how hard is it to brick your phone? - G1 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

hey guys im fairly new to this forum and this is my first post, well let me get to the point, i got my G1 lets say 2 months ago and ive heard a lot about "rooting" and i thought id give it try, i was just nervous about one thing and that is "bricking" so i was just wondering how easily it is to brick my phone? if that happened oh man i dont know what i would do..thanks

If you read a lot and follow directions I think the chances are very slim. It seems like the main cause of a bricked phone is when someone tries to update to the danger SPL (the spl's you need to run a hero rom) before they update to the latest radio.

sakumaxp said:
hey guys im fairly new to this forum and this is my first post, well let me get to the point, i got my G1 lets say 2 months ago and ive heard a lot about "rooting" and i thought id give it try, i was just nervous about one thing and that is "bricking" so i was just wondering how easily it is to brick my phone? if that happened oh man i dont know what i would do..thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm in no way shape or form an expert on any of this stuff but I have my phone running at a high level I believe. So the advice I can offer as a novice is read read read read read search search search search search and read read read read some more and if you can't find the answer ask but make sure in the right forum or u may get "flamed" lol some ppl will but for the most part ppl will point u in the rite direction. also stick 2 the basics when flashing don't get lazy and skip steps they are there for a reason good luck

If by brick you mean having the phone not even go to a recovery screen then it is very hard.
If by brick you mean having android not boot, then very easy.
There are step by step tutorials out for everything now so it is unlikely you will run into problems if you have a bit of sense.
I would first recommend trying to get the JF1.5 rom and then immediatly upgrading to cyogens 1.4 recovery rom. the ums_enable command has saved me numerous times. What it does is enable usb through the recovery terminal so you can load up some different files or another rom and try again.

And really if all you do is follow the directions and don't try to speed ahead thinking you know something everything should work out great

imbonez9 said:
And really if all you do is follow the directions and don't try to speed ahead thinking you know something everything should work out great
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly!
When I first looked in to rooting I was also worried about bricking. Like others have said the main reason people brick is updating to haykuro's SPL without the cupcake radio (which is doubly stupid as they probably have a cupcake and should have had it already). After you have rooted and have installed the recovery image you can flash ROMs as much as you want, if your phone becomes unbootable because you messed with a file on your phone, you can just reflash. Btw, someone just posted a thread on how to brick their G1 because it seemed unbrickable

Does anyone know what the difference between the 2.22.19.26I and the 3.22.20.17 (came on my Rogers Dream) radio is? Will I brick my phone if flash haykuro's SPL with the 3.22.20.17 radio?

Related

Help a newb get on his way w/ Rooted G1

My G1 is rooted and I have updated it to RC33. (during the process, I used HARDSPL)
1. If I plan on using a theme from Drizzy (champion V2) do I still need to do the cupcake update AND the radio update?
2. Is installing this theme as simple as renaming the .zip to "update" and dragging it to SD card. THEN, do I Alt+W, or only Alt+S when I get to restore screen?
Please help if I am way off.
stevedawg85 said:
My G1 is rooted and I have updated it to RC33. (during the process, I used HARDSPL)
1. If I plan on using a theme from Drizzy (champion V2) do I still need to do the cupcake update AND the radio update?
2. Is installing this theme as simple as renaming the .zip to "update" and dragging it to SD card. THEN, do I Alt+W, or only Alt+S when I get to restore screen?
Please help if I am way off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are going to use a theme, you need to make sure the theme is intended for that specific rom. You should always update your radio, without updating it you will have BT problems and possibly dropped calls. If you have Cyanogens recovery 1.4 you don't have to rename anything to update any more cause it can flash any .zip file. And you don't have to wipe before flashing a theme.
Thanks for the help.
How do I find out which rom I have and which rom's the .zip support?
I followed a youtube tutorial from anthonymoreno24 and these are the files I used:
Recovery image & HARDSPL from:
http://koushikdutta.blurryfox.com/G1RootWalkthrough/
I will update to cupcake during lunch (I have to use friends SIM cuz I have no data plan )
--------------
EDIT:
Just found this, do I follow these instructions after I update to Cupcake?:
Download image (right-click, save as): http://n0rp.chemlab.org/android/cm-recovery-1.4.img
MD5Sum: f5135a878c705215f4012786e4261cfe
To install image: copy it to your sdcard and run:
Code:
flash_image recovery /sdcard/cm-recovery-1.4.img
If you have problems with a "no space on device" error, try using fastboot and erasing first:
Code:
fastboot erase recovery
fastboot flash recovery cm-recovery-1.4.img
So have you not even loaded any rom yet? If you go to about phone under settings whats the info say?
Sorry, Im a newb, I'm literally following step by step instructions from the youtube vid
FW: 1.1
baseband: 62.33xxxx_1.22xxxx
kernel:2.6.xx-xxx-gfea
[email protected] #1 (kool!!! just noticed this )
Build: kila-user 1.1 PLAT-RC33 126XXXX-xxxwordsxxx
This help? what specific info you need?
Bud, you are a long way off. Drizzy's is not a theme, it is a hero rom which I would not suggest you try since it needs the danger spl and I can see a brick happening already, download cyanogen 4.02 rom and flash that and stick with it before you consider anything else, read the sticky's at the begining of each forum here to get an idea of how android works instead of relaying on a couple month old out of date video. A lot has changed since that was made. Oh and make sure that your file you want to flash is in the root of your sdcard and not in a sub folder otherwise it won't work, biggest thing make a nandroid backup in cm-recovery 1.4
gridlock32404 said:
Bud, you are a long way off. Drizzy's is not a theme, it is a hero rom which I would not suggest you try since it needs the danger spl and I can see a brick happening already, download cyanogen 4.02 rom and flash that and stick with it before you consider anything else, read the sticky's at the begining of each forum here to get an idea of how android works instead of relaying on a couple month old out of date video. A lot has changed since that was made. Oh and make sure that your file you want to flash is in the root of your sdcard and not in a sub folder otherwise it won't work, biggest thing make a nandroid backup in cm-recovery 1.4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Took the words right out of my mouth.
OP: If you want to flash anything hero related you need to read read read, if you are asking questions like this, and are this confused then you shouldn't/aren't ready to go hero. Try cyanogen or jacxrom (if you want a different look, it has a nice theme built into it) and after a week or 2 of studying them give hero a shot.
Has anyone else noticed how many people have been posting sh*t like this lately? It seems like noone can read anything anymore and wants us to give them specialized instructions instead of using the GUIDE's like we all did.
crpercodani said:
Took the words right out of my mouth.
OP: If you want to flash anything hero related you need to read read read, if you are asking questions like this, and are this confused then you shouldn't/aren't ready to go hero. Try cyanogen or jacxrom (if you want a different look, it has a nice theme built into it) and after a week or 2 of studying them give hero a shot.
Has anyone else noticed how many people have been posting sh*t like this lately? It seems like noone can read anything anymore and wants us to give them specialized instructions instead of using the GUIDE's like we all did.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. I've noticed that people are like how to I root!?!? I'm such a n00b. There is plenty of literature out there and should learn how like the rest of us did. If you need to be babied into root maybe you shouldn't have root.. or let someone else do it.
agreed
I rooted my phone a couple months ago without asking any ?s, I have still not asked a ? Yet, before I even got my phone, I studied up on it, there is a ton of info and a lot is in the stickysand has been covered countless times. Now it is even easier to root and flash your phone than ever but the problem is people are following videos and blogs that do not provide enough info. I was lucky to find xda back when I had my wing so I knew right were to go from the begining. If people just took notice to the info here they would have no problem at all
gridlock32404 said:
I rooted my phone a couple months ago without asking any ?s, I have still not asked a ? Yet, before I even got my phone, I studied up on it, there is a ton of info and a lot is in the stickysand has been covered countless times.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I completely agree, I too read the tutorials many times before I got my phone !
And when I got the phone, I invested almost 2 days ( around 20 hrs) to try different things (Thanks to all for providing guides to everything) and now I am running a fantastic ROM with root.
It feels much better now that instead of asking "How, Why,etc), I am writing "THANK YOU ALL" for fantastic guides and tutorials !
crpercodani said:
Took the words right out of my mouth.
OP: If you want to flash anything hero related you need to read read read, if you are asking questions like this, and are this confused then you shouldn't/aren't ready to go hero. Try cyanogen or jacxrom (if you want a different look, it has a nice theme built into it) and after a week or 2 of studying them give hero a shot.
Has anyone else noticed how many people have been posting sh*t like this lately? It seems like noone can read anything anymore and wants us to give them specialized instructions instead of using the GUIDE's like we all did.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FYI, JACxROM requires Haykuro's SPL to run properly as well. If you're using the HardSPL, then your best choice is Cyan's 4.03 or enomther's rooted version of the stock Cupcake CRC1 build.
my bad, I guess since I flashed haykuros spl and the new radio when I first rooted I never relized you needed it for the xrom.
crpercodani said:
my bad, I guess since I flashed haykuros spl and the new radio when I first rooted I never relized you needed it for the xrom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, actually even the devs didn't realize this until a couple of us did some experimenting. Fortunately, I had two G1s and the only difference with them were the SPLs... one worked and one didn't.

Help

I need help im not confident with linux im ok with windows and windows mobile I hacked with ROM's on my Touch but I want to root my Dream (make a backup of the stock ROM first) and root it with a Hero ROM but I dont really know how to go about it and after reading the threads im still not 100% clear of the steps I need to follow to be sure I dont wreck my phone.
Can someone please advise me ??
Look in the first two pages of this q&a forum or it might be general, you will see a post by david that is a guide to one click root, it is an excellant guide and you will have problems
skauk said:
I need help im not confident with linux im ok with windows and windows mobile I hacked with ROM's on my Touch but I want to root my Dream (make a backup of the stock ROM first) and root it with a Hero ROM but I dont really know how to go about it and after reading the threads im still not 100% clear of the steps I need to follow to be sure I dont wreck my phone.
Can someone please advise me ??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
here is a tried and tested guide for rooting your phone. it is a bit outdated but the method that would be most preferred for rooting. there is also a guide to one click root in my sig. it was written for noobs so it is fairly comprehensive.
here is a very well written guide by nephron on how to get hero on your phone after you root it.
finally when you want to go back to stock, you look here.
i hope these links help you. i am very tired and must go to bed now. if you still need help i can help you once i get up in a few hours, but since you seem fairly knowledgeable, i wouldn't be surprised to wake up to you having a hero rom. i hope these links prove to be helpful.
gridlock32404 said:
Look in the first two pages of this q&a forum or it might be general, you will see a post by david that is a guide to one click root, it is an excellant guide and you will have problems
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just slip right in like a pimp slapping a mis-guided hoe, while i am writing a nice lil' guide
Hey a pimp has gotta work fast before someone tries to steal his ho, you blink and she might be gone, I am up on my pimp ****
gridlock32404 said:
Hey a pimp has gotta work fast before someone tries to steal his ho, you blink and she might be gone, I am up on my pimp ****
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i had to show you the pimp's prayer. don't act like them training wheels still aren't on your pimp cane lol.
sorry to derail your thread skauk
I am a quick learner, I am thinking of signing up for pimp university though, I hear they have a great program and helped many succesful pimps on their way
I am not sorry bout derailing your thread, I am a thread robber too, you know that g1f**d up thread, yeah that was me, I stole that **** and got away with it, my follow bandits and I (you know who I am talking) we are good
does the procedure tell you how to backup your stock rom or do i need to root it before i can backup the current rom in case I wasnt to restore ???
It gives you the option of backing up but if it really works I do not know, but once you change the spl, it stays at that spl unless you flash another spl or unroot by rc29/7. I would root it, wipe it once you are in recovery, apply hardspl, flash your rom of choice other than hero or xrom( I suggest cyanogenmod stable 4.04) boot up, wait the ten to 15 minutes for the initial boot, sign in to google, then reboot back into recovey by holding home and power at the g1 screen and make a nandroid backup of your new rom
My Build number is not RC anything its CRC37 ?? do i just follow rooting UK RC8 or higer instructions on the thread mentioned in post 1 of this thread ?
Now I am gonna follow david's lead and I am going to sleep finally
gridlock32404 said:
It gives you the option of backing up but if it really works I do not know, but once you change the spl, it stays at that spl unless you flash another spl or unroot by rc29/7. I would root it, wipe it once you are in recovery, apply hardspl, flash your rom of choice other than hero or xrom( I suggest cyanogenmod stable 4.04) boot up, wait the ten to 15 minutes for the initial boot, sign in to google, then reboot back into recovey by holding home and power at the g1 screen and make a nandroid backup of your new rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why not hero or xrom ??? I saw a thread on a hero ROM that most regarded as fast and usable
thanks for all your info guys im still not 100% confident to be honest bit of a grey are linux lol
Hmmm... why not hero or an xrom because they require the danger spl first, which I suggest that you get more comfortable with your phone and flashing first. Rc was the first line of android coding that refered to android 1.0, cr refers to a 1.5 cupcake build. You downgrade to rc7/rc29 to take advantage of a security loophole that google patched in later builds but that is the old fashion way of rooting which unfoutunely you don't have to go through since you have the one root click option. Don't expect google to leave that exploit open for to long, will be proboly be patched in the 1.6 firmware

Ordered a G1 and had a few questions

First off I want to say that I know my way around a WinMo flash,reflash, nand breaking and all that jazz pretty well. But Android...not so much.
I ordered a G1 off Ebay recently, it has been shipped, but in the mean time, I was wanting to research the rooting and flashing process..It looks very involved...Very involved..lol
I've read the guides and such but was curious about the rom/radio bricking issues. With WinMo theres alot of radios..How about Android(My phone is an unlocked T-Mobile)?? Are there still known issues?? I like this rom http://lb.vg/fVl3w
Are the guides for rooting on here currently up to date(I think they are, and they probably are)?? Do I have to root to flash a new rom on there(I think I do)??
Sorry for the n00bish questions, but I really don't wanna kill my phone.
Can all bricks be fixed via the user??
Thanks
Edit: What is the situation of Flash?? What is supported??Is Hulu supported??
2.1 and 2.2 Froyo..Whats the difference??
smurfgod said:
First off I want to say that I know my way around a WinMo flash,reflash, nand breaking and all that jazz pretty well. But Android...not so much.
I ordered a G1 off Ebay recently, it has been shipped, but in the mean time, I was wanting to research the rooting and flashing process..It looks very involved...Very involved..lol
I've read the guides and such but was curious about the rom/radio bricking issues. With WinMo theres alot of radios..How about Android(My phone is an unlocked T-Mobile)?? Are there still known issues?? I like this rom http://lb.vg/fVl3w
Are the guides for rooting on here currently up to date(I think they are, and they probably are)?? Do I have to root to flash a new rom on there(I think I do)??
Sorry for the n00bish questions, but I really don't wanna kill my phone.
Can all bricks be fixed via the user??
Thanks
Edit: What is the situation of Flash?? What is supported??Is Hulu supported??
2.1 and 2.2 Froyo..Whats the difference??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First root (did it yesterday for the first time, phone was rooted when I got it).
You need root for certain apps, for installing another spl, custom roms.
Root installs recovery (if I remember ok).
Upgrade spl from stock to 1.33.2003 (zip file in recovery). Now you can use fastboot (safer!).Reboot in fastboot and flash first another recovery, then another radio (2.x) radio (needed for spl 1.33.2005), reboot again, go to fastboot and flash the dangerspl 1.33.2005 (or use MTDpartitions, but I got problems with it). Then flash roms.(no need for the old hardspl).
Flash not supported(arm incompatible).
Bricks can only be fixed with an JTAG, so be carefull (always wait) ! ROMS can't brick your device, only the officials can (which contain spl and radio).
Read for flashing the spl's (if you have rogers(canada) it's different).
Idk what this user means by saying that flash isn't compatible with the arm processor.
But yes android 2.2 supports flash all the way to flash 10 but on the g1 I don't think it would be so good on 528mhz because flash is pretty bloated on system resources. But flash videos are fine hulu runs fine for me.
Woops sorry about the double post I refreshed page and it submitted info twice. I did not see a delete function.
Should I do any sort of formatting or partitioning on my SD card or just let the G1 do it??
I've got an 8gig SDHC Class 4 card also.
I've also been reading about J-Tagging the G1..Theres an adapter on here http://miniurl.com/49008 and it's 20USD for the adapter but I think I have to heek it up to an Omnia Repair box..Is that right?? This video http://miniurl.com/49009 shows em hooking one up to a white box..and the only white box on there site is for the Omnia Repair one and it's 229 Euro's(304USD).
Does the first reply have the correct steps for rooting my phone?? Is that for all versions. I'm not sure if mines a R29 or lower.
Sorry for all the questions.
Thanks
~SMurf

Rooting the g1 with super one click

Can u root a g1 with super one click application on the computer?
Sent from my x10a flashed 2.1 Brazilian firmware with multitouch xda download Rooted
The G1 is so incredibly easy to root, it takes about 5 minutes. Using an application for it is just plain lazy haha.
aussiehairspray said:
The G1 is so incredibly easy to root, it takes about 5 minutes. Using an application for it is just plain lazy haha.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I have the same question as the first user, but didn't understand your answer...
he's saying you can, but it's the lazy way... the g1 is so easy to root, plus if you root it the traditional way it gives you a little better of an understanding on how things work behind the OS
so if you want to try it, go ahead but im not 100% sure if it works...
Ooooor if you want to grow some fuzz on your balls than try following this guide
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1098899
I am glad I did my first root using the RC29 methods, where they left a shell connected to the keyboard, as it is good background for someone who likes to tweak their phone directly from the OS level, instead of having someone else write a script to do it all with "one-click". Cyanogen's Dream root how-to is fairly good also, just stop reading any of them after you get recovery flashed, as the info you'll find here is much more up to date, with newer SPL and radios which you will need for most of the recent ROM builds.
Read this thread too, on ensuring you have a good match of radio/SPL/recovery flashed so you don't get a brick. (i.e., SPL 1.33.2003 seems to be good with 1.x and 2.x radios, and 1.33.2005 for 2.x or 3.x radio)
That being said, by the time I got to rooting my third phone, I did build a goldcard to flash whatever I wanted, just to save some time, but I usually don't care to save anything from the phone, so a full wipe is OK for me.
If you think you are ready to start flashing things, start over and read all of it again. It may not be as expensive anymore to make a mistake and brick your Dream, but it would still be very sad to turn a working phone into a paperweight because of missing a step, or doing something in the wrong order.

New to rooting of G1

The G1 was my first android phone a few years ago but I didn't root it or even know about root, my G2 broke and being 16 with no job, money for a good phone is hard to come by so I'm going to settle for a G1 as I found many cheap ones on eBay.
Are G1s easier to brick or is it just the same like any other phone? And could someone suggest a good gingerbread ROM? No sense please lol
well if you want stability, i suggest froyo...
the g1 is only easy to brick if you dont follow the instructions provided...
main bricking issues are radio/spl related, so be sure to read every detail about flashing radios and spl's..
fastboot is safest mode to flash img files ie(radio, hboot, recovery) but there are ways to get it done via recovery... just be careful read read read
One more thing, read everything more than one time. And make sure you understand the instruction fully before you start.
ldrifta said:
well if you want stability, i suggest froyo...
the g1 is only easy to brick if you dont follow the instructions provided...
main bricking issues are radio/spl related, so be sure to read every detail about flashing radios and spl's..
fastboot is safest mode to flash img files ie(radio, hboot, recovery) but there are ways to get it done via recovery... just be careful read read read
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm never understood the point of flashing radios? What does it affect?
And does the UOT theme kitchen work with froyo ROMS? anyways thanks to the both of you! I bought a G1 off eBay for only $65 and its already rooted so less work for me ;p
Sent from my LG-P509 using XDA App
Just flash the ROM. If it is already rooted.

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