Configuring the Start-up State Aware (SSA) Behaviour

This page describes how to configure how ECom behaves during system boot. It is intended for Symbian Developers optimising or troubleshooting the boot process for a phone.

The Symbian platform has a Staged Start-up Architecture, driven by the Application Framework's System Starter component, which provides a consistent and customisable method of starting components at device boot. The architecture divides the start-up process into a number of states, which allows components to perform only those start-up actions which are necessary to the state. This allows the start-up sequence to be optimised, so that functionality that is immediately important to the user starts first. Components that use this architecture to manage their start-up are called Start-up State Aware (SSA).

By default, ECom is SSA. It loads registration files for plug-ins on read-only internal drives first, while start-up is in the "Critical" state. Registration files for plug-ins on other drives (i.e. installed third-party plug-ins) are loaded later, when start-up moves to the "Non-critical" state.

ECom's SSA behaviour can be disabled, in which case all plug-in registration files on all drives are loaded when ECom is started. To disable the SSA behaviour, place a file called EComSrvr.ini in either of the directories C:\private\10009D8F or Z:\private\10009D8F. The file can have any contents or be empty: its existence alone disables the SSA behaviour. To reenable SSA, remove EComSrvr.ini from both directories.