Experimental Pantology

By now everyone should have Android 1.6 (Donut) on their G1. It seems like a downgrade in performance even though they claim it’s more stable and snappier because of the UI tweaks. I don’t see it, I needed another option. I decided to root my G1 and run a modified version of Android 1.5 (Cupcake) called JACMan xROM. It took me a while to actually look for all the instructions and the files necessary for the mod so I’m going to compile the info I got from the web and do a step by step walk through on how to upgrade to JACMan xROM v1.5r4. Any files mentioned in this blog entry are not hosted on this server and are presented as links to other sites who host them. Check out this demo of the modified OS ROM in action:

After installing JACMan xROM v1.5r4 on my G1 everything runs faster and since the phone is rooted, and the SD card partitioned properly all the downloaded apps will run on the SD card instead of the internal memory. My SD card is partitioned to allow 512MB of apps stored. The other 2 partitions are for the Fat32 storage and Linux swap file for the phone. Also, tethering is now possible making your phone a WiFi access point using your 3G connection on the phone to serve internet to whatever laptop is connected to it.

PLEASE ATTEMPT THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!! I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR ACTIONS. THERE IS A POSSIBILITY THAT YOU WILL RENDER YOUR PHONE UNUSABLE AND PERMANENTLY BROKEN!!! USING UNSUPPORTED ROMS IS NOT ENDORSED OR SUPPORTED BY T-MOBILE or HTC, READ YOUR PHONE’S WARRANTY INFORMATION AS WELL AS YOUR PROVIDER’S TERMS OF SERVICE. THANK YOU.

Also note that you will have to wipe your existing phone settings and configuration and reset it to factory, as well as wipe the contents of your G1’s SD Card. Please follow the steps in the exact order specified…

Rooting your G1:

• backup everything you have stored on your SD card.
• first make sure your SD card is formatted using Fat32 type, if not do a complete format and not quick format.
• download DREAIMG-RC29.zip to your desktop from http://www.megaupload.com/?%20%20d=EMY1HIVU.
• open DREAIMG-RC29.zip and extract the file DREAMING.nbh.
• copy DREAMING.nbh to your G1’s SD card and make you place it in the root directory (make sure it’s not inside any other folder).
• safely eject your G1 from the computer and power down the G1.
• while the G1 is turned off, hold down the camera button then at the same time hold down the power button.
• you should see the G1 power on and the screen should display rainbow colors, keep holding the buttons down until it’s a gray screen.
• follow the on screen instructions to flash the G1, then when finished to restart the phone hold the buttons talk + menu + power.
• when the device turns on it should have wiped your existing configuration and you might have to setup the G1 and link to your Google account again, follow the on screen instructions until it’s finished setting up and your Google account is linked and that you can access the Google Market application.
• run the Google Market app and search for a program called Terminal Emulator, download and install it.
• now search for a program called Telnet, download and install it.
• plug your G1 to your computer and mount the SD card.
• download this file to your desktop from here: http://n0rp.chemlab.org/android/cm-recovery-1.4.img.
• copy the file cm-recovery-1.4.img to your SD card on the G1 then safely eject the G1 from the computer after the file is copied.
• turn off your G1.
• turn your phone back on and wait until it finishes loading everything, you should be at the main screen.
• slide the keyboard out and use your finger to tap anywhere on the screen where there are no icons.
• hit the return key on the keyboard, wait about a second, and hit the return key again (nothing should be happening at this point).
• now type telnetd and hit return key (as you type this it should bring up your contact list, just ignore it).
• now bring up your application launcher and look for the Telnet application and launch it.
• while in the Telnet application, press Connect to Server and you should see a bunch of garbage text with the last text as #.
• now type the following 4 commands exactly as you see it bolded here (make sure you pay attention to the spaces):
• mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
• cd sdcard
• flash_image recovery cm-recovery-1.4.img
• cat cm-recovery-1.4.img > /system/recovery.img
• at this point your G1 should be hacked and rooted, congrats!

Installing the new ROM to your G1:

• connect your G1 to your computer and mount the SD card.
• download the latest Radio file from here to your desktop: http://sapphire-port-dream.googlecode.com/files/ota-radio-2_22_19_26I.zip.
• copy the file ota-radio-2_22_19_26I.zip to your G1’s SD card and rename it update.zip.
• turn off the G1 completely.
• while the G1 is turned off hold down the Home and Power keys to turn on the G1.
• you should now be in the recovery mode of the G1 with a list of menu items.
• use the scroll button and select [Alt+S] apply sdcard:update.zip.
• the G1 will ask you if you’re sure you want to go ahead, just follow the onscreen instructions to continue the installation.
• after it’s done installing hold down the Home and Back buttons together and then release it to reboot the G1.
• the reboot might take you back the recovery console, if so just hold down the Home and Back buttons together again to reboot the G1 a second time.
• after reboot your G1 should boot normally and is usable at this point.
• connect your G1 to your computer and mount the SD card again.
• access your G1’s SD card and look for the file update.zip, delete it from the SD card.
• now download the SPL file to your desktop from here: http://android-roms.googlecode.com/files/splhard1_update_signed.zip.
• copy the file splhard1_update_signed.zip to your G1’s SD card and rename it update.zip.
• turn off the G1 completely.
• while the G1 is turned off hold down the Home and Power keys to turn on the G1.
• you should now be in the recovery mode of the G1 with a list of menu items.
• use the scroll button and select [Alt+W] wipe data/factory reset.
• use the scroll button and select [Alt+S] apply sdcard:update.zip.
• the G1 will ask you if you’re sure you want to go ahead, just follow the onscreen instructions to continue the installation.
• after it’s done installing hold down the Home and Back buttons together and then release it to reboot the G1.
• connect your G1 to your computer and mount the SD card again.
• access your G1’s SD card and look for the file update.zip, delete it from the SD card.
• now download the ROM file to your desktop from here: http://www.justanotherdev.slackdev.com/JACMan_xROM_v1.5r4.zip.
• copy the file JACMan_xROM_v1.5r4.zip to your G1’s SD card and rename it update.zip.
• turn off the G1 completely.
• while the G1 is turned off hold down the Home and Power keys to turn on the G1.
• you should now be in the recovery mode of the G1 with a list of menu items.
• use the scroll button and select [Alt+W] wipe data/factory reset.
• use the scroll button and select [Alt+S] apply sdcard:update.zip.
• the G1 will ask you if you’re sure you want to go ahead, just follow the onscreen instructions to continue the installation.
• after it’s done installing hold down the Home and Back buttons together and then release it to reboot the G1.
• after the reboot you should notice that your phone user interface looks a little different, you should be running the new ROM at this point.
• check to see if your phone service works and the phone is usable and not laggy, or unstable (apps force crashing all over the place).
• you can leave it phone the way it is or you can continue and partition of SD Card so that your apps can be stored on it as well as having a separate partition for swap space.

Partitioning your G1’s SD Card for app storage and Linux swap:

• turn off the G1 completely.
• while the G1 is turned off hold down the Home and Power keys to turn on the G1.
• you should now be in the recovery mode of the G1 with a list of menu items.
• use the scroll button and select [Alt+X] go to console.
• I’m going to use the sample settings to partition your SD Card assuming it has a 4GB capacity.
• slide out your keyboard and press Enter.
• now type the following commands exactly as you see it bolded here (make sure you pay attention to the spaces):
• parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
• rm 1
• mkpartfs primary fat32 0 3420
• mkpartfs primary ext2 3420 3932
• mkpartfs primary linux-swap 3932 3964
• print
• (make sure after you issue the print command you have 3 partitions).
• quit
• upgrade_fs
• reboot

Other notes:

• after the G1 reboots your phone should be usable, the new ROM will detect the partitions you just created and install every app you download from the Google market to the SD Card (in this case, at least 512MB of app storage instead of the crappy 72MB or so stock)  instead of the internal memory, there is also now a swap which will improve performance overall.
• if your phone survived congratulations, if you’re confused about a step or the links are broken please let me know by emailing jp-at-callanta.net (switch -at- with @).
• also keep in mind that since your SD card is now being read and written to more than normal it might decrease its lifespan and you might have to replace it sooner than you expect.
• Also, the new ROM we just installed is based on Android 1.5 with some Android 1.6 features. So it’s a downgrade technically, but an upgrade in performance.
• Your web browsing is probably 3x as fast as the stock Android 1.6 you received from T-Mobile.
• The overall user interface is snappier and there are additional options to tweak the animation of the windows and how they open/close/switch.
• There is an application that should be installed in your launcher that will allow tethering. Knowledge of wireless networking and basic networking is required to set it up, but basically the the app turns the phone into a wireless access point that bridges your 3G internet connection to whoever connects to the phone.
• I haven’t really seen any major annoyances other than since it’s running Android 1.5 the market app is not using the latest version and the Google maps app is also not the latest version. That means it’s missing the turn by turn feature they later added on. I’ve seen another hack to get the latest Google maps version but I will have to experiment with getting that to work at a later time.

References:

1. http://www.maximumpc.com/article/howtos/howto_hack_your_android_g1_phone
2. http://androidcommunity.com/forums/232988-post31.html
3. http://code.google.com/p/android-roms/wiki/Install_Custom_ROM
4. http://code.google.com/p/sapphire-port-dream/wiki/Whatworks