[ROM:Personal] FarTed 1.0-new adventures in flashing

[Farmer Ted]

So, I started playing around with AtOmAng's kitchen a few weeks ago. Operating a basic kitchen is pretty easy, but kind of dull. You have a set number of packages you can decide to include in the ROM, but when it comes down to it, most choices are pretty obvious, and the output ROM isn't much different from the one you could've just downloaded. Still, it's good practice to play around with the kitchen and see how it works. I cooked a few ROMs at first, felt uninspired, and didn't flash them. Here are the basic instructions to use his kitchen:

Basic instructions:
Extract Kitchen base files.
Extract Packages into At0mAng Kitchen - 5.08.502.1 folder
Double click At0mAng's HTC Kitchen.CMD to start

ROM Building:
From main menu
Select Option 1
You will be presented with a device list to build kitchen, select your device.
From there you will be presented with 3 more options, I like to use Option 3, Build a ROM using BuildOS+ Package Tools
Once BuildOS starts click on BuildOS tab, then press Load ROM
Leave packages Tweaks, ProFuze Keyboard switcher and Enahanced Video Driver selected (on) so they are include in the ROM you build.
Select other packages that you desire
Once all packages are selected press GO (Green Arrow)
Once BuildOS is complete a window will pop up asking you what Device once again. Select your device.
After that step is complete flash program will begin.
If you do not wish to flash than press cancel and the new ROM can be found in the RUU subfolder.

He left out the bit about pressing load rom, but the only important thing is to not be a total dope and build a Diamond ROM. One other thing: extract the kitchen directly to your C: drive. I don't know why, but it works better there (not the kitchen contents, but the kitchen folder). Some things, like OEMizer, have to be in a folder right on the C: drive. Next, I started screwing around, and didn't get anywhere (we won't mention this again). Then I started adding packages, a lot that I created and some that I downloaded (see the packages sticky). The ROMs were a mess; basically, I ended up with a messed up Program folder and pretty much all of the packages I created shot the programs into the Program folder and didn't create shortcuts. Bleh. Did some reading. Here are the best resources, pretty much all from PPC Kitchen.

How to make OEMs: The Ervius package tool works pretty well, but the paths didn't work for me (probably doing it wrong). There's a text file in each package (initflashes.txt) that tells the BuildOS where to send shortcuts and the other components of the package. I had to fix all of these, and doing so sends shortcuts into the proper menus in the Program folder. I have no clue how to create my own directory, so I just used Atom's. He's got pretty nice folder icons (not as nice as NRG's), so it's ok. Wish there was a tweaks folder, though, with a nice icon. I did get two packages that wouldn't work: total commander and mobipocket. I downloaded a TC package, but still am screwed with mobipocket. It's the only cab I have to install now. I'll figure it out sooner or later, and there are other methods to install files, so I may try them when I finally figure them out.

Adding Registry Entries: This was the best of the tutorials. Unbelievably, every key I entered worked. Experience with sashimi helped a ton, and I've got pretty much all my settings cooked in. Sweet!

Adding personal files: Ok, this one went a little over my head so far. Basically, I don't know squat about writing script for paths, or whatever you're supposed to do here. Every file I put in the package goes to \windows, which is ok for about half of them, but sucks for the rest. Work in progress. This may be how I put mobipocket into the ROM, assuming I figure this stuff out.

[Farmer Ted]

Progress so far:

So, I've got a bunch of registry settings cooked in; all registration info and preferred settings for GScroll, Sportsdo and SKTools. I've got my button assignments, power and backlight settings and my program shortcuts.

I've also cooked in a crystal clock, one of Godzson's fonts, a custom taskbar (which has an issue with the power meter, see below), background4alltabs and my preferred wallpaper (lately-stole it from Godzson, too). My owner info is cooked in. The clock was easy; I just swapped in 7 or 8 manila files into the manila package, and it worked great. Not sure why, but this didn't work with the weather file. Oh, well, them's the breaks. Anyway, here are the pics:

Having a home-cooked ROM is nice. There isn't any bloat in there, just stuff I picked because I use it. I feel like the ROM is loaded, but there's still 340 MB of storage memory and 130 MB of RAM free. Pretty sweet. I need to fix the task bar-it's either a driver or a bad reg entry. Not a huge hurry, I can multiply by 5 fine. I also need to fix the scroll bars. At0m must have really skinny fingers. The kitchen gives you the choice of ATT or Touch Pro dialer suites. I went with the Touch Pro, so I need to set the keyboard for the fuze. It's a better setup. There's no PTT garbage, but I cooked in a PTT mod so I can map short and long PTT pushes. You don't want to use his PTT options; there's no easy way to change them. You just get comm mng and camera. I need to map the home soft-buttons still. Why in the hell would you waste one on Phone anyway? There's a freaking un-mappable button dedicated to the stupid phone; this is something I'll never understand.

Edit: I fixed the battery issue; it needed a registry tweak. Here's where the info is, and where I got the OEM for the task bar, which is pretty sweet and easy to use. This is the reg key that needed tweaking:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Security\ResOver\Bitmaps]
"BatteryIconLevels"=dword:00000065
"BatteryIconIdStart"=dword:000003E9
"BaseDll"="phcanOverbmp.dll"
"BaseId"=dword:00000000

The batteryiconlevels was 15, not 65 (hence off by a factor of 5). I changed it with dotFred's regedit (easier than total commander), and also put that key into my custom reg OEM, so it oughta be cooked in in the next iteration. Worse comes to worse, I can always use sashimi to install it.

Edit: Fixed the too skinny scroll bars. I found where At0m has all his reg settings: it's in the OEM called OperatorPkg. He's got a large # of provisional xml's here, including ones to narrow up the scroll bars. I changed them back to the stock values (see below). I might have just deleted the entries, but thought I'd play it safe and change 11's and 17's to 13's and 20's.

<characteristic type="HKLM\System\GWE">
<parm name="cxVScr" value="13" datatype="integer" />
</characteristic>
<characteristic type="HKLM\System\GWE">
<parm name="cyVScr" value="20" datatype="integer" />
</characteristic>
<characteristic type="HKLM\System\GWE">
<parm name="cyHScr" value="13" datatype="integer" />
</characteristic>
<characteristic type="HKLM\System\GWE">
<parm name="cxHScr" value="20" datatype="integer" />
</characteristic>

[Farmer Ted]

The program folder has 3 extra shortcuts. Not sure how to fix the Sprite one; it's probably easy, but I don't feel like screwing with the initflashes. I may fix the other two, but don't care too much. I'd also like to set the start menu, but apparently that's kind of advanced. It goes for a rainy day. The program tab is pretty sweet. There's one bad shortcut (mobipocket); installing the cab fixes it. Oh, and I've got eWallet cooked in this ROM, and it actually freaking opens up! Yee-hah! I've got to figure out how to map psShutXP to long press power. Now I've got it on long press send, but I'd prefer to use the power button. No clue why it doesn't work, installing the cab does.

[Farmer Ted]

The downlow: I gotta say, I think my days of flashing other people's ROMs are over. The coolest thing about this ROM is that it is seriously fast; surprisingly so. One of the things that kept me going through a half-day of frustration was that I cooked and flashed a basic ROM from the kitchen (no tweaks), and it was very smooth (just boring). My ham-fisted approach hasn't compromised any of the basic performance of the 20771 build (latest ATT ROM leaked a few weeks ago).

There's still stuff to do. There is one major bug: IE doesn't work. Hasn't worked in any iteration (even the vanilla rom). I think AtOm may have mapped the cache to the storage card, and I have SKTools and there may be some sort of bad interaction. I'm not sure what's going on, but I really want to fix it, because IE is all I use (ie5, not 6). I don't even have opera cooked in; may never do it. I don't use the internet tab, so I don't need it as the default browser. At this point, the phone is pretty darn workable. I have to install the one cab, and install some folders with sashimi. Not a big deal. I'd like to get to the point where I could do a hard reset, and it wouldn't be any more of an inconvenience than doing a soft reset (except the boot time). Not sure I'll get there.

I'd say cooking is definitely worth trying. It's hard to find good resources, but ppckitchen is probably the best place. I wish I could be a cooking guru, but it's really a lot of trial and error. I've found it's best to do things in small chunks. You get immediate feed-back if you did something screwy: the ROM won't build, and you'll get an error message. It took me a long time to figure out that mobipocket and total commander were messing things up. Once I got that fixed, I haven't gotten too many errors. I've probably flashed 10 roms in the last 2-3 days, which is kind of crazy, but fun. If you're losing the thrill, this is a new one, I'll say that.

[Farmer Ted]

Feel the thunder!!!

[Farmer Ted]

They're always fresh when you cook them in.

Cook Fart Machine into your own ROM. Get the package here, and it will appear in the Games folder.

When I get around to it, I'll post all the packages that I used (at least ones that don't require registration). They're all mapped into the ROM directory, so you won't end up with a lot of crap in the Program folder.

The packages include: ClearTemp, Adv. Config, Capsure, custom task bar (will include needed regedit), diamond tweak, dotFred task manager, eWallet, custom font, GPS Test, hTorch, background4allpages, MyLight, NoTopCurtain, PHM Notepad, PIM backup, Pocket RAR, TCPMP, Total Commander, XCSdM_Fuze_PTT_Mod and psShutXP. Still haven't figure out how to map latter to long press power. One of these days. I'll also include the zzz_MY_Registry_OEM (with my personal stuff removed) with some key settings like the task bar reg values and the reg values you need to convert the touch pro keyboard to a fuze keyboard. That allows you to skip using the keyboard switcher OEM.

[LcBoi]

Originally Posted by Farmer Ted

They're always fresh when you cook them in.

Cook Fart Machine into your own ROM. Get the package here, and it will appear in the Games folder.

When I get around to it, I'll post all the packages that I used (at least ones that don't require registration). They're all mapped into the ROM directory, so you won't end up with a lot of crap in the Program folder.

The packages include: ClearTemp, Adv. Config, Capsure, custom task bar (will include needed regedit), diamond tweak, dotFred task manager, eWallet, custom font, GPS Test, hTorch, background4allpages, MyLight, NoTopCurtain, PHM Notepad, PIM backup, Pocket RAR, TCPMP, Total Commander, XCSdM_Fuze_PTT_Mod and psShutXP. Still haven't figure out how to map latter to long press power. One of these days. I'll also include the zzz_MY_Registry_OEM (with my personal stuff removed) with some key settings like the task bar reg values and the reg values you need to convert the touch pro keyboard to a fuze keyboard. That allows you to skip using the keyboard switcher OEM.

Nice, I can't wait.
I actually found your OEM package for fart machine and have it cooked into my personal rom as well.
I do have a question though, have you tried to make an OEM and cook in Fuzeberry?
OR how can I take all of the manilla files and put them into the manilla folder that you were talking about?

Thanks again for the help.

[Farmer Ted]

Originally Posted by LcBoi

Nice, I can't wait.
I actually found your OEM package for fart machine and have it cooked into my personal rom as well.
I do have a question though, have you tried to make an OEM and cook in Fuzeberry?
OR how can I take all of the manilla files and put them into the manilla folder that you were talking about?

Thanks again for the help.

No, don't have the oem, but that's exactly what I'd try first (back up your manila package just in case). Drop the files in the package, bake and flash. It oughta work. Works great with the clocks and other manila files I tried.

[LcBoi]

Originally Posted by Farmer Ted

No, don't have the oem, but that's exactly what I'd try first (back up your manila package just in case). Drop the files in the package, bake and flash. It oughta work. Works great with the clocks and other manila files I tried.

Well I'm able to successfully cook in XBmod's ported manila, I can try dropping the fuzeberry manila files into that oem package replacing the stock one and then try cooking it in that way. Thanks.
I had tried to create an oem out of just the fuzeberry cab with OEMizer, but it just didnt install. So i'll try the above method and post my results when done,

[Farmer Ted]

Found out how you map psShutXP to long press power (and it's easy). Create a link to in in Total Commander, rename it Long_Power.lnk, copy it to your \Windows folder and soft reset. Done! If I remember, I'll stick the link in the package, it should map it properly when cooked in.