OS5 Hack Writing

[Jerramy]

Okay, so since I have a crazy (completely done before, badly) idea which involves patching scores of system calls, I'm now wanting to learn about programming hacks for OS5.

I've found YAHM, and it's developer page. I found Onboard ARM, for assembling armlets onboard, or I could use prc-tools I guess.

Are there any other hack managers for OS5 I should look at?

Is it possible to patch OS5 system calls without a hack manager, and is there documentation somewhere telling me how to do this?

[dmitrygr]

nvfs v4?

backup and prepare to buy new devices. messing with nvfs is a great way to brick a device...seriously...you persistence is only rivaled by your lack of research, and foolishness

[phreakonaleash]

I'm now wanting to learn about programming hacks for OS5.
Everyone's there eventually... Few have the tenacity and will to learn (and plethora of devices) to stay there... Like I said in the OBC group, bro, stick with 68k apps and don't toy with hacks until you're beyond expert.

[Jerramy]

"nvfs v4? backup and prepare to buy new devices. messing with nvfs is a great way to brick a device"

Actually, I have no interest in messing with nvfs, and my device is unbrickable I believe, as it uses Mask ROM, not NVRAM/Flash. As far as I know, there's no way to modify the ROM image, so a hard reset really does put it back to original.

"...seriously...you persistence is only rivaled by your lack of research, and foolishness"

Thanks, your skills and knowledge are only rivaled by your lack of helpfulness, and arrogance. Research is what I'm doing. Asking the people who know, where to find the research materials I need, is how one goes about this stuff.

Seriously. I essentially already said what I had in mind. I want to patch a several system calls, namely the ones which lock and unlock databases, to check a list of databases which have been mapped from the VFS to RAM. Unmapped files are handled normally, but mapped files consist of only the header blocks of records. System calls which would copy data out of records would instead copy it from VFS, and calls which would write to records would instead write to a temporary database, which would be copied back out to VFS when the mapped database is unlocked. The only part of the mapped files which would be in RAM would be info blocks, and written records.

You're right, I very well will give up before I complete it, but I might learn something in the process. If I could find an application that did this for me, I wouldn't spend the time, but I have a desire/need that's unfulfilled, and enough programming skills that it's not completely impossible for me to do it myself.

The only applications which come close to this effort are:

1. MemoryJack, which I can't find anywhere (If someone has a link to a prc, or could email it to me, I'd love to try it)
2. MsMount, which crashes my device on reset, whether I have any files mounted or not, and even if it's disabled! (It does actually work though, before I reset).
3. PalmVM, which has never seen the light of day, and probably never will, for unknown reasons.

So I'm basically stuck with either rolling my own, or giving up. You're all telling me to give up. Way to be supportive guys.

[dmitrygr]

teling you to give up to save you time, not to be an ***.

it's a multi-month effort to get it to even not crash with all the patches
and more months to get it to mostly work.. and an unknown length of time to get it to dully work

[Jerramy]

Well then can I help you with yours? I'd be glad to throw any hours I have at it. I have no fear of bricking my unit, because I don't think I can.

-Jerramy

[Jerramy]

Oh, I just figured out why you won't release it. It's a good reason. I seriously won't share even a hint of it, if you'd let me see.

[Jerramy]

TealMaster. Will this let me program 68K hacks? It'd certainly be easier than writing ARM code. It'll let me target standard API functions.

[Jerramy]

And yes, I'm persistant when I get interested in something. I've been trying to improve the same fuzz face circuit for months.

[dmitrygr]

68k hacks do not work on os5, tealmaster fools hacks into somewhat workign using notifications - quite an ugly thing...

I do not want to release my code because there are a lot of apps that do unsupported things and explaining this to users is a support nightmare. I have no time or money to waste telling people that it is not my fault the other apps' authors did not read the OS manual before coding.

Furthermore my code has a conflict with palm's SD driver, which means that to make it work fully you either need to (1) use my SDHC driver or (2)never call VFS api into a memory chunk managed by my code.


edit: just find me on an instant messenger and we can talk it out, no point doing it here.
aim: hacker19180
yahoo: dmitrygr2003
msn: dmitrygr@attbi.com
icq: 409251583

[phreakonaleash]

Jerramy, and I told you via OnBoardC user group to try PowerRun... Does what you say and does it nicely...

[Jerramy]

Thanks, and Dmitry, that's a very reasonable reason to no want to release it. You're right, even the one I'm thinking of, I was thinking, "And then someone will do something totally bizzare, and bypass my hacks entirely, or rather, only HALF entirely, totaly screwing things up."

Sorry, I can't chat right now (I'm running out the door to see The Mummy), and I can't IM at work (banned and blocked), but I'll get one set up and home, I can chat at night every now and then (depending on family needs). I do appreciate you putting up with me, and I'm sorry for being offensive.

I'll try PowerRun. The only thing was that it needed to copy all files into memory as I understood, which prevents me from running those BIG applications. Also, I think it only copied in files with the same CreatorID. Or does it copy everything in the same directory? Nevermind, I'll figure it out myself.

I'm really not this annoying in person... actually, I probably am. ;o)