[8125, K-JAM, P4300, MDA Vario ROM Development] edhaas:
Welcome to the Wizard Rom-Packer Kitchen V2.0, with "Squeezer" technology!

Please read all the way through before starting, even if you've used a previous version.

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

This kitchen is easy to use, but is really meant for those with some previous work with other kitchens,like faria's or 004's or Molski's. (If I've left someone out, I'm sorry about that.) This kitchen is based on Bepe's Hermes kitchen, which has incorporated tadzio's reworking of maimach's imgfs tools. This allows the rom to be packed more efficiently, and thus more packages and files to be burned into the rom. The savings is not trivial, a few megabytes at least.

In addition, I have added a new Squeezer module, based on open-source UPX technology, which actually compresses Office .exe files, freeing even more room in the rom (a few more meg), and actually decreasing load times!

Although the Wizard Rom is not quite as malleable as the Hermes in that the extra space is not translated into additional user storage memory, at least the additional freeware, shareware, themes, etc. which can be burned to the rom do not have to reduce the user storage space.

I hope over time to enhance this further, as new innovations become available, (maybe someone will figure out a way to repartition the Wizard Rom?). Also, perhaps adding some way of automatically generating the xip directory. If you have suggestions feel free to let me know about them.

Error checking is not extensive, so be sure to keep your old rom available to fall back to! Check the size of the generated .nbf file. If its around 59 mb you are close to the limit. Be ready to re-flash in bootloader mode (after paring some packages or files) if the program exits before the 100% mark.

How to use:

Download your favorite base rom, at this point one from another kitchen, which has already been broken down to SYS, OEM, and ROM directories. Delete the SYS, OEM, and ROM directories from my kitchen, and copy the ones from the other kitchen in there instead.

Make a copy of the SYS\OFFICE directory in case of later problems (not likely).

An additional caution/strong recommendation is to delete the /autoupdate package from your roms. This currently does nothing anyway, so you won't miss it, and in any case would likely only create havoc with a custom rom. But additionally the repacking method used in this kitchen removes the extra space in the rom which was to be used for that anyway, and so autoupdate will definitely be useless in a rom built with this method.

Run the SqueezeOffice.bat program. (This compresses your main Office .exe's)

Make sure there is an 80040000-os.nb file in the ROM directory. (It may be called something else and have to be renamed. It'll be around 50mb in size.)

Now click on Start.bat, and away you go...

(Optional) If you want to later go back to using another kitchen, run the PrepareNewNB.bat file. After it completes, there will be a new, compacted 80040000-OS.nb file created in the ROM directory which you can move back to your original kitchen. (Also copy the Office directory back) You will loose some packing efficiency by building in another kitchen, but you will still gain lots of space from having visited here!

Depending on the kitchen you were using, either you will see selectable packages or not during the running of BuildOS. Use whatever method you were using previously to add new packages or to remove the ones you don't want. In general, everything should work about the same way it did before, except you will be able to fit more packages in than previously! (Those who are importing faria's kitchen will have to rename his BuildOS.exe to BOS.exe and bring it into this kitchen. Also, rename his Flash file in the ROM directory to 80040000-OS.nb.)

You will be given the opportunity to go all the way to flashing the rom, similar to the way faria's kitchen is set up. Hold down the Control and "C" keys during one of the pauses provided if you do not want to go to the next step for some reason. (You have a G4, unlocked G3, want postpone flashing for later, etc.) Then press the "Y" key to abort when prompted.

If you'd like, check out the ZSqueezer directory, and the readme there. There you can compress your other programs for even more space (and speed!).

Thanks to all those who have helped me in the past, and especially those who created the tools and roms we all use and enjoy.

Version History:

Initial Unlabeled: Worked fine

V1.1: Added "pre-packing", had a bug in Start.bat

V1.2: Worked fine

V1.3: Deletion of .rgu files from the dump.

V2.0: Removed .rgu deletion (instability), and introduced "squeezer" compression.

Download Link: V2.0

http://rapidshare.com/files/33616241/Wizard_ROM-Packer_Kitchen_V2.0.rar