Pulse 2.1 Lite ROM

[Guest]

PulseLite

What is it?

In light of the extremely restricted space available on the 2.1 ROMs on the Pulse, the intention of this ROM project is to produce a Pulse 2.1 ROM that is as small as possible whilst containing all of the key ROM features.

Some users may wish to run a light ROM for its own sake. Giving developers the benefit of space on the /system partition will also, it is hoped, free them up to make other ROMs using PulseLite as a foundation.

Disclaimer

You're a grown-up - if you download this ROM, you are accepting that it is entirely at your own risk.

DO A NANDROID BACKUP FIRST.

Process

You must have the Hungarian update installed first.

Wipe everything and then flash from recovery. Post-flash, wipe everything again and then reboot. After first boot into the ROM, I find that shutting down and restarting irons out some wrinkles - your mileage may vary.

Thanks

The entire ROM is based on an MCR, so thanks to Paul for his creation, work and hosting, and thanks to everyone who has made suggestions and (often large) contributions.

Tutorial

For those of you of a more DIY frame of mind, have a look at the excellent tutorial in post five below - most of the tricks we're using to shrink this ROM are logged there, to help you shrink your own.

Download

v2 is here.

Edited June 4, 2010 by Guest

[Guest]

PulseLite v2

Available space 75.49 MB

Changes

Removed remaining notifications other than "Look at me" (T-Mo default)

Deleted Setupwizardex.apk and Email.apk

Edited build.prop:

• Amended fingerprint to Nexus One
  
• Removed "Wifi disconnected" message
  
• Reduced ring delay on receiving a call
  
  Swapped out default Gallery for new Nexus One gallery
  Swapped out default Launcher for Launcher Pro Beta
  Moved Spare Parts to /system from /data
  Added Quickboot
  
  
  
  PulseLite v1
  Available space 63.14 MB
  
  Changes
  Removed T-Mo widgets:
  • EmotionClockWidget
    
  • MyBookmarks
    
  • MyCalendar
    
  • MyEvent
    
  • StaticPhotoFrame
    

  Removed Alarm Clock

  Swapped out T-Mo Contacts.apk, ContactsProvider.apk, Dialer.apk, and CallLog.apk (total size, not including .odex files, 2.3MB) for Vanilla Contacts.apk and ContactsProvider.apk (1.17MB)

  Swapped out VoiceSearchWithKeyboard (6.4MB) for vanilla Latin_IME (306KB)

  Deleted all ringtones other than Standard Ringtone (T-Mo default)

  Deleted all notifications other than F1_MissedCall, F1_New_MMS and F1_New_SMS (intended to leave only "Look At Me", but unable to tell which of these files that is)

  Deleted all alarm tones

  "v0"

  An MCR ROM from the kitchen. Available space 49.71 MB

  Not included

  Calculator, Gallery 3D, Live Wallpapers, SIM Toolkit, YouTube, File Manager, Notepad, RoadSync, TouchPal, Dev Tools, Titanium, WaveSecure, Wifi Status Indicator

  On /data

  Docs To Go, Maps, Spare Parts, Voice Search

  On /system

  Gallery, Sound Recorder, Email

  Note: "v0" is not available for download as it is an MCR from the kitchen

Edited June 4, 2010 by Guest

[Guest]

To-Do List

If you want something added to, or removed from, this list - please suggest it below.

To-Do for v3

Delete hw_image folder

Create and use custom framework and bootanimation

ODEX

Remove HuaweiSyncClient, HWDrmApp, HWTheme_Work, DMClient and SFP.

Replace Music app with Nexus One stock.

To Confirm

Prune system sounds?

Fix predictive text?

Known Issues

Edited June 5, 2010 by Guest

[Guest flip360]

here here

[Guest Epic-Emodude]

Tutorial: How to strip down a ROM and make it yours.

This is a tutorial for people who want to strip down the 2.1 ROM for the pulse. When completed, it will tell you how to do all the things that are done to the ROM being uploaded in this post, including removing unnecessary apps and files and changing the boot animation and framework. This is mainly for people who either want to do it themselves for the fun of it or dont want certain things removes etc. I suggest you read the whole tutorial through first before starting.

1. Striping down the ROM to save space

1.1 Download a ROM - Most people are using Paul's custom ROM as it already has some stuff taken out of it, he has added root to it and done some other cool stuff to make it faster.

1.2 Extract it - Create a folder in your document called MyROM (or whatever you want to call it) and Extract the .zip to this folder. It will have 3 folders and a boot.img in it.

1.3 Removing apps - Open up the system folder, and then app. In this folder you will find a list of all the apps in the ROM. Go through this list and delete any apps you dont want. Most of the ones that need to be kept are obvious (anything that you are unsure about you should ask on the forum before you delete it or just leave it alone). Email.apk needs to be kept as other system functions rely on it to run, and without it your ROM may not start, and if it does you will get alot of force closes. EmotionWidgets.apk contains all the widgets entitles my (for example my clock, my music etc) so if you dont want any of these then delete it. You can remove Contacts.apk, ContactsProvider.apk, Dialer.apk, and CallLog.apk and replace with Contacts.apk and ContactsProvider.apk either from the Red Bull Mobile rom or a vanilla 2.1 ROM. This will remove the T-Mobile phonebook and the annoying flip contacts application thing.

1.4 Removing Backgrounds and Audio - Once you have deleted everything you don't want in this folder, go back, and open the media folder. There are 2 more folders in here, audio and hw_images.

1.4.1 Audio - The audio folder contains all the sounds that are used in the ROM such as alarms, notifications etc. Go through these folders and delete all but the ones you want (you might want to listen to them to decide which you want to keep) The sounds in the UI folder should probably be left alone as it contains noises that android uses.

1.4.2 Wallpapers - The hw_images folder contains the wallpapers. If you are going to use live wallpapers you can delete them all (although you might want to leave one in just in case) Please note that if you delete wallpapers from here, you will be left with a blank space in your wallpaper gallery. You can create some plain colour wall papers to replace them if this gets on your nerves as they will use up less space. If you are using v2 or later, or have removed the default launcher and replaced it yourself, you can completely delete this folder, as you can no longer access the wallpapers in it.

2. Adding your apps to the ROM

Adding any apps you know you will want to be on your phone now will mean that there will be more room in /Data/App for when you want to install apps later, although it means they will not be removable.

2.1 Getting the .apks - In order to get the apps you want, you need to get them off your phone. To do this you will need to find them, put them on your SD card, and transfer them to your PC.

2.1.1 Root your phone - Most people will already have root, but for those who dont:

Stock Android 1.5

Stock Android 2.1 - Flash the recovery image, Download this. Flash it to your phone via the recovery mode.

2.1.2 Download Root explorer - This a paid app that costs £1.40 on the market. This will allow you to look at the insides of your phone and extract files.

2.1.3 Find the applications - The applications you have installed are stored in /Data/App. Applications that were pre-installed on the phone are stored in /System/App. Once you have located the app you want, long press it, then select copy. Go back and select SD card, and then paste it. If you want to do more than one app, once you have located them click menu, the multi-select. Select all the apps you want to copy, press copy, then paste them to the SD card.

2.2 Put the apps into your ROM - When all the apps you want are on the SD card, plug the phone into the computer, mount the SD card, and copy them into /system/app in the ROM you are making. From my own experience I have found some apps don't install properly. For example opera mini 5 beta force closes on open and beautiful widgets does not install. These can be fixed by reinstalling them. I will add a list of apps that don't install properly if people report them to me.

Apps that dont work after install (These just need to be reinstalled):

-Beautiful Widgets (Does not appear to have been installed)

-Opera Mini 5 Beta (Force Closes on open)

-HTC_IME mod (Force Closes on open)

-Pure Widgets (Does not install, Forces Closes when installed, I suggest you put it on SD card and install it)

-It appears that most widgets do not install so either reinstall them or just don't put them in the ROM. If someone has a fix for this please share it.

3. Editing the build.prop and local.prop

There are some problems with 2.1 that can be fixed by editing the build.prop. For example, the message that comes up whenever you leave your wifi asking if you want to switch to data roaming and the market not showing some apps. Build.prop can be found in /system. Local.prop can be found in/Data Please note these changes may not take effect imedietly. If you are doing this whilst the phone is running you will need to restart to take efffect.

3.1 - Data roaming fix - Stops the message that comes up when you leave wifi saying "Continuing internet access will lead to traffic"

3.1.1 - Open the build.prop

3.1.2 - Find the line ro.config.hw_new_wifitopdp

3.1.3 - Change the 1 to a 0

3.1.4 - Save and close the build.prop

3.2 - Market apps fix - Fixes the fact that some apps are missing from the market

3.2.1 - Open the build.prop

3.2.2 - Find the lines that start with ro.build.description and ro.build.fingerprint

3.2.3 - Replace them with:

ro.build.description=passion-user 2.1-update1 ERE27 24178 release-keys

ro.build.fingerprint=google/passion/passion/mahimahi:2.1-update1/ERE27/24178:user/release-keys

3.2.4 - Close the build.prop 3.3 - Home screen fix - Will stop lag on return to home screen 3.3.1 - Open the local.prop 3.3.2 - At the bottom add the line

ro.HOME_APP_ADJ=1

3.3.4 - Close the local.prop 4. Adding a Custom Framework This allows you to edit the look of your ROM to something that suits you. 4.1 Choose a custom framework from here 4.2 Extract the files into another folder 4.3 Open up the folder, go into framework and select Framework-res.apk 4.4 Open your custom ROM and navigate to /System/Framework 4.5 Copy the Framework-res.apk you just downloaded into /system/framework and replace the existing file If this does not work for you, put the signed .zip that you downloaded onto your SD card as well as the ROM. Once you have flashed the ROM, flash the framework and it will work. 5. Changing the boot animation. When you boot the stock ROM on the third screen during boot it shows the t-mobile logo with a pink spinning circle. Changing the boot animation will change this. 5.1 Search these forums for a boot animation that you like. I would suggest here or here. If you do not find one that you like, you can edit it, by unzipping the bootanimation.zip, changing the images in the part0. You must then store it as a .zip NOT compress. 5.2 Open your custom ROM to /system/media 5.3 Delete the bootanimation.zip in /system/media 5.4 Copy the bootanimation.zip you have downloaded/edited into /system/media If this does not work for, after you have booted the ROM you can either follow the instructions on how to install the bootanimation.zip from the here or put the bootanimation.zip on your SD card, then open root explorer, navigate to /system/media, mount it as r/w and then delete the bootanimation.zip. Then navigate to your SD card and copy the bootanimation.zip that is on your SD card to /system/media. When you reboot you will have your custom boot screen 6. Signing the ROM After you have made all the changes to the ROM, you will need to re-zip it and sign it. You CANNOT flash a ROM unless it has been signed. In order to re-zip it you should select the 3 folders (Data, META-INF and system) and the boot.img and compress them to a .zip. Linux Download LinSign.Zip and extract the files to the tools folder in the SDK. Open a terminal and navigate the the directory that your ROM.zip is in, and enter the following code:

java -classpath Android-SDK directory/tools/sign/testsign.jar testsign NAME-OF-ROM.zip NAME-OF-ROM-signed.zip

This will create a new signed ROM.Zip next to original that can moved to the SD card and flashed If you cannot get this to work, there is a link at the top of page 4 of this thred that shows an alternative method. Windows Download WinSign.zip and extract the files to the tools folder in the SDK. Open a command prompt and navigate the folder that holds the files you just unziped, and enter the following:

java -jar signapk.jar testkey.x509.pem testkey.pk8 NAME-OF-ROM.zip NAME-OF-ROM-signed.zip

This will create a new signed ROM.Zip next to original that can moved to the SD card and flashed

Attachments:

LinSign.zip

Winsign.zip

If you flash your ROM and it does not work, unless you know what the problem is I can only suggest you go back to the original ROM, making the changes bit by bit testing it every time to make sure it works, or do this in the first place.

I claim no respoonsibility if this causes you device to break. (It shouldn't do though) Do it at your own risk.

As always do a nandroid backup before flashing any ROM in case it doesn't work

This Tutorial is work-in-progress and will be updated with more info and things to do as and when they become known.

If anything is missing or wrong tell me and I will edit it. I would appreciate any feedback via PM so I can improve it.

If people don't like me quoting them just say and I will change the wording.

Thanx to Dave_W, Eckengucker1, Flibblesan and anyone else who contributes to this (even if they don't know it)

Edited June 6, 2010 by Epic-Emodude

[Guest flip360]

Could I ask what the two reserved posts are for?

dunno, i am just up for it :(

[Guest]

Could I ask what the two reserved posts are for?

If this does take off and we end up working on a ROM as a community, this thread will get really messy really quickly. In order to keep it so that people can find what they're looking for (i.e. the ROM, the changelog, the known issues) I will edit the first three posts to put all that info up there.

[Guest Epic-Emodude]

If this does take off and we end up working on a ROM as a community, this thread will get really messy really quickly. In order to keep it so that people can find what they're looking for (i.e. the ROM, the changelog, the known issues) I will edit the first three posts to put all that info up there.

Ok. Would it be worth just putting in a tutorial that tells them how to do everything (what to remove, how to add stuff, changing framework and boot screen, adding JIT and everything else they might want to do to make the ROM theirs) that we can add to as and when things become apparent

Edit: I will be happy to write this tutorial in my first post if noone else wants to as i can see it becoming quite long

Edited June 2, 2010 by Epic-Emodude

[Guest Rem1x]

I can help out :(

Graphics, etc

[Guest eckengucker1]

Phonebook is the contactsprovider.apk

[Guest Epic-Emodude]

Phonebook is the contactsprovider.apk

If this is deleted from a ROM will it delete the contacts app or just the t-mobile fav contacts?

[Guest Simon O]

You can remove Contacts.apk, ContactsProvider.apk, Dialer.apk, and CallLog.apk and replace with Contacts.apk and ContactsProvider.apk either from the Red Bull Mobile rom or a vanilla 2.1 ROM. This will remove the T-Mobile phonebook and the annoying flip contacts application thing.

Mail.apk needs to be kept in as some system functions rely on it. Removing it causes a lot of force closes.

If you are removing apps from System then move as much from Data as possible to the System partition. This will free up space for sure.

Odexing the apks in /system/app/ will help lower space and improve performance.

[Guest Simon O]

Ok. Would it be worth just putting in a tutorial that tells them how to do everything (what to remove, how to add stuff, changing framework and boot screen, adding JIT and everything else they might want to do to make the ROM theirs) that we can add to as and when things become apparent

Never add JIT to a 2.1 rom. It causes instability and a few apps do not like it. If you must offer it, provide it as an optional extra. I find 2.1 runs fast enough without jit.

If this is deleted from a ROM will it delete the contacts app or just the t-mobile fav contacts?

It will cause force closes as Contacts.apk relies on ContactsProvider.apk to run. You will need to replace them all with Red Bull or Vanilla.

Edited June 2, 2010 by flibblesan

[Guest]

Odexing the apks in /system/app/ will help lower space and improve performance.

Can you elaborate on that a little bit? I see in the MCR ROM that I'm hacking around that each .apk has a correponding .odex file, but I'm unclear as to how I would go about "odexing" an apk?

[Guest eckengucker1]

you can install the auto odex script from Paul. Its currently running on the r7 too. It is odexing unodexed files automatically

Or just install all apps you want on your phone and run it manually =>http://android.modaco.com/content/htc-hero-hero-modaco-com/301910/odex-script-for-unodexd-roms/

Edited June 2, 2010 by eckengucker1

[Guest Simon O]

Can you elaborate on that a little bit? I see in the MCR ROM that I'm hacking around that each .apk has a correponding .odex file, but I'm unclear as to how I would go about "odexing" an apk?

Set up the rom as you like it, flash to the phone. Use ADB to push a script to the phone and run it via ADB shell.

http://android.modaco.com/content/htc-hero...r-unodexd-roms/

[Guest Simon O]

Auto ODEX script? I don't know about that :(

[Guest Epic-Emodude]

Set up the rom as you like it, flash to the phone. Use ADB to push a script to the phone and run it via ADB shell.

http://android.modaco.com/content/htc-hero...r-unodexd-roms/

Could someone please explain to me how to use ADB as i have tried to use it but can never get it to show my device.

Thanx

Aaron

[Guest Simon O]

Could someone please explain to me how to use ADB as i have tried to use it but can never get it to show my device.

Thanx

Aaron

Have you got the drivers installed for your phone correctly? Does ADB give an error?

[Guest starkos]

Auto ODEX script? I don't know about that :(

Neither did I, eckengucker1 can you explain a little more it plz?

[Guest]

Could someone please explain to me how to use ADB as i have tried to use it but can never get it to show my device.

Thanx

Aaron

XDA has a really good primer on it. Look at this.

[Guest Epic-Emodude]

XDA has a really good primer on it. Look at this.

Thanx but this doesnt rly help me as I am using linux and it doesnt rly mention it.

Have you got the drivers installed for your phone correctly? Does ADB give an error?

I didnt know i had to use drivers. As stated above I am using linux and thought that the drivers were only for windows..

Thanx

Aaron

[Guest Simon O]

Thanx but this doesnt rly help me as I am using linux and it doesnt rly mention it.

I didnt know i had to use drivers. As stated above I am using linux and thought that the drivers were only for windows..

Thanx

Aaron

Ah. I'm not a Linux user sorry.

[Guest mapero]

Set up the rom as you like it, flash to the phone. Use ADB to push a script to the phone and run it via ADB shell.

http://android.modaco.com/content/htc-hero...r-unodexd-roms/

As far as i know, you have to modify the script for the pulse. Since the system partition is not mtdblock3. I think its mtdblock1.

[Guest Josh04]

/system is mounted read-only for normal operations. Free space on /system is wasted space.