Guide to Modding your A1200
motomaniacs:
REPOST FROM MOTOROLAFANS
Guide to Modding your A1200
Last Updated: July 2007
This write-up explains how to perform most of the main modifications that forum members like to make to their A1200's.
It was created by combining and summarizing the information provided in the dozens of threads on this forum and then rewriting it as easy-to-follow steps that new users can print off and have all the information that they need in one place to (hopefully) easily and successfully perform the mod. It does not attempt to describe everything you can do with this phone, but covers the following topics:
A1. What are rar files and how do I use them?
A2. How do I copy files to my phone?
B. What is MPKG and LINLoader and how do I install them?
C. How to install programs and games?
D. How to Change an Application's Permissions
E. How to change shortcuts 1 and 2 on the bottom of the Home Page (to something different than web browser and video)
F. How to install themes and skins to change the way the screens look?
G. How to increase the volume of the phone
H. How to turn off the camera "shutter" sound
I. How to change the fonts on your phone
J. How to enable Edge
K. How to Change an App's Icon and/or Name
L. How to Telnet to your PC
M. How to Seem Edit
• There are often different methods described for installing a program described on different threads (eg for installing linloader) - and different versions of the programs. Part of this is because programs often have to be installed differently on the A1200 than other Motorola phones - but this was only discovered through trial and error - so some of the methods described in the threads are out of date. In other cases, what works for one version of the firmware does not work for another - but it is often not clear which works on what. This writeup describes the most straightforward method that worked on my phone (with firmware bint .08p). If you follow this method and it does not seem to work then review the relevant thread and try one of the other methods or try to download a different version of the program.
• Most of the software mentioned here can be found in the Downloads sticky. If it is not there, then you should be able to easily find it by doing a search in the threads. You get to the Search screen by clicking on the "Search" Link at the top of the forum (just above the word "A1200" in large letters). Once on the search screen type "A1200" and the name of the file you are looking for and click on the "Search for all terms" radio button.
• If you do not understand something here or have any problems then each section has the thread(s) listed where you can go to get more information.
motomaniacs:
A. GETTING STARTED
All you need to perform any of the modifications described in this writeup are the following:
• a Motorola A1200 (aka Ming) with a MicroSD memory card (= Transflash card) installed in order to copy files to your phone.
• a Windows PC with at least 1 free USB port (If you have a Mac, then read http://mac.themotoguide.com/index.php )
• a Motorola USB data cable that plugs into the mini USB port on the bottom right of your phone and the USB port on your PC
• Motorola Phone Tools (MPT) installed on your PC - this is a program that should have come on the CD that came with your phone and should be used to back up the data on your phone (contacts, calendar, etc) before attempting any of these mods.
Rar Files
Most of the files uploaded on this forum are "rar" files. These are compressed files (similar to zip files) making them smaller to download. You need to install a program that can "unrar" them before you can use them. UnzipThemAll and 7-zip are two free programs that can unrar files. (Other users use Winrar though several users have reported problems installing files unrared with this program).
To use a rar file, you download it, then use the tool to unrar it before copying the uncompressed file(s) to the SD card in your phone.
How to Copy Files To/From Your Phone
On the A1200, go to Application Launcher-->Setup-->USB Mode and ensure that “Mass Storage” is selected
Plug in the cable that connects the phone to the USB port on your PC.
Open Windows Explorer and ensure that you have “Show hidden files and folders” turned on in Explorer (Tools-->Folder Options-->View-->Show hidden files and folders)
You can now use Explorer to view the folders on your SD card on the phone. The SD card will probably be drive E: or F:. The root folder of this SD card shows directly under the Drive in Explorer – but its full path is /mmc/mmca1/ (i.e. if you copy something to the root you are copying it to /mmc/mmca1/).
You should see a folder called .system under root. If you do not see it then check you have “Show hidden files” on (see 3 above). You are only able to view/edit files on the SD card – this method does not permit you to view/edit files directly on the phone (which is why you need installer programs like MPKG and linloader to install programs on your phone).
You can now copy/cut and paste files to and from your PC to the folders on your SD card.
Unplug the phone when done. (Before unplugging, you should always use the unplug or eject hardware facility. This will ensure integrity of the filesystem on the transflash card).
Wait a couple of seconds then you can then use File Manager under Application Launcher on your phone to view these files.
B. MPKG AND LINLOADER
Before you can install many programs on your phone you will first need to install the following 2 pieces of software that will permit you to install other software.
MPKG - a package installer that will allow you to install executable app packages of type **.pkg (similarly to a java app installer). Once MPKG installer is installed you can copy files of type *.pkg to the root folder of your SD card, then install them by opening the File Manager application on the phone, go to the system folder, tap and hold the stylus on the *.pkg file and a small menu should pop up. Choose 'open with' and then choose the "MPKG" app. This will install the app and let you see it and run it from the phones Application Launcher
Linloader - this is a program used to run shell scripts. Most of these scripts have the extension **.lin. Once linloader is installed these shell scripts are run by opening the File Manager application on the phone, go to the folder where you have the shell script you want to run, click and hold, choose 'open with' and then choose the "loader" app.
How to Install MPKG
Get the MPKG Installer “Mpkg_A1200.rar” file from here then do the following:
Unrar the file. You will see it consists of a folder called .system.
Plug in the phone, then use Windows Explorer to copy the entire old .system folder from the SD card to a safe place on your PC (so can recover if necessary). [If you can not see the .system file then you do not have “View hidden files” on].
Copy the entire .system folder from the rar file to replace the one on your SD card.
Unplug the phone from the PC and restart it. You should see a MPKG icon under Application Launcher on your phone.
You NEVER run this program directly by clicking it - rather you open other files that have an extension of *.pkg by holding the stylus on those files until a small menu displays. Select “Open With” and select MPKG. You should hear a bell indicating the program has loaded.
[If you have already installed some programs on your SD card before installing MPKG then you should uninstall then before doing the above otherwise you will not be able to access them anymore (phone doesn't find them). You can reinstall them when complete]
It has been verified that this method works for the following firmware:
• .08p
• .08p plus
• .53p
• .59p
It is not thought to work if you have 44p or 25p.
If when you install MPKG, and then you copy a xxxx.pkg file to your phone and try to open it wiht MPKG, but get the error message "Invalid application" - then it did not install properly. Try the other install method listed below.
How to Install Linloader
This is the program that users have the most problems getting to install correctly - which may have to do with the version of firmware running on the phone. As a result there are several different methods for installing it described in the threads - as well as different versions of the mpkg and linloader download file that people say to use. The method I described work for me (on Bint 08p plus). An alternate method is also described.
MPKG must be installed first as you need mpkg to install linloader.
Download the loader_A1200.pkg file from here
Copy the file to the root folder of your SD card (Make sure extension says .pkg - not .mpkg)
Unplug the phone from the PC then use the phone's File Manager to find the file.
Hold the stylus on the file until a small menu displays. Select “Open With” and choose MPKG. You should hear a bell indicating the program has loaded.
Turn the phone off and on and you should see a Loader icon (a yellow smiley) appearing under Application Launcher.
Alternate Method
This method seems to work if you have generic 08p.
Try a different MPKG installer - download the MKPG installer attached in topic "Yan's mkpg and linloader.mkpg installer"
Follow the instruction given above to install it.
There is a modified mkpg.lin file attached in topic "Volume Increase". Copy that file and overwrite the mkpg.lin on your phone which is from yan's mkpg installer. (Not sure this step is necessary - but can not hurt!!)
Download the LinLoader.mkpg attached in topic "Yan's mkpg and linloader installer".
Rename LinLoader.mkpg to LinLoader.pkg before copying it to your SD card.
Follow steps 3-5 as above
If you can still not get it to work then see the full discussion on LINLOADER and the issues that users have encountered - see http://www.motorolafans.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4623&start=0 and http://www.motorolafans.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7776.
April 2007: If you can not get the above to work then check out this thread that describes Bint's superman app that includes both MPKG and LinLoader as part of its functions.
motomaniacs:
C. HOW TO INSTALL APPLICATIONS AND GAMES
Installing java/j2me apps
The A1200 should run most j2me java midlets (=apps). These are files with *.jad or *.jar extensions. These apps are not run by the native OS (linux), but rather by a java virtual machine which Motorola customizes to restrict access to the OS, filesystem, internet connections etc. - which is why many of them can not read or write to files.
Difference between jar and jad: The jar file contains the actual code, textures, etc for the java app while the jad file is a text file which contains some additional info about the app, ie version, size etc. Some phones require you to always copy both of these files to your phone and install the app using the jad file. The A1200 can install apps by just having the *jar file - however, if an application has both (jad and jar) it is better to copy both files to your phone and install using the jad file as it may contain some information (such as directory locations) needed to make the app work correctly.
To install a jar or jad file, do the following:
1. Copy the file(s) to a folder on the SD card. The folder can be called anything (eg "My Downloads") .
2. Unplug the phone from the PC then find the file using the phone's File Manager
3. Simply click once on the jad/jar file to install it. A popup window will appear asking you whether to install the program on your phone or on the SD card and what category you want it to be listed under (Office, games, etc). You may get a popup stating that the application is an untrusted application - but if you got the file from Motorolafans then it is probably safe!
4. Once the application is installed the .jar and .jad files are automatically deleted
5. Turn the phone off and on then you should see the new program's icon under the Application Launcher.
For some apps that need to be able to read or write files to the phone or SD card, you need to change the applications permissions to get it to work correctly on the A1200. See the next section "How to Change an App's Permissions" on instructions on how to do this.
Installing pkg files
If the file extension is *.pkg then:
Copy the file to the root folder of the SD card.
Unplug the phone from the PC then find the file using the phone's File Manager
Hold the stylus on the file until the small menu displays. Select "Open With" and choose "MPKG". You should hear a bell indicating the program has loaded.
Turn the phone off and on and you should see the new program's icon under the Application Launcher
Notes:
• If a file has the extension of *.mpkg, you should rename it to *.pkg before trying to install it.
• Once the program has been installed, the mpkg file should be deleted or moved to another folder so that you do not accidentally click on it again.
motomaniacs:
D. HOW TO CHANGE AN APPLICATION'S PERMISSIONS
Many apps (=midlet) need to be able to read or write files to the phone's directories, however, the MID2.0 security model was designed so that only signed midlets are able to have unlimited access to potentially dangerous operations such as filesystem access, connection with internet, sending SMS etc. If a midlet is not signed, then access is disabled (which means that when you run the app you are not even shown a File Open" menu option). In order to get a signed midlet, the developer has had to have purchased a security certificate from Motorola, which many developers do not want to do (especially for free apps) - so if you install these midlets on the A1200 they will not appear to work properly.
However there is a way to overcome this. Every app has a registry.txt file associated with it that can be edited to give the app the needed permission. If you install an app and it is not able to open/read/write files correctly then try the following. Some apps that you need to do this for to get them working correctly are Quicknotes, Minipauker, Trekbuddy, cTunes and Anyview.
Edit May 2007: Forum user Dedraks has just written an app "Java Hacker" that will do all of the following for you automatically - so you can just install and run his app everytime you install a new program that needs its registry settings changed. Find it at http://www.motorolafans.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10949&highlight=java+hacker
But here are the manual instructions:
Copy the jar file to your phone
Tap on the file to install it and install it on the SD card (important!)
Plug the phone into the PC
Using windows explorer (USB Storage mode) navigate to \.system\java\DownloadApps\MIDletXXXX on your SD card where MIDletXXXX is the last directory in DownloadApps in alphabetic ascending order.
Make a copy of the file registry.tx (in case you need to recover original file)
Edit the file registry.txt with a editor compatible with unix (eg wordpad). Do not use MS Word or Notepad! (Be sure the file has a line saying: Jar-URL: appname.jar - if not, you are in the wrong directory)
Change the values to these ones
- DRM-Mode: Allowed
- Is-Trusted: 1
- Domain: Manufacturer
so that it looks like the code below.
Save the file and disconnect from PC
Go to the apps icon and hold the stylus until popup menu appears. Select Manage --> Change permission
Click OK (no need to change anything - that just forces new permissions to take effect)
The app should now be able to read and write files.
Code:
Jar-Path: /mmc/mmca1/.system/java/DownloadApps/MIDlet20006/Files/Minipauker.jar
Jad-Path: /mmc/mmca1/.system/java/DownloadApps/MIDlet20006/Files/Minipauker.jad
Perm-Path: /mmc/mmca1/.system/java/DownloadApps/MIDlet20006/permfile.txt
Suite-Icon: /mmc/mmca1/.system/java/DownloadApps/MIDlet20006/Files/MIDlet-1.png
DRM-Mode: Allowed
Is-Trusted: 1
Jar-URL: Minipauker.jar
Description:
Domain: Manufacturer
Signer-Name:
Mot-JavaVM-Heapsize: 0
Delete-Notify:
Num-MIDlets: 1
MIDlet-1: j2mesync, /mmc/mmca1/.system/java/DownloadApps/MIDlet20006/Files/MIDlet-1.png, de.ohli.Minipauker.Minipauker.
After this the app should be able to read/write files correctly.
motomaniacs:
HOW TO CHANGE SHORTCUTS 1 AND 2 ON THE HOME PAGE (TO SOMETHING DIFFERENT THAN WEB BROWSER AND VIDEO)
The A1200 only permits you to change the 3rd and 4th icons on the bottom of the Home screen. You can not change icons 1 and 2 from the default of web browser and video.
June 2007: The new C2 track of firmware (24p, 25p, 30p, etc) allows you to change all 4 shortcuts - so the following instructions only apply to the older non-C2 firmwares (53p, 8p, etc).
However there is a fairly simple mod that will allow you to do this. This mod obtains a copy of your current ezx_idle.cfg file (where the shortcut info is stored) from the /ezx_user/download/appwrite/setup directory on your phone and saves it so you can always restore it if necessary then shows you how to change the section of the file that controls the icons. (Note - it is not possible to change the ringer profile - the extreme left shortcut).
You will need the following 2 files that you can download from the download section to your PC:
get_ezx_idle.lin - Copies your current ezx_idle.cfg file from /ezx_user/download/appwrite/setup to the root folder of your SD card (i.e /mmc/mmca1/).
put_ezx_idle.lin - Copies your modifed ezx_idle.cfg file from the root directory of your SD card back to /ezx_user/download/appwrite/setup.
Once you have downloaded these files, follow these instructions:
Go to Setup --> Home Screen Setup and select in slots 3 and 4, the 2 shortcuts that you eventually want to have as shortcuts 1 and 2. (Doing it this way means you do not have to type anything - they will be moved over as part of this process).
Rename the 2 files that you downloaded to your PC :
get_ezx_idle.lin.txt ==> get_ezx_idle.lin
put_ezx_idle.lin.txt ==> put_ezx_idle.lin
Plug your phone into your PC with your USB cable and copy the 2 lin files that you downloaded to the root directory on your SD card.
Unplug the phone and touch the get_ezx_idle.lin icon (within file manager), select "open with" from the contextual menu and select "Loader".
You will know this has worked if the file "ezx_idle.cfg" appears in the root folder of your SD card. (Note - You will need to refresh the view by going to another folder then returning before the file can be seen).
Plug your phone back into PC again and copy the ezx_idle.cfg file to your PC so that you have a backup copy if anything goes wrong (you can simply copy it to a different directory on your SD card also).
Edit the ezx_idle.cfg file in the root directory of your SD card using an editor that supports unicode (Do NOT use notepad or MS Word). I found Wordpad worked for me. All you have to do is replace the 6 lines of code for shortcuts 1 and 2 with the 6 lines of code for shortcuts 3 and 4. I found the easiest way was to replace all 6 lines then change _3 to _1 and _4 to _2. Be careful that you do not add any extra blank lines or spaces.
i.e:
Code:
"shortcut_3 = 5af701f6-33e3-4fe6-b15e-b7ef7c986c74
shortcut_3_freeze = 0
shortcut_3_icon_name = web_access_std.g
shortcut_4 = 0b6c1459-2fbe-4b2e-95c9-a4f93762fa11
shortcut_4_freeze = 0
shortcut_4_icon_name = vid_camera_std.g"
Save the file and unplug the phone from the PC.
Touch the put_ezx_idle.lin icon (within file manager), select "open with" from the contextual menu and select "Loader". If the ezx_idle.cfg file disappears from the root directory (after refreshing the view) the program has worked.
Turn your phone off and on and you'll see your new icons on the Home screen. Shortcuts 1 and 2 should be the same as shortcuts 3 and 4. You can then go into Setup --> Home Screen Setup and change shortcuts 3 and 4 to something else so they are all different.
What to do if something goes wrong!!
The first time I did this I left some extra spaces in the ezx_idle.cfg file and as a result my phone had no shortcuts!! This is easy to fix. Simply:
Plug your phone back in to the pc
Copy the backup copy of your original ezx_idle.cfg file back to the root directory on the SD card
Rerun put_ezx_idle.lin to restore your original ezx_idle.cfg. Turn your phone off and on and your icons should be back. Then you can try editing your ezx_idle.cfg again.
Once you have the process working, it only takes a couple of minutes to change these shortcuts at any time.[/li]
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