New Associate Writer, bringing the goods

Hi all - I'm jumping into the AW crew and I wanted to bring some good stuff in the door with me. My name is Leigh, and I'm in Denver, CO.

For anyone who has dabbled with custom ROMs on their Treo, the name shadowmite is very familiar - as is his ROM Tool. Well, I've fallen victim to the custom ROM addiction and I've discovered a great new tool. Apologies to Mac users - as of today this app is Windows-only.

Over at www.grack.com, you'll find a new ROM Tool that accesses the Treo's boot loader and allows a much more efficient ROM modification procedure. Here's a quick and dirty how-to from my very recent experience:

***DISCLAIMER: CREATING CUSTOM ROMS IS A POTENTIALLY VERY DANGEROUS PROCESS AND IS NOT SUPPORTED BY, WELL, ANYONE - LEAST OF ALL ME OR PALMADDICTS. THERE IS A CHANCE YOU WILL DESTROY YOUR PHONE - PROCEED WITH CAUTION AND READ EVERYTHING YOU CAN FIND BEFORE YOU GET STARTED***

1. Download the tool (version 0.9.4 is the most recent as of this writing) and extract all contents into a directory.



2. Extract all contents from the treo-driver.zip archive into the same directory.
   
   
3. Plug the Treo into the hotsync cable.
   
   
4. While holding down the hotsync button, perform a soft reset (insert the stylus into the reset hole next to the battery, and under the battery cover). This gets you into a rainbow screen that is the boot loader.
   
   
5. Windows will recognize new hardware - point it to the Treo drivers extracted into the ROM Tool directory.
   
   
6. Once the Treo is recognized, start up the ROM Tool app. It takes a while to get info from the phone.
   
   
7. My first step, once I had access to the ROM, was to download the entire stock ROM image into a directory (not a zip file, as you have the option of doing, and which users of shadowmite's tool are familiar with).
   
   
8. Then, I duplicated that directory, named the original STOCK ROM, and started making my changes in the dupe directory (which I named MOD ROM).
   
   
9. I made whatever modifications I needed. I typically remove extra language files, the Palm Tutorial (I've got the basics figured out by now ;-) ), and Real because I just don't like it. (though you should really search the hot forums like TreoCentral and MyTreo for show stopper details on what can come out and what should stay in).
   
   
10. Then, I went back to the ROM Tool, chose the Upload ROM tab, pointed it to the MOD ROM directory and let 'er rip. Upload is A LOT faster than download - boot loader limitations, I guess.

I've had no problems with custom ROMs, despite my stern warning at the outset. I am very careful, however, to always have a backup plan and to read absolutely everything I can find before I go tinkering with my Treo's innards.

Big thanks to Sammy for inviting me in as an Associate Writer.