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Root AlphaRev & Oxygen: Some basic noobish questions

T

turbohobbit

Android Enthusiast
I'm looking at flashing Oxygen onto my Desire, but in order to get the most out of it I am also preparing to update my AlphaRev with the Oxygen specific version. I have a couple of questions, though, before I begin...

1) How do I go about verifying the MD5Sum as advised in the AlphaRev site?

2) I presume I flash Oxygen first, then change the HBOOT?

3) As I understand it, in order to flash, I download the PB99IMG_bravo_oxygen.zip file to my SD card, rename is PB99IMG.zip, and then flash it in the same way I would a ROM or radio (clockworkmod / install from SD). Is that about the size of it?

Cheers!
 
No no no!!

HBOOT is flashed as per the instructions on the AlphRev site. The ROM is flashed using your custom recovery (without renaming it PB99IMG). You also need S-OFF before flashing the HBOOT so make sure you know what you're doing before trying it

AlphaRev instructions:

1) Nandroid backup in recovery.
2) Verify the MD5SUM of the file you downloaded against the one in the table.
3) Flash HBOOT with your phone in fastboot mode (Back+POWER) -> 'fastboot flash hboot bravo_alphaspl.img' (change into the correct filename for the HBOOT you downloaded)
4) 'Fastboot reboot-bootloader'
5) 'Fastboot erase cache'
6) Boot recovery, wipe everything and restore.
 
On the ROM, yeah, got that. download to SD and install from zip. It's the HBOOT bit that's stumping me. I got the idea about flashing the HBOOT .zip from this bit of teh AlphaRev site:

You can also download the corresponding PB99IMG zipfile, put it on your sdcard, and rename it to PB99IMG.zip. Then start the phone in HBOOT mode (VolDown+POWER) to flash the HBOOT without a PC.
Click to expand...

Have I got the wrong end of the stick?

On the "normal" instructions:

3) Flash HBOOT with your phone in fastboot mode (Back+POWER) -> 'fastboot flash hboot bravo_alphaspl.img' (change into the correct filename for the HBOOT you downloaded)
4) 'Fastboot reboot-bootloader'
5) 'Fastboot erase cache'
6) Boot recovery, wipe everything and restore.
Click to expand...

How do I flash the .img file?
 
Hmmmm..... Getting worried that in asking these questions I'm proving myself to be a bit too green for this sort of caper!

REALLY sorry, Dan, but when you say "type" - where do I type it? And I'm still presuming that I initially download the .img to my SD card?

On a related topic: If it's deemed that you an use the Android Flasher utility, then I guess I'd save the HBOOT .img to my PC, and then connect my Desire and flash the HBOOT file onto my phone via Flasher?
 
You need to use ADB commands so you need to download the Android SDK and you use a command prompt to flash things in fastboot

As for the flasher, I've no idea. I always do things manually as I don't trust software to do the job
 
You are not confused the pb99img option is there if you already have s-off. However no one has verified if it actually works. Most people report it says wrong service type. Use the method described above. For md5 checking I use a util called winmd5
 
danfrance said:
Are they the same app or different? I haven't tried this myself - just stealing from Completely Hatstand's post in another thread.
Click to expand...

For them as what are interested and if I'm not too late, the apps are different. However, they do exactly the same job.

Except that mine is an original. :p
 
I'm starting to wonder if I actually NEED to change the HBOOT for Oxygen, or if it's just a kinda desirable thing to give more room. Does it do anythign like speed teh ROM up or can I survive on teh current HBOOT?
 
turbohobbit said:
I'm starting to wonder if I actually NEED to change the HBOOT for Oxygen, or if it's just a kinda desirable thing to give more room. Does it do anythign like speed teh ROM up or can I survive on teh current HBOOT?
Click to expand...

You don't need it, just means wasted, unused space
 
Aaaaaaaaaaah, ok, mists are starting to clear.

I've decided to flash Oxygen and see if I like it first. If I do then I'll have a look at replacing the HBOOT.

Cheers all.
 
Well I've had a play with Oxyen. It's a nice ROM in theory but I've noticed a couple of glitches - such as its dislike for 3D graphics at the moment and utter waste of space without a new specific HBOOT (I had 90Mb of free space with Defrost - with Oxygen I had 38) - so I've headed back to Defrost. I'll wait until Richard produces a Gingerbread Defrost before moving to Android 2.3 I think.

Thanks for everyone's assistance, once again, I've learnt spades!
 
Borat38 said:
My impression of custom HBOOTs are that they allocate the internal memory more to the user's liking. Am I wrong?

I think the one specifically for Oxygen has more space for /data?
Click to expand...

The custom hboots do re-allocate the partition spaces to pre-defined layouts that optimise certain aspects, yes

Oxygen is tiny. Under 100MB I think, so the standard allocation of 250MB is a waste.

However, you can't specify cache or data space, you can only go with what you are given

Although more of a faff, there is a way to set the partition space exactly as you want, but you have to patch the boot of any Rom you flash, before you boot into it. So everytime you flash a Rom, you have to flash 2 zips
 
Sorry guys. Just revisiting this as thinking of upgrading from AlphaRev 1.5 to 1.8 (and if I can do this, there's no reason why I can't consider Oxygen). I understand now that I plug my phone whilst in Bootloader into my PC and type the commands as shown on the AR website in a command prompt box. Two question / verifications:

1) Presume I download the HBOOT .img file straight to my Downloads file on my PC and flash from there?

2) Presume I open up a command promp box within Android SDK, rather than a standard command prompt box from the Windows start menu?
 
No?

I was just wondering, because I have downloaded an ad-blocker which was part of the GingerVillain add-ons but needs S-Off. Now, I thought I had S-Off (well, I know I do because I have the Joker bootscreen) but whenever I try and install the file from the add-ons menu the phone seems ot install the programme, reboots but no ads are blocked and the file remains "to install". Odd... Thought it was because I didn't have hte most up-to-date version of AlphaRev.
 
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