meta-doctor in 2023

[Herrie82]

What to include in a meta-doctor in 2023 to get a webOS device up and running?

• Bypass activation
• Proxy
• SSL Update
• Google Oauth2 patches

@codepoet80

[hanakomisa]

My personal suggestions would be including @nizovn's port of QtWebBrowser (and all of its dependencies) for the Pre 3(maybe veer as well? the UI doesn't really scale well though.) MetaDoctor, and also QupZilla on the TouchPad MetaDoctor. I would also include his port of Squid SSL too for those that would prefer the SSL bump to be done on their device instead of relying on an external server for privacy reasons. (I haven't had issues with Squid SSL on my Pre 3/Veer/TP personally.)

Not sure if you'd be allowed to include those from a legal standpoint though, no idea what license they use.

[ericblade]

SSL Update = Certificates?

Do WiFi devices need an update to the time server list? A lot of those have changed names over the years. I couldn't even begin to remember where that's stored, though.

It's probably a good idea to include anything that improves QoL and/or allows communication with the rest of us out there. Not that anyone who finds one of these isn't going to already be in contact with the rest of the community, but they'll probably want anything that does keep in touch with the community. The new Discord thing, links to whatever webpages are still being updated and such.

I'd almost suggest a plugin from Synergy to Discord, but it turns out that the Messaging app really sucks when you start slamming lots of messages at it. Though that could be mitigated some (at the very least apply a patch that reduces the notification level of messages, there was a big problem with that when I wrote an IRC synergy connector) but slamming large conversations into the database needs some mechanism to expire them .. of course, all of that would require new work to be done it doesn't exist right now :| and i'm not necessarily volunteering lol.. none of my devices are currently coming up

[codepoet80]

slamming large conversations into the database needs some mechanism to expire them

We kinda already have that -- and a much simpler interface to get messages, via SimpleChat. It has a little web service (and corresponding Discord bot) that caches just the last 100 (configurable) messages in a given channel, so that webOS can pick them up. When SimpleChat writes to that cache, the Discord bot picks that up and puts it on the Discord server. All that would be needed is the Synergy integration -- which while theoretically possible, seemed more complicated than it was worth. The furthest I got with Synergy was registering a fake chat app, to bypass the onboarding screen and enable Bluetooth message passing with a phone.

That said, I think all of that is out of scope for a metadoctor. I'll reply here with a minimum set of recommendations (and maybe a maximum set) later in the week, when I have some spare brain cycles.

[hanakomisa]

Personally, here are the things I would definitely declare essential, can't really use a webOS device in 2023 without these.

• Activation Skip (+ Dev Mode)
• webOSArchive Proxy
• Root Certs + SSL update
• Preware and Museum II
• Clock Sync (and maybe the sync fix script on TP?)

These are what I would say would be nice to have.

• On-device SSL bump proxy (eg, nizovn's Squid port)
• Dead apps patched out (App Catalog, VPN, Backup, Updates, etc)
• Replacement of the Check Sim/Airplane mode text? As 3G/FauxG has been pretty much gone worldwide. (Would also include the Tweaks app to adjust the text, with the default text being "Palm" like the current available patch on Preware.)

Maybe not included by default?

• UberKernel + Govnah for Pre 3/TP?
• Xecutah for TP?
• Aforementioned alternative browser apps for Pre 3/TP, though installing the dependencies can be finicky from time to time, I would vote to include these by default.

As for the rest, I think they can just easily be installed through Preware/MuseumII so there probably isn't a need for them to be here.

Also does the "Disk Cache mod" and other performance-enhancing-claiming tweaks actually work? might be worth a look into.

[ericblade]

That said, I think all of that is out of scope for a metadoctor.

Fair. I was just thinking that, particularly if stuff is removeable, it's nicer to just include things that the community would probably install anyway, since there's nearly zero method of discovery.

[Herrie82]

• VPN

Is VPN actually dead? I think the app itself is fine, but the protocols might be outdated?

[codepoet80]

Is VPN actually dead? I think the app itself is fine, but the protocols might be outdated?

The app does work, but there are zero modern VPN servers that it can connect to (I've tried a half dozen.) I'd be in favor of just making it disappear (especially from the System Menu)