Related
Turkeys' ULTIMATE Guide to Rooting v42.1.2
Note: It does not work on 2.2.1 Wildfire's (i.e. - Any bought after Feb - March 2011)
Like this guide? Hit the thanks button at the bottom left of this post
Before You Start
This is a new type of guide, an experiment if you like. The whole point is to get you with a fully functioning, rooted phone. But also to teach you something. Each step first tells you what you're going to do before you do it. By the end not only should you have a rooted phone but you will hopefully have priceless knowlege of how Android works.
Enjoy.
Need Help?
If at any point during this guide you need help, something's gone wrong or you need some extra clarification. Hit the help button.
The help button will link you to the #rootmydroid IRC help chat channel, where you can ask questions or get walked through the whole thing if you really need to. We have experts on hand to help you out.
PLEASE NOTE: At peak times our experts may be busy so please be patient.
So, Mr. Turkeys, what have you got for us today?
Root Guide
Post 1 - Intro
Post 2 - UnrEVOked (Rooting)
Post 3 - Flashing a ROM
Post 4 - Flashing a new Radio
Other Guides
Unroot
A2SD
More Coming Soon... Stay tuned!
So, click a link to the guide you want and get cracking, enjoy!
Donate
Should you feel the crazy need to donate to me, you can do so below.
GBP
EUR
USD
So, you wanna root?
Rooting is not easy like some people make it out to be. All these 1 click Noob-Proof tools can actually go wrong. And they do.
But lets get this clear, IT'S ALMOST impossible to brick. I'd put the odds on about a 99.9% chance you will not brick beyond repair. However, things probably will go wrong, which is why you will need to follow the instructions very carefully.
Pre-Root Info
I want to make sure the rooting process goes well for as many as you as possible, so get ready to read lots of information that will turn you from a Noob into a lean, mean rooting machine.
And for those of you who like to slack off and think "I cba to read all that crap", I've made it so you have to answer a question to get the download links. Aren't I nice. Seriously though, it really will be a lot easier for you if you read all of this, you will thank me for it one day.
Pro users who know what HBOOT is, how to flash a ROM and can use ADB can safely skip this step
Android Glossary
This page is probably the most valuble bit of information you will ever need during your rooted life. Behold, the VillainROM Android Glossary. (Cheers Pulser )
http://bit.ly/9HtICk
Read it. Read it ALL. No questions asking for these terms will be tolerated in this thread and you will be teased so much you will want to die. So please, read it carefully.
Downloads
Now, for the bit you've been dreading. 2 downloads. 2 questions. One answer will link you to the download. The other two will link you to a humorous fail picture. (And for all you sneaky cheaters out there, I've bit.ly'd the links. Take that.)
Question 1 - UnrEVOked download
What do you use to flash a ROM?
A) UnrEVOked
B) ADB
C) Recovery
Question 2 - Other Stuff Download (We may ask you to use this on the help channel)
What is a RUU?
A) A tool to root your phone
B) A tool to return your phone to 'stock' (unroot)
C) A tool to flash a ROM
You can also get countless lulz from adding a + to the end of those links and comparing the wrong answers to the correct ones. Yes people really don't read the information.
OK, I've talked enough now, let's get down to business...
So, hopefully you now know all the terms, which makes my life a lot easier as I don't have to explain everything. Let's begin.
Root Guide - Pt. 2 - UnrEVOked
1) Ensure you have downloaded and extracted the first download in the above post to somewhere you can remember and access easily. For the purpose of this guide, I will refer to that folder as the 'Root Pack'.
Next, we are going to prepare the UnrEVOked program to run. If you are a Windows user, this means installing the drivers, if you use Linux or Mac you just have to run the app as mentioned later. We have to install HTC Sync to get adb drivers and we have to uninstall it again as it interferes with UnrEVOked. The drivers however remain which is why you need to install it.
2) (Windows Only) If you have not already, download HTC Sync and install it. Then uninstall HTC Sync as well as any other software that may interfere such as doubletwist. Next, follow this guide to set up the hacked HBOOT drivers. Make sure you reboot your PC after doing this.
Next, we need to prepare your phone. We will make sure USB Debugging is on as UnrEVOked needs this to send adb commands to the phone. We also need to enable Unknown Sources so that UnrEVOked can push busybox and SuperUser Permissions apps to the phone.
3) With your phone go to Settings > Connect to PC > Default connection type > Charge Only and untick Ask Me. Then go to Settings > Applications > Development > Make sure USB Debugging is ticked. Then go back to Applications and make sure Unknown Sources is ticked.
Next, we're going to run UnrEVOked. What it does is reboot into HBOOT mode, and use an exploit to gain a temporary NAND unlock. Then it uses fastboot to flash a recovery image, and then pushes the su files required for root.
4) WINDOWS USERS: Right click on the 'unrevoked.exe' file (Or something similar) in the Root Pack and click 'Run as Admin' (Not required for XP)
LINUX USERS: Right click the 'ClickHereToRoot.sh' file and UnrEVOked will start. (Make sure you chmod 755'd it first)
MAC USERS:
mattbeef said:
Unrevoked, if your a mac user like myself then drag the app inside the dmg to the desktop and run it from there. Most mac users are lazy and will try to run it from the dmg.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GETTING A MISC RELATED ERROR? See post eight.
Your phone should now reboot and then congratulations! Your phone is rooted. However, the root that UnrEVOked gives you is basic. No ROMs or good stuff. So you must read on to the next post to flash a custom ROM...
Now you've rooted, let's flash a ROM. We will backup all your apps then flash a ROM then restore your apps. Ready?
Pt. 3 - Flashing Your First ROM
**NOTE: You can repeat Pt. 3 every time you want to flash a new ROM or update
Next we're going to download and use Titanium Backup to backup all your apps as we will have to wipe your phone to install the ROM. You can use the same method if you ever want to backup/restore in the future too.
1) Download & Install Titanium Backup from the market. Open it and hit the 'Problems' button to download busybox, a suite of commands for rooted phones.
Then hit menu then batch, and tap the button next to Backup All User Apps + System Data. Let it complete before moving on to the next step.
Next we're going to reboot into recovery mode to flash the ROM. You can use this if you ever need to get into recovery in the future.
2) Turn your phone off and turn it on again holding POWER + VOL DOWN to enter HBOOT mode. Wait a few seconds while it checks for images before using the VOLUME KEYS to scroll and POWER to select Recovery. Your phone will now vibrate and reboot into recovery mode!
Next we're going to do a full backup of your phone using Nandroid. This will backup the entire state of your phone in case you ever
want to go back. You should really do this every time you flash a new ROM.
3) Use the TRACKBALL to scroll down to where it says Backup or Nandroid or Backup / Restore. Then select Backup and wait for it to finish.
Now we need to wipe your phone. Whenever you flash a different ROM you should Always do this, when you are updating the ROM you should check on the release thread for information.
4) If you are not on the Main Menu in recovery, hit back a couple of times to get there. Then, use the TRACKBALL to navigate down to 'Wipe Data / Factory Reset' and accept the scary warning to wipe your phone.
Now we can flash the ROM! Ensure you have downloaded a ROM and it is on the root (Not in any folders) of your SD card. The flashing process may take a few minutes.
5) From the Main Menu, scroll down to and select Install zip from SD Card and then select Choose zip from SD Card then select where you put your ROM and wait for it to complete. Then, select Reboot System Now to reboot into your shiny new ROM!
Your phone will now reboot, it may take a while to reboot as it's rebuilding the Dalvik Cache. If it still doesn't boot up after 10mins, pull the battery and consult the ROM thread for troubleshooting.
Now we're going to restore that Titanium Backup you made before starting Pt. 3. It will restore all your apps back but not system data. (ie Settings) You can use Titanium Backup any time you want to backup/restore your phone.
6) Download & Install Titanium Backup again and tap Menu Button > Batch > Restore Missing apps + data. It should prompt you to reinstall every app again.
--------
Congratulations, you have qualified with a rooted phone from the Turkeh Root School!
(Unless you're reading this without having actually done any of this guide)
So, go off and ask questions, answer questions, and contribute to the community! We'd also really appreciate it if you could hang out in the help channel to help other people trying to root too.
Thanks for rooting! You can also follow some of the other guides to install all apps on the SD card, Unroot & S-OFF
Pt. 4 - Flashing a New Radio
Flashing a Radio
The radio is the lowest part of your phone. (ie It's the very first thing that loads when you turn your phone on.
Most ROMs will have a required radio version, but most will agree that it's best to be on the latest as they often improve battery life etc.
You can downgrade your radio and you can find your radio version by going to Settings > About Phone > Software Information > Baseband Version.
Your ROM should tell you on it's thread what the recommended radio version is, so download it, transfer it to the root of your SD card as you did in Pt. 3 then follow this.
Now we're going to reboot into recovery mode as we did in Pt. 3 to flash the new radio. There is also an app on the market called 'Quick Boot' which you can use to quickly get into recovery. The next step will assume you have this.
1) Open Quick Bootand tap Recovery then tap Allow on the SuperUser permissions prompt.
Note: The SuperUser Permissions app will prompt you whenever an app is requesting to use root. You should look over which app is requesting this before you allow it.
Next, we need to flash the radio. You do this exactly the same way as you flash a ROM, which you did in Pt. 3.
2) Use the same method you flashed the new ROM in Pt. 3 to flash the radio. You do not need to Nandroid backup or wipe to do this, just flash the zip.
Note: Your phone may reboot a couple of times and will show a picture of the Android Robot while it is flashing the radio. It has NOT crashed, it is flashing it. DO NOT pull the battery, it will reboot when it is done.
Your new radio has now flashed!
A2SD
Note: It has come to my attention that doing this with ROM Manager doesn't work most of the time. If you have problems please partition your card another way. (I recommend GParted - There is a Live CD if you don't have Linux)
First, we need to partition your SD card with ROM Manager. This will wipe all the data on your SD card so please backup before continuing.
1) Open ROM Manager (Download it from the Market if you don't have it - Although you will need the Market Mod to show all apps) and press Menu > Manually Override Recovery **Not sure exactly what it says, pls could someone help me out here** Then scroll down to Partition SD Card. Choose the ext size you want for your apps to be installed on, then tap 0 for swap size, then tap OK to reboot into recovery and start partitioning!
Note: While it's partitioning it will show a picture of an Android. You can press (Power?) to see what it's actually doing and if there's any errors.
Now, you need to check the ROM thread for info. Most ROMs activate it automatically when it detects an ext partition on your phone. On some others you need to flash a special update.zip. If you are unsure hit the help button on post 1 and we'll help you out.
Congratulations, you now have Apps2SD! Exactly what you will have (dalvik2sd etc) will vary between ROMs.
Unroot
These RUU programs that you use to unroot are Windows only, but fortunatley I wrote a tool for Linux called OpenRUU so you can flash them on there. If you are a Mac user, take a moment to ask yourself 'Why am I using a Steve Jobs product?' as there is no way for you to run the RUUs.
First, we are going to identify what RUU you need to download and flash then download it. (Bravo is the codename for Desire, all RUUs use this name)
1) Go to shipped-roms.com, click on the Android Robot then click on Buzz. Now, you need to recall what version of Android you were on before you rooted. If you had a carrier supplied device you should also get the one that is applicable, but if you are unsure or your carrier is not listed go for one that says WWE. (World Wide English - All Languages) Or come on our IRC channel for advice.
Note: HTC Sync must be installed before continuing. The next step will also wipe all your apps + settings!
Next we're going to run the RUU, this should take around 5-10mins. DO NOT touch your phone during the flashing process!
2) Double click on the RUU file you downloaded in step 1, read the readme, and click to start the flashing process.
After it's done! Your phone now should be completley back to stock status!
If you get an error during the flashing process, try again and then come on our IRC help channel for assistance if it persists.
Fixing the Annoying unrEVOked Backup CID Missing errors
NEW, EASY METHOD
I managed to find unrEVOked 3.2. If you want to use that as a fast-track then that's fine, but please read the following carefully:
Code:
[B]DISCLAIMER:[/B]
Please be aware that this build was pulled from unrevoked.com because it was not safe.
USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!
If it ****s up and you point the finger at me, I will laugh at you.
This is only for 'Backup CID Missing' errors. if you use this on any other type of misc error it might brick.
Download. Run in replace of unrEVOked 3.21 in the standard guide.
You can still use the old, misc editing guide below:
(Guide edited from http://home.kennynet.co.uk/~kenny/bcid-fix.txt to be more noob-friendly)
This fixes:
Backup CID Missing
Unfortunately, because a couple of people corrupted their misc partitions during the testing of unrEVOked 3.2, they brought in a load of stupid, annoying safety features that included checking the misc partition on your phone.
/rant
What is misc?
Misc is a partition on your phone. It holds various switches and stuff, such as your:
Official HTC ROM Version
Your CID (Which tells the phone what carrier/region your phone is)
However, sometimes, the CID is not in misc or your misc is corrupted. This process will add in the CID to misc and reflash misc. (which may fix other misc related errors but probably wont)
Warning! Misc is quite an important part of your phone. If it gets severely corrupted you may loose USB access. Me or anyone on our IRC help channel take no responsibility if you **** up somehow.
This guide is designed for Windoze, Linux users use common sense adapting the instructions and can use a Linux hex editor like ghex. (Works just the same)
Please ensure you have downloaded the other stuff file on the second post before continuing and have extracted it to C:\root.
First, we need to use adb to grab misc off your phone. We will get temporary root then grab misc.
1) Open a command prompt on your computer by going to Start > Run and typing cmd then pressing enter. Now type the following pressing enter on each line. (Make sure your phone is connected and you have the drivers installed.)
Code:
cd \
cd root\adb
adb-windows devices <---- Make sure it finds your phone before continuing
adb-windows shell <----- You should see a $
$ /system/__unrevoked_su <---- Getting temp root
# cat /dev/mtd/mtd0 > /sdcard/misc.img <---- Copying misc to your SD Card
# getprop ro.cid <----- This is your CID. Remember what this says, it should say something like HTC_000 or 1111111 if you have a goldcard
# exit
adb-windows pull /sdcard/misc.img misc.img <---- Getting the misc we copied before
You should now have a file called misc.img in the C:\root\adb folder.
Now come on to the IRC help channel here. We will stick the CID into the misc.img so you can carry on as it really is complicated. You can also post here if nobody is avalible and I will sort it ASAP.
(If you've done hex editing before, all you do is put the CID you got above in at position 0 then add a 00 at the end so the hex string looks something like "48 54 43 5F 5F 30 30 31 00")
Make sure you save the file that we give you back to C:\root\adb overwriting the original misc.img file.
Next we're going to push misc back on to the phone using a similar method to step 1. Have open a command prompt and cd to the correct directory as in step 1 before proceeding.
2) Type the following in the command prompt:
Code:
adb push misc.img /sdcard/new-misc.img <---- Pushing misc back to your SD card
adb-windows shell
$ /system/__unrevoked_su <---- getting temp root again
# /data/local/flash_image misc /sdcard/new-misc.img <---- Using flash_image to flash the new misc
# exit
Now rerun unrEVOked and everything should be as shiny as the plastic Samsung use to make their phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reserved for good measure.
I'm sure this will help many people. Should be sticky'd
HCDR.Jacob said:
I'm sure this will help many people. Should be sticky'd
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good Idea!!!
For the rru you need to click on the windows mobile section and select buzz NOT bravo
Added A2SD guides, misc fix & unroot guide. Bump to v42.1.2
Many Thanks,
Helps loads confirm my thinking after a couple of days reading, I just have to grow some balls n take the plunge
My main concern is my WF is a UK Voda PAYG which I believe is locked n I'm unsure whether I should get n unlock code before doing anything.
I did read in a Desire thread that updating a stock rom without a sim could unlock, but haven't seen any other refs to unlocking WF other than code.
Note: Unroot section still refers to Desire Bravo not WF Buzz
Thanks agin
PanGalactic said:
Many Thanks,
Helps loads confirm my thinking after a couple of days reading, I just have to grow some balls n take the plunge
My main concern is my WF is a UK Voda PAYG which I believe is locked n I'm unsure whether I should get n unlock code before doing anything.
I did read in a Desire thread that updating a stock rom without a sim could unlock, but haven't seen any other refs to unlocking WF other than code.
Note: Unroot section still refers to Desire Bravo not WF Buzz
Thanks agin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You shouldn't need to unlock or anything.
Thanks, I'll change that bit now
42turkeys said:
You shouldn't need to unlock or anything.
Thanks, I'll change that bit now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And buzz is under windows mobile for some reason
The guide really great....but the shipped rom website don't have RUU for Buzz
coltrain said:
The guide really great....but the shipped rom website don't have RUU for Buzz
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look under windows mobile - who put it there? Those files do work.
This thread still not stickied?
Piece of art already. Should be stickied for sure.
I thought a bit about 'reporting' the thread to make a mod notice it but it said specifically what report was to be used for , so i didn't do it , i guess we'll have to bump it up so it gets stickied. Great post !!
This is my attempt at a Bell FAQ, it is a work in progress.
Q. Why don't the instructions I found on how to do X not work?A. This is a development forum, sometimes things are written in shorthand assuming you know things you don't. At lot of things are specific to one carrier's phone or another. Sometimes things change and are now obsolete, something new was found, a better way of doing things, if you were not following it all along you are likely to be lost. Read between the lines, you are a human being with reasoning abilities, figure it out. Q. What should I do first?
A. Backup your phone. That means everything, especially your pds partition. Nandroid won't cut it and you have already modified your phone beyond the ability to get back if you can run it.
Ex. dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p3 of=/sdcard/backup/mmcblk0p3
Save your backup on your computer, create a zip of all the files, burn it off on cd/dvd, put it in a safety deposit box at your bank. Be prepared for bricking your phone. A lot of things mentioned in threads here are developed and tested for ATT phones, they may not work 100% on your phone.Q. What is ADB?A. It stands for Android Debug Bridge or something like that. It is a program that runs on your computer that lets you talk to your phone using special commands. Your phone has to have adb enabled, it's a setting under application/development.
Ex. adb shell
This opens a linux shell connected to your phone. Linux is an operating system for computers, it is also used as the base for android phones.
Ex. adb install file.apk
Ex. adb push file /tmp
Ex. adb pull /tmp/file .
Q. What is CWM recovery?A. Android phones come with a special boot configuration that allows for changes to the android system from a place outside the system. It is very corporate and does the job for official signed updates, but only Motorola and it's oems can sign the updates. Not much fun for us. CWM recovery is a replacement for the official recovery system that doesn't require signed updates.
You install CWM recovery using fastboot or moto-fastboot.Q. What is unlocking the bootloader all about?A. It is the means of putting CWM recovery on your phone so you can install roms and other packages. It allows you to flash a partition with mods and have the phone not soft brick when you reboot. When the unlocked versions of the atrix bootloader were found it started a new round of mods. A lot of the threads prior to that are now obsolete.Q. How do I unlock the bootloader?A. There is a huge thread already about this, see here.
WARNING: this is a permanent change to your phone.
Summary:
1. Download the archive
2. Extract the sbf inside, whatever it's called, that is the one to use.
3. Use linux sbf_flash or rsdlite from windows to install it.
3. fastboot oem unlock
4. Copy code fastboot spits out.
5. fastboot oem unlock code
6. fastboot reboot
You will see unlocked while booting and when you get into android you will have ~300MB of ram. This will need to be fixed. Also, you will lose all your data during the process, do a backup first.Q. What is fastboot/moto-fastboot?A. It's a program to access the phone and do stuff, write phone partition images mostly. The stock one can only handle tiny system images, pretty useless for the Atrix, xda member eval- compiled the motorola version for us that can handle larger system images, do a search for moto-fastboot.
Ex. moto-fastboot flash recovery recovery.img.Q. How do I fix the ram problem?A. I did up a CWM recovery zip to update the boot and recovery partitions to contain a kernel command line with the missing bit "[email protected]" added. See here.
There are other means of doing this, some boot images come prepackaged with the command line already embedded. There are ATT compiled kernels with a patch inside the kernel itself to do the same thing. You can search for those when you are ready to try things like custom ATT kernels on your phone.Q. How do I root the phone?A. If you are unlocked and you have fastboot flashed a version of CWM recovery, it is trivial. By that I mean almost impossible for newbies to figure out.
It would go something like this:
1. Boot into CWM recovery.
2. use adb shell
3. adb push a su binary to the phone.
4. mount system as read write as /system
5. copy su binary to /system/bin
6. make sure it has the right permissions, 06755 mode , user root, group root.
7. unmount -l /system
8. when in android look on the market for Superuser.apk, install.
Every rooting method out there is all about putting su into /system/bin with 06755 permissions, most don't work anymore since Gingerbread. If you are looking for a simple, no brain involved solution, you are likely to get something working and also something else you didn't want like a replaced preinstall partition or an installed busybox with different functionality for some important system commands. (Busybox may be more up to date even, but if it doesn't do what is expected of the older version, it's still not good.)
Another way would be to create a CWM zip that simply puts the linux su binary in system with the correct permissions. Some info about creating your own can be found here. Doing this is more involved that just doing it manually, but it would be a good practice for getting into creating CWM updates.
Here is a link to a exploit someone did up to root the phone when running GB. Haven't tested it, and with an unlocked phone it is totally redundant, but it's nice that some found yet another security hole in the OS, seems similar in result to psneuter, so be sure to reboot the phone to fix the exploited system.
Seriously, if you are going to be reading or posting in the development section of xda for an android phone, take the 5 minutes to become familiar with adb and a few linux shell commands, it will save you hours of confusion and aggravation. If you fly blind trying things on your phone without understanding what you are doing you are eventually going to get into a place you can't get out of and need a new phone or REALLY have to struggle to understand things. You were warned. Q. How do I get back to stock?
A. You can't unless you have a backup of all your phone partitions and can update your radio and bootloader to be stock. Once you unlock your phone, it is recorded that you did so by blowing a physical fuse on the phone. This cannot be restored, you will need a new phone.
What does stock mean to you? When I bought my phone it had a certain radio, the bootloader couldn't be unlocked, the android system files had certain versions, etc. Beyond the android system there are 18 partitions that I know of on the phone, most phones do with 5-6. Every ota update or sbf files take the normal files and change them to something else, non android partitions get modified or replaced.
I have some solutions for getting close to stock, do a search for Gobstopper. There is one for Bell 2.2.2 and Bell 2.3.4, use one or the other. These attempt a full back to stock operation, that means the radio and bootloader will be stock, recovery will be stock as well. (All the partitions that are on the phone are written over with the ones that were on my phone when I bought it, with the exception of partitions 3 (pds), 15 (cache), 16 (data), and 18 (userdata or internal memory), factory reset clears cache and data, you don't want pds touched or internal memory.) Unlocked will no longer be displayed when you boot and you will no longer have CWM recovery installed. You will need to install the unlocked bootloader again and fastboot flash recovery again if stock is not what you wanted. (Your pds partition is not involved in this operation, so if you made changes to it, either directly or indirectly via a sbf this will not restore it, your pds partition contains individual phone information.)
More about sbf format here.Q. What does the pds partition taste like?A. It's not really fit to eat. Now you know.
It is mmcblk0p3, a partition on your phone, it is mounted as /pds when android boots and contains a bunch of folders and files that nobody really understands fully but Motorola. Having a look at some of the files you will see things like your network physical address, bluetooth physical address. You will find threads where the display is all arsed up, cpu running at half speed, touch screen not working right, etc, all due to something going wrong with /pds. It is best to back it up and not mess with it. Restore it in an emergency. Maybe one day everything in there will be figured out, take a stab at it yourself.
See this thread by edgan for how to back up your pds partition.
See this thread by KeRmiT80 about attempting to fix your pds partition. Good motivation to see previous link.
Q. I lost network data access after flashing X.
A. Check your APN list, if it's not a Bell firmware you are using, it probably doesn't have Bell's APN list. Scratch that, you don't know what that is or how to check it.
It stands for Access Point Name and a big list of them is stored on your phone in one big file (/system/etc/apns-conf.xml), each firmware has it's own version of it. Your phone will get two numbers from your carrier's phone network to do a look up in this list to figure out what configuration to use. So say it gets mcc 302, mcn 610, it will check the phone and look up 302, 610 in the file and read what it says there and use that config to try to connect. Now, another thing is that the phone knows what the home network is by these two numbers, embedded somewhere in the system. A foreign, non Bell carrier won't have Bell's numbers in there so your phone will think it's roaming. If you have roaming disabled, guess what, no data connection. Your carrier should be smart enough not to charge you for roaming, never had a problem with that, but you never know.
Here are the apn settings you can enter manually for your phone, see Bell's support link.
Q. How do I get webtop over HDMI to work?
A. There are several threads on getting this to work on ATT phones and others, they are specific to the firmware being run on the phone. They involve copying two deodexed files to your system/app folder and replacing the ones already there. You will also need to clear your dalvik cache to get the new code recognized. They are DockService.apk and PortalApp.apk. If you are not deodexed then you also have to remove the .odex files for both.
Here is one thread for Gingerbread, in the zip there is one for ORFR that will get you to viewing the webtop on Bell GB, but applications don't load.
Here is another thread for Froyo that works, see the Bell specific bit in the OP. This does not work from Bell Gingerbread. To be continued...
Hoping the Mods sticky this
A link should be attached to the wiki as well. I will try to when I get home if it isn't done already.
shouldn't this be in general? or q&a?
Magnetox said:
shouldn't this be in general? or q&a?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably both. Most things referenced are in development.
Cheers!
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium
y2whisper said:
Hoping the Mods sticky this
A link should be attached to the wiki as well. I will try to when I get home if it isn't done already.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 this should be a sticky on either or both general or development...
cheers for this...this thread is going to help me with my youtube viewers BIG TIME!!
Very nice!
Keep it up NFHimself!
NFHimself said:
This is my attempt at a Bell FAQ, it is a work in progress.
Q. How do I root the phone?A. If you are unlocked and you have fastboot flashed a version of CWM recovery, it is trivial. By that I mean almost impossible for newbies to figure out.
It would go something like this:
1. Boot into CWM recovery.
2. use adb shell
3. adb push a su binary to the phone.
4. mount system as read write as /system
5. copy su binary to /system/bin
6. make sure it has the right permissions, 06755 mode , user root, group root.
7. unmount -l /system
8. when in android look on the market for Superuser.apk, install.
Every rooting method out there is all about putting su into /system/bin with 06755 permissions, most don't work anymore since Gingerbread. If you are looking for a simple, no brain involved solution, you are likely to get something working and also something else you didn't want like a replaced preinstall partition or an installed busybox with different functionality for some important system commands. (Busybox may be more up to date even, but if it doesn't do what is expected of the older version, it's still not good.) To be continued...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used this method to root the stock Bell Gingerbread ROM. Works on an Atrix too. It's a quick download and easy for those people who may not be comfortable with the adb command line.
http://www.psouza4.com/Bionic/
thx
useful for newbies
but can you put some more details about returning to stock and explain the pds partition in details plz?
papakilo10 said:
I used this method to root the stock Bell Gingerbread ROM. Works on an Atrix too. It's a quick download and easy for those people who may not be comfortable with the adb command line.
http://www.psouza4.com/Bionic/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had a look at the script in that one, should be fine, doesn't install a busybox or anything like that. I don't care for Superuser.apk in /system/app myself, but it won't harm anything having it there.
Cheers!
ytwytw said:
thx
useful for newbies
but can you put some more details about returning to stock and explain the pds partition in details plz?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I added a few things, anything in particular you wanted?
I am trying to avoid step by step tutorials or spoon feeding everything, so people who are lazy/careless will have to attempt to think for themselves. It just leads to more questions, more laziness, and bricked phones, and I don't have the time these days.
Cheers!
WARNING ABOUT NVFLASH: Do not flash any nvflash payloads that contain a p23.img or p24.img as these contain your device unique data. Flashing someone elses p23 or 24 will change your Service tag, MAC addresses and IMEI. Intentionally changing your IMEI is ILLEGAL in many countries.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This thread will consolidate all the guides and common downloads that are used for the streak.
Suggestions on changes or additions will definitely be welcome to it.
Forum Searching | Posting | The Basics:
(Make sure you've read them before starting a new thread)
Forum Rules
Forum Search
Google Forum Search
XDA Mantra
Semi-Official XDA Links:
Dell Streak Wiki Page
Wiki Flashing Guide
List of stock ROMs
Custom Rom and Recovery List
Other Guides:
Stock HC 506/507 installation instructions
[Guide]Taking apart the Streak 7
Commonly downloaded tools:
ClockWork Mod - Custom recovery
Superuser7.zip - Rooting Method
Fastboot/ADB utils + drivers for Streak 5/7 and Venue
nvflash.zip base package
APX mode drivers
Other Downloads:
Front button disabler mod
Points of interest for themers/rom makers:
Restoring your device specific data
List of apps safe to remove from stock roms
----Reserved----
Pretty sure if you flash p22.img it wipes your external SD card as well.
It does, but that's slightly beyond the scope as it's 'merely' userdata and hopefully back up else where.
Device data is completely unique to a device
Just saying, some people might not want their SD card wiped where they have their titanium backup
thanks.........
Navigator
The Streak 7 makes a very fine navigation device for your car. I use sygic and have built a wooden holder for the streak.
Hello everyone! Just like others here, I've been somewhat spooked by our inability to enter Ouya's Recovery partition at the earliest stage of booting, meaning a bad flash of the Boot partition would leave the device inoperable. When I heard that Ouya's stock firmware updates were possibly bricking a few units out there, I decided to block updates on mine and see if I could transform the Boot partition such that it would become a logical extension of the bootloader. What I ended up with is something close to the "Ouya Safe Recovery" project, where a user should only need to flash Boot one additional time, along with chain-loading support as well.
Chain-loading in this case refers to the booting of ROM kernel images that reside as regular IMG files under the /sdcard and/or /system filesystems. With this capability it is possible to choose an image to run when the Ouya turns on. As an example, one may wish to set up a 2nd/test kernel+ramdisk image to use with your installed ROM, or he may wish to run Tuomas Kulve's Debian project from time-to-time without having to set up the USB cable for Fastboot mode. When dealing with distinctly different ROMs (not just alternate kernels), only one of them may install to the Ouya's built-in storage (e.g., /system); others must have been designed/created to use external storage.
An image for the Recovery partition is available along with the Boot. The former may be helpful if you wish to try out the boot menu before performing the flash of the Boot partition, or are generally okay with bouncing to Recovery before invoking a chain-load. Either of these may be tested from Fastboot mode, but do note that a successful chain-load requires that the image actually be flashed to the Ouya. (Otherwise it just reboots.) The ClockworkMod (CWM) recovery application is available on both images and is accessible from the boot menu.
Additional Information
There are a few things to consider when deciding if this approach makes sense for you:
- Users of the "Ouya Safe Recovery" project may want to stay put unless the dual-boot aspect is of interest. If so then it would be cleanest to choose my Boot image; the Recovery partition (your ROM image) could be left alone.
- The images here are not compatible with Ouya's stock firmware, due to the auto-update nature of Ouya's ROM. Either your flashed Boot image would get overwritten, or an installed non-Ouya Recovery might cause that update to hang. Therefore, you should be prepared to switch to one of the ROMs here at XDA. If you're currently on stock and don't want to switch right away, that's fine; we'll go over how to block updates for the time being.
- The Ouya CM10 ROM is nice in that it provides the IMG file separately, allowing us to handle it as we wish. However, the other ROMs end up placing their boot.img in the main ZIP. This is standard practice for other devices, but we need to be careful ensuring our Boot partition doesn't get reflashed as part of the ROM installation. Therefore, it would be necessary to investigate repackaging the ROM with an alternate updater-script prior to installation. See my StockPlus post on page 2 for more. (This shouldn't affect those who've opted for my Recovery image.)
This feature is based on CWM's initial ramdisk, and includes a new boot menu application that comes up prior to CWM itself. Basically, CWM shows up later if the menu application exits for any reason. The Ouya stock kernel (561) has also been compiled with HDMI's copy protection turned off, and includes two patch sets:
- KExec-HardBoot is the key to chain-loading on our platform. It overcomes standard KExec's lack of hardware reset (and thus failed execution) by triggering a reboot in the middle of the preparation of the new kernel. This ingenious system has been developed by Tasssadar and others over in the Nexus forums. (Be sure to enable CONFIG_TEGRA_HARDBOOT_RECOVERY if interested in compiling a Recovery kernel.)
- HDMI visual stability has been improved with a little hack of mine: a significant relaxing of a timer in the driver. (The latest Android source has corrected the instability with a significant design change, but my hack seems fine enough for this project.) Also picked up specific Android fixes in the area of Framebuffer double-buffering, as that needs to be working for CWM usability.
Installation
If you're on Ouya's stock firmware, then you should make sure that any future updates do not get applied. There is a project here ("Mod Collection For Ouya") that should help. I personally side-loaded the Baxy custom launcher to avoid Ouya's update environment. It is also likely necessary to stay out of the Ouya/Discover store if going the custom launcher route as I believe the store app can trigger an update.
At this point you can download your chosen image (Boot or Recovery) and unzip to get the IMG file. Boot your Ouya to a working Root/BusyBox environment (ROM or Recovery), and then transfer the IMG to the Ouya. (An example using ADB would be "adb push boot102513.img /sdcard/boot102513.img".)
Bring up the Ouya command prompt (e.g., "adb shell") and run these commands to get started:
su [command not present on CWM - that's okay]
cd /dev/block/platform/sdhci-tegra.3/by-name
ls
You should see the various 3-letter partition names from that last command. Your command prompt should also contain the "#" character to denote root-level access. This next step will save off your current ROM image, both because we may end up overwriting it, and because the saved file will end up as your main bootable kernel for the chain-loader. Run:
cat LNX > /sdcard/kernel.img
(If configured for "Ouya Safe Recovery," then replace the preceding "LNX" with "SOS".)
We are near the flashing stage. Check to make sure your Ouya has a reliable source of power, preferrably from an uninterruptable power supply. Recall that a bad flash of my boot image can leave the device inoperable, but I feel the risk is very low provided the following directions are heeded. Fortunately the flash process only takes a few seconds.
For the Boot image option, verify by running:
md5sum /sdcard/boot102513.img
Do not proceed unless you get "e4b1b1ad553e55ad0b2ce3fb8f5bf623".
Again for the Boot image option, flash to the Ouya by running:
dd if=/sdcard/boot102513.img of=LNX
For the Recovery image option, verify by running:
md5sum /sdcard/rcvy102513.img
Do not proceed unless you get "dda0811a7e8e82a7d4ad3fa4c3ae35e4".
Again for the Recovery image option, flash to the Ouya by running:
dd if=/sdcard/rcvy102513.img of=SOS
You may optionally verify (post-flash) by running "md5sum" on the partition name. Finish up with these commands:
sync
reboot
Usage / Configuration
The menu should come up, defaulting to "kernel.img" for the Boot image and "CWM" for Recovery. That default will then launch after ten seconds of inactivity. You may also briefly press the Ouya power button during the wait to advance through the options. The option list is 1) kernel.img, 2) kernelA1.img, 3) kernelA2.img, 4) CWM, and 5) Recovery Partition.
The defaults from above should be fine for most everyone, but it is possible to fine-tune them. An optional configuration file (/sdcard/bootmenu_b.cfg for Boot, /sdcard/bootmenu_r.cfg for Recovery) may be established to specify the default menu entry as well as the inactivity timeout. As an example, the following command would make Recovery start kernelA1.img after five seconds:
echo "2 5" > /sdcard/bootmenu_r.cfg
It is hoped that the menu would never hang. If it does, then waiting a full minute should allow CWM to start. Otherwise, it may be necessary to attach a wired/USB keyboard and type in the Alt-SysRq-X sequence, similar to Ctrl-Alt-Delete on a PC. The sequence might have to be done early on in the menu startup process, and should blink the Ouya light and place it in Fastboot mode.
The menu may unexpectedly place you in CWM, which would indicate an issue with a chain-load. The reason may be due to a missing or corrupt IMG file. Otherwise you should be able to determine why by checking /tmp/bootmenu.log against the attached source code.
---
I hope this project will be of help to others!
An additional support forum that everyone should be able to post at is available: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2450711.
Wow, really great. Thanks a lot for your effort
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nchantmnt said:
Wow, really great. Thanks a lot for your effort
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My pleasure, nchantmnt. Hope your new Ouya is helping you feel at home!
Yes im happy it already arrived, but after a second miscarriage and lots of stress because of a lawsuit with our neighbour i didn't have time nor nerves to play or code. Seriously this year sucks
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nchantmnt said:
Yes im happy it already arrived, but after a second miscarriage and lots of stress because of a lawsuit with our neighbour i didn't have time nor nerves to play or code. Seriously this year sucks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gosh, I'm very sorry to hear that. Do think ahead to the upcoming holiday season, and may it be a time to reflect and anticipate a fruitful 2014.
@Hal9k+1 - THANK YOU!
I was so nervous flashing CWM and StockPlus as there is no real way to fix things if something goes wrong. This should give people more confidence when flashing their Ouya.
I understand the process using ADB...my question is: can this be used from CWM somehow?
PS. I assume new kernel will always be flashable from CWM, the hack does not require 561 specifically.
Ipse_Tase said:
I understand the process using ADB...my question is: can this be used from CWM somehow?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Ipse_Tase - I do hope the feature will be helpful to you and others.
As I think about your question, I suppose I could have have created a ZIP that would have been installed by CWM. Similarly I could have worked through some form of installation shell script. But for an important operation such as flashing, I prefer the one-at-a-time approach of the interactive shell.
Note that CWM does have an ADB service running with it. Your Ouya would show up as a different device while in CWM, so you'd need to enter Device Manager (Windows) and point the unknown device to the same ADB driver as used for the main ROM.
Alternatively you could skip ADB for this Ouya Boot Menu installation and set up an SSH server on your main ROM. I personally have installed "SSH Server" (Ice Cold Apps). I recall two screens to set up (does require the trackpad in cases), where I enabled automatic start on both, and also set the port number to 2222. After an Ouya reboot I had SSH/SCP capability and could use PuTTY/pscp from Windows.
Hal9k+1...fast reply, thank you.
Just to put my ever-so-senile brain at ease: so I run StockPlus 519r1, and WHILE in the ROM, I start ADB and follow your instructions .
OR...I enter CWM, make sure I get the right ADB drivers installed for THAT instance and go from there.
For a developer, I'm sure it's easier and more familiar to run ADB commands - for people like me (5%-over-the average-user) a CVM option to flash a zip and do all this would be more in-line with the abilities to hack.
I have rooted 4-5 devices so far and the only time I type any ADB commands is at root/unlock time - sometimes not even then (Nexus 4 and the Root Toolkit).
So if you ever consider creating a recovery flashable file, it would help many. Probably not me, as by then I would have done the ADB trick
Sounds like great work! I was hoping to implement something like this myself, but I haven't made any more time for OUYA-related development in a while (due to positive life events/busyness)
I will definitely take a look at your work when I have time!
~Troop
Ipse_Tase said:
Hal9k+1...fast reply, thank you.
Just to put my ever-so-senile brain at ease: so I run StockPlus 519r1, and WHILE in the ROM, I start ADB and follow your instructions .
OR...I enter CWM, make sure I get the right ADB drivers installed for THAT instance and go from there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You got it! You don't need to worry about booting to the other partition prior to flashing. That is a given partition (LNX/SOS) is no longer being accessed once the image is booted. For CWM's ADB, you'd simply point Windows to the same INF file that you originally used. Hope this helps.
StockPlus Installation
Well, I finally retired this old stock 393 ROM I was on, and moved to StockPlus 519r2. I was not able to install it the normal way given my Boot image is in place here. So I ended up modifying "updater-script" under META-INF/com/google/android, and then repackaged prior to running the install procedure. I'm attaching my changed version in case it helps anyone, and please note that it makes StockPlus the main image (kernel.img).
(You'll need to right-click to save the attachment. Once done it will need to be renamed such that it does not include the ".txt" suffix.)
The Windows "7-Zip" utility is helpful for packaging. You may start by right-clicking the downloaded ZIP, then 7-Zip --> Extract to "OUYA_[...]". Enter the newly created directory, get to the updater-script, and replace it with mine. Now back up to the area with META-INF, system, and boot.img, still in the new directory. Select all three under Windows (Ctrl+Click), right click that area, and then 7-Zip --> Add to "OUYA_[...].zip". Be sure this new ZIP is the one that makes it to the Ouya.
Still haven't tried this out yet, but I hope to soon.
I missed out on news over the holidays though and just noticed this:
Announcing Ubuntu and Android dual boot developer preview
http://developer.ubuntu.com/2013/12/announcing-ubuntu-and-android-dual-boot-developer-preview/
I'm curious of their dual boot implementation and how it compares and if we can synergize with their approach, but haven't looked into the details of how theirs works yet (its sounds like it uses a custom recovery image, and they have the ability to trigger it to reboot into Ubuntu from an Android app and vice versa, which is cool)
It'd be awesome to be able to multi-boot an Ouya ROM, an Android ROM (CyanogenMod), and Ubuntu with that kind of ease.
EDIT: This may be more our speed though: (MultiROM)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2011403
(did you pull anything from there? Sounds like they have a modified TWRP that can flash zips to the other ROM slots, which is something I was also hoping to implement)
~Troop
Thanks, Trooper. Good to see Ubuntu moving further along in the mobile world.
I briefly looked at MultiROM since it originated from the KExec-HardBoot work, but decided not to go in that direction. The main reason is that I decided not to pursue the setup/learning of an Android build environment, but also because it wasn't clear how I'd deal with our lack of a touchscreen and lack of volume up/down buttons. I ended up creating a small application that fits within Ouya's CWM framework and starts up before CWM itself; it monitors the power button for click events and writes to the framebuffer memory region using regular Linux calls.
I'm not too concerned about the dual-boot aspect of this new Ubuntu, but the lack of touchscreen could be a hindrance if mouse/keyboard were not a viable substitute. Whether this Ubuntu is designed to work from external storage is another question, since our /system and /data would be occupied by Android. But in general I think we could boot it from my framework, and if my Boot image were selected over the Recovery one, then the Ubuntu kernel could reside in Recovery and also be bootable from the Android side with the "reboot recovery" command.
Best of luck, and hope you'll have a chance to try it all!
accidental post please delete
Hi
Firstly, thank you in advance for any help you can give me. I'm completely new to this so apologies in advance for my clumsy terminology and probably lack of useful detail - obviously v happy to provide any other details that will help. I do appreciate you are all volunteers - I moved from Windows to Ubuntu a few years ago and really appreciated the community support which made it possible so I am well aware of how dedicated you all are - thank you in advance.
I've an old Moto G6 (Xt1925-5). I thought I'd try rooting it and then installing a custom rom to ensure I can update security etc.
I won't bore you with all the details of why - I don't actually need to succeed but I hate the fact that a functional phone is electronic junk after 2-3 years just because it won't update; so I thought I'd try with my old phone that I don't need to see how easy this is to do (if it is I'll move over to Android for my main phone - I reluctantly currently use an iPhone - for me the selling-your-sole-to-Apple is outweighed by the several years of useability such that I buy my iPhones 2nd hand and still get several years of secure phone use.
I did manage to install twrp, root it and then wiped the original OS in order to flash a new rom. It's OEM unlocked via code from Motorola.
The problem I now face is that whatever I try to flash gives me error 255 in twrp. I've tried many different roms mostly downloaded via links on this site - eg lineage 17 and 18, crDroid v7 (android 11), Pixelexperiance.
twrp is version 3.6.2_9-0. My PC is running Ubuntu 22.04LTS. The phone previously ran Android 9 as an upgrade from the OEM 8.
I'm attempting to do this by (1) downloading the .zip; (2) transferring over to the sd card using adb push via USB from my laptop; (3) install via twrp.
The file seems to go over to the sd card and twrp shows it and tries to install, then I get the error (seems to be 255 every time). I've also tried sending the .zip to /tmp and /sdcard - neither work: error 255 every time. If I check 'zip signature verification' most of the ROMs pass (one or two fail) but still gives error 255 when trying to install.
The text is 'Updating partition details ... done; Formatting Cache using make_ext4fs ... ; Updating partition details ... done; Wiping Cache & Dalvik ... -- Dalvik Cache Directories Wipe Complete!; Updating partition details ... done!; Installing zip file '/sdcard/lineage18...'; Unmounting system ...; Updater process ended with ERROR: 255 Error installing zip file '/sdcard/lijneage-18...'; Updating partition details... ... done
As I get the same error with multiple different OSs I suspect I've made a simple error somewhere but don't know where to start to find it.
As an aside - I don't know if this is normal or completely unrelated - the .zip files I move over seem to disappear from the phone sometimes - often if I reboot, but I can't reliably reproduce the disappearance - wiping cache etc. doesn't remove the files, rebooting sometimes seems to but not every time.
I don't really mind what OS I end up with - happy with any OS that is secure; but I suspect I've missed something really simple to give the the same error with every attempt. As I said at the beginning, this is mostly an experiment (and would be nice to have a backup phone!) so the actual OS I end up with is much less important than whether I can do it or not.
Any help greatly appreciated - thank you!
doctorwill said:
Any help greatly appreciated - thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello and good morning, @doctorwill
Welcome to XDA! I hope you'll always find and get the support you require.
However. prior to your next posting please read the guidances that are stuck on top of every forum like
Note: Questions go in Q&A Forum
If you are posting a Question Thread post it in the Q&A forum. Technical discussion of Android development and hacking. No noobs, please. Device-specific releases should go under the appropriate device forum...
forum.xda-developers.com
and the others. I've moved the thread to
Moto G6 Questions & Answers
Ask your questions about the Moto G6 and get answers from the community! Please be as specific as possible when posting.
forum.xda-developers.com
Thanks for your cooperation!
Regards
Oswald Boelcke
Senior Moderator