Apache WM5 AKU 3.5 Unifed ROM Kitchen 1.0.0 Release!
 

Apache WM5 AKU 3.5 Unified ROM Kitchen Release
Version 1.0.0
4/25/2007


INTRODUCTION:

A couple of months ago we set out to take the excellent AKU 3.3 kitchen that Helmi_C graciously created for us and fix some of the existing bugs and omissions while bringing it up to AKU 3.5 level. Our intent was to create a "base" ROM kitchen that as closely resembled a stock Apache ROM as possible, while still incorporating the newest OS files available to us. We feel we have succeeded in this effort given all the barriers we had to work around. What is being released here is the culmination of hundreds of hours time time put in by the developers and other members of the team. It is not perfect by any means, but as we all know even the stock ROMs were far from perfect. We think that you will find this ROM kitchen to be an improvement over the previous revisions you may have used--we certainly think that it is.

As noted above, this ROM Kitchen was designed to be as close to stock as possible, which means that it has the traditional blue WM5 look and feel and its .NET files are version 1.0 (SP3) only.

However, we know that many (if not most) people are tired of the blue theme and that .NET apps today tend to be written at the 2.0 level. Therefore, we are releasing two patches--one that will replace some WM5 GUI elements with their WM6 counterparts, and another that will supplement the .NET 1.0 SP3 files with .NET 2.0 SP2 (these are the most current service packs as of today). These patches can be found on the FTP in the same directory as the kitchen. Please note they are not OEMs, since they replace files inside the kitchen. Each patch has a readme file that shows how to apply it (it's very simple).

This ROM kitchen release represents the culmination of this project. We certainly hope that others will carry on improving and updating the kitchen into the future.

KNOWN ISSUES:

1. It should be stated that this ROM is not completely at AKU 3.5 level. Many files were either not available in AKU 3.5-era versions or the AKU 3.5 versions did not work properly on the Apache. We used the most recent versions of all files that were available and compatible.

2. Some of the replacements done resulted in some PE files (mostly .dlls) that in the stock ROM were modules being replaced in the form of files. Without getting too technical, a module is a partially deconstructed file that has specific memory regions mapped out. Because of that "customization", modules are device specific. So any files we sourced from other devices had to be converted back to file form before we could use them on the Apache. We think that should not present any problems, but it is possible that it will result in increased memory usage. This was something we ran out of time (and steam) to fully test so hopefully some users would be interested in doing some real world tests using consistent ROM setups. That should help reveal whether memory usage in indeed higher due to the module->file replacements. Some files could be reverted back to their older module-based format if necessary (though this is not planned).

3. The Apache (and indeed many other Windows Mobile devices) has always had problems with its SD card slot. In previous (AKU 1 and 2-based ROMs) Dark Screens of Death (DSODs) were a common occurrance. In AKU 3 the DSODs (or at least the vast majority of them) seem to be gone. However, problems remain with the SD card disappearing ungracefully while the device is suspended. We believe the problem is minimized as much as possible in this release, but it still happens from time to time.

4. Bluetooth is the Apache's other achilles heel. As long as this device has existed people have complained about a whole host of bluetooth issues, including the radio turning itself off automatically, not transferring ringtones or voice call announcements to a headset, severe skipping with A2DP headphones, and many others. On this front we are not sure if we have made bluetooth operation any more reliable. We did replace all bluetooth files with AKU 3 versions (however many are now files as opposed to modules--see #1 above). The bug reports we got from people in terms of bluetooth were so random that it was hard to come to any conclusion of whether bluetooth is truly improved in the Unified ROM Kitchen. Hopefully bluetooth works well for most people. but don't expect any miracles. :)

BUGS FIXED:

The list of changes is huge, so I won't attempt to duplicate it all here. But a quick summary of the biggest issues that were fixed as a result of this project are:

- USB functionality restored (as well as the switch from RNDIS mode to serial mode)
- Smart Dialer works properly
- ## codes work (so long as you have applied the cab file from your carrier defining their specific codes)
- Speed dial returned to phone app
- Bluetooth PAN profile and Internet Sharing application added
- Missing files restored
- Many files updated from AKU2 level to AKU3 level
- New Apache boot screen (many thanks to PPCGeeks user rawr for his idea--we ended up using a different photo but the idea was all his)

You can view a complete list of all the changes made (and I would encourage you to do so) at Sogarth's P4DB Site.


THANKS TO:

Helmi_C, whose work of art this truly still is (we just made modifications to it).

colonel, ImCoKeMaN, luv2chill, sfaure03, and verizonguy, who all put in a lot of time fixing various bugs.

Sogarth, who deserves his own line here because he truly went above and beyond in not only doing the "Project Manager" role he signed up for, but also fixing a ton of bugs, replacing files with updated versions, testing, and keeping extensive notes on everything--all on his own initiative. This project would have fallen apart weeks ago without Sogarth, so we all owe him an extra debt of thanks.

Thanks also to the other members of the ROM team who flashed the various interim releases and helped us hunt for bugs. Most of us only have one Apache device, so to have to flash it with a potentially buggy ROM (not to mention having to reinstall apps and re-sync data every time) really was a sacrifice. So thank you to those members of the team (they know who they are) who actually took the time to do that.

Finally, thanks to Wideawake, not only for hosting this awesome site for us to use for this effort, but also for all the work he did on Apache ROMs before Helmi_C created the kitchen. Wideawake laid a great deal of the foundation we are all still using today and was putting in the time learning about and testing this stuff while the rest of us were still suffering with our shoddy carrier ROMs. Thanks a million, Mike.

DOWNLOAD

Without further delay, here is the link to the Apache WM5 AKU 3.5 Unified ROM Kitchen (version 1.0.0):

ftp://ppcgeeks:ezupload@ftp.ppcgeeks...d_ROM_Kitchen/

The WM6-theme and .NET CF 2.0 patches are also in that directory. You will need WinRAR to extract them.

Apache WM5 AKU 3.5 Unified ROM Kitchen 1.0.0.rar should be exactly 24,831,930 bytes (MD5 Hash: 23290FC70CF2CB11DF2E9102EF0B6F0F)

NET CF1 + NET CF2 v1.0.0.rar should be 2,891,406 bytes (MD5 hash: B64A099C5557267BF9813B4BD76DAD11)

WM6 Theme v1.0.1.rar patch should be 1,505,642 bytes (MD5 hash: E231D5E0AC7776C99CED47A276B5E8E8)

CHANGELOG:

4/25/2007: WM6 Theme was updated to v.1.0.1 to add in missing registry entries that change the color of the dialing digits on the phone pad to be visible on the darker WM6 skin. Please re-download this patch. Thanks to brightedge for discovering this bug and colonel for supplying the correct reg entries.

colonel edit:
STOCK OEMS THAT CAN BE REMOVED

MSN1, MSN2, MSN3 These three OEMs install MSN messenger and other apps. All three can be removed from the OEM folder if you wish.

CYBERON VOICE DIALER For those that use Voice Command, feel free to kill this one.

CLEAR STORAGE Since anyone that is building and flashing a rom already knows how to Hard Reset (like a man and luv would say), this app is pretty much useless.

INTELLIPAD This is the SIP option that looks like a phone dial pad and uses T9 for text input. If you do not use it, you can remove this OEM as well

Whoo hoo way to go everyone!!

i cant say thank u enough to all that have worked on it!!!!

Thanks for all of the work everyone. We really appreciate it.

Yep sogarth gets the gold star... he really did bring this puppy home.

Well done!

just got done installing and its working great so far...quick question, if i would go to the ftp site and include some of the oems from there in to the oem folder and redo the steps is that basically creating my own custom rom? and if not will it create the same model here but with the new apps i just installed? thanks, im a totally noob with this kinda process

Guys - this is really great news. I'm itching to try it out!

I'm already quite happy with 1.2pre2, so am excited to use this new and improved one.

Having been an imbedded systems developer in an earlier life, I understand some of the issues you faced. But you had the additional complications of a part-time, virtual, unpaid team without access to the HW and OS doc, source and developers. That makes your accomplishment all the more impressive.

Thanks again!!!

Wooo Hooo!! It's about to get hella busy around here!

Can anyone post the nk.nba file? I receive an error every time I run CreateOS.exe (I'm running Vista, so it's possibly related to that).

And thanks a lot to everyone who worked on this project. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

this is great! not that i have taken the jump to making my own custom rom yet...this may be the push i needed! i still find it unbelievable what some of you can do...keep it up for the rest of us!!!

This is incredible! Thank you so much to everyone that helped in this. You guys are amazing! Time to start cooking...

Thanks for all the hard work everyone!

thanks for all the hardwork guys, atleast my phone will running a like how it should have from the start. too bad ill only have it for a few more weeks till i get the 6800

Grerat job, everyone!

After a little vacation, we can begin continue talking about the application.

*sigh* I have no idea what that man said, or is even talking about. I've GOT to get better at this stuff... I mean, what's a 'ROM Kitchen'?! Eh... I'm clueless as to what all this ROM stuff means.

-Touche'

This is a Geeks dream come true.
Words cannot convey the extreme gratitude and pride to be here and enjoy the results...

Now we can open the flood gates for more OEMs to be made :)

check out our wiki for a lot a great information that'll really help explain this stuff.

one day after all my testing concludes and i release a ROM built on that dusty crooked @ss kitchen pre2....

FANTASTIC!!!

can you pull this off until i finish finals though? k thanks!

never a dull moment 'round these here parts.

Thank you guys, Ive been looking forward to this for a long time. Happy Birthday to meeeeeee

(seems like christmas always comes early at PPCGeeks)



8)

Great Job guys. This is by far already seems more stable. Thanks for all your hard work, and sticking it out through all the complaining about where is the kitchen.

Do we allow the Sprint Customizations to run or (as in other ROMs I've read about but never installed) should we soft reset when the "Installing in 3 seconds" screen appears?

Thanks!

You should not allow the Sprint customizations to run with this (or any AKU 3) ROM.

At the top of this forum you will find a post with a list of the necessary and recommended cab files to run from the extrom. You can use the program Total Commander to navigate to your extrom and just click on the ones you want to install.

When I try to open CreateOS.exe, a message comes up that says:

To run this application you must first install the . NET framework: 2.0.50727

what should i do?

You should download and install the .NET framework 2.0 from Microsoft. If you go to Windows Update it will be offered to you automatically. Otherwise you can get a link to it from google.

Any idea why I get an error message about "LOC/packages.sof" being corrupt when I run CreateOS.exe?

Excellent, that bit of info wasnt in the readme & I thought just maybe since this was a released AKU they did some black magic to remove the need for the reset.

Thanks all!

The latter error is what Vista pops up, so, as far as I know, it's currently not possible to run CreateOS.exe from under Vista. Somebody could probably post a nk.nba - one reason we decided this time through not to post a .nbf, though, is because the .nbf files appear to be carrier specific (they contain a string that is specific to the hardware available from each carrier - kudos to luv2chill for figuring that out, with kdoweb's help).

Wow! I'm been waiting for this day for a log time.

Great work guys

kdoweb

Thanks to all of you...
 

I love it when a plan comes together.... ;)

Ungh, yet another Vista "idiosyncracy." :x I'll have to use another comp to load it up, I guess. Thanks for the help.

Maybe the original post should be amended to reflect the Vista problem.

Thanks to all who contributed to this project! Time to cook! :D :D

there must be huge demand, FTP only downloading at .2kb per sec! ETA:35hours!
Can anyone upload to a filsharing site?
EDIT: nevermind, almost got it now.

getting CRC error
 

anyone else getting the CRC error when trying to extract the archive?

I am getting it when trying to extract UNI_Exitbootloader.exe. I am also getting a ROM missing error when trying to run CreateOS.exe

thanks..

Re: getting CRC error
 

No problems here.

You re-downloaded it, correct?

yup.. re-downloaded twice.. is it correct that the filesize is only around 24250 KB? The old kitchen was more than 50 meg.

something changed? or is it because I haven't done any of this since pre1.2 kitchen.

thanks,

Apache WM5 AKU 3.5 Unified ROM Kitchen 1.0.0.rar should be exactly 24,831,930 bytes (MD5 Hash: 23290FC70CF2CB11DF2E9102EF0B6F0F)

NET CF1 + NET CF2 v1.0.0.rar should be 2,891,406 bytes (MD5 hash: B64A099C5557267BF9813B4BD76DAD11)

WM6 Theme v1.0.1.rar patch should be 1,505,642 bytes (MD5 hash: E231D5E0AC7776C99CED47A276B5E8E8)

I will put this info in the first post.

Has anyone gotten this to work on a Telus phone? I chose the non-carrier specific option, but my phone hangs at the opening "htc smart mobility" screen. Any ideas?

That seems to happen when some file that is trying to load at startup is hanging. What did you add/remove from your build?

Using the noID flashing app should not be a factor (so long as you followed directions and hard reset after flashing).

Time to enroll in cooking school--thanks team!

Todd/Indy

I didnt get the option to run the sprint customizations....when i first bult the rom or after i did a hard reset it went straight to the today screen with about 36mb free....is this normal?

I'm not sure it's only a Vista problem. I'm running Windows XP Pro and am seeing the LOC\packages.sof is corrupt exception error. I verified the downloaded file size for Apache WM5 AKU 3.5 Unified ROM Kitchen 1.0.0.rar is correct (24,831,930). I'm using WinRAR version 3.51 to extract the files. Any ideas?