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After seeing lots of different guides and struggling to understand them I have compiled a concise and easy to follow guide on fastboot, root, recovery, roms and ADB including lots of download links.
The idea is to stop people having to search high and low for a guide on how to do something and to provide easy to follow guides with no assumptions. Sort of like a central resource. This could be downloaded to your device and then all the download links are available wherever you are.
Most of it is my own work with inspiration taken from XDA and Modaco. Both forums have done a lot to help me so I thought it was time I gave back.
If you have any comments, corrections or suggestions then please email me at the email address in the attached document.
EDIT: Added lots of pictures and screen prints and converted to PDF only.
Thanks
Rob
i stickied, but havent read the documents.. but im sure its good useful information!
Im reading the pdf now looks good so far.
This should help alot of new and old users lol.
THANKS!!
change the title of the thread tho, looks too much like a rant from it along. something like "complete guide to everything" /shrug
Interesting! Thanks.
nice work thanks
Rob,
Thank you very much,
flumps said:
change the title of the thread tho, looks too much like a rant from it along. something like "complete guide to everything" /shrug
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good idea, done thanks!
One thing though, I appear to be missing a clockworkmod recovery? There are 4 on the guide (one from Koush's recovery and 3 from the clockworkmod guide sticky(2 on first page and 1 on page 3)). Is there another version somewhere or is it just those 4?
Thanks
Rob
shogunmark said:
i stickied, but havent read the documents.. but im sure its good useful information!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
I've added lots of pictures and screen prints, sorted out the hyperlinks and converted to PDF only for compatibility.
Sounds Good I plan to download now
Hi, thanks for the guide but am stuck on one part. I want to basically install a custom recovery and am on Android 2.1.
The guide says to browse the Streaks folder via fastboot in a command prompt window, but how do you do that?
C and D drives are to do with the pc partitions but their are no others popping up when in Fastboot mode so am a little confused their.
"Navigate to your C:\streak folder by typing cd C:\streak and hitting Enter....."
I think he means use the command prompt to browse the folder that you downloaded and have named "Streak" so on the cmd, type "cd C:\streak" then enter and it should take you to the streak folder on your C drive which should have all the fastboot tools etc, at which point you can run the fastboot command. Am I right?
Thanks!
I would like to thank you Radddogg for this guide dude!
I'm new to Android and I got the gist of things by reading most of the threads on the Dell streak, but never truely understood what exactly was needed to flash ROM's, recovery's etc until I read your guide and it has made pretty much everything clear now....though I do still have a couple of questions
Firstly, just to clear things up in my mind, I know we use fastboot commands to install recovery images, but can we also use these commands to install actual ROM updates? If so, what is the difference between updating via the fastboot tool and via the recovery mode?
Secondly, I take it that we use stock recovery's for official ROM's and custom recovery's for custom ROM's, the question is, are there specific custom recovery's for specific custom ROM's or will any custom recovery work with any custom made ROM?
And lastly, which is required for leaked ROM's? Stock Recovery?
Thanks again Radddogg and thanks to anyone else who can help make me understand.
I understand now, will try it out tonight, cheers.
There won't be matching custom recovery/rom's. Just install the clockwork one and it will work fine.
hi Radddogg, thanks for your efforts.. but i went thru your pdf file, and tried so many times, just couldn't get yours to work.. i must have removed/replaced my battery like 50 times.. but i finally got mine to work.
i'm on 1.6 build 3883.. i kept getting the E:Can't find MISC error or blank screen trying the clock recovery 1.8.1.7, or your stock recovery.
Finally, what i did was:
1. load the 3883 superboot
loadbalancing.modaco.com/download.php?url=paul/streak/r1-3883-streak-superboot.zip
2. load the 4399 recovery
loadbalancing.modaco.com/download.php?url=paul/streak/r1-4399-streak-recovery.zip
3. load the 4399 pkg
loadbalancing.modaco.com/download.php?url=paul/streak/Streak_104_4399_21.pkg
4. and finally load the 8105 pkg using the 4399 recovery
info is here.
android.modaco.com/content/dell-streak-streak-modaco-com/310618/19-aug-streak-1-6-downloads-how-tos-rom-superboot-recovery/
Hi,
I'm not sure what you were trying to do as you didn't say but one thing I've found is that updates and recoveries are very build dependant and have to be done in order of build number. I'm not sure why you couldn't do what you wanted off the pdf as the downloads you posted are all available off my pdf?
The streak is definitely less user friendly than HTCs
Oh and is there a copy of the 3883 pkg anywhere I can add to the pdf?
sorry, i don't have a 3883 copy.
What was different was the sequence that i did it, and the versions to use.
Going thru your pdf, i followed point by point starting from point 1.. and i'm supposed to, after starting fastboot.. to do this
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
But i get the blank screen. Not sure why, but i guessing i had to use this
fastboot –i 0x413c
for the recovery.img so i tried this but still not working. Maybe the recovery.img is not 4399 version.. and because i was on 3883, i had to use 4399?
When i tried
fastboot –i 0x413c flash recovery recovery-clockwork-streak.img
It worked, but then i get the "E:Can't find MISC" error. I'm guessing my pkg was the 8105 instead of the 4399. So tried loading 4399 pkg but same error. The clockwork thing didn't work for me.
Anyway, after trial and error many times, long story short, i downloaded the 4399 recovery and did this
fastboot –i 0x413c flash recovery recovery4399.img
load the 4399 pkg
load the 8105 pkg
and it finally worked. Would've helped if you had mentioned what version to use or that i had to load the 2 different versions of the pkg in sequence or maybe its just me. I didn't know.. i'm an android newbie..
But thanks anyway.
Hey sory if disturbing.
Below are my Streak details
Firmware 1.6
BaseBand GAUSB1AXXXXX00-EU
Kernel 2.6.29-perf
Build 6267
Please help me and let me know whic version will work
Super Boot ???
Clockworkmod ???
ROM ??
etc. etc. If some body already updated the same build into 2.1 please help me and give the instruction step by step.
Thanks
Hi All,
I have Dell streak with EVT1 hardware. I flash all possible recovery images, but it isn't work. Black screen every time when I launch recovery mode. May be somebody know how to update this hardware?
Phone is working on 1.6 (performance is very poor)
P.S. Sorry for bad English.
Please help!!!
What is the currently installed rom exactly?
NikolayTLM said:
Hi All,
I have Dell streak with EVT1 hardware. I flash all possible recovery images, but it isn't work. Black screen every time when I launch recovery mode. May be somebody know how to update this hardware?
Phone is working on 1.6 (performance is very poor)
P.S. Sorry for bad English.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have a black screen at recovery with no Dell logo, you probably are going to need to restore your device using the QDLTool3rd.
Typically, this happens when flashing an "update" file mismatched with your recovery. I did this myself recently, and the only way I was able to get back was to use the QDL tool then re-flash my stock ROM.
It literally saved my phone.
EVT=evaluation/testing?
Without knowing the differences in hardware and possibly software you can't assume that solutions that work on production Streaks will work on his phone.
marvin02 said:
EVT=evaluation/testing?
Without knowing the differences in hardware and possibly software you can't assume that solutions that work on production Streaks will work on his phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EVT=evaluation/testing - Yes
i think that difference between EVT3 (product hardware) and EVT1 - smallest RAM size (145Mb is available)
in on board EVT1:
- QSD8X50 Processor (as per "Android System Info") with 998.4Mhz max frequency.
- Total RAM: 145Mb
I tried flash device via QDLTool3rd - unsuccessful. Maybe i used newest recovery images instead old? Black screen every time when i try to boot it in recovery mode. What additional info about EVT1 is needed and which application can provide this information?
BR. Nikolay.
TheManii said:
What is the currently installed rom exactly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, but i don't know the currently installed rom.
Info in 'About device' menu:
- Firmware version: 1.6
- Baseband version: GAUSB1A1008151
- Kernel version: 2.6.29-perf
- OEM version: RerforceVerify_1012
- Build number: 1012
You definitely have an enginnering beta streak, from what've seen from attempting to get people to dump their roms off it, trying to update it will prob brick it.
It's only valuable if you can get the rom off it, but otherwise you likely wont be able to use it as a normal streak
TheManii said:
You definitely have an enginnering beta streak, from what've seen from attempting to get people to dump their roms off it, trying to update it will prob brick it.
It's only valuable if you can get the rom off it, but otherwise you likely wont be able to use it as a normal streak
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, i think about that. I am use it as normal cell phone right now. But it is not easy, because it will reboot at any time as they wish. I like this phone and it isn't trouble to update RAM (on this device to appropriate size). I just want to know - device is 'upgradeable' to 2.2 or not?
I'l talking with people, which know about this device. And they said me - that this device can be ungraded, but build should be compiled in appropriate kitchen! Maybe somebody have appropriate build rom for this HW type/ or maybe somebody upgrade EVT1 HW?
how much did that specific streak cost you exactly?
You're much better off getting a normal retail streak unless you dont mind the hassle of making everything work on that submodel.
Clearly stock kernels and roms have trouble with that submodel, are you willing to investigate why? and are you willing to be forced to resort to making custom versions of roms just for your specific streak?
I am interested in getting the rom off that, but besides that unless you got it for free/next to nothing it's prob not worth the hassle compared to a retail streak, there's far too few owners of working prototype streaks left for premade roms to work on them
TheManii said:
how much did that specific streak cost you exactly?
You're much better off getting a normal retail streak unless you dont mind the hassle of making everything work on that submodel.
Clearly stock kernels and roms have trouble with that submodel, are you willing to investigate why? and are you willing to be forced to resort to making custom versions of roms just for your specific streak?
I am interested in getting the rom off that, but besides that unless you got it for free/next to nothing it's prob not worth the hassle compared to a retail streak, there's far too few owners of working prototype streaks left for premade roms to work on them
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I got them for free. But this is a not major point for me. I would like to understand 'How it works'.... And I request help on this forum. I'm from Russia, Dell Streak mini 5 isn't selling in my country, So I would like to do 'candy' from it (not for sale, for me only). I thinking about purchasing Dell streak mini 5 with broken LCD, to change mainboard between my and broken device. But I'm not sure about compatibility this hardware (and I not have money to buy it........)
P.S. Sorry for bad English again.
I would assume the lcds would be compatable, but this is just an educated guess,
It sounds like a good idea to switch the motherboards if you want a real working streak
as you're not going to be using the original motherboard, could i ask you to make a dump of the system and boot partitions?
we should continue on #dellstreak on irc.freenode if you dont mind, prototype roms and devices are extremely rare and working ones with pre-release roms are even rarer. There's only a handful still in existance now
TheManii said:
I would assume the lcds would be compatable, but this is just an educated guess,
It sounds like a good idea to switch the motherboards if you want a real working streak
as you're not going to be using the original motherboard, could i ask you to make a dump of the system and boot partitions?
we should continue on #dellstreak on irc.freenode if you dont mind, prototype roms and devices are extremely rare and working ones with pre-release roms are even rarer. There's only a handful still in existance now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please write instructions / 'how to' make a dump of the system and boot partitions
Do you know how to use ADB?
you will need to root your phone also before beginning
TheManii said:
Do you know how to use ADB?
you will need to root your phone also before beginning
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My dell is rooted. I used ADB shell in my practice but a long time ago. So it would be perfect if you provide ADB commands...
Do you still have the original recovery installed?
first do a
Code:
cat /proc/mtd
and figure out which is boot / recovery / system
then do a
Code:
dd if=/dev/mtd/mtdx of=/sdcard/recovery.img bs=4096
dd if=/dev/mtd/mtdy of=/sdcard/boot.img bs=4096
where X and Y are the matching values from the first command
finally do a
Code:
cat /system /sdcard/system
then you'll have boot.img recovery.img (if you still have it) and a folder named system
send those 3 to me
TheManii said:
Do you still have the original recovery installed?
first do a
Code:
cat /proc/mtd
and figure out which is boot / recovery / system
then do a
Code:
dd if=/dev/mtd/mtdx of=/sdcard/recovery.img bs=4096
dd if=/dev/mtd/mtdy of=/sdcard/boot.img bs=4096
where X and Y are the matching values from the first command
finally do a
Code:
cat /system /sdcard/system
then you'll have boot.img recovery.img (if you still have it) and a folder named system
send those 3 to me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used these commands in dell terminal app:
Code:
su
cat /proc/mtd
dd if=/dev/mtd/mtd1 of=/sdcard/recovery.img bs=4096
dd if=/dev/mtd/mtd2 of=/sdcard/recovery_bak.img bs=4096
dd if=/dev/mtd/mtd0 of=/sdcard/boot.img bs=4096
dd if=/dev/mtd/mtd3 of=/sdcard/system.img bs=4096
After that operations 4 files added to sdcard (recovery.img, recovery_bak.img, boot.img, system.img)
Incorrect length message was displayed after cat /system /sdcard/system command.
All files were added to archive (WinRAR used) and uploaded to fileserver
You have to use
cat /system /sdcard/system
as DD will not work on the system partition
TheManii said:
You have to use
cat /system /sdcard/system
as DD will not work on the system partition
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
following text message is displayed when i try cat /system /sdcard/system command.
Code:
/system: invalid length
/sdcard/system: invalid length
my *nix is really weak,
try
Code:
cp -r /system/* /sdcard/temp
but you might need to manually make /sdcard/temp first or it might get confused
it will complain about symlinks but that's ok
The device I am testing with is an LG Optimus V. The second generation model with the newer screen.
After obtaining root, but making no other changes I decided to backup using the method I will reference in these two links:
http://groups.google.com/group/andr...1c5c06d7f95?lnk=gst&q=backup#851e41c5c06d7f95
http://forums.androidcentral.com/lg...ense-back-up-your-phone-without-nandroid.html
Basically, it is doing:
cat /dev/mtd/mtd5 > /sdcard/mtd5.img
It turns out that this method does not work to restore the backups.
fastboot is locked on this device.
cat /sdcard/mtd5.img > /dev/mtd/mtd5 does not seem to actually write anything and hangs at LG logo.
flash_image will flash the img but does not seem to actually write anything and hangs at LG logo.
update.zip method does not work since I am not able to extract the img with any of 3 different unyaff programs.
Now I know to do a reliable backup to use Nandroid. But I would like to know where the cat method went wrong. As you can see, on some devices the cat method seems to work. Why not mine?
Is it because of corruption happening during the process? If so, could you please explain the source of the corruption in more detail.
Or is it maybe because the cat backup method is meant to only work when using fastboot to restore?
To add more information to the thread, it seems that some have used a similar method to this, instead using dd for cat. Thanks for the help.
EDIT: I know now that at least DD will work, because clockworkmod uses that internally in it's install script.
Hey all!
I've been following the CyanogenMod guide on compiling the kernel and I've successfully compiled a kernel for the 7510. The next step is now to create a flashable zip with there is a guide for here:
http://android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=HOWTO:_Unpack,_Edit,_and_Re-Pack_Boot_Images
According to that guide you are supposed to extract the boot and recovery to be able to unpack, edit and re-pack the images. However, when I type "cat /proc/mtd" in a root shell I only get the headers of the output "dev: size erasesize name" and no listing.
Anyone go an idea on how to extract these images to create something that can be flashed? Is there perhaps an easier and better way to do this?
Note that the kernel I'm compiling is pershoots ICS kernel and I'm doing this just for fun and learning... no glamour or ruined creds . Unforunately this means that it is probably not possible to repackage one of pershoots already created update.zip's (the 3.2 versions) with a different zImage?
I have not tried to compile a kernel yet, I'm trying to remember what I did last time to just get pershoots' kernel on the last build.
I think what I did was make a complete build from cyanogen source and then I used a windows OS guide to unpack and repack the boot.img with the new kernel. I'm sure that won't help you since you don't even have a kernel yet.
What OS are you building in?
It was real late at night last time I read about compiling a kernel, but I thing it requires extracting a working kernel from the device???
kmmxracer said:
I have not tried to compile a kernel yet, I'm trying to remember what I did last time to just get pershoots' kernel on the last build.
I think what I did was make a complete build from cyanogen source and then I used a windows OS guide to unpack and repack the boot.img with the new kernel. I'm sure that won't help you since you don't even have a kernel yet.
What OS are you building in?
It was real late at night last time I read about compiling a kernel, but I thing it requires extracting a working kernel from the device???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply. I do have a kernel build already, it's baked and finished
I'm on Ubuntu, Mac and Win 7 if it's really needed (would hate to reboot my machine ). Perhaps the guide you followed is the one I linked to above? That is not working for me unfortunately since I can't get to the boot and recovery images.
Hmm, this has me confused now. Perhaps my flashing efforts have been working all along.
In the kernels I've compiled and flashed before, they have always showed my information in the "Kernel version" field in "About tablet". Thus I have been checking that field after my flashes and it hasn't changed once.
I've tried several different updater scripts and none has worked, or so I have believed. I became a bit suspicious about this and checked the build.prop for the ICS KANG ROM, and it has some properties that I think may be causing the confusion.
Under "# autogenerated by buildinfo.sh" ... there are these props among others:
ro.build.user=eric
ro.build.host=Venom
Wouldn't that be shown under "Kernel version" as [email protected] although I've flashed the kernel build on my system?
All the flashes I've done, most of them packaged from versions of Koush's AnyKernel script have gone through without warnings so perhaps my flashes have been working all along?
Running uname -a from the shell on the device gives this though:
Linux localhost 2.6.36.4-cyanogenmod+ #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun Dec 25 18:14:16 EST 2011 armv7l GNU/Linux
That would indicate that it was build on the 25th of december wouldn't it? Well, that's not today so in that case I have still failed .
Would someone be able to have a look at my zip to see if it's validly structured if I pm a link to it?
Thanks!
Perhaps that guide is a bit dated?
This is the one I used: http://www.freeyourandroid.com/guide/extract-edit-repack-boot-img-windows
kmmxracer said:
Perhaps that guide is a bit dated?
This is the one I used: http://www.freeyourandroid.com/guide/extract-edit-repack-boot-img-windows
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome, thanks. Will look into that.
Hi all! When will we be seeing a custom recovery on this tab? Condi, whats the progress so far on the custom ICS ROM? Sorry to hear about ur bricked tab. Hope u get it up and running ASAP!
xyancompgeek said:
Hi all! When will we be seeing a custom recovery on this tab? Condi, whats the progress so far on the custom ICS ROM? Sorry to hear about ur bricked tab. Hope u get it up and running ASAP!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi xyancompgeek,
For now we can run custom binaries in place of original recovery,
but its temporary - I've runned few with killing recovery process
and replacing /sbin/recovery binary.
You can take a look at here (posted 9th april).
The bad thing is that we cant write it permanently,
and also we cant do nothing with kernel, bootloader.
its being updated with firmware update, kernel+boot+recovery
is included in hidden.img - its our 'blob file'.
Its being written to mmcblk0p4 partition,
and after reboot you will see 'three dots' installing screen,
like in normal firmware flashing.
You can make a test - dd hidden.img to mmcblk0p4
and reboot - voila...
But as long as we can't decrypt/modify that blob files,
we cant develop kernels, custom recoveries etc..
br
condi
Sad (& good) to hear. I suppose the temporary recovery would be fully functional. Is it possible to make a quick switch for a cwm recovery? Im sure you'll figure out a way to make it permenant!
unbricked your tab yet?
You must be already knowing about this : http://android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=HOWTO:_Unpack,_Edit,_and_Re-Pack_Boot_Images . Unless sony is using something more secure to protect their files, that should be the way to extract and edit the img files. I doubt this is the exact solution, but maybe we're looking at something similar? Im not an expert, just one hell of a googler!