Hacking Safely remove system app bubbles/edit app.db on 3.68?

[wad11656]

Hi, I found some guides like in this very forum:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/guide-t...a-pstv-hacking-guide-check-here-first.403035/ ("Editing your 'app.db'")

And also some others:
https://anthe.studio/bubblestudio/
http://wololo.net/2016/08/02/releas...ser-friendly-editor-directly-in-your-browser/
https://wololo.net/talk/viewtopic.php?t=46201
http://www.psx-place.com/threads/manually-edit-app-db.15229/
https://www.reddit.com/r/vitahacks/comments/6o2x34/can_i_disabledelete_system_apps_like_near_and/

But I am unable to determine if there is a sure-fire way of safely (no error messages, no corrupt icons, no residual artifacts) removing the system app bubbles from the Vita home screen for 3.68 FW. It seems the guides are written often for 3.60 or lower. Is it possible on 3.68? How?

The top comment in the reddit post says he just deleted the apps from vs0. How exactly would I go about doing that/what files are they?

 

[godreborn]

I would urge you not to delete them from vs0. all you really need to do is remove them from the appicon table in the app.db. though, I'm not sure if you can delete their cell, but you can give them a page that doesn't exist. that should remove them.

 

[Hayato213]

Only partitions you should really write files to are ux0, uma0 and ur0. If you don't like the extra system apps just put them inside a folder.

 

[godreborn]

yeah, afaik, the worst that could happen from a mess up with the app.db is a rebuild of the database.

 

[wad11656]

Thanks, guys. Bubble Studio is advertised as an app.db editor, but is also advertised as only working below FW 3.60.
So I can simply FTP the app.db over to my PC, use an SQL editor thing to modify it, then FTP it back over to the Vita? That's it? I'll try it out, thanks

 

[godreborn]

Thanks, guys. Bubble Studio is advertised as an app.db editor, but is also advertised as only working below FW 3.60.
So I can simply FTP the app.db over to my PC, use an SQL editor thing to modify it, then FTP it back over to the Vita? That's it? I'll try it out, thanks

don't know about that as I've never used it. you can make the edits with sqlite browser 3 instead. one thing I noticed was that going from 3.60-3.65, the app.db actually decreased in size. also, you can't mix a vita's and pstv's or it rebuild the database. each one is a different size as well. that might affect that studio's ability to modify it. from my messing around with it, the app.db never changes size via manipulation, so I assume that there's a lot of extra space for added content.