[HaTaX]

Just wanted to throw this out there for all you 9700 owners here. If you're into loading hybrids or are just sick of the poor bridge performance from your 9700 & PB here's something I came across this weekend...

I loaded up wu-wei's hybrid from here: http://forums.crackberry.com/hybrid-...9700-a-637196/
Wu-wei is a member that's been around for a while and I've used some of his other great builds in the past, he's a very good hybrid maker in my opinion. Just wanted to give a little vouch for his work as I know some are leery of hybrids.

Anyway, after I loaded it up I was blown away at the difference in the bridge performance. Previously I had just the stock Wind 615 build on my phone and it was typically slow and doggy in all bridge apps. After loading his hybrid over the top of my 615 install I noticed a world of difference. Response is much better with his hybrid build in all bridge applications, browser, messages, bbm, etc.

So this seems to be a cheap plug for his hybrid, but I have no connection to him and he doesn't even know I'm making this thread. Actually he doesn't even have a PB, so I'm not sure he even knew of the benefit here, but I wanted to let others know about this. It totally changed my opinion of the bridge functionality as I can see myself using it on a daily basis if the performance keeps up this way.

Maybe it's something to do with the OS7 cod files, or just the arrangement of 650 cods with it all. Whatever it is, it works and I suggest anyone else out there that's not happy with their bridge performance and has a 9700 to give this a shot.

Also of note, as the package sits currently, your email setup application won't work after installing this hybrid. You can either copy in the 615 cods manually before loading it, or do it after with BBSAK. Here's the post I made about the files I copied in: http://forums.crackberry.com/hybrid-...ml#post6569974

And of course the standard disclaimer, I'm not responsible for you bricking your device in this process! If you've never touched a hybrid OS before, this may not be your cup of tea. If you've dabbled with them before, you know what to do!

Let us know if you load it up and what you find! (I'd also be curious to hear if you have a 9780 and load this up. It should load fine on top of a 9780 SFI file, but I don't think anyone has tried it yet.)

[Xavier85]

WOW! What a difference!

[HaTaX]

You loaded it up?? Good!!! Now it's more then just me ranting and raving about it. Also, if you have phone remote installed, give it a go with this new OS and let me know if you see a change there.

I know a thread over this seems kinda over-blown, but really I was astounded at the difference. And why can't RIM get us an OS that performs like this with bridge? Seems they have all the pieces of the puzzle there. Hopefully they're watching and brewing up an official release. (Mighty hopeful, I know)

[HaTaX]

If there's any 9780 owners looking at this thread, I'm working on testing the 9780 hybrid wu-wei just released to see how things work out. Once I know the results are the same with bridge, I'll post up what was done to get the 9780 at the same level.

[parps]

Wowsers!

This hybrid makes the bridge apps way faster!

Bridge Browser is now "close" to the performance of the regular browser (maybe about 70-80% of the speed). VERY usable now.

Messages open almost instantly. No more waiting for the spinning circle!!

Thanks wu-wei and HataX!

[FF22]

Anyone find a similar hybrid for the 9650/Bold? Altho, I'm still using OS 5 since I do not want to give up Column View in the browser.

[HaTaX]

I actually stumbled across this by accident, I was looking for a hybrid to load up as I had a few apps that were cranky on my 9700 and wanted to do an OS reload. I had used wu-wei's hybrids before and decided to give this build a shot, it was totally random. After it was loaded up I noticed the big difference in speed and decided to let some people know. Not sure if there's a 9650 build that would have these files, I don't think OS7 and OS5 files would get along that well in a hybrid, and I'm not sure which of the files really make the difference with bridge as there's quite a few changed CODs in this hybrid. Sorry for not having a better answer on that...

For the 9780 users, I tested wu-wei's work on the 9780 and am going to upload an entire replacement for the .600 build OS. Basically, install the 600 OS on your dekstop and then REPLACE the entire folder with the ZIP supplied. (Delete the contents of the "9780AllLang_v6.0.0.600_P6.6.0.223" folder and then paste in the contents of the zip file)

All credit to wu-wei on this build, I just went through and tweaked a few things and repackaged it to make things easier for others. Of note, the preloaded video, music, and wallpapers are not loaded in this build. If you look in the java folder you will see where I renamed these files, if you want them, simply rename them and they will get loaded.

Here ya go: 9780AllLang_v6.0.0.600_P6.6.0.223-BastardHybrid.zip

[exzibit3]

Hey Hatax, thanks for the post and finds. Is there a hybrid out there that doesn't require copying cods and skips this additional step? Can you do a speed test using tethering and bridge browser separately on speedtest.net and post your results please?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Blacklac]

nobody makes Storm 2 hybrids anymore. :'( lol

[blackjack93117]

Thanks I think, but for us non hackers, what's a hybrid and how do you "load it up?"? Hacking scares me since I don't know how to unhack

[marksasongko]

I am downloading it now, will report back to after I have installed the OS on my 9780..

[HaTaX]

Thanks I think, but for us non hackers, what's a hybrid and how do you "load it up?"? Hacking scares me since I don't know how to unhack

SCrid2000 has a fantastic post about what a hybrid is: http://forums.crackberry.com/forum-f...2/#post5933638

And as to the "loading it up" process, it's pretty straight forward. You download and install the 6.0.0.615 OS (6.0.0.600 for 9780s) on your desktop. After that's installed you'll find the OS files located at: "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\Shared\Loader Files" (Note that "Program Files" will be "Program Files (x86)" on 64 bit systems). For the 9700 the folder that is installed is named "9700AllLang_v6.0.0.615_P6.6.0.223", open that folder up and this is where you will be copying the contents of the provided zip file. When windows asks, you want to overwrite ALL of the existing files with the files from the zip.

Now you've got the hybrid OS all ready to load on to your device. Launch loader.exe from "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\AppLoader" (Again, watch for the (x86) folder on a 64 bit system) and it will start the installation process and let you choose which apps are installed, removed, and upgraded.

Hopefully that's enough info to get started on. Here's the good news from all of this, it's very hard to completely brick a Blackberry. If you get in over your head and need to reload a stock OS, you should have no problem recovering with a RIM sanctioned OS for your carrier. Make sure you have a complete backup before starting the process!!!

[HaTaX]

Hey Hatax, thanks for the post and finds. Is there a hybrid out there that doesn't require copying cods and skips this additional step? Can you do a speed test using tethering and bridge browser separately on speedtest.net and post your results please?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

A speed comparison using my device is going to provide a bad benchmark, I am on a BES server that does not have a very high speed connection to the internet. And because of that, all my bridge browser traffic goes over our BES connection.

That being said, the bridge browser is far more responsive and doesn't "hang" while loading pages nearly as often. Speed isn't the same as the native browser, but at least it's very usable now. Maybe someone else that's not connected to a BES server could do the speedtest.net benchmark?

And no I don't have a complete installer for the hybrid, I'm not a normal hybrid builder, so I don't have a nice installer ready to go for it. Most of the hybrids assume the user has more knowledge then the average joe as far as copying files related to the BBOS and they all basically have the same instructions, copy the contents of a zip file over the existing installation. I just wanted to share this quickly with the rest of the community and haven't done much beyond wu-wei's work on it.

[PanaSama]

I have a BB 9700 and i think that bridge is already pretty fast for me, can any of you guys can comfirm if the speed with this hybrid is better than on this video? :

[HaTaX]

I have a BB 9700 and i think that bridge is already pretty fast for me, can any of you guys can comfirm if the speed with this hybrid is better than on this video? :

That's pretty fast! I never got performance like that prior to loading this hybrid, mine was much slower then what you showed there.

Not sure you stand to gain much from loading it up, looks like yours is already moving along at a decent pace. I would say that when I open a message I don't see a blank screen at all, the message is already there when I open it, but other then that the loading of the message list and all seems as nice and quick as mine.

As a note, mine will probably be slower then most others as I have over 5,000 messages in my inbox at any one time. (90 day retention on inbox with 3 email accounts) Not really excessive, but I'm sure it does slow down the initial connection over bridge.

[wu-wei]

Thanks for all the positive feedback on my build.

I understand the 9780 folks are seeing a bit of an increase in performance as well.

I'm just glad folks are getting the results they want - namely, a system that works efficiently and quickly.

[HaTaX]

Thanks for all the positive feedback on my build.

I understand the 9780 folks are seeing a bit of an increase in performance as well.

I'm just glad folks are getting the results they want - namely, a system that works efficiently and quickly.

Thanks for chiming in! I think you'll have a few happy 9700/9780 users in here, at least the ones that are having issues with bridge speed performance.

Seems the OS7 cods have something in them that really help data transmission "smoothness." I've even noticed in app world that the KB counter updates much more frequently when downloading applications. Odd observation I know, but I'm AR on that kind of stuff and it tells me that something at a lower level is getting hung up far less often.

Great hybrid my friend!

[wu-wei]

Thanks I think, but for us non hackers, what's a hybrid and how do you "load it up?"? Hacking scares me since I don't know how to unhack

The easiest way to describe a hybrid is as a collection of files from different versions of the BlackBerry OS, all mashed together into a new OS.

Basically, the BlackBerry OS gets installed to your device as a radio/platform file (the ".sfi" file) which contains the inner workings of the OS; and as a Java folder (the "java" or ".cods") which operate primarily as a front-end to the guts of the OS. That's a very broad generalization of things, as there are functioning apps in cod files, but for purposes of understanding an OS install, it will do.

What we do is take a "stock" OS installation and modify it. When you download a new OS package from RIM and install it to your PC, there are specific folders created (and a bunch of registry entries too). We have discovered that we can change the things that are included in those folders to make our devices work better.

The very first thing I ALWAYS do before tinkering with a stock OS is to make a copy of ALL the files and folders in the stock installer. That way, if I screw something up, I can "roll back" to a stock OS and things will be fine.

So, I go into my installer folder - the path is C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\Shared\Loader Files\INSTALLATION FOLDER (it will be named something like 9700AllLang_v6.0.0.615_P6.6.0.223) - select all files and folders, and copy them into a new folder named Stock (or something equally obvious to you).

Once that's done and I know I've got an escape hatch, I start tinkering with the goodies in there. Personally, I never change the sfi file (only because I've never had reason to). I have a modified collection of alx files (alx stands for Application Loader XML) those are the files that tell App Loader what to install as part of the OS. I also have a very highly tweaked Java folder. That is the heart of any hybrid - the collection of COD files included in the Java folder.

So, if you're loading my hybrid on a 9700, all you have to do is replace a bunch of files in the Java folder, then run the loader application to install the "new" OS.

That's a quick and dirty overview of hybrids, and more info can be found in my installation guide, linked in my signature. SCrid2000's thread is very helpful, too.

[PanaSama]

That's pretty fast! I never got performance like that prior to loading this hybrid, mine was much slower then what you showed there.

Not sure you stand to gain much from loading it up, looks like yours is already moving along at a decent pace. I would say that when I open a message I don't see a blank screen at all, the message is already there when I open it, but other then that the loading of the message list and all seems as nice and quick as mine.

As a note, mine will probably be slower then most others as I have over 5,000 messages in my inbox at any one time. (90 day retention on inbox with 3 email accounts) Not really excessive, but I'm sure it does slow down the initial connection over bridge.

Thanks for your reply, i think i wont be installing the hybrid then, the blank screen on the messages doesnt happen all the time and as you can see from the video its not that much of a lag anyway, also i was shooting the video with my 9700 so maybe that didnt help either

[marksasongko]

it seems that there's not much difference in terms of speed.. I'll keep toying with the bridge as I have only got time to check out the message app however what I have noticed is that my bb seems a lot snappier.. Thanks to hatax and wu-wei for making this OS and thread..

[uci2ci]

thanks for the hybrid wu-wei!
i too didnt see much of an increase in bridge performance using the hybrid...not to say im not happy with it! i have about 15 more mb of memory now when compared to the shrunk 615 i had installed before (i shrunk both wu-weis and the stock 615 the same way using bb boss)

my friend got a new 9930 from verizon today...i bridged my playbook to it to see if its any faster than my 9700 with wu-wei's hybrid installed. as far as i can tell, it wasnt. this was a turn off... i was expecting a considerable difference between the two devices. maybe her devices needed a few battery pulls....i dont know. i'm pretty happy with my 9700 now....i was thinking about getting the 9900 from canada, but i think ill wait.

[dablessing]

I need to preface this with the fact that I am no stranger to installing leaked OS' or shrinking the OS, or even just tinkering with COD's. However, I followed the instructions to a "T" and unfortunately when I get to the part of installing the OS through the App Loader, my app loader doesn't find the core system files or anything other than Facebook or BBM. In fact, I even browsed for the Platform.alx file, and when i clicked open, I got the error that none of the .alx files in my loader file were compatible with my device. Like I said, i'm not a noob, but I sure feel like one right now! I know i downloaded the .615 from Bell for my 9700 via the links in Wu-wei's hybrid thread.

I did some searching and can't find much about this problem. Would the 6.0.0.615 be corrupt? I even deleted and re-downloaded and re-installed.

Does anyone have any advice? I had 6.0.0.576 installed previously. I deleted all other OS' from my computer.

Thanks for your help guys!

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[HaTaX]

I need to preface this with the fact that I am no stranger to installing leaked OS' or shrinking the OS, or even just tinkering with COD's. However, I followed the instructions to a "T" and unfortunately when I get to the part of installing the OS through the App Loader, my app loader doesn't find the core system files or anything other than Facebook or BBM. In fact, I even browsed for the Platform.alx file, and when i clicked open, I got the error that none of the .alx files in my loader file were compatible with my device. Like I said, i'm not a noob, but I sure feel like one right now! I know i downloaded the .615 from Bell for my 9700 via the links in Wu-wei's hybrid thread.

I did some searching and can't find much about this problem. Would the 6.0.0.615 be corrupt? I even deleted and re-downloaded and re-installed.

Does anyone have any advice? I had 6.0.0.576 installed previously. I deleted all other OS' from my computer.

Thanks for your help guys!

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Do me a favor, run a command prompt in administrator mode, and paste this command into it:

dir /a /s c:\vendor.xml

Let me know if it finds anything... If it doesn't then we've got something else going on, but if it does, delete it.

[dablessing]

Hatax: Seems like that worked. It found a vendor file in the following path:

c:\users\matt\appdata\roaming\ResearchinMotion\Bla ckberry\LoaderXML

Not sure what that path is, but i deleted the vendor file in there. I then restarted the apploader and it pulled up all of the files I needed.

Thank you very much Hatax!

[dablessing]

Ok, got everything back up and working 100%. Bridge does seem improved! Also, this fixed the missing link between my bridge files. The newest Playbook Update (.2670) broke the link on my playbook (as well as several other peoples) to where i couldn't get it to see any bridged SD card files.

This fixed it quite nicely!!!

Thanks guys!