How to make a custom rom using Helmi's AKU 3.3 ROM Kitchen
 

EDIT:

This started out as a request to gather new ideas for the next "Helmi" AKU 3.3 ROM - then Helmi chimed in and actually posted his Rom Kitchen that he used to build the 3.3 Rom we've all been using.

Read along and enjoy the journey. Here is the highlights:

here's the Apache AKU3.3 ROM Kitchen:
ftp://xda:xda@ftp.xda-developers.com....3_Kitchen.rar

and here's the instruction how kitchen work its might be difference a bit, but basically its on the same stuff:
http://www.buzzdev.net/index.php?opt...4,23392,page=1

Helmi told me, in PM, that the ROM Kitchen image above builds the exact ROM we started with - in other words, it will not have any .NET installed, and it will have the picture & video DLL problem, so those are the first two things to fix. It will also not have a working BT PAN profile.

So, if you are game to cook your own ROM with just exactly what you want, this is another way to do it. Read that second link above all the way to the end, there is a lot of info in there on how to add new OEM packages, and there are some example OEM packages as well.

My Personal Goal is to make a baseline 3.3 Rom Kitchen image with the simple fixes above (.NET 2.0SP1, fixed P&V DLLs) and release that, then start adding OEM packages for the SPRINT extended rom (so you no longer need that) and so on, for various freeware that I use. It will take a while, I don't have a ton of free time :D

Original Post Below:


Can we start this now? Is Helmi gonna cook us another one?

I'm not bashful, I'll start

#1 - 3.5 based if at all possible (with issues addressed below)

If not #1, then cleanup on 3.3 including

- correct dlls for pic&vid in rom
- working BT PAN
- .NET in rom (1.x ok, 2.x better)

I think that's really the short list. Just doing that will free up over a meg of store on internal memory.

Wide, you're plugged in with Helmi - is he considering/working on another rev? This one rocks, and I am totally happy it happened, but you know it could be just a bit *more* perfect :D

Check your PMs

-check
-not yet
-check

How about maybe saving some space by UPXing some files, like wideawake did with the aku 2.2 rom.

Also lets try to incorporate some of the necessary reg edits as well, so that the 6700 can run at peak performance.

Thats all i can think of.

Cant wait for the next rom!

Thanks to all involved

-s

those were my thoughts too all the above especially .net 2 and pic/vid files.... the upxed dlls would be nice too.

Hello all...

I have a better idea... what about rom Kitchen for APACHE? so everybody can built their own really customize what the rom contain...:)

here's the Apache AKU3.3 ROM Kitchen:
ftp://xda:xda@ftp.xda-developers.com....3_Kitchen.rar

and here's the instruction how kitchen work its might be difference a bit, but basically its on the same stuff:
http://www.buzzdev.net/index.php?opt...4,23392,page=1

lets the rom cooking era for APACHE device begin?...

This looks very, very confusing. What does this do?

I am very excited about this! Thanks, helmi_c!

that are tools and technique for built your own customize rom... yes built your own ROM... :)

u can add/replace an OEM* pack with ur personal needs and thats it.. u've just create ur own personal customize apache rom...

maybe read a couple of document will help to understand about how to make ur own ROM... trust me... its worthed...

hopes someone will post a customize rom soon...:)

* all app/addition/extras app, netcf2 for example, or broadcomm stack, icon customize, or regular app that u use the most to be built in rom.

Any idea how much free space there is to add files? It looks really straightforward.

Driver and SAP (Standar Aplication, like Button setting, device info), and also some driver like SERIAL_BTUR.DLL, TIACXWLN.DLL etc is a built in drivers also U might check the *.RGU file in DLL dir if it link to Drivers\BuiltIn then its not something u should mess around with cos its device spesific, u should not replace with other device drivers...

but hey, as far as I know? if u mess with roms? and if it wont boot? just get to bootloader and flash a working rom, and u're safe, I dont know if this applied to Apache device... but it should work the same like any other device I know...

Wow ok - that's a big chunk to digest :D

So, just so I understand the starting point - is this the kitchen that made the ROM we've all been testing/burning, or has this ROM already had any changes made.

Thanks for the info and for sharing helmi_c this is great stuff, I know what I will be doing all weekend. 8)

creating rgu's for custom oem's
 

Hello. I have a question regarding the creating of rgu's for my custom oem packages.

Would it be correct to simply use MSCEInfEn to grab the registry entries for my packages? The reason I ask is because it seems not all the registry entries are shown.

For example I grabbed registry keys for iguidance and there was very few entries. Are some of the registry keys created on the first start up of an application? Your guidance is appreciated : )

Ok, I am gently poking the Rom Kitchen version.

helmi_c, is there any info anywhere on what is in this version? Is it the same as the one we've been installing? Is it newer?

(1) I cannot tell for sure if .NETCF 2.0 is in it - guess I will need to flash to be sure, but it seems like some kinda .NET is in the rom kitchen stuff.

(2) I think I applied the 'Pic & Video' dll fix to the rom kitchen (put correct dlls in \OEM\MouHid.dll folder, and they look to have made it into the rom build)

(3) Got rid of the bad .dl_ files in same folder

(4) removed all T9 Language dlls from same folder

(5) removed pocket msn, because it's evil, from \OEM - just deleted \OEM\MSN1-3

Built rom, build succeeeded.

So... assuming I understand what I am doing (yeah, right) I think I might be able to add packages - seems pretty straightforward.

What is the advantage/disadvantage of using Rom Kitchen over the more manual way Wideawake/ Colonel are using?

The advantages I see are, its a lot easier to share 'preinstalled packages' with other people - you just need to give them the folder contents that drop into the \OEM folder, and they should be able to re-build their Custom rom... or likewise, its easy to take addons OUT of a custom rom just by removing the folder you don't want from the \OEM folder, and rebuilding the ROM...

So, for example, I could make one or more SPRINT addons (to get the needed Sprint Extended Rom stuff, but no junkware) and then have a sprint-specific ROM build, but our verizon (and other carrier) friends would just not use those OEM folder(s) when building their custom ROMs.

Anyway, just some poking around for now, nothing major to report.

A ROM with the missing SD Card fix and Goodlink working would be great! :D

Ahhhh

Man there is a nice huge registry of OEM packages already here

http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index...OEM%20packages

Yep - OK I think the ROM Kitchen is the way to go.

Edit - ftp site with OEM packages is:

ftp://ftp.xda-developers.com/Uploads...ckages_by_Marx

Finally looked this over. Haven't played yet though. How do you dump a rom into this. For instance, I have my custom upgraded already to 2 more betas. Is there a way to dump my custom into this or do we have to start with what is there?

schettj, I posted .Net 2.0 in the Custom Rom thread. It looks like it is prepackaged for this since Faria at XDA sent it to me. Give it a whirl and see if it works.

I think you should be able to extract your rom to the ROM folder in place of the one that is there and get it to work. You might need to convert it to overwrite the nk.nba file instead of leaving it as a .nbf

I looked at the kitchen, but when trying to compile just what was given i'm not sure i got that to work though so i'm sorry i can't be of more help with it yet. I'm looking forward to getting some good APACHE roms and tutorials for the kitchen though!

That ftp link doesn't seem to be working for me. Does it work for you?

Schettj:

Were you able to figure out how to add OEMs?

If not, I found a post on a thread that says this is how you add OEMS, maybe it will help you:

Let me know if you get it to work!

Anybody know how to conver the nk.nba file to nk.nbf using the kitchen method????

I just used the rom kitchen to build a rom, but it is nothing special yet. I created the nk.nba this way then used the tools from Wideawake's custom ROM directions to do the rest of the conversion and the load to the phone. Basically i just took the Helmi_c apache kitchen and removed powerpoint (one of the entries in the OS subfolder of the kitchen) to test that it acted as i expected. I haven't added my own packages yet though. Currently with just that change (maybe something else minor that i don't remember) and a fresh ppcgeeks no junk sprint rom i have 36.09mb free storage and 31.24mb program mem.

To do the conversion to nbf use Wideawake's custom rom tools. The tool in the first folder is the one to encode the nk.nba an .nbf Then take that file to the 6. flash directory and load it up.

I plan to do another hard reset soon (since i didn't really load anything i want) but hopefully this will be enough info that i'll be able to load someone elses custom ROM (or packages) using the kitchen!

When I try use the encoder from the 1st file, it asks me to open a project file, which I don't have. How did you get around that?

Take a nk.nbf from an existing rom and decode it. This will give you a nk.prj and a nk.nba. Replace the nk.nba with your nba and then encode.

Mods:

How about changing the name of this thread to something like "how to make a custom rom using Helmi's kitchen method", or moving the 2nd half of the thread into a separate thread?

Like Imcokeman, I was able to delete several things from the rom. I also added smartskey, an alternate ringer and some other minor things. I still haven't tried/figured out how to add an OEM. Anyone figure that out yet? I posted some instructions higher up, but can't figure out:

1. how to know which registries to export;
2. How to export registries from the phone once you know whatyou need.

I'm making some headway myself on the OEM front, but I have not had any time to play with it since friday...

we should possibly make a sticky for "ROM Kitchen Roms" - I can rename this topic (I think)

It needs a user name and a password. I guessed that might be the name of the site (without -developers) and that seemed to work.

Where do you enter it? I am never prompted.

Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage

Most likely causes:
You are not connected to the Internet.
The website is encountering problems.
There might be a typing error in the address.

Still get stupid error. I can get to the root directory fine at ftp.xda-developers.com, but when I click on Uploads or try any of the posted links I just get the IE error. Can I manually force the prompt?

I was able to build a custom rom that added smartskey program to windows folder, removed some sound files, and added custom rings. I was also able to remove Clear Storage (I wanted to try to remove an OEM and picked that one since I never use it). When I try to remove the 3 MSN folders (which look like they deal with pocket msn), my phone will not boot.

Anyone figure out how to get rid of pocket msn?

I am going to try substituting a blank "pmsnserver.exe" file for the actual one in the dump folder and see what happens.

EDIT: substituting a blank pmsnserver.exe file for the actual one in the OEM seems to work. NOw when I get a text message, pmsnserver no longer shows up as a process. Still would have liked to have gotten rid of the entire pocketmsn, but this at least is a temporary fix.

Try ftp://xda:xda@ftp....

Nope. I even went through and deleted my Internet history. Still get the same error. Very annoying.

WOW, thanks helmi_c you opened up a new world for us!

Won't have a lot of time this weekend to work on this, however i will do some reading during the week and begin cooking next weekend :twisted:

-s

Try this one colonel (the link on the previous page did not capitalize the h in Himalaya):

ftp://xda:xda@ftp.xda-developers.com/Uploads/Himalaya

And barring that, using the xdaupload login should give you access to (only) the Uploads directory:

ftp://xdaupload:xda@ftp.xda-developers.com/Himalaya

It looks to me a like making OEM packages will really vary in difficulty depending on the complexity of the original CAB file. If it's an .exe and .dll going into the Windows directory it's a lot easier than if there are a hundred files strewn over three different folders.

So it must be done by hand (unless someone knows of a cab-->OEM package converter! :)) but as long as you have WinCE Cab Manager you can easily extract all of the files and the registry entries.

I hope to attempt this myself today. I will report back on my progress.

Thanks, finally got in. Strange though, because I could get to the root directory and clicking on the links still screwed me up. Anyway, :)

The big trick that I have found is that some dlls are self registering (I think) and the registry entries are not in the cab. Take the .Net 2.0 and the Mark All As Read cabs. These .dlls add their own registry entries.

We really need someone who knows how to break down .dlls and remove that information.

Getting rid of clear storage is a great idea.

I pulled the PMSN files too, and my rom built but I didn't test it. The empty (size 0?) file is a nice idea - my guess is that the PMSN packages do something important to the registry, but the actual files could just be dropped. So that's something else to try - it could be that some dll in the package is used elsewhere, I suppose.

Something to play with, once I get far enough along to reflash.

Edit: Oh, and since these are variations on the same OS, I was thinking (I know, dangerous stuff!) I might try backing up my registry, reflashing the original 3.3 rom w/o clearing internal memory, dump registry again, restore first dump. That should get me back exactly where I was, and also give me a "before and after" registry dump to do some diffs on and see what I changed, and what my installed apps changed.

So many ideas, so little time :p

I am issueing the first challenge :D :D :D

I dare someone to tackle Voice Command. 327 registry entries alone :shock:

Haha... trial by fire eh? I'll give it a go.