How to Hack the GH2: my experience

T

translumination

Active member
Hi guys. I thought I would write up my experience with hacking the GH2. There is indeed alot of information out there but its so disorganized so I thought I'd o a write up to help those who haven't taken the plunge through fear of getting stuck.

First you need to download ptools version 3.63 from here:
http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/1375/ptool-v3.63d-topic/p1

Then you need to get the orginal firmware of the camera called GH2__V10 from here:
http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/330/new-gh2-firmware-leak

Third if you're on a mac you need to get winebottler to run windows execute files on the mac. Alternatively you can run a virtual windows to use the above software.

Put both of these into a folder and call it whatever you want for example I will call it the "gh2 hacks".

Join personal view or dvxuser where people will have the presets for the hacks. It will come as a zip file or as a file with an ending with ".ini" for example seti.ini
When you unzip your zip folder it will give you an ini file. You put this ini file into your gh2 hacks folder.

Run ptools. Check the box version increment. Press "load firmware". You got to GH2__V10 and load it. Then on the bottom of ptools you will get a set of buttons. One will be green which corresponds to the ini file in your gh2 hacks folder. Press it once and it will load the settings of the hack into ptools.

Press export firmware. Label it GH2__V11 and choose where you want it to save to. Note it has 2 underscores "__" and I always use GH2__V11 but you can enter any number you want (more than 10) as long as its not GH2__V10. This part caused me a lot of confusion. You don't need to change the number with any future hacks that you export. You can use the same number. I always use GH2__V11. The exported file will be called GH2__V11.BIN

Then get a sd card and format it on your camera. Take it out and connect it to your computer. Copy GH2__V11.BIN straight into the card. Don't put it into any of the 3 folders on the card.

Put the card into your camera. Press the play button. It will ask you to load the new firmware. If your battery is not full it won't allow you to proceed. Allow it to load and DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING ON THE CAMERA. IF YOU DO THEN YOU CAN BRICK YOUR CAMERA! The version of the firmware will still be V1.0

What if I want to go back to the original firmware? Well load firmware GH2__V10 and don't load any hack. Export it as GH2__V11 again. Load it again into your came. Easy!

What if you loaded the new panasonic firmware version 1.1? Well I just make any hack I like and load it again. It will automatically go back to firmware v1.0
It doesn't block you from doing it. Again when I export a new hack from ptools I label it GH2__V11. Do you get it? Using the GH2__V11 gets you everywhere. Or use any number you want (more than 10 ) except GH2__V10.

I hope this clears up abit of confusion. Just doing one thing wrong can stop things from working so you need to be totally precise about these things. I wrote this because these steps are NOT obvious to first time users.

Goodluck!
 
translumination said:
I hope this clears up abit of confusion. Just doing one thing wrong can stop things from working so you need to be totally precise about these things. I wrote this because these steps are NOT obvious to first time users.
Click to expand...

6 months ago I think this was the case, but there's quite a few guides on the net now with screenshots for every step.

But another concise guide is always welcome - good work!
 
Indeed there are alot of great guides but they don't address the naming of the hack files or how to load new hacks or what happens when you upgrade the official panasonic firmware. I had to dig around personalview to get to this and then try it myself so I'd thought I'd share it. Its a piece of cake really but very scary when you first do it.
 
That's a very good guide. I would make one suggestion:
I don't use firmware __11 because that's what the Panasonic "real" firmware is called. I start at 12 and name new patches sequential numbers without reusing numbers until i have a patch that is old and no longer used. That way I can look at the number on a card and know for sure which patch it is, as on my computer, each number is in a folder named after the patch. helps when you're testing many different patches.
Happy hacking! :)
 
translumination said:
Indeed there are alot of great guides but they don't address the naming of the hack files or how to load new hacks or what happens when you upgrade the official panasonic firmware. I had to dig around personalview to get to this and then try it myself so I'd thought I'd share it. Its a piece of cake really but very scary when you first do it.
Click to expand...

You got that right.

Back when I did it, there was hardly any info at all.
And an element of keeping it as obtuse as possible for the 'noobs'.

I researched for hours and hours then just bit the bullet.
 
so you can just reuse GH2__V11 over and over again for your hacked firmware, and it'll work?
 
It has worked just fine for me. I have loaded new firmware on to two cameras a total of about 10 times and I have never had any issues ...
 
yea same here no issues either, but once i hacked my gh2 with my 20mbs card i used 42m settings and my screen Froze up ! reallly kinda scared me ahha i couldnt even
turn my gh2 off it would still stay on , so i had to take the battery out and it still worked fine.

im goin today to get the 95mb/s 16gb card, i hear i can use any hack with that card.
 
Ryan E. Walters said:
Yes, there are some tutorials out there already- but they went over my head. So I have simplified them and provided step by step photos so that hopefully anyone can do it ...
http://www.ryanewalters.com/Videos/Training/Camera/camera.html
Click to expand...
Cheers mate, this simplified my entire life. I'm quite at home with my AF100, but this camera is a pita.
I noticed that my GH2 screen constantly goes nuts magnifying with a green square - what's all that about?
I don't even have to touch it, I keep on thinking what did I touch?
 
dtzfilms said:
Cheers mate, this simplified my entire life. I'm quite at home with my AF100, but this camera is a pita.
I noticed that my GH2 screen constantly goes nuts magnifying with a green square - what's all that about?
I don't even have to touch it, I keep on thinking what did I touch?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what that is all about- I haven't run into that issue yet. However, we are hacking a $900 camera, so we shouldn't expect it to behave like a $4,000 one ...

I'd recommend reinstalling the hack and see if that clears it up. Or possibly the media you are using isn't fast enough?
 
Ah, no. I haven't hacked the camera yet. Those symptoms are stock symptoms. I'm still waiting for my media to arrive. Just reading up on your post in preparation. So this Ptools - does that contain the driftwood hack? I'm a little in the dark on that. Your post makes it seem as if, those are the only three things I need to download. Winebottler, ptool3d, GH2_V10E, follow the instructions and voila I'm drifting. Or do I then go download the driftwood hack?

And while I'll use driftwood for personal narrative projects, I'd rather use some of the 44mbs hacks for corporate/wedding clients. Any you recommend? I'll probably try out a few, three at least. Thanks!
 
dtzfilms said:
Ah, no. I haven't hacked the camera yet. Those symptoms are stock symptoms. I'm still waiting for my media to arrive. Just reading up on your post in preparation. So this Ptools - does that contain the driftwood hack? I'm a little in the dark on that. Your post makes it seem as if, those are the only three things I need to download. Winebottler, ptool3d, GH2_V10E, follow the instructions and voila I'm drifting. Or do I then go download the driftwood hack?

And while I'll use driftwood for personal narrative projects, I'd rather use some of the 44mbs hacks for corporate/wedding clients. Any you recommend? I'll probably try out a few, three at least. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Bummer- stock symptoms - that doesn't bode well. I would suggest contacting Panasonic before hacking the camera to see if you might have a defective unit. I have never had that kind of problem ... I'm not sure they would replace the camera if you've hacked it and it has those problems ...

Thanks for the note- the Hack is NOT part of the PTools Download. I linked to the driftwood hack earlier in my post. But for clarity, I added it to the instructions. I added in links to the complete list of hacks, as well as to the Driftwood v9b.

The 44mbs and 100mbs are good. Test them out and see what suits your needs best as far as run times and quality levels go. Good luck! :)
 
Thanks for amending the bill of rights! Still waiting for my media. So you've never encountered it where the image on the screen suddenly gets magnified and there's a green square and a yellow marker indicating which portion of the screen is being magnified? I've been looking at a couple of GH2 guide books, but I'm not sure if I'll be wasting money.

Aah, I never posted this!

Oh well, my media arrived but now the site is saying new ptools 3.64 is required for the latest Driftwood X hack? Any idea where that is? I checked PView, but there doesn't seem to be a link.
 
They speak a different language on Personal view, man! Q? Death charts and 6080808 what? Death Stars and Jedi prestidigitation!
Is there a glossary for dummies on there somewhere??
 
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