Theme Changer

[joffa]

Hi, Have been reading these posts. PHEW!!!! pretty full on!!

I am a complete noob when it comes to FW changes, and I think I will leave it to you boys to expertly maintain. All that code makes me nervous, It is like trying to read Chinese.

My Question is, apart from major FW fixes and other things you talk about here, are there any plans to implement options or programs to do cosmetic changes to the BW's FW? or have options to change themes etc. I have used the Background changer on occasion and have read a coming soon notice on the PVR Tools Website, about a theme changer, anyone associated here with that at all?

Just wanted to inquire.

Cheers

Joffa

[prl]

Hi, Have been reading these posts. PHEW!!!! pretty full on!!

We take no prisoners here

...
I have used the Background changer on occasion and have read a coming soon notice on the PVR Tools Website, about a theme changer, anyone associated here with that at all?
...

Fully re-theming would be a fairly big job. There are about 250 icons in the GUI icons directory. Re-theming probably wouldn't mean changing them all, but it would still be a fair bit of work, as Dave? says in his post.

[joffa]

Cool!!! Maybe I should read further into a Topic

I hope he manages to do the theme Changer, even with a few choices would be GREAT!!!

Cheers

Joffa

[IanSav]

Hi Joffa,

We still should get information from Beyonwiz about how they feel regarding these changes. I am still unsure about implications for support.

Regards,
Ian.

[prl]

Hi Joffa,

We still should get information from Beyonwiz about how they feel regarding these changes. I am still unsure about implications for support.

Regards,
Ian.

More information? They have so far been completely silent on the topic of modifying the firmware. Is that going to change?

[IanSav]

Hi Peter,

More information? They have so far been completely silent on the topic of modifying the firmware. Is that going to change?

I hope so. This is something I think they need to address.

Regards,
Ian.

[peteru]

There really isn't any addressing to be done. Just like most manufacturers, Beyonwiz would have the policy of "What we ship works, if you break it we won't support you."

Even Topfield who had an official TAP API for customising their PVR disclaimed all responsibility and stated in no uncertain terms that any issues caused by non-factory configuration are at owner's risk.

No one expects anything else from Beyonwiz.

No manufacturer can stop users from reverse engineering and altering the firmware, not Microsoft, not Topfield, not TiVo and not Beyonwiz. At best they can make it difficult, but that makes little difference to those who are determined.

What some of us do expect, is for Beyonwiz to comply with their Open Source legal obligations and release the source and tools for Open Source components of the firmware. Doing so means that the hacking community can support itself and other users better. In the long run, it's likely to greatly benefit Beyonwiz and they will be able to take back large chunks of work done for free by the community.

[IanSav]

Hi Peter,

I am hoping that there will be a little more co-operation from Beyonwiz when they get themselves sorted out.

The support issue is also very important for those of us who try to support users in this forum. I, for one, do not want to spend more time trying to help people who may be inflicting harm on themselves by hacking their own firmware or using other people's hacks to make changes that may have unknown or undesirable effects. This is particularly worrying given that some users will "have a play" without understanding exactly what they may be doing. The issue is exacerbated given that many people are *not* disclosing that they have changed their firmware yet they expect the same level of support as those users using factory firmware.

Regards,
Ian.

[joffa]

OOOPPPSS I have hit a nerve here, Sorry!!!

I totally respect BW and their rights, particularly about changing / hacking FW. I was under the impression this was kinda all Open Source anyway. I may have misinterpreted Open Source. I am not about to Hack my FW would not even know how to start, but if there was a neat little Program to do something like Changing the Themes/Backgrounds/ Fonts etc I would do it as I assume it would be kinda tried and trued from people on this forum, that are here to help one another.

Cheers

Joffa

[prl]

OOOPPPSS I have hit a nerve here, Sorry!!!

I totally respect BW and their rights, particularly about changing / hacking FW. I was under the impression this was kinda all Open Source anyway. I may have misinterpreted Open Source. I am not about to Hack my FW would not even know how to start, but if there was a neat little Program to do something like Changing the Themes/Backgrounds/ Fonts etc I would do it as I assume it would be kinda tried and trued from people on this forum, that are here to help one another.

Cheers

Joffa

The efforts of the contributors to the OpenWiz and beyonwizsoftware sites are open source.

However, it's almost impossible to know for sure whether some firmware modification will change the behaviour of the Beyonwiz in an unexpected way.

There are two issues that Ian and PeterU have raised.

Ian's is that by running modified firmware, it makes it harder to diagnose any problems you may have on the BW, both for Beyonwiz support and for people on the forum. It adds new unknowns into the problem, because no-one outside Beyonwiz really knows how the firmware works, and whether what has been changed will modify the operation of the Beyonwiz in some undesirable way.

Peteru's is that it would be easier to make modifications and to know whether changes to the firmware would affect correct operation if Beyonwiz and Sigma designs released the source code and binaries that they should do to comply with their use of GPL software in the Beyonwiz. The BW uses uClinux and busybox, both of which are GPL. I'm not sure what C library it uses, but it's also likely to be (L)GPL.