WebOS 2 Upgrade

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Overview

With the release of the webOS 2.1.0 doctor by HP for O2 and Vodafone Pre+ devices, there is now a legal way to get webOS 2.1 onto the legacy devices of carriers that are not onboard with the 2.x upgrade. Compatible devices include all Pre and Pre Plus devices. This is not compatible with Pixi devices.

You must read this page from top to bottom twice before starting this procedure. You must complete all steps from 0 to 6. Do not omit any steps. Do not improvise. Do not think you can ignore the instructions. If you do not follow these instructions precisely, completely and without error, you will not achieve your goal and you will annoy a lot of people with a lot of unnecessary questions in the process.

Disclaimer

This is a process that uses official HP software in unofficial ways. You should always be prepared for the unlikely possibility that your device may be completely wiped and your Palm profile may be permanently destroyed. Do not proceed unless you have made appropriate backups and are OK with that. Working knowledge of MetaDoctor and Linux systems in general is needed.

If you feel the need to ask whether you should do this on your primary phone, then you should not, as that indicates that you have not yet taken the required precautions and backups in case something goes wrong.

Other Tutorials

Note that this wiki page is always the authoritative source of information about this process, so you should refer to this page first for any and all instructions. Here are some other pages which you may find useful in addition to this page. They do not replace the information on this page, which you should read from top to bottom first.

Tutorials that have been updated to match the latest instructions

  • PreCentral forum user @malpha recorded a two-part video overview of the process as she followed this step-by-step. {Sprint Pre-, Ubuntu}.

Tutorials that are out of date and should not be relied upon

  • PreCentral forum user @djwhitey recorded a 9-minute walkthrough (includes Activation Error). {Sprint Pre-, Win7 x86, Ubuntu Server 10.04}.
  • PreCentral forum user @innocentbystander has written a start-to-finish guide to installing and building the Meta Doctor under Mac OS 10.6 for those with little or no experience with the command line. It can be found here.

Using MetaDoctor Scripts

Step 0: Backup your device

Make sure you have copies of all the data that you want to preserve from your palm profile. There is a possibility that you will need to clear your palm profile to be successful in this upgrade, so you should act as if that is going to happen from the start.

Also, make sure you run the Save/Restore application from Preware to back up your application data - you don't want to lose your Angry Birds progress, do you?

Then copy all the files from the USB drive onto your PC to keep them safe, including music, downloads, and pictures. The webOS Doctor has been known to wipe your USB drive without warning, so you should act as if that is going to happen from the start.

If your phone is set to use the Palm Profile as the default location for contacts you may want to manually export these. To check how many palm profile contacts you have: Contacts App -> Preferences & Accounts -> tap "Palm Profile" under the "accounts" subsection. To manually export contacts see this post: PreCentral Forums - How To Transfer contacts. They can be imported back onto your phone by emailing the file of exported contacts to yourself, and opening that attachment on your phone.

A guide for backing up using Save/Restore can be found here.

Step 1: Install Prerequisites

Note that the procedure for the WebOS 2 Upgrade is on this page. The MetaDoctor is simply a tool which is used by this procedure. You need to complete only Step 1: Setting up Meta-Doctor on that page. When you get to the end of Step 1: Setting up Meta-Doctor on that page, you should come back to this page and continue the procedure on this page.

Whilst the Palm SDK is not strictly required to complete this procedure, it is the best way to install the novacom and novaterm programs which are used to transfer files to and from your device and to access the command line on your device.

Step 2: Prepare your Palm Profile

With unsupported carrier/device/OS combinations, it may be necessary to clear some Palm Profile data to allow you to sign in on webOS 2.x devices. The process is as follows: Warning: this will delete data from your Palm Profile, including but not limited to: calendars, contacts, account information, email signatures, bookmarks, memos, tasks, SSM/MMS messages, and icon/launcher arrangement.

  1. Open the Backup app.
  2. Turn off backups, confirming that you wish to erase your palm profile information.

This step is extremely important if you find that after finishing the webOS 2.1 installation your saved apps don't download to your device automatically and your Palm Profile account name under Accounts is "Dr. Skipped Firstuse". You should delete your profile info and Doctor again.

NOTE: The latest scripts (as of 5:00pm EST) MAY allow direct conversion of a 1.4.5 profile to 2.1.0 without deleting Palm Profile data. Please read the information under "Palm Profile" below to understand the issues that my arise from attempting this, as well as the required solutions to resolve those issues.

Step 3: Run device-specific MetaDoctor script

The MetaDoctor scripts will automatically download the latest necessary webOS doctors, extract and replace CDMA radio firmware as necessary, and will build and launch the modified webOS Doctor.

NOTE: If this is not your first time through this process, you should do a "git pull" and a "make clobber" to ensure you have the latest scripts and a pristine build folder. From the command line (I use Cygwin), type "cd meta-doctor" without the quotes and press enter. Then type "git pull" without the quotes and press enter. Then type "make clobber" without the quotes and press enter. Voila! You now have the latest scripts and a clean folder to build your doctor in.

From the meta-doctor directory, run the meta-script that corresponds to your advice (note that the strings enclosed by < and > in the following line are placeholders for values that you must supply - you cannot type the string exactly as shown): 

./scripts/meta-<device>-<carrier>-<version>

You should replace <device>, <carrier>, and <version> with the specific values that match your particular situation, using the detailed information given in the section below that matches your particular device and carrier.

A list of all the scripts can be found by typing 

ls ./scripts/

For those who for what ever reason will never be using their phone on a cellular network and wish to use the phone only on wifi, just add "--wifi-only" as an extra argument to the meta-script: 

./scripts/meta-<device>-<carrier>-<version> --wifi-only

Again, you should replace <device>, <carrier>, and <version> with the specific values that match your particular situation, using the detailed information given in the section below that matches your particular device and carrier.

Then, when your device boots after step 4, all you need to do is configure and start wifi and then run the Gesture Tutorial and you should be good to go. Note that in this case the end of the palm profile login procedure will appear to cycle forever, so just manually reboot the device using Opt-Sym-R when that happens.

Specific additional information for each of the supported device and carrier combinations can be found below:

AT&T Pre+

./scripts/meta-att-preplus-2.1.0

You will end up with version 1.40.50 listed in your palm profile, and version 2.1.0 listed in the Device Info application.

You will not be able to purchase apps that require a minimum webOS 2.x version.

BellMo Pre

./scripts/meta-bellmo-pre-2.1.0

You will end up with version 1.40.50 listed in your palm profile, and version 2.1.0 listed in the Device Info application.

You will not be able to purchase apps that require a minimum webOS 2.x version.

O2 Pre

./scripts/meta-o2-pre-2.1.0

You will end up with version 2.1.0 listed in your palm profile, and version 2.1.0 listed in the Device Info application.

You should be able to purchase apps that require a minimum webOS 2.x version (depending upon geo-restrictions and country of first activation).

O2 Pre+

./scripts/meta-o2-preplus-2.1.0

You will end up with version 2.1.0 listed in your palm profile, and version 2.1.0 listed in the Device Info application.

You should be able to purchase apps that require a minimum webOS 2.x version (depending upon geo-restrictions and country of first activation).

Sprint Pre

Be aware that there is no publicly available solution for Sprint Navigation or Sprint PRL Update for this procedure. If you depend on either of those things, you should not upgrade to webOS 2.1.0 

./scripts/meta-sprint-pre-2.1.0

You will end up with version 2.1.0 listed in your palm profile, and version 2.1.0 listed in the Device Info application.

You should be able to purchase apps that require a minimum webOS 2.x version (depending upon geo-restrictions and country of first activation).

Sprint Pre 2

Be aware that there is no publicly available solution for Sprint Navigation or Sprint PRL Update for this procedure. If you depend on either of those things, you should not upgrade to webOS 2.1.0 

./scripts/meta-sprint-pre2-2.0.1

You will end up with version 2.0.1 listed in your palm profile, and version 2.0.1 listed in the Device Info application.

You should be able to purchase apps that require a minimum webOS 2.x version (depending upon geo-restrictions and country of first activation).

Telcel Pre

./scripts/meta-telcel-pre-2.1.0

You will end up with version 1.40.00 listed in your palm profile, and version 2.1.0 listed in the Device Info application.

You will not be able to purchase apps that require a minimum webOS 2.x version.

Verizon Pre+

./scripts/meta-verizon-preplus-2.1.0

You MAY get version 2.1.0 listed in your palm profile (using the latest scripts - do "git pull" from meta-doctor directory), and WILL get version 2.1.0 listed in the Device Info application.

You MAY be able to purchase apps that require a minimum webOS 2.x version.

In order to update your PRL, you will need to manually program your phone OTA by dialing *228 from the dialer, and choose the "Program your phone" option.

WR Pre

For WR devices, you should attempt to use the O2 script above first, and if you end up with a 9.9.9 version in your palm profile, then use this WR script instead. 

./scripts/meta-wr-pre-2.1.0

You will end up with version 1.40.50 listed in your palm profile, and version 2.1.0 listed in the Device Info application.

You will not be able to purchase apps that require a minimum webOS 2.x version.

Step 4: Run the modified webOS Doctor

The meta-script will automatically launch the modified webOS Doctor for you. However, if you need to move it to a different location and run it manually, the modified doctor will be a .jar file located in the build output directory: 

meta-doctor/build/meta-sprint-pre-2.1.0/webosdoctorp101ueude-wr-2.1.0.jar

Note that the directory path will change from that example based on which script you ran, and the script will tell you the exact pathname shortly after it starts running.

Do not USB connect the phone until WebOS Doctor specifically says to.

Step 5: There is no Step 5

There used to be a complex set of additional steps required here. Too many people had trouble following them, so we automated it. You should proceed directly to Step 6.

Step 6: Donate to WebOS Internals and purchase the Preware Homebrew Documentation app

If this worked for you, we would appreciate a donation at http://donate.webos-internals.org - and if you want to thank Rod Whitby personally for the many hours that he put into creating the Meta-Doctor and this upgrade procedure, you should purchase the Preware Homebrew Documentation app from the official app catalog, and leave a nice 5 star review containing your message of thanks.

Caveats

Available Software

App Catalog

  • If your palm profile record says version 1.40.50, you will not be able to purchase apps that are marked as only compatible with webOS versions 2.x and above. This cannot be changed for these devices at this time. If your palm profile record says version 2.1.0, then you should be able to purchase all apps (depending upon your geographical restrictions and country of first activation).

Masquerading

  • Palm's servers only accept certain device/OS combinations as valid. While some ROW Pre and Pre Plus devices running 2.1 are accepted (mainly O2 Germany devices), Pre and Pre Plus devices running on Verizon and AT&T (and some ROW) have to report to the palm profile server that they are running webOS 1.4.5. This is done automatically, and cannot be changed for these devices at this time.

Carrier-Specific Applications

  • Some Carrier Apps are not working in webOS 2.1. Apps that have been tested and are known to install cleanly and work will be added to the custom webOS Doctor for the appropriate device/carrier.

Known working Carrier Apps:

Sprint

  • Sprint Portal
  • Sprint TV
  • Sprint Football Live
  • NASCAR

Verizon Wireless

  • All Verizon apps should be working at this time! However, no one has tested the VZW Navigator subscription to confirm that the service carries over to a Meta-Doctored phone. You could be the first!

AT&T

  • No testing or reports of AT&T Carrier Apps

Patches

  • Not all patches have been ported over yet. If you want to check for a certain patch, please see webOS Internals' webOS-Patches Web Portal.

Flash

  • Adobe Flash is not included in this webOS 2.1 doctor, but can be added with files from a VZW Pre2 2.01 doctor.

Adding Flash Support

The easiest way to get flash on your webOS 2.1.0 legacy device is via creating a modular package and installing that, along with a patch to make the Adobe Flash preferences visible in the browser.

Step 1. Prerequisites

  • Download the Verizon 2.0.1 Pre 2 Doctor (here)
  • Download Jason Robitaille's IPK Packager (here)
  • Download webOS Quick Install (here)
  • Download temporary directory (here) and unzip the FlashPluginContainer folder to your desktop
  • Download patch to enable Flash preferences in the browser (here)

Step 2. Unpack

  • Open the 2.0.1 doctor with an archive manager, like 7zip. Navigate to "resources/webOS.tar/./nova-cust-image-roadrunner.rootfs.tar.gz/./" This is where the Flash files are stored.
  • Extract the following files from the webOS ROM:

/etc/adobe/mms.cfg


/etc/adobe/oem.cfg
/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/libflashplayer.so
/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/resource/plugin-icon-noplay.png
/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/resource/plugin-icon-play-down.png
/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/resource/plugin-icon-play.png
/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/resource/plugin-icon-unknown.png
/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/resource/plugin-scrim.png
/usr/lib/libFlashGraphics.so
/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/FlashMiniAdapterData/plugin-icon-noplay.png
/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/FlashMiniAdapterData/plugin-icon-play.png
/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/FlashMiniAdapterData/plugin-icon-unknown.png
/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/FlashMiniAdapterData/plugin-scrim.png


/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/FlashMiniPlugin.so

Step 3. Drag 'N' Drop

  • Simply place the files from the ROM into the FlashPluginContainer folder in their respective locations.
  • Pay close attention to where each file/folder is stored inside the webOS ROM.

Step 4. Packaging

  • Open Jason's IPK Packager and point the program to the files folder. Do NOT point to FlashPluginContainer, as the install will fail.
  • The rest of the fields will populate on their own.
  • Save the IPK file somewhere using "Create IPK Package." You may want to keep it handy.

Step 5. Wrap Up

  • Use webOS Quick Install to install both IPK and patch.


Support thread: http://forums.precentral.net/canuck-coding/276703-how-get-flash-legacy-devices-2-1-0-a.html

Adding Flash Support Manually

  1. Extract WebOS.tar from the Resources folder in the VZW doctor to a location on your hard drive
  2. Copy the following files from the extracted WebOS.tar to their equivalent locations in your MetaDoctor (alternatively, you can copy them manually to a live device using Novaterm)

/etc/adobe/mms.cfg


/etc/adobe/oem.cfg
/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/libflashplayer.so
/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/resource/plugin-icon-noplay.png
/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/resource/plugin-icon-play-down.png
/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/resource/plugin-icon-play.png
/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/resource/plugin-icon-unknown.png
/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/resource/plugin-scrim.png
/usr/lib/libFlashGraphics.so
/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/FlashMiniAdapterData/plugin-icon-noplay.png
/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/FlashMiniAdapterData/plugin-icon-play.png
/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/FlashMiniAdapterData/plugin-icon-unknown.png
/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/FlashMiniAdapterData/plugin-scrim.png


/usr/lib/BrowserServerPlugins/FlashMiniPlugin.so

3. Open /usr/palm/applications/com.palm.app.browser/app/controllers/preferences-assistant.js (either in your MetaDoctor or on your live device -if on a live device, remember to make a backup!)

Find the following two lines (should be lines 46 & 47) and comment them out by adding // to the beginning of each line:

this.controller.get("flashPref").hide();
this.controller.get("autoLoadPref").hide();

4. Reboot your Pre if the editing was done on a live device

Flash preferences should now be visible under browser preferences.

Flash Troubleshooting

After adding Flash support, you may find that visiting any page with the browser will never completely load, and then automatically refresh in a loop. Disabling and the enabling Flash content in the browser preferences will fix this issue.

Performance

  • OVERCLOCKING IS NOW SUPPORTED. Palm has just released the source code for the kernel used in webOS 2.1.0. An experimental version of UberKernel has already appeared in the experimental feeds, but casual users should wait for a stable one.
  • The Pre Plus has 512 MB of memory and thus runs 2.1 quite well, but this is not the case with the original Pre since it has only 256 MB. Luckily, Palm adopted WebOS Internals's configuration of the standard Linux compcache technology that was ported to the custom kernels, and it comes active, but with only 10 MB. One potential way to enhance performance in original Pre devices is to make the compcache bigger.

Increase compcache size, Temporary Method

You can use the Govnah application to increase the size of the compcache. Disable compcache, change the size, and then reenable.

Increase compcache size, Permanent Method

You have to edit the file /etc/event.d/compcache and substitute the 10240 value for 32768, reboot your Pre and verify it's working by using Govnah.

For example, you could follow these steps:

  1. Make sure novacomd is running on your computer.
  2. Use a terminal (any mentioned in step 5 will work) to run novaterm and access your phone. Type in the following: 
    vi /etc/event.d/compcache
  3. Go down to line 10 type i then delete 10240 and replace it with 32768, hit the escape key then type :wq
  4. Reboot your Pre and verify it's working by using Govnah.

Palm Profile

  • Some people have had problems signing in to existing Palm Profiles on 2.1 due to backup data. To make sure that you can sign in to your profile on 2.1, you should disable backups before doctoring to 2.1 and delete server side backups. Of course, this deletes most of the data in your Palm Profile (memos, tasks, calender entries, accounts, ...). Your apps will be restored on 2.1, but that is about it. Note that not all people have issues with backups. If you would rather not delete your Palm Profile data, you can try doctoring to 2.1 without turning backups off and see if restoring everything works. If it doesn't, you'll have to doctor back to 1.4.5 to turn off backups or use a new Palm Profile, though.
  • You may get lucky if your Profile has information and you managed to pass the "Logging to Profile" screen but are stuck with a message stating that the phone cannot restore your data. If you have developer mode enabled, enter your Pre and overwrite the /etc/palm-build-info file with the palm-build-info-masq file the Doctor generated. Reboot your Pre and see if it manages to boot succesfully.
  • If you get 9.9.9 in palm.com/palmprofile, then you can either doctor back to 1.4.5 for your carrier and log in, then delete backup info in backup app and then 2.1.0 metadoctor it, or you can restore the masqueraded /etc/palm-build-info for your device, erase your backup info in the backup app and use "Erase Apps and Data" from the reset option in the Device Info app.
  • If you get the dr. skipped firstuse as a palm profile in the new accounts app in 2.1.0 and/or if the gesture application creates a blank screen, you have the false profile problem. You need to doctor back to 1.4.5 for your carrier and login in, then delete backup info in backup app and then 2.1.0 metadoctor it. To avoid this problem, redownload the metadoctor latest version and run the appropiate script with the --wifi-only switch.
  • Alternative fix for above problem: If your profile works fine but the Impostah app and the Accounts app show your profile name as Dr. Skipped First Use although your phone ran the first use app after doctoring, erase your backup data from the backup app by turning off backups and chose Erase Apps and Data from the reset options in the Device Info app.
  • If you get stuck at the "Auto Locate" selection screen during the login process, you can re-doctor using the same 2.1 doctor file and it will go through. It appears to be an issue when creating a new profile in 2.1 rather than "porting" your 1.4.5 profile to 2.1. After the second doctoring, you will "Sign In" to an existing profile (the one you created during the first profile login after doctoring), rather than creating a new profile.

GPS

  • To enable GPS functionality it may be necessary to go to the "Location Services" application, make sure that "GPS", and "GPS Location Services" are enabled. Test the GPS using ##477# (##GPS#) from the phone application, and press the "Get Fix" button.
  • If neither ##477# utility nor Google Maps is able to successfully fix your position, return to the "Location Services" application, open the Preferences menu, expand Locate Me Using... and ensure that both GPS and Google Services are selected. After selecting Google Services, you will be prompted to accept the Terms of Service. Once both options are selected, test GPS functionality again. The ##477# utility may still fail the first several times, but should complete successfully after repeated attempts, and should continue to function normally thereafter.

PRL

  • Sprint - After applying 2.1.0 to a Sprint device using this method, there is currently no known way to update the PRL. There are permissions issues, and the conventional "Update Profile" and "Update PRL" from the Phone options will no longer work. The provisioner service binary from the Sprint 1.4.5 doctor does not work on webOS 2.x, so a version of that service for 2.x is required for this to ever work. It is not expected that this situation will change before Sprint releases another webOS phone running webOS 2.0 or above.
  • Verizon - In order to update your PRL, you will need to manually program your phone OTA by dialing *228 from the dialer, and choose the "Program your phone" option.
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