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Root Root newbie

T

thrillho

Lurker
Hi all, coming from my iPhone background, I'm so very happy with my Desire. (:

However the bundled software that comes pre-loaded and service provider branding is 'lame'.

So I'm looking to root the phone and load the Oxygen Gingerbread ROM.

I'll give you the specs from the bootloader screen.
Bravo PVT4 SHIP S-ON
HBOOT 0.93.0001
MICROP 051d
TOUCH PANEL SYNT0101
RADIO 5.11.05.14
August 10 2010 (is this an AMOLED model?)
It's running 2.2 (Froyo?)

Now I've looked around and I can't seem to find any information regarding rooting my particular Bootloader, only earlier versions.

If anyone can help out and let me know what to do, that would be great! :)

Thanks in advance.
 
It's actually the "PVT4" bit which might matter, but that depends on the "erase size". Read the FAQ, and look in the section "What about HBOOT?".

Edit: I've not found any reference to that HBOOT being a problem in itself, so unrevoked (as in the FAQ) should do it. The PVT4/erase size question determines whether you can use the default recovery or need to specify a compatible one.
 
Hadron said:
It's actually the "PVT4" bit which might matter, but that depends on the "erase size". Read the FAQ, and look in the section "What about HBOOT?".

Edit: I've not found any reference to that HBOOT being a problem in itself, so unrevoked (as in the FAQ) should do it. The PVT4/erase size question determines whether you can use the default recovery or need to specify a compatible one.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply (:

I'm a little confused about the PVT4/Erase size you mention. What exactly is this?

Edit I checked mine and it is 20,000. Not sure if this is going to be a huge problem or not. I will follow the Unrevoked method. Do I need an SD card? Currently my phone has none, but I have 2 on order. If I need one I'll just have to wait until they come. (:
 
20,000 means you are good to go, no special action needed.

SD card? You know, I've never run my phone without one, so don't know if it is necessary for this (it probably isn't, but I don't know for sure that the tool doesn't write anything to SD at any point). But you will want one in order to take backups once rooted, and if your phone is branded it's a good idea to make a goldcard (also in the FAQ) - it's not a bad idea even if your phone is not branded. So I'd probably wait a day or two until the card arrives.
 
Well the phone was bought second hand and I guess he kept it. No big deal, I have 2x 8GB Sandisks coming. (:

You've been very helpful, I'll be sure to report back once it's all done.
 
Make sure to create a Goldcard before flashing and partitioning etc., saves some hassle afterwards and might come in handy in case anything goes awry and you need to run an ruu.
 
SUroot said:
Partitioning removes the gold card functionaility I believe
Click to expand...
He doesn't have to partition the cards after making them Goldcard. The cards will be FAT32 partitioned anyway, and Oxygen wants the cards to stay that way.
 
Actually it was in response the post above mine saying make goldcard before partitioning. I say make it after partitioning if partitioning is the route you want to go

Anyway, according to the FAQ on page 1 of the oxygen thread:

What A2SD does this support? Oxygen 2.0 supports "froyo style" apps2sd, it also supports A2SD with an EXT3 or EXT4 partition. By default the dalvik cache is not moved to SD for performance reasons - see here for dalvik2sd script. D2SD/D2W scripts will work - but please take this up in their respective threads if you have questions to ask.

So Oxygen "Wants" to give you the choice.
 
SUroot said:
Partitioning removes the gold card functionaility I believe
Click to expand...

As he has ordered 2 8gb cards he could create one goldcard and keep it safe in a lil vault or something. Apart from that, I forgot who but someone on here told me that partitioning does not mess with goldcard part of the sd.
 
Okay so I rooted using Unrevoked. Super easy.

NOW. I want to flash Oxygen rom onto my Desire. But it's a branded phone (it's unlocked, but just has Telstra branding and other crap on it). Do I need to make a "Goldcard" and how do I go about this?

Thanks (:
 
Thanks for that. (:

So before I read that, I figured out (with my brothers help, he has a Desire Z) to install Oxygen ROM. My god, I'm incredibly happy with the performance gain I got! It's just that much smoother than before. Couldn't be happier. (:
 
thrillho said:
No I didn't. Which was probably a mistake. I'm still not 100% on what the Goldcard is actually for.
Click to expand...


Again, its in the rooting FAQ I mentioned a post or two back....


What about Gold Cards? Do I need one?

For rooting itself, no. However, if your phone is branded, you should definitely make one.

Here is the GoldCard Tool

To use:


  1. Format your SD card to FAT32 by going Settings > SD Card & Phone Storage > Unmount SD Card then Format SD Card
  2. Launch the goldcard tool as admin by Right click on App > Run as Admin
  3. Connect your phone to your PC and make sure USB debugging is enabled (Settings > Applications > Development > USB Debugging)
  4. Click get CID (Try clicking MMC0 if MMC1 fails)
  5. Click the link to open the goldcard generator, copy the CID from the tool into it. You will get an email.
  6. Enable USB Mass Storage on your phone.
  7. Click 'Refresh' in the app and select your micro SD card.
  8. Click 'Load goldcard.img' and select the file you received by email.
  9. Click 'Patch MMC'
  10. You now have a goldcard!

Credit to the author of this article


Why?

Branded phones need a gold card to de-brand. The goldcard Hides the true identity (branding) of the phone, allowing non-branded official roms to be installed.
 
Custom roms are different as they do not carry a carrier ID and do not need a goldcard to flash
 
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