Related
Hello everyone, I'm not only completely new here, but also to the whole process of "rooting", "flashing", and other aspects of unlocking my G2 device.
This thread was not only made for helping me and directing me to where I go about "installing" the Sense UI - but along with a couple questions.
I'm sure there are several users on here who have done this process, and I ask what made you make the "switch". What does Sense have over the apparently "stock" android UI that the T-Mobile G2 is shipped with.
Second Question: If I were to install Sense on my G2; and seeing as how theoretically with the Stock UI on the G2 updated would be attained faster, would the installment of Sense on my phone hamper such "updates" in any way shape or form?
Third Question: If it turns out that I'm not satisfied with the Sense UI experience, can I quickly revert back to my Original UI? What would I lose in the process, and what could possibly happen to my phone?
Fourth Question: How "hard" would you consider this installment? I consider myself being pretty tech-savvy; however I have yet to venture in any sort of way as how to even begin "rooting" my phone. As such I believe I have come to the best for help.
Fifth Question: Is there any step by step instructions/videos out there that depicts exactly how to install Sense on my G2?
I believe this covers all of my questions at the moment, and I appreciate any and all whom of which allocate their time in attempts to ease me in the process of not only making this decision, but when/if I do indeed decide to install Sense on my G2.
Thanks everyone - and Happy Holidays!
You have to root first before being able to completey install sense ui ..from there its extremely easy with rom manager to install...
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
Go to the unlockr.com it answers all your questions on the g2 section and has videos
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
kingvaj23 said:
You have to root first before being able to completey install sense ui ..from there its extremely easy with rom manager to install...
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Information and guides for all of this can be found in the stickies. That'll explain all of it better than could be answered here.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
I usually don't post but before you get roasted by everybody else ill give you a little bit of help. Go in the forum G2 android development. Read the first couple threads to learn how to use the search bar. If you want sense then look at virtuous rom. Its a pretty good version of sense I used it for about a month with no problems at all. If you go to the first post in the thread that the rom is on it will tell you how to go about doing everything. In this forum you'll also find threads that tell you many possible ways of going about rooting your G2. Just make sure that you know that whatever you do to your phone is what YOU do to your phone. I am no way shape or form trying to get you to brick your what I assume to be a new device. Just read up and follow ALL instructions carefully.
Much better said thanks lol
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
It probably makes sense for you to flash a custom ROM that is based on the Sense ROM. That way you will get all the Sense stuff. You won't get any OTA (Over The Air) updates if you're on a custom ROM, but that shouldn't matter, because hopefully whoever cooked up the ROM will be keeping it up to date anyway (and probably more quickly than HTC/carriers).
What you should do is get root/S-OFF on your phone (I recommend using the guide in the Wiki - http://forum.xda-developers.com/wik...cess_.28Permanent_Root_.2F_.22Permaroot.22.29 - plus this guide to get adb working on your PC - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=865685 ). Then, *before* you flash a custom ROM, install the ROM Manager app (from the Market) and flash Clockwork Recovery (from within ROM Manager), then that will let you do a full backup of your stock ROM, which you can easily restore to if you every want to in the future.
It's not at all hard to do once you read up and learn about the steps. It might look daunting at first, but it's pretty simple if you carefully follow the guides. If in doubt, ask questions before you do anything.
1. Sense's camera app is miles ahead of the stock Android camera, as is the music player, and there are a few other niceties as well.
2. Once you switch to custom ROMs, you pretty much lose any of the updates released from the carriers/manufacturers. The good news, though, is that developers typically get ahold of these updates and 'fix' them so you can apply them yourself. It's not really a big deal, honestly.
3. Yes. Since HTC has the G2 with stock and the Desire Z with Sense, and they're the same hardware, it's pretty simple to switch between Sense and Stock - just a simple flash.
4. Take the time to read through the walkthroughs - I recommend using the rage method and not VISIONary, but that's me personally. Read through the walkthrough entirely, download the components you need, and then do it. Setup/prep takes ~20-30 minutes, actually rooting your phone only takes like, 5-10 min. It's pretty easy if you can follow directions. Don't overthink it.
5. You need to perm-root your phone first, and install ClockworkMod recovery. I believe the rooting walkthroughs all include the ClockworkMod installation.
Once you have ClockworkMod installed and working, installing a ROM is as simple as downloading a zip file, putting it on your memory card (doesn't need to be in a special folder or anything, just toss it on there) and then choosing that zip file from a menu.
Here are some terms you'll want to know:
Recovery - like BIOS, for your phone (ClockWorkMod is the one you'll use)
Nandroid - full image backup of your whole phone. before you make *any* changes in clockworkmod/rom manager, do a nandroid backup.
SetCPU - free when you register on XDA. Lets you easily overclock your processor and setup profiles (drops the speed if your phone overheats, underclock when the screen is off, etc)
APK - the installer file for Android (kinda like an .exe)
ADB - part of the Android SDK. You can install the SDK to your computer and then use ADB to make changes to your phone from your computer via USB.
ROM Manager - free app on the Market that lets you manage ROMs - you can download new ones, upgrade the one you've got, manage nandroid backups (rename, delete, etc), boot into recovery, etc. Highly recommended.
Well said, everyone. I was very tired and should have mentioned going to the development section, specifically.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
the orange bandit said:
1. Sense's camera app is miles ahead of the stock Android camera, as is the music player, and there are a few other niceties as well.
2. Once you switch to custom ROMs, you pretty much lose any of the updates released from the carriers/manufacturers. The good news, though, is that developers typically get ahold of these updates and 'fix' them so you can apply them yourself. It's not really a big deal, honestly.
3. Yes. Since HTC has the G2 with stock and the Desire Z with Sense, and they're the same hardware, it's pretty simple to switch between Sense and Stock - just a simple flash.
4. Take the time to read through the walkthroughs - I recommend using the rage method and not VISIONary, but that's me personally. Read through the walkthrough entirely, download the components you need, and then do it. Setup/prep takes ~20-30 minutes, actually rooting your phone only takes like, 5-10 min. It's pretty easy if you can follow directions. Don't overthink it.
5. You need to perm-root your phone first, and install ClockworkMod recovery. I believe the rooting walkthroughs all include the ClockworkMod installation.
Once you have ClockworkMod installed and working, installing a ROM is as simple as downloading a zip file, putting it on your memory card (doesn't need to be in a special folder or anything, just toss it on there) and then choosing that zip file from a menu.
Here are some terms you'll want to know:
Recovery - like BIOS, for your phone (ClockWorkMod is the one you'll use)
Nandroid - full image backup of your whole phone. before you make *any* changes in clockworkmod/rom manager, do a nandroid backup.
SetCPU - free when you register on XDA. Lets you easily overclock your processor and setup profiles (drops the speed if your phone overheats, underclock when the screen is off, etc)
APK - the installer file for Android (kinda like an .exe)
ADB - part of the Android SDK. You can install the SDK to your computer and then use ADB to make changes to your phone from your computer via USB.
ROM Manager - free app on the Market that lets you manage ROMs - you can download new ones, upgrade the one you've got, manage nandroid backups (rename, delete, etc), boot into recovery, etc. Highly recommended.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really liked your explanation on everything that I asked for. I can't thank you enough!
Also thank you to everybody else that has posted in this thread - much appreciated
However I have one more question, seeing as how Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) is now on the table, and presumably the G2 (if I keep at it stock/as is) will receive it in the coming months - do you recommend installing Sense? Or just waiting for 2.3?
I'm sorry if that's not a good question, as you can see I'm still unfamiliar with Android (coming from a Sidekick LX hahaha); for what I understand is that Sense is just an overlay over the OS right? Or something of that sort?
Anyways what I'm really trying to say is, would it be easier for me to just wait it out for the Update (2.3) or go ahead with Sense?
Im Too Legendary said:
However I have one more question, seeing as how Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) is now on the table, and presumably the G2 (if I keep at it stock/as is) will receive it in the coming months - do you recommend installing Sense? Or just waiting for 2.3?
I'm sorry if that's not a good question, as you can see I'm still unfamiliar with Android (coming from a Sidekick LX hahaha); for what I understand is that Sense is just an overlay over the OS right? Or something of that sort?
Anyways what I'm really trying to say is, would it be easier for me to just wait it out for the Update (2.3) or go ahead with Sense?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You will get 2.3 quicker if you go to a custom ROM. There are builds of Cyanogen right now based on 2.3 (see the dev forum), and he is bound to release a full version before HTC/T-Mobile get round to their official 2.3 updates.
Some people like Sense ROMs, others hate them. The only way to find out for sure is for you to try one. Do a nandroid backup of your G2 ROM before you flash, then it will be very easy for you to go back to stock if you want to (e.g. if you don't like Sense).
Sense is basically a set of different apps and widgets for the phone, with a Sense framework embedded into the ROM to support these. e.g. some extra widgets you can use, different SMS app compared to stock, different camera app compared to stock, etc, etc.
Yes, Sense is an overlay, a new Graphical user interface for the OS.
As for 2.3, I'd go ahead and do the Sense ROM now, and wait for the stable 2.3 ROMs, which should be about a month or so. As noted, there are currently builds of 2.3 that you can install on your G2, but various things aren't working (WiFi seems wonky, video cam doesn't work, etc). These will be fixed eventually.
Flashing a new ROM is so easy it's not even funny - slap Sense on there now, so you can enjoy it while you're waiting for Gingerbread.
Some great responses above. But wanted to clarify, since the OP seems a bit clear. There is no way to "install" only Sense. Its too embedded into the ROM/OS as steviewevie mentioned. You need to flash a whole new ROM, which will wipe your phone. What you will then have is a phone with Froyo and the Sense UI.
Custom Gingerbread ROMs with Sense will eventually show up on XDA. But it will probably not happen until after HTC releases a device (or updates an exisiting device) with Gingerbread & Sense.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
Absolutely amazing responses people, I can't thank you all enough for your input!
However I'm having problems with what would seem so "simple" to you guys. I can't seem to be able to install ADB on my phone - I swear I've done everything that I could/followed the thread posted by stevie. Yet the command prompt won't recognize my phone.
Even more so, when I downloaded the program for my G2 (Desire Z HTC Sync Software) the software didn't even recognize my phone was plugged in via usb. I'm using the official USB that came with my phone, and when I plug it in via usb I'm able to transfer files to and from my computer/G2.
Yet it's not being "recognized" by either programs (HTC Sync or ADB/Command Prompt)
Anyone have any ideas?
Im Too Legendary said:
However I'm having problems with what would seem so "simple" to you guys. I can't seem to be able to install ADB on my phone - I swear I've done everything that I could/followed the thread posted by stevie. Yet the command prompt won't recognize my phone.
Even more so, when I downloaded the program for my G2 (Desire Z HTC Sync Software) the software didn't even recognize my phone was plugged in via usb. I'm using the official USB that came with my phone, and when I plug it in via usb I'm able to transfer files to and from my computer/G2.
Yet it's not being "recognized" by either programs (HTC Sync or ADB/Command Prompt)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So what is that does work in terms of sync/transfer for your phone ? You mention transferring files, is that if you go into "Disk Drive" mode for the connection type, to mount the SD card on your PC ?
What OS do you have on your PC ?
Have you tried a different USB port on your PC ?
I'm able to manually drag and drop files from my computer to my phone and vice-versa. For example I'm able to drag in .mp3 or video files for media uses/manage pictures - you know the regular stuff you would/should be able to do upon plugging in your phone via usb.
I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate x64
And yes I've tried more than one usb on my laptop.
Keep in mind I also toggled "usb debugging" and seemingly all other necessary measures as what you've described in the thread.
When ever I bring my Command Promt, and enter in the necessary information, it comes back as "this command is unrecognizable" etc.
What is bewildering me is that my computer reads the phone connected (as I'm able to manipulate the files on my sd card) yet the "HTC Sync" program is not able to pick up my phone. And I presumed there's a connection their since the Command Prompt isn't executing the necessary information as well.
Im Too Legendary said:
I'm able to manually drag and drop files from my computer to my phone and vice-versa. For example I'm able to drag in .mp3 or video files for media uses/manage pictures - you know the regular stuff you would/should be able to do upon plugging in your phone via usb.
I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate x64
And yes I've tried more than one usb on my laptop.
Keep in mind I also toggled "usb debugging" and seemingly all other necessary measures as what you've described in the thread.
When ever I bring my Command Promt, and enter in the necessary information, it comes back as "this command is unrecognizable" etc.
What is bewildering me is that my computer reads the phone connected (as I'm able to manipulate the files on my sd card) yet the "HTC Sync" program is not able to pick up my phone. And I presumed there's a connection their since the Command Prompt isn't executing the necessary information as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have a G2, right ? So I presume you're running the stock G2 ROM right now ? I don't think that will work with HTC Sync, since I don't think the stock G2 ROM supports HTC Sync, only the Sense ROMs (i.e. from the Desire Z). You have to select a special "HTC Sync" mode to connect the phone, from the phone side, even on a Desire Z, to make it work.
I'm interested in this "command is unrecognizable" business. When do you get that, what exactly are you typing on your PC to bring up that message ?
Is the drag and drop stuff when you turn on "USB Sharing" on your G2 ?
steviewevie said:
You have a G2, right ? So I presume you're running the stock G2 ROM right now ? I don't think that will work with HTC Sync, since I don't think the stock G2 ROM supports HTC Sync, only the Sense ROMs (i.e. from the Desire Z). You have to select a special "HTC Sync" mode to connect the phone, from the phone side, even on a Desire Z, to make it work.
I'm interested in this "command is unrecognizable" business. When do you get that, what exactly are you typing on your PC to bring up that message ?
Is the drag and drop stuff when you turn on "USB Sharing" on your G2 ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah I see, I sort of figured that sort of complication might have been due to the fact that I couldn't "find" any G2 specific "software". So naturally I just went with the Desire Z Software.
As for the "command is unrecognizable business", I receive that message on step "7" of your guide for installing ABD (The Complete Way). I'm not sure why it's doing that when my phone is plugged in. When I could have sworn I did everything prior to that step.
And yes I'm able to that when I turn on "USB Sharing".
Im Too Legendary said:
As for the "command is unrecognizable business", I receive that message on step "7" of your guide for installing ABD (The Complete Way). I'm not sure why it's doing that when my phone is plugged in. When I could have sworn I did everything prior to that step.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you get that from "adb devices", then your PATH is not setup correctly. Go back to Step 4 and check what you put there.
In my experience, HTC Sync is pretty wonky, anyways, I have the Virtuous ROM on my G2 and sometimes I can get HTC Sync to recognize my phone, sometimes I can't. Typically what happens is that my phone sees HTC Sync on my computer and says it's synchronizing, but HTC Sync never shows anything. I gave up, eventually.
What are you trying to sync? I use Windows Live Photo Gallery (the newest version is pretty sweet), and just connected my phone to my computer in disk mode, then 'hid' all the folders on my memory card other than /DCIM/Images (where the camera stores photos). I can then connect my phone in disk mode, and on the little popup in Windows, choose the 'import photos to Windows Live Photo Gallery' and it only imports photos - ignoring all the other images I have on my card, from apps and such.
This post was originally a question to see if I got all the steps correct. Now that I have completed the process myself I thought it would be better to update it so other noobs might benefit from it.
First of all:
I do not take credit for anything. This is just a list of all the steps I had to take to get my standard phone to a rooted state with a custom ROM (LeeDrOiD in my case). Almost every word you will read is copied from the tool-makers guides. I hyperlinked the programs to their pages because they deserve all the credit and because there is a wealth of information to be found there. My attempt is merely aimed to streamline it for easier reading. This doesn't excuse you from reading their guides and information!
You will be messing with the core of your phone and risk bricking it. If you don't know what bricking is you should not try to modify just yet. First understand what you are trying to do. Just messing about because someone told you it is "cool" could leave you with a dead phone and an hole in your wallet.
If something goes wrong, don't blame me nor anyone else who gave you information. I can only say that I did exactly what I wrote in this post and it worked for me.
Your actions = Your responsibility
Now that the serious part is over; let's start messing up our expensive communication devices.
When you start a process and it appears to lock your phone or make it non-responsive; WAIT! Do not try to interrupt by pulling the battery. Just have some patience and if nothing happens after, let's say, 30 minutes; go to the XDA forums and ask for advice in the threads created by the makers of the tools. You could ask here, but since I am just a noob myself you really don't want my advice.
I first downloaded all the files I needed and then disabled internet on my computer. This way I could turn of the virus scanner and firewall off safely. This was just to make sure those two programs would not interfere with anything.
All this was done on a pc with Win7 Pro 64-bit.
Requirements:
Windows XP SP2 or higher
.NET Framework 4.0
HTC Sync (or ADB drivers)
Desire HD with stock kernel (or Apache14's 1.0.7 / 1.1.4 Sense)
It will not work on 1.72.405.3 or higher build, or new radio. Downgrade first!!
Step by Step:
Getting Root
1. Install Visionary
2. Open Visionary and tap temproot, then attempt permroot now.
The phone will reboot.
Getting Radio S-Off
3. Connect your phone to a computer (make sure you have USB Debugging enabled.
Connect charge only!)
4. Install "Desire HD easy radio tool" on the computer, run it and choose the first option, click "Do it"!
There may be a SuperUser request on your phone, allow it.
Getting ENG S-OFF
5. Install "Desire HD easy s-off", click "S-OFF it"! There will be a SuperUser request on your phone, allow it. There could be force closes after the process, just reboot and everything will be fine.
6. (Optional) I backed up all my apps using the free "My Backup Root" app from Android market. Not going to restore after installing the new rom because this might mess up things. Just using it as a reference so I can manually redownload all my apps.
Installing ROM Manager and ClockworkMod
7. Download and install "ROM Manager" through Android Market.
8. Disconnect phone from computer
9. Launch "ROM Manager" app, select "Flash ClockworkMod Recovery" and follow instructions.
Allow SuperUser request.
Installing LeeDroiD
10. Download LeeDroiD HD ROM (and check MD5 hash). I used v2.0.0. Connect your phone to the computer (Disk Drive mode) and copy the file to the root of the SD card.
11. Make sure you have enough room on the SD card for a complete backup. Mine was 750MB.
12. Make sure the battery of the phone is charged and disconnect it from computer.
13. Boot into recovery by starting "ROM Manager" and selecting "Reboot into Recovery"
Moving the cursor in recovery is done using volume up and down buttons. Power button functions as "select/enter"
14. Once booted, select "backup&restore", then "backup" (this will backup your current ROM a.k.a. Nandroid backup to your SD).
15. When the backup is complete, select " +++++Go Back+++++". select " Reboot system now".
Connect to the computer in Disk drive mode and copy the created backup (in clockworkmod folder) to your computer. If something goes wrong with the SD card during wipes/flashes, you will at least have your backup safe. After copying the files run the MD5 hash in the backup folder on your computer to make sure all files are intact.
Now we are going to wipe stuff, so if you are getting cold feet: NOW is the time to stop.
16. Boot into recovery by starting "ROM Manager" and selecting "Reboot into Recovery"
17. Select "wipe data/factory reset". Scroll down to "yes" in the next screen and press the powerbuttton
18. Select "wipe cache partition".
19. Under Advanced select "Wipe Dalvik cache" (Some people report Market problems when not wiping Dalvik)
20. Select " +++++Go Back+++++"
21. Select "install zip from SD card". Then "Choose zip from sdcard". Then find and select the LeeDroiD zip file on your SD card.
22. Wait for the process to complete. Select " +++++Go Back+++++". Select " Reboot system now". This can take a long time since it is first boot. DO NOT reboot until you have completed the boot sequence and completed the HTC introduction/setup sequence.
Installing new Radio
-Reboot the phone again. Just to make sure everything is still working
-Connect to the computer and set to charge only
-Make sure USB debugging is enabled.
-In theory almost every radio (for your type of phone!) should work. It's just that one version might give better reception while another might have better battery life. Flashing the radio is another possible brick-moment so don't rush it.
23. Install Radio Flash on the computer
24. Open the Radio Flash folder which was created in the previous step
25. Download the recommended radio for your selected ROM and check the MD5 hash
26. Extract the Radio.img in the zip file to the Radio Flash folder
27. Run "Start here" in the Radio Flash folder and a dos window will open
28. At the prompt type "adb reboot bootloader". This will take the device directly to fastboot. It takes a little while (DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING)
29. Wait for the phone to reboot in to bootloader screen.
30. Type "fastboot flash radio radio.img" in the dos window
31. Once it says finished in the window type "fastboot reboot"
YOU ARE DONE! Enjoy your upgraded phone.
it looks good
Well i did it this way and it went well but i switcht from Lee droid to DcMV
and the phone runs well
sorry for OT , but what is DcMV?
guess all what u've written is correct since u made some good readings with the guides on xda dhd forum.
a few points might help u , well since i rooted my DHD 3 days ago
-always downgrade to 1.32 (which u already have)
-temp then perm root with visionary
-before installing the custom rom u chose , try to find the appropriate radio for it and flash that radio BEFORE flashing the custom rom (flash with with stock rom) to avoid incompatibility errors with the awesome S-OFF tools
-always make Nandroid backups (with CWM) before flashing stuff so u can return to your original point
-use titanium backup, as far as i know its the best featured backup app avaliable now (backups : apps+apps data + system apps and data).it will save u lots of time restoring stuff.
-follow the guides "litterally" and there is no need to rush
Wow... A new user who knows how to read! =)
You should post this as a tutorial
There shouldn't be any problems with that.
Gaining ENG S-OFF can brick your device, so be careful at this stage. You're flashing hboot and with a faulty hboot your DHD is nothing but a paperweight.
But I never heard of bricked DHD, so don't worry
Ah yeah, also flashing radio could brick your device.
Thank you all for the feedback.
I forgot about titanium backup. Will come in handy to transfer some apps and their settings.
Goodm7sn, I don't quite understand what you are saying here.
"-before installing the custom rom u chose , try to find the appropriate radio for it and flash that radio BEFORE flashing the custom rom (flash with with stock rom) to avoid incompatibility errors with the awesome S-OFF tools"
What do you mean with "flash with stock rom"? I mean, why flash something that is already there? Also considering the fact that I don't have a stock rom file.
And what kind of compatibility errors are you referring to? I did some googling and the consensus seems to be that it doesn't matter if you flash radio or rom first.
Your steps were nicely arranged and helped me to doublecheck my own steps. Now happy owner of a rooted LeeDroid 1.5.1, in part thanks to you. Suggest that you consider tweaking this into a short tutorial as it could help other newbies too. Cheers!
think yeah i made some confusion there, my bad . what i was trying to say is exactly what happened to me when i was rooting and doing the the other stuff . stock htc rom v1.32 has an old radio and the one that came with v1.72 is newer and more recommended with many other custom roms like leedroid and android revolution hd.
in my case , i installed a custom rom (android revolution HD 2.0.9) and noticed my radio version was the old one and not the one recommended,and since i only had only radio s-off , i ran the ENG S-OFF tool to install the new radio, there the tool displayed errors of rom/kernel incompatibity and i was forced to restore my htc rom v 1.32 where ENG S-OFF was succecfull only then. new radio flashing went smooth as well.
the point is, if u want full freedom and functionality of tools and mods then dont do only radio s-off but do both radio s-off and eng s-off (using the tools) then u r free to flash anything from roms , radios to kernels
Ah, that makes sense. But I got both those locks covered right after root.
Once I get access to using links in the post I will polish it and add my own experiences. I am probably not the only noob scared of messing up, so the more detailed the guide the better. Just hope I get some time in the coming days to upgrade the phone. Making notes on the go will slow it down, but I am not in a hurry. Slow and steady wins the race.
And now it's time for the superbowl.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
Just kicking up the thread so people can decide if this is of any help.
Have just spent the day reading up and trying to figure out how to get my brand new HD sorted.
Its locked to Orange and has the branded firmware. I want it nice and clean, and unlocked (as I need to use an o2 sim card).
Heres the info from my software info page...
Android version - 2.2
Baseband version - 12.28b.60.140eU_26.03.02_M
Kernel version - 2.6.32-gf3f553d
[email protected] #1
Thu Oct 28
Build number - 1.40.61.2 CL284185 release keys
Software number - 1.40.61.2
Browser version - Webkit 3.1
Do I literally just follow the steps in your original post? Will this unlock it? And, can I make a backup of the phone firmware as it is now in case I need to restore it?
Thanks for your help. Like I say, have spent hours reading and am getting myself confused. First time with Android.
Well if I am not mistaken the radio s-off tool will remove the simlock. And from what I understand this should work with your software version. With the nandroid backup you should be able to restore your phone, but if you are thinking about warranty; I am pretty sure techies will be able to see what you did. If it is absolutely vital you can restore everything you might want to ask in the threads of the developers.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
thanks for the guide briand77, just want to clarify something before i do it , after you run visionary and do the temproot the permroot now is that when you use titainium backup before you do the rest of your steps .
Also he main reason I want to do this is because I want to increase the battery life is that reason enough do you think
Correct. Backup after you achieved root but before modifying stuff.
As for battery life: I didn't really notice a major improvement over stock. While on stock I performed the charging sequence to improve it and that did help a lot.
Leedroid's new kernel 2.0.5 is supposed to be great for battery life but I have not installed that yet I'll wait to see if bugs appear first . If you want to install a new kernel just use step 21 in my guide. No need to wipe or anything.
Radio versions can also have a serious impact on battery life. But that is a trial and error thing since it depends on your location and such.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
Thanks again for this post. Its good to have everything in one thread, then you can refer to the individual threads for further info. It helped me do my first ROM install and have since played and messed, upgraded kernels etc.
Just about to wipe and start again
Cheers Braind77 i followed your tutorial and now i have r2d2 on reboots thanks very much, what seemed to be daunting at first read was very concise and easy to follow .
So now that I have done this I can remove anything off the phone i don't want now , tha's correct I assume
very detailed guide there for noobs like me. but i like to know if i want to use Titanium Backup to backup my stock rom n i want to flash my rom to Revolution HD, how do i do it?
@Kaptone. Once you are rooted and have ENG S-OFF (engineering security off) you can do pretty much everything you want. Be careful though. Deleting things can mess stuff up pretty bad. Don't delete unless you really know what it is you are deleting. And custom roms are pretty clean to start with.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
foccacia said:
very detailed guide there for noobs like me. but i like to know if i want to use Titanium Backup to backup my stock rom n i want to flash my rom to Revolution HD, how do i do it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TiBackup is only used to backup data, apps and settings. The real safetynet is the "nandroid" backup (step 14), which is sort of like a system image.
I recently read posts about problems with the latest CWM Recovery (the actual backup program) so it might be a good idea to check that out. After all, what is the use of a bad backup?
It doesn't matter which ROM you want to use. The procedure is the same. The only thing that might differ is the recommended Radio.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
@briand77 -- Nice tutorial, it's good to have everything in one place, if only this was available a few months ago it would have save me a lot of forum searching lol!
Might be best though to see if you can move it to the Development Forum? I'm not sure Q&A many people would find it properly. It'd be a shame for not many people to find it.
@superdon -- I too was with the pain-in-the-ass that is Orange with all their Orange software/wallpapers/ringtones/general rubbish. That was my main reason in rooting mine. In terms of warranty purposes, I made an Orange backup as soon as I was able to boot into recovery mode so that the only thing that had changed to my stock ROM was S-Off and root. Apparently there are ways to put S-Off back on but in my eyes, if the phone is broken and this was down to a software problem, you'd have to be seriously unlucky to brick it. I've not read up on anyone bricking theirs yet. There always seems to be a way back as long as you follow instructions properly!
Battery wise I'm on the 2.0.5 kernel, doesn't seem to be much change to battery but then it's always going to be different for different people. I don't use many widgets, got rid of friend stream/stocks/twitter/news etc so mine lasts quite well. I only lose 6% battery overnight and am pretty much able to go two days now with moderately heavy usage out of it.
Hi guys.
Obviously I am new, and noob so this might sound silly, but is it worth rooting?
I mean, I have been having stock Desire Z for, I dunno, almost 2 years, and it's been working perfectly, but since HTC and Google are moving on, leaving me on 2.3 and without any new updates, I was thinking of moving on on my own.
The thing is, I am as noob at rooting as I am in here, and bricking scares the **** out of me. Also, I don't know what ROM to chose, if that is the only thing to chose after rooting. I've stumbled upon cyanogen mod, and there are quite detailed step-by-step description on how to downgrade/root/install CM7, but CM7 looks like crap - I don't like it really.
I do like this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1546915http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1546915 thou,, but since it's still beta, I don't want to end up with half working phone when I need it the most.
So, should I go for it, or stick with my guns?
and thx for replying or even reading :good:
I can't really comment on Sense roms (never cared for them, too bloated in my opinion). But I would prefer either Mimicry 1.3.1 or EliteMod ICS (which I'm using now), in regards to ICS (4.0.*).
Far as guides. Some like the Cyanogenmod one can be 'easier' to read, but the XDA wiki has a lot more information.
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=HTC_Vision
Since you're on gingerbread now you would go the Desire-Z Gingerbread route for unlocking/exploit before proceeding to root it. (but on the plus side sticking with a Desire-Z hboot will ensure your /system size is big enough to play with the Sense roms).
With ICS some things to keep in mind is that the most common issues tend to be :
1) Camera isn't "fully" working, in some cases like on mimicry and elitemod (or other non-Sense ICS roms), you can take a picture, you can record a video, but usually only with the stock camera app and usually won't have features like 720p recording or special effects.
2) Graphical glitch with the text can happen on an app, although rarely occurs, is easily fixed by closing the app or restarting (tends to stay with one app when it happens).
Those are probably the two most common issue you'll see with just bout every ICS rom out there for DZ/G2.
By the way some of the Sense roms are incorporating the 3.0 kernel from the Virtuous Infinity Preview (Full Sense 4.0), as such they're getting a decent camera with filters, but course there are still some bugs. (Previously Sense 4.0 roms had no camera functionality at all).
Edit
To clarify, even if you use the CM Wiki to unlock/root you do not have to install Cyanogenmod 7.2 afterwards, you can pretty much install any compatible rom once you've gotten it unlocked and running with a custom recovery (though I prefer 4EXT over clockworkmod).
I am sure it is worth ... i was just like u ..satisfied with my GB but i was so curious and so on so i followed this guide: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/HTC_Desire_Z:_Rooting and now iam rooted at the moment iam running Elite ROM ice cream sandwich and its ********* fast .... when you have root and you try new rom you will never want to stop of course there are some risks but I think that if you will have any kind of problem here on XDA is so many great people willing to help you ... my advice is to do it go step by step according to that guide and if you dont understand something just ask here on xda Best of luck....
back in the g1 days a friend of mine rooted his, i was astonished what could be done to phones now adays. i quickly rooted my g1 and began learning a ton about everything mobile, just like many before and after me i was hooked. even if you never found a better rom than stock the learning process is well worth it. even if you dont use most of the new features available to you at least having them is worth it. and unless you dont research/read first, or are mostly stupid/have bad luck, you wont brick your phone. i have rooted 50~60 phones and tablets, maybe more and never had a hard brick, sure when i first started out there was some close calls but with a little common sense you will be fine, also know you are now part a large community eager to help
so follow the xda or cyanogen wiki and downgrade and root your phone, move on to the rom compilation (found in the developers thread here) try a few roms and see what you prefer. you will be happy you did
on and one last point; the best reason to root your phone right when you get it, if there ever is a problem it is much easier to fix a rooted phone with software/firmware problems then an unrooted one. the only drawback could be if you need to send it back for warranty... but how likely is that, and the phone you have now im sure has little/no warranty left
happy flashing!
follow kbeeize's advice on how to root and try a few roms out
PS: One of the major advantages of having a custom recovery, is the ability to perform a backup of your currently installed rom. If you screw something up, you need only go back into recovery Wipe (factory-reset/cache/etc) and restore the backup to get right back to where you were. And you can have several backups too if you were trying out several different roms.
So basically the process of rooting/unlocking offers a safety net once you're up and running, be it in the recovery , or apps like Titanium Backup. Getting there is mainly the intimidating part.
kbeezie said:
Mimicry 1.3.1 or EliteMod ICS (which I'm using now), in regards to ICS (4.0.*).
Far as guides. Some like the Cyanogenmod one can be 'easier' to read, but the XDA wiki has a lot more information.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you would recommend EliteMod & Cyanogen guide for starters?
kbeezie said:
Since you're on gingerbread now you would go the Desire-Z Gingerbread route for unlocking/exploit before proceeding to root it. (but on the plus side sticking with a Desire-Z hboot will ensure your /system size is big enough to play with the Sense roms).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uhhh... What?
kbeezie said:
With ICS some things to keep in mind is that the most common issues tend to be :
1) Camera isn't "fully" working, in some cases like on mimicry and elitemod (or other non-Sense ICS roms), you can take a picture, you can record a video, but usually only with the stock camera app and usually won't have features like 720p recording or special effects.
2) Graphical glitch with the text can happen on an app, although rarely occurs, is easily fixed by closing the app or restarting (tends to stay with one app when it happens).
Those are probably the two most common issue you'll see with just bout every ICS rom out there for DZ/G2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can deal with that. Really, camera for me is one of the most useless apps. So stock app will do just fine
kbeezie said:
To clarify, even if you use the CM Wiki to unlock/root you do not have to install Cyanogenmod 7.2 afterwards, you can pretty much install any compatible rom once you've gotten it unlocked and running with a custom recovery (though I prefer 4EXT over clockworkmod).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, rooting won't delete everything from my phone, it will just be unlocked, so I could install some ROM apps that would do the rest of the work for me?
jumptoin said:
when you have root and you try new rom you will never want to stop of course there are some risks but I think that if you will have any kind of problem here on XDA is so many great people willing to help you ... my advice is to do it go step by step according to that guide and if you dont understand something just ask here on xda Best of luck....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is changing ROM deleting all my apps, messages etc., and is it doing so every time I change it. I've spent quite a lot of time and care to set the whole thing up, so I don't thing I would swap the ROMs so easily as you say
demkantor said:
back in the g1 days a friend of mine rooted his, i was astonished what could be done to phones now adays. i quickly rooted my g1 and began learning a ton about everything mobile, just like many before and after me i was hooked. even if you never found a better rom than stock the learning process is well worth it. even if you dont use most of the new features available to you at least having them is worth it. and unless you dont research/read first, or are mostly stupid/have bad luck, you wont brick your phone. i have rooted 50~60 phones and tablets, maybe more and never had a hard brick, sure when i first started out there was some close calls but with a little common sense you will be fine, also know you are now part a large community eager to help
so follow the xda or cyanogen wiki and downgrade and root your phone, move on to the rom compilation (found in the developers thread here) try a few roms and see what you prefer. you will be happy you did
on and one last point; the best reason to root your phone right when you get it, if there ever is a problem it is much easier to fix a rooted phone with software/firmware problems then an unrooted one. the only drawback could be if you need to send it back for warranty... but how likely is that, and the phone you have now im sure has little/no warranty left
happy flashing!
follow kbeeize's advice on how to root and try a few roms out
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THX! :good:
kbeezie said:
PS: One of the major advantages of having a custom recovery, is the ability to perform a backup of your currently installed rom. If you screw something up, you need only go back into recovery Wipe (factory-reset/cache/etc) and restore the backup to get right back to where you were. And you can have several backups too if you were trying out several different roms.
So basically the process of rooting/unlocking offers a safety net once you're up and running, be it in the recovery , or apps like Titanium Backup. Getting there is mainly the intimidating part.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So it's like making an image file of the whole windows OS with all the programs preinstalled and restoring it when things go bust?
StipeP said:
So you would recommend EliteMod & Cyanogen guide for starters?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EliteMod ICS isn't really for everyone, something like Andromadus Mimicry would be an easier start if you wanted ICS.
StipeP said:
Uhhh... What?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The T-Mobile G2 hboot (0.76.200) has a /system of ~400MB, /cache of ~200MB and /data of ~1.3GB, but 400MB is not big enough for a Sense rom. So if you were following the cyanogenmod wiki for exploiting/rooting, you would need the Desire-Z Engineering hboot (0.84.2000) which has a /system of ~550MB, /cache ~300MB, /data 1GB. Otherwise you would have to avoid Sense roms or roms that say you need a DesireZ hboot.
Since you said you had a Desire-Z you may not even run across that issue.
StipeP said:
I can deal with that. Really, camera for me is one of the most useless apps. So stock app will do just fine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then that's all good then.
StipeP said:
So, rooting won't delete everything from my phone, it will just be unlocked, so I could install some ROM apps that would do the rest of the work for me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends on how you root, and if your phone needs to be downgraded/exploited. Which most of the time it does (i.e.: to get ENG S-OFF), which will of course erase the existing data on the phone so backups is suggested.
StipeP said:
Is changing ROM deleting all my apps, messages etc., and is it doing so every time I change it. I've spent quite a lot of time and care to set the whole thing up, so I don't thing I would swap the ROMs so easily as you say
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's where root tools like Titanium Backup come in very handy. You can flash a band new rom, open up Titanium Backup, and then restore all your apps along with their settings/etc.
StipeP said:
So it's like making an image file of the whole windows OS with all the programs preinstalled and restoring it when things go bust?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Normally once you get an initial rom setup, you can do a backup in recovery. If things go bust, you just reboot into recovery, wipe/factory-reset and then restore from the backup which will put the phone at the exact same state as you backed it up.
But yea I guess it's kind of like taking a Ghost image of your hard drive, which is stored on the SD Card at /clockworkmod/backup
Dear StipeP,
Greetings!
I bought my Desire Z, my very first android mobile in April 2010 and since then I was thinking 'O my God! what the **** people are talking about rooting their mobile!!!'. It was not that I was not curious, it was the difficult looking procedure and always lingering fear of bricking my set . At that time, I was a toooooootal noob . Then HTC pushed gingerbread update. All was well before ICE rolled out and some other mobiles were getting it while desire z was no where in line. I decided I should give it a try but still I preferred some 'one click root' methods over the detailed one given at XDA (it seemed too intimidating). But every such method could not root a desire z on android 2.3.3 (they could have when I was on Froyo). Then I finally made my mind to take the bull by horn and started reading as much as possible about rooting the hard way. Finally, I went for the XDA-wiki and also stumbled upon a guy named Strawmetal's wonderful effort of putting all the necessary files and instructions at one place. One night, I sat after dinner just rooted it (though I remembered all possible Gods at some steps like matching the MD5 sums:fingers-crossed. I was so excited that I didn't sleep the whole night!
Now, question was which ROM to install ( I hated to be back on Froyo). I started fiddling with some gingerbread ROMs and then shifted to ICS ROMs. There are problems as mentioned by others. I would mention below some pros and cons (those matter to me) of these ROMs:
1. Gingerbread ROMs are generally quite stable. Some excellent examples are Virtuous Glite v2.01, EliteMod120316 (this is awesome!) etc. I found BeatMod Bliss Sense hybrid to be too heavy (it's a Sense 3.5 ROM).
2. Camera works fine with Gingerbread ROMs generally (It was good in EliteMod120316).
3. ICS ROMs are faster. Even browser there seems faster to.They give a lot of customization options (Rightnow, I'm on EliteMod 120728 and believe me, it would just enthrall you with its beauty and customization options).
4. For me, ability to read Hindi fonts is a bonus and ICS ROMs do this.
5. Regarding Camera on ICS ROMs, it is true that they are not good. But the Camera on EliteMod 120728 is working well. Only you cannot record 720p video:crying.
6. I'm yet to try some other good ROMs like CM9 unofficial so cannot say much about them.
7. One issue that I faced was that I could download from Play Store when using a gingerbread ROM but could not when using ICS ROMs. It was giving "error 403". Finally, resolved that today (of course, with help from others).
One thing that I should mention here is that after rooting and trying some ROMs, I felt frustrated and thought is there any way to go back to stock gingerbread rom without loosing root. Main issues was Camera (I use it a lot). But more I read and kept finding/trying new ROMs, more the desire to revert to gingerbread subsided. Finally, when I got EliteMod 120316, I was more than content. And now am using EliteMod 120728 (an ICS ROM).
Last but not least, I believe that the biggest advantage of rooting my desire z is not ability to run custom ROMs but the learning process and getting an opportunity to mingle with extra-ordinarily helpful XDA-guys.
Now, you have to take a decision about taking the plunge
Best of luck
Right, enough courage; time to get cracking.
I will go process by process, slowly following this: wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=HTC_Vision
If I get stuck, all my hopes are on you guys.
Wish me luck
StipeP said:
Right, enough courage; time to get cracking.
I will go process by process, slowly following this: wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=HTC_Vision
If I get stuck, all my hopes are on you guys.
Wish me luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All the Best...
p.s.: take your time and better take notes of steps. It would help in bringing clarity. And make sure to copy your commands and outputs from ADB to a notepad. It would be of help if, God forbid, anything goes wrong. If you have already downloaded and setup the ADB, just try the msm_rotator command (adb shell cat /dev/msm_rotator). If you get following output, you are ready to go: /dev/msm_rotator: invalid length
Hi,
Another Android rooting NOOB, but experienced with Linux, including embedded (that's the day job )
Looking to root my HTC Desire Z, as is being discussed here.
From all the threads, it seems you have to downgrade to a very old stock ROM before starting. Several talk about being able to take a backup from Clockwork Recovery after you've rooted the phone in case things go wrong, but obviously by then the existing phone build will be gone.
What I'd really like to be able to do is to take a full backup of the stock Gingerbread setup I've currently got, so that if either (a) things go wrong or (b) I don't like the end result I can get back to where I am now.
None of the threads I've found so far (here, here, here and possibly others, I've been surfing around a lot the last couple of days!) talk about any way of doing this, some talk about using Titanium Backup or MyBackup Root to backup Apps, Call Data, SMS logs etc, but these presumably aren't a full OS backup.
Is there a relatively easy way of doing this from the fre3vo temporary root? Presumably 'dd' against the various /dev/block/mmcXXXX partitions will get most (all?) of the data? Are there sections that aren't available from Android device files as root?
One more (hopefully minor) thing - having worked down the start of this downgrade thread[URL], for now I've skipped the "Changing Version Number to Allow Downgrade and Gaining SuperCID with a Goldcard" section and tried the "Temp-Rooting to Backup" section (from my understanding of these two sections, I don't think anything from the section I skipped is relied upon in the backup section). I seem to find that the /system/bin/su file keeps getting corrupted or deleted. Is this HTC trying to stop me doing this, or is it one of the applications (SuperUser?) trying to protect the file and getting it wrong? In case it's making a difference, I also have Better Terminal Emulator Pro installed, which I'm using the "bash" from for some of the steps, as it has proper Linux auto-complete etc. which makes life easier.
I think I've managed to make a usable backup with MyBackup Root, but obviously can't easily test this without going further.
I'd really like to be as sure as possible that I can get back to where I am now before I start the downgrade to Froyo process...
Thanks in advance for any advice on this
Michael
I am worhtless.
Right now I am downgrading GB folowing CGmod guide wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/HTC_Desire_Z:_Firmware_Downgrade_(Gingerbread), and I am stuch at step 6. On the computer, open terminal and run the following commands:
Erm, what terminal????
btw, I extracted and copied the downloaded files into ADB install folder. That is the right one?
what terminal ? .... u just click start run and type in "cmd" ,,, or find command promt
says: adb is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
I am sorry to bother you, but I would be very grateful
so you downloaded adb from the sdk package right? you need to either change directories in cmd or change the path in enviromental variables
easiest thing to do would be hold shift and right click in the folder adb and files are in and choose open command here. then the path is chosen
also make sure debugging is turned on (in phone)
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
demkantor said:
so you downloaded adb from the sdk package right? you need to either change directories in cmd or change the path in enviromental variables
easiest thing to do would be hold shift and right click in the folder adb and files are in and choose open command here. then the path is chosen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did as you said but still the same problem: adb is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
If only I could post screenshots here for you to see what exactly am I doing (wrong)
what does it say when you open the cmd?
C:/user......?
is that the folder adb.exe is in?
are you using windows 7, vista, xp? mac, linux?
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
demkantor said:
what does it say when you open the cmd?
C:/user......?
is that the folder adb.exe is in?
are you using windows 7, vista, xp? mac, linux?
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have ADV Manager.exe and SDK Manager.exe
No adb.exe
This is what I have downloaded and installed developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
(Win7)
ok, you may need to open sdk and download adb from there, otherwise you can check if you did without knowing it. go to your harddrive (C) and see if there is an android folder or android sdk or something like that, look for I think platform tools in there and see if there is a program called adb
if you can't find this try search in computer
or just open the sdk manager and download the tools in the first chunk, specifically platform tools
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
Here you go.
Basic concepts, how-to'sThis thread is a work in progress. If you would like to contribute information or have ideas for what should be added please PM me.
Disclaimer "just because i am trying to be helpful does not make me responsible for anything that you do to your phone. playing with any of this stuff could destroy your phone"
I am not a dev, but I have been flashing on Samsung phones since the international S2 came out. I also spend a ton of time reading the forums and researching what I don't know. I would like to give back to the community in some way and I hope that this post can help the noobs not brick their devices, as well as keep them from being overly annoying to the members and developers here by posting in the wrong places and asking dumb questions.
Some basic rules if you are a noob and don't want to turn your phone into a brick.
1. be patient. don't be the first or even the tenth person to flash anything. wait until you see others using whatever Rom or kernel with success.
2. If you have any doubts about what you are doing, read more. don't flash.
3. make sure you are in the forum for your device, not some similar or related device.
Some basic rules for these forums
1. If you have a question, the first thing to do is look it up yourself. that means searching the forums first, then searching Google.
2. If after searching you can't find an answer, then post in the q&a forum
3. don't report bugs unless you are using an intact version of whatever Rom, if you have changed kernels, installed a ton of apps etc it probably isn't a bug, it's a bad combo or its you.
4. don't report bugs unless you are 150% sure that no one has reported it yet.
5. if you report a bug, make sure you can duplicate it first, then get a logcat of the problem so you can help (see below for logcat info)
Why flash?
by flashing your device you can make your phone act differently, look different, and enable new or disabled options. you could ,for example:
enable native tethering
enable call recording
change the look of your phone
add custom toggle buttons
overclock or undervolt
increase battery life
etc..
Kernel vs Rom vs Recovery vs Modem
Kernel is the layer between the phone hardware and the rom. it controls things like Wi-Fi power, touch sensitivity, possible range of screen brightness, phone logging, and processor max and min speed. kernel must be designed not only for your device but also for the type of rom you are using (Sammy rom or Aosp) some kernels support all roms, others are specific.
Rom is the operating system of your phone. there are three main categories of roms.
roms that are based off of the Samsung stock rom (Sammy rom)
roms that are based off of Android open source project aka AOSP (AOSP, AOKP)
roms based off of the miui project (these used to be a branch of AOSP but recently they have also used Sammy base for miui)
recovery is a partition that you can access at boot by holding down a combination of keys. (volume up and home button in the case of our sgs3) every phone has recovery stock but it doesn't do much. you can replace stock with clockwork mod recovery which is extremely useful for flashing all kinds of things and making backups before you do. There are other alternative recoveries besides clockwork but that seems to be the most common. TWRP is also gaining popularity these days, especially on the sgs3. You can easily switch between recoveries and or upgrade your current recovery. All that needs to happen is for a new image to be flashed onto the recovery partition. See the rooting guide for more info on how to flash a custom recovery.
modem is a file that controls the cell radio of the phone. helps determine what frequencies to use and settings for a particular network. It is important when flashing a radio that you flash a radio that is for the AT&T sgs3 as flashing the radio from another carrier has been known to cause problems with the IMEI
Methods for flashing files - Odin vs mobile Odin vs. clockworkmod(cwm) vs adb
Odin is the internal Samsung tool for flashing. I believe it only exists on Windows platform. This tool is mostly used to initially flash an insecure kernel or rooted kernel, OR to return to completely stock rom. This tool can effect your flash counter (see below). Files for flashing in odin generally should end in .tar or .tar.md5 although sometimes they come zipped and the tar is inside the zip. Read more about Odin before using it as it can easily break your phone. !!!as a general rule make sure you never check the "partition" checkbox EVER!!!
Mobile Odin is a phone based version of Odin made by the very talented developer Chainfire. It can be installed on a rooted phone and used to flash the same .tar based files as the desktop version. Mobile odin has a few advantages. 1 you can use it from your phone. 2 it does NOT effect the flash counter on your phone, 3 it can auto root a stock rom (nice if you want to try out a brand new update that has not been rooted yet)
clockworkmod(cwm) is recovery based tool that can make backups of your entire phone, flash new roms, kernels etc.., and do many other useful tasks. Once you have this on your phone my guess is that most of your flashing will be done through this tool. The files for flashing through clockworkmod are .zip files. Clockworkmod will NOT effect your flash counter.
ADB is the android develpment bridge. It allows for command line interface with your phone through it's debugging options. ADB can do most anything as I understand it. In my several years of flashing I have only had to use it once, and i could have waited for someone to come up with another solution. In general as a noob i recommend you stay away from ADB.
open source vs Samsung based roms vs miui
Open Source Roms such as AOSP/AOKP are built using Google's open source android code as a base. The developers then add functionality specific to the device. The advantages of these builds are that they often have tons of options built in to the rom that change the behavior and look of the phone. They usually allow you to change the toggles in your notification pull down, change the battery display, make all kinds of adjustments to sounds, vibration etc... Some people also prefer the "vanilla" android look and feel. These roms often provide "bleeding edge" concepts, design, and modifications. The Disadvantages of these roms is that some of the hardware coding is done closed source by the phone manufacturers, which means that things like bluetooth, camera, video recording, and MHL video out often don't work or take much longer to get working by the developers. Basically anything that relies on the Samsung framework will not work in an open source build. This means Svoice, Snote, and the Samsung camera app will not work.
Samsung based roms are taken from the Samsung original phone software and modified by the developer. Usually, these roms are modified in order to be faster and to make changes to some of the features. Expect to see changes to the stock rom like: debloated (ATT and samsung software removed), de-odexed (explained later), enable tethering, unlimited sms recipients, added notification toggles, etc. Most of these changes are made to: make the phone faster, improve battery life, make the phone easier to theme. The advantage of these roms is that they still use the Samsung framework so all the proprietary stuff like camera, bluetooth, MHL still work, the disadvantage is that they will never be as customisable as open source roms.
MIUI is a rom that focuses on theming. Official MIUI (Chinese) gets updated weekly on Friday and then there are lots of miui developers who adapt it to other languanges and make some tweaks to it. MIUI can be built from AOSP source or Samsung source and depending will have different features. The first MIUI rom for our phone just appeared in these forums and it is based off of AOSP. MIUI has a unique look and is also highly customizable through theming. There are tons of themes available for download through the rom itself and you can mix and match any part of any theme you want. This includes icons, lockscreen style, etc.. Some people criticize while others praise MIUI for being very "iphone like". This is because the icons look more iphone like and there is no app drawer in the MIUI launcher. However, you can still use any launcher you like within MIUI.
odexed vs de-odexed
odexed is how the phone comes stock from Samsung. Odexed means that system files and apps are split into two pieces and kept in different places on the phone. This is done to speed things up a bit. However, it makes it harder to theme the phone because the apps are split up. Most custom roms choose to de-odex (basically regroup the files back into one) so that custom themers can make themes more easily for the phone.
download mode and recovery mode how to access
(Copied from mskip and his toolkit thread here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1746665)
How to get into Download Mode (For Odin)
1. Unplug the USB cable.
2. Shut down the phone.
3. Hold down the 'HOME' + 'VOLUME DOWN' buttons and press the 'POWER' button for about 2 seconds until a WARNING! Screen appears. Press the 'VOLUME UP' button to enter Download Mode.
How to get into Recovery Mode
1. Unplug the USB cable.
2. Shut down the phone.
3. Hold down the 'HOME' + 'VOLUME UP' buttons and press the 'POWER' button for about 5 seconds to enter Recovery Mode.
STEP BY STEP how to flash your phone for the first time
A. get root
first off, you need to gain access to the root of your phone. there are several ways to do this (thanks to all the talented devs).
I recommend using mrRobinson's method as it will not trip the flash counter on your phone.
1. you will need to have odin from here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1722686 remember to hit the thanks button, download and install odin.
2. Kies (on Windows, not on your phone), Samsung's sync program, can interfere with Odin. Either make sure Kies is closed and close it out of background processes using the task manager in windows...or better yet, uninstall it completely.3. make sure you have the proper samsung drivers installed. you can get the USB drivers directly from Samsung here: http://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/SGH-I747MBBATT
4. you need to download the right image from mrRobinson's thread. to find out which one hit the menu key from your home screen, select system settings, select about phone at the bottom, and look for the build. it should be either UCALEM or UCALG1. Once you know, go to mrRobinson's thread here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1739426 download the matching image, and dont forget to thank him.
STEPS 5-7 COPIED FROM mrRobinson's THREAD
5. Extract the .tar file from the .7z file you just downloaded from the thread in step 46. Put your phone into download mode (see how above)
7. Start Odin, connect your phone to your PC, you should see the box under ID:COM change color to show your device is connected. click on PDA and select the .tar file you just extracted. Hit the start button and wait for the file to flash to your phone. When done your phone will reboot automatically. One word of warning about Odin: DO NOT TOUCH THE CHECKBOXES!!! WHATEVER YOU DO>>DONT TOUCH THE RE-PARTITION CHECKBOX!!!!B. installing clockworkmod
the next step is to get a working clockworkmod recovery on your phone instead of the default recovery. Again, there are many ways to do this and there are several different versions of CWM recovery available. I recommend using the one from Rom Manager as it seems to be compatible with most roms. Note that currently most versions of CWM can only see your internal SD card and not your external if you have one.
1. Go to the Google play store and download Rom Manager (https://play.google.com/store/apps/...anager&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDNd)2. Open Rom Manager app, flash clockworkmod recovery (first option), choose the appropriate phone..in this case galaxy s3 att, grant it superuser privileges, it should say install successful. NOTE: some users have reported not seeing the S3 ATT in the list of devices in Rom Manager...this is a bug and hopefully will be fixed. It may be that you need the purchased version instead of the free version for it to work? Not sure why this is but if it gives you trouble there are other ways to flash a recovery image. The next easiest way once rooted is to use the tool in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1746665 from there you can flash both cwm or twrp whichever you prefer. Alternatively you could also use goo manager to flash TWRP link to goo here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.s0up.goomanager&hl=en
C. Test out your new recovery and make a backup of your phone
1. turn your phone off, then turn it back on while holding the Volume UP and home key. (more detailed instructions above) You should see Clockworkmod Recovery at the top.2. Use your volume keys to navigate to the backup option and select backup, then wait for it to complete. You now have a backup of your phone you can restore to at any time.
D. downloading and flashing a new rom
now its time to decide what rom to flash. when choosing a rom read the first post of the thread (the OP) carefully and take time to read through most if not all of the thread. At the very least go read the last 10 pages of the thread so you are familiar with any current issues people may be having. Once you have picked a rom:
1. Download the rom you want to try2. Make sure that the rom ends up on your internal SD card and that you know where it is3. Get into CWM recovery4. As a general rule it's a good idea to wipe data/ factory reset from CWM recovery (this will wipe all your data on the phone except any photos/videos you may have taken)5. It is also good practice to wipe cache from CWM recovery6. Lastly, from the advanced menu in CWM choose to wipe Dalvik cache7. now go back out to the main recovery screen and choose "install .zip from SD Card" option and navigate to your rom, select it and confirmnote that a new rom may take longer to boot the first time.
Flashing "dirty" vs flashing "clean"
Clean
Doing a clean install of a rom means erasing or formatting all the data from the previous rom before you flash the new one. This is the prefered way to flash a rom to ensure that it will run smoothly. It is necessary if you are switching from one rom type to another (CM to Samsung base). In order to do a clean flash you need to boot into recovery and select the following options: wipe user data (this wipes all apps and personal data, but not your photos/videos), wipe cache, advanced>wipe dalvik cache, storage/mounts>format system. This will ensure that no trace of the former rom is left on the phone. Beware that at this point your phone will not boot until you install a new rom. I suggest using titanium backup to backup apps and smsbackup+ for texts to make getting your new rom configured easy.
Dirty
Doing a dirty install means just flashing a new rom right over the top of the old one without wiping any data. The advantage to this is that you don't lose any apps or account info. The disadvantage is that you open up the possibility for problems. Generally you only want to flash this way if you are upgrading a rom (CM10 nightly to the next nightly, or from one samsung based rom to another). If you decide to flash over the top and have any issues, you should not report bugs, but try flashing clean first.
backing up IMEI
There have been some issues with people losing their imei number when flashing roms. *It appears to be limited to the old imei software version 2 but the evidence is not yet conclusive. *If you lose your imei, you will not be able to connect properly to the data network. *Luckily some devs have figured out how to re-inject an imei number into our phone and get it working again. *It is certainly a good idea to back up your imei info before flashing just to be on the safe side. *There seems to be two main threads dealing with backing up and restoring your imei. *you can check them out here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1801997
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1804117
huge thanks go out to these devs for figuring this out!! as always make sure you thank them.
I have yet to try either of these methods out myself so if one seems much easier or clearer please let me know.
tethering (for stock Samsung based rom)
you can use a mod to enable wifi tethering from your phone to up to ten other devices and share your data connection. If you are running a custom rom you probably already have this enabled and don't need it. It is already included in any AOSP roms also.
Make sure that you use the version of the mod that is for your software version number (UCLEM or UCLG1 see beginning of rooting guide to figure out which one you are on).
The original mod for UCLEM is here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1732262
The mod for UCLG1 is here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1768826
The Flash Counter
The flash counter is an internal counter that ticks every time you install a non-samsung firmware through Odin. This allows Samsung or AT&T to see if the phone has been flashed with custom roms. custom recoveries such as Clockworkmod and TWRP as well as the mobile version of Odin DO NOT change the counter. Only flashing non-Samsung files through the desktop version of Odin does. You can see your flash counter when you enter download mode on your phone. Luckily, Chainfire has developed an app that allows this counter to be reset, so there is really little concern anymore about having the counter trip. If you do need to send your phone in for repairs, you will want to reset the counter and then flash an unmodified stock rom through odin to get your phone back to factory state.
Link to Chainfire's app through this post here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1800878
Logcat
Logcat is a way to access the android system log for everything that is going on behind the scenes. This tool is used to help developers pinpoint problems in a rom. If you want to actually be helpful to a dev when reporting a bug, you should really learn to use this tool. I am no expert on logcat but you can find some good information in this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1726238
APN settings
This is the apn that comes on stock at&t phone. It allows you to connect to LTE as well as hspa+
Name: ATT PTA
APN: pta
MMSC: http://mmsc.mobile.att.net
MMS Proxy: proxy.mobile.att.net
MMS port: 80
MCC: 310
MNC: 410
Auth: none
APN type: default,mms,supl,hipri
NOTES BELOW ARE COMING SECTIONS. Feel free to pm me questions you would like to see answered or suggestions for other info:
theming
unlocking sim
returning to stock
What info is stored in each area: system, data, cache etc...
Looks good.
Stuck
FNM
I now know more about Android OS! Thanks for the info.
Good thread! In your step by step guide I suggest you add installing adb and adb basics. IMO, this is essential for anyone flashing, has bailed me out of trouble on more than one occasion.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using XDA Premium HD app
MORE ! MORE ! Very nice work thanks, this is shedding some lights on the terms we see floating around
excellent information, much appreciated, so what is de-odexed and odexed? thanks again!!
I got my s3 when it first shipped, and soft bricked it a month later. Even if you do everything right, it can still mess up. So waiting for a USB jig to come in the mail since my homebrew jig didnt work or I hard bricked my phone... Be warned...
Very helpful thread, thanks a lot!
Thanks for this guide!! Very helpful. Coming from a very different phone, everything about the S3 is foreign to me! Could you maybe talk about backing up nv stuff and imei?? I know there's another thread that explains it, but, this being the noob helper, I think it'd be good for anyone new to this phone.
Thanks
Thank you for making this! I'm sure this will help a lot of people out. I've flashed quite a few times and having a guide like this is definitely helpful.
I sure hope I had this guide when I flashed for the first time a few days ago, but at the time you only had part 1 done and the guide had not been completed yet. Glad to see it finished and it'll definitely help out others.
mods
Thanks for all the invaluable info on flashing ROMs. I've been a BB user for years so Android is still new to me. I'm looking into rooting and trying out some custom roms, but I had a question. When it comes to Mods can you just add those individually?
I want to use Team Sonic's FreeGS3 Rom mainly due to it's Sony Bravia engine Mod and the Awesome Beats Mod (or at least when they get it working on apps other than Google Music). However, they don't have a fully supported Rom for AT&T just yet.
Trying to have the best of both worlds....I may just need to try out something else and wait for the full ATT version.
This is a great thread you've created OP. However, I'm a tad confused. You mention in the guide that Kies interferes with Odin and you say to close and close it out of the backround, but you also mention "better yet, uninstall it completely." One of the reasons I'm rooting my new phone is to be able to delete this bloatware. Are you implying this is possible without first rooting the phone?
Thanks a lot in advance, this is very helpful.
jroyjohnson said:
Thanks for all the invaluable info on flashing ROMs. I've been a BB user for years so Android is still new to me. I'm looking into rooting and trying out some custom roms, but I had a question. When it comes to Mods can you just add those individually?
I want to use Team Sonic's FreeGS3 Rom mainly due to it's Sony Bravia engine Mod and the Awesome Beats Mod (or at least when they get it working on apps other than Google Music). However, they don't have a fully supported Rom for AT&T just yet.
Trying to have the best of both worlds....I may just need to try out something else and wait for the full ATT version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would wait to flash any ROM that isn't specifically for your device. However you may be able to flash the mods you want like the bravia mod on top of an att ROM. You need to find the original post for the mods you want, and do some research to see what they require and if anyone has used them successfully. Be extra careful of mods written for the international version of the phone.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
omi__ said:
This is a great thread you've created OP. However, I'm a tad confused. You mention in the guide that Kies interferes with Odin and you say to close and close it out of the backround, but you also mention "better yet, uninstall it completely." One of the reasons I'm rooting my new phone is to be able to delete this bloatware. Are you implying this is possible without first rooting the phone?
Thanks a lot in advance, this is very helpful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can see why you are confused. I am referring to kies on your windows PC. (If you installed it at some point) Not the version that runs on the phone.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
OP, are you sure you can install CWM through ROM Manager after rooting? I remember trying to do this on my SGS2 last year and my phone soft bricked. Tried it twice, and still soft bricked.
Why not just use Robinson's method?
ComradeNF said:
OP, are you sure you can install CWM through ROM Manager after rooting? I remember trying to do this on my SGS2 last year and my phone soft bricked. Tried it twice, and still soft bricked.
Why not just use Robinson's method?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tested it out myself and it works fine. I figured this was the easiest way to get it done and not have to get adb up and running. Also, the official cwm is supported by all the new roms like cm10 and some other recoveries have had issues flashing those roms.
Thanks for putting this together! Very Helpful!
One question, you say flash CWM , first in list choose Galaxy S3 ATT, when i open Rom Manager and choose Flash i don't have the S3 for a choice ?I have Galaxy Note, Skyrocket and T-Mobile Galaxy S2, no S3....
Cholerabob said:
One question, you say flash CWM , first in list choose Galaxy S3 ATT, when i open Rom Manager and choose Flash i don't have the S3 for a choice ?I have Galaxy Note, Skyrocket and T-Mobile Galaxy S2, no S3....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try scrolling down the list
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
I have had my G2 for about 18 months and have been running into a lot of issues recently. I've decided to fix those issues by rooting & getting a new ROM installed. I'm a tech savvy guy, but have not done anything on the phone end due to not wanting to break whats working. I've decided to go with the Mimicry 1.3.2 ROM since the install process uses Aroma and is very straight forward. Before I pull the trigger, I just want to make sure I have all the steps clear so that I don't go "Oh sh**" in the middle because I missed a step. There's also a couple of steps that I'm not clear on. Here's what I researched:
-Root phone using HTC's bootloader unlocker
-Format phone's flash memory to EXT4
--What is the best app to do this with? Will my phone work with Gingerbread after I make this change?
-Download Mimicry 1.3.2 and Google Apps put the zip files on my phone (not SD card)
-Power off phone and then push the volume down and power buttons together and choose to install the ROM
-Answer prompts in Aroma (including installing WiFi calling)
-Flash Google apps
--How exactly is that done?
-Restart phone and start setting up apps again.
Does that look correct and is there anything that I'm missing? Thank you in advance for your help.
Well first off I would stay away from HTC official unlocked bootloader, its worthless and will give you headaches in the future
use the wiki to root, either follow the wiki in cyanogen or here on xda, if you even slightly tech savvy it will be easy
following that guide you will have clockwork recovery, but I suggest moving to 4ext recovery, among many reasons is the ability to format to ext4. Otherwise the next easiest way to format would be to flash a super wipe script with ext4 format written to it (just search xda and you'll find it easier)
Now after you are rooted with an engineering s-off hboot consider flash the .19 radio, not super important but many find this to have the best reception and battery life.
Next make sure your SD card is fat32, I also suggest an ext4 partition there as well (easily done through recovery) but skip the swap
Now feel free to flash mimicry, and may I add this is one other best ICS Roms for the vision, and blk_jck is a very helpful Dev as well.
Good luck, if you run into issues there will be answers all over xda, just search a bit, happy flashing!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
Thanks
Thanks for the heads up on the HTC bootloader. I'll check out the Wiki on how to PermRoot my phone.
Mimicry, recovery, soft bricks, and new ROM
Agree with demkantor, the step-by-steps so painstakingly described in cyanwiki are your best bet.
Likewise, using 4ext in place of clockwork is also my recommendation, as I've used both now and
find the latter more polished and stable.
I recently rooted and updated for the first time. Got successfully as far as ICS using cyan's instruction,
then decided to use mimicry after reading about the radio updates etc posted by madmaxx. I think the sequence in which i
carried these out was flawed, because after updating the radio instruction sets, I re-flashed mimicry to take advantage of the
updated radio features and to install the wi-fi telephony; that was my downfall. I got caught in a boot-loop. Oh sh*t, indeed.
I could not, for the life of me, get past the HTC white screen. Being a total noob, I had no
idea where to go to next. I searched this website and cyan's a lot, and realised the term for what I now had was a 'soft
brick' or 'semi brick'. Could not get the device to be recognised via ADB, and could not access the sdcard directory.
I scratched my head for a few days (I had bought another phone prior to playing with the old G2), and came up with the
idea of just accessing the sdcard via my laptop, directly. In the midst of this, I turned on the phone (after taking the card
out), and voila, the phone now cycled into engineering hboot !
I subsequently was able to edit the sdcard directly via the laptop (using an micro sd card adapter), and removed the pc10?.img file
that was left over the radio update. Having recovered to this point, I re-flashed mimicry 1.3.1 (via 4ext) and so was able to get a completely
functional phone again.
The point of all of the is this: 1. To all the previous post-ers, both here and at cyanwiki...You guys rock. Can't say that enough. Even more:
2. A 'soft brick' may be anything but...a little bit of not-very-complicated experimentation afterward can pay off big time. Lastly, I tried
mimicry 1.3.2, but kept getting a heap of error messages. Needless to say, I was a bit spooked by the previous stuff-up, so I quickly reverted
to 1.3.1, which appears to be 100% stable (IMHO).
Cheers
1.3.2 adds few framework level changes and no device level changes. Definitely nothing that should cause errors or problems booting anyway.
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
Good Info
timram said:
Agree with demkantor, the step-by-steps so painstakingly described in cyanwiki are your best bet.
Likewise, using 4ext in place of clockwork is also my recommendation, as I've used both now and
find the latter more polished and stable.
I recently rooted and updated for the first time. Got successfully as far as ICS using cyan's instruction,
then decided to use mimicry after reading about the radio updates etc posted by madmaxx. I think the sequence in which i
carried these out was flawed, because after updating the radio instruction sets, I re-flashed mimicry to take advantage of the
updated radio features and to install the wi-fi telephony; that was my downfall. I got caught in a boot-loop. Oh sh*t, indeed.
I could not, for the life of me, get past the HTC white screen. Being a total noob, I had no
idea where to go to next. I searched this website and cyan's a lot, and realised the term for what I now had was a 'soft
brick' or 'semi brick'. Could not get the device to be recognised via ADB, and could not access the sdcard directory.
I scratched my head for a few days (I had bought another phone prior to playing with the old G2), and came up with the
idea of just accessing the sdcard via my laptop, directly. In the midst of this, I turned on the phone (after taking the card
out), and voila, the phone now cycled into engineering hboot !
I subsequently was able to edit the sdcard directly via the laptop (using an micro sd card adapter), and removed the pc10?.img file
that was left over the radio update. Having recovered to this point, I re-flashed mimicry 1.3.1 (via 4ext) and so was able to get a completely
functional phone again.
The point of all of the is this: 1. To all the previous post-ers, both here and at cyanwiki...You guys rock. Can't say that enough. Even more:
2. A 'soft brick' may be anything but...a little bit of not-very-complicated experimentation afterward can pay off big time. Lastly, I tried
mimicry 1.3.2, but kept getting a heap of error messages. Needless to say, I was a bit spooked by the previous stuff-up, so I quickly reverted
to 1.3.1, which appears to be 100% stable (IMHO).
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that info. I am taking a look at the Cyanogen Wiki and seeing what I have to do. I'm thinking that I will jump directly to Mimicry 1.3.2 instead of installing Cyanogen 9 first. Hopefully that file doesn't hang out there and causes that boot loop to happen to me (thanks for that explanation, BTW).
So do I have to use that ClockworkMod to load the ROM, or does EXT4 do the same thing (as far as loading the rom goes)?
...where thanks is due
many thx, blk jack, I should have specifically mentioned your awesome contributions as well, and
have remedied with thanks meter as i came/come across it.
Will re-try the 1.3.2 shortly. If I run in to the same glitches, I will try and make note of the specific errors
(or any other bugs, for that matter) and let you know.
Use the following guide, it is incredibly simple yet swift. Contains root methods for both the DesireZ and the T-Mobile G2 :
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/TMobile_G2:_Rooting
Checking it out now
iamnoobie said:
Use the following guide, it is incredibly simple yet swift. Contains root methods for both the DesireZ and the T-Mobile G2 :
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm actually looking at that wiki right now. I just finished backing up all the contents on my SD card. I can't backup the apps on my phone since it's not rooted, and I can't use a backup app unless I'm root. So it looks like that is a catch 22. Personally, I don't mind wiping everything anyways since I'm going to be making the jump to ICS. I guess I'll have to beat all those levels in cut the rope again :crying:
@deadeye
actually, the only important bits are your contacts, sms's, phone logs, etc (if these matter to you), which i think you can backup via gmail. Additionally, any other (or all) files on the SD card, you should be able to just copy directly onto a folder in your laptop or desktop (see the post I made above). HTH.
timram said:
@deadeye
actually, the only important bits are your contacts, sms's, phone logs, etc (if these matter to you), which i think you can backup via gmail. Additionally, any other (or all) files on the SD card, you should be able to just copy directly onto a folder in your laptop or desktop (see the post I made above). HTH.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that. I've now downloaded the Android SDK and am now trying to test the connection to my G2 using adb. So far, no connection. Grrrr. I'm looking around now to see how to get my phone detected by adb since it doesn't seem to have anything on the cyanogen wiki.
you downloaded adb.exe from within the sdk right? find the folder it is in (usualy platform tools) hold shift right click within the folder and choose open command here
now type adb devices, you should se some letters and numbers that means you good if not need to trouble shoot some more
alternatively you can change the path within enviromental variables so you can open a cmd anywhere
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
HTC Sync
demkantor said:
you downloaded adb.exe from within the sdk right? find the folder it is in (usualy platform tools) hold shift right click within the folder and choose open command here
now type adb devices, you should se some letters and numbers that means you good if not need to trouble shoot some more
alternatively you can change the path within enviromental variables so you can open a cmd anywhere
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried the adb devices command and it didn't return any connected devices. Looking in the xda wiki, they are saying that I need to have HTC Sync installed. I'm downloading that right now. They probably should put that in the cyanogenmod wiki also.
I got my phone detected by adb! I did some preliminary checking and I think I should be good to go on rooting. I think I will root my phone tomorrow when I have plenty of time to troubleshoot any issues that my come up.
This is just the thread I was looking for. I'm also an old (60) tech-savvy guy who has never rooted his phone, and was nervous about which set of rooting instructions (cyan-wiki or Setherio/Strawmetal?; the latter is more recently updated, seems a bit more detailed, and has newer versions of some utilities) which recovery, ClockworkMod or ext4, and which ROM, Cm9 unofficial or mimicry or even AOKP...
You all seem to feel cyan-wiki instructions better (right?) ext4 and mimicry... Shall I go for it? Last suggestions?
Thanks,
Dave
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using xda app-developers app
prairie-dad said:
You all seem to feel cyan-wiki instructions better (right?) ext4 and mimicry... Shall I go for it? Last suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cyan wiki worked for me! (strawmetal didn't - I blame myself though).
ext4 and mimicry are what I'm running now (after going through CWM, CM 7.2 and CM9 RC1 & RC2) and I'm very happy with both. Mimicry is great!
prairie-dad said:
This is just the thread I was looking for. I'm also an old (60) tech-savvy guy who has never rooted his phone, and was nervous about which set of rooting instructions (cyan-wiki or Setherio/Strawmetal?; the latter is more recently updated, seems a bit more detailed, and has newer versions of some utilities) which recovery, ClockworkMod or ext4, and which ROM, Cm9 unofficial or mimicry or even AOKP...
You all seem to feel cyan-wiki instructions better (right?) ext4 and mimicry... Shall I go for it? Last suggestions?
Thanks,
Dave
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
setherios guide is just for the downgrade process
the cyanogen wiki, xda wiki, and strawmetals pdf guide are all more or less the same guide, just writen a tad differently
as for the recovery 4ext is far superior but feel free to switch recoveries later if it complicates thing, very easy to do
as for a rom choice there are many good ones and it will be hard to recommened one so try a few, make nandroid backups, and see where your prefernce lies. if you like ics then my personal opinions are elitemod ics or mimicry, both are great. don't care much for sense so you will have to explore by yourself on those (you will need the dz hboot if you want any sense roms - easily done)
if you want gingerbread try ilwt or elitemod cm7 (this is still the rom I almost always use, even curently)
have fun, read, read some more, search when stuck... this is should all be easy as you say your tech savvy - happy flashing!
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
minor glitches, but rooted and s-off fine
demkantor said:
setherios guide is just for the downgrade process
the cyanogen wiki, xda wiki, and strawmetals pdf guide are all more or less the same guide, just writen a tad differently
as for the recovery 4ext is far superior but feel free to switch recoveries later if it complicates thing, very easy to do
as for a rom choice there are many good ones and it will be hard to recommened one so try a few, make nandroid backups, and see where your prefernce lies. if you like ics then my personal opinions are elitemod ics or mimicry, both are great. don't care much for sense so you will have to explore by yourself on those (you will need the dz hboot if you want any sense roms - easily done)
if you want gingerbread try ilwt or elitemod cm7 (this is still the rom I almost always use, even curently)
have fun, read, read some more, search when stuck... this is should all be easy as you say your tech savvy - happy flashing!
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
all went well till the very, very, very end. I went to reboot into clockwork recovery, and...nothing doing! holding down the trackball, volume down and power...and waiting and waiting...just got me into the bootloader with no option to go to recovery...just reboot, reboot the boot loader, and power down.
So I thought, maybe I somehow failed to get the recovery img where I wanted it...no big deal. I logged onto the old Market (this is 2.2, after all) and purchased 4ext (which is what seems to be everyone's choice) and installed it. Then I said I wanted to reboot with mimicry and gapps, hit "go," and...it rebooted into ClockworkMod Recovery...where it now sits, I assume backing up the existing system. Mimicry 1.3.2 and gapps images were sitting on my sdcard root, btw.
Very odd, and a little perplexing...I will wait it out a while before powering off and up again.
any thoughts? Must I remove clockwork mod manually (I assume that when I installed 4ext it made itselfthe default recovery method...) or does 4ext just sit atop Clockwork Mod...and what I am seeing now is normal...? I've been waiting a few minutes now, and see nothing but the Clockword Mod icon, the top hat.
Sigh...but pretty clearly almost all the way home.
Thanks to all,
dave
I've never used an app to install a recovery, always used fastboot.
But to answer your question 4ext does replace clockwork, it does not sit on top of it. Just downloading the app well... downloads the app. You must then go into the app and choose to download and install the recovery, after this from within the recovery flash your ROM (and gapps etc. If needed)
I have the 4ext app just for the purpose of supporting the Dev as anything that does me good deserves my money but I really have never bothered much with it so off hand I can't tell you the exact steps to do this but I'm sure it s very straight forward.
Good luck and let us know how all turns out
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
darn ClockWorkMod/4ext clash!
demkantor said:
I've never used an app to install a recovery, always used fastboot.
But to answer your question 4ext does replace clockwork, it does not sit on top of it. Just downloading the app well... downloads the app. You must then go into the app and choose to download and install the recovery, after this from within the recovery flash your ROM (and gapps etc. If needed)
I have the 4ext app just for the purpose of supporting the Dev as anything that does me good deserves my money but I really have never bothered much with it so off hand I can't tell you the exact steps to do this but I'm sure it s very straight forward.
Good luck and let us know how all turns out
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks...I sat and looked at it for a while, then hit power, and up came the ClockworkMod menu...and did nothing. When I asked _it_ to load a zip from the sdcard...it still sat there stupidly...nice menu but no action. so I rebooted with trackball/volume-down and power...and still can't get to the bootloader menu...the only way is to attach via usb, and do adb reboot bootloader...which gives me a bootloader menu showing no recovery app...just the same options as before. ugh. I wonder what the recovery.img is...? I went through the steps of installing 4ext...and it said it had installed itself.
well, I will poke around a tad more...midnight now...at least I have a working phone on 2.2, rooted, S-OFF, etc.
dave
---------- Post added at 07:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:42 AM ----------
prairie-dad said:
Thanks...I sat and looked at it for a while, then hit power, and up came the ClockworkMod menu...and did nothing. When I asked _it_ to load a zip from the sdcard...it still sat there stupidly...nice menu but no action. so I rebooted with trackball/volume-down and power...and still can't get to the bootloader menu...the only way is to attach via usb, and do adb reboot bootloader...which gives me a bootloader menu showing no recovery app...just the same options as before. ugh. I wonder what the recovery.img is...? I went through the steps of installing 4ext...and it said it had installed itself.
well, I will poke around a tad more...midnight now...at least I have a working phone on 2.2, rooted, S-OFF, etc.
dave
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mimicry is booting now. All good. I ended up using the clockwork mod version, 3. something, that I installed when following (too slavishly?) the CM wiki's instructions (otherwise excellent!) Then (and now) I have problems booting into the bootloader, and it doesn't show a recovery option... Running 4ext (which I purchased) seems to be great (looks really useful) until rebooting...when CWM comes up instead.
I kept using volume up or down to pick what I wanted, then pushed the power button to select...wrong! It's the trackball you click, which I only hit upon by accident. Once I got that working, I flashed mimicry and Gapps, and I am off to the races again.
Thanks to all, but I want to figure out what is with recovery for the future.
What buttons do I push to get to bootloader...so far all I have gotten to work is via USB cable and "dab reboot boot loader."
dave