Related
Since the original link to this guide is buried in another thread, I've re-posted it here (and the guide in full) in order to help people that might've missed it. The latest version of the guide will always be available at http://www.karrderized.com/romguide/ however, and is a more printable version as well, so please check there too.
Installing the Hero ROM on your HTC Magic
Version 1.2 - 13 August 2009 - by KarrdeNZ
Disclaimer: I am not responsible if you brick your phone. This is only a guide. These instructions have worked for me, but there is no guarantee that they will for you as well. Follow this guide at your own risk.
Feel free to print off this guide if it makes things easier to follow. Please do not, however, steal this guide and claim it as your own. Updates to this guide will be posted here - http://www.karrderized.com/romguide/ - link, but don't steal. Thanks.
Things you'll need
Back up your settings
Installing the Android SDK
Determine your phone's version
Download the correct recovery ROM for your version
Download the correct Hero ROM for your version
Setting up the fastboot connection
Boot the recovery ROM
Back up your phone with Nandroid
Wipe your phone
Load your new ROM
Boot into your new ROM
Things to note
Acknowledgements
Changelog
1 . Things you'll need
A HTC Magic phone (obviously) running Cupcake (1.5) and with a SD card
A USB cable for your HTC Magic
A PC. These instructions assume you're running a Windows variant, though the same procedures can be performed on a Linux machine. Don't ask me about Macs. If you're running Windows, note whether you have a 32-bit or 64-bit OS, it becomes relevant later on.
The Android SDK - current release as of this writing is 1.5 Release 3, available here.
Recovery ROM - Which particular one you want to use will depend on your phone's version (I'll cover this later on).
A signed Hero ROM to install. Again, this is version dependent.
Got all that? Good.
2. Back up your settings
Now, before we start, back up. I'm of the opinion that you can never have too many backups. Take a copy of everything on your phone's SD card, make sure your contacts etc are synced, any apps you want that you can't easily get back from the Market are backed up, all that stuff.
Another thing you should note are the APN settings for your particular provider. These are in Settings, Wireless Controls, Mobile Networks, Access Point Names. You may have multiple APNs listed - go into each one and note down all the settings. You'll likely need to re-enter these manually once you've installed your new firmware.
Once you're satisfied you've got everything backed up, we can start setting up our environment.
3. Installing the Android SDK
Download the latest release of the Android SDK - here at the time of writing - for your relevant OS. I'll be using Windows from here on in. Extract the .ZIP file to somewhere convenient - I've got mine on my C: drive under C:\android-sdk-windows-1.5_r3. We need the SDK for the tools it provides in the tools subfolder, fastboot in particular, as well as the USB drivers for your phone.
4. Determine your phone's version
As of this writing, there are two distinct versions of the HTC Magic - PVT32A and PVT32B. The primary differences between these two versions is the amount of RAM (288MB on the 32A, 192MB on the 32B) and the radio (Qualcomm MSM7200a for the 32A, Qualcomm MSM7201a for the 32B). Generally, if your phone is HTC branded, it's a 32A, and if it's carrier branded (Google, Vodafone, etc) it's a 32B. Mine's a PVT32B from Vodafone NZ. But let's find out for sure what yours is.
Grab your phone and turn it off. Now, while holding the Back button down, power it back on. Your phone should now boot to a screen with a white background, some lines of text, and some skateboarding androids at the bottom. Welcome to fastboot.
The first few lines on the screen, in green, are what we're looking for. Mine reads as follows:
Code:
SAPPHIRE PVT 32B SHIP S-ON G
HBOOT-1.33.0004 (SAP10000)
CPLD-10
RADIO-2.22.19.26I
Apr 9 2009,23:30:40
Yours will likely differ slightly. The number we're looking for is in that very first line - PVT 32B in my case. Make a note of this. The next item we're looking for is the second line, which indicates your SPL version. Some SPL versions do not allow ROM flashing, notably those of T-Mobile's myTouch3G variant of the HTC Magic. At this writing, HBOOT-1.33.0006 and HBOOT-1.33.0010 are the two known "perfect SPL" versions that do not allow flashing. If you have either of those versions, stop now. There is a complicated procedure you will need to follow first.
Otherwise, for now you can turn your phone back off (by pressing MENU).
5. Download the correct recovery ROM for your version
Head to this thread and download the recovery ROM for your particular phone version, as we determined in step 4. Save it in the tools subdirectory of the Android SDK (in my case, C:\android-sdk-windows-1.5_r3\tools).
6. Download the correct Hero ROM for your version
If you have a 32A, this thread should help you find a signed ROM (I'd suggest Fatality's Hero ROM): here
If you have a 32B like me, try Qteknology's Hero port here- the swap version is the fastest Hero ROM I've found so far. It does however require you to repartition your SD card in order to provide swap space to speed the ROM up - a guide for this is available from the linked forum post.
Note I have only tested the one I linked for the 32B as that's the version I have. Download whichever ROM you need to somewhere handy, and rename it to update.zip. Please note: if you have file extension display turned off (default in XP) then just rename the file to update instead - the .zip extension will already be set. Once you've done this, copy it to the root directory of your phone's SD card. You can do this using the standard USB connection system that the phone provides, or if you prefer using a card reader.
7. Setting up the fastboot connection
Start your phone in fastboot mode as we did in step 4 (hold down Back while turning the phone on). Once the fastboot screen is up on the phone, plug the phone into your computer with the USB cable.
At this stage, my computer asked for drivers for the phone - these are included with the Android SDK, in the usb_driver subdirectory. Users with 32-bit versions of Windows should use the drivers in the x86 subdirectory under that, and 64-bit versions should use those in the amd64 subdirectory. Once the drivers have installed, leave the phone attached to your PC - you're ready to proceed with booting the recovery ROM.
[Guide] Installing the Hero Rom on your HTC Magic - part 2
8. Boot the recovery ROM
We're going to use the Android SDK's fastboot utility in combination with fastboot mode on the phone to perform a one-off boot of the recovery ROM so that we can back up the existing setup, wipe the phone and then load the new ROM. At this stage, it would be wise to make sure you've synced contacts and backed up whatever you want to hold onto.
Open a command prompt window on your PC (Start, Run, cmd) and change to the tools subdirectory of where you installed the Android SDK, for example:
Code:
cd\android-sdk-windows-1.5_r3\tools
The prompt should change to indicate you're now in that directory. Now we make sure the phone is properly configured to communicate through fastboot. Type the following:
Code:
fastboot devices
If you see your device listed, we're about ready to go. Let's boot into the recovery ROM:
Code:
fastboot boot recovery-RAv1.2.0G.img
If the recovery ROM you downloaded is named differently, substitute it's name for recovery-RAv1.2.0G.img.
All going well, your phone should kick into the recovery ROM now - you'll come to a pretty green texted menu with the HTC logo in the background. This ROM is being loaded via the fastboot software and is NOT on your phone, just in it's memory. We have yet to make any modifications to your phone at all.
9. Back up your phone with Nandroid
Let's make one more backup to be safe. The recovery ROM we booted into provides us with Nandroid backup and restore, which we can use to backup the firmware and data currently on the phone to the SD card.
On your phone, use the trackball to scroll down to Nandroid v2.2 backup and click. This will start the backup process, and you'll see some yellow text start to appear at the bottom of the phone's screen. Once it's complete, you have a backup.
Use the trackball to select the Reboot system now option and click. It should load back into it's normal firmware. You can now mount the SD card as usual and copy the nandroid directory from the SD card to your computer. This is also a prime opportunity to back up your entire SD card.
10. Wipe your phone
WARNING: This is the absolute LAST point at which you can back out of this procedure. After this, it's all or nothing. Proceed at your own risk.
Boot your phone back into fastboot with USB attached (see step 4) and then load the recovery ROM again:
Code:
fastboot boot recovery-RAv1.2.0G.img
Use the trackball to move down to Wipe data/factory reset. This will erase all the data on your phone, ready for you to install the new ROM. Click. Congratulations, you have just wiped your phone! You are now ready to load your new ROM.
11. Load your new ROM
Still in the recovery ROM menu, scroll to Apply sdcard:update.zip. This process extracts the ROM from the update.zip file we placed on your SD card earlier and installs it onto your phone. It may take a little while so be patient. It'll tell you when it's done.
12. Boot into your new ROM
Select the Reboot system now option and click. Your phone will now restart with it's shiny new ROM! First boots can take a while, so bear with it. You'll probably see a new splash screen or two on startup, and eventually you'll get into your phone. You may or may not be prompted with a request about giving an app root access on your first boot - you can safely Always Allow this, as it's writing a swap file to your SD card in an effort to speed things up. You'll also need to go through the setup process on the phone again as if it were new, because for all intents and purposes it is. This includes setting up your Google account syncing, as well as the new Hero functionality such as your Facebook, Flickr and Twitter integration (if you so desire).
And from here on out, it's all up to you! Enjoy your new firmware, make it your own. There's some great new functionality in Hero over the standard Magic firmware.
13. Things to note
This firmware isn't perfect. I'm loving it and see myself using it from here on in, but there are some quirks. These may or may not be fixed with your particular versions of ROM, especially once this guide has aged a little, but I'll try and keep it up to date.
The main thing you'll likely notice (especially if you're using a 32B like me) is the slowness. There's a lot going on with this new ROM so lag is fairly common. The phone will speed up a bit once you've used it some more, so bear with it. Your initial setups and playing around will be slow because of initial caching and your non-typical use of the phone, but this should clear up. Various ROMs have tried for workarounds for this, for example Qteknology's Hero port uses a swap partition on your SD card to help speed things up. CompCache is also a popular method, but my own experience with CompCache hasn't been very successful.
There are also reports of SMS messages sometimes not arriving on the latest Qteknology ROM - I mostly didn't experience this until recently, but it seems to be an occasional issue. The ROM builders are working hard on the issues they come across so fingers crossed for resolution on this one.
14. Acknowledgements
This guide wouldn't exist without the xda-developers forum. The bits and pieces I gathered from thereabouts are what I used to run this procedure on my phone, and hence build this guide. The people there are much more experts at this than I am, so I defer to their wisdom.
I must also give props to Jesse of Radix's Gadget Blog. His instructions were incredibly helpful in getting my head around what exactly to do.
And also to papalazarou, whose forum thread prompted me to write this guide.
- KarrdeNZ
15. Changelog
Version 1.2 - 13 August 2009
Added Changelog
Updated links and references to ROMs to account for new versions
Changed ROM recommendations to Qtek for 32B based on personal experience
Removed references to now fixed bugs, added reference to SMS bug on Qtek's ROM
Added "perfect SPL" note
Version 1.1 - 29 July 2009
Added note about update.zip naming with regard to file extensions
Added SD card issue
Version 1.0
Initial release
First rate stuff mate, thanks very much. Now all I need is the new release of Jerp's ROM and I'll be embarking upon my first upgrade. Makes so much difference having everything you need in one coherent place. This post really should be stickied.
+1 for sticky.
Needs to be in one place, will cut down on 'how do i' and 'where can i find' threads
(note i said cut down, and not cut out lol)
This applies to all roms actually.
Great write-up! Thx for the effort, this will surely be handy in all other topics, where these questions are asked again and again (logically IMHO, as it isn't basic stuff for everyone).
Well done!
Now that is a quality tutorial cheers!
+1 sticky
I had posted these replies elsewhere before I realised you had posted the guide in it's own thread. I've run into a problem and it's really confusing me as to why it's not working
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KarrdeNZ, mate I followed your guide to the letter. I got all the way down to step 11 and then a problem occurred.
When I clicked 'Apply sdcard:update.zip' it just said cannot find or cannot load update.zip, or something like that, then said operation aborted?
I was trying to install the EXACT same ROM as you, I downloaded it to my laptop, renamed it update.zip and moved it to the root of the SD card.
Yet it didn't work, I can't for the life of me think where it's gone wrong as everything else up to that point had gone smoothly.
Any idea's?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Well I tried downloading the same file again. No luck this time either!
This is what it says when I click the install from sdcard button:
--install from sdcard...
Finding update package...
Opening update package...
E: Can't open /sdcard/update.zip
(no such file or directory)
Installation aborted.
Now I get that it's saying that it can't find the file but I really don't understand why? I mean the file is there, do I have to unzip the file onto my computer 1st and then put it on the sdcard?
I thought i just stuck the zipped file onto the root of the card making sure i renamed it 'update.zip'
Please help me out guys, thanks.
i did have the same issues, sorted it by:
Formatting the sd card (fat32)
Changing the permissions on the zip file
Moving files to the sdcard then sticking the sdcard into another computer to check that the files had been moved.
And it worked!
Roy_Drage said:
When I clicked 'Apply sdcard:update.zip' it just said cannot find or cannot load update.zip, or something like that, then said operation aborted?
I was trying to install the EXACT same ROM as you, I downloaded it to my laptop, renamed it update.zip and moved it to the root of the SD card.
Yet it didn't work, I can't for the life of me think where it's gone wrong as everything else up to that point had gone smoothly.
Any idea's?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
don't know if this is the exact same error, but i had a similar situation and it freaked me out, all you have to do (in my situation) is wait a few seconds or so. i think the phone is still in the process of mounting the SD card or initializing the card component. give it a few seconds (30 sec) and try the update again.
I formatted the card in the phone before I started, did u format yours in the actual computer itself?
Also how do I change the permissions on the zip file?
n1ck75 said:
i did have the same issues, sorted it by:
Formatting the sd card (fat32)
Changing the permissions on the zip file
Moving files to the sdcard then sticking the sdcard into another computer to check that the files had been moved.
And it worked!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is 5 star
thanx works gr8
Excellent guide. All the other tutorials/guides/instructions totally went over my head. Yours was extremely clear and easy to understand. Two thumbs up!
Excellent
Thank you for an excellent guide.
KarrdeNZ said:
I must also give props to Jesse of Radix's Gadget Blog. His instructions were incredibly helpful in getting my head around what exactly to do.
- KarrdeNZ
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sweet.. I get a mention! Glad my guide helped you get started and now you're writing a guide too to help others - this is what a community is all about!!!!
KarradeNZ - you've made a great start to a guide here - but I really think this should all be in the XDA Wiki so everyone can contribute/update/maintain it. Then we just get one link stickied at the top and everyone goes there..
I just started to write up a skeleton of what I think should be in the 'Ultimate Guide to Sapphire Hacking' on the Wiki page at:
XDADeveloperWiki - HTC_Sapphire_Hacking
You want to help me improve it?
Heck.. if you want we can use your guide as a basis if you like - I just braindumped what _I_ think should be in it and I can immediately see stuff I've overlooked that's in your guide!
Feel free to take inspiration/snippets/whatever from my guide for it - just throw a link to it in there as well. I prefer to keep the guide itself separate but am happy to have it contributing to the wiki.
And there's only one A in my name.
When I apply sdcard:update.zip I get the following Error
E:cant open/sdcard/update.zip
(No such file or directory)
installation aborted
Please help and suggest what could be wrong ?
Just rename the file update mate.
Then try again.
Thanks Roy_Drage for the fast reply you sorted my .zip problem.
Also well done and thanks to KarrdeNZ for putting such a great guide together that even a noob like me could follow. My new Magic is now running Hero looks awesome !
bajax said:
Thanks Roy_Drage for the fast reply you sorted my .zip problem.
Also well done and thanks to KarrdeNZ for putting such a great guide together that even a noob like me could follow. My new Magic is now running Hero looks awesome !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BT works? (can you connect to a BT headset?)
Facebook integration works?
have you notice any issues?
I'm thinking of creating a small archive of files, that when extracted to the SD card root, and applied, will root the phone and apply a firmware in only three steps.
It will only contain four files - the RC29 DREAIMG.nbh file necessary for downgrading, an update.zip that contains the latest SPL and Radio, the latest Cyanogen Recovery image, and a simple script that applies root, SPL/Radio, and your favorite firmware.
I'm not sure if it will work, but constructive criticism and ideas are welcome.
_______________________________________
First method: Root from SD card
This method puts all the necessary files on an SD card, and does not require a computer after that.
Basically, in a zip file, you have the RC29 DREAIMG.nbh, update.zip, and root script.
You extract this to the root of a FAT32-formatted SD card.
You reboot with camera+power, apply the DREAIMG.nbh, reboot.
Once the phone is booted, type in "sh /sdcard/root.sh".
From the exposed root terminal, it will begin the following:
Write the Cyanogen recovery image to flash, move image to system/recovery.img, remove image file
Place commands in /cache for recovery to apply the radio/spl combo package and if it exists, a custom firmware, in the correct order
reboot recovery, performing the above tasks automatically.
Benefits include:
- No telnet app required, not opening up a telnetd, more secure
- Only one command to enter
- No(?) risk on flashing the Hero-compatible radio/SPL out of order and bricking that way, as both are flashed at the same time
- Automates several of the processes in rooting, allowing for a quicker root
- Can be placed on a special "rootkit" sdcard, and used to quickly root your friend's phone in a matter of minutes, anywhere
_______________________________________
Second method: Root from PC
Another method I thought of uses no manual copying to the sdcard, but requires a PC with fastboot(?) and adb.
First, it pushes the RC29 DREAIMG.nbh to the sdcard, and issues a reboot to bootloader.
You press a few keys to write the image, and reboot.
--OR--
First, it pushes an update.zip containing the update just before T-Mobile patched the root kernel exploit, then it puts the commands to flash it and reboots into recovery. After that flashes, it reboots again.
From this point on, it's all automatic.
The script waits for the device to be ready, and adb install's the auto-root exploit apk, and launches the intent through adb shell am start [...]
At this point, the WiFi settings are probably not capable of downloading the Cyan recovery in the case of those of us without data plans, so it will need to be pushed.
Once the autoroot apk flashes the recovery, we must write parameters to flash the radio/spl combo package, and the custom firmware (if applicable), to /cache, and reboot.
At this point, the radio, SPL, and firmware should be pushed and written, so the script exits.
_______________________________________
If this sounds stupid, doesn't make sense, will auto-brick your phones, start global thermonuclear war, make all random numbers generated by your phone divisible by three, cause your meticulously placed lineup of G1 dominoes to collapse prematurely, or boot up the LHC and wind up creating a black hole, I am terribly sorry, but it's an idea I had at 2 in the morning, and it took me this time to research some things and write this post. It's about 5:30 AM now.
This is only an experimental concept. Some things might not be completely thought out. I'm tired, and hungry. I may create a proof-of-concept implementation of this, if I knew a bit more about the syntax of describing intents to launch in 'am', or the command syntax of the package:/META-INF/com/google/android/update-script file.
dont forget that for root from SDcard, EU users need a goldcard, so its still not that easy..
even for insta root from PC, you still need to downgrade, and for that we'll need a goldcard.
why not just use 1click root?
First you have one click root which does give you access to recovery with security off so possible to somehow go from there instead of downgrading and all that hassle. I personally to do not care to see the advancement of this app for the simple fact that there are already a wave of people that can not read and expect hand holding every second of the way and you want to make it even easier to confundle their minds.............are you nuts....
I already have a rooting sdcard for rooting other people's phone that contains one click recovery flasher, cyan 4.04 and the hard spl and it takes me 10 mins to do it just cause off the first boot up takes so long
also you cant have your pc reading the sdcard at the same time that the phone is
The concept is good but...theres many complications to have it done automatically.
I sure would like to see something like this. I have a G1 that I rooted the long way and a MT3G rooted with the one click method. I have enough knowledge to follow instructions and read, I partitioned my own card, so the G1 was doable. I dont have the time or the knowledge to go the long route with the MyTouch gold card ADB route and would love to be able to flash Hero ROMS when I get the bug. I have Cyan's latest on the MT now and its awesome like all his stuff but I would have played with Drizzy's ROMs. For someone like me with a little ability but far less than most people on here, something like this would be the bomb!
not sure if its possible or anything, but there should be some way for the script to check if the phone has a pvt board or not, and if not, it prevents the new spl from being flashed, should reduce noob bricks.
Leave root the way it is I think the harder it is to root your phone the less peaple are going to do it. I spent alot of time reading before I rooted, not so much to learn how to do it, but to decide if I wanted to make the jump. During this reading process I learned the ways of XDA, use search, where to place the right questions and where NOT to and finally read first then ask. With an autonatic root I would have loaded it then freaked out if something went wrong and started posting root questions all over the place. Leave well enough alone... Learning to root give you the right to pursue other adventures.
maybeoneday said:
Leave root the way it is I think the harder it is to root your phone the less peaple are going to do it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Frankly, I didn't root my phone to feel special, so I don't see any benefit whatsoever in less people doing it.
I don't think this will work though. There's too many variables. As described it will only root US phones. UK phones would need RC7, so you'd have to include both and check if the current OS is CRC1 or CRC37 (or respective older/newer versions). But European phones outside the UK (like my German G1) will be on CRC37 too, and those won't take RC7 without a goldcard, so you'd have to automate goldcard creation as well. I'm sure the complications don't end here.
Also, shoving Haykuro's SPL onto inexperienced/unsuspecting/ignorant users' devices is just begging for trouble. Just use HardSPL - the rooting kit won't be able to run Hero-ROMs right away, but at least that won't brick the phone if flashing some rom downgrades the radio. (E.g., I know some official updates do that.)
1 click root is so simple and idiot proof (and im a total panzy noob lol)
i don t think there is any simpler way to do this lol
Frenchtom, nothing is idiot proof, have you been over to the q and a section, if there is a way to do something and good instructions, it will get screwed up cause of people not taking the time to read the complete directions and then read them twice to make sure they comprehend them
Okay, thanks for your input, everybody.
I did know about 1-click root, however I thought that depended on a kernel vulnerability that was already patched in the OTAs. I was looking at a more universal(ish) method, and I did not know about the "goldcard" issue. I did know that UK phones would need RC9, but I failed to include that as I really just wanted to get to bed.
Also, I don't think that root is anything "special", i.e. some sort of elitist egotist symbol that says "I haz root fone and I better than u". Seriously, more people should be allowed to use the more advanced features of their device at their own choosing, knowing that there are risks involved.
People who walk up to someone, say "I got a root phone", shows off some massive demo of awesomeness (i.e. Hero), and doesn't teach others to root the G1 themselves (or worse, charges for instructions that could be found free here) are really the antithesis of an open-minded community of developers adding more features as they feel, for what little donation money they get and the credit of doing something cool for other G1 users.
I do however agree that pushing features that can potentially insta-kill the device on the average person and their grandma, people that wouldn't know what the benefits of root are, and people who would never even have known that their G1 ran Linux (or what Linux is, for that matter), is just asking for trouble. A fair balance between educating people about the phone's internals and making easy-to-install root packages and stuff should be kept.
I learned a lot about Windows Mobile and embedded software when I first flashed a custom ROM to my HTC Wizard years ago. And I actually had a fear that if any small detail were left out, or if I breathed on the phone the wrong way, the flash would fail, white-screen, and brick out.
The G1 is no different, even though the flashing process has come a long way, we still have an IPL, SPL, bootloader mode, many different variations, board revisions, regional changes and operator customizations/lockdowns (I had a Cingular 8125 G3 btw), and many versions of Consumer, Engineering, and HardSPL that have to be treated very, very carefully, just like on the Wiz.
Anyway, anyone's free to try and build a better mousetra--- err, rootkit using my ideas. And thanks plenty to the dedicated developers here, the more enlightened users for helping me find out why this wouldn't work, all the users, without whom, we wouldn't have a reason to develop, and the 17%-or-so of you that dislike my idea.
When I learn a bit more, I might get into making something useful for Android.
repack dreamimg.nbh with everything, so one just has to flash the one image
Oh I am not saying that I think I am special just cause I have a rooted phone, I am also a person that is on here always trying to help walk someone through any issues that may arise,just saying making easier for people to break something because they did not read the instructions is quite common and think that it should take a little bit of work so that you learn in the process
I came from WinMo phone which I used to flash all the time with different ROMS. Now I have this Android and am not sure what to do with it, I love the phone, have had it for about 3 months now, but I know it can do bigger and better things. So is rooting the same thing as unlocking? When I used to flash my WinMo phone I would drop the ROM into the little software flash package I kept on my hard drive and change it out. Is there such a thing for Android. I really like this phone and don't want to screw it up assuming I know what I'm doing because I did it on my other phone, I want to edumacate myself like I did before I started flashing my other. Does anyone have reliable good information links they can point me to within this forum that will help me feel good about flashing this phone too? I know I've read that just rooting the phone makes it run faster without flashing a ROM....true? Thanks for your help, suggestions, etc. All is appreciated.
sopranoiam said:
I came from WinMo phone which I used to flash all the time with different ROMS. Now I have this Android and am not sure what to do with it, I love the phone, have had it for about 3 months now, but I know it can do bigger and better things. So is rooting the same thing as unlocking? When I used to flash my WinMo phone I would drop the ROM into the little software flash package I kept on my hard drive and change it out. Is there such a thing for Android. I really like this phone and don't want to screw it up assuming I know what I'm doing because I did it on my other phone, I want to edumacate myself like I did before I started flashing my other. Does anyone have reliable good information links they can point me to within this forum that will help me feel good about flashing this phone too? I know I've read that just rooting the phone makes it run faster without flashing a ROM....true? Thanks for your help, suggestions, etc. All is appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow... Amazing that you could put in the effort required to post all of this, but couldn't read through the Wiki posts and general information stickies at the top of this Forum.
Please do some more reading.
One hint... Your MyTouch 3G is a 32B device.
I was really confused when I started customizing my girls mytouch...Ive been flashing WM phones for years even update my kitchen with newest releases etc. In fact I personally use a touch pro.
I have yet to really sit down and figure out how to make some android roms myself. Ive been loading up premade roms posted on here.
It was a bit confusing when finding out how to get a hero rom on her phone. With all the fat 32/ext2/3/4/linux swap etc.
What I did was followed the one click rooting thing that loads cyanogens recovery and rom. Then I took the amon_ra recovery which allows you to partition the sd card on the device since I didnt have an sd card reader on my laptop or linux. When you are loading the cyanogen recovery/rom you'll download an app from market called recovery flasher or something like that. In the first step you'll be asked to backup the cyanogen recovery which makes a file on the sd card. Take the amon_ra recovery file and rename it the same as the backup file on the sd card. Overwrite the file on the sd card. Rerun the recovery flasher app and click restore from backup..Follow the instructions and you'll have the Amon_ra recovery.
Boot into the recovery screen (hold home and power until it boots up) partition the sd card. I have my girls 1gb set at 256mb ext4 partition, 64mb linux swap, and the rest as Fat32.
Then load up a rom make sure its intended for 32b.
I by no means am an expert in this so take what I said with a grain of salt. I wrote that from memory. Just trying to help someone out the was just like me a month ago. Really confused.
Hope that helps.
PS. Took me a while to find out but despite this being the forum that seems would be for the mytouch I actually find more roms for 32b in the G1 forum.
You can check out the wiki page on cyanogen's website:
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php/Main_Page
that was enough information for me to get started. Note that I haven't partitioned my sd card.
maybe u can try this tutorial .. it's one of the simplest direct methods to flash ur phone
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=579328
p.s. : expect things to be more complex here it's just linux way of doing things
I used the guide at the cyanogen wiki and it works marvelously. I do reccomend using Amon_RA's recovery image instead of the Cyanogen one used in the guide(not to be confused with Cyanogen's ROM. Absolutely use the ROM, but when you get to the Recovery Image part, install Amon_RA's and follow the same steps, making sure to adjust command lines to reflect this different recovery image).
It just offers more functionality that I'm sure you'll find useful for later, such as backing up, partitioning, converting ext partitions and so forth. You'll learn about that stuff later.
Happy rooting, and best of luck to you my friend. As a fellow myTouch3G user, feel free to PM me with any questions. =)
I am getting ready to put this rom onto my phone and before doing so just wanted to make sure I have the process right. I transferred the .zip file onto my microsd card and now i just simply boot my phone and it will open a menu where i can make a backup and then continue correcrt? i have not done anything to my phone to prep it for this and just wanted to make sure there wasn't any preemptive steps to take before beginning. Any help is greatly appreciated.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1374853
my main concern was just reading a lot about needing s-off and downgrading to 2.3.3 on devices before installing roms. i have not done either of these and wasn't sure if it was required for this particular one
Hey Guys -
To apply a ROM to my HTC One A9, it requires I set aside about 3 hours of time. Since I choose to use my microSD card as "Internal Storage," I must follow a specific set of sets to apply and root the rom or else formatting & use of the SD as Internal Storage fails. An overview of these steps are...
Apply desired rom to phone
Root with latest SuperSU
Take backup of boot partition via TWRP
Using Android Image Kitchen, extract boot partition from unmodified rom
Replacing verity key and couple other things in the backed up, rooted boot image from the extracted unmodified boot image
Reflash newly modified boot image via TWRP
Happy to provide full steps / details if anyone needs...Tons of fun figuring all of that out - couldn't have done it without this forum and its users
My Question
Recently, I got notification on my phone that a new OEM rom was available - 1.57.617.52 (AT&T phone I converted to DEV) and I've already downloaded the full rom to my PC. Before wasting tons of time doing the above, I wanted to see if there was a way to upgrade to the new rom on my phone and either maintain root or really just any procedure where I didn't have to do the long list of steps above.
I recently read a bit about the fairly new FlashFire, but don't know if it could be used in this scenario or is even compatible with my phone. Also, despite having downloaded the updated rom from HTC, even if I wanted to upgrade via TWRP and follow above steps, I'd need the full OTA instead, right?
Overall, if anyone has a suggestion for the easiest way to upgrade in my situation, I'd really appreciate it! If it does require a full OTA, if you happen to know of a link for 1.57.617.52, I'd appreciate it. If not, looks like there will be a backup, wipe and half a day of fun in my future...
Phone Specs
HTC One A9
6.0.1 / 1.57.617.41
Rooted (SuperSU), TWRP, & s-off
64gb microSD formatted as internal storage (love that feature)
Thanks Guys!!