How-To: Hack Your Android G1 Phone
Posted 09/17/09 at 10:00:00 AM by Paul Lilly
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Installing a ROM
Now that you've rooted your G1, it's time for the fun part. There are tons of third-party ROMs to choose from, and luckily they all install the same way.
- First, figure out which ROM you want to install and download it. For this example, we're going to use CyanogenMod 4.0.4. Download the ROM file (in ZIP format) here.
- Connect the G1 to your PC, mount the SD card, and copy the downloaded ZIP to your SD card. Rename the file update.zip.
- Disconnect your G1 from your PC and power down the phone. Next, hold down the Home key and press the Power button to enter Recovery mode.
- Use the G1's scroll wheel to select [Alt+W] wipe data/factory reset, or slide out the keyboard and press Alt+W.
- Now you're ready to flash your new ROM. Use the scroll wheel to select [Alt+S] apply sdcard:update.zip, or slide out the keyboard and press Alt+S.
- Once the new ROM has been flashed, select or press Home+Back to reboot your phone and enjoy your new modified OS!
Note that it can take several minutes to boot your phone following the installation of a third-party ROM. Don't worry, this is normal for just about every ROM out there, and subsequent boots should load normally.
Partition Your SD Card
Now that you've rooted your G1 and installed a ROM, the next order of business is to partition your SD card. This is necessary to install certain applications, such as WiFi tethering and other handy utilities. The process can be surprisingly overwhelming, but XDA forum member 51dusty has written a script that does most of the dirty so you don't have to. Here's what you need to do:
- Download sdparted.txt from here and transfer it over to your SD card.
- Power down your G1, then hold the Home key while pressing the Power button. This will put you into Recovery Mode.
- Use your scroll wheel to select [Alt+X] go to console, or slide out the keyboard and press Alt+X.
- Press enter when prompted. You should now see / #
- Type mount /sdcard and press enter.
- Type mv /sdcard/sdparted.txt /sbin/sdparted and press enter.
- Type chmod 755 /sbin/sdparted and press enter.
- Type sdparted -efs ext4 and follow the prompts. When asked if you want to continue, hold down the up arrow and press Y. This is case sensitive, so if you type a lowercase y, it will abort the script.
- When the script finishes running, type reboot and hit enter to reboot your phone.
And that's it! Whether you took the easy route and and rooted your G1 through a few simple clicks or opted to get down and dirty with the more complicated method, you're now ready to start experimenting with different third party ROMs. To give you a head start, we took a few of the more popular ROMs out for a spin, each one representing a different approach to Android. Here are our impressions of each.
JACxHEROSkiv v2.1
If you're aiming for a fresh look altogether, this custom ROM seemingly transforms your G1 into an HTC Hero phone, which isn't too surprising considering it's based on the latest Hero build.
From a usability standpoint, JACxHEROSkiv is to Android what Flock is to web browsers. That is to say its strength lies in the heavy emphasis it puts into social networking. During setup, you're prompted to enter login info for Twitter, Flickr, Plurk, and Facebook, and you'll have easy access to each one.
JACxHEROSkiv comes with a boatload of widgets to choose from, and we especially like the Twitter app. The Twitter widget takes up a sizable portion of the screen, but offers up scrollable updates and a text box to update your own Twitter status.
Other notable features include a comfortably- sized on-screen keyboard and some advanced camera controls (ISO, zoom, etc.), but all this functionality comes at the expense of performance. Navigating ranges from irritatingly poky to sometimes snappy, but never 100 percent consistent. If future versions manage to iron out the bugs, this could be a real winner, but as it stands, only social networking nuts and those with Hero-envy need apply.
i used to own a htc
Submitted by E Cigarete on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 8:13pm
I used to own an HTC phone and store videos on the memory card, but every 5th or so time i turned my phone on it wouldn't recognize the sd card, it was such a hassle. not like the Electronic Cigarette
Submitted by MariannaBella on Sat, 11/07/2009 - 3:43pm
As much as I love and enjoy my iPhone, I had the opportunity to test out my friend's phone and I do like how the G1 seems more "open". With that said, I have had to jailbreak my i so I don't feel as restricted.
Anyway, thanks for providing this information. I'll have to pass it on.e cigarette
Submitted by DIGITALNINJAH on Tue, 10/20/2009 - 12:06am
After the one-touch rooting, I would like to know if you have to do the radio & SPL updates? Also, the partitioning? If I spelt that right. Because, I'm lazy on the radio & SPL part and don't know if it's included with the one-touch rooting, and the partitioning(?) part, I can't find anywhere at all.
Submitted by mmagee10 on Thu, 10/15/2009 - 7:49pm
Hey, i am a somewhat beginner when it comes to ROM's and rooting my G1 phone.. i had previously done it to get cupcake a while back.. But i followed the steps in your guide and got to the part of updating the SPL, i went ahead and did the hard SPL to be safe... and yes i did already do the radio. It seemed everything worked fine. i wiped drive then installed the update.zip rebooted once and then rebooted a second time and now it stays at the T-Mobile G1 screen for a substantial amount of time... is it supposed to take a while? or is my phone bricked? please respond. Thank You.
It can take several minutes
Submitted by One4yu2c on Sat, 10/17/2009 - 8:16am
It can take several minutes to boot for the first time after installing a new ROM. Subsequent boots will be much, much shorter.
EDIT: Rereading your post, it sounds like you haven't flashed the firmware to a new ROM yet? If so, and if your phone still isn't fully booting after several minutes, slap a ROM file on your SD card and follow the next step to flash.
-Paul Lilly
Submitted by radboater on Sat, 09/26/2009 - 3:16am
Great article. As a beginner I was able to follow these steps and root my g1 phone & install the CyanogenMod ROM.
Two small problems with this article:
1)
when rooting the phone in the terminal window the article states "cat cm- recovery-1.4.img > /system/recovery.img". Which creates an error. The correct thing to type is "cat cm-recovery-1.4.img > /system/recovery.img". This is a big difference! there should be NO SPACE between CM- and RECOVERY-1.4.IMG.... Once you retype it without the space. It works
2)
The link given to download, in order to partition the SD card is a BROKEN LINK. Clicking the link will say "invalid attachment specified". Which is really too bad. I really wanted to partition the SD card correctly so I could install apps to SD card directly. ...Will someone please post a valid link to download the CORRECT file.
....Other than that- great review! Really helped me and my friends out that have the G1 phone! Would really be great if someone could post a tutorial on how to "install apps directly to SD card". -If anyone wants to walk me through it: AIM: radboater -Thanks
Submitted by One4yu2c on Sat, 09/26/2009 - 6:10am
Thanks for the catches, we'll get those corrected. In the meantime:
The direct download link for SDParted is here, but that too could end up broken if the developer updates the file and re-uploads it again. Should that happen, you can find the latest download link in his forum thread here.
As to installing apps directly to the SD card, msot third-party ROMs come with this feature built-in, including the three we covered in this feature.
-Paul Lilly
Submitted by Capper on Thu, 09/24/2009 - 12:24am
Actually, a lot of the information is outdated, it doesnt bother me as I've been following along since the beginning, but for someone who is behind the power curve on rooting their G1 and wants a good starting point, its difficult.
As to your other comment, this thread is but an example of the assholery that goes on there:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=559457
As to the rest of this discussion, I dont understand Cyan or anyone else getting their panties in a wad.....I just read the article again, and I cant seem to find anywhere where One4 says he doesnt like Cyan's ROM, I see him sharing his personal preference....big deal (I actually like Cyan's ROMs a lot)....but for Cyan to tweet "MaxPC doesnt like me" and "Suck it MaxPC" really reflects poorly on him. As to the rest of you guys that came here arguing about ROMs and who built what.....get a life, seriously.
Submitted by Capper on Thu, 09/24/2009 - 12:24am
Actually, a lot of the information is outdated, it doesnt bother me as I've been following along since the beginning, but for someone who is behind the power curve on rooting their G1 and wants a good starting point, its difficult.
As to your other comment, this thread is but an example of the assholery that goes on there:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=559457
As to the rest of this discussion, I dont understand Cyan or anyone else getting their panties in a wad.....I just read the article again, and I cant seem to find anywhere where One4 says he doesnt like Cyan's ROM, I see him sharing his personal preference....big deal (I actually like Cyan's ROMs a lot)....but for Cyan to tweet "MaxPC doesnt like me" and "Suck it MaxPC" really reflects poorly on him. As to the rest of you guys that came here arguing about ROMs and who built what.....get a life, seriously.
Submitted by ThR1LL on Wed, 09/23/2009 - 5:04pm
First of there are stickies in all the different sections with all the info you will ever need neatly organized so I don't see how someone can be overwhelmed unless they expect to be catered even more to the information they need. You're only flamed if you don't follow the forum rules. The Dream section in XDA has many subforums like Development and Q&A. Obviously you ask questions in Q&A and not development. Follow the rules and search and you will never get flamed.
Submitted by stephenkjanes on Tue, 09/22/2009 - 4:17pm
TAKE BACK: It works, Cyanogen rules. My issue was my SD Card was acting up, fixed it and now I'm running a hacked G1. Thanks guys!
Everytime I open up the Recovery Flasher and try to launch the Flash Recovery Image, I get a message saying "Flash FAILED: Could not run command." I followed all the steps and, for the life of me, cannot figure out what to do next. Has anybody experienced this problem and have you found a way to work around it?
I tried the complicated method of rooting the G1 as well, but met with the same results: fail.
Submitted by Capper on Tue, 09/22/2009 - 12:57pm
Please take the "my ROM is better than your ROM" crap back to your forum. One4 put together a nice little article to help introduce people to rooting their phone, and shared with them a couple of ROMs that he has tried and liked. He shared his opinion of the ROMs, which is great, and explained why he liked the different ROMs based on what they had to offer him.
Seriously people.....if you head over to XDA Forums, you are greeted with a mess of information, for someone just getting started, it can be quite overwhelming.....but then if a new person asks questions, or for help, they are flamed, or even given a temp ban...because XDA is a "Developer site" and not for people who just want to root their phone and get cool features. I think you guys need to all crack open a fresh YooHoo and relax.....as I said, this article is simply a starter for the uneducated, and can only help by bringing more people to a growing community.
I'll end my little rant by saying its OPEN SOURCE, its there for people to contribute, and improve. I'm all for giving people credit, and thanking them for their contributions, but you guys are getting way carried away with this argument.
Submitted by AndroidFan on Fri, 09/18/2009 - 9:49am
Android OS Mod Developers are sharing ideas on how to improve it by modding it in their free time "as a hobby", not to act JuniorHigh and feel like their having a contest to see who is the best. Some end-users need to chill-out, its just a mobile OS. We don't care who invented Microsoft DOS, we just want Windows7 to work.
Modders come and go, as their hobby-desire takes a backseat to school or regular day job. So new Android modders take over, where others drop off...
Some end-users don't mind a lot of lag, if they can have fancy looking screens and control.
Some end-users prefer quick non-lag OS and less fancy screens.
In the end, its all about usability, not just showing off a cool theme on your mobile.
Submitted by SimonNWalker on Fri, 09/18/2009 - 3:23am
Thanks for the link guys. Great article.
There are so many releases coming out that I understand it's very hard to mention them all but there are many other ROMs out there that deserve credit. The one thing missing from the ROMs mentioned here is true Microsoft Exchange support. Check out some of the Rogers based ROMs if this is something youe need o your phone.
I would be nice in future if people could directly to our AndroidSPIN homepage as the homepage has all the summary and latest info for ROMs and Theme and release news and is sometimes easier for new users.
The new version of our site is coming real soon and will make it much easier to find relese information.
So if you want to find the latest info for the latest releases, check out the home page at http://www.androidspin.com instead of goinf directly to the ROM Database page.
Again, thanks for the article.
Cyanogen not for power users?
Submitted by marshallladd on Thu, 09/17/2009 - 11:52am
How do you figure cyanogen is not for power users? It is by far the fastest and most advanced of the ROMs. Its use of BFS and compcache and automatic apps 2 sd card is great. Now if by not for power users, you mean it doesn't have a flashy interface, then you are correct. It looks like stock android but performs nothing like it(leaps and bounds better). If you want a flashy interface, go buy an apple product.
Also, how many times can Donut be called 2.0 before someone realizes that as of now, there is no such thing as android 2.0. 1.5=cupcake 1.6=donut 2.0=bad research
Submitted by gymbeau2000 on Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:43am
After installing one of these "full system replacements", is it possible to restore back to factory version?
Submitted by miketaylor00 on Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:45am
Yes, you can go back to the stock ROM if you want to.
Submitted by gymbeau2000 on Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:49am
Is that method in the OS or in those forums? Maybe the author of this article should have posted that as well.
Submitted by miketaylor00 on Thu, 09/17/2009 - 12:41pm
You can find it on xda forums
Submitted by wickedg33k on Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:00am
Latest CyanogenMod has fixed the camcorder issue and the rom is very stable in its experimental stage.
No protons were harmed in the making of this post.
Submitted by Manup456 on Thu, 09/17/2009 - 9:37am
Thanks guys for this artical I am manup456 and I did all the graphics for xROM,I just wanted to clear a few things up. The mods that have been done to this build are not taken from other people's work,what gives the build the speed and a lot of the great features come from justanotherdevs kernal and his own hard work so people may be a bit mistaken in a few comments and I wanted to clear that up.
Thanks again.
Submitted by ThR1LL on Thu, 09/17/2009 - 7:27am
Like said before Donute is not Android 2.0 as stated by Google many weeks ago. And like stated before xROM was originally based off of Cyan ROMs. When it first came out it was pretty much a themed Cyan ROM. The camcorder has only been an issue since switching to Donut and not throughout Cyan ROMs builds. Like this article stated these experimental releases are exactly what they say they are. They can be buggy and the reason for them being released is so loyal followers can help find these bugs and report them so they can be fixed. This article also forgot to mention the The 2.1 build of JACxHeroski is also an experimental build. The reason that the homescreens numbers are customizable on xROM is also because of a 3rd party program called Advanced Launcher and is compatable with Cyan 4.0.4. So don't give off the wrong idea that it is xROM exclusive. FYI the camcorder works on current Cyan Experimental builds.
Submitted by johnkilmy on Thu, 09/17/2009 - 7:18am
This is pretty amazing. I love phones with open source flexibility.
Submitted by johnkilmy on Thu, 09/17/2009 - 7:19am
Very cool!
Submitted by AthlonBoy on Thu, 09/17/2009 - 5:37am
I think you're off the mark when it comes to your information on the ROMs available.
For starters, xROM is based off cyanogenmod and other people's work. (I'm not complaining, this is open source development at work; if something is good, use it!) It's best thought of as a collection of features from many people. It's based off of Android 1.6, also known as Donut, just like cyanogenmod. There is no Android 2.0, as Google have only just finished 1.6 (quite literally finalised yesterday).
Looking through xROM's patchnotes, it appears to be very heavily based on cyanogenmod, but with more third-party stuff like the theme, toggle widgets, and the like. Conversely, cyanogenmod has the new official power widget which is part of Donut, and the experimental version has the global search bar; an important new feature not unlike the iPhone's recent search function. It searches the entire phone (contacts, web browsing history, files, what have you) as you type.
The stable version of cyanogenmod is based off of Cupcake, Android 1.5, but with very many parts of Donut backported to it. This is because Donut was largely non-functional at the time, even the GSM radio didn't work. The experimental version instead bases itself off a recent version of 1.6, with Cupcake features ported onto it to fill in any gaps. With the recent official release of 1.6, cyanogen is going to move everything over to that, polish it up, and name it as a stable build. Yes, with a camcorder.
You can see what Donut is all about here.
Oh, and one last thing. Cyanogenmod used to have a very flashy battery life 'widget' on the "screen locked" screen, but it actually drained a lot of battery, so he removed it.
Submitted by miketaylor00 on Thu, 09/17/2009 - 9:40am
For starters, xROM is based off cyanogenmod and other people's work. (I'm not complaining, this is open source development at work; if something is good, use it!) It's best thought of as a collection of features from many people.
This is completely untrue. xROM is not a collection of features from many people any more than Cyanogen is. Yes, there are modified apks from various peolpe on xda but Cyanogen has the same thing. I am a part of the xROM team and I can tell you without a doubt that JAC does not just copy Cyanogen's code. Yes, he does use some things from Cyanogen but he gives credit where it is due.
Also, xROM has the donut power widget too which was done by Manup, another member of the xROM team. And it will include the same global search and other donut features in version 1.6. The reason that it hasn't been released yet is that the Donut code is not stable enough. Just because JAC waits to release thing until they are stable that doesn't meant that he is copying Cyanogen or riding his coat tails. He also has 2 other ROMs that he develops, JacHeroSki (a Hero ROM for the Dream/G1) and JacMyTouchSki (a MyTouch3G based ROM).
I know you are probably a big fan of Cyanogen and that is cool. I have a lot of respect for him, he makes a great ROM. But don't post libelous statements on here or anywhere. There is no need to disrespect people who put in a lot of hard work because you wanted the author to say that CM is the best ROM out there.
Submitted by AthlonBoy on Thu, 09/17/2009 - 3:55pm
Fair enough, that shows how much I know about xROM. :)
My one and only beef was that the author is horribly misinformed about both cyanogenmod and xROM, and how because xROM is based off of Android 2.0, it is somehow better. We both know that to be false.
Either way, I still maintain that xROM uses a lot of cyanogen's work, but I like it that way. This is open source. You see a change, use it, give credit where credit is due, and everything moves forward. Cyanogen decides to use BFS, Google pick that up. Ol' Jesusfreke lays a lot of the groundwork for custom ROMs, and this is our payoff. If I sounded like I was suggesting JAC was plagarising, I apologise. I just wanted to make it clear just how similar the two ROMs are at the core, a fact this article completely ignores.
Submitted by One4yu2c on Thu, 09/17/2009 - 6:59pm
This article was started awhile back, about the same time when 'Donut' was still being referred to as Android 2.0. We now know that 1.6 is Donut, and you're right, that should have been corrected in the xROM write-up as it was in the Cyanogen summary.
To clarify, the reason I recommended xROM was not because of a misconception that it uses super secret alien technology not available to anyone else, but because it felt a bit more polished. Force close errors are almost non-existent, you can configure up to 10 home screens out of the box, the camcorder works (albeit it can be buggy), the toolbar holds a lot of promise, and some of the advanced settings are both easily accessible and useful.
As noted, Cyanogen also has several upsides that make it a good candidate, and if the latest build that was just released fixed the camcorder issue, then it's even better than before. Maybe the mini-review wasn't entirely clear (and judging by Cyanogen's Twitter comments, it wasn't), but I like what Cyanogen has done overall, and the fact that it's being actively developed is a huge plus.
I would enourage users to experiment with different ROMs, as that's half the fun. And while I think xROM gets a bit more right than the rest, there's no clear cut winner among the top ROMs like there is in, say, music videos (I'm sorry, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time).
-Paul Lilly
Submitted by nduanetesh on Wed, 09/16/2009 - 7:44pm
Thanks very much for this article! I've had a G1 since Feb and I'm really really digging it. Everytime Will Smith is on the podcast talking about how his iPhone broke and Apple told him to go fuck himself, I'm even more thankful for my G1 and all of it's included awesomeness.
I've been thinking for a while about rooting, but wasn't sure there was a really compelling reason to do so. I didn't realize it had become so easy, though, so I'm thinking I might just go ahead and give it a shot!
Thanks again!
Submitted by Capper on Wed, 09/16/2009 - 7:34pm
Yes XDA is the place to go for in depth stuff.....but there is so much information there, thats really poorly organized. One4 did a really great job of cleaning it up, organizing it in an easy to understand manner, and provided you all the links you need to get going.
If you read his instructions, you may even realize that he even shows you an easier way to do everything.
Submitted by bryanwf on Wed, 09/16/2009 - 6:20pm
I have the HTC Dream which is the same phone, but on the Rogers Network in Canada. I'm wondering if I can root the phone and still use it on my network?
Submitted by charrion on Fri, 09/18/2009 - 7:01am
The methods to root a Rogers Dream are indeed a little different from the G1. There are two main methods depending on how far you wish to go. Since the Rogers Dream is slightly different in some respects from the T-Mobile G1 you can't simply follow the general instructions or you will brick your phone or at least cause problems with it accessing the Rogers network.
XDA Forums is your best start and these two threads are your best starting point. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=544654", and this thread includes installing a port of Cyanogen's rom recompiled spefically for Rogers phones http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=544854.
I've also cobbled together instructions for using one-click root on the Rogers phones since that method too is a little different for us poor canucks, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=558301.
Still, the best instructions in this article to follow are to read thoroughly and understand what you are doing and potentially doing first.
Submitted by comptech08 on Wed, 09/16/2009 - 6:37pm
Go to xda forums, here is the link for the Dream section
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?s=b28d7e7aa0dbf8854cf33a10d513305a&f=446
You would look under the development section. It would probably be best to
do a search through that section. There are a ton of threads.
XDA is the development community where hacking android first appeared. If
you go to their home page, http://forum.xda-developers.com/index.php , they also
support development for numerous other smart phones
Submitted by comptech08 on Wed, 09/16/2009 - 5:15pm
I don't want to be a troll or anything but, the info on how to hack your G1 pretty much came out right after the phone launched, which was pretty close to a year ago.
Submitted by One4yu2c on Wed, 09/16/2009 - 7:43pm
There have been some new developments since the G1 first came out, including the Cupcake (Android 1.5) update, which requires users to first downgrade their firmware, and the so-called 'One-Click' method, which is a recent development.
With the Android Market picking up steam and third-party ROMs starting to mature, I think the timing on this was appropriate.
-Paul Lilly
Submitted by miketaylor00 on Thu, 09/17/2009 - 9:39am
Thanks for the article Paul. You did a great job on this.
Submitted by One4yu2c on Thu, 09/17/2009 - 10:47am
Glad you enjoyed it! :)
-Paul Lilly
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