The Webos Internals Meta Doctor is a Makefile which can modify a copy of the Palm webOS Doctor before it is flashed onto a webOS device. It accomplishes this by reaching into Palm's distributed Doctor JAR file and making changes to it.

The following features are available. To enable a feature, uncomment the corresponding line in the Makefile.

BYPASS_ACTIVATION removes the Palm activation process that normally runs on the first boot of the device. This allows users to use the device even if they do not have access to cellular connectivity or would prefer not to go through the activation process. This option disables the cellular functionality until the next time you doctor. Bypassing activation may prevent you from creating a Palm profile. This is not a method to use a device on a different cellular carrier. Note that this option is only for use on Phones, not Tablets.

BYPASS_FIRST_USE_APP allows the device to start without running the First Use application. This allows phone users to enable wifi service first and use that for Palm profile creation and restoring of all the profile data. Note that to create a Palm profile you may still need to activate the cellular connection. This is not normally required on a TouchPad, as it supports wifi in the First Use app. This is not a method to use a device on a different cellular carrier.

ENABLE_DEVELOPER_MODE puts the phone in Developer Mode. This allows installation and testing of applications on the device without needing to type the developer mode activation code. There are no known security implications of leaving a phone in developer mode.

ENABLE_BETA_FEEDS installs a flag file which tells Preware to automatically install beta feeds for all WebOS Internals packages. ENABLE_ALPHA_FEEDS installs the corresponding flag for the alpha feeds. You must read http://testing.preware.org/ before enabling either.

INSTALL_SSH_AUTH_KEYS imports the SSH authorized_keys file from the user's home directory to the device. The user can then connect to the device from their computer as soon as an SSH daemon is installed. You must already have a valid openssh authorized_keys file in ~/.ssh/authorized_keys or in ./config/authorized_keys before enabling this feature, or it will cause a fatal error. You then need to install the OpenSSH SFTP Server application in Preware to actually access the device using the openssh private key that matches the openssh public key listed in your authorized_keys file.

INSTALL_WIFI_PROFILES imports a wifi preferences database file from the user's home directory to the device. The device will then be set up to use wifi immediately after the webOS Doctor has completed. You must already have copied a correctly configured prefsDB.sl file from the /var/preferences/com.palm.wifi/ directory on the device to ~/.ssh/com.palm.wifi.prefsDB.sl or to ./config/com.palm.wifi.prefsDB.sl on your host machine before enabling this feature, or it will cause a fatal error.

DISABLE_UPLOAD_DAEMON disables a background process that automatically uploads usage information to Palm on a daily basis. It uploads debug information related to operating system or application crashes, users' GPS information, along with data on every application used, and for how long it was used. You may wish to disable this on privacy grounds, or if you do not have an unlimited data plan and will be paying exorbitant data charges.

DISABLE_UPDATE_DAEMON disables the Palm Over The Air update daemon. It also disables provisioning support by cellular providers.

DISABLE_MODEM_UPDATE prevents the device from reflashing the modem software. This saves some time during the webOS Doctor process.

ENABLE_USB_NETWORKING activates USB networking functionality. The device can then be accessed via USB networking (usbnet drivers are required on the host). This is not a tethering mechanism.

REMOVE_CARRIER_CHECK prevents the webOS Doctor from verifying that it is installing a software version from the same provider through which the device was distributed. It also removes any and all carrier-specific applications and features. The webOS Doctor can then be used to update the core software using a release from a different provider (excluding any provider-specific functionality). This is likely to break access to the App Catalog and Updates apps. This is not a method to use a device on a different cellular carrier.

REMOVE_MODEL_CHECK prevents the webOS Doctor from verifying that it is installing a software version for the intended device. The webOS Doctor can then be used to update the core software using a release from a different device (e.g. EU device vs US device). This is not a method to use a device on a different cellular carrier.

CHANGE_KEYBOARD_TYPE permanently changes the keyboard layout using the manufacturing software token area. You only need to do this once. Future uses of the webOS Doctor without this feature enabled will not change the setting. You can use this feature again in the future at any time to reverse this change. ('z' means QWERTY, 'y' & 'y1' mean QWERTZ, 'w1' means AZERTY).

ADD_EXTRA_CARRIERS adds extra carrier information from the files in the ./patches/carriers directory (currently only for WebOS 2.0.0).

VAR_PARTITION_SIZE allows you to increase the size of the /var partition. The extra space is taken away from the USB drive. Note that as of webOS 2.0, emails and attachments are no longer stored in /var.

SWAP_PARTITION_SIZE allows you to increase the size of the swap partition. The extra space is taken away from the USB drive.

EXT3FS_PARTITION_SIZE adds a spare LVM partition formatted as ext3. This allows space for experimentation that requires an additional ext3 filesytem. The extra space is taken away from the USB drive. Note that any existing ext3fs partition will be reformatted.