Hacking Maemo on the Nokia 770.

I am going to post a quick tutorial on how to hack the Icons, Aliases,The file system logos, etc…

Note and WARNING:
I am not responsible for any damages or bricks you cause by you trying to hack your N770.

The tools you will need installed on maemo are:

OpenSSH - (I prefer OpenSSH over dropbear)
Osso-xterm
root access ( http://maemo.org/maemowiki/HowDoiBecomeRoot2 )


On the PC:

SSH client
gFTP
Terminal (or putty for Windows)
Gimp (or any photo editing software)


Ok first will start by hacking those Icons that do not have a icon on the Extras menu for example if you install xmaeme by default xmaeme does not have an icon and it can be quite annoying look at the below image…



So how can we fix that?

Simple first you are going to use an scp browser like (gFTP) and go to the fallowing directory
/usr/share/applications/hildon



In /usr/share/applications/hildon you will find most of the .desktop links also under /usr/share/applications… Download the appropriate one in our case xmaeme.desktop after you download it you can open it using ether VI or geditor… If you use Windscrow use Win32Pad. Win32Pad is Linux compatible so you can open Linux files and retain the Linux code.

After the file is open you will see the following
…

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=0.1
Type=Application
Name=XMaeme
Exec=/usr/bin/xmaeme
Icon=qgn_list_gene_default_app
MimeType=application/x-executable


We are going to change the line “Icon=qgn_list_gene_default_app” to “Icon=The-Icon-We-Are-Going-To-Use” After that you can save it. Now we are ready to upload since we don’t have access to systems folder we are going to upload it to /media/mmc1 …
After is upload it we are going to copy it from /media/mmc1 to /usr/share/applications/hildon but to do that we are going to ssh to the 770…
This is the part where you going to need root access to your 770.

Note: If the .desktop file calls on X-Window= Than you will have to change the path from /usr/share/applications/hildon to /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/hildon this is not always the case I only had to follow that path in icons that where broken like xVNC server if you are making your own icon and there is no Icon= than you follow the normal procedure.

From Linux…

ssh –l user 10.XX.XX.XX

once in CLI

sudo su –

Once you are in root

cp /media/mmc1/xmaeme.desktop /usr/share/applications/hildon/xmaeme.desktop

It will ask you to overwrite if you feel safe at this point than type yes at the command…

Now we are ready to upload the image the link is calling for in my case mame-blue_2.png

Here is a nice trick I use with GIMP you can download any image from the net or where ever you want and use GIMP to scale the image to the correct size for maemo icons you can use 25x25 or 64x64… How you can resize in Gimp? In GIMP you will open the image than right click on the image ----image----scale image… at this point you will hit the locks by the width and height that way we can change the W x H without automatic scaling….




After you are done you can save it and we can repeat the same steps as before using the cp command but this time will change the path to /usr/share/pixmaps in pixmaps you will find most of the applications Icons.
Here is how we will execute the command…

cp /media/mmc1/mame-blue_2.png /usr/share/pixmaps/mame-blue_2.png





Ok so now we have the .desktop link and the image in place now all we have to do now is go in to the Extras Menu again and whala! Is there No reboot required…





Ok c00l so now we have the Extras Icons how about the rest of the file system?

You can change any Icons image as you like but please be very care full you can brick your device… consider your self warn ;P

Startup logos and sounds.

The big Nokia logo you see on startup comes from the file /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/hildon/qgn_indi_startup_nokia_logo.png.

The Nokia hands live at /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/hildon/qgn_indi_nokia_hands.png

The Nokia tunes are in /usr/share/sounds (ui-wake_up_tune.wav) and (ui-shutdown.wav).

Replace the files as you like.

Please make sure as a I explain above resize the image you are going to use to the appropriate size for the Startup logos I use 770x470 …. Also make sure you have the correct permission set in the images and files once upload it… you can check by typing ls –l in terminal in the same directory as the file. If you see that the images or files you upload it don’t have the appropriate permissions use chmod to change the file IE: chmod 666 file_name. This only apply to system wide files not the .desktop links etc…. better safe than sorry.

Browse the File System…


Ok you can use 3rd party app to browse the file system or you can use Opera to do so by going to the address bar and typing that will take you to the file system but you can only browse no copy or paste available…. Also if you want to take advantage of the built in file browser you can make a symlink to another folder outside the Home Dir….
From Terminal as root…

cd /MyDocs
ln -s /var/log

Now the folder /var/log is mounted in the file browser and you can browse to it.

~Fin

Good Luck and Have Fun!
SeRi@lDiE aKa nUll

Very nice tutorial. Thanks for taking the time to make this.

Thank You. I will post more soon.

HOW TO: How to back up your repositories.

Note and WARNING:
I am not responsible for any damages or bricks you cause by you trying to hack your N770.

Ok backing up your repositories can be very useful..
#1- You could have added a bad repositories causing your application manager go unusable with the back up repositories you can replace the bad one restoring your application manager to usable state.

#2- You want to re flash your N770 or just simply upgrade now you don’t have to go thru the pain of adding the repos... All you have to do is replace the sources.list.

#3- Your repo list got corrupted. You can replace it with a usable back up.

The list can go on………

The tools you will need installed on maemo are:

OpenSSH
Osso-xterm
root access ( http://maemo.org/maemowiki/HowDoiBecomeRoot2 )


on the PC:

gFTP (If you use Windows download WinSCP)
Terminal SSH Client (putty for windows)


Now you are going to ssh to the N770

From Linux:

ssh –l user YOUR IP

once granted access type
sudo su –

once in root

type

cp /etc/apt/sources.list /media/mmc1/souces.list

Now with gFTP using the SSH protocol you can SCP to the N770 and browse to /media/mmc1 and download the sources.list file…

Here is a screen shoot



Now you have a back up of a working repo list… if for any reason you need to recover your sources.list all you have to do is replace it with the back up…

Here is how.

From Linux:

With gFTP using the SSH protocol you can SCP to the N770 and browse to /media/mmc1 and upload the sources.list file…


Now you are going to ssh to the N770

From Linux:

ssh –l user YOUR IP

once granted access type
sudo su –

once in root

type

cp /media/mmc1/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list

And you are done you have replace your bad sources.list with a good one… the application manager can be a very bad migraine so I recommend to back up your sources.list

Note:

Once you have the sources.list in your system you can add and dele repos to it as you please… You can also do it from the Terminal in the N770 by typing……

vi /etc/apt/sources.list




Be very care full a small typo can render your application manager unusable.

Have Fun and Good Luck

SeRi@lDiE aka nUll

Grate tutorial!!!
Replacing the logo work for me I had to get my friend to resize the picture for me since I didnt have any software that can help me resize the picture.. I was looking in to Photoshop but is damn expensive!
It would be awesome if you can list some steps in Windows

One more question is "GIMP" free? and if so where can I get it?

Thanks!

Yes GIMP is free and You can download it from http://www.gimp.org/

By Request:


How to Install software in the Nokia 770:

Note and WARNING:
I am not responsible for any damages to your N770.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok.... Most software for the Nokia 770 are installed thru repositories... Here is a small How To on installing apps...

What Are Repositories?
(Repositories are *dumps* of packages for any nix distribution in our case maemo)
When you use the application manager to install apps from the repositories it will install the required dependencies for the application automatically for you.... Word of warning is not the case all the time... Also adding repositories to the application manager can some times render your device unusable due to bad repos.... And to bring it back is going to Require you to hack your maemo...

Ok here is how to add repositories to your 770.

First get familiar with http://maemo.org maemo
Than Go to

https://maemo.org/maemowiki/ApplicationRepositories

Some of the repos listed there are all ready in your list skip those and get those that you want
Here is how...

From the Maemo site:
To add new repositories to your 770 running the 2006 OS, select Tools > Application Manager, then hit the title bar or menu key, select Tools > Application catalog… and away you go.

So in IE:
You want to install Maemo Mapper and you got to the application list and in the Maemo Mapper link you see the following information...
In the above info it gives you the repo information and that is what you are going to use to install the repo to the application manager..
Here is the repo info:

If you where to install packages manually is going to required you to install the missing dependencies manually….. Not the case all the time but on most time it is..

I recommend you install osso-xterm (advance) you will use it a lot.
Also Openssh so you can use your desktop to connect to your 770 and use your desktop keyboard...
Also if you want to transfer files to your 770 I would recommend you use SCP instead of the USB cable I found it some what slow and unreliable...
For Windows - WinSCP
For *nix - gFTP

~Fin

Have Fun and Good Luck!
SeRi@lDiE aKa nUll

Thanks for your work, I appreciate particularly the repos backup (I recently needed to reflash the device, so I know what it means to have all the repos ready to be sarched for the needed applications...).

Besides, apart from the need of knowing the corresponding repository, or having it already installed, isn't this all supposed to work without ssh-ing to the nokia, but just using the X-terminal plus the becomeroot packages?

Omar

Yes you can do it from xterm and becomeroot and back it up to your MMC and retrive it using USB. I just realy dont rely on the MMC since I had the MMC go corrupted before.

Thanks!