How-to install any 2.x ROM in a CID-Locked G3 or G4 Wizard. Disclaimer THE PROCEDURE I’M GOING TO EXPLAIN DEALS WITH ROM ‘COOKING’ AND THUS IT MAY CAUSE SEVERE DATA LOSS OR EVEN IRREMEDIABLY DAMAGE YOUR DEVICE! THE AUTHOR, NOR EVERY OTHER PERSON INVOLVED (E.G. THE ROM TOOLS DEVELOPERS), SHALL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY MALFUNCTIONS OR DAMAGES THIS PROCEDURE MAY CAUSE. USERS MUST AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS DISCLAIMER BEFORE THEY GO ON READING. Introduction This guide was written to answer all the e-mails and private messages I’ve received since I wrote on the Forum that I was successfully able to install an Italian ROM on a CID-Locked, English, G4 Wizard. Installing any 2.x ROM in a CID locked Wizard (either G3 or G4) is actually possible and I’ll show you how to do. I’d like to make clear that either the procedure you’re going to read or the tools we’ll use HAVE NOT BEEN INVENTED/CREATED/PROGRAMMED BY ME!!! So, if you’ll succeed in installing a new ROM on your device, it is not me you’ll have to thank. Credits for this How-To must go to the smart and brilliant developers that populate our Forum. Thank you all guys!!! Glossary (in order of importance) Forum: the greatest forum ever made: http://forum.xda-developers.com/front_page.php HTC Wizard: Wizard (or Prodigy) is the codename of a Windows Mobile Phone made by HTC and sold with many different names all around the world: XDA Mini S; MDA Vario; Qtek 9100; I-Mate K-Jam; Dopod 838; Cingular 8125; T-Mobile MDA; VPA Compact II; SPV M3000. CID: Country ID CID-Lock: A Wizard is CID-Locked when you cannot install a different Operator’s ROM in it: this means you aren’t allowed installing a MDA Vario ROM in a SPV M3000. Also, it is impossible to install a different language ROM even when it’s been made by the same operator: e.g. you cannot install an Italian ROM in an English device. In a CID-Unlocked device, on the other hand, you can install whatever ROM you like. ROM Cooking: to cook a ROM means to edit a shipped ROM by adding/removing some files or adding/removing some parts. A shipped ROM (that is the original ROM you download from the operator’s Web site) contains 9 parts: GSM (radio stack), OS, ExtROM, IPL_v1, SPL_v1, IPL_v2, SPL_v2 (IPL/SPL are the bootloaders: v1 is for G3, v2 for G4), HTC (first splash image), Splash (second splash image). G3 / G4 Wizard: Two kind of bootloader chips exist: G3 is the older one, G4 the newer. G3 models require the IPL/SPL_v1 while G4 use IPL/SPL_v2. All the other ROM parts used are the same. While you can CID unlock a G3 phone in most cases (only versions >= 2.21 cannot be unlocked), G4 cannot be CID unlocked (yet). Two know which model you’ve got: reset your phone and, at boot, check the strings: IPL: 2.x.001 and SPL 2.x.001. If you have the tailing .001 part, then you’ve a G4 phone (G3 phones instead have: IPL: 2.x and SPL: 2.x, without the .001). ROM Upgrade Utility (RUU): set of files used to flash the ROM on the phone. Summary (what we’re going to do, in short) Since both G4 and G3 (version >= 2.21) bootloaders (IPL/SPL) cannot be CID unlocked, it shouldn’t be possible to install a ROM made by a different operator or in another language in Wizards that use these bootloaders. While it’s true that you cannot download a stock ROM you like and install it on those phones (as you would do if your they were CID UNlocked), with some hacks you CAN actually install a new ROM even in a CID locked device. The trick is simple, what we’ll do is: download a stock (shipped) ROM, edit it and remove the IPL and SPL parts (either v1 and v2), install the ROM on the phone using a slightly modified ROM Upgrade Utility (RUU). That’s all folks! By following the procedure, then, we’re going to change all the ROM parts BUT the IPL and SPL. So we could end up with: - New OS, GSM, ExtROM, Splash and HTC parts taken from the 2.18 K-Jam Italian ROM (or whichever ROM you like) - Original ROM’s IPL and SPL (e.g. 2.21.001) – unchanged. Now, if you already know how to cook a ROM then you can skip the following chapter (Creating nk.nbf) and jump to the last one (Flashing the ROM), else continue reading. Creating nk.nbf (ROM cooking) What you need: - A 2.x ROM you like (get it either from your operator’s Web site or from the Forum; e.g. MrClean AKU2.3 ROM). The ROM should be a single .exe file. - ROM editing tools: typho5.exe and nb2nbf.exe (they’re in the tools.rar file I’m attaching) - New modified RUU (contained in RUU.rar, attached) - WinRAR (get it from www.rarlab.com, you don’t need to buy it) - A PC with Windows 9x/Me/2k/XP/2k3 What to do: 1. Create a new, empty folder in your root filesystem, it’ll be the work folder (in this guide I’ll use c:\newrom) 2. Install WinRar 3. Extract the archive tools.rar in the work folder 4. Right-click on your ROM .exe file: choose Extract in %ROM_name%\ (%ROM_name% is the ROM filename e.g. K-JAM_ITA_2180901_21809104_20710_ship) 5. Open the folder %ROM_name%\ you just created and locate the file nk.nbf (it could be in a sub folder) 6. Move the file nk.nbf to the work folder. Now, your work folder should contain three files: typho5.exe, nb2nbf.exe and nk.nbf. 7. Open a DOS shell: (Start -> Run -> cmd.exe) 8. Go to the work folder: cd c:\newrom 9. Type: typho5.exe –x nk.nbf 10. You’ve just extracted your ROM content (the nine parts we talked about short ago). PS: if you’re using a customized ROM you downloaded from the Forum (e.g. MrClean) then you’ll have only 7 parts and not 9 (you’ll see only 1 copy of IPL and SPL). 11. This is what you have now: dir 12. Now create a new, empty folder. It’ll be our Final folder (I’ll use c:\final) 13. Extract the archive RUU.rar (attached) in the Final folder 14. In Windows, open the work folder and double click on nb2nbf.exe 15. Complete the required fields as showed in the image: Highlighted are the fields you must check carefully: a. Language, OEM and Operator version: put the right values according to the ROM you’re working on (OEM and Operator version can be the same number) b. CID: leave empty c. Output File: must be %Final folder%\nk.nbf and NOT %Work folder%\nk.nbf (if you named the folder as I did, then use c:\final\nk.nbf as in the image) d. In the list of the different parts (File #1, File #2, etc), notice: i. ExtRom MUST be the first in the list. Its Image Name is ‘Extension Rom’ (without quotes). ii. CHECK THE OS START ADDRESS!!!!!!! IT MUST BE 80040000 and NOT 82040000. Beware: When you choose ‘OS’ in Image Name combo box, the program automatically change the Start Address to 82040000: IT’S WRONG!!! IT MUST DEFINITELY BE 80040000. iii. The Image Name for the HTC part is: ‘HTC Logo’ (without the quotes) 16. Note: You’re not obliged to specify all the parts listed in the image. For example, if you don’t want to change your phone current Splash image, HTC Logo or GSM stack, then simply don’t add them. 17. Press Translate button to create the NEW nk.nbf file in the Final folder 18. Open the Final folder. This is what should be inside: 19. You’re ready for the next chapter. Flashing the ROM This is very simple. There’re just a few recommendations: 1. Fully charge your phone. It is very important. So, if something went wrong with your customized ROM, you’d have enough charge left to flash the original ROM back. 2. Download your phone’s original ROM (that is the ROM that shipped with your phone, the one you want to change). This ROM will be useful in the unfortunate event that your self- made ROM won’t work. You don’t have to ‘cook’ anything to install this ROM: just double click on it. 3. Connect your phone to the PC with the USB cable (NO Bluetooth please!) (someone suggested that’s better to use your PC’s rear USB ports, I don’t know). 4. Let ActiveSync connect with your phone. 5. Open the Final folder (my is c:\final) and double click on: newromupdateutility_wizard_noid.exe Final Comment I’ve successfully applied this method on two G4, CID-Locked, MDA Vario. I installed the Italian K-Jam ROM and experienced no problems until now. I cannot guarantee, of course, that the procedure is going to work on your phone too but, since we’re not going to touch your device’s original IPL/SPL, the event of a permanent damage is quite unlikely. I repeat: credits for this tutorial don’t go to me but to the brilliant developers who made the tools and to all the Forum users that helped me (especially Topogigi who even prepared for me a ready to install ROM).