istunner - blog

I just bought a HTC G1 Google Android Phone from Walmart last week for $98 with 2-year upgrade. I think this is a great bargain considering that the t-mobile website is selling them with upgrade for $180. For some odd reason, Walmart phone rep did not force me to get the G1 data plan that cost $25 a month. That was exactly what I wanted! I am constantly surrounded with wifi connectiong, so I didn’t think $300 extra was worth it. So now the task was to get it to work by bypassing the activation screen.

the activation screen ::
When I initially boot up the phone, I encountered an Android picture screen that pretty much wanted me to log into my Google account. Since wifi is not activated and I do not have data plan, I could not log in, can’t go anywhere, can’t do anything. I did some research on how to deal with this. It sounded easy when I read about it, but you know how hacking stuff goes….not everything goes the way they said on the forums.

downgrading ::
After a lot of searching around for how-to directions, I found 2 sources that are pretty good: How-to- Root, Hack, and Flashing…. and How to register the G1 without a sim or data plan from xda developers forum. I spend a long time trying to understand the process that is going on to hack this phone. I will try to explain this.

HOWTO with normal t-mobile SIM card (non data plan):

(I left my SIM card in the whole time. I don’t know if these step will work for non t-mobile sim.)

You will need to download and unzip: Android 1.1 SDK (PC client that will connect to the phone via USB to change stuff) and Android USB Driver file. It will be more convenient later if you unzip them to C:\ drive.

First off you have have to downgrade you Android version to the one that has the bug/exploit that will allow you to hack it.

Taken from How-to- Root, Hack, and Flashing…. and changed a little:

1. Format your phone’s microSD card to FAT32 mode:
   • My micro SD card came formatted to FAT, not FAT32.
   • (The next part is different from How-to- Root, Hack, and Flashing…. because he assumed that you have activated you phone already, which is definitely not the case here.)
   • I tried to format to FAT32 the micro SD card through SD adapter to the computer on Windows XP. That did not work at all!! (at least for me)
   • I even tried to use Paragon Partition Manager to do it, but it never really format the SD card correctly.
   • I wasted the most time on this and finally decided to format it on Ubuntu with GParted and it worked!!! (try the Paragon Partition Manager first, because Ubuntu will take a long time to install and stuff)
2. Download and unzip the RC29 or RC7 image file. Copy the DREAMIMG.nbh file to the SD card. (RC29 for US, RC7 is for UK)
3. Turn the device power off.
4. Hold Camera button, and press Power button to entry bootloader mode. You should see a gray/white screen with instructions to flash your phone with the update on your SD card. If you don’t see that, make sure you followed the instructions properly.
5. As per the on-screen instructions, press the Power button to start upgrade procedure. DO NOT DO ANYTHING TO INTERRUPT THIS PROCESS.
6. After it is finished, perform the restart your phone by pressing the Action key (press down on the scroll ball).

Downgrade is done!

root, and turning on wifi ::
Next you will need to use the Android SDK tools to force the phone to give you the “Settings” menu on the phone.

Taken from How to register the G1 without a sim or data plan and modified:

1. After the restart, you will see the “android” icon telling you to “touch” it. I did NOT touch it. I just touch an “blank” area so that the “emergency” call is not highlighted anymore. (you can test to see if you have root by typing on the PHONE this: <enter>reboot<enter>)
   [<enter> means press the enter key]
2. Plug the phone to you computer.
3. On the PHONE, type the following:
   • <enter>setprop persist.service.adb.enable 1<enter>
   • The computer will see a new device and try to install it. On the hardware setup, tell it to get the driver from where you unziped the Android USB Driver. This will enable the phone to “really” connect with the computer and mount the SD. If you don’t do this, the following steps will NOT work.
   • IF it didn’t work, restart by holding down the power button and turning off and on again. And do the <enter>reboot<enter> test. If the test did not work, you did something wrong. If it the test did work, it means you press Something! DO NOT PRESS ANY KEYS.
4. You should be connected with the computer now. On the COMPUTER:
   • Open command prompt (start>run>cmd)
   • Type (all that are in bold):
     • cd C:\android-sdk-windows-1.1_r1 (assuming that you unziped to this location)
     • adb shell (This should give you “#” on the next line. If you get an error message “No device” or something, it means that your COMPUTER is not connected to the PHONE)
     • am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n com.android.settings/.Settings (this will force the “Setting” menu to popup on your PHONE)
5. Now on you PHONE, you should see the Settings menu. Activate the wifi setting and connect to your wifi.
6. Once you have wifi connection, you can sign into your Google account.

And there you did it. You just saved $300 this year!

Now you would want to “re-upgrade” with a moded up-to-date version that still have root. I just followed the steps from How-to- Root, Hack, and Flashing…. continuing with the “Rooting your RC29 or lower phone” section.

I hope this was helpful. I will try to upload some pics with the directions.

Update:
I just noticed that the t-mobile website > “change service” page has the G1 data plan option on it. So if you want to change anything on your phone, call it in. DO NOT do it online.