How to: Flash Galaxo ROM

Posted on April 14, 2010 by ET/Osky
Samsung Galaxy

Boring?

Time to change that Samsung Galaxy a bit? Time for the Galaxo how to. Just remember that unlocking your bootloader will void your warranty. The risks are very slim but they do exist and neither I or anyone else will take any responsibility for any problem that could occur. However you will always loose all your data on the phone! Any external SD card will be left untouched.

That was the disclaimer on to more fun stuff! This guide will flash (install) Galaxo by Drakaz on your phone. We will use Galaxo 1.6.2 which is built on the XEJC6 firmware. It’s not as hard as it look, I just wrote a quite extensive guide divided in many steps. My goal is that you should be able to achieve this without any pre-knowledge at all. more straight forward instructions are always published with the ROM. Note that this guide focus on how to do this on a Windows computer, it’s possible on Mac and Linux but since I don’t have any experience on that I’ll let you look for that answer somewhere else.

Phase 0: Preparations

0.1 First of all you need to follow this guide to install the correct firmware and get all the files needed.

0.2 Back-up anything you want to save from your phone and make sure your battery is charged to minimum 60%. Enable USB Debugging in Settings->Applications->Development

0.3 Make sure you have the files needed, ie. Recovery 4.6.2, Galaxo 1.6.2 and the XEJC6 firmware as linked in the Odin guide. You should still have the SDK installed and ADB up and running. Just like last time I will assume you installed the SDK in C:\Android so if you didn’t just change the paths accordingly.

Phase 1: Install the Recovery

1.1 Extract the Recovery 4.6.2 zip. You should now have 2 files, recovery.img and RECTOOLS.tar.gz

1.2 Copy the extracted “recovery.img” to “C:\android\tools\”

1.3 Change the name on “Galaxo_V1.6.2.zip” to “update.zip”

1.4 Extract the firmware zip and rename “I7500XEJC6-PDA-CL209906.tar” to “SAMSUNG.tar” (in caps!)

1.5 Connect your phone and mount your SD card, now copy “SAMSUNG.tar”, “update.zip” and “RECTOOLS.tar.gz” to the root of the card. This can be done with the ADB Push command if you prefer it but in my opinion that doesn’t exactly make it simpler

1.6 If you followed the above steps correctly you should now have “recovery.img” (from the Recovery 4.6.2 zip file) in C:\android\tools and in the root of your SD card “SAMSUNG.tar” (renamed from the firmware zip), “update.zip” (renamed Galaxo 1.6.2 zip) and “RECTOOLS.tar.gz” (from the Recovery zip)

1.7 Shut down your phone and connect it to your computer via USB

1.8 Press “windows-button + R” and type in cmd, Enter

1.9 In your cmd window type “cd c:\android\tools” and press enter

1.10 Type “fastboot flash recovery recovery.img” (without the “”) and press enter. The response should be “Waiting for device” like shown in this picture

waiting for device...

Waiting for device...

1.11 Start your phone in fastboot mode by pressing “Call + Power/End call”

1.12 Your phone should show you a terminal-like black screen with white text that say FASTBOOT in the top. The cmd window on your computer should find your device and after a short while say “OKAY” as will your phone. If it stays on waiting for device try typing in the “fastboot flash recovery recovery.img” again but this time don’t hit enter until you’ve started your phone in fastboot. You will have something like 10-15 seconds before the phone restarts so be quick on that Enter key. If you get the same result again, go back to the Odin guide and make sure that you have ADB live and kicking.

1.13 Your phone reboots and the cmd window will go back to showing c:\android\tools and accept input. Just shut your phone down again.

Phase 2: Flash Galaxo ROM

2.1 Boot your phone in recovery mode by pressing “Volume down + Call + Power/End call”. It should now look similar to this picture (older version, picture borrowed from Drakaz)

Recovery screen

Custom Recovery screen

2.2 Just in case you Galaxo update doesn’t work as planned or you decide to switch back, make a Nandroid back-up. Do this by selecting “Nandroid backup” with your navigation pad and pressing “OK”. This will take a while and when done return to the previous screen. Make sure it says “backup complete!” in the bottom of the screen. Now you can always return to this “clean state”.

2.3 Before we update it with Galaxo we perform a wipe, select the entry “Wipe data/factory reset” press “OK” and then confirm. get a cup of coffee while you wait and then we’ll sprint through the last part.

2.4 Time for the actual Galaxo update! Select the entry “Apply sdcard:update.zip”, confirm and start to get exited

2.5 When the update is done you only have one step left, and that is to restore Google applications. Drakaz are not allowed to put these in the ROM so instead we pull them from the firmware (this is why we have the SAMSUNG.tar file). Select “Restore G.Apps” and confirm. When it’s done select “Reboot system now” and enjoy your new Samsung Galaxy, powered by Galaxo rom.

2.6 Phone doesn’t start, stays on the blue Samsung logo? Most likely Restore G.Apps failed. This can happen, select “Mount SD(s) on PC” and on your computer look for the recovery.log. Open it in notepad, at the bottom you will find why it didn’t work. Most of the times it’s one of these 2:

File not found – Did you forget to copy SAMSUNG.tar? Did you name it properly (remember CAPS)? Did you copy it to the root and not some folder?

Checksum failed – Did you remember to perform the wipe before applying the update.zip? Do you have the correct file (I7500XEJC6-PDA-CL209906.tar renamed as SAMSUNG.tar)?

When you feel that you have checked the above, delete the SAMSUNG.tar and copy it again (don’t overwrite! Shouldn’t make a difference but I’ve seen it). Unmount the SD and start over from 2.3 performing the wipe.

Optional Phase 3: Personalize your Galaxy

Some small steps I have taken to get the most out of my phone:

The Galaxy stock keyboard is in my opinion junk. To get a mod of the Desire keyboard have a look here: http://einartysen.se/change-to-htc-keyboard-on-your-non-htc-android-device/

I got tired of the vanilla Android look and got myself a theme, there are many more out there. Just Google on Galaxo themes, note that there are a couple of different ways to install them. This is the one I use http://www.frandroid.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=8640 with instruction (Google Translate does the trick if you don’t speak french).

If anything is unclear, let me know in the comments and I’ll work trough that part again!

This guide could not have been written without Drakaz hard work for the community and everyone else dedicating time to trouble shoot and explain in forums like: www.frandroid.com www.phandroid.com www.hdblog.it and last but definitely not least www.swedroid.se and their Wiki.

  • Share/Bookmark
Posted in FAQ, Mobile | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How to: Update Firmware on Samsung Galaxy with Odin

Posted on April 8, 2010 by ET/Osky

Tired of your Galaxy? Getting tired of Samsungs unwillingness to update your phone? Then it might be time to consider rooting it. Before you look any closer you should remember that unlocking your bootloader will void your warranty. The risks are slim but they do exist and neither I or anyone else will take any responsibility for any problem that could occur. However you will always loose all your data on the phone! The external SD card will be left untouched.

That was the disclaimer on to more fun stuff! This guide will upgrade your phone firmware and baseband to I7500XEJC6 which is a leaked official (almost) firmware from Samsung. Tool for this is Odin Multi Downloader and this guide should work fine with later versions as well. It’s not as hard as it look, I just wrote a quite extensive guide divided in many steps. My goal is that you should be able to achieve this without any pre-knowledge at all. After that you can choose to continue and install Galaxo 1.6.2 ROM  and Recovery 4.6.2 by Drakaz. The recovery image contains a set of tools that can be accessed by booting the phone in recovery mode whilst the ROM is a modification of the actual phone OS that you will boot every day. Read my next post for that here. This is not very hard and you should be good to go in about an hour if the drivers doesn’t give you a very hard time. Note that this guide focus on how to do this on a Windows computer, it’s possible on Mac and Linux but since I don’t have any experience on that I’ll let you look for that answer somewhere else.

Phase 0: Preparations

0.1 Time to get your phone ready, and get the necessary files.

Download Odin Multi Downloader, Firmware and if you like Galaxo Rom and Recovery.

If you already have ADB (Android DeBugging) up and running just skip the driver steps, otherwise keep reading.

0.2 Get the Android SDK from here: http://developer.android.com/sdk/ then unzip it wherever you like. This guide will assume that you unzipped it to c:\android\ to keep it simple.

0.3 Download this very small zipfile and extract the file android_winusb.inf to c:\android\usb_driver\i386 (or if you use a 64-bit windows c:\android\usb_driver\amd64)

0.4 Install Samsung PC studio from the CD that came with your phone (or get it here from Samsung)

0.5 Activate USB debugging on your phone, Settings->Applications->Development->Enable USB debugging

0.6 Connect your phone to your computer, Windows will start to install your drivers but will fail on one device

0.7 Open the Device Manager. Right click on the unknown device and select “Update driver” then “Browse my computer for driver software”

0.8 Choose to search the location c:\android\usb_driver\i386 (or \amd64). Choose to install the driver even though it isn’t signed.

0.9 Time to see how it went, you should now have “ADB Interface->Samsung Galaxy Composite ADB Interface” in your Device Manager. To make it more exiting this isn’t always the case. I used to have it, but not any more. ADB still works though…to be sure Press “Win-button + R” and type in “cmd” then press “Enter”

0.10 In the terminal window that opens type (without the “”) “cd c:\android\tools” and press enter. Then use your very first ADB command by typing “adb devices”. Now you should get a reply that looks something like this:

List of connected devices
Device list example

0.11 If you did get I7500xxxxx, congratulations. ADB is up and running! If you didn’t we have something of a problem on our hands. Could be of several reasons but start with de-select debugging, connect to your computer and mount your SD card. Unplug and redo from step 0.XX. I also added some alternative drivers from Samsung here. Post in comments if you can’t get it to work! There are so many alternative drivers and ways to install them floating around that posting everything here would be impossible. With the first device I tried only the first driver was needed, with the second I installed the second zip as well to get it to work.

******Update******

Just found a new driver…once again. Amazing how hard it can be but several people says that this is it :) Here’s the link

******************

Phase 1: Update your Firmware with Odin Multi Downloader

1.1 Unzip both the Odin and Firmware zip files at any location

1.2 Right-click Odin.exe and choose “Run as administrator”, it’s absolutely necessary that you do it as an admin!

1.3 Start with pointing out the .ops file included in the Odin zip file. If you downloaded the I7500XEJC6 firmware above it should hold 4 different files ending with .tar. Other versions can hold only 1 and is then called a “one package” (note on that below). Point out your corresponding files to BOOT, PHONE, PDA and CSC (some people doesn’t use the CSC, I do if you wonder why just ask those who don’t) like showed in the picture below.

Example of Odin set-up
Example of Odin set-up

(If you only got one .tar file just tick the box next to “One Package” and point that file out on the right, ignore the rest.)

1.4 Time to back-up anything you want to save from your phone, search the market for backup and you’ll find many options.

1.5 Shut down you phone and connect it to your computer via USB

1.6 Start your phone in “Download mode” by pressing  and holding “Volume down + OK + Power” buttons

1.7 You phone should now say “Downloading…” and show a SD card like icon

1.8 In Odin, look at the white frame on the left, it should say “<1> Added!!!”, “<1> Detected!!!” just like the picture above

1.9 Time to hit that switch! Press Start in Odin and go have a cup of coffee while Odin does it Magic. When finished it will reboot, this could take a couple of minutes

1.10 If it got stuck on the Samsung logo, have no fear. A wipe should get you going. Shut down your phone (pull the battery if you have to) and boot in recovery mode by pressing and holding “Volume down + Answer + Hang up/Power” buttons. When you see the triangle with a ! all you have to do is press the “Menu” button. The phone will perform a Wipe and then restart. Still not working? Start over from step 1.XX – Download mode.

1.11 Perform a wipe as instructed in 1.10 and you’re all done! In Settings->About phone you should now see that Firmware version says something like Galaxy 1.6 and Baseband version says I7500XEJC6. The picture below shows that screen after Galaxo installation.

Updated Galaxy
“About phone” after update

Optional next step…Flash Recovery and Flash Galaxo Rom

This guide could not have been written without Drakaz hard work for the community and everyone else dedicating time to trouble shoot and explain in forums like: www.frandroid.com www.phandroid.com www.hdblog.it and last but definitely not least www.swedroid.se

  • Share/Bookmark
Posted in FAQ, Mobile | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Change to HTC keyboard on your non-HTC Android device

Posted on March 29, 2010 by ET/Osky

When I updated my Galaxy to Android 1.6 I lost my HTC keyboard. Luckily I’ve found the simplest solution so far, and yes it does support other languages than English. Right now my phone has HTC softkeyboard with Swedish letters but one of the best things is that it allows me to change that to English in a whim just like if it was the stock one!

So how is this done?

For starters, it’s all made possible by jonasl at xda-developers.com who extracted this from a HTC Desire ROM. I had absolutely nothing to do with the creation of this method I’m just sharing what I’ve learned. The files needed (and instructions, full feature list and more details) can be found in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=5475701. I’m just gonna make it a bit clearer and not use the ADB method which in my opinion require a bit more technical knowledge.

************************************

Update 20100531, just like Albin stated in the comments this has gotten a lot easier now. Get the files at the link above, add to your sd-card and install with any app manager. Just make sure you enabled “Unknown sources” in Settings->Application. Done! Updated version works with the pre-FroYo release as well.

************************************

  1. First, get the files. There are one version for low resolution phones (Samsung Galaxy, HTC G1 etcetera) and one for high resolution (Nexus One, Motorola Droid/Milestone etcetera). Note that the later version of low-res only works on Android 1.6 and up, if you have an older version of Android use an older version (available further down)
  2. Unpack the zipfile at any location.
  3. Connect your phone and mount your SD Card (Notification bar->Mount) and copy HTC_IME.apk and .htcime to the root of your SD card (if you want to be able to recalibrate your touch input you also need to copy Clicker.apk)
  4. From your computer double-click .htcime and choose to open it with Notepad (can be found in C:\Windows) or other text editor.
  5. Put a # in front of every language you DON’T intend to use, the rest will be available in the same order as in the list. DON’T change the number in front of each line (Language ID)! Then it should look something like this (with more languages further down):

    .htcime example

    Example of the .htcime file

  6. Dismount your SD card (reverse mount procedure) and unplug your phone
  7. If you don’t have a file manager on your phone, get one from the market (Astro file manager, Linda etcetera) anyone should do
  8. On your phone, go to: Settings -> Applications. Tick the box next to “Unknown sources” (otherwise you can only install applications from the market, remove it when you’re done if nervous)
  9. Open the file manager you’ve chosen. Find the files you copied and select HTC_IME.apk and chose to install
  10. Then go to: Settings -> Locale & text. Tick the box next to Touch Input
  11. Start to write a text message (any text field will do really)
  12. Touch and hold the text field until you get a pop-up and then select “Input method”
  13. Mark “Touch Input”. Re-select the text field and the keyboard that shows up should be the HTC one.
  14. To chose between your languages and the different versions of the keyboard (QWERTY, Compact QWERTY or Dial pad) tap the settings button as shown here

Enjoy!

  • Share/Bookmark
Posted in FAQ, Mobile | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Android 1.6 baby!

Posted on February 26, 2010 by ET/Osky

Samsung said it can’t be done. Samsung said it won’t be done, because it’s impossible.

Samsung Galaxy sporting Donut

Donut for the orphaned Galaxy

Well shame on companies lying to its customers. Once again I had to turn to the small but great Android-Samsung community and Tada! My Samsung Galaxy now sports the sweetness of Donut (also known as Android 1.6). This is still old (Nexus One runs Android 2.1) but a huge step forward from 1.5, the Market is actually usable now.

Only bad thing is that I suddenly got my old keyboard trouble back. Swedish stock keyboard, or the in my opinion better HTC keyboard but then only in English. Never quite satisfied am I? :)

If you have a Galaxy and is out to root your phone Drakaz Galaxo ROM will do the trick. Just read the post below carefully (there are always a certain risk when rooting/flashing and it will always be your headache and no one else will take any responsibility for any trouble). Link to frandroid forum (parts are in french, but just scroll down and you’ll find English instructions: http://www.frandroid.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=116843

And whatever you do, don’t buy a Samsung yourself since the care for customers after purchase is literally non-existing.

  • Share/Bookmark
Posted in Babble | Leave a comment

The future of mobile electronics

Posted on January 15, 2010 by ET/Osky

Every blog and paper already published their summaries and lists of both the previous year and decade. I say let’s forget the past, and focus on the future. At least for a little while. I will tell you what you can (might) expect from the future of mobile electronics, maybe not in a year but in 1-5 this is the development I predict.

Since I got my first smartphone I’ve been convinced that it was only a matter of time before the rest of my friends and family followed me into the modern age (i.e. got themselves one of their own). iPhone started exactly that movement. Suddenly there where a phone easy enough, funny enough and produced by a company with enough market share (I’m convinced that an identical phone from HTC for example never would have had the same impact). So slowly my friends and family is jumping on the wagon. What the iPhone started now has turned into friends with HTC Hero, Windows Phone (old Windows Mobile), iPhones and devices from any and all brands. Of course that means that I’m now starting to plan my own jump off from the same wagon. Here’s what I want, and other will figure out in a couple of years:

  • Standard phone features e.g. calling, SMS (starting to feel very outdated but, for a few more years) and such
  • All my internet needs in a mobile device, including mail (and wave/other collaboration tools), streaming videos, streaming music, reading blogs and news sites
  • eBook reader (no use fighting it, sorry librarians and other “paperback-huggers” time to adapt)
  • Some games and other miscellaneous stuff.

To read books, extensive articles online and browse the web somewhat comfortable I need a bigger screen than my Samsung Galaxy got (3.2”). The problem is that already a phone of this size sometimes feel a bit clumsy to carry around. When I don’t have a jacket/bag, at a party or on the town, going to the beach etcetera. There’s also an economical aspect in this. My phone suddenly cost the same as an average laptop and that’s before the bigger screen and additional features mentioned above. Phones are easily lost, stolen or broken. Nothing strange there, it’s the same with all things we carry with us everywhere. I remember an interview with a scientist researching crime among youths in Sweden a couple of years back. He/she said that one of the reasons for the increase of robbery against individuals is that we carry much higher values on our persona. We stopped having cash in our wallets but instead we got expensive mobile phones, mp3 players and so on.

Solution? As everything gets combined into the same device (do they still sell mp3 players or cameras without a mobile phone included? :) ) I predict an excelling need for different products for different occasions. I will most likely in the coming two (ehm, one if I know myself) years change my smartphone for a “stupid phone”. That phone should be small, cheap and manage just the basic functions like placing calls, simple e-mail and maybe music. A revival of my old Sony Ericsson K750i maybe? :) At the same time I will buy a tablet that is more of a hybrid of today’s:

  • tablets (Archos 5-like);
  • ebook reader (nook-like);
  • smart phone (Nexus One-like);
  • netbook;
  • mediaplayer (iPod touch-like).
Devices

Combined in one?

This baby will follow me to work and longer journeys, but not on short trips to the town and such. Then once again I will be telling my friends and family: This is the future of mobile electronics!

This post was inspired by numerous blogs and news sites over the year and the pictures are standard ones that’s flooding the web. Any objections to me posting this pictures can be sent to me and I will sort it out. Special thanks to the Swedish site http://www.swedroid.se that always keep me in the loop on Android news.

  • Share/Bookmark
Posted in Babble, Computers, Internet, Mobile | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Mac Mini, incoming!

Posted on January 11, 2010 by ET/Osky
I’ve just ordered my first Apple device, it’s a big day! The device in question is not an iPhone (bah! I would never).


Mac Mini - Wikimedia Commons

My new baby

It is however a beautiful Mac Mini that hopefully will bring my never ending media playback issues to an end. I’ll give you the background today and the update on how it went when I get setup and tried it out a bit.

I have tried multiple ways to playback my media. I don’t think I’m being unreasonable, I just want to be able to play both my digital videos as well as the ones on disc. If possible I would like to be able to play my music as well, all of course through my Home Cinema system (not that fancy but now that I got it, it sure as hell shall be used). So far I’ve tried…

TvIX 6500 HD: A cute little box that was my last attempt at salvation. It should’ve been able to give me Full HD (1080p) both from the internal HD as well as over the network from my server. Well, it didn’t. Not very reliably at least. Xvid/Divx and DVD images worked just fine though. Managed to sell it without a major loss so, problem solved. Music interface was so bad that I only used it a few times, hence a separate solution for that, and no disc drive for DVDs and Music.

Home Cinema system with DVD player: Aside from not playing my digital videos it has so far spent most of the time since my investment back in the shop for repairs. Reason for that is that first the DVD playback wouldn’t work (or the remote), got it back with a new remote. Remote works fine, plays DVDs the first few tries and then both CD and DVD playback stopped working. Back to the shop. The biggest drawback however is that I need another device to play music or digital video.

XBOX360: I have a Microsoft Windows Home Server. One would think that MS figured out that their users might want to use their shining new XBOX as a Media Center (Hey, that’s what everyone did with the old XBOX). But no. XBOX360 is quite lousy as media center. Doesn’t play xvid/divx without some hacking (works but…strangely hard to accomplish), doesn’t play DVD images at all and the music interface is as slow as a turtle without legs. Microsoft, I did everything you wanted me to, got the server, Windows 7 and the XBOX360 and still I need workarounds or 3rd party software to free my files. Not good marketing strategy.

HTPC: Tried some different solutions (running the PC version of XBOX Media Center was one) under different OS version (XP, Vista and Windows 7). The media center capabilities are still crippled and I often found a need for a full keyboard to make things work. What I haven’t tried is to buy a full HTPC of the shelf. Since my experiences from running both stationary and laptop computers as HTPC isn’t exactly great I’m not that keen to pay the huge stack of money that a decent looking, decently quiet, remote controlled and working HTPC costs (in Sweden you’ll have to pay roughly 800-1000$). The reports on usability issues, regular playback problems and angry family members not being able to start a simple DVD didn’t encourage me either.

So what do I use today then? Feels ridiculous but I’m back to using my old XBOX. Yes, that’s correct, the one launched in 2000-2001 something like that. It’s huge, ugly, sounds like a tractor, can’t play any HD material and cheap me hasn’t got the cordless remote. I use the regular joypad instead. It does however presents all the capabilities I ask for in a media center, plays (almost all) DVDs and digital video files. Since it’s really quite outdated it’s not exactly foolproof but it works most of the times, it even plays videos in compressed archives. The music interface is not awesome but works, it’s just that the joypad isn’t that great as a remote.

I write to extensive for a blog, shame on me and poor readers. That was the background, the next time I might have become a Mac fanboy, who knows? :)

Stumbled on this review when I tried to decide if Apple really should get my hard earned money, sure pushed me over to the order button! http://www.mrobsession.com/osxmbc-review/
  • Share/Bookmark
Posted in Babble, Computers | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

404 Errors

Posted on January 9, 2010 by ET/Osky

Just wanted to acknowledge that the move from my old blogger account obviously didn’t go as smoothly as I thought. As a result some links and referrals gave a 404 Error, page not found. Sorry! Good news is that the 100 or so pageviews of 404 made me react and now everything should be back to normal. :)

  • Share/Bookmark
Posted in Babble, Internet | Leave a comment

Unlock Android phone after too many pattern attempts

Posted on January 8, 2010 by ET/Osky
In the FAQ category: Unlock Android phone that is locked after too many pattern attempts. I’ve seen the question so many times in the Google Mobile Help Forum that I felt that a post could help someone out.

Pattern lock
The pattern lock screen (in Swedish)

On Android phones you can activate a feature called pattern lock. This feature can be compared to a Windows computer asking for password after the screen saver kicked in, only instead of a password you use a pattern. You get a screen with 9 dots and you draw a pattern of your choice with 4 of them. If you forget your pattern (or have kids that likes to play with phones) you will after 3 faulty attempts be unable to use the pattern to unlock it. Instead you are asked for your Google account and password (that is setup with the phone of course). This is where the problem starts.

For many, many users providing the username and password won’t change a thing. For some people changing the password via a computer has worked but that is uncommon. Most people ends up with a very expensive paperweight. Have no fear, there are solutions to almost everything!

Update

Just read about a possible work-around. So before going ahead with the factory reset below try this: Here’s the solution to unlock without losing your data:


Type you gmail username and in the password field type “null”. You will then be prompted to enter a new pattern and your phone will be unlocked.
End Update

In this case the solution is to make a factory reset (sometimes referred to as hard reset or wipe). This will erase all data on your phone (not on your SD-card). Your contacts and mails should be in sync with the Google servers, no problem there then. Downloaded applications needs to be installed again but there is a list of your previous downloads in the Android Market->My Downloads. Other things though are lost if you haven’t backed them up manually with a 3-rd party application. Example on things you will lose: Call logs, text messages, application settings.

This is your 3 step solution

  1. Factory reset your phone (links to Android device manuals can be found below, it differs between devices)
  2. Setup your phone just like you did the first time you unpacked it (use the same Google Account if you want your old contacts back!)
  3. Restore any manual back-ups and install your previous applications from the My Downloads list.

How do I factory reset? HTC leads the way and put this information in their manuals, other manufacturers should learn from this!

HTC Hero manual: http://member.america.htc.com/download/web_materials/Manual/HTC_Hero/091201_Hero_HTC_English_UM.pdf

HTC Magic (a.k.a. My Touch) manual: http://member.america.htc.com/download/web_materials/Manual/HTC_Magic/090507-HTC-Sapphire-UM.pdf

HTC Tattoo manual: http://member.america.htc.com/download/web_materials/Manual/HTC_Tattoo/091009_HTC_Tattoo_English_UM.pdf

HTC ERIS manual:
http://member.america.htc.com/download/Web_materials/Manual/DROID_ERIS_Verizon/DROID_ERIS_Verizon_English_UM_11_5.pdf or:

  1. With the phone turned off, PRESS and HOLD Volume down and Send buttons CALL buttons (the manual says SEND and with that they obviously mean Call)
  2. Press the END/POWER button. You will see a screen with three Androids at the bottom of your screen
  3. Follow on screen instructions

Samsung Galaxy: 1. Turn off your Galaxy.
2. Hold volume_down+call+power button.
3. After boot, press menu button to start recovering.

Motorola Droid (a.k.a. Milestone): 1. Turn the Droid off. If it won’t turn off, take the battery out then place it back in.
2. Open the keyboard and press the X key while pressing and holding Power. The device will power on. Keep holding the buttons down until a yellow triangle appers.

3. Press the Camera and Volume Up buttons at the same time to get to the menu.
4. Use the direction pad to the right of the keyboard to select the Format option.

Nexus One:
1. Turn the phone off. If it’s frozen in the on state, pull the battery.
2. Press and hold both the Home and Back buttons simultaneously.
3. While continuing to hold the buttons, press the Power button.
4. Release Home and Back.
5. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the hard reset.

T-Mobile Pulse
If you want to do a Hard Reset but can’t do it through the menu, please use the update from T-Mobile UK website: T-Mobile – Help & Support

But use the file from the “Android updates” section and the following piece:
November 2009: T-Mobile Pulse software

This software update should be used ONLY when your T-Mobile Pulse has been security locked and you do not have a valid password.

  1. If you right-click on your mouse here and select the “Save target as..” option – it should take about 2 minutes to download depending on your internet connection speed.
    PLEASE NOTE: Installing this update will remove all existing data on your T-Mobile Pulse.
  2. Then in your pc format the SD card. then copy the folder dload to your new formatted SD card. So the folder with the two files will be on there.
  3. Insert your SD card in the phone
  4. Then when your phone is off, do the following:
    Vol + key & “hang up button” – keep them both together pushed and then turn on the phone. Then the update will start automatically. Once the update is finished it might hang to long in the “phone will restart automatically”. If so, take out the battery again and turn the phone on normally. then it all will go as normal.
  5. Once the update is done, you will have to configure your phone again, which also means you can choose the language again.

T-Mobile Pulse instructions from “inge75″ in the Android forums.

Sony Ericsson X10 -mini, pro etcetera

  1. Go to: www.sonyericsson.com
  2. Click the support tab and then Download Software
  3. Download the Update Service application
  4. Run the application as administrator, choose your model and follow the instructions.
  • Share/Bookmark
Posted in FAQ, Mobile | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 77 Comments

Change keyboard type

Posted on December 22, 2009 by ET/Osky

This post is most of all an answer to a question in the Google Mobile Help Forum. There are limitations when it comes to embedded pictures in that platform so I’ll take it here instead. Who knows, it might find other readers searching the web as well.

To change your keyboard type on a HTC Magic, same on Hero, and as far as I know all devices running the HTC soft keyboard for Android (like my Samsung Galaxy). Note that this is to change between the different stock keyboards, not installing a custom one which is a whole other question.

Start to type a new message, just to get the keyboard up. Then push the little “Settings-button” marked in red on this picture.

This brings you to the keyboard settings (mine is in Swedish but I’ll translate the important parts for you). Select the row marked in red that should be called something like “Keyboard types” in English.

Keyboard settings

Which brings you to this screen where you just select the input you favor, QWERTY, Compact QWERTY or Phone.

That should be it! Enjoy the keyboard of your choice.

Original question can be found here: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=54e9b7303f968cc0&hl=en

  • Share/Bookmark
Posted in Internet, Mobile | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Blogger vs Joomla vs WordPress part 2

Posted on December 16, 2009 by ET/Osky

This is part 2, the first part “Joomla as a blog tool” can be found here: http://einartysen.se/2009/12/blogger-joomla-wordpress/

On to part 2 – Changing to WordPress

After giving up on Joomla (I don’t like to admit it but that was the case) I figured it’s time to make it easy for myself. That’s why this blog runs on WordPress. Was it as simple that I imagined, after all I had never used it before? Actually yes. WordPress installation is quick, simple and straight forward. I think the actual blog was up and running in 10 minutes approximately. I won’t describe the installation here, http://www.wordpress.org gives you everything you need including instructions.

On to more interesting things, importing my blogger posts etcetera.

This wasn’t that much of a challenge either, I found this blog: http://hellosam.net/lang/en/post/397. That’s really all you need. Instead I will tell you what remains to be done.

Permalinks and pagerank from blogger. hellosam goes through this but in my quick quick attempt it didn’t work out. I haven’t found the time for more attempts, but that’s what holidays are for right? I’ll get back on the matter I think.

Layout. Right now I’m using a WordPress theme called iNove by NeoEase. I think it’s a fairly good looking one but…for one thing it’s a bit to fancy for me. The black shiny header just doesn’t seem quite right to me, neither does some of the objects in the right column. I actually tried to edit these already since I thought it would be a walk in the park. The only accomplished result is that I now have two identical archives :)
Need some time to look into this as well.

That’s it for now, but now that I wrote my migration posts I can start posting other fun stuff again!

  • Share/Bookmark
Posted in Babble, Internet | Tagged , , | 2 Comments