Database Info

Google is trying to update my phone

I just got a message saying there is an update available. I told it not to do it. I do not want RC30 because it gets rid of root.
However, the other side of me is tempted to see if telnetd and all the other goodies are still there.

I'm also very tempted to install it to see if it removes root access. I hope someone who doesn't care about root access tests this out and reports back soon, because my curiosity is about to get the better of me.
It won't stop prompting me and I don't think I have the heart to keep saying no.

Look on your phone, and see if there is a file named "update.install" in the /cache folder. Or maybe in the /cache/recovery folder. If so, would you mind grabbing it off your phone and posting it somewhere?

Woobins said:
I'm also very tempted to install it to see if it removes root access. I hope someone who doesn't care about root access tests this out and reports back soon, because my curiosity is about to get the better of me.
It won't stop prompting me and I don't think I have the heart to keep saying no.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you ever do say yes can you tell us what your software version is?

JesusFreke said:
Look on your phone, and see if there is a file named "update.install" in the /cache folder. Or maybe in the /cache/recovery folder. If so, would you mind grabbing it off your phone and posting it somewhere?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
neoobs said:
If you ever do say yes can you tell us what your software version is?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only file of interest in the /cache directory is named, signed-RC30-from-RC29-fat.1582cace.zip. From this I'm assuming it's going to update my phone to RC30. I've made the file available here in case anyone is curious.

Ah, ok. It looks like that's the same file I just posted a link to then. Thanks

boo
neoobs said:
If you ever do say yes can you tell us what your software version is?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It did it.
just as I get home to catch up on the "jailbreak" and start doing it I get an
error while connecting to server, "connection refused"
error while receiving from server null
So I figured I'd check (I neglect my phone when I'm at work, and no, I don't recall accepting the update)
lo and behold:
Build description: kila-user 1.0 TC4-RC30 116143
ota-rel-keys, release-keys​Build ID: TC4-RC30
Build Date: Fri Oct 31 19:00:53 PDT 2008
Build type: user
Phone type: dream
Product brand: tmobile
Build user: android-build
Build host: undroid11.corp.google.com
Linux kernel version: 2.6.25-01843-gfea26b0
[email protected] #6​Mon Oct 6 14:13:36 PDT 2008​Baseband version: 62.33.20.08H_1.22.12.29
RIL Impl version: HTC-RIL 1.0 (Aug 19 2008,21:32:33)
Default keyboard device: trout-keypad-v3

That just proves that RC30 is specificaly out to close the telnet jailbreak method.
No need to apply it to patch/update other parts of the OS since it doesn't have anything else.
MMTest97 said:
error while connecting to server, "connection refused" error while receiving from server null
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After starting telentd via pTerminal?

quedijo said:
That just proves that RC30 is specificaly out to close the telnet jailbreak method.
No need to apply it to patch/update other parts of the OS since it doesn't have anything else.
After starting telentd via pTerminal?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It has more than just that fix. It patches quite a few other packages on the phone... for what purpose? I don't know.

quedijo said:
That just proves that RC30 is specificaly out to close the telnet jailbreak method.
No need to apply it to patch/update other parts of the OS since it doesn't have anything else.
After starting telentd via pTerminal?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes
tried pterminal and terminal emulator
netstat shows the ip
but telnet from pc fails to connect failed on port 23 and the port shown on netstat
I also tried the steps koush put up but still fail
granted I'm no linux/unix pro and I just installed cygwin a couple days after the connect bot app came out; so I may be doing something wrong

Does google check in the new change into the source tree before they push a update?

In addition to jailbreak fix there is a battery fix as well and a few others according to androidcommunity.com.

Well I finally got tired of clicking no and decided to go ahead and perform the update. After it finished, the phone rebooted and instead of booting up, the phone simply displays a '!' icon with a triangle around it and hangs. I'm not taking this as a good sign. I tried removing the battery but that didn't help.
I really hope the update didn't just brick my phone.

Woobins said:
Well I finally got tired of clicking no and decided to go ahead and perform the update. After it finished, the phone rebooted and instead of booting up, the phone simply displays a '!' icon with a triangle around it and hangs. I'm not taking this as a good sign. I tried removing the battery but that didn't help.
I really hope the update didn't just brick my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you're at the screen with the ! and triangle, Try pressing home+back (maybe several times). It should reboot, and hopefully boot back up normally.

JesusFreke said:
When you're at the screen with the ! and triangle, Try pressing home+back (maybe several times). It should reboot, and hopefully boot back up normally.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No dice. The phone reboots but still hangs at the error screen. The only thing I can think that might have caused it is that, while playing around, I set a root password and forgot to clear it before the update rebooted the phone. Who knows. I guess I'll call tmobile and see what can be done.
edit: I should mention that pressing alt-w to wipe the phone does not work either. It still returns to the error screen. I'm talking to tmobile tech support now and the original tech said that 'they were informed that a small number of users might experience this problem with the update'. I'm on hold waiting to talk to an android tech now. My advice to everyone who's played around with adding any extra files to /etc to hold off on upgrading for now. I'll report back with the results of my call with the android tech.

Now they're saying they would like to exchange the phone. Problem is the g1 isn't in their replacement program yet.
Aaaand they're out of stock so it's going to be at least 2 weeks.
I wish I'd have just kept hitting no.

Disturbing news, especially as I'm wanting to install a modified rc30. What exactly did you change?

I was playing around with trying to get dropbear to work and in the process I created some files in /etc (passwd, shadow, groups, etc). As well as creating a new regular user, I also added a password to the root account and carelessly forgot to remove it before applying the update. I'm only guessing here but I wouldn't be surprised if the new root password is what did it. The system does not have one by default and I wonder if that caused it to hang, waiting for a password to be entered while booting.
On a brighter note, I persisted and was able to get them to send me out a new phone immediatly. This has the added benefit of possibly fixing the loose-screen/creaking problem that I, like many others, am experiencing with the phone.
I'm wondering if I should try manually applying the update from the SD card while I wait for the new phone to see if that solves the problem. I probably should have tried that before calling. I'm hesitant to do that now, however, since if it does fix it, I'm not sure how tmobile would react to me returning a perfectly working phone.

Woobins said:
No dice. The phone reboots but still hangs at the error screen. The only thing I can think that might have caused it is that, while playing around, I set a root password and forgot to clear it before the update rebooted the phone. Who knows.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't get it. The update should restore whole /system folder, isn't it? /etc is actually a symlink to /system/etc, so, it should be restored too and passwd file successively removed.
Otherwise, I don't see any problem to keep the root access! Since /system is mounted without nosiud (any changes in RC30?), just keep a copy of shell with chmod 4777 somewhere there... where it wouldn't be removed by update, as it keeps passwd, and that's it.
Please, tell me where am I wrong, cause I definitely should be wrong somewhere.
PS: BTW, what was the progress with dropbear? I actually tried to make it work too, creating passwd etc, but no success...

Dimath said:
I don't get it. The update should restore whole /system folder, isn't it? /etc is actually a symlink to /system/etc, so, it should be restored too and passwd file successively removed.
Otherwise, I don't see any problem to keep the root access! Since /system is mounted without nosiud (any changes in RC30?), just keep a copy of shell with chmod 4777 somewhere there... where it wouldn't be removed by update, as it keeps passwd, and that's it.
Please, tell me where am I wrong, cause I definitely should be wrong somewhere.
PS: BTW, what was the progress with dropbear? I actually tried to make it work too, creating passwd etc, but no success...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unlike the RC29 update, the RC30 update doesn't actually do a complete wipe and restore of the /system folder. It patches a number of files (which will fail if any of them have been modified), and does a recursive chmod on the entire /system directory to clear any suid bits.

RC30 download link

Hot off the presses. Get it here.
That file is the crappy "patch" version that tries to patch you from RC29 to RC30.
Here is the full update, which should be much more reliable
Obviously, don't install it unless you want to lose root access
Update for those who are interested: I went ahead and bought myself a new G1. One of the stores in the area had a couple. It still had RC28 (not RC29) on it, so I'm back in business. I'll just unlock my RC30 one and sell it on ebay.

OMG how stupid can they be... look what I see in the update script
# delete unneeded files
delete SYSTEM:system/bin/telnetd
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can we patch this like today cause I kinda think there is more to this than just doing that.

neoobs said:
OMG how stupid can they be... look what I see in the update script
Can we patch this like today cause I kinda think there is more to this than just doing that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is. They added a kernel option "console=null", which I suspect basically makes it so that the physical keyboard no longer sends input to the console device. Note that there is still a root shell running on the console though.. it's just that now there isn't any way to send keypresses to that root shell.
Plus there are a ton of patches to the android apps and framework jars and such. Not sure what all changed there.
I'm in the process of modifying the patch, to apply to my phone without losing root access. More to come

What does the "applypatch" piece do?
That part looks different.
Interesting that it's only a 4 meg update, and that it only contains a new recovery.img and a new boot.img - I wonder what is different in those images. I hope they are keeping the recovery stuff in the open source branch updated - because, well, that's the nice thing for them to to do
Jesus Freke - when you get your patched-up version ready, please post it somewhere for us lazy bastards who want to ride your coat-tails

I just noticed something. This update doesn't wipe the system partition. If you had created a setuid copy of the shell ("su", or whatever), I don't think it will get deleted if you applied the update as-is.

but didn't you say it removes the use of keyboard in shell? If so we would still be up the creek. you know what a notice this update came really fast i never got and OTA until this(fishy) i had to force OTA. Well hope you work your magic JesusFreke.

Arg! dangit. I accidentally applied RC30 and lost my root access. I copied the wrong update file to my sdcard... grrrr!
So I'm out of the game. Sorry.
Oh, btw - I was wrong about the update keeping the setuid shell around. It completely wipes the permissions of the system folder, so if you did have a setuid copy of the shell, it will be set back to normal non-setuid status by the update. duh.

Sh**!! You were the shining hope , one question can you still get root through the adb shell? cuz if so you can save your a**

Nope. Like I said, I'm out of the game. Unless someone wants to trade me for a RC19/RC29 phone. Or until another root exploit is found. *sigh*

DOH! That sucks! Sorry to hear that, and thanks for taking one for the team.
So if an update does try to install do we just need to turn off the phone until a solution is found? I may need to go back to my Dash for a while until this all gets figured out!
The update that you meant to put on the card- was it a test? If the worst that will happen is the update will take maybe someone that doesnt mind the update could test it for you?

JesusFreke said:
Arg! dangit. I accidentally applied RC30 and lost my root access. I copied the wrong update file to my sdcard... grrrr!
So I'm out of the game. Sorry.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry about that!
Also, I'm confused. Hadn't you updated the keys in your bootloader to prevent an update? Or does that simply prevent the phone from downloading an update?

Can not we flash back that old RC29 File again ????

The update zip contains the boot.img and the recovery.img. so when the update starts it rewrites JesusFreke's mod recovery.img

spoofing
could we spoof the version # on our device? thus ending the nag and the ability to force the upgrade, for the time being?
bhang

RegGuheert said:
I'm sorry about that!
Also, I'm confused. Hadn't you updated the keys in your bootloader to prevent an update? Or does that simply prevent the phone from downloading an update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. But I had accidentally re-signed the full update with the new key and updated my phone with it. I was in the process of modifying the update, and had grabbed the wrong file to sign and update.

JesusFreke said:
Yes. But I had accidentally re-signed the full update with the new key and updated my phone with it. I was in the process of modifying the update, and had grabbed the wrong file to sign and update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh! That's a pain in the arse... the usb mass storage process is running as root, any chance of a buffer exploit there?

JesusFreke said:
Yes. But I had accidentally re-signed the full update with the new key and updated my phone with it. I was in the process of modifying the update, and had grabbed the wrong file to sign and update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
koush said:
mount -oremount,rw /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
You can't remount that directory that unless you have root.
Use the dd command to copy stuff around (the cp command is not available). I should mention I'm a Windows guy, and am pretty clueless with Linux: my coworker figured the rest of this out once I got to a root prompt.
Incidentally, in the /system/bin directory there is a flash_image executable that changes the recovery.img used when you hard reset the device. I've noticed that I can run this without root access from a standard adb shell. Maybe we never needed to root the device after all... I think we can flash it without root access... I'm too scared to mess with that at all though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found this, you may want to look into it.

syrusfrost said:
I found this, you may want to look into it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. But you have to have root access for the flash_image command to work. Or more precisely, you have to have write access to the /dev/mtd/mtd# device that you are trying to flash.

I am also the same unlucky guy who had Press Update Button and now we are in RC30
Now what are the chances of our device to get root access or ability to flash Test_Signed code in RC30

well i removed( # delete unneeded files delete SYSTEM:system/bin/telnetd )and replaced the boot.img and recovery.img with jesusfreke's anything else i should edit before i try to resign and update?

Modified TC5-RC8 update

Update: Here's an updated update. This update updates your phone so that it is updated. Note: if you apply this update over the previous update, it updates the update that you had previously updated your phone with, so that you have the most recent update.
This one contains the same stuff as my RC30 v1.2 update. Go read the notes for it over in that thread
Plus! You now get a voice dialer, amazon MP3, and all 4 IM types available on the US firmware (aim, gtalk, windows live and yahoo).
Note: to get the other IM providers, you have to delete the improvider settings after you install the update. Open a terminal and type the following command as root:
rm -r /data/data/com.android.providers.im
Then reboot the phone, and you should have all 4 IM providers available.
And now, for something completely different. A man with 3... err. nevermind, it's just the download link.
http://jf.nyquil.org/update_TC5-RC8_full_xda-dev_v1.2.zip
http://rapidshare.com/files/166186996/update_TC5-RC8_full_xda-dev_v1.2.zip
http://android-dls.com/forum/index.php?f=24&t=190&rb_v=viewtopic (see forum post for actual link to file)
----------------------
As usual, this can only be installed if you have already installed the modified recovery image. If you are running the official RC30 or RC8 build, you won't be able to use this.
To install, rename the file to update.zip, put it on the sd card, and reboot the phone into recovery mode (home + power). Once the recovery mode comes up, press alt+L to turn on the text display, and alt+S to apply the update.
This build can be installed by anyone that has the modified recovery image - it will run on both US or UK phones. Note though, some of the functionality in the US version is missing in the UK version: Voice dialing, myfaves, amazon mp3 store, chat messages via SMS.
And there might be other miscellaneous issues with running this build on a US phone.. possible MMS issues, etc. If you do encounter anything, feel free to post about it (it's good to know what works and doesn't), but don't expect it to be fixed . I may be able to fix some stuff.. but I can't work miracles
For all you people out there that aren't on t-mobile, installing this should fix the myfaves issues that y'all have been having (sending SMSs to t-mobile.. etc.)
Note: you can freely switch between the modded RC30 and modded RC8 build. If you install one and don't like it, you can always switch back.
Big thanks to SGTDavePwnage for finding the download, and for testing out the update! http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=443713

Thank you, sticky while it's hot!

pof said:
Thank you, sticky while it's hot!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ooo. hot AND sticky! I'm gonna have to go pick up some cinnamon rolls now.
Thanks pof

Ooh I'm so going to try that.. no MyFaves..
I'm still nowhere on making my own build... My Ubuntu has decided that I wasn't entitled to networking anymore.. (i hate that thing)
Thanks for your hard work!

No network for you! 1 year!
Just throw Ubuntu on a VM, you'll be building android in no time

Thanks JESUSFREKE, you did magic !

Well, I did screw up my network driver while trying to update the ATI ones.. but don't ask.
So I just updated my phone with your update and..... it seems to work
It took an awful lot of time to reboot so I got scared but it finally came up fine. I still have root of course (thanks so much)
Wifi ok, Camera ok, motion sensor ok.
Data.. I only get Edge, but that could be my provider not having 3G coverage here. To be verified. I don't use it much anyway since in my country the cheapest data plan is $40 for 50Mb.. :|
The dialer does not automatically format number in US format!! Yippee... I know it's a small thing but it was bugging me.
All contacts got lost (of course since they were managed by MyFaves). But syncing worked. With some errors in the background but apparently not too significant.
SMS ok. I'm not sure what you're calling SMS Chat. The SMS app still looks like a chat. I assume it's some T-Mo US feature that I won't miss.
And most important of all Mario Simulator still works fine . Seriously I can't find anything that doesn't work.
There is a new app "web'n'walk" from T-Mo which can not be removed through the normal application manager. If it's not replacing any android service i guess that a little remount and busybox mv should do the trick.
Amazon is indeed missing. I wonder if people who care about it could just copy the .apk and .odex file over and get it back. I don't care about it so I won't try. People still buy music?
I've been looking at logcat while writing this and I couldn't see any crazy SMS behavior.
So all in all a good upgrade for non T-Mo users with a US phone. For what it's worth I recommend it.

re: rc8 mod
nice work ppl

JesusFreke said:
Here's your TC5-RC8 build, complete with root access. Get it while it's hot!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hopefully I'm not being stupid - but is this the one for the UK? Whats the difference between RC30 and TC5-RC8 ?
Thanks for your hard work. T-Mobile in the UK have pushed out their update today - it keeps asking me if I want it (which I keep saying no) but need to make sure I get the correct image!

Yes, this is for the UK. (but will work on US handsets)
It is the new update that is currently being pushed out by T-mobile uk (but modified to keep root)
Functionally its not that different to RC7.
Think of it as the equivalent to RC30 (with all the nice US bits removed)

If i already installed the Modded RC30 update using the step by step in this forum..
do i just put this on my SD card and go into recovery mode and hit Alt+S
or do i have to do all the steps again?
i do not know if i have root or not... i tried a chmod on a font file and it wouldn;t let me.. even when i put "su"
said it was a read-only file system

knowledge_6 said:
If i already installed the Modded RC30 update using the step by step in this forum..
do i just put this on my SD card and go into recovery mode and hit Alt+S
or do i have to do all the steps again?
i do not know if i have root or not... i tried a chmod on a font file and it wouldn;t let me.. even when i put "su"
said it was a read-only file system
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Assuming you have correctly installed the modded RC30, you just need to rename the zip to update.zip and put this on your SD card and go into recovery mode and hit Alt+S.
To check if you have root, try re-mounting (mount -oremount,rw /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system)

thanks once i find a wifi connection i shall try it before i update. I am not on tmobile and mainly want this update to prevent text messages being sent out..
Work = WPA2 enterprise wifi ; <

knowledge_6 said:
thanks once i find a wifi connection i shall try it before i update. I am not on tmobile and mainly want this update to prevent text messages being sent out..
Work = WPA2 enterprise wifi ; <
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wi-Fi connection?? if your talking about telnet'ing the device, try installing the terminal from the marketplace instead and give it a go that way.

ahh alright.. i have the terminal emulator so i shall try that

tried it and i got
"operation not permitted"
did i F'up on installing the modded RC30?
when went into recovery mode when installing the RC30 update it said testkeys at the top ; <
dammit
EDIT: nevermind stupid mistake didn't tye SU

just a heads up..
this erases all your contacts.. so make sure u back it up.. good thing i had it all on my sim card..
the RC30 update kept my contacts intact ..

knowledge_6 said:
just a heads up..
this erases all your contacts.. so make sure u back it up.. good thing i had it all on my sim card..
the RC30 update kept my contacts intact ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, the Uk software doesnt use MyFaves (which controls contacts on US software).
That will be one side affect of switching between regions.
You can still re-sync with google and it will re-download them tho.

SGTDavePwnage said:
Yes, the Uk software doesnt use MyFaves (which controls contacts on US software).
That will be one side affect of switching between regions.
You can still re-sync with google and it will re-download them tho.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ahh i see.. : > thanks for the help!
works well .. my first call i couldn;t press end .. the call wouldn't disconnect .. but the 2nd and 3rd call i was able to..
i just imported contacts from my sim.. i don't use gmail haha

I have to take my G1 back and probably get an updated one.
I got my black UK G1 out of a T-Mobile shop last Friday and by Sunday they stopped selling them because there was a "bad batch" meaning my dad had to get the white one. Anyhoo...i have a dead pixel (which i can't stop looking at) so i took it back to the shop today but they still don't have black ones so i'll have to wait till Monday...but...i presume i'll end up with an updated one...

New to G1

Good afternoon to the G1 community. I just purchased my G1 yesterday through Tmobile and I have a couple question.
I just came from using a wing so I am pretty savy with wmo rom flashing and whatnot, but android is completely new to me. Now, of course i want to get the most out of my device. I must say, out of the box it is by far the best device that I have used. Even so, i know that there is some stuff that i am missing.
I have done some reading here in the forum, and i do know how to search, but im not clear on a couple things. For starters, I have been reading about Rooting my device. Now to be totally honest with you, i've read through the Rooting Thread but only walked away with I would love to have autorotate for my screen! I mean, truely what are the benefits to rooting the phone? Will i loose access to the "market" or loose any other functionality of the phone as it is now? Future updates?
In a perfect world i'd love to have the auto rotate feature.... the ability to change the way the program list slides up to maybe sliding panel, and an onscreen keyboard (such as chompsms) when i select a line to type in (whether im in the browser or anyother program.)
I Love the phone as it is.. so all in all, what functionality would i gain, and what would i loose? besides warranty of course
I apologize, i realized i may have put this in the wrong section!

1. Rooting you phone allows you to basically use it to the best of its capabilities. For example, you can change themes, boot image, auto rotate, multitouch, etc. You won't lose the market or any other functions after you root the phone. (To my knowledge, I see paid apps and such just fine on my phone.) You will continue to see future OTA updates, but if you download them, you will lose root access for your phone.
2. The "Cupcake" OTA release is planned for April (As has been discussed on the forums, may be true, may be false. TMobile is claiming its false, but Google controls the updates) If we ever recieve this update, then we will be able to get things such as an onscreen keyboard.
3. I'm not sure about changing the order of the way the apps are presented on the slide-up menu, but there are apps like ahome or dxtop that have alternate home styles, such as the "Iphone" style horizontal scrolling or multiple menu tabs.

Thanks, I do appreciate your prompt response!

if you want the best out of your phone root it.. but thats completely up to you.. when you root you'll be able to get the latest builds from JF anyway soo you'll never be out on whats new.. if anything you'll be a couple steps ahead of regular g1 users at all times

Just to verify.... The market is still available for apps after rooting.. Now I will loose root if I download from the market or just the "OTA" updates for the phone?
Also, i was going through the instructions for the process and got to the point where you upgrade to the latest build. So, i assume RC33 is US Tmo vs RC8 being for UK. What is ADP1.1? So is my choice between ADP1.1 and RC33?

you shouldn't even recieve an OTA update notification if you follow directions, so you don't have to worry about that, and many apps on the market are actually FOR root users and only root users so you will not lose market obviously. the greatest thing about getting root is that you can basically make your phone do anything you want(so long as you are comfortable with linux commands and aren't afraid to temporarily "brick" you phone) but even if you kust want autorotate you will need to root the phone and you will need to grab a JF update. there is an app that someone has written, almost completely idiot proof rooting, and i am trying to help it to be COMPLETELY idiot proof, if you want to try it out search app that roots your phone and it should pop up

Ok, so I have decided to go ahead and play with this and see what there is to offer.
I have successfully downgraded to the rc29 firmware and verified it in my phone. Now I have also done these instructions to get root;
Rooting your RC29 or lower phone:
On RC29 phones and lower, anything you type into your keyboard is also being run in a hidden console with root permissions. More information regarding that at the bottom of this post. But, to get root access, do the following:
Instructions:
Download recovery.img and copy it to your SD card (see the previous instructions on how to copy from your computer to your Phone's SD card).
Download the Hard SPL and copy the zip file to the SD card.
All files must be on the root of your SD card.
Restart your phone. Wait for your phone to start up fully and show the home screen.
After your phone starts up, hit the enter key twice, type "telnetd" and press enter. (Yes, it will start up a contact search, don't worry. Just type it.)
Download an Android "Telnet" application from the Market and connect to localhost.
If you connect successfully, you will have a root prompt "#".
Type the following into Telnet (these commands will give you root access easier in the future):
mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
cd sdcard
flash_image recovery recovery.img
cat recovery.img > /system/recovery.img
Now of course i dont know if it was successfull cause it doesnt tell you. Now here is my problem. I am trying to upgrade the rc33 now but with NO LUCK! Now the instructions say to download the file, rename to update.zip and go into recover mode and run update. However it keeps giving me the error "Can't open /sdcard/update.zip (bad). I have downloaded two copies and this happens with both and the radio version.
What am i doing wrong? I have tried to rename the file on both the phone and the computer, with the extension .zip and without it but with no luck. I have the file directly on the root of the sd card. Do I need any other files on the sd card? or just the zip file?
I have read and read, but I have not found a clear explanations.

I'm not on a G1 (I'm on a Google dev phone that came rooted out of the box), and thus haven't gone through that process myself, but I seem to remember reading something about having to go through RC30/JFv1.3x and THEN to RC33/JFv1.4x. Not RC29 -> RC33/JFv1.4x directly.
I could very well be wrong though.

Ok, well I did get it to install.. still working on it...
Definitely wierd. I'll update when i finish!
I successfully went from rc29 to rc33 v 1.41 but realized that the newest is 1.42 so thats loading now.
Its odd, it seems that my problem was when i was in recovery mode, I would alt L to bring up the menu and alt s to update from sdcard. It didnt work for nearly 10 times.. then all the sudden instead up alt L to bring up the menu, i just did alt S and it booted. I didnt realize that linux was that sensitive! Other than that, i'm about to play with the new firmware.
So there is no way to get an onscreen keyboard like chompsms? I kinda found that hard to believe.

while it is SUGGESTED that you go from 29 to 30 to 33(what ever happened to 31 and 32?) it is not necessary, i am gonna assume you are on windows and you may be naming it update.zip.zip because extensions are hidden. try it after just naming it update, and also make sure that you unmount the phone correctly after you put the file on there, a lot of times it is still writing data when you yank it out, and that will cause the (bad) error. hope this helps. if you get a file not found error after naming it update then just put the .zip extension back on the file and make sure you unmount properly

tubaking182 said:
i am gonna assume you are on windows and you may be naming it update.zip.zip because extensions are hidden.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This, and maybe you've downloaded the 'build environment' package.
At my first attempt I got the 'bad' message, too. I didn't know which one to pick up so my first try has been 'ADP1 build environment'. Later with 'ADP1' (not the build environment one) no problem. Now I'm going with the UK because I wanted the UI in german and because some market apps didn't download with ADP.

[Q] Updating to 4.4.4. If I have root, why do I need WP off?

I asked this deep inside another thread and got no responses, so maybe I'll try asking outright.
I'm rooted on 16.5.3, BL is LOCKED. If I update to 4.4.4, I keep root, but lose WP off. The changes to 4.4.4 sound exactly like the changes I want in my phone, which are improved camera quality and improved battery life.
This is what I know (or think I know):
- Most root apps will continue to work fine. I've confirmed the ones I use will still work.
- Xposed (which writes to /system), will no longer work, but I haven't used Xposed since I changed to ART runtime.
- I won't be able to replace any files in /system, which means su binary can't ever be updated which could be a problem for newer versions of SuperSU.
Any other drawbacks that I've missed?
Right now, the only one that I feel is of any concern to me, is the inability to update the su binary. However, let's say I keep this phone 2 or even 3 more years. Is it really necessary to update the su binary? I know SuperSU won't work if it needs to update the binary and can't, but I could just keep the same old version of SuperSU. If it works fine now, won't it work fine a year from now? Two years from now?

GnatGoSplat said:
I asked this deep inside another thread and got no responses, so maybe I'll try asking outright.
I'm rooted on 16.5.3, BL is LOCKED. If I update to 4.4.4, I keep root, but lose WP off. The changes to 4.4.4 sound exactly like the changes I want in my phone, which are improved camera quality and improved battery life.
This is what I know (or think I know):
- Most root apps will continue to work fine. I've confirmed the ones I use will still work.
- Xposed (which writes to /system), will no longer work, but I haven't used Xposed since I changed to ART runtime.
- I won't be able to replace any files in /system, which means su binary can't ever be updated which could be a problem for newer versions of SuperSU.
Any other drawbacks that I've missed?
Right now, the only one that I feel is of any concern to me, is the inability to update the su binary. However, let's say I keep this phone 2 or even 3 more years. Is it really necessary to update the su binary? I know SuperSU won't work if it needs to update the binary and can't, but I could just keep the same old version of SuperSU. If it works fine now, won't it work fine a year from now? Two years from now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The upcoming L update, if true, will prevent root access to applications in /data. The binary may need tweaking to function... Root will definitely be operational for the next months for sure, I hope.

I've been wondering the same thing. I didn't have root four ten months and got along just fine on my maxx.
The changes in 4.4.4 are very tempting. I wonder if you were to make a symlink that put the su binary onto the SDcard instead of on the system if you'd be able to update it in the future.
Since the 4.4.4 update doesn't wipe out su, it shouldn't wipe out a symlink.
Any thoughts on that idea?

distortedloop said:
I've been wondering the same thing. I didn't have root four ten months and got along just fine on my maxx.
The changes in 4.4.4 are very tempting. I wonder if you were to make a symlink that put the su binary onto the SDcard instead of on the system if you'd be able to update it in the future.
Since the 4.4.4 update doesn't wipe out su, it shouldn't wipe out a symlink.
Any thoughts on that idea?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like a pretty good idea to me, but I don't know that much about Android/Linux so not sure if it'd work or not. Could the whole /system/xbin folder be symlinked to a folder on /sdcard? I remember somebody mentioning busybox couldn't be updated either, and if the whole folder could be symlinked, busybox could be updated if necessary as well.

all this discussion is why i will not update past jellybean even though my BL is unlocked...
Too much additional security/hoops to jump through with little to no added feature/functionality benefit imo

If you're BL unlocked, you have no hoops to jump through. Just flash 3rd party recovery (if you haven't already) and flash the latest SuperSU.zip and problem solved. Works on any version.

I don't have an answer to the OP's question, but after three months, I decided that root was good to have because I use an app called Notification Toggles and if I need to toggle GPS or airplane mode with a single tap, then that tool requires rooted phone.
Now, after root, that tool works just the way I want it to. Earlier it was a pain to turn GPS on or off - I had to press a few buttons to do that every time.
So, no 4.4.4 for me. I prefer to keep my root.
I am not sure what advantage the write protection has, but I will rather keep it, instead of sacrificing it.