LeapFrog Pollux Platform: LFConnect

Summary
This page contains information about the LFConnect software that comes with your device.

Disable Auto Start
Monitor.exe is the program always running on your computer, that triggers LFConnect, when a device is plugged in, you can disable it, to prevent LFConnect from starting.

Temporarily
This technique will turn off Auto Start until the next boot, or the next time LFConnect has been started.

Look in Task Manager for the Monitor.exe process, and simply kill that process.

Permanent
This solution will prevent Monitor.exe from being started at boot time. It requires making a registry edit, it would be wise to back up the registry, before making any edit.

Delete this registry entry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\Monitor

Which has the value "C:\Program Files\LeapFrog\LeapFrog Connect\Monitor.exe" This will prevent Monitor.exe from starting up when your computer starts. Monitor.exe will how ever be started by LFConnect, so be warned, if you've opened LFConnect, Monitor.exe will be active again, until reboot, or you stop the process.

Extract lfp Archives from Plugin
Download http://download.leapfrog.com/leapfrogconnect/PC/didj/DidjPlugin.exe

Install cabextract $ sudo apt-get install cabextract $ cabextract -d test DidjPlugin.exe will put all the extracted files in the test directory.

Extract lfp/lf2 archives

Force Firmware Updates
With a little trickery you can manipulate LFConnect to install downgraded, or custom firmware.

 Caution: 
 * When updating the firmware, make sure you have fresh batteries, or an A/C Adapter. A power outage, or disconnection during this process, could cause the device to stop working.
 * Be careful about connecting your device to LFConnect after this, it is possible for it to unintentionally want to update again.
 * This will erase all data on your device, back up accordingly.

First locate your desired archive and open it. Check Extracting Archives for more information. Didj Firmware:\Didj\DIDJ-0x000E0003-000001.lfp Leapster Explorer Firmware: \LeapsterExplorer\LST3-0x00170029-000000.lfp

These will be the latest firmware version, if you want a custom firmware to be loaded, model it after these packages, if you want an older version, you will need to obtain a copy.

The file of interest is meta.inf open it in a text editor. The line we are concerned with is: Version="1.35.2.4222"

You want this to be a higher version than the one installed, so make it version "3.35.2.4222" or something like that. This is the only place this number is used, and once installed, the firmware will be the actual firmware version. Look in /etc/version on the device for its official number.

Save the modified file to the archive, or compress your package into the proper format, and put it the LFConnect package folder.

 For Didj 

Plug your device in, turn it on, let LFConnect start up, you should then see it Tuning Up your device, this will take a while. Once finished you should have the new firmware installed.

 Caution 
 * If you keep getting the Tune Up screen after ejecting your device, you'll need to remove firmware-LF_LF1000/ and/or bootstrap-LF_LF1000 from /Didj/Base on the device. As it will keep thinking it needs an update.

 For Leapster Exporer  You will need to USB Boot the device. With it turned off, plug in the USB cable, hold Right and Left Shoulder plus the ? button, while turning it on. A Download in Progress screen should come up, and LFConnect will auto start as usual. It will then start Tuning Up your device.