Despite holding a non-development responsibility in my IT professional job, I still have a soft spot for software programming, and therefore, I have been developing software during my free time, and some of them were showcased in my own blog

The year of 2010, is a new era for me, as I have “progressed” beyond software development, and ventured into Windows Mobile operating system image development, or better known as “ROM cooking”, and greatly helped by the availability of easy-to-use tools.

dZenkinZ © Merlion Leo is my first attempt of the ROM building venture, for HTC HD2 Leo. The primary objective of the effort is to have a customized ROM based on my personal needs, with the emphasis on striking a balance between performance and nice user interface. So you may find that some of the included/excluded features not something you would expect of a “public ROM”. Nevertheless, recognising that this is probably the first Leo ROM that’s based on WWE (WorldWide Edition, i.e. English ROM) with Simplified Chinese display & input support, I have decided to share my work with you so that this provides an alternative to rest of the ROMS out in xda-developers.

And why Merlion as the name of my ROM? Since this is possibly the first made-in-Singapore Leo ROM, and Merlion is a well recognised icon for Singapore, I thought why not? It surely beats using some other geeky or cheesy name, isn’t it?

If you like to use my ROM, you can head over to xda-developers for the download link and discussion.

Unfortunately, the procedure to flash a custom ROM can be a nervy experience, even for an IT-trained individual. While  the actual flashing process will take no more than 10 minutes, one might get lost just by reading through the documentation of the procedure.

So here’s an attempt to do a video blog of the flashing process, to compliment  the detailed documentation created by the developers in xda-developers forum. In this video blog, I’ll be flashing custom ROM using USPL, instead of Hard-SPL method. Read here to know more about USPL versus Hard-SPL. For me, USPL is the least intrusive method, and I can flash stock ROM to my device anytime straight away without any additional procedure.

Files you need to download

First thing first, you need to ensure you have the following files downloaded;

1. Stock SPL for Blackstone (version 1.54)
2. HSPL Wrapper for Blackstone (version 1.56)
3. USPL (version 2.5)
4. A 1.56+ based ROM (I use Dutty’s XT 3.9 ROM)
5. RUU Wrapper for Blackstone (if you download Dutty’s XT ROM, this RUU wrapper is provided in the zip file)

Unzip each of the downloaded files, and organised them under a central folder, e.g. “Touch-HD-Rom-Stuff”, for easy access.

Key Steps required to flash the custom ROM

1. Back up your phone. I strongly recommend that you just back up your data instead of backing up your programs and their settings. Going with the latter might introduce system conflicts when you restore everything back to the new ROM. If you just need to back up your PIM data (i.e. your appointments, text message, contacts, etc), my personal preference would be PIM Backup.

2. Put your phone into bootloader mode. With your phone in power off mode, depressed the volume-down button and power button simultaneously, and you should see the device boot up with a tri-colour screen like the one shown below.  (note: if for some reason you want to exit this step without any further flashing, just take out the battery and put it back to restart)

Touch HD at Bootloader mode

3. Update your phone’s SPL to stock SPL version 1.54. You can skip this step if your bootloader screen shows that you are already on version 1.54 (or above). The video below shows how you can upgrade your phone’s stock SPL to version 1.54. In the video, you would see that I will put my phone in USPL mode first. According to xda-developers, there is not need to put your phone in USPL mode first and you can upgrade the SPL directly (i.e. skip step 3a).  In some circumstances (e.g. if you have accidentally carried out step 4 before step 3) you may need to perform step 3a first prior to flashing stock spl. If you are not sure, just carry out step 3a since it is a very straight forward step;

(a) With your phone connected to your PC via USB cable, open up a command window and run the command “blac_uspl.exe“. This will put your phone in USPL mode. If you are not successful in getting your phone into USPL mode, please refer to this link to update your USB driver.

(b) Run the HSPL Wrapper by double-clicking the program HSPLWrapper_Blackstone_1560OliNex.exe. Do not click on anything when the window pops up

(c) Copy the stock SPL image RUU_Signed.nbh to the folder where HSPL Wrapper resides. Choose to overwrite the file if you are prompted.

(d) Continue the steps as advised by HSPL Wrapper Window, to complete the flashing of stock SPL version 1.54 into your phone.

4. Upgrade your phone with a 1.56+ based custom ROM. In this example, I use Dutty’s XT version 3.9, which is also based on stock ROM 1.56. You need to put your phone back in bootloader mode again, as the SPL upgrade you have carried out in step 3 would reboot your phone into Windows Mobile operating environment. Repeat step 3a to put your phone into USPL mode. Once your phone is in USPL mode, then run the executable BlackstoneRUUWrapper.exe. Follow the steps as advised by the RUU (Rom Update Utility) window, and in less than 10 minutes you should see a successful flash of the custom ROM image into your phone! The video below illustrates the entire flashing procedure.

Note: If you are not successful in getting your phone into USPL mode, please refer to this link to update your USB driver.

Firstly, of course it’s the new calendar applet I have released over the weekend. Not exactly an “official” release, but more of a release candidate, so that I can validate the applet’s device compatibility especially with non wide vga devices.

There’s a breakthrough in this major version release, as I have built an external program to query the PIM database in Windows Mobile, so that I can display the busy status for each day in the calendar’s month view. While this is possible in PointUI scripting engine, but it’ll result in a big performance hit. Since this is the first time I have ventured into POOM (pocket outlook object model) , I thought it was a personal breakthrough for me as well

Anyway, it’s a near but not a finished product yet, you can find more information about the applet and its development from this thread

Then, the weekend started brilliantly with the boys (my nephews) participating a half day 5-a-side soccer tournament, organised by their soccer coaching school, and held at Tampinese SAFRA club. It was scorching hot and I admire the boys perserverance  to withstand the heat to compete in this tournament. Before the game, we had a casual bet with Ray that he would have to score 6 goals, since he scored the only goal in the last tournament, which unfortunately was an own goal. Kang had a jibe on the bet, saying that it’ll be a 6 own goals. Eventually, Ray bagged 7 goals, in 6 games, helping his team to win the cup final. And no, they are all well taken shots, not own goals! Arguably the top goal scorer in his age group (under-8), and certainly he had grown alot  from footballing perspective, as evident from his performance in his games. Inspite of his achievement, Ray was not over the top, and instead gave credits to Kang, for shaping him to be such a prolific goal poacher! Kang did well too, scoring two goals, and a couple of assists which landed his team a plate champion. The boys however, were disappointed of the lack of trophies, as the organiser decided to pack candies as prizes to the cup winners! What a bummer!

Then I had the chance to meddle with the PSP firmware. It all started when Kang’s PSP firmware had upgraded to official firmware accidentally, and it means he couldn’t play the games he used to be able to play. I tried to have a go on upgrading his psp, and it turns out, as I have realised from reading the internet forums, that I need to have a “pandora” battery along with the custom firmware installers in the memory stick. The latter isn’t a problem, it’s the “pandora” battery that’s a breaker. Apparently, the battery has a function to instruct PSP to boot from the device’s ROM, where the official firmware is contained. In order to overwrite the original firmware, the PSP needs to boot from the memory card, and the only way to do so is to use the pandora battery so that it can instruct PSP to boot appropiately. The difference, in terms of hardware design, between a “pandora” battery, and normal PSP battery, is that the pin #5 in the battery circuit, is de-soldered (or removed) so that the instruction (to boot from the device ROM) is by-passed. 

In the end, it wasn’t a fruitless attempt, as I have upgraded yeez’s PSP (as she already had the custom firmware installed). Certainly there’s a feel good factor, although I’m going to experiment with the “pandora” battery later