Droid Hype

Although the Nexus S has been available on the market now for over a year, it’s actually a bit confusing for first time users to unlock and root the device. Give it a try, do a search and try and find the right adb and fastboot drivers for Windows 7 64-bit. I’m willing to bet it’s not as easy as everyone claims it to be. For some reason, fastboot drivers give 64-bit users a world of trouble in terms of acquiring and installing.

Since I went back to using my Nexus S on T-Mobile, I decided to post a quick how-to on getting this done.

Download the following zips before beginning:

  Android ADB and Fastboot tools (13.2 MiB, 80 hits)
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  Nexus S 9020T Drivers and Touch Recovery (15.1 MiB, 14 hits)
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Since I have the I-9020T model for T-Mobile, this guide will support only that version. This most likely will not work for the I-9023 LCD version or the D720 (Sprint 4g version), however, it should work for the I-9020A (ATT version).

Let’s begin…

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For some HTC Evo 3d users with HBOOT version at 1.5, flashing custom kernels is pretty much impossible with your standard recovery install. Due to updating the HBOOT to 1.5, you are forced to use HTC”s bootloader unlock method which opens up custom rom installs, but locks down the any boot partition modification. In layman’s terms, this prohibits all kernel installs.

However, there is a way to get around this. The below steps will assume you have ADB and Fastboot tools installed and ready to go. If you do not, please download it at the bottom of this post. This also assumes you know a little on how to use ADB and can follow basic command line directions.

I used the below method to flash Android Revolution successfully on a CDMA Evo 3d with HBOOT 1.5 — rom and kernel.

Note: this should be fairly painless, but problems always have a chance of occuring. You are on your own if you brick your device.

1. Set up ADB/Fastboot tools and make sure the command adb devices shows your device. If this is your first time, grab and install the fastboot drivers from here.
2. Ensure your Evo 3d is on HBOOT 1.5 (volume down + power from a powered off phone) and has been unlocked via HTC’s unlock method.
3. Time to flash your desired recovery. I prefer TWRP, which can be downloaded below. Place this recovery.img within the directory that ADB and fastboot tools reside in.
4. Boot your phone into the bootloader (volume down + power).
5. Select fastboot.
6. Connect your USB and issue the command fastboot flash recovery recovery.img. This will flash the TWRP recovery onto your phone. Do not reboot or exit out of the fastboot screen.
7. We will now fastboot into the recovery instead of using the two finger salute. HTC will give write permissions thru the recovery to write to the boot partition via fastboot. Issue the command fastboot boot recovery.img. This will boot your Evo 3D into the TWRP recovery.
8. With your favorite rom or kernel on your sdcard, you can now successfully flash them thru TWRP.

  Android ADB and Fastboot tools (13.2 MiB, 80 hits)
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  TWRP Recovery for CDMA Evo 3D (4.9 MiB, 39 hits)
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One of my favorite roms on the Sensation 4G is Bulletproof 1.4, based on Sense 3.0. It has the right mix of tweaks and mods to make it smooth and quick in the heavily populated world of S4G roms. However, one thing that was missing from the rom is the ability to wake the phone via the volume buttons. The version based on Sense 3.5 has it, but not on this Sense 3.0 version. So like any rom junkie, I ended up messing around with the android.policy.jar file and manage to smali/baksmali edit the file needed to make this happen.

For your enjoyment, download the zip below (log in first) and flash it via your recovery. Cache wipe isn’t necessary but it won’t hurt.

There is no guarantee that this will work with any other rom. It’s also highly suggested that you back up your /system/framework/android.policy.jar file or just run a nandroid on your existing rom. This was done entirely on a stock BP 1.4 environment and has been tested on this rom specifically.

  Volume Wake for Bulletproof 1.4 Rom (284.9 KiB, 3 hits)
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PS: If you have another rom you’d like this mod done on, I can run the edit for you. Just let me know what rom and what Sense version etc.

There is a new recovery available from madmaxx82 called 4Ext that incorporates many features and options that every crackflasher needs. Did you ever want to queue up .zip files for flashing with backup, cache wiping, and numerous other options? This recovery and it’s associated control app has it all.

My normal routine is usually wipe cache, wipe dalvick, flash rom, flash kernel (if available), fix permissions, and then reboot. You can imagine how many volume and power button presses it takes to accomplish all that. With the 4Ext Recovery app, I can queue all this up with a few taps and let it do it’s thing. There’s even md5 checking involved if you need to verify, super handy.

Since purchasing the app and using the recovery (free), I started diving into making themes for it. After a few hours of tinkering, I managed to make a couple for testing.

The images below are my Super Paper Mario and Honeycomb Blue theme. After downloading (click the screenshot), you can install it via the control app. Or you can boot into recovery and flash the .zip.

There’s a new radio just ripped from the RUU of the new Sensation XE. What’s great is that this radio works perfectly fine on the regular TMOUS Sensation 4G. Whether or not it has any added benefit has yet to be seen since it is so new. However, from initial speed tests it seems it’s slightly better or on par with previous releases.

The radio should show as 10.58.9035.00P_10.15.9035.02_2 under your phone settings on your S4G. Please head over to this XDA thread to download the latest release. Please confirm the md5sum before flashing! If it does not match, please re-download again or else you risk bricking your phone. You can check md5 via the adb shell or any free md5sum checker program.

To flash, all you need to do is place the downloaded PG58IMG.zip file at the root of your sdcard. Then reboot into your bootloader and it will prompt you to update it.

After the radio is done flashing, proceed to reboot the phone. You will most likely get stuck at the white HTC screen. Don’t worry, it’s easily fixable.

With adb, issue the command adb reboot recovery while on that white HTC screen. This is assuming you have adb tools installed and your phone is connected to your computer. If you do not have adb install, download the attached zip below that contains all you need for adb.

Once you are in recovery (Clockworkmod in my case), wipe cache, then go to advanced and wipe dalvik. Now reboot your phone and you should get past the white HTC screen now. You can also delete the zip file that you placed on your sdcard earlier or move it for safe storage somewhere else. It is best not to leave it sitting on your sdcard.

  Android ADB and Fastboot tools (13.2 MiB, 80 hits)
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Over the weekend, the T-Mobile HTC Sensation 4G was “cracked” and to everyone’s delight s-off (security off) was achieved. This basically allows for custom kernals and roms to be installed via, you guessed it, a custom recovery.

Here’s how to do it.

1. Power off your phone and then press volume down and the power button. A white screen (bootloader) will appear. Please note down the h-boot version your Sensation is running. Also note that you have s-on listed at the top of this white screen.
2. Reboot and let the OS load completely.
3. Download the Revolutionary application from revolutionary.io. You will be prompted to enter some information including a serial key and the information from your bootloader screen in the earlier step. Keep this page open!
4. Read the short description of what Revolutionary is on their wiki.
5. Download and install the correct HTC drivers from their wiki.
6. Extract and run the Revolutionary.exe file as administrator (assuming you are on Windows 7).
7. Plug your phone into your computer. The Revolutionary application should now detect your phone and will provide you with a unique serial key. Copy this serial key down by right clicking, selecting mark, then right clicking again.
8. Go back to the Revolutionary.io website and enter in your serial key. You will be provided with a unqiue beta key. Copy this beta key and enter/paste it into the Revolutionary application.
9. Your phone will be temp rooted and it will reboot into another white screen, which will be the fastboot screen.
10. Let the application perform some tasks and it will reboot the white screen at least once. On the second load, you should see Revolutionary on the first line and s-off will be shown on the second line.
11. The application will now ask if you wish to flash a custom clockworkmod recovery. By all means select yes. If you do not get this option, do not worry and just follow the steps in the next section.
12. Now if you were prompted for recovery flashing, let it finish and then load the root zip found on the Revolutionary wiki. This will perma-root your device if you are on the stock rom.
13. The last step is to find a rom to try. At the moment, InsertCoin and Virtuous Sensation seem to have the most development. These roms work on T-Mobile US Sensation 4Gs, so wifi calling is included. The kernals have been OC’d as well, nice touch.

Flashing Clockworkmod recovery manually

In case the Revolutionary application did not prompt you for recovery flash, here’s how to do it manually. You must have adb installed and working.

Hold down volume – and power and boot into your bootlooader. Select fastboot and then plug your USB cable in. The screen should say fastboot USB now.

1. Download this CWM 4.0.1.4 recovery image for the Sensation (Pyramid).
2. Open up a command prompt to your tools directory of adb.
3. Issue the command: fastboot flash recovery cwm-4.0.1.4-pyramid-fixed.img
4. It should show two lines saying sending and successfully flashed.
5. Power down and then hold volume – and power. Selection recovery from the menu and you should be greeted with a blue CWM menu.

*Update* – Clockworkmod recovery 4.0.1.5 is now available via Rom Manager. Download the app from the market and hit the recovery flash option and you are good to go!

The LG Optimus V on the Virgin Mobile network is by far one of the best values in Android smartphone computing. Not only is the Optimus V an excellent entry/intermediate device, it’s also on one of the nation’s cheapest smartphone plans starting at $25/month.

Like it’s siblings, the Optimus V is very welcoming to custom roms and kernels. To get started, you’ll need to load a custom recovery so you can flash your desired rom and/or kernel.

The Xionia recovery ported over to the Optimus V is probably the most accepted and supported recovery at the moment. Just about every rom can be flashed using this recovery. To get started on your Optimus V, follow these steps:

Note: You must be rooted first. If you aren’t, look up the Gingerbreak app. The following steps assume you have adb working correctly and you have the correct drivers loaded on your computer.

Download the recovery zip:

  Xionia Custom Recovery for LG Optimus V (3.9 MiB, 151 hits)
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1. There should be two files in the .zip file, flash_image and xionia_cwma_12518.4_virgin.img. Extract the contents to the root of your /sdcard.
2. Open up a command prompt, we’ll be using adb to flash the recovery.
3. Connect a micro usb cable from your Optimus V to your computer. Find the Superuser app in your app tray and open it. On your command prompt, Type “adb shell” and then type “su”. Immediately check your Superuser app, it should prompt you to allow access. Select remember and allow the access.
4. Type “mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /system /system“
5. Type “cat /sdcard/flash_image > /system/bin/flash_image“
6. Type “chmod 755 /system/bin/flash_image“
7. Type “mount -o remount,ro -t yaffs2 /system /system“
8. Type “flash_image recovery /sdcard/xionia_cwma_12518.4_virgin.img“
9. You can now issue the command “reboot recovery“, but I prefer to power down and manually enter recovery on the first try.
10. Power down the device. Then press and hold volume down + home + power. You can let go once the LG boot image comes up.

If you see the blue lettered Xionia recovery, then you have installed your recovery correctly. First order of business is to make a nandroid backup under the backup and restore menu. Use the up/down buttons to navigate and the camera button to select. The back button will bring you back to the previous screen if you get lost.

Now go download a rom or kernel and try it out!

So from some insane crackflashing I did recently on my first G2x unit, I found out it suffered from some similar problems that my Droid Incredible experienced. On certain roms or kernels, it would just lock up the G2x on the initial boot screen. Not only that, it also heated up the CPU immensely in a short span of time.

Here’s what I attempted to flash that worked:

• Eaglesblood 1.0.4 Froyo and GB Rom
• Dark&Sinister 1.1 Froyo Rom
• Ultimate Rom Froyo Rom
• CM7 Nightlies Rom
• Trinity 15 ext3 and ext4 kernels for EB/DS Froyo

Missing from that list is Faux123′s AOSP and CM7 based rom and kernel. As much as I would have loved to use it, I just couldn’t. Now before someone points, laughs and cries user error, I’ve been doing this for quite a while. I know how this works and what needs to get done to make it work. I’ve done the wipes, I’ve done the nandroid restores back to ext3, I’ve done everything. The end result is always a locked up LG boot screen and a blazing hot backside.

So how did I fix it?

Simple, grabbed a new G2x unit and test it. Within 10 minutes, I had Faux’s AOSP rom and Cm7 based kernel loaded and booted. So did my G2x have the same kind of bad memory blocks causing problems? Who knows at this point, but what I do know is I’m now using one of the smoothest rom and kernel combinations for the G2x.

Following yesterdays post about rooting the T-mobile G2x, here comes Clockworkmod (CWM) recovery. @ChrisSoyars just posted a version of CWM on XDA. His steps are done on Linux, but since a majority of us are Windows users here’s how you’ll do it. There are external links here because a lot of this will probably change.

1. Download the  CWM Recovery version 3.1.0.1 with ext4 support. You can choose internal sdcard or external. The following steps are for external sdcard recovery.
2. Grab the nvflash utility and drivers over at MoDaCo.
3. Place the CWM recovery file from Step 1 into the same directory where you extracted nvflash to in step 2.
4. Remove the battery and then hold down both volume buttons and connect your USB cable to your computer.
5. Your computer will prompt you for drivers — navigate to the drivers you downloaded in step 2 and install them.
6. Once the drivers are installed, unplug the USB cable from your phone only.
7. Now once again, hold down both volume buttons but this time keep holding them down while plugging in your USB cable.
8. Open a command prompt (Start->Run->cmd) and navigate to the directory you extracted nvflash to and copy/paste the following: nvflash.exe –bct E1108_Hynix_512MB_H8TBR00U0MLR-0DM_300MHz_final_emmc_x8.bct –bl fastboot.bin –download 5 p999-ext4-ums-external-recovery.img
9. Your screen will show SW Upgrade and your command prompt will cycle through a bunch of nvflash operations. Once the flash is done, it will tell you so. Give it a few minutes after that and then unplug the USB cable.
10. Hold volume down and power when booting up to gain access to the CWM recovery. You can let go once you get past the LG boot screen. If you let go prematurely, it will drop you into the SW Upgrade screen. Use the volume buttons to navigate and the power button to select your options.

Tip: If you issue a nvflash command, you will need to unplug your USB cable and replug it every time or else the next nvflash command will not take. I’m not sure why this happens, but repeating a nvflash command back to back doesn’t seem to work.

[Update 04/28/2011] – Update the steps with better instructions and with the latest release of CWM recovery.

Note: The difference between doing the above and flashing CWM recovery via Rom Manager is that the above steps will allow you to use the volume down and power combination when booting up. If you do this via Rom Manager at this point, you won’t be able to access the recovery in that manner. This is important because if you end up boot looping and can’t boot up correctly, having volume down and power to access recovery will be your life saver.

[Update 05/25/2011] – Krylon360 has released a customized version of CWM that supports ext4 as well as ext3. Go grab it and then load the Trinity kernel for some added performance.

The stock HTC kernel will work for the majority of Droid Incredible users out there. However, if you are in the market to cut down on some battery usage and gain some extra functionality, a custom kernel may be what you need.

There are a few custom kernels available for the Dinc like Hydra and KingKlick which provide overclocking and undervolting options.

This quick guide assumes you are rooted, know how to use ADB, can work your way around Clockworkmod recovery, understand that Nandroid backups are vital, and have some common sense.

Now the problem with installing custom kernels is that there is a good chance they won’t work for your phone. Not all Dincs are made the same, so what may work for others may not work for you. So with that said, sometimes you’ll find yourself loading a kernel, reboot, and find yourself stuck on the white HTC Incredible screen. This does NOT mean you bricked your phone — don’t freak out.

Before doing any kind of custom work, make sure you perform a Nandroid backup.

For my Dinc, I can’t load any Kingklick kernels. Every BFS and CFS version he puts out makes my Dinc lock up at the white HTC screen. After some digging, I may (or may not) have bad memory blocks on my Dinc. So when I try to flash various sized kernels, it sometimes fails and causes a lockup upon reboot.

So now that you are stuck on the white screen, there’s an easy way to fix it with your Nandroid backup and ADB. All you need to do is restore the boot image from your known good backup.

1. Reboot into recovery (hold volume down + power, then select the recovery option) by doing a battery pull.
2. Go into backup and restore -> advanced restore -> select restore boot.
3. Do not reboot your device yet.

I’ve noticed if I rebooted at this point, even the stock kernel would cause the white screen lock up. The reason for this is the extra modules installed in /system/lib/modules from the previous kernel install attempt. Restoring the boot image will not erase the new module(s) or restore your old one(s).

The next steps assume you have ADB access and know how to use it.

1. Connect your USB cable to your Dinc.
2. Go into the mount/unmount menu and mount /system.
3. In an ADB shell, issue the following command: rm /system/lib/modules/*.ko
4. Your previous custom kernel modules should now be deleted. To verify, you can do a list: ls /system/lib/modules
5. (Optional) If you have your module(s) saved to your /sdcard, you can now copy them back into /system/lib/modules.

Now you can go ahead and reload, via the update.zip method, another kernel of your choice. If you want to revert back to stock, you can grab the stock kernel (with undervolt goodness) off of Hydra’s website. For my Dinc, the only custom kernel that worked were the Hydra releases. I’m now cruising at 1.15Ghz without any problems.

You can also restore your complete Nandroid backup (or the boot and system backups) if all you want to do is get back up and running. The method outlined above is a better way to “clean up” if you are testing out various kernels and trying to get them to boot.