This thread is probably inherently on thin ice, but...direct system file modification

**TheAngelOfElysium** · 04/03/2011, 03:07 AM

Alrighty, time to do something that's probably going to b0rk my device.

Two questions.

First one: If I were to want to modify the system files on my own device (i.e. the system images) for my own personal use (huge emphasis on that, since I'm quite sure that distributing that is a huge no-no), because I like to customize things quite a bit, would that be kosher in general? If yes, proceed to question 2. If no, lock this thread.

Question 2: How would I go about editing the files? I've had a bit of a dig through my device, and I'm seeing a lot of files with seemingly random names beginning and ending with = in ~/.palm/. I've tried opening them in notepad, but to no avail. Assuming these are the files I'm after, how would I go about prying through them?

Thanks for reading, and I hope to get an answer, one way or the other.

**mamouton** · 04/03/2011, 03:10 AM

The safest way to modify system files is to make a patch so it can easily be reverted. What files are you trying to change?

**TheAngelOfElysium** · 04/03/2011, 03:31 AM

Originally Posted by mamouton

The safest way to modify system files is to make a patch so it can easily be reverted. What files are you trying to change?

System images, really. Maybe even a few metrics if I'm feeling really ballsy. I know patches are the safest way to do this, but with the limited range of patches for 2.1, I'd like to see if I can dig in and get my hands really dirty.

**sketch42** · 04/03/2011, 03:35 AM

Originally Posted by TheAngelOfElysium

System images, really. Maybe even a few metrics if I'm feeling really ballsy. I know patches are the safest way to do this, but with the limited range of patches for 2.1, I'd like to see if I can dig in and get my hands really dirty.

You mean like decompiling the launcher? I dont think anyone will help there..

-- Sent from my Palm Pre using Forums

**TheAngelOfElysium** · 04/03/2011, 03:41 AM

Originally Posted by sketch42

You mean like decompiling the launcher? I dont think anyone will help there..

-- Sent from my Palm Pre using Forums

Oh, nothing seriously ridiculous. I'm mostly curious about how the system files actually work, but I exercise my curiosity by messing with it. Odd, I know. All I'd probably get up to is maybe...moving the launcher icon to the centre of the screen, or...changing the 3G icon to the AT&T logo or something stupid like that. I dunno, I'll think of something.

**johncc** · 04/03/2011, 05:01 AM

If you need to ask, maybe you shouldn't be doing it. You can edit Javascript with relative ease using Internalz. I'd stay away from non-text files. Having said that, the webOS Doctor is always waiting to come to the rescue.

**Loiter** · 04/03/2011, 08:07 AM

Why don't you try with the emulator? In that order if you fail you will just start from the beginning and not throw you phone out of the window.

**malpha** · 04/03/2011, 12:43 PM

You can look through the entirety of webOS files through the webOS doctor. Open it with an archive manager, go to resources/webOS.tar and unpack that to get the nova-cust-image-whatever.rootfs.tar.gz file. All the files are there.

Then if you download the emulator, any file you modify there you can send to the emulator via WOSQI and play around all you want.

**elpollodiablo1** · 04/03/2011, 01:15 PM

go check out Main Page - WebOS Internals they have tons and tons of information about the inner workings of WebOS. The main thing to do is to either go through the DR. or Emulator and edit there for testing as the people above described.

Just so you know WebOS is very open. Palm/HP do have a few proprietary things on the devices but the majority of the OS is open for you to hack away at and customize without getting in trouble. You will run into some limitations because the launcher is compiled code in version 2.x and up. so you cant really do much there, but you should have access to almost everywhere else since it is just javascript.

**TheAngelOfElysium** · 04/03/2011, 03:42 PM

Thank you guys very much for the information! I'll get straight to work.

Now, just to clarify. It's okay to modify the doctor/system files, but it is not kosher to distribute it. Correct?

**Psychonaut** · 04/03/2011, 04:55 PM

Originally Posted by TheAngelOfElysium

Thank you guys very much for the information! I'll get straight to work.

Now, just to clarify. It's okay to modify the doctor/system files, but it is not kosher to distribute it. Correct?

correct sir. Although you can talk about what you did, the result and provide instructions.

**TheAngelOfElysium** · 04/03/2011, 05:46 PM

Originally Posted by Psychonaut

correct sir. Although you can talk about what you did, the result and provide instructions.

Wonderful. About talking about it/providing instructions, are screenshots acceptable?

**TheAngelOfElysium** · 04/03/2011, 05:56 PM

Okay! Time to doctor! I'll post up the results!

UPDATE! So I've been letting the Doctor do its thing for a while, and it's still jammed at 1%. It's not hanging or anything, it's just not doing anything. Meanwhile, my Pre2, while starting out with the USB logo, now displays the static HP logo.

Any ideas?

**bevcraw** · 04/03/2011, 06:38 PM

Webosinternals provides some information on what is happening during the webos doctor process:

How To Recover - WebOS Internals

**TheAngelOfElysium** · 04/03/2011, 06:55 PM

Mkay, so I pulled the plug and rebooted the phone, and nothing happened. It booted back into WebOS 2.1 absolutely unmodified, right down to my wallpaper and patches.

I'll see if running the Doctor again fixes it.

UPDATE! Okay, so what I eventually ended up doing was to load the images up onto the USB partition, use Internalz to move them into place, then reboot the phone. It worked! No doctoring required!

**THL** · 04/04/2011, 04:08 AM

Originally Posted by TheAngelOfElysium

UPDATE! Okay, so what I eventually ended up doing was to load the images up onto the USB partition, use Internalz to move them into place, then reboot the phone. It worked! No doctoring required!

Man, when you said you were feeling ballsy, you weren't lying.

**TheAngelOfElysium** · 04/04/2011, 05:22 AM

Hahaha, well, I dunno about ballsy, but it was certainly time-consuming. JR should allow us to select multiple files at once D: Instead of each file, one at a time. I've got the path stuck in my head: /usr/lib/luna/luna-systemui/images. I had to move a ton of images there one-by-one.

**Jason Robitaille** · 04/04/2011, 05:38 AM

Just for clarification, it's "Internalz Pro" that allows full-system access. Regular "Internalz" is on the App Catalog and is limited to /media/internal/ (aka USB Drive). Heh, I don't want people buying Internalz when they meantto get Internalz Pro; could lead to bad reviews, heh.

Originally Posted by TheAngelOfElysium

Hahaha, well, I dunno about ballsy, but it was certainly time-consuming. JR should allow us to select multiple files at once D: Instead of each file, one at a time. I've got the path stuck in my head: /usr/lib/luna/luna-systemui/images. I had to move a ton of images there one-by-one.

Also, multiple file selection for move/copy/delete is planned for a future version

I'm thinking of have orange+tap to select multiple files

**TheAngelOfElysium** · 04/04/2011, 04:41 PM

Originally Posted by Jason Robitaille

Also, multiple file selection for move/copy/delete is planned for a future version

I'm thinking of have orange+tap to select multiple files

Jason, I love you. Have I ever told you that?

**sketch42** · 04/04/2011, 05:24 PM

Originally Posted by TheAngelOfElysium

Jason, I love you. Have I ever told you that?

Hey.. I thought you loved me !

-- Sent from my Palm Pre using Forums

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