WM6 on X51V

[mdanehart]

Hello folks..I have purchased a X51V (A012) in mint condition. I would like to install WM6 or 6.1 or whatever that is the latest OS. The problem is the more sites i visit the more confused I get! which do I need? Football? Lennys or what?
Or there a simple step by step method? Would gladly pay for this knowledge! Thanks in advance.

[Konrad Pierce]

No need to pay

You could visit xda-developers, Aximsite, PPCGeeks, or handhelds.org ...

My info's a little bit dated now, but as I understand it:

The latest official (Dell) ROM for this model is WM5(A12). Any and all ROMs released subsequent to this are unofficial, they are cooked by third-party developers and not supported by Dell. Strictly speaking, any upgrades to WM6.x violate your EULA with Microsoft, since HTC and Dell (the ODM and OEM) licensed a WM5.x OS build. You needn't fear the police breaking down your door or confiscating your device, but you will find cooked WM6.x ROMs more troublesome to locate online.

The latest, perhaps best, WM5 ROM would be WM5 K17. The "K" designation indicating "Kozura", the guy who made it. Countless bug fixes and general improvements, better battery efficiency, SDHC support - basically everything the WM6 OS builds provide. Incidentally, all of the various Dell updates, fixes, and patches (along with many more!) were incorporated into this ROM.

The most popular WM6.0 ROMs were WM6 A03 and A04, both made by a guy called "Football". I'm unsure whether there were ever A05 and A06 releases (I think that, if there were, they were largely interchangeable with the WM6.1 beta, below, and never distributed into public domain anyways). Lots of general cleanup and streamlining to remove bloat, a little improvement on OS code, while also integrating new-to-WM6 core functionality.

Apparently Football sold his upgraded X51v (with his unfinished work-in-progress WM6.1 ROM installed on it) to Kozura, who then completed the work and released a WM6.1 Beta ... this was a while back, so I imagine that either the beta died or finally got "finished".

At about the same time, LennyS came up with his own WM6.1 Beta, again largely based on the latest Football builds. This may have been the more popular of the two beta versions, simply because he had a nice website and apparently interacted well with his "testers". Again, this WM6.1 is probably finished by now, and (from the very little I've recently read about it) will be the basis of future WM6.x (WM6.5, etc) releases.

(Kozura, Football, LennyS, and many others were all xda users who worked, individually and collectively, towards X51v ROMs; they shared their projects quite a lot, at least in the beginning, and so some of the "missing" or rumoured A0x releases are probably just the prototype or "internal" builds shared between them.)

I personally used a number of cooked ROMs; including WM5K17, WM6A03 and A04. I never tried out the WM6.1 betas. They all work at least as well, often better, than official Microsoft versions, so there's little need for you to worry about wrecking your device with some amateur kludge job. In fact, you'll probably find that general documentation, support, feedback, and bug reports/fixes/workarounds are more available (and accurate) through sites like xda/etc than anything their corporate (MS, Dell) counterparts ever provide.

(No flames pls, if my facts are a little wrong or mixed up; remember that I haven't paid any attention to these ROMs for over a year.)

[mdanehart]

Thanks Konrad: I located 2 roms but would not boot up from the sd card, wrong image?

I will have to keep looking.

[Konrad Pierce]

If they are ROM images then they won't boot from an SD card. They contain ROM code which must be flashed into the Axim's firmware. Your existing ROM will be permanently overwritten/replaced ("permanent" here meaning it stays that way indefinitely/forever, until it's flashed again).

Rather than get into the sordid details here, I recommend you search BH, xda, and Aximsite - this procedure has been described and discussed in depth at all these places. Trust me, it's better that you endure reading through the trivia yourself and fully understand what you're doing; every possible question has been asked and answered countless times, and various step-by-step "idiot proof" instructions have been compiled which present several approaches to accomplish this procedure. Any additional software you might need is easily obtained, and any hardware you might need is well documented.

Many people who don't bother to make the effort end up bricking their Axims. Recovery is often possible (and frustrating), but sometimes the damage is permanent ("permanent" here meaning irrevocable; the only possible fix is complete mainboard - or ROM - hardware replacement.)

[Edit]
Since the contents of these ROMs are a complete platform OS, it is wise to confirm that your copies are uncompromised and do not contain corrupt data (whether through malicious intent or simple digital errors). There are various software tools, checksum generators, and other such stuff available (at the places described above) which allow you to verify whether your ROMs are genuine and intact.

[mdanehart]

Thanks Konrad: I installed WM6 03 I believe? It's the Football edition and no issues so far and a few positive's that I see with the newer OS.

If I did happen to brick this gem I would be losing 95.00 so I took the chance and succeded.

I have owned numerous handhelds including the Nokia 770,800, and 810. I have considered the smartphones but the screen real estate is to small, plus I have been grandfathered in a data plan with my cellphone so I have the best of both worlds!

Maybe someday some 12 year old rocket scholar will find a way to bluetooth teather an Itouch with a cell so I can play with an Apple..Thanks

[Konrad Pierce]

Rocket surgeons are throwbacks from the past, just like the classic nerds with checkered-shirts, sliderules, and pocket protectors.

The new genius is currently found among Russian hackers; quite often they are primarily motivated by an interest in upgrading or pwning their own personal devices, and they have rather easier online access to brains and resources which North American and European agencies often prefer to decry as "illegal". Nobody could say for sure, but I think it's fair to say that the majority of cool third-party stuff like these ROMs originate there ... surprisingly, more of these hackers appear interested in creating and doing useful "white hat" stuff than the malicious or criminal stuff commonly associated with them. To be sure, there's plenty of bad guys out there, too; but they aren't the geniuses who make ROMs.

Lots of good stuff comes from ze German guys, too. What I find strange and surprising is that (it seems to me) more Russian hackers provide English stuff than German hackers.