Moto Hell - The Motorola Modding Community

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phones - but this was only discovered through trial and error - so some of the methods described in the threads are out of date.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.

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.

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.

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.


After this the app should be able to read/write files correctly.

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:
  
  

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]

F. HOW TO CHANGE SKINS AND THEMES

1. What are Skins and Themes?

On the A1200, “skin” means
• all display icons
• all GUI components like buttons, status bar, scrollbar, etc.

while “theme” means
• the poweron/poweroff animation screen (by default usually the Motorola startup)
• the wallpaper.

Skins and Themes can be changed separately.

The skin configuration data is stored in a file called ezx_skins.cfg while the theme configuration data is in a file called ezx_theme.cfg. Both of these are located in the /ezx_user/download/appwrite/setup folder within the phone’s folder structure (so is not directly accessible unless you install a program like telnet).

===========================================================================================
 CAUTION

Changing themes and skins is one of the most common means that users kill their phones. You must not change themes and skins simply by installing them using linloader or else you run the risk of freezing your phone. (This is different from previous Motorola phones where you could simply install additional themes). The reason is the limited space in the ezx_usr folder. If it fills up the memory it will not leave enough space and will freeze the phone when you reboot.

The following 2 situations can cause this to occur:

• if a skin or theme is added to ezx_usr and does not leave sufficient free memory
• you get an error during theme installation, then you try to select that partially installed theme and then reboot the phone

If your phone has crashed then the phone will hang on turning it on - it will freeze on either the motorola screen or startup wall paper of theme. If you try to turn it off using the red power key, it will just beep and do nothing. The only way to turn it off is to take out the battery.

If this happens, first try to take out the battery, wait a few minutes and then reinsert and turn back on. If it still freezes then the only solution is to flash your phone to restore it back to vanilla (This will also wipe out all your stuff including contacts/sms/files...everything on the phone!! – so make sure that you back these up using Motorola Phone Tools before trying any theme/skin changes. Even though the phone has frozen you will still be able to get it into boot mode (see section on flashing)

If you are not sure or have a firmware version that you can not recover then it is recommended that you do not change your phone’s skins or theme!
===========================================================================================

What Method do I Use to Change Skins/Themes

There are several ways described in the various threads to change themes/skins. Some seem to work for some people and not for others so it is hard to write a general set of instructions. Two of the methods that I tried are (1) using a skin/theme installer program written by eakrin; and (2) using the linloader script. I froze my phone twice just using the linloader method requiring me to reflash it (see caution above), but found that that Eakrins’ method only changed the status and scroller bar colors and did not change the Global Navigation Bar (GNB) icons at the top and the shortcut icons at the bottom.

After a lot of experimentation I found that using a combination of the two methods appears to be a successful (and safe!) way to install skins. At a high level you need to do the following (detailed instructions for each step follow):

• 1. Download the skin you want and install the skin using Eakrin’s Skin Installer program.

• 2.Turn the phone off and on

• 3. If only the status and scroll bar has changed, but not the icons, then use linloader to run that skin's lin file to complete the change

• 4. Turn the phone off and on and the skin should now be complete.

If you want to change the phone to another skin then use Eakrin's Skin Installer to install the next skin (which will delete the old skin). When you turn the file back on, you will notice the icons have returned to the grey default. It is now safe to use linloader to run the next skin's lin file. Using this method I have successfully changed over a dozen skins.

 NEVER RUN LINLOADER two times in a row without running Eakrin's skin installer against a *.pskn file first to clear out the old skin - otherwise you run the risk of filling up the memory and freezing the phone.

2. How to Install Eakrin’s Skin and Theme Installers

Eakrin’s program is a mpkg program that changes the phone to the selected skin or theme, by first deleting the old skin/theme before installing the new skin file into /ezx_user/download/skin and the theme file into /ezx_user/download/theme - so it does not fill up the memory.

• 1. Go to this thread on Installing Skins.

• 2. Download Eakrin’s skin installer and theme installer on page 1.

• 3. These are regular zip files so you will need to Unzip them before copying them to your phone.

• 4. Copy these files (A1200_skin_installer_0.2.pkg and A1200_theme_installer_0.2.pkg) to the root folder of your phone’s SD card as explained in the section “How to Copy Files to your Phone”

.

• 5. Install them using mpkg installer.

[/list]

2a. How to Change Your Phone’s Skin - Part 1

To change your skin perform the following steps:

• Select a skin that you like. See here and here for a huge selection.

(The one that I like is tlinux1 !)

 Even though many of the skins displayed in this forum and on the various skins websites are shown with Chinese characters - they will have your default language when installed - with some exceptions – if an icon has Chinese letters as part of the icon they will still be in Chinese; and the words for "Mobile"; "Home" and "Office" under Contacts stayed as Chinese characters – probably because these are also icons.

• Download the rar file to your pc.

• Unrar it – each skin should consist of a folder containing a number of skin and theme files:
  

eg:


It should also contain a lin file e.g. tlinux1.lin (Not all skin developers have included this in their skin package however)

• Create a folder called “themes” directly under the root on your SD card.

• Copy the entire skin folder under this themes folder on your SD card. e.g. e:\themes\tlinux1

• Copy the lin file directly under the themes folder (ie move it out of its skin folder)

eg :


 IMPORTANT: Make sure you do not have any spaces in any of the folder names (ie do NOT call it themes\fun skin\) This will prevent the programs from installing.

• For skin installation, use the phone's File Manager to find the *.pskn file in the skin folder. Hold the stylus on the file until the small menu appears. Select “Open with” and choose the Skin Installer. If it has worked you should hear a woman's voice saying “Installation complete”.

• Restart the phone to make new skin active.
  You should see the new skin installed. If only the status and scroll bar have changed then you will also need to do part 2b using linloader.

2b. How to Change Your Phone’s Skin - Part 2

• Always run Eakrins installer program against a *.pskn file prior to doing this to clear out any old skins.

• Create a new folder called "install" (without quotes) right under the themes\ folder on the SD card (ie themes\install) The .lin file copies some text file to this folder during installation

• Use Program Manager to find the skin's lin file and tap and hold the stylus on the file until the small menu appears. Select “Open with” and choose the loader program (It may take up to 10 seconds to complete - you should hear a set of beeps when done).

• Restart the phone and the icons should now have changed.

Note 1: On successful installation, you should see that three files 1) on.gif 2) off.gif 3) desk.jpg from choosen skin folder have been copied directly under the themes\ folder on SD card. This verifies that install worked correctly.

Note 2: You do not have to run the same skin's *.lin file as you installed with Eakrin's program. If you like the status/scroll bar to be one skin's style and the icons to be another skin's style then this works ok. (ie can install tlinux1 with Eakrin's installer then run LEE_blue.lin skin.)

2c. How to Change your Phone’s Theme

Changing your theme changes the animations displayed when you start and turn off your phone. Any theme can be used with any skin (or by itself). You change the theme by running a file with the *.phm extension.

Some skin packages already have this file (eg TLINUX.phm) - but if your package does not then it is very easy to create one as it consists of only three lines (see below). You can either copy this *.phm file from another skin package or create it new. Edit it using Wordpad (not Notepad) substituting in the names of the startup and shutdown gifs that you want to use on lines 2 and 3. Put this file in the same directory as the skin package with the gifs you want to use.

Example of a *.phm file (eg TLINUX1.phm)


Then run it as follows:

• Hold the stylus on the *.phm file until the small menu appears. Select “Open with” and choose the theme installer. If it has worked you should hear a voice saying “Installation complete”.

• Restart your phone to make new theme active.

3. How to restore back to default skin and theme.

The original skin can be set back to the default by going to Setting -->Scheme on the phone and changing it there. However this does not delete the additional skin. Instead the skin and theme installer should be used to remove the old skin and replace it back to the default. This is done as follows:

• Download the file with the A1200 default skin and theme from the same place as you found the Skin/theme installers.

• Do as the above for changing skins/themes

• Restart your phone to make default skin and theme active

.

G. HOW TO INCREASE THE VOLUME OF THE HEADSET AND SPEAKERPHONE

Many people find the level of the volume on the headset and the speaker phone too low. The following mod will fix this. You will need yan0’s MKPKG installed prior to doing this mod (see section B above).

Go to this thread and download the following 2 files from the first page of that thread and unrar them
• volumeup_v1.01.rar ==> (unrars to) ==> volumeup_v1.01.pkg
• mpkg.rar ==> (unrars to) ==> mpgk.lin

Now plug the phone into the PC and do the following steps:

• Go to the “.system” folder on the SD card

• Then go to the directory \QTDownLoad \mpkg\

• Rename the “mpkg.lin” that you should find in that directory to “mpkg.lin.bak”

• Copy the new mpkg.lin that you downloaded into .system\QTDownLoad\mpkg\ folder.

• Copy the volumeup_v1.01.pkg to the root directory of your SD card

• Unplug the phone.

• From Application Launcher-->File Manager locate the volumeup_v1.01.pkg file and install it (see section B on how to install pkg files). You should hear a tone after it installs correctly.

• Turn the phone off and on. When it come back on you will see a new icon called "VolumeUp" under Games in the Menu.

• Run this app by clicking on it and you should hear an increase in the volume.

Notes:

• You will need to rerun this app every time you turn the phone off and on - as the phone will reset to default volume when turned off. If you dont want the volume gain for whatever reason just restart your phone.

• Running this app will disable the menu screen click sounds (when you tap on something). No fix for this has been found.

• Running this app may cause the radio volume to go down. There is no fix for this at the moment. See thread for more detail.

If you are not satisfied with this volume gain, then go to the page 8 of the same thread and download the latest sound table file from Alpha. At the time of writing this was called "Alpha's jan07_ezx_volumetable.rar" .

Alpha's file tweaks the volumetable file to increase the volume slightly more and improve the sound quality. To use this file, do the following:

• Plug the phone into the PC

• Go to the root directory of the SD card

• You should see a new directory called volumeup\

• Copy ezx_volumetable.cfg to this directory

• Go the directory .system\QTDownLoad\ and you should see a new directory volumeup\

• Copy ezx_volumetable.cfg to this directory also
  [In other words copy ezx_volumetable.cfg to 2 places: the directory volumeup\ and the directory .system\QTDownLoad\volumeup]

• Unplug the phone.

• Turn the phone off and on.

Depending on your firmware you may or may not have to run the volumeup app. I found with Bint's .08p plus the volume was louder as soon as I turned on my phone and the menu screen clicks could be heard (and were loud). Starting the volume app turned the sound back down again. You may have to experiment how it works on your phone.


H. HOW TO TURN OFF THE CAMERA SOUND

Many people do not want the camera "click" sound when taking photos. There is a download file called A1200_nosound in the downloads section that will permit photos to be taken with no sound. Download it then follow these instructions (You will need MPKG installer installed on your phone)

• Unrar the file

• Copy the file to your SD card

• Unplug the phone; find the file using File Manager and install it using mpkg

.

• Turn your phone off and on and you should see a new icon in your Application Launcher of a speaker with the round circle with a bar through it. Click on this icon to turn the camera sound off.

One this is run the camera will no longer make a sound (even if you turn phone off and on). The only way to get sound back is if you actually go to the camera setup and choose a sound.

I. HOW TO CHANGE FONTS

Some users found that you can change the fonts on your A1200 fairly easily - so that they can be italic or Arial or anything you want. However this may not work on the generic firmwares such as .46p. For a detailed discussion plus lots of screen shots see here this thread.

A summary of the instructions is as follows:

• Download the file startup1.rar from the thread listed above to your PC.

• Unrar this file so you get startup1.txt (see section B of the writeup on how to do this)

.

• Copy this file to the root directory on your SD card

• On your PC, go to Control Panel --> Fonts and copy whatever fonts you want to try to the root directory on your SD card (eg verdana.ttf)

• Rename the font that you want to try to myfont.ttf

• Unplug phone from PC and turn it off and then back on. You should see the font has changed.

If it does not then this does not work on your firmware. You can change to a different font by renaming its file to myfont.ttf.

To return your phone to its default font, just delete either the script (startup.txt) or the myfont.ttf file and when you restart your phone it will be back to its original typeface.


J. HOW TO ENABLE EDGE

Thanks to a lot of detective work by Alpha43 and some other users on this forum it has recently been figured out how to turn on EDGE on the A1200 which permits much faster web browsing than the native GPRS. In order to turn on Edge you need to download the following two files from the first page of this thread.

• RadioComm_V_11[1].1.0.zip - RadioComm is Motorola's own phone service software that its technicians use.

• Edge.rar - script that you run via RadioComm that will automatically make the required changes

Then follow these instructions:

• Unrar "Edge.rar" and place file on desktop

• Unzip RadioComm file and install it on your PC.

• If you get the message that you have to install microsoft .net framework then cancel the install and go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&displaylang=en and download the .net work framwork and install it. Reboot PC and try to install RadioComm again.

• Start RadioComm. It will display a settings window. Enter MA = GSM and Settings = M-Link USB driver

• You should now see the main RadioComm panel. It should have a red "Radio Detection" button on the top right and you should see a Red square down in the taskbar icons area. When these turn green this indicates that the progam has detected the phone (radio) correctly.

• Now close down RadioComm.

• On your phone go to Setup --> USB mode and select "Modem".

• Connect your phone to PC via USB cable and start Radiocomm,

• Select connection mode as USB if the software asks for it.

• If your phone does not seem to be detected, go to Setup --> USB mode on the phone (while still plugged in) and select "USB Net". If still nothing, set back to "Modem".

• When your phone is detected for the first time, a prompt may appear asking to install drivers. Select Yes and install the driver. This wil be repeated about 20 times so be patient!

• You may have to reboot the system after all drivers are installed and restart RadioComm.

• You will know when it has detected the phone correctly when the Radio Detection button on the right turns green.

After you have got RadioComm working and detecting the phone, the rest is simple

• Look to the far right you will see a bunch of buttons, one of them is labelled 'setup button', click that.

• A window will pop-up, press the browse button and go to the location where you have unrar the EDGE.rar file, select EDGE.tcs file.

• Type in the label of the button something like 'Enable EDGE' or what ever you like, then click the button label 'SET'.

• When done close that window, now you should have a new button labeled the way you name it,

• Click on the button to run the script. A series of log results should be displayed in the big white window. The last one should say 'Complete"

• Now just exit RadioComm, unplug the phone and restart it.

If you have done it successfully you should see a "E" instead of a "G" in your Status Line. This of course assumes that Edge is available from your provider. If it is not you will still see the G.

E statuses:
E that is Green = connected and receiving data
E with a line under it = connected to an edge network
E with no line and not green = edge is available.

Radio Detection Colour Statuses Guide:

Red Circle: no radio is detected.
Blue Circle: radio detected ok and in Motorola USB Modem mode. (AT commands or QC test commands)
Green Circle: radio detected ok and in USB Composite Device mode. (Motorola P2K Test Commands)
Yellow Circle: radio is enumerated as a USB LAN device but the socket connection is not yet successful. (Motorola P2K or QC test commands in USB LAN mode)
Pink Circle: radio is enumerated as a USB LAN device and the socket connection was successful. (Motorola P2K or QC test commands in USB LAN mode)
Blue Circle: radio detected ok and in Motorola USB Modem mode. (AT commands or QC test commands)
Green Circle: radio detected ok and in USB Composite Device mode. (Motorola P2K Test Commands)
Yellow Circle: radio is enumerated as a USB LAN device but the socket connection is not yet successful. (Motorola P2K or QC test commands in USB LAN mode)
Pink Circle: radio is enumerated as a USB LAN device and the socket connection was successful. (Motorola P2K or QC test commands in USB LAN mode)

K. HOW TO CHANGE AN APP'S ICON AND NAME

As you install various java apps, you will notice that many of them have lousy icons or the name of the application on the Menu page may be in a foreign language. Here is what you can do to fix this:

How to Change an Application's Name

To do this will need to download and install the free utility 7-zip which permits you to open up the jar archive

• Once you have 7-zip installed on your PC, locate the jar file you want to rename and right mouse-click on it and select “Open Archive”

• This will show you the list of files inside the archive.

• Click on the META-INF folder and then select the single file in that folder, MANIFEST.MF, and copy it to your desktop.

• Right mouse click on the copied file and select “Open With” and select “Wordpad” (Important – do NOT use Notepad or MS Word).

• Edit the file. Look for the line "Midlet-Name" and type in the name that you want the app to be called.

• Save the file and then copy it back into the Archive.

• Close the Archive and respond “Yes” if 7-zip asks if you want to save your changes.

• Now install the *.jar file like you normally do and the name will be in English.

Note – if you already installed the app, then this will create a new icon with the new name. You will have to delete the old app.

You can also do the same thing with a PKG archive. It also can be opened with 7-zip. In this case you are looking for the file mpkgapp.desktop and edit the line “Name=”. Copy updated pkg file to phone and reinstall.

How To Change an Application's Icon.

To do this will need to download and install an icon editor. PhotoFilter is an excellent free one (download at www.photofiltre.free.fr)

The simplest way is to change the icon is to do it once the app is installed on your phone.

• Plug the phone into your PC in USB Mode so that the phone’s SD card is shown as a folder in Windows Explorer.

• Use Windows Explorer to navigate to .system --> java --> DownloadApps

• You will see a set of folders called \MIDletxxx where xxx is a set of numbers.( eg MIDlet2014). Each one of these folders is one of your installed java apps. The higher the number the more recent that app was installed.

• Do a Search on the application’s name to find the correct \MIDLETxxxx folder for that app.

• Navigate to that folder and open the folder \Files. You will see all the files that that applet uses.

• Locate the file suiteicon.png

• Copy this to your desktop

• If it does not exist then look for the file MIDlet-1.png and work with that instead. If neither exists then that app does not have an icon – it probably is displayed with a generic icon

.

• Open Photofiltre and open that file.

• Resize the image to 48 x 48**

• Resize the canvas (the space the image sits on) to 64 wide x 48 high (this keeps the icon from being stretched and gives some blank space next to it.).

• Make this extra bit of space on either side of the icon transparent (All of the buttons to do the last 3 commands are on the Photfiltre’s task bar).

• Save

• Copy back into folder on SD drive (Ensure it is the same CASE as before – Linux is case dependent. MIDlet-1.PNG is not the same as MIDlet-1.png)

• Unplug the phone and turn it off and on. The icon should look great.

You can of course completely change the icon for anything of your choice (or create a brand new one if the applet is missing an icon)

** You may want to play around with the size. If the icon started very large, you may lose some detail if you shrink it too much – but if it is too big then it appears huge in the “Open with” menu. Another size you may want to play with is 32 x 32 (Canvas 42 x 32)

L. HOW TO TELNET TO YOUR PC

Telnetting allows you to send files directly to your phone (as opposed to just the SD card).

The SSHD method works as described by Bragon on this thread.

Just a few tips:
• Bragon´s instructions supposed that you already had a Telnet or some console but in A1200i none of the approaches works (except using MKEZX). So you will need to make scripts to run the commands.
• Make a script to copy/merge the keys

There is more information on how to do that on this thread.

Note: the method described on this thread does NOT work on the A1200.


M. HOW TO "SEEM EDIT"

Seem editing permits you to change configuration settings directly on your phone. To learn how to "seem edit" - see the thread.

June 2007: Alpha43 has written a script that will automatically make the Voicemail and Network time seem edits. Running this script is a lot easier and faster than making the seem edits yourself. See this thread for the script plus instructions on how to use it.

List of Seem Edits

Some "Seem edits" that work on the A1200 (see FAQ sticky for a full description of the bugs fixed by these seem edits):

Launch Radiocomm and click on the GSM2 tab and insert the following Values Accordingly.

• Voice mail bug fix

Element ID:0032
record #:0001
offset: 0002
length:0001

Click on RDELEM
Change DATA to :8B or 8b ( Test which one works for you)
Click on STELEM
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Time Auto upate

Element ID:0032
record #:0001
offset: 0000
length:0001

Click on RDELEM
Change DATA read from $D6 to $D7
Click on STELEM

Element ID:0032
record #:0001
offset: 0055
length:0001

Click on RDELEM
Change DATA read from $68 to $6C
Click on STELEM
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Flip close seem edit works

Element ID:0032
record #:0001
offset: 008A
length:0001

Click on RDELEM
Change DATA read from $40 to $44
Click on STELEM
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Cingular ENS

Element ID:0032
record #:0001
offset: 008B
length:0001

Click on RDELEM
Change DATA read from $00 to $10
Click on STELEM
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Roam triangle remove

Element ID:0032
record #:0001
offset: 0034
length:0001

Click on RDELEM
Change DATA to: $20
Click on STELEM

*** Remember to Restart your phone after every seem edit so it can go into effect. ***

==============================================================================================
All of the information presented in this writeup was obtained from user's postings from the various threads on this forum. A best effort was made to ensure it is complete and accurate including performing all of the steps presented on my own phone - but there are no guarantees there are not errors!!

This Guide took many hours to research and put together. If you found the information useful, perhaps you would consider donating a few dollars to keep the Motorolafans site funded as it costs $60 each month in hosting fees. See the announcement at the top of the A1200 forum for details on how to do this or contact me (Alpha43 or Admin) for details on how to do so.


Thanks and Good Luck!

~Alpha~

Special Thanks to Kiwiguy for the help with the write up.
_________________
-Alpha The Legend-

Nice Thread, Good Work!!!  ;) ;D ;D

Nice post

 11 posts :D

Can i know.. what's the maximum size of this phone support Micro SD?

++

Raunamaxtor - I know it's 2GB

It's very good!!Studing :)

very good!! Guide  ;)

Thanks for the guide mate! :)