ROMTool

[handquake]

Files on ROM
TCPMP

   On a friendlier note (going off topic), don't put this one in RAM or ROM, simply copy the less than 2 meg of files and plugins (deleting those which you don't need) to your sd cards in the lancher file and you will have it on every card you own. If you want a friend to be able to listen to your tunes or watch your movie he can, regardless of whether he has TCPMP or not. I also have the windows mobile copied to card just in case the person I'm loaning the card to has a 700w or ppc6700. Takes up nothing on the two 1meg cards or the 4meg card I have. No ROM or RAM.

[sdgandhi]

   On a friendlier note (going off topic), don't put this one in RAM or ROM, simply copy the less than 2 meg of files and plugins (deleting those which you don't need) to your sd cards in the launcher file and you will have it on every card you own. If you want a friend to be able to listen to your tunes or watch your movie he can, regardless of whether he has TCPMP or not. I also have the windows mobile copied to card just in case the person I'm loaning the card to has a 700w or ppc6700. Takes up nothing on the two 1meg cards or the 4meg card I have. No ROM or RAM.

Thanks for the advice. I had not read thru all the posts as it was very long but yes you are right, I thought people posting here what works in Rom made me think that they have to be there but I have got the cue. SO it would be better to have a smaller Rom partition and move most of the app to ram except essential. Can we have a list of essential app also rather than only apps that work in Rom.

In TCPMP do we have a plugin which plays mid or midi file??

Thanks once again for enlightening me.

[jamesgangut]

Thanks for the advice. I had not read thru all the posts as it was very long but yes you are right, I thought people posting here what works in Rom made me think that they have to be there but I have got the cue. SO it would be better to have a smaller Rom partition and move most of the app to ram except essential. Can we have a list of essential app also rather than only apps that work in Rom.

In TCPMP do we have a plugin which plays mid or midi file??

Thanks once again for enlightening me.

There really aren't any essential apps to put in ROM, other than the PALM apps you leave.

[hpspringer]

Thanks for the advice. I had not read thru all the posts as it was very long but yes you are right, I thought people posting here what works in Rom made me think that they have to be there but I have got the cue. SO it would be better to have a smaller Rom partition and move most of the app to ram except essential. Can we have a list of essential app also rather than only apps that work in Rom.

Basically an essential app is one that exist in ROM after you have taken out all that is possible!!!

IMO (and I started like most people, adding more that I needed to add to ROM), FileZ would be an excellent one and the only other one that I added for convenience is soft_reset, but you have to remember, that I took a lot of my wasted (free space) space in ROM and used it to reduce my partion size thus gaining in efficiency of the ROM, but added Free Ram, to make it all more efficient.

I'll probably be adding mSafe also, but I need to test it a little more first.  To me that would be an ideal app to have in ROM as I carry a good deal of confidential information on my Treo, that I would not want others to have access too.

BUT, that's the ABSOLUTE most that I will add, and I may reconsider and remove FileZ.

[hpspringer]

  Sorry, should have mentioned nobody noticed difference in mic volume from either ROM. Maybe that's good but really don't boost mic that much as have never had problem with it and the treo mic and speakerphone always worked great.

Whoops, I should have provided a little more detail in my post:

I went from Treo650-117-151-CNG with a 7.1MB Partition to a Treo650-171-120-ENA with an 8.4mb Part.  Deleted a lot of apps and then put the new ROM in one of JAMES 7.1MB Part ROM Updaters, installed it.

Its a HUMMER!!!!  With all the apps I had on RAM, I still have almost 2MB more space in RAM and 1MB more in ROM  than I had before. no resets, and BEST of ALL, the sound and mic volume are so much better than with the CINGULAR ROM!!!

 

I'm sorta in a unique position right now.  Bought my wife a Treo for her upcoming birthday, but she doesn't know it yet!!!  Now since it was a Cingular with Treo650-117-151-CNG (out of warranty), when I tested it, I had the same problems as mine, comments about static and low volume from other callers. 

Well I thought I would play around with it for awhile (if I break it, she'll never know, EXCELLENT RATIONALE on my part).

First I unlocked it, then upgraded the software/firmware from Treo650-117-151-CNG to Treo650-171-120-ENA, this is when I noticed the big differences (switching firmware/software), after getting away from the Cingular firmware/software, and had the comments from my wife and others  about the static being gone and the volume being louder.

[AllGamer]

Curiosity question about the ROM and size.

for those that are running the ROM pretty much Clean with probably 1 or 2 extra, what is there to gain by having a Smaller ROM size, but still wasting all the extra space?

is it for stability or for performance?

well in my case, neither stability / performance applies to me, since i still need the same stuff that i have now in ROM, back in RAM, if i take them out of ROM.

and performance wise, as i tested prior to commit all those apps to ROM, the Treo in general runs the same or maybe a little bit better.

but even without my custom Apps in ROM, i still see no difference in speed, maybe cuz i have all that stuff in RAM.

obviously if your Treo is completely clean, then it'll be real fast. as i tested after a Hard Reset 

anyways, with a custom ROM the only application i can find a difference is with Softick Audio Gateway + TCPMP, it actually runs a bit better that before, but still not good enough to watch movies, but now at least it works, and not hangs, as it was before the ROM customization 

[handquake]

Hey hpspringer, I also ended up removing everything from ROM once I finally got over the fun and fiddle factor. Still, will try msafe tonight because seems important. One other thing, I ALWAYS ALWAYS include soundrec. For the life of me I can't let it go!? No good reason why and I hardly EVER use the app. I even let filez go which I use every day. It just seems to me that (GOD FORBID) if my phone ever gets lost or stolen I want whoever has it after I wipe it to go HEY! I can hear myself!

[hpspringer]

Curiosity question about the ROM and size.

for those that are running the ROM pretty much Clean with probably 1 or 2 extra, what is there to gain by having a Smaller ROM size, but still wasting all the extra space?

is it for stability or for performance?

Both, I haven't had a reset or lost preferences since doing this.  You really don't waste much space if you re-partition and convert some of that free ROM to Free RAM.

well in my case, neither stability / performance applies to me, since i still need the same stuff that i have now in ROM, back in RAM, if i take them out of ROM.

and performance wise, as i tested prior to commit all those apps to ROM, the Treo in general runs the same or maybe a little bit better.

but even without my custom Apps in ROM, i still see no difference in speed, maybe cuz i have all that stuff in RAM.

To me, stability/ performance was my primary reason for doing a custom ROM.  From the developer and threads from other sites, this was my primary reason.  Various threads I found discussed these issues.

My speed has increased dramatically, as I said earlier, it's a HUMMER !!!


As the developer of ROMTool says:

The general guideline is to make your ROM partition as small as possible to increase your available NVFS space and to store as little as possible in ROM to increase your available DBCache (aka storage heap).  When you are talking about applications totalling less than 500kB (rough number), you can probably skip some of these guidelines for the convenience of having applications always around. 

It's basically all about balancing DBCache/free NVFS/etc.   

I also have the same app that I had before in RAM, I gained 1MB of Free ROM and 2MB in RAM, and all the difference in the world in speed.  The increased Wasted ROM (sorta a misnomer as far as I am concerned, its more of Free ROM) increases dbcache performance

As a side affect, that handquake and I both have noticed was an increase in output volume.

obviously if your Treo is completely clean, then it'll be real fast. as i tested after a Hard Reset 

My treo was not clean for my testing prior to converting, nor clean afterwards, but loaded with all my apps.  I run quite a few apps and multiple relational dBases.  I use it to maintain good size inventory, make sales, numerous reports and dBase sync to PC for Taxes, inventory control, sales records, travel expenses, and multiple sets of financial records.  Plus many more functions.

[sdgandhi]

Both, I haven't had a reset or lost preferences since doing this.  You really don't waste much space if you re-partition and convert some of that free ROM to Free RAM.

To me, stability/ performance was my primary reason for doing a custom ROM.  From the developer and threads from other sites, this was my primary reason.  Various threads I found discussed these issues.

My speed has increased dramatically, as I said earlier, it's a HUMMER !!!


As the developer of ROMTool says:


I also have the same app that I had before in RAM, I gained 1MB of Free ROM and 2MB in RAM, and all the difference in the world in speed.  The increased Wasted ROM (sorta a misnomer as far as I am concerned, its more of Free ROM) increases dbcache performance

As a side affect, that handquake and I both have noticed was an increase in output volume.


My treo was not clean for my testing prior to converting, nor clean afterwards, but loaded with all my apps.  I run quite a few apps and multiple relational dBases.  I use it to maintain good size inventory, make sales, numerous reports and dBase sync to PC for Taxes, inventory control, sales records, travel expenses, and multiple sets of financial records.  Plus many more functions.

So finally what have you done hpspinger? moved your apps to Rom or made a small partition and kept apps in Ram? I moved most of my apps to Rom and gained add ram of 4M while I dont see much diff in perfomance though bit more speed I think because of Fat32.


Also there are many *.tmp, *.a68k and Pacer*.* files in the Rom what are those ad are they safe to delete ??

[jamesgangut]

So finally what have you done moved your apps to Rom or made a small partition and kept apps in Ram?

Also there are many *.tmp, *.a68k and Pacer*.* files in the Rom what are those ad are they safe to delete ??

Better to have smaller partition with apps in ram. .tmp files ok to delete.

[AllGamer]

How do you make a ROM partition size smaller?

maybe that is the part i'm missing

before i started this whole thing, i removed all the stuff i didn;t want in ROM, and just re-uploaded the new Clean ROM

but i never gained any free RAM space back.

i still had that Wasted 2.5+ Mb of space free in ROM that was unused.

so how to i switch that 2.5 MB of ROM space back to RAM ? 

[hllywd]

First of al GREAT TOOL.
Scared the stuffing out of me, but it was easy.

Does anybody know will Launcher X and Datebook 5 work in ROM after deleting the original launcher and calendar apps?

Thanks

KEEP ON ROCKIN

[jamesgangut]

How do you make a ROM partition size smaller?

maybe that is the part i'm missing

before i started this whole thing, i removed all the stuff i didn;t want in ROM, and just re-uploaded the new Clean ROM

but i never gained any free RAM space back.

i still had that Wasted 2.5+ Mb of space free in ROM that was unused.

so how to i switch that 2.5 MB of ROM space back to RAM ? 

Here is a link to check:
http://discussion.treocentral.com/showthread.php?t=107666

The 1.20 update has a 8.4MB ROM partition. If you use a romupdater that creates a 7.1MB partiton you have regained 1.3MB of the wasted space for storage.

[jamesgangut]

First of al GREAT TOOL.
Scared the stuffing out of me, but it was easy.

Does anybody know will Launcher X and Datebook 5 work in ROM after deleting the original launcher and calendar apps?

Thanks

KEEP ON ROCKIN

They will both work from ROM, I have left the original Launcher in ROM however. DateBk5 that questions is still being debated as far as removing the orginal programs.

[hpspringer]

So finally what have you done hpspinger? moved your apps to Rom or made a small partition and kept apps in Ram? I moved most of my apps to Rom and gained add ram of 4M while I dont see much diff in perfomance though bit more speed I think because of Fat32.

I ended up with:

          Partitioned to 7.1
         Custom 1.20 ROM
ROM Size       11,862,016
RAM Size       20,971,520
Free RAM           24,276,992
Largest ROM Size      7,136,768
Current ROM Size      5,555,198
Wasted Space          1,581,570
DBCache Size          15,269,616
DBCache Free          10,735,560
DBCache Max          10,717,720

Free RAM       24,276,992

and only FileZ and Soft_Reset added to ROM

Here is a link to check:
http://discussion.treocentral.com/showthread.php?t=107666

The 1.20 update has a 8.4MB ROM partition. If you use a romupdater that creates a 7.1MB partiton you have regained 1.3MB of the wasted space for storage.

Exactly what I did from your thread James, brought the ROM size down to 5.5MB and used your 7.1 ROM Updater to change the Partition size

Also another excellent Thread James started Over there

They will both work from ROM, I have left the original Launcher in ROM however. DateBk5 that questions is still being debated as far as removing the orginal programs.

I should mention, I tried to run ZLauncher in ROM after deleting the Palm Launcher files and found that ZLauncher would not refresh newly installed apps or shortcuts to Card items without the Palm Launcher files.