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. ]

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!