@canbo I am very much like you and much too lazy to use the SEARCH function to look for answers that are directly available throughout this website. And I remember a few months ago when I also did not understand the Ptool I also wanted someone to hold my hand and feed me the answers rather than taking the time to try it for myself. So I hope one day you will take your time to help others, because as @Vitaliy knows, Sharing is Caring.

I wrote my response as if I was writing a response to myself, that is HOW TO USE PTOOL for DUMMIES LIKE ME.

This is a VERY EASY step by step guide on how to use the PTOOL and does not belong in this section so @Vitaliy if you want to use it for FAQ, please do.

HOW TO USE PTOOL FOR DUMMIES LIKE ME. BY @JAKARTAGUY

1. Open ptool3.exe (if you have mac, like me, I open it with WINE and I run directly)
2. You will see ONE turquoise colored button which says LOAD FIRMWARE). To make my life simple I made a folder for EACH hack and copied a copy of the LUMIX firmware in each folder.
3. Go to your folder that contains the FIRMWARE and choose the firmware (It is called GX1_V11.bin)
4. Now you will see something INTERESTING. You will see many letters at the bottom of the Ptool from A all the way to J. If the letter is RED that means there IS NO hack associated with that letter. If the Letter is GREEN then you can click on that letter to open a specific hack. (If you have placed many hacks in one folder you will see many green colored letters, make sure you change the hack names to represent a specific letter).
5. Click on the letter of your choice.

FOR EXAMPLE: I made a folder galled Galaxian Hack. In the folder I put my firmware GX1_V11.bin and ALSO the hack which is called seti.ini (this means the LETTER I will be green), if the file was called setA.ini then the letter A would be green. If you have two hacks, one called setB.ini and one called setJ.ini then the two letters that are green in the PTOOL are the letter B and the letter J. Okay, I will do one more since this is a tutorial called "for dummies like me" ... if you have a hack in your folder called setC.ini and setE.ini then the letters with the green color in your PTOOL will be letters C and letters E. If you still don't get it please re-read the last few sentences until it clicks, which is what I would do.)

1. once you click the letter of your choice a POP-UP (small, yellow color) will appear right above the letter which says the name of the hack and SETTINGS LOADED.

2. On the top of the PTOOL you will see three lines of text. One says Version Increment (keep that checked). One says Patches for end users, and one says Patches for testers (NOTE: if you are reading this far on this tutorial DO NOT I repeat DO NOT touch the red skull or click on the red skull).

3. Click the blue book like looking icon beside the words that say Patches for end users.

4. You will see more blue book like/ blue door like icons that say Interface, Movie Related Restrictions, AVCHD Movie Mode, and AUDIO.

5. Click the blue icon beside INTERFACE and you will see ALL INTERFACE LANGUAGES, make sure that is clicked with a checkmark.

6. Now click Save Firmware.

7. Save the firmware but use a different name by adding 1 to the version number for example GX1_V12.bin or GX1_V13.bin or GX1_V14.bin

BONUS TUTORIAL.

1. Transfer the file you just named GX1_V12.bin or GX1_V13.bin or GX1_V14.bin onto your SD card that you use for your Lumix.

2. Make sure you are using an original battery that is FULL and turn on the camera, with the SD card inside which contains the new firmware you just named GX1_V12.bin or GX1_V13.bin or GX1_V14.bin and click PLAY.

3. The camera will now operate on it's own. DO NOT TOUCH IT. DO NOT PLAY WITH IT. JUST LET IT BE.

4. Once it is done, FORMAT YOUR CARD.

5. DONATE TO PERSONAL-VIEW.

6. YOU ARE DONE.

@marceloshak there isn't a Panasonic camera with a hack that gives focus peaking, only the G6 has focus peaking which was put in it by Panasonic

I love the footage from the GX1using GalaXian settings. I'm using the Pany 20mm 1.7. Sadly minor light changes are causing the auto exposure to shift during shots. Is this an issue that's magnified with GalXian? Somehow I doubt it. I would guess most everyone who reads and contributes here knows of this but it remains very distracting. djhessler writes of the same. With exposure locked the GX1 would be so right for my needs. There really is no other camera for me at this time. Please if anyone is close to those doing the real work is there an inkling of hope? Thank you. Thank you.

yep

canbo: get driftwood galaxian settings here:

http://www.personal-view.com/talks/uploads/FileUpload/47/089618cf0d8cf0d3749305dec9bcba.zip

and ptool here:

https://www.personal-view.com/faqs/gh2-hack/ptool-software

I'd just like to say thanks for all the work on the hack!!! I've shot a lot of great video with the galaxian settings.

Really looking forward to manual control over video. Video shot on the gx1 is amazing in daylight, but below a certain light level becomes extremely noisy and unusable. Hopefully manual mode would fix this because we could specify a lower iso and slower shutter speed.

Thanks!

Where can i download such a hack ? Would be very pleased since my japanese is not sufficient ;-)

I bought a GX1 in japan -any idea how the language can be changed to English ?

djhessler: it's not possible as GX1 don't have manual video mode. VK is working on hack which could enable manual controls but at the moment it's not possible. If you want manual controls then only way is buying GH2. I did it too and it was worth it. Video quality on GH2 is unbeatable in that price range :)

@newgx1 Yeah, I haven't been able to use it either. Would be really great, but it is just greyed out now.

Guys, I ended up buying the GX1 and I love it, it's compact and I can finally fit it in a small bag, but my Question is, IS THERE ANY WAY TO LOCK ISO APETURE SHUTTER DURING VIDEO RECORDING? I kind of wish I could at least lock it once I hit record or something, anyone?

I would personally go with driftwoods GalaXian for now. Great quality for MP4. Cant wait for the playback fix and V3!

@darrbee

Use Sanity 5.1 settings topic for such questions, as I have no idea.