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BackBoard Getting Started Guide
Written by Wynd/Andrew Liu.
Table of Contents
1. Basic Installation
2. BackBoard Buttons
3. Welcome
4. Learning more about iPhone Filesystem
5. iSetup Basics
6. Getting Started
Basic Installation
Download the .deb file and installing via Terminal or iFile. The link to the download is: (installation
tutorials can be found through Google)
http://www.mediafire.com/?2ue9zyflf5up9z6
BackBoard Buttons
A quick overview of all the functions of the buttons:
1. Theme Overview: Displays all your themes with a preview image for each.
2. Theme Creation: Creates a new Backup of you current layout.
3. Function Selection: Determines what function is used when a theme is selected. Defaulted to
install.
4. Revert Theme: Rarely used, will be removed in future versions. (supposed to revert to pre-
installed state) Don't worry about this button.
Fig. 1: Function prompt. Allows you to confirm if you want to use that function.
Fig. 2: Respring prompt. Whether or not you want to respring.
Fig. 3: Creation prompt. Determines the name of the newly created theme.
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Welcome
So you probably have backboard installed on your device by now. (If you've installed backboard after
November of 2010 then there's a good chance that you'll go through an automatic update process. This
process should be self-explanatory, although as of writing this document, I haven't implemented a
method yet.) And you might be wondering how is this going to become a brand new way of theming?
A couple reasons:
Understanding what users WANT The goal in theming is to make you device look cool, and this is what thousands of users around the
world are interested in. Making their devices look cool. But what if, in order to get a theme, you have to
spend hours setting it up, learning how to use new programs that you've never heard of before? What if
your grandma had an iPhone and she wants to get a certain theme on her device but she doesn't even
know how to use winterboard, let alone all the other extensions she needs. Obviously, there's no way!
One click installations will definitely make it easier on all users. People who've never used an iPhone
before can have access to any theme, no matter how complex.
VISUALIZE, not Read Backboard is like a whole new theming concept. What's the main difference between a Mac and an old-
fashion command-prompt computer? It's the icons, the pictures. You want to visualize your themes, not
just see a bunch of meaningless text on your screen. Windows Vista to Windows 7, what's the big
difference? The taskbar. The taskbar used to be a tiny icon with a bunch of text, but now it's composed
of big icons; there's no more text! Theming is about looks, you want your users to know what the final
outcome looks like.
Publicity
Cydia is like a big sea of packages. There are thousands of themes, apps, extensions, etc. The chance of
someone coming across your theme? 1 in 10,000. There are tons of under-rated themes out there, it's
just that people never get a chance to come across it. iTunes, the largest music library, why is it
successful? It's organized, people get the songs that they like, they can see the music that other people
like. Same with Pandora Radio, people discover new music that they like and they buy it. Publicity is the
best way for more people to get your theme, especially when users get to decide what they like and
share it with others.
Learning more about iPhone Filesystem
Make sure you have SSH access, for tutorials for your operating system, use Google or YouTube.
A couple folders you must know:
1. /Applications or /var/stash/Applications.xxxxxx - This is your applications folder.
2. /Library/Themes or /var/stash/Themes.xxxxxx - This is your themes folder.
3. /Library/MobileSubstrate/DynamicLibraries - This is your mobilesusbtrate folder (extensions).
4. /var/mobile/Library/Wynd/iSetup - This is your iSetup folder, contains all created setups.
5. /var/mobile/Library/Preferences - This is your preferences folder, contains all settings.
6. /var/mobile/Library/SpringBoard - This is your SpringBoard folder, contains springboard settings.
Make sure you memorize the locations of these folders. The next time I refer to your Preferences folder,
you should know that it's /var/mobile/Library/Preferences
iSetup Basics
iSetup is the backbone of Backboard. iSetup is a preference management script that I've created
specifically for Backboard. In fact, you don't even need to use Backboard the app, you only need
terminal to run the iSetup script.
Understanding how it Works The way iSetup works is taking all the Preference Lists (plists) in your Preference folder to a newly
created setup folder in your iSetup folder. These plists hold data for your apps, such as current
iconoclasm layout and even your springboard layout (3.x, on 4.x it's in the SpringBoard folder).
When you "install" a new setup, it simply backs up your current preferences and copies the saved
preferences. With this, you can do several steps at once, such as applying a theme in winterboard or
changing Infinidock size.
Another thing to keep in mind is that iSetup only replaces the plists in the backed up setup. If it's not in
the folder, then it isn't replaced. By default, when you create a new backup, it copies ALL of the plists in
your preferences folder. Meaning that, if you only want to change certain settings, simply delete the
plists that you don't need.
Getting Started
The concept of Backboard is simple.
When you create a new "theme", it takes your current iPhone's
setup and makes a complete copy of it (not data like apps, just
the current setup). Then, when you install a theme, it swaps the
saved copy of your iPhone setup with your current setup.
Through this, you can have a concept of "multiple springboards".
Let's Try it
If you launch Backboard now, it should be empty.
Backboard doesn't come with any default themes, so let's make
one. Use SBSettings->More to take off any unnecessary
extensions (ex. winterboard, Iconoclasm), you device should
look normal now, as if it was un-jailbroken. Once you have done
this, press the Create Theme button and name it something like
"iPhoneOS". This will be your default theme, if you ever want to
revert back to normal. (you may have to exit backboard and
relaunch it to see the changes, if you are reading this after future
updates then there's a chance you won't have to do this
anymore)
Then, exit backboard and make a folder, or go to SBSettings, re-
enable Winterboard or some other extension. In other words,
make some changes to your device.
Now, go to BackBoard and create a new theme called "modded"
or something like that. Select iPhoneOS and you should switch
back to the way it was before you made any changes. Then
install Modded and it should change to after you make the
changes.
If you did everything correctly, you should understand how
Backboard works.
Enjoy!