LG VM510 filesystem innards, tricks, and treats

[bigsupersquid]

ok, I'm starting this thread because it diverges from the thread topic where I've been discussing this.
I'm getting more specific about methods and things I've figured out here, and posting links to what I've got done already.
first, the root filesystem from my LG VM510, after a hard reset, with the demo games deleted, and two j2me programs installed, is
<sorry, file redacted>
hope nobody has problems with the filesharing provider. I took what I could get without limiting the download quota for everyone else.
the contents of the /root/ams/ folder are a series of numbered folders (/root/ams/xx, where xx is a number >=10,) each of which is either empty except for /root/ams/xx/xxroot/ or contains a java program and its system related files. data for each program xx is stored in root/ams/xx/xxroot/.
in this particular filesystem snapshot, the numbered folders contain the following:
10 mypix
11 twitter
12 myspace
13 facebook
14 vmnavigator
15 uiinbox
16 opera mini
17 google maps
18 contact vault
19 tetris
22 resistor calculator
27 scribpad
next post, when I've got a little more time, I'll describe in detail what I've done to replace the built-in software I didn't want with innoccuous freeware, and specifics on how to get a custom icon to show up on the menu.
enjoy!

[Sparky]

Thank you, bigsupersquid!

From your post it sounds to me like my goal is hopeless.

I want to get rid of the bloatware and get to my most-used applications in one touch. Dream on.

Anyone with a VM Rumor Touch knows that to get to Opera Mini or email takes:
1. Press the home button
2. Touch Main Menu
3. Touch My Stuff
4. Touch Applications
5. Touch Opera Mini or Email + IM
5a. For email, also scroll past a few pages to the bottom of the bloatware then press IMAP/POP Email.

From a security standpoint, if I use IMAP/POP Email, that email is stored on my phone. If I lose my phone, I would like to keep my email private. For privacy, I use my own server instead of Gmail (it seems Google wants to gather everything it can about everyone on the planet). I haven't found a way to lock the phone so that a code is required to access the email. Anyone who picks up my phone can not only read my email but also send email as thought they were me.

Why would anyone want to buy this phone, even as a toy? The $25.00 unlimited data plan is attractive. The phone is repulsive.

Thank you for all of your work, bigsupersquid, to show me that restructuring the menus seems to be hopeless.

Anyone know of a way to lock this phone?

[bigsupersquid]

Thank you, bigsupersquid!

From your post it sounds to me like my goal is hopeless.

I want to get rid of the bloatware and get to my most-used applications in one touch. Dream on.

Anyone with a VM Rumor Touch knows that to get to Opera Mini or email takes:
1. Press the home button
2. Touch Main Menu
3. Touch My Stuff
4. Touch Applications
5. Touch Opera Mini or Email + IM
5a. For email, also scroll past a few pages to the bottom of the bloatware then press IMAP/POP Email.


dunno about the email problems, I use webmail and don't go thru the built-in app.
As far as the menus go, you can get apps you use to the front home menu.
here's how.
say you want opera on there.
go to your <home> menu.
there is an <edit> button on the top right of the screen. pressing it allows you to delete any hotlinks you don't want off of the home menu.
after you do that, press <done>. goes back to the home menu.
at the bottom of that menu is an <add> button. press it.
now scroll to <my stuff>. press the label, not the checkmark.
scroll to <applications>. again, press the label, not the checkmark.
scroll to <opera mini>. press the checkmark. press <done>
voila! on the home menu.
repeat as desired for each folder or app.
in a later post, I'll tell you how to replace the bunk bloatware with apps of your personal choice, including custom icons. eventually, I or someone else will figure out how to change the menu labels for the replaced bloatware, for now I still have the labels but the software is replaced with what I want... for example, I have wetravel (free gps) run instead of vm navigator.
good luck!

[bigsupersquid]

Ok, now on to even more fun things.
This process will allow you to set the icon manually on the phone through bitpim (qpst, or whatever, is similar but I'm not going into more than one software method right now.) Later I'll improve my java skills and figure out how to correct the icon file in the .jar so it'll load itself on the phone, but for now the phone needs to be in DM mode and the software you want an icon for needs to be installed already.
You'll need to create an icon. 15x15 .png file. I used one from the /root/ams/11 folder and modified it in my image editor of choice.
If you want one to modify or use, heres one that works...
[Only registered and activated users can see links] ([Only registered and activated users can see links])

Save the new icon as xx_icon.png and xx_icon1.png (the xx is the number of the folder containing the app you want modified. for this example, I use 11_icon.png and 11_icon1.png)
put the phone in DM mode, plug in the usb cable, and open bitpim. It helps speed things up if the sd card is removed.
detect your phone (this takes a minute,) change the phone type (under edit settings) to lg vx9200 (env3)
once it finishes:
expand the filesystem (leftmost panel, under phone, click filesystem. center panel click the "+" sign next to the folder.) bitpim takes a while to read the filesystem, so be patient.
for this example, I'm changing the icon for the built-in twitter app. in my filesystem, it's under /ams/11
expand /ams by clicking the '+' next to it.
expand /ams/11. click on the /ams/11 folder in the center panel to view its contents.
in the right panel, right-click 11_icon.png, select 'overwrite'
browse to your new icon, double-click it or click once and click 'open' on the browser window.
do the same for 11_icon1.png
now you can close bitpim, and unplug your phone. taking it out of dm mode is optional.
open the 'applications' menu and enjoy your new icon! This trick won't replace the icons in menus other than games or applications, as far as I know.
btw, the built-in undeletable apps have an image of a lock over the upper-left corner of the icon. I haven't figured out how to get rid of that. If you're not messing with the built-ins there shouldn't be a lock.
next post, I'll describe how to replace built-in java apps with others of your choice!
have fun, that's what this is all about for me ;)

<edit> after much time has passed, I tried out a suggestion made to me by Sparky, and replaced the oversized .png file in a .jar with the same .png resized to 16x16 before installing the app... and the icon shows up great on the menu. Nice shortcut and avoids messing with bitpim. Thanks, Sparky!

[.spartacus]

Thanks for the great info!

This might be a trivial question, but it has me stumped:

I've copied several .3g2 and .qcp files to the /user/sound/ringer folder (and under the dcam folder where the assigned media goes), but I can't get the phone to actually show them when I want to assign a ringer. Is there a trick to making the phone refresh it's filesystem list?

[bigsupersquid]

Thanks for the great info!

This might be a trivial question, but it has me stumped:

I've copied several .3g2 and .qcp files to the /user/sound/ringer folder (and under the dcam folder where the assigned media goes), but I can't get the phone to actually show them when I want to assign a ringer. Is there a trick to making the phone refresh it's filesystem list?
the only luck I've had so far is using the phone itself to assign ringers, theres a tutorial [Only registered and activated users can see links]
when I've put new .qcp files in the folder /mms/sound, which is where the phone seems to place some of them when assigned through the phone menus, it doesn't see them. don't know how to force a refresh yet.
good luck!

[Sparky]

dunno about the email problems, i use webmail and don't go thru the built-in app.
As far as the menus go, you can get apps you use to the front home menu.
Here's how.
(shows how)
good luck!

so cool!!!!

[Renate]

The Rumor Touch allows selection of user wallpaper, but it only rotates and crops when in landscape mode. Internally it uses two files. You must set these separately.

Once you unlock the RT, you can see that there are two files:

/setas/wallpaper.bit (240 x 400)
/setas/wallpaperLand.bit (400 x 240)

You can replace these two files using BitPim

Note: The RT may not notice the files were updated.
Power cycling may be necessary.

The file format is uncompressed little-endian.
The header is 16 bit width, 16 bit height.
The 16 bit (5-6-5) color data follows.
The file size is 192,004 bytes.

#define RGB16(r, g, b) (((r>>3)<<11)|((g>>2)<<5)|(b>>3))

Here is a utility that converts either JPEGs or PNGs to LG raw format bit files.
It only accepts 240 x 400 or 400 x 240 images.

lgbits prettypic1.jpg wallpaper.bit
lgbits prettypic2.jpg wallpaperLand.bit

(This is the actual executable, no install.)

[Only registered and activated users can see links]

Note: leave 22 black pixels on the top for both images.

@bigsupersquid: You wouldn't have a clean VM510PV5_COM?.nvs (from LGDownload, in the Model\VX9100\LOG dir) to post, would you?

[bigsupersquid]

The Rumor Touch allows selection of user wallpaper, but it only rotates and crops when in landscape mode. Internally it uses two files. You must set these separately...
heres how
beautiful. thanks tons! I hadn't found a utility like that which used the right resolution, and didn't want to write my own. great addition to this thread with the specifics on the wallpaper and the converter utility!

@bigsupersquid: You wouldn't have a clean VM510PV5_COM?.nvs (from LGDownload, in the Model\VX9100\LOG dir) to post, would you?sorry about the .nvs, my handset is newer and runs on PV7.
I'll post that one, maybe it'll help?
[Only registered and activated users can see links]

[Renate]

Thanks, BigSuperSquid. I tried to PM you but your mailbox seems full.

[Crogon]

Heh.. I think they did something weird, all of a sudden my PM box holds like 5 total messages. :P I had to delete like 20 messages to send 1! :S

Great good stuff guys, keep it coming! :D

[thesmitty68521]

Heh.. I think they did something weird, all of a sudden my PM box holds like 5 total messages. :P I had to delete like 20 messages to send 1! :S

Great good stuff guys, keep it coming! :D

What does your PM box have to do with this thread? If you have concerns about your PM storage, post it in the appropriate part of the forum or PM a staff member. Thank you for your cooperation and please refrain from thread hijacking.

[Renate]

Hmm, looking at the file it doesn't really seem to show the same data that you get by directly querying the NV.
I can look at my NVS file and it doesn't show the data for attributes that I can see otherwise.

[bigsupersquid]

I've verified that the following codes work on my handset. Software version PV7.
##virgin# (##847446#) activation menu (given in manual and freely by tech support)
##port# (##7678#) developer mode selection (found here posted by crogon and on HoFo)
##debug# (##33284#) debug menu, lots of info including latitude and longitude (regardless of location on or off) but can't seem to change anything.
##rtn# (##786#) RTN menu, more system info and reset default (hard reset) menu.
for most of this stuff you need your SPC code, but if you've unlocked your handset (I assume so or you'd probably not be reading this thread :cool:) you should have that already. if not, instructions are here ([Only registered and activated users can see links](possibly-others)&highlight=solved+rumor+touch)
anybody else got some codes that work? feel free to post 'em here.

[bigsupersquid]

This process took me long enough to post, considering that it's the first thing I did to my new toy after unlocking it on delivery to my house (well, the first thing after having to hard reset my phone to restore the filesystem to factory, after trying with partial success to delete said bloatware; deleted 'em alright, but phone would lock up or reboot when trying to run the missing programs from their persistent menu entries)
You'll need to install the java program you want to use as a replacement, from the memory card to the phone, first. This gives you a completely installed directory to copy-modify-and-paste to the target (bloatware) directory.
So, back to bitpim.
Open bitpim, connect your phone to the USB cable in DM mode, select the lg-vx9200 on the port eventually found as 'other cdma' and expand the filesystem (works faster if your memory card is removed) to view it.
First step is to find your newly installed app and the bloatware you want to replace. Click on the /ams/xx folders one at a time and right-click and select 'hexdump' on the .jad file in each /ams/xx folder to see what the midlet-name is. make a note of the xx number of both the new app and the old bloatware. Don't mix 'em up! For this example we'll copy the contents of directory /ams/27 (scribpad freeware) into /ams/11 (twitter bloatware) after fixing the filenames. This assumes you're using a filesystem just like mine (root.zip from the first post in this thread,)- you'll have to decode my instructions to get your own folder numbers.
Select the new app's /ams/xx folder (/ams/27 for this example.) Right click the folder and select 'backup directory'. save it to your hard drive. If you're paranoid or whatever, you can also back up the /ams/11 directory, but it can be recovered by a hard reset.
Unzip the xx.zip (27.zip) file as a new folder and manually rename the leading 2 characters of all the files inside it with 11. DOS junkies can do 'em all at once by navigating to the new 27 directory and typing <rename 27*.* 11*.*> (don't type the <> :cool:)
Rename the 27 directory as 11
zip the new 11 directory as 11.zip (you may have to rename the existing 11.zip as something like 11_.zip first if you backed up the bloatware)
click the /ams/11 folder in the center panel to view its contents.
in the right panel, right-click each file one at a time and select 'delete'
Once they're all gone, right-click the /ams/11 folder, and select 'restore'. browse to your new 11.zip file and select it. This should load your modified files.
right click your /ams/11 folder and select 'reboot phone' . Unplug from USB and enjoy.
that should take care of it! Brave souls could try to re-order their menu items with a variant of this method, but some of those apps are supposed to open in more than the 'my stuff/applications' menu, and the replacements only seem to run from that particular (applications) menu. but, they just don't seem do anything at all (after replacement) in the other menu folders, like 'social neckworking' or 'maps', which is a great improvement in my opinion!
<edit>by the way, while this little trick does replace the app itself, it does not change the name of the bloatware app you are replacing on the menu list. You can change the icon if you need to know what you are looking at in the menu...</edit>
hope this works for you, too! have fun, y'all.

[bigsupersquid]

The Rumor Touch allows selection of user wallpaper, but it only rotates and crops when in landscape mode...
heres how
Ok, I've successfully used this tool and method for my VM510. The only problem I had was that I had to assign a photo as wallpaper before overwriting the files to get the new wallpaper to show up (it didn't need a power cycle to see it.) When I set a factory wallpaper, overwriting the files in /setas didn't have any effect, even after rebooting the phone. I tried both methods several times.
Thanks again, renate, for this useful software and info.

[El Schisne]

@bigsupersquid: Have you tried this with, say, replacing the stock browser with Opera Mini? The reason I ask is that there are certain "proprietary" VM pages that are apparently meant to open in the stock browser, such as "Main Menu -> My Account -> Balance + Usage." That page opens up "[Only registered and activated users can see links]" which changes to "[Only registered and activated users can see links]" after a moment. Neither URL works in Opera Mini; it thinks the first is a search query and gives a server timeout error for the second. The same goes for all the account-related functions in the phone: will they attempt to be opened in Opera Mini if I replace the stock browser with it? If so, does anyone know of a workaround to make Opera Mini the default browser for everything except account-related things?

Edit: Re-reading your post, I'm not even sure that would properly change the "default browser" as such. If it affects only the Applications menu, I take that to mean that (for example) links in text messages wouldn't open at all, and the account-related menu items would do absolutely nothing. Is that a reasonable guess?

[bigsupersquid]

@bigsupersquid: Have you tried this with, say, replacing the stock browser with Opera Mini? The reason I ask is that there are certain "proprietary" VM pages that are apparently meant to open in the stock browser, such as "Main Menu -> My Account -> Balance + Usage." That page opens up "[Only registered and activated users can see links]" which changes to "[Only registered and activated users can see links]" after a moment. Neither URL works in Opera Mini; it thinks the first is a search query and gives a server timeout error for the second. The same goes for all the account-related functions in the phone: will they attempt to be opened in Opera Mini if I replace the stock browser with it? If so, does anyone know of a workaround to make Opera Mini the default browser for everything except account-related things?

Edit: Re-reading your post, I'm not even sure that would properly change the "default browser" as such. If it affects only the Applications menu, I take that to mean that (for example) links in text messages wouldn't open at all, and the account-related menu items would do absolutely nothing. Is that a reasonable guess?

haven't located the browser at this time. I bet it's written in BREW. I'll go digging... my priority was to write a J2ME downloader app, the only freeware I've gotten to work pulls down 64k of a file and stops there. Assume they haven't accounted for page limits or it's written for midp 1.0...I hate the lousey-browsers which come with all the mobiles I've used.

[furioussun]

Thanks for all your work on this guys!

[El Schisne]

haven't located the browser at this time. I bet it's written in BREW. I'll go digging... my priority was to write a J2ME downloader app, the only freeware I've gotten to work pulls down 64k of a file and stops there. Assume they haven't accounted for page limits or it's written for midp 1.0...I hate the lousey-browsers which come with all the mobiles I've used.
That would make sense--there's no Java splash screen on the Netwave browser. I hadn't noticed that before, heh...

[Renate]

Here's the complete guide to user ringtones on the LG Rumor Touch

The user ringtones are stored in the directory mms/Sound on your RT.
They can be just normal MP3 files with an MP3 extension.
They are indexed by the file setas/mmsRingerIndex.map on your RT.

setas/mmsRingerIndex.map is little-endian, 17202 bytes long



struct
{
WORD count; // number of active index entries
struct
{
BYTE index; // 0 to 99 in sequence
BYTE something; // 0x54
char filename[170]; // "fish.mp3" for example
} links[100];
}

Here's a little Windows command line utility for generating mmsRingerIndex.map

[Only registered and activated users can see links]

1) copy all your .mp3 ringtones to the mms/Sound directory on your RT

2) generate a mmsRingerIndex.map file using a list of the filenames without paths.

lgring fish.mp3 cows.mp3 birds.mp3

3) copy the generated file to the setas directory on your RT

4) Go to the menu Settings/Ringer/--whatever--/My Audio and assign your ringers.

Note: The order of the filenames to lgring.exe is important.
If you have the first entry assigned to a ringer and you change the filename
then that file will be assigned to the ringer, i.e. assignments are made by index number.

[bigsupersquid]

nice info, Renate! I appreciate it and will mess around with it soon.

If anyone wants to modify the icons which show up for MMS attachments (downloadable or not), they are stored as .jpg files inthe directory
/mms/default_img/
with fairly descriptive names.
I've lost track of the character set I found buried in the phone filesystem, but I'll post the location for it as well once I find it again.

[Renate]

The opening menu on the RT is configured by the file /homescreen/shortscuts.dat (yes, that is "shortscut").
It's a simple file, consisting of 5 tab-separated fields, terminated by a *nix-style 0x0a.
1) A link for language-dependent titles
2) A text title
3) A link to an icon
4) Another link to an icon
5) A command
The entire file is terminated with one null.

You can obviously rename the entries.
You can remove the "Add" if you think that it makes no sense there.
You can specify a URL as the command. This is probably the most useful feature so far.


VarLabelID=0&Arg= YouTube home_web_n.png home_web_n.png [Only registered and activated users can see links]
Note: you must use tabs, not spaces as shown above

The home menu only allows a total of 15 links (including "Main Menu").
You can remove the "Add" selection.
Deleting any selection will reinstate the "Add" selection.

[bigsupersquid]

Here's the complete guide to user ringtones on the LG Rumor Touch...

here's how

way too cool.
since my last hard reset of my handset, I hadn't emailed myself my text message ringer again yet, so both the directory /mms/Sound and the mmsRingerIndex.map file didn't exist on my handset when I tried this.
[Only registered and activated users can see links]
not to mention the .mp3 to .qcp filename extension change is now unneccesary.
Renate, you rock! Thanks to you I now have custom wallpaper which looks the same whether the slider is open or closed, and I can read the title of my custom ringtones! I'm still trying to find where the start menu icons are hidden so I can insert my own or at least modify the originals, but I haven't seen 'em yet.

[Renate]

Thanks, BigSuperSquid! The ringtones work pretty easily. The menus get a bit more complicated since Google Maps may be ams/15 on one RT and ams/17 on another. I haven't found where the icons are yet either. There is another program for generating menus that makes it easier to put in selections without having to remember icon filenames or cryptic commands. I'll post it soon.

[Renate]

Here's a little Windows command line utility for generating the opening menu on a Rumor Touch.

[Only registered and activated users can see links]

There are three types of selections that it takes:

1) A regular selection or sub-menu selection.
Examples are "Settings", "Surf the Web", "Email + IM".
The spellings must be identical to the original name.
The strings must be enclosed in double quotes if there are spaces in them.
If you would like to rename them, you can append an alias separated by an exclamation mark.
An example is "Surf the Web!Browser".
To list all the possible selections, type lgmenu /l

2) A downloaded or pre-installed application.
This gets a bit trickier. Applications are installed in ams/??, where ?? is two digits.
The installed directory is not the same on two different handys.
You can peek in the .JAD files to find out where what is, ams/11/11.jad.
It still gets tricky. You have to specify an alias that matches exactly the original selection.
If you get it wrong, you will get a warning message on your handy when you select it.
The warning message is all screwed up and overwritten on the screen.
You have to use ams and the AMS number plus the original name (as alias).
A correct example is "ams:17!Google Maps".
On your handy the 17 could be any number.

3) A full URL including [Only registered and activated users can see links]
If you do not specify an alias, it will trim the leading [Only registered and activated users can see links] and the trailing / to use.
"[Only registered and activated users can see links]" would appear as [Only registered and activated users can see links]
"[Only registered and activated users can see links]!My Googly Place" uses an alias.

There are only 15 selections allowed. It is suggested that "Main Menu" be one of them.
"Add" (as in add menu selection) might be another good choice.

If you want, you can put your selections in a text file.
With one entry per line you do not need to use any double quotes.
[Only registered and activated users can see links]
[Only registered and activated users can see links]

Subsequent versions of this utility may use different handling of the arguments.

[El Schisne]

Has anyone found a way to remove the "read-only Erase Protect feature" on the stock VM apps? I'd really like to get rid of Email+IM and Virgin Mobile Navigator.

Also, thank you very much for the menu insights, Renate! I think this is enough incentive to unlock my phone after all. I'll try that when I do. :)

[bigsupersquid]

Has anyone found a way to remove the "read-only Erase Protect feature" on the stock VM apps? I'd really like to get rid of Email+IM and Virgin Mobile Navigator...
Even when you set the "Content-Delete-Lock: Yes" to No in the .jad files in the /ams/xx folders, you can't delete the apps even though it shows an open lock on the menu icon.
You can, however, do as I did and replace them with other apps, I just haven't found where to change their names. So you have a different app which activates when you select the original name off the applications menu. I didn't like the apps which could cost me money if accidentally activated, like navigator and contact vault, so I put something else in their places, as well as all the social apps. see further up the thread for instructions. Your phone has to be unlocked to do it.
see:
replacing apps [Only registered and activated users can see links]
and
replacing icons [Only registered and activated users can see links]

[Renate]

I would guess that even though the lock originates in Content-Delete-Lock: Yes in the .jad
that the current state is actually stored in ams/db/contentInfo or ams/db/executionInfo
I haven't looked in-depth at these two files yet.

[bigsupersquid]

Ok, so I've written a j2me file downloader program, and during testing of it I have learned some very interesting things.

.gif images are compressed and animation frames removed by the phone internet server if the image resolution is greater than the phone's display can handle. My 320x320 animated .gif is reduced to a 170x170 single-frame .gif if downloaded through my MIDlet. Opera does not seem have this restriction and downloads the animation correctly and without reducing the resolution from the same URL. This gives me hope that there is a workaround by using a proxy, which I haven't found the J2ME instructions for doing yet.
If the same 320x320 .gif file is put into a .zip file, my downloader handles it correctly.
Big news about .jad files (at least to me...)
Apparently the lockout on downloading .jad files may not be in the browser. When trying to download a .jad though a [Only registered and activated users can see links] StreamConnection, or ContentConnection, the following problem occurs.
Rather than the requested .jad file being fetched, an .html file is downloaded instead:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"[Only registered and activated users can see links]">
<html xmlns="[Only registered and activated users can see links]">
<head>
<title>!</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Access denied</p>
</body>
</html>

I'm pretty sure this is the same page the browser displays when trying to fetch a .jad file.

.jar files, however, do download correctly through my MIDlet with no errors. (good news there at least, one out of two ain't bad!)

Once the MIDlet is prettied up a bit I will release it for others of you to play with.
Any info from experienced J2ME programmers is welcome, since I'm a newbie to Java of any type; my experience is in old-school languages like BASIC and various flavors of assembly language, and a little G-code for machine tools. I'm only about 10 years out of practice with BASIC and about 20 years out of practice in assembly (the Pentium wasn't available to me when I was still programming chip-level code... shows my age.)
I learn fast, though, and this file downloader is my first attempt at programming in J2ME... not too shabby considering two weeks ago I'd never even looked at Java code. I'll get it working eventually, and I like to share, so once it's done, out it goes for everyone to have!

[bigsupersquid]

I would guess that even though the lock originates in Content-Delete-Lock: Yes in the .jad
that the current state is actually stored in ams/db/contentInfo or ams/db/executionInfo
I haven't looked in-depth at these two files yet.

Both of those files certainly do contain the menu item names for the installed apps and games, among other information...
Just changing any filenames themselves in contentInfo without correcting other data associated with them in this file causes the phone to lose access to ALL apps and games after a reboot.
Restoring the unmodified /ams/db/contentInfo to the phone and rebooting fixes this.
Changing menu names and midlet names in executionInfo and menu names in contentInfo both at the same time also causes the phone to lose its view of installed apps and games. Again, restoring the files and rebooting reverses the loss.
Obviously the easy way out with an editor isn't going to work, bummer.

[captainkirks]

Dose anybody know if the LG-VM510 has a nam lock, the prl are not sticking? Thanks

[bigsupersquid]

Dose anybody know if the LG-VM510 has a nam lock, the prl are not sticking? Thanks
not sure, but I can check mine in qpst service editor if you tell me exactly what you need to verify. I'm guessing change the NAM on one of the tabs there and reboot to see if it sticks? I only have the one prl that came with mine so can't mess with that.

[captainkirks]

Please try to put a cricket prl on it and see if it sticks after you reboot the phone. I use cdma workshop 3.5 it took the prl but after reboot it went back. Thanks in advance.

[bigsupersquid]

Please try to put a cricket prl on it and see if it sticks after you reboot the phone. I use cdma workshop 3.5 it took the prl but after reboot it went back. Thanks in advance.
I tried in qpst. 38515.prl. wrote it to the phone but didn't show up on reboot. The 'preferred roaming enable' checkbox is grayed out in qpst. if you change the system roam preference to automatic, the preferred roaming enable is still grayed out and unselectable.
tried with lgdownload. wrote prl but gone on reboot. in addition, lgdownload nvedit shows the following interesting items:
prl disable menu <cdma enable>
system select preference <cdma home only>
sorry it didn't work on my handset either.

[captainkirks]

I think we need to find where the nam lock is on it.

[bigsupersquid]

I think we need to find where the nam lock is on it.
I can test things on my handset as long as there's no serious danger of bricking it.
I'm all for verifying different ways to unlock the phone; even though I don't need to flash it at this time it'd be nice to have the capability to fully do so should I decide to in the future.
Whatever sets the nam lock may also have something to do with the repressed parts of the filesystem, and I'd sure like to get at those.
Let me know what you find out, and if you need further testing on my handset.
Thanks!

[El Schisne]

If you guys are frustrated about the order of the apps in your Applications menu, here's a so-simple-it-took-a-long-time-to-think-of-it solution: reinstall your apps. The app menu is, for our purposes, a simple FIFO queue; when an app is installed or overwritten, its [new] entry is placed at the top of the Applications menu. So, when you want to reorder your apps, all you need to do is go to Main Menu -> My Stuff -> Media Card and reinstall your apps in the order (bottom to top) you want them to appear in the menu.

Obviously, this is tedious if you have a lot of apps and want to reorder them all, but at least it's something. I'm not sure what reinstalling does to an app's preferences/saved data, so also be aware of that.



I'd further like to point out that Renate's method for customizing the Home menu items is also useful (to an extent) for changing their icons. Until we find where the stock icons are located, we probably won't be able to add our own custom icons, but it is possible to change any home menu item's icon to any one of the other stock icons (which are plentiful). Just add to the home menu (via the phone's "Add" button) the item whose icon you want to use, and then also add the item that's going to take the other's icon. In shortscuts.dat, you can then copy the former's icon name(s) into the latter's entry. After you've copied shortscuts.dat back to the phone, simply delete the new Home menu entry whose icon you borrowed, et voila.

In this manner, I've replaced all my J2ME apps' icons in the Home menu (which, by default, are all suitcases) with:

"Ringers" icon (image of a phone emitting waves) for gv4me (which I've also renamed "Google Voice")
"Surf the Web" icon (hollow globe showing the equator and axis) for Opera Mini
"Messaging" icon (envelope) for Gmail
"Maps" icon (silhouette of the United States) for Google Maps

...in short, icons that somewhat make sense. I'm a visual person, so this makes it quicker for me to find the apps I've added to the Home menu than the "one-icon-fits-all" suitcase did. :)



Edit: It's also worth noting that in shortscuts.dat, the first PNG filename on each line is for the icon that is displayed in the menu, while the second filename is for what the icon changes to when you touch its menu entry. In most cases, they're the same, but there are some exceptions.

[captainkirks]

I think we need to find where the nam lock is on it.

I no longer have the phone in front of me to try this. ownmart had a good idea about using cdma workshop to fix the nam lock on it. Dose anybody have one to try it. Its on the bottom right corner of the nam tab.

Thanks ownmart for all your help yesterday.

[loukin]

How do I get my Lg rumor touch in to dm mode?

[bigsupersquid]

How do I get my Lg rumor touch in to dm mode?


see here:
[Only registered and activated users can see links]

[bigsupersquid]

I no longer have the phone in front of me to try this. ownmart had a good idea about using cdma workshop to fix the nam lock on it. Dose anybody have one to try it. Its on the bottom right corner of the nam tab.

Thanks ownmart for all your help yesterday.

I tried cdma ws 2.7 (it's what I've got on hand) and had no luck.
Changed all kinds of settings under the nam tab, and tried to write a prl under the other tab both with and without altered nam settings.
nam2 doesn't respond, had to work with nam1.
ws said failed to write prl, but my phone lost track of its towers and went looking for service. Phone info on the handset said still prl 61006. on a reboot it went back to virgin mobile towers.
if you'd like to give me more specific directions and a link to a more recent version of cdma ws, I'll try again. My phone flashing experience is in changing operating systems and messing with onboard software, no experience changing service providers.

[captainkirks]

The nam lock option is only on newer version of cdma workshop.

Example

[Only registered and activated users can see links]

[wthigon]

The nam lock option is only on newer version of cdma workshop.

Example

[Only registered and activated users can see links]


Why upload a bmp to a crap share service. Resize and host with imgur

[Only registered and activated users can see links]

[Renate]

Well, if you live dangerously and you want to turn off the NAM lock, you can always roll your own and send:

NV Attribute Set, number=0x0105, index=0, data=0x00

27 05 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 05 EC 7E

[bigsupersquid]

Ok, here's a little gem I've been working on for a while.

A file downloader which can fetch .jar files from the 'net!
It's still very beta, but I'll keep on it, bug reports will help.
As it stands, it only notifies the user of errors recognized by the phone's Java software. External errors are dumped as HTML into the destination file when they occur instead of the file being downloaded.
It can't fetch .jad files (thanks to a block in the VM proxy server,) but those can be created on the phone anyway (see [Only registered and activated users can see links] and in Willie from SF's comments on [Only registered and activated users can see links] )

Instructions and download links for my app are here
[Only registered and activated users can see links]

[Only registered and activated users can see links]
glitchy app!
Works here and there but returns 0 byte long files other places and a few sites return the "Access denied" html file instead of the desired .jar, but named as the .jar you were trying to download.
use at your own risk and be sure to give me feedback as you do so I can work on it.

[Crogon]

Wooow.. I'll need to sit down and read through all this as soon as I can, but I just wanted to let you guys know that you've motivated me to sit down and start ripping my Rumor Touchs' guts out again!! I think you guys have taken it to the next level. With all this info, I'm thinking we should be able to hack everything crappy out of it and make everybody happy. :)

You ROCK!!

[bigsupersquid]

...I think you guys have taken it to the next level. With all this info, I'm thinking we should be able to hack everything crappy out of it and make everybody happy. :)

...

I'm afraid that until there's a BREWmeister interested in modding the RT much of the crappiness will remain, but it sure can be prettied up alot more that was intended by design.
Too bad my downloader project went flop because of the service provider network proxy's limitations. I suspect attempts at other projects may run into similar barriers. Well, at least more is being discovered about this handset than most vm pieces...

Still worth trying to tune up more, I suspect.

[bigsupersquid]

...
Too bad my downloader project went flop because of the service provider network proxy's limitations...


MUAHAHAHAHA!
I'VE DONE IT!
now you, too, can download .jar/.jad files direct to your RT with OperaMini 5.1
follow the instructions on my upgraded hubpages link in the next post.
A new app to download .jars using this technology from the Jar-URL in a .jad is the next unimplemented step. I fear that I might charge a pittance to register as a user for such an app, but my existing solution is free unless you want to help me pay the hosting company with a donation! I'm afraid that at some point my free webhosting is going to be shut down due to traffic, so eventually I'll have to upgrade to paid hosting, at $5/month. I can't afford that just to provide a public service, so users with money hafta cough up something on that donate link (on the hubpages site or on the tool site itself) or this is going to be kaput eventually. For now, though, FREE! Yay!
Once the webhost decides I'm abusing server power or bandwidth and shuts me down, I'll post up the source code for the site so everyone who wants can have their own. 'Till then, enjoy.

[bigsupersquid]

the hub with instructions:
[Only registered and activated users can see links]

Posted via Mobile Device

edit:
or, go straight to my tool, the Fileconfusicator ([Only registered and activated users can see links])
there are instructions on-site.

[vs3115]

you guys are awesome, thank you so much for all your hard word. i got this phone on black friday but just activated it less than a month ago. i really like this phone but as you know it needs some personalization. with your help and guidance it can be the best non smart phone out there ( and the plan price just makes it sooooo much sweeter)

[bigsupersquid]

I don't know if this kind of thing matters to anyone but me, but I class it as a trick or tip.
On the RT animated .gifs won't animate in Opera Mini, and they only work in Netfront when loaded directly by URL... just being included on a page doesn't guarantee the .gif will animate.
And, to add insult to injury, the network gateway crunches animated .gifs larger than 172x172 down to that resolution and a single frame, even if loaded directly by URL or through a normal downloader (Opera Mini will download the entire .gif even if over 172x172 but they have their own proxy and you still can't watch it animate in the browser.)
So, if you want to view animated .gifs on the RT use Netfront, and load the URL for the image directly.
Also the FileConfusicator is 'upgraded' slightly, you can now specify (or remove) the extra file extension which it applies to downloads.
If you open an image file from a URL with Netfront through the FileConfusicator with no extra extension (blank that textbox out,) it will display the full-size image rather than the gateway-crushed version; .gif animations will display full-size as well, rather than being limited to lo-res animated .gifs

[urabewe]

bigsupersquid:

You might want to remove the copy of your filesystem or go in and delete the t9 database and all of the sms text threads. It's very easy to see what you have been saying and to whom and their phone numbers if you know how. You might have other data in there you wouldn't want people to see. Just thought I'd say something.

[bigsupersquid]

bigsupersquid:

You might want to remove the copy of your filesystem or go in and delete the t9 database and all of the sms text threads. It's very easy to see what you have been saying and to whom and their phone numbers if you know how. You might have other data in there you wouldn't want people to see. Just thought I'd say something.

you know, I thought I'd done that already. Teach me to think I remember everything.
It's served its purpose now anyway, hopefully there aren't too many clones of it running around :P

[mrshoodrich84]

I'm kinda new to all of this but how do you view the file system and SMS threads?

[get_fedup]

Thank you, bigsupersquid!

From your post it sounds to me like my goal is hopeless.

I want to get rid of the bloatware and get to my most-used applications in one touch. Dream on.

Anyone with a VM Rumor Touch knows that to get to Opera Mini or email takes:
1. Press the home button
2. Touch Main Menu
3. Touch My Stuff
4. Touch Applications
5. Touch Opera Mini or Email + IM
5a. For email, also scroll past a few pages to the bottom of the bloatware then press IMAP/POP Email.

From a security standpoint, if I use IMAP/POP Email, that email is stored on my phone. If I lose my phone, I would like to keep my email private. For privacy, I use my own server instead of Gmail (it seems Google wants to gather everything it can about everyone on the planet). I haven't found a way to lock the phone so that a code is required to access the email. Anyone who picks up my phone can not only read my email but also send email as thought they were me.

Why would anyone want to buy this phone, even as a toy? The $25.00 unlimited data plan is attractive. The phone is repulsive.

Thank you for all of your work, bigsupersquid, to show me that restructuring the menus seems to be hopeless.

Anyone know of a way to lock this phone?

NO YOU DON'T!!!

on the first page hit the add button.
then that will take you to the add options, go down to the MY STUFF(do not check it but click it) that will take you to MY STUFF page... no go to the applications find opera mini and add it...

tadaaa!!!!! opera mini is now on your first page.

[bigsupersquid]

sorry to bump a dead thread, but maybe this'll help someone...
post #4 ([Only registered and activated users can see links]) has instructions on using bitpim to examine the filesystem.
the first page of posts may have other instructions related. I don't remember where the sms threads are in the rt's system, but hunt around and you should be able to find 'em.

[mrhyde]

Is anyone familiar with the text message data format on these devices? I as able to extract the RAW data from the file system in BitPim and wanted to parse the SMS messages into a spread sheet or similar. Not sure how the smsthread00xx.dat and smsDBThread.dat files should be broken down in a hex editor. If someone had a script to parse it you'd be my best friend :)

[project_isaac]

Sorry for beating a dead horse; I'm just hoping that with pv8 out on all these phones now (new ones at least), that maybe there will be a second wave of interest in this.
Anyway, I noticed the directory /user/sound/ringer (I already used Renate's awesome utility for the .map index file, just curious about my phone). Is this the directory for "official" VM ringtones? If so, how would I go about putting anything in there? qcp and mp3 files don't seem to work, and I can't figure out what VM's file type is for their ringtones.

Also, because I have firmware version VM510PV8, I cannot add 3rd party applications via the mediacard APPS folder; it simply doesn't show up as a menu option. Can I manually add apps through BitPim by making another folder under ams?

Or, is it possible for me to force the mediacard APPS menu option to show up?

Anyways, great work you all have done, bravo! IF this doesn't get answered, I completely understand; it's been over half a year since our author posted.

Cheers,
p. isaac

[project_isaac]

Alright, so as I have said before, I have software version VM510PV8. My sister's phone has VM510PV5, so she is able to install 3rd party apps to her phone. I copied the directories of two apps (angry birds and sudoku), and changed the name of the files to match the new available directories (for example, instead of 15.jar, it's now 22.jar; the directory 22 did not exist until I made it).

This, unfortunately, did not allow me to run either of these apps, which leads me to believe that something in the /ams/db directory holds a similar file to the "mmsRingerIndex.map" file for ringtones. I'm going to compare my sister's and my db directory to figure out what the [syntax?] is for the file and what file(s) I should be worried about.

EDIT:
Okay, I looked through /ams/db, and it looks like poweron, folderInfo, and executionInfo are not important conecerning adding new apps. poweron and folderInfo are too small and don't have anything referring to names or anything, and executionInfo seems to document what applications you ran and maybe when. contentInfo seems to be the money, and now it's time to figure out how it is put together....