webOS Doctors

If things go really wrong, Palm/HP provided a way to reflash the system image, called a Doctor, allowing you to start almost from scratch. Some unofficial Super Doctors can also upgrade the OS. Be careful -- its almost impossible to brick these devices, but there are always risks when flashing an OS. Make sure you have a good quality (preferably OEM) USB cable, and a good charge on your battery.

These instructions are provided for quick reference, no guarantee is implied.

Download the Doctor

Most Doctors were provided by the manufacturer, but some, such as Meta Doctors and Super Doctors, were built by the community to provide upgrades and enhancements to system images. These special kinds of doctors were intended to be built by the end user, but many have been archived.

Available webOS Doctors have been archived here.

Refer to the readme in that archive to find the correct Doctor file for your situation. Be 100% sure you have the right Doctor for your device before proceeding!

Running the Doctor

Pre-requisites

Refer to the activation instructions to download the Java runtime -- you'll need to setup your environment the same way to run a Doctor as to run the Activation tool.

During the process you'll need to get your device into recovery mode. Instructions for that are also listed on the activation page.

Starting the doctor

Run the Doctor jar file using your computer's command line: java -jar NAMEOFDOCTOR.jar

Replace NAMEOFDOCTOR with the file you downloaded above.

On some OSes, you may be able to start the Doctor just by double-clicking the .jar file.

Alternate Instructions

HP's original guide to Doctoring a TouchPad is still online here.

If you have difficulties with disconnection during the Doctoring process, check out the webos-internals wiki on recovery.

The process is similar for phones, but with differing procedures to enter recovery mode depending on your model. Refer to the activation page for steps to enter recovery mode.