How to Root & Upgrade your G1

This is my full tutorial on how to root and upgrade your G1. This tutorial will show you how to root your phone, upgrade your recovery, upgrade your radio, install the “Danger SPL”, & upgrade your Rom.

@ the time of this posting, the most recent Recovery was AmonRa’s 1.70 and most Recent Rom was Cyanogenmod 4.2.15.1 (There are other versions of CM like version 5 and 6 which you can find in the downloads section)

Prerequisites:

- A G1 / HTC Dream
- Minimum of 1GB SD Card (class 6 is preferable). Backup any files on the SD Card as you will be formatting it.
- About 10-15mins of time and Patience. This is not something you rush through. Please follow each step exactly as written.

Files to Download: (Get them all from G1 Download Section)

Recovery-ra-dream-v1.7.0 (100)
Dreaimg-rc29 (78) (for US phones)
Dreamimg-rc7 (40) (for UK phones)
Spl-signed (85)
update_2.22.28.25_S.zip (79)
Update-cm-4.2.15.1-signed (78)
Drc83 Base Defanged (76)

Please download all the attachments above. For now, place them on your Desktop. – RC29 is for US and RC7 is for UK.

Downgrade your Phone

Format your phone’s SD card to FAT32 mode:

- Hook your phone up to your computer using a USB cable and then wait for the notification to show up in your title bar of your phone.

- Click the notification, and then click “Mount”.

- A new removable disk should show up on your computer. Right click it and select Format, and select FAT32 as the file system type.

Unzip the RC29 or RC7 image file. Please pick the one that’s appropriate for your phone!

Copy the DREAIMG.nbh file from the zip to the root of your SD card. (RC29 for US, RC7 is for UK)

Turn the device power off.

Hold Camera button, and press Power button to entry boot loader 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.

As per the on-screen instructions, press the Power button to start upgrade procedure. DO NOT DO ANYTHING TO INTERRUPT THIS PROCESS.

After it is finished, perform the restart your phone.

Rooting your Phone & Upgrading Recovery

Now get recovery-RA-dream-v1.7.0.img from your desktop and copy it to your SD card (see the previous instructions on how to copy from your computer to your Phone’s SD card).

The file must be on the root of your SD card. (basically, not inside any folders)

Restart your phone. Wait for your phone to start up fully and show the home screen.

After your phone starts up, hit the enter key twice, type “telnetd” and press enter. (Yes, it will start up a contact search, don’t worry. Just type it.)

Download an Android “Telnet” application from the Market and connect to localhost. (Plenty of free ones on the market)

If you connect successfully, you will have a root prompt “#”.

Type the following into Telnet (these commands will give you root access easier in the future):
mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
cd sdcard
flash_image recovery recovery-RA-dream-v1.7.0.img
cat recovery-RA-dream-v1.7.0.img > /system/recovery.img

Now you have root! Almost done….

Upgrading your Phones Radio & SPL

***Warning: you MUST have the newest radio installed before installing the SPL or you will brick your phone! Pay attention***

Power off your phone.

Start up in recovery mode by holding Home and pressing Power.

Mount SD Card (it’s one of the options in the menu)

Once mounted, it should show up on your computer. Copy update_2.22.28.25_S.zip & spl-signed.zip to the root of your sdcard.

Unmount your SD Card.

Now choose – ‘Apply any update from SD’ and select update_2.22.28.25_S.zip

Install it, once complete, reboot your phone.

Once your phone it completely booted up, go into settings and ‘about phone’. Make sure the radio says: 2.22.28.25.

If it does, you’re good to go – Please turn off your phone. – If it doesn’t, repeat the steps above.

Start up in recovery mode by holding Home and pressing Power.

Choose – ‘Apply any update from SD’ and select spl-signed.zip

Once complete reboot your phone.

Creating your SD Card Partitions

Power off your phone.

Start up in recovery mode by holding Home and pressing Power.

Go to ‘Partition SD Card’

Select ‘Partition SD’ (this will format your whole SD card.)

- When it asks, select 512MB for your ext partition – the rest to FAT32.

Now back to the Partition SD Card Screen.

Select ext2 to ext3

Don’t turn off your phone. Go back to the main screen of your recovery and go to the next step below.

Installing a ROM

CyanogenMod 4.2.15.1 is your best choice @ this time. (By Best I Mean G1 Runs like it’s supposed to. Once you upgrade to CM 5 and 6 the G1 is still usable but full of Lag)

You should be on the main screen of your Recovery right now.

Mount USB

Once the drive shows up on your computer, grab DRC83_base_defanged.zip & update-cm-4.2.15.1-signed.zip and place them both on the root of your SD card.

Unmount USB.

Go to the WIPE Section and do a Wipe of Data

Go back to Main Menu of Recovery

Choose ‘Apply any update from SD’, choose DRC83_base_defanged.zip

Let it install and do not interrupt the installation process.

DO NOT REBOOT

Now again, choose ‘Apply any update from SD’, choose update-cm-4.2.15.1-signed.zip

Let it install and do not interrupt the installation process.

Once complete, reboot your phone and enjoy!

Enjoy your new rooted, upgraded G1.

You have now rooted your G1, upgraded the recovery, radio and SPL, partitioned your SD Card and installed Cyanogenmod 4.2.15.1

I highly recommend setting up ADB if you haven’t already done so! – ADB 4 Dummies