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Step by Step: Learn To Cook Custom ROM guide to cooking your own ROM
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#1 User is offline   PaSSoA 

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Posted 24 October 2008 - 07:06 AM

Alot of people have been asking for this and although there are many tutorials on how to cook your own ROM, this is specific to the i900 kitchen by the guys at PDAclan and mrtoto tools from PDAMobiz, so thanks for all the great tools. I will not be going through stuff like creating your packages and such as there are many tutorials on that. Only things releated to the i900 kitchen will be focused on.

As with real cooking, different people have different ways of doing things, so this is the way I prefer to do it.

Edit: Before starting, please make sure you have the latest framework installed, you can get it here, if not the tools will not function properly and errors will occur.

- First get either a .exe updater or PDA.bin (rename if you must) file and dump it in the root directory. Drag and drop either the .exe to extractrom_exe or PDA.bin to extractrom_bin

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- If you used a .exe updater, the eboot, csc and phone .bin files will be extracted out, you need these files for later, when repacking the .exe installer.

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- Once extracting is done, there will be OEM/SYS folders and a new XIP folder in ROM.

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- You should see these folders in OEM (left) and SYS (right)

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- These are the apps found in OEM/OEMApps. Open the .rgu which contains registry settings in Notepad. As an example, if you delete the file secst.dll in the OEMApps folder, then you must delete the entry in the .rgu too.

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- Another example... After you delete an app and rgu entries, go to initflashfiles.dat in OEM/OEM_Lang_0409 and search for more references to the files.

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- After removing files, you will need to add your own custom apps in the form of packages, if you do a search on them, there will many tutorials on that. I am not going into it as it is pretty standard stuff.

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- Once you're happy with removing and adding your customisations, it is time to build your ROM. Go back to the root directory and drag OS.nb to BuildROM. Click the green play button and you're on your way.

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- Once that's done, you will have a NewROM.bin file which you must rename to PDA.bin. Remember the csc, eboot and phone files earlier, it must all be in the same directory. (I prefer to create a new directory for this)

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- Open your command prompt and start packing your new ROM. Once all files are packed, you will have your new updater which you run to update your device. As usual, make sure you have proper modem drivers installed.

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You're Done!

That's pretty much it, the hard part would be during customisation where you have to make sure all references to the app you wish to remove are properly deleted. When there are duplicated files or registry entries, it will throw you an error during building, so watch out for that.

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to ask and I will try to answer them when I can.

Cheers!

Attached File(s)


This post has been edited by PaSSoA: 24 October 2008 - 06:22 PM

Like the work I've done for you?

Then I would really appreciate it if you could help me out.

It will encourage me further and of course produce better work.


Posted Image

A dollar or any amount you could spare will be greatly appreciated.
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#2 User is offline   JonPhone 

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Posted 24 October 2008 - 10:16 AM

Hi PaSSoA !

First, a BIG thanks for your works :P

I've been looking to a lot of "HowTo"s from XDA and other forum since a week, and I spent a LOT of time every day... And I think its quite interesting, and definitly its not time lost :P

I've got my i900 for 2 months, my first winmo phone, and I'd like to cook a slim french rom. But first of all, I'd like to just pack a rom AND repack a rom. Quite easy i thought... but not (for me :o ...) !!! When I drag'n drop OS.nb to BuildROM.cmd, I've got an error :

Posted Image

(it said that the system can't execute the specified program)

OK OK, I know I'm a noob cooker, but I'm here for cooking, and Id love to :D

please please, help me :lol: :D ;)

This post has been edited by JonPhone: 24 October 2008 - 10:18 AM

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#3 User is offline   PaSSoA 

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Posted 24 October 2008 - 10:58 AM

What were your exact steps before this?

Like the work I've done for you?

Then I would really appreciate it if you could help me out.

It will encourage me further and of course produce better work.


Posted Image

A dollar or any amount you could spare will be greatly appreciated.
0


#4 User is offline   Reddeer2000 

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Posted 24 October 2008 - 01:13 PM

Hi PaSSoA,

I have one question. I didn't have an updater.exe or PDA.bin, I have only an img.file, what can I do with it ?

Best regards
Reddeer2000

Reddeer2000
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#5 User is offline   iTnkD4iAm 

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Posted 24 October 2008 - 02:46 PM

Nevermind. I think the answer I'm looking for lies in initflashfiles.dat

Quote

Hello (=

I was wondering if it's possible to define a directory structure for the programs to be added to the custom rom? Like if I were to install .NET 3.5 separately, some files can be installed in a pre-defined directory whereas the rest are installed in \windows dir? Or are we all cursed to dump all the files in \windows? :lol:

This post has been edited by iTnkD4iAm: 24 October 2008 - 03:43 PM

Need some help? Meet your best friend in this forum. If your new friend can't answer, perhaps his other friend can ;)
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#6 User is offline   ebliss 

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Posted 24 October 2008 - 03:05 PM

I have the same error as JonPhone. When I looked into BuildROM.cmd, there is a line, "IF not exist Temp\dump\default.hv"
I don't have "Temp\dump\default.hv", therefore, resulted in this error.

View PostJonPhone, on Oct 24 2008, 10:16, said:

But first of all, I'd like to just pack a rom AND repack a rom. When I drag'n drop OS.nb to BuildROM.cmd, I've got an error :

Posted Image

(it said that the system can't execute the specified program)



View PostPaSSoA, on Oct 24 2008, 10:58, said:

What were your exact steps before this?

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#7 User is offline   mrbeanicb 

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Posted 24 October 2008 - 03:37 PM

help me please!
After i dragged and dropped the .exe file to extractrom_exe there was an error:

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Posted Image

and after finished, there's nothing in OEM folder
what happened to me???

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#8 User is offline   PaSSoA 

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Posted 24 October 2008 - 04:03 PM

For the errors, it has probably something to do with the buildOS stage, especially if there was a problem creating the registry, then default.hv would not be created and building cannot continue, what are the exact steps / modifications done?

View Postmrbeanicb, on Oct 24 2008, 23:37, said:

help me please!
After i dragged and dropped the .exe file to extractrom_exe there was an error:


and after finished, there's nothing in OEM folder
what happened to me???


Please make sure you have the latest framework installed here

This post has been edited by PaSSoA: 24 October 2008 - 06:21 PM

Like the work I've done for you?

Then I would really appreciate it if you could help me out.

It will encourage me further and of course produce better work.


Posted Image

A dollar or any amount you could spare will be greatly appreciated.
0


#9 User is offline   JonPhone 

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Posted 24 October 2008 - 05:25 PM

I've got this message just after I created OEM / SYS , etc... In fact just after extraction process ! so I didn't add or del or modify files :D weird isn't it ?

I tried with differents roms (XHH2 and XHH4). I'll try with DTHJ5 or newer, but I won't be surprised if it'll fail again...

like ebliss, I dont have any "default.hv" file in Temp\Dump (and no directory as well ;) )

which step did we miss ? :lol:

This post has been edited by JonPhone: 24 October 2008 - 05:29 PM

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#10 User is offline   JonPhone 

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Posted 24 October 2008 - 05:44 PM

Thank you PaSSoA ;) definitly you're the best :lol:

replying to mrbeanicb solved my problem ! Yes, we have to install MS Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable to use RebuildROM.cmd, unless you've got my error :D

@PaSSoA : maybe you'd just edit your 1st post and add this to the necessaries' tools ?

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#11 User is offline   o0joe0o 

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Posted 24 October 2008 - 06:09 PM

pls help me how to do steps 5-6!i cant even see samsung today items :lol:

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#12 User is offline   PaSSoA 

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Posted 24 October 2008 - 06:22 PM

Thanks JonPhone, edited 1st post :lol:

Like the work I've done for you?

Then I would really appreciate it if you could help me out.

It will encourage me further and of course produce better work.


Posted Image

A dollar or any amount you could spare will be greatly appreciated.
0


#13 User is offline   PaSSoA 

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Posted 24 October 2008 - 06:25 PM

View Posto0joe0o, on Oct 25 2008, 02:09, said:

pls help me how to do steps 5-6!i cant even see samsung today items :lol:


What were your previous steps? Have you downloaded the Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package? It is needed for the tools to work properly, please check 1st post for the link :D

This post has been edited by PaSSoA: 24 October 2008 - 06:26 PM

Like the work I've done for you?

Then I would really appreciate it if you could help me out.

It will encourage me further and of course produce better work.


Posted Image

A dollar or any amount you could spare will be greatly appreciated.
0


#14 User is offline   o0joe0o 

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Posted 24 October 2008 - 07:00 PM

ok thanks passoa...i'll give it a try.

how did you do this?already installed c++

"These are the apps found in OEM/OEMApps. Open the .rgu which contains registry settings in Notepad. As an example, if you delete the file secst.dll in the OEMApps folder, then you must delete the entry in the .rgu too. "

This post has been edited by o0joe0o: 24 October 2008 - 07:42 PM

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#15 User is offline   black-DraGon 

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Posted 24 October 2008 - 09:12 PM

man... i´ve nothing in my oem dir... why? i just drag and drop the new i900_M2D01_PaS08.exe to ExtractROM_exe.cmd and all work well but the oem folder leaves just empty... and yes i installed the latest vc++ thing

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#16 User is offline   JonPhone 

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Posted 25 October 2008 - 12:12 AM

Ok... tonight, I really scared myself :lol:

after verifying unpack and repack function, I tried to cook my own 1st rom (delete shozu and other "useless" stuff and replace .NET). And maybe I've been too speedy, too greedy and, obviously, too "nooby" :D

repack the new directories was done with no problem, but apparently I did something wrong because Ive got the "incorrect version software" message. after that, I tried to flash with the original ROM (official French H2, partially branded), and everything fine :o

so tomorrow, I will try to unpack -> repack -> flash , nothing more ;)

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#17 User is offline   PaSSoA 

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Posted 25 October 2008 - 02:04 AM

View Postblack-DraGon, on Oct 25 2008, 05:12, said:

man... i´ve nothing in my oem dir... why? i just drag and drop the new i900_M2D01_PaS08.exe to ExtractROM_exe.cmd and all work well but the oem folder leaves just empty... and yes i installed the latest vc++ thing


Sorry buddy, can't use my ROM, I removed all rgu files when building it. You have to use an official update :lol:

Like the work I've done for you?

Then I would really appreciate it if you could help me out.

It will encourage me further and of course produce better work.


Posted Image

A dollar or any amount you could spare will be greatly appreciated.
0


#18 User is offline   Text 

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Posted 25 October 2008 - 07:37 AM

Yesterday i try to add flashlite 3.1 on my cooked rom,but when i flashed it Opera crashes when load site like youtube.
So,in the original rom i cancel flashlite.dll,flashsnddec.dll and si_impl.dll and relative registry keys...i forget nothing?
I use a cab found on xda-developers named my_flash3.1.cab to extract oem package,is the right file or there is another to use?

Regards.

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#19 User is offline   ebliss 

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Posted 25 October 2008 - 09:30 AM

View PostPaSSoA, on Oct 24 2008, 07:06, said:

- Once you're happy with removing and adding your customisations, it is time to build your ROM. Go back to the root directory and drag OS.nb to BuildROM. Click the green play button and you're on your way.

- Once that's done, you will have a NewROM.bin file which you must rename to PDA.bin. Remember the csc, eboot and phone files earlier, it must all be in the same directory. (I prefer to create a new directory for this)


You might want to mention that the BuildOS window need to be closed before the main dos program continues to build the NewROM.bin. Or that's what I experience anyway.

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#20 User is offline   ebliss 

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Posted 25 October 2008 - 09:36 AM

Is it possible to alter BuildRom.cmd's line "ren %~nx1%.NEW.EXA.bin NewROM.bin"
to "ren %~nx1%.NEW.EXA.bin PDA.bin"

And add "i900tool.exe -p test.exe" after "del *.new*" so that the exe is automatically built instead of having to open a dos box?

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