PsiROM

[zolee]

Lok this interesting nice Plan:



"PsiROM
Psion ROM Image Recompiler

Description
This program modifies the ROM image files of the Psion machines eliminating, adding or replacing the files included in the ROM.

Features
Read/write Psion 5mxPro ROM image files
Done
Read/write Psion NetBook ROM image files
Planned
Read/write Psion NetPad ROM image files
Planned
Remove existing files in a ROM image
Done

Add/replace files from another ROM image
Done
Import external files into a ROM image
In development
ROM image size optimization
Planned


http://gtm.tel.uva.es/xtep/en/index.htm

http://gtm.tel.uva.es/xtep/en/PsiROM/index.htm

[Jim Cooke]

This looks really interesting, especially for users of the 5mx Pro who would like to have an OS in a different language than German. Has anyone tried the program and does it work?

[kleinerp]

If a breakthrough is made and it is possible to replace files in the NetBook OS will it then be possible to upgrade the EPOC Java implementation to a newer version?

If so this could theoretically open up more apps for the NetBook eg web browsers, msn client

[donkeyontheedge]

Originally posted by kleinerp
If a breakthrough is made and it is possible to replace files in the NetBook OS will it then be possible to upgrade the EPOC Java implementation to a newer version?

If so this could theoretically open up more apps for the NetBook eg web browsers, msn client

The biggest problem here is lack of space. All of my experiments to date seem to indicate that the netBook OS.IMG file is limited to 16Mb. I think the best way forward here would be to remove apps which are not "core" like Opera, allowing an upgrade to the Java implementation used in say the netPad.

This would also allow those who prefer it to load Opera 3.62 or even 5.13 which would remove some of the more serious bugs from 5.14.

The TCP/IP updates could also be folded in, and there is no reason why apps such as Word and Sheet etc could not be removed and loaded as needed on the C: drive.

It should be possible on a stock netBook to get an OS using only (i.e.) 8Mb RAM, adding the remaining 8Mb to the C: drive instead giving 24Mb free on C:

I haven't thought about what could safely be removed to see how "low" you could go ;)

John

[urhs]

There may be issues to unproperly written parts. A harmless example is the recorder software that - in build 158- comes as a seperate program not stored in Z. If you install it on D instead on C, it will fail. Or Opera3, if installed in addition to the build158 integrated version 5, is not capable of finding the buttons on Z thus requiring an additional set of buttons in its drawer. Opera5, if extracted from build 158 will not run if installed on a build 156....

[wanman]

Although still early days, this is very encouraging news and will allow the NB OS to become fixable and customisable. I really look forward to further developments on this !!

[zolee]

Hi All!

New version Released!

PsiROM version 1.0.2 relased:
New characteristics:
Read/write Psion NetBook ROM image files support (not tested).
Read/write Psion NetPad ROM image files support (not tested).
Bugs:
Corrected bug while replacing folders.
Corrected bug in the import table while replacing code files.
Improvements:
Improved the free space detection in the base ROM.
Improved the detection of the dependencies between files.
Improved the recompilation speed.


Corrected' MalayBook ROM
Version 1.05 Build 281
Date: 15/05/2004
Name: MalayBook.zip
Size: 6.08 MBytes


http://gtm.tel.uva.es/xtep/en/download.htm

[MartinG]

Cool! So who's going to be first to experiment on their machine?!? ;)

Martin

[wanman]

He he, I think you could be right there Martin !! I look forward to the next updated release of the netBook OS with perhaps better java support, extracted neatly from the netPad OS maybe? Who said ER5 was dead......

[MartinG]

Certainly not dead. Evolving quietly perhaps? ;)

[donkeyontheedge]

I have been beta testing this for 'xtep' and unfortunately haven't yet managed to get it to produce a valid image file. I shall try this new version tonight and let you know. Don't hold your breath however...
John

[dushaw]

I have rebooted my malaybook between EPOC and linux about 100 times now and I am fearless...

I have downloaded xtep's new ROM image and I am pleased to report that it indeed boots up on my malaybook. On boot up I can see that xtep has modified the splash screen to show his logo and that he has modified it. The <Machine><Software version> is given as 1.05(281) with no Release number. The One-ed.com background persists. Opera 3.62 starts o.k....New opera, new java on the way?

It is claimed that this OS.IMG is "corrected"...how so? What should I look for?

Thanks very much for this progress! :D

B.D.

[donkeyontheedge]

That is indeed great news. I had tried several of his images he had sent me to date and unfortunately none of them loaded. After the last failure he stated there was to be no more beta testing which I assumed was somewhat premature as nothing had worked so far... I am very happy to be proven wrong! :D

He did send me an e-mail stating that two files in the original Malaybook ROM "broke" his program, he used updated files from later images (standard netBook ones, I assume - haven't had time to check yet). When I get home tonight I shall dig out the info from his mails and post it here for completeness.

One thing to note is that we still do not know what is in the Malaybook "PROM" which prevents the use of OS158 build 450.
My current thinking on this is the number of files in the image (hence it is OK to modify a file as long as the count remains the same). If this tool can now rebuild an image successfully, I can test this theory out further...

John

[donkeyontheedge]

These are extracts from Xtep's mail regarding the changed files
John



"I have notice diferences in some files in \system\libs folders and I have replaced it with the most recent versions. I think that there are some incompatibilities with these files.

If you want to test with the MalayBook you must download a corrected version of its ROM, because the original one has 2 files with wrong format that make PsiROM to crash."

[dushaw]

A timely message...I was just trying out PsiROM on my malaybook image and it was crashing.... The "corrected" image works o.k. Thx, B.D.

P.S. But it still crashes when I go to recompile the OS image file. Too bad.

[donkeyontheedge]

VC++ runtime error? Yes, me too. I have mailed him to see if there is a particular version of the runtime that should be included with the EXE file. We live in hope!

John

[stolkjo]

Me too, same error, have not found where it impacts the machine. Everything seems to work.

John

[donkeyontheedge]

Xtep has released 1.0.3 which now compiles images without crashing.

I have tested this on a Malaybook image by removing the "one-ed.com" wallpaper background and recompiling. This works a treat, giving a blank background in system screens instead of the annoying previous one.

It also blows away my theory on the number of files in the image being the key that the PROM checks for. The image file size for the recompiled image is the same as in the standard image though... Hmmm... back to the drawing board, and lots of experimenting ahead!

Who shall be first to produce "OS160" with all the updates and free tools included?
:D

John

[dushaw]

This has now worked for me as well. I went through the malaybook's OS.img and removed a bunch of stuff; anything to do with e-mail or faxes and nFTP. The idea was that I never have used this stuff, so why not leave it out and have a little bit more memory. I bet I took out 1 MB or so of material.

Well the OS.img worked as expected, however the OS.img file size was unchanged, and no additional memory was recovered. I still have 14 MB Z: and 50 MB for the C: disk. I wonder if the thing about the malaybook's OS.img is merely that it has to be a certain filesize, which is less than the ordinary netbook's size. This size is preallocated, giving one a fixed-size volume for putting stuff into. So thinking outloud, if I wanted to add material from the normal netBook's OS, I would have to delete existing material...a theory I could easily test out.

I was unable to read the netPad's OS.img; we are working on that. Apparently this OS.img file has to be "corrected" as well. I suspect that this "correction" has to do with the peculiar DOSisms of the way EPOC stores files; the end of file marker is apparently not always clear (I forget the details; without a special patch linux behaves poorly on DOS filesystems managed by EPOC). The netPad's OS has the TAO Intent java...

This netBook has given me endless hours of amusement...

B.D.

[dushaw]

This sent to Xtep:

Hi Xtep,
I have been working with your amazing program for a couple of hours now and I have a report! You would know far better than me as to the structure of the OS.img files; I'm guessing at some of the things I claim here.

I took your "corrected" malaybook image (size 13619 KB) and deleted a large amount of stuff in it - e-mail messaging, fax stuff, and opera. It amounted to deleting 2.6 MB of files. I then saved this as a new image file called STRIPPED.img. This filesize was 13603 KB. This file boots properly in the malaybook. However, the system did not gain any additional memory - its still 14 MB Z: and 50 MB C:, unchanged.

Then, I took the STRIPPED.img file and added in Opera from the normal netBook OS.img. The additions amounted to 2.3 MB of files. The saved image file was size 15558 KB (or roughly 13603 KB + 2.3 MB). This new image file does not boot properly in the malaybook.

I suspect that the malaybook has a limit to the filesize it can load. And obviously the image compilation does not compress the new material into the image?

I suspect also that the EPOC kernel in the malaybook defines an unmoveable 14 MB as the system's Z: disk; any OS.img file must be less than this size. It may also be that the bootloader in the malayBook's personality module has such a limit.

Then, somewhere in the OS.img file is the EPOC kernel...is this a file within the OS.img filesystem that PsiROM has access too? Or is it a binary tacked onto the OS.img, but not accessible by PsiROM? Or does the bootloader have the kernel stored in it (I think not...)? I don't know.

In any case, its pretty exciting to be able to mess around with this problem finally!

Best Regards,
B.D.

[donkeyontheedge]

Originally posted by dushaw
Well the OS.img worked as expected, however the OS.img file size was unchanged, and no additional memory was recovered. I still have 14 MB Z: and 50 MB for the C: disk.

Hmm, I too noticed that the filesize of OS.IMG was unchanged but am surprised if the Z: doesn't end up being smaller if it contains fewer files (haven't had much time to test yet).

I was unable to read the netPad's OS.img ...snip... The netPad's OS has the TAO Intent java...

Heh heh, the first thing I tried to do was add TAO Intent to a standard image... :D Getting there, slowly but surely!

John

[dushaw]

I can confirm that the Z:\ drive on the netBook is always and must be 14 MB, independent of whatever software one puts on that drive - this is hard coded into the OS.img file apparently. For any image I loaded, I got the Z: drive to be 14336KB in size, and 14336/1024 = 14. See the previously posted link on the netBook OS.img file:
http://netbookboot.dlmax.org/tiki-index.php
Netbook and malaybook are of the same size apparently, which I don't understand because the netBook's OS.img file is ca. 20 MB...

The situation is actually very similar (if not identical) to the linux RAM disk - it is also of fixed size, then you put stuff onto it. Its size doesn't usually change (although there is a filesystem/RAM type that is elastic). And when it is full, you are SOL (sorry, out of luck).

This suggests that any recompiled OS.img has to be carefully repacked, and places a limit to the amount of new stuff one can put onto a revised OS.img.

Now do you suppose one could tweek the OS.img file to set a different Z: size....

[xtep]

why do you not use the PsiROM Forum (http://gtm.tel.uva.es/xtep/forum)?
I think that if you move this disscussion about PsiROM to the PsiROM forum, you will get faster answers and I will get the feedback I want.

[donkeyontheedge]

It would seem that Xtep's site has been down for the last few days... anyone else been able to get into it?

John

[stolkjo]

John,

Same result here, I don't know what is going on but there are a couple of sites funky. I tried www.epocfaq.co.uk (Ian's site). I tried from two locations and three different machines, spins and spins and spins and finally the same dns error as Xtep's site.

It is probably JFK's magic bullit that bounced one more time;)

John

[diem]

Sorry guys - been messing with the features of my new hosting and managed to deny access to everyone! Its sorted now..

Fascinated to hear about the ROM recompilation BTW!!

[xtep]

The Xtep server crashed last friday, but it is up again.
I'm sorry.

Xtep

[stolkjo]

Yan,

It is good to see that your upgrade works. You deny access to everyone and it works;)

Thanks,

John

[MartinG]

Gone offline again I see. A bit like the Marie Celeste - keeps phasing in and out of our reality... ;)

Martin

[stolkjo]

Unpredictable as a true "Amazon"

[MartinG]

I see that the ROM optimisation is done/out - v1.05. Just waiting for the 'import external files' function to be added and then we should have something very special indeed...

Martin

[MartinG]

Just come back from my hols and I see that the 'import external files' function is done. Has anyone tried it yet?

[donkeyontheedge]

Not tried adding external files as such, but I am having a few troubles with this version (I never got around to trying v1.0.5).

I'm logging it all with Xtep's forums.

John

[MartinG]

Well, finally bit the bullet and had a play with the import function yesterday. Just changed the splash screen - see the attached (not very exciting image - just what I had to hand at the time). Comments:

1) No major problems with the program once I figured out how to drive it. Everything seemed to work as it should.

2) Something I hadn't realised beforehand - and which became immediately obvious - is that Xstep adds his logo to the splash screen whenever you recompile. So if all you're trying to do (as I was) is to change the splash screen yourself then you'll have to allow for this. Can't say as I really blame him - it is a free app. after all!

3) The image I used was sized to the same size as the original (don't know if necessary or not but decided to play safe) - but the memory used was almost half the original.

4) The Boot loaded fine, new splash screen discplayed fine, programs seemed to work, etc. The only problem I had last night was when I wanted to run a Java app. on my machine - and for some reason Java wouldn't work. Don't know if this is a function of the different memory requirement for my splash screen (or that I 'optimised' it when recompiling). Since I needed Java quickly, I re-booted to the original ROM...

Cheers,
Martin