ROM to WM6

[GaMedic]

Important: This tutorial is outdated. I have posted a new tutorial here in the Apache thread. Select this link for the current tutorial please. I have also posted a tutorial in the Titan (6800) thread that is specific for that device. The link for it is in my signature. Thanks for all the support.


Many people have requested a tutorial on how to upgrade or flash a new ROM. This is my best effort to create a “how to“. I am not a web developer or a windows mobile guru of any kind so there may be mistakes. Use this at your own risk. If you have questions do a search or post them in this thread and someone will attempt to help you. If I am wrong on any of this documentation, don’t worry someone will point it out and I will be glad to edit my post.

Edit: This is for Apache 6700 phones only.
Edit: Just to let everyone know this tutorial is for 6.0 not 6.1. Some of the principles are the same but downloading the kitchen and some of the drop down menus are different.

The first thing you need to do is to setup. You will need to do or have the following items before you flash your ROM. Some are common sense things but I will list them anyway.

1. A computer running Windows XP or Windows Vista. I run XP so I don’t know how to instruct those of you running Vista, but there is plenty of reference to it in the forums. Make sure that your computer has an open USB port. I wouldn’t try flashing with your USB cable attached to a USB hub. No technical reason that I can give you, I just wouldn’t do it personally.
2. Active sync version 4.5. No other version will work for this process. It can be downloaded here as a free download.
3. A mini USB cable. One end should fit in the USB port on your PC and one end in the mini USB on your PPC.
4. Check for your boot loader version. To do this you simply Press the power button, the record button and the reset button at the same time. (Screenshot )You will notice that the screen gets dark. If you take a small light or flashlight and look at the screen you will be able to see the word USB at the top of the screen. At the bottom of the screen you will see the version number. Example: 2.02, 1.02, 2.04 or 1.04. You will need to make a note of which version you have so that you can select it during the build process. To exit boot loader hit the reset button only.
5. Download the latest version of the kitchen found here.
6. Download the OEM folder call PPcgeeks_OEM.rar from the same post as above and leave it in the rar format. Place this file in the root folder where you stored your kitchen. If you did not change the default location for the kitchen when you downloaded it then it should be C:\Buildos.
You should now have the setup portion complete. The next post will be for the actual selection of items to burn into your ROM.

[GaMedic]

After you have downloaded the kitchen and placed the rar file in the correct folder you are ready to start “cooking”. Just click on the icon that looks like a chef. This will start the kitchen program. When you start the kitchen for the first time you may get an error because you have not selected the carrier. This in normal. You will select it in one of the steps below. (Screenshot)
Follow these steps:
1. Select you boot loader in the dropdown menu marked RUU on the top bar. If you have 1.02 or 2.02 select Standard. If you have 1.04 or 2.04 select X.04+. If you find that you get an error later then come back here and select NoID.
2. Select you carrier in the carrier dropdown menu.
3. Select the items you would like to place into you ROM, meaning programs, games, etc… that you want on your PPC. You can select a section tab in the left hand pane to go to that particular section or you can start on the right pane making selections and work your way down the screen. Be sure to select your carrier again under the module called Carrier Customize. The sections with a circle selector mean one of the items in that section must be selected. If it has a square box selector, these are optional. Don’t worry this will make sense later. Be careful not to select too many programs or you will get an error when you build. You can start with a few items and then add later to figure out how much you can stuff in. I recommend starting small just to get the feel of the process. If you are not sure what one of the programs are you can select the item and right click with you mouse. Go to visit homepage or OEM info and out will find the program information.
Edit: If you chose to do so you can use the default selections. They are loaded for you when you start the kitchen. They are saved in the C:\buildos folder as Apache_Helmi_WM6 Selections. All you would need to do is select your RUU, Carrier in dropdown and carrier in the Carrier Customize section. If you choose to make your own selections, after making all you selections use the file tab located in the top left corner and navigate to Save as. Save your file using whatever name you like. This will preserve the Apache_Helmi_WM6 Selections default settings and also give you your own base selections to work from.
4. Once you have selected all your items click on the green arrow in the top left of the kitchen. This will start the build process. You will see the build process in a separate screen called build status. Don’t do anything while this process is working. It will take a couple of minutes. If you have made too many selections you will get an error similar to this one:
Compiled Size (0x395ffc0) greater than Max Rom Size (0x38e5800).
Just close it out and remove some selections. Then start the same process again by clicking the green arrow. Once the build process is complete you can simply follow the on-screen prompts.
5. The update utility will start. At this point place your phone into boot loader mode and plug your USB cable to the computer and phone. Edit: Don't worry about the instructions that say to reset your phone, just hit next. Once you hit next your phone will be found. Just click update and wait. Do not unhook you phone during the process. You will see another screen with a progress bar as the ROM is flashed. After the process reaches 100% you will be notified that the process is complete. When it says to do so, unhook your phone and perform a hard reset. This is done by holding down the 2 soft keys(located above the Send/End keys on the front of your PPC) and pressing the reset at the same time. A white screen will come up asking to confirm reset. Open your keyboard and hit the Y key. Than hit the space bar. Your phone will reboot. Do your screen alignment and other items as prompted and you are set. At this point you should have your phone upgraded.
Note: If you get a white screen after the initial splash screen then your ROM is too big. Phones with bootloader 2.05 will have less room for the ROM so you have to make the build smaller. If you have bootloader 2.05 I would recommend downgrading your bootloader to 2.02. See this post to learn how to do that. If you brick your phone during the bootloader downgrade or during the flashing of a ROM, it is your responsibility. Remember these instructions are without warranty and use them at your own risk. It is very hard to break your phone doing this but I just wanted to warn you not to come crying to me.
As you can see the process is pretty easy. You can repeat the same process to “tweak” your phone with whatever you want to have on it. As stated earlier this thread will be updated with any corrections the moderators or senior members point out. Moderators feel free to edit this post as you see fit. This is a very basic tutorial but I hope it helps some of you.

**EDIT- If you get an ERROR 100 try flashing again after selecting No ID in the RUU dropdown menu

[GaMedic]

If you want to save your selections for a later build select file in the top left corner ans click save as. I usually use the date I cooked the ROM, example 122907, as my save file so that it references the date I cooked it. I also recommend looking into the OEMizer by tierman so you can save your personal settings and they are cooked into you ROM for you so that you don't have to re-enter it every time you hard reset. This is very handy especially for email settings.

Definitions(thanks gguruusa)
The following basic definitions are needed to load ROMs/use the kitchen:

HTC - the manufacturer of the 6700/6800/Touch/Tilt/et al.

Apache = PPC6700 = 6700

Titan = PPC6800 = 6800 = Mogul

(soft) Reset - there is a small whole on the bottom of your PPC, just to the left of the usb connector - it's the reset button. Use your stylus to push it. Your screen will go dark, then about 3 seconds later will show the boot splash.

Hard Reset - hold the left and right - buttons in (located just above the connect/disconnect phone buttons) at the same time as you push the reset button. It helps to hold the phone upside down in the hand that's pushing the - buttons, and use the stylus with your other hand to push the reset button.

Bottloader Mode (APACHE) - power+cassette/notes+reset - the power button is on/off button on the top of your phone. The cassette/notes button is the top button on the left side of your phone - it has a picture of a cassette tape on it, if it hasn't been worn off. Hold all three buttons in for about a 1/2 second, and the screen will go dark and stay dark. If you look closely, preferably in a well lit environment, you'll see some Serial or USB in the middle of the screen. Below that is a version number. You are in bootloader mode, and the version number is your bootloader version. YOU MUST KNOW YOUR BOOTLOADER VERSION BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO FLASH OR BUILD A ROM.

Bootloader Mode (TITAN et al) - power+camera+reset - the power button is on/off button on the top of your phone. The camera button is the bottom button on the right side of your phone - it has a picture of a camera on it, if it hasn't been worn off. Hold all three buttons in for about a 1/2 second, and the screen will go to a tri-colored screen. You are in bootloader mode. You must unlock your phone to load custom ROMs (it is necessary to unlock your phone only once during the life of your phone).

ROM - there are 4 types of Roms, but the two most commonly referred to are the OS ROM and the Radio ROM. Unless explicitly stated, ROM refers to the OS ROM. The OS ROM has WM5/WM6 on it. It is the OS ROM that gets updated frequently. Radio ROM updates are rarely needed, ExtROM updates are never needed, and bootloader ROM updates (updates that change the bootloader version) are discouraged heavily - bootloaders are a rare case where older is usually better than newer.

Ext ROM - this is a extra partition that contains carrier branded software. If you are using a custom ROM or the kitchen, you do not need anything that the carrier installed here - you may use it as extra storage. This storage area is not erased by a hard reset, but it is normally "locked" (hidden, read only). Some software does not behave as expected when the Ext ROM area is "unlocked".

nbf/nbh - these are different ROM encoding methods. Your phone REQUIRES a specific method. Most people do not need to know anything about nbf/nbh or encoding methods.

RUU - this is a piece of software from HTC. The kitchen includes it, as do many ROM distributions.

Kitchen - the place to make your custom ROM. The kitchen is a collection of various software tools that assemble your ROM and start the flash process. There are currently two flavors of kitchen, the original Bepe .9 version, and the newer .9.5 Bepe/PPCGeeks version. The .9.5 version currently only supports the Apache/6700 - it will not work properly for other phones.

Custom ROM - a particular OS ROM, almost always built from the latest kitchen. Distributing custom ROMs is discouraged - it is easier and less costly to distribute the kitchen modifications necessary to build a given ROM.

PagePool - cache for executing programs. This is an advanced subject. There's little reason to mess with it for most people.

OEM (module) - add-in programs to the kitchen and/or add-in customizations. There are lots and lots of OEMs - the most common freeware ones are in the PPCGeeksOEM.rar distributed as a kitchen add-on.

.NET 1.0/2.0/2.0SP1/3.5 - various flavors of the PC .NET package from Microsoft. Available from Microsoft as a free download. .NET 2.0SP1 or later is required to run the newer BuildOS (v .9.5)

.NET CF 1.0/2.0/3.5 - the PPC equivalent of the PC versions of .NET. Require by some PPC applications.

DO NOT LOAD A ROM FROM ANOTHER DEVICE ON YOUR PHONE.

DO NOT UNPLUG THE USB CABLE WHILE FLASHING. It's best to not touch anything at all while it's flashing. Don't run other processor intensive software (like games) while it is flashing, either.

[TMB_XV6700]

Good job GaMedic - now there's an easy thread to point to....
I would have inserted a new step 3a - save your selections to a unique-named text file - before building, not after as you stated. Besides saving data for reference and sharing, this also preserves the default name for the default settings - don't want to lose those.
Happy New Year, tmb

[GaMedic]

Originally Posted by TMB_XV6700

Good job GaMedic - now there's an easy thread to point to....
I would have inserted a new step 3a - save your selections to a unique-named text file - before building, not after as you stated. Besides saving data for reference and sharing, this also preserves the default name for the default settings - don't want to lose those.
Happy New Year, tmb

I did address the need to save (save as) in another post after the initial one about saving using a different name. I pointed out that I use the date but I guess I need to add that to the original post and point out that you have to use save as to preserve the default. I didn't know that it mattered to save before or after building. I always save after building so that I am sure the ROM would build prior to saving. Has always worked for me. Thanks and I will edit the original post to include the info.

[Feech]

Medic, this is really great and appreciated. As someone that is new to the smartphone world its nice to have this type of info without begging other members with "How do I's" all the time. Thanks Much.

[GaMedic]

Originally Posted by Feech

Medic, this is really great and appreciated. As someone that is new to the smartphone world its nice to have this type of info without begging other members with "How do I's" all the time. Thanks Much.

I know you probably understand that this is for the Apache 6700 only but I wanted to point that fact out so that others understand it as well. Thanks for your kind words. Just trying to contribute back to the community here because I have thoroughly enjoyed my PPC since the upgrade.

[Sarge, USMC]

Ok, so 2 things I noticed.

1.) Step 5, the Software Update Utility tells you, in it's "Step 1" to reset the device. Don't. Just hit "next."
2.) At the end, when it's done, it shows you a little picture and tells you to soft reset the device. Once that applet closes, there's a popup window that tells you to hard reset.

Seems to have worked without a flaw. Now to go find another post to tell me how to make this thing do what I want it to do!

Thx, Ga. Medic. You're the man for taking the time to do this. Once this thread is "fine tuned" it should be locked and stuck on top somewhere. IMHO.........

[GaMedic]

Just go ahead and hit next

[nostromo]

Hi Ga. Medic. Thanks for this quick tutorial. This is great! I have been looking for something like this for the past couple of days.

I am completely new to the 6700 arena and wanted to double check some things before I decide to go ahead with the update.

1. I have a Sprint PPC 6700. That is known as the Apache right? I just want to make sure that I download the correct files.

2. I have not registered it with Sprint yet. I bought it used and was thinking of updating it first then transferring the phone number to it. Is this recommended or should I transfer the number first?

3. I followed your instructions to find the bootloader version and mine did not say USB at the top. It says Serial and at the bottom it says v1.00 not .02 or .04 as you mentioned in your post. I am assuming because it was not connected to the computer at the time. Which brings me to my next question.

4. Installing Active Sync....I am assuming that needs to be done at the very beginning...right?

5. You mentioned dropping the kitchen and OEM files to the C directory. Is that the recommended directory on the computer or on the device? By logic, I understand that the kitchen needs to be on the computer...obviously to run it, and am assuming same applies to the OEM file.

6. One thing I am having a hard time understanding is that when I think of a computer for instance, I don't think of the OS stored in the ROM. How is it that the PPC stores the OS in the ROM instead?

Sorry for asking so many questions. As I mentioned I am really new to this and do not want to screw up my device on the first try. I am very interested however in doing this and getting rid of the crap that sprint puts on the device.


Thanks again and hope to hear from you soon. I am really psyched about updating my device.

Happy holidays.