Database Users

Why upgrade the SPL?

It is just the boot loader (Second Program Loader) correct?
If i have a boot loader that is capable of applying update.zip files why should i change that?
I have no fear of bricking, can always re-root from scratch.
Thank you for your time.

if a new SPL has features you desire (bigger system partition...allowing foreign builds, etc., etc.)...that aren't in your current SPL
if you have hardSPL and are satisfied w/ the size of your system partition, leave it be. it's the best one for you at this time

alapapa said:
(bigger system partition)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats all i needed to hear.
Thank you for your answer.

ekeefe41 said:
Thats all i needed to hear.
Thank you for your answer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you should rethink your lack of fear of "bricking"
if the SPL doesn't apply correctly, there is no restore from backup or re-rooting at this time.
make sure you have a PVT board first and chances are lower for mishaps

alapapa said:
you should rethink your lack of fear of "bricking"
if the SPL doesn't apply correctly, there is no restore from backup or re-rooting at this time.
make sure you have a PVT board first and chances are lower for mishaps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will do
i have read all the guides, have the latest firmware, and have 2 sdcards to play with.
Thank you.
(need to wait for work to slow down before i can play)

I have finished, no issues.
How do i repartition for more /system?

ekeefe41 said:
I have finished, no issues.
How do i repartition for more /system?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you flashed Haykuro's "special" spl, it should have done it on its own.

DREAM PVT 32B ENG S-OFF
HBOOT-1.33.2005 (DREA10000)
CPLD-4
RADIO-2.22.19.26I
APR 20 2009, 15:30:43
FASTBOOT
<MORE CRAP I AM TOO LAZY TO TYPE>
So yea, gonna try the new ion build

I wonder where the new spl came from... i also wonder why people just tend to update things they dont know @#$! about which may cause a bricked phone...
I also wonder why someone would put it online and recommend people to update without knowing it could harm someones phone....
A lot of threads get killed because sources can not be verified and such, but a spl which causes a lot of bricked phones is still online.... Until there is a 100% proven way to update the new spl ( if its even a new spl for the dream ) I would like mods to consider to take it offline or remove the download links from this forum, like they do with some roms ( which cant cause any real harm ).
I hope you people all thought about how this new SPL could potentially brick your phone when a new Radio comes along just as using the old radio with this SPL could brick your phone.

Is the new 1.33.2005 spl backwards compatible with older roms? I am trying to find the jf rom that has nandroid as part of the recovery console and Im going to have to flash each one till I find the rom with it but I want to make sure the spl will work with the older builds.
Or if anyone knows where I can get the recovery image with nandroid, that would be appreciated!
Thanks
Kevin

rogro82 said:
I wonder where the new spl came from... i also wonder why people just tend to update things they dont know @#$! about which may cause a bricked phone...
I also wonder why someone would put it online and recommend people to update without knowing it could harm someones phone....
A lot of threads get killed because sources can not be verified and such, but a spl which causes a lot of bricked phones is still online.... Until there is a 100% proven way to update the new spl ( if its even a new spl for the dream ) I would like mods to consider to take it offline or remove the download links from this forum, like they do with some roms ( which cant cause any real harm ).
I hope you people all thought about how this new SPL could potentially brick your phone when a new Radio comes along just as using the old radio with this SPL could brick your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tend to agree. The way these phones are setup, recovering from a failed ROM flash is safe and easy. But flashing an SPL that was made for a different device is just asking for trouble IMO. Until someone comes up with a working JTAG, I'm sticking with HardSPL.

Bricked....

I have the Android Dev Phone 1 and I had just gotten through rooting it following the wiki's instructions, I wanted to try to install Hero with the Rosie UI so I was following these directions to then flash it:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=3816278&postcount=3
But I was in the process of doing that, I had two micro SD cards with the proper updates on each, and when it came time to switch the cards(I didn't hit any buttons or anything by accident) I switched them, hit Alt +X, nothing happened. Nothing. I tried it a few more times and still nothing. All other combos of letters and trying to get it to respond in any way did nothing. So I pulled the battery out and now I cannot get past the G1 screen. It won't do the boot where you hit the camera button and power or the home + power boot. It just sits at the black screen with the G1.
I tried getting the ADB devices to recognize it and no dice. I can't get it to do anything other than go to the black screen. I tried searching the forum and I scoured google but all the things I could find were where you could get some kind of input beyond the screen.
I'm kinda mad as I just got this phone and paid $450 some bucks for it, can someone help me out? I'm on Vista X64 and Ubuntu X64. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me unbrick my $450 paperweight.

you need to update the from the original recovery, which im guessing you still have to swithch to one of these. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=455860 then you can update to the SPL H
Hard SPL is the recommended one. Which in turn will give you the list feature Alt-x

Truculent said:
I have the Android Dev Phone 1 and I had just gotten through rooting it following the wiki's instructions, I wanted to try to install Hero with the Rosie UI so I was following these directions to then flash it:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So is your phone a "PVT" or "DVT"? If it's a DVT and you tried to install Haykuro's SPL 1.33.2005, then you are almost certain to have a paperweight. I believe it's mostly consensus that the DVT phones brick if you go to that SPL. There are a bunch of threads here on it.

Truculent said:
I have the Android Dev Phone 1 and I had just gotten through rooting it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aren't ADPs rooted out of the box?!
You have to install the new SPL and JF's recovery image before you to to Hero/Rosie.

ADP's certainly do provide root out of the box, so no need to go to the trouble.
@Truculent:
Sounds like this is what happened;
1) installed rc29 for tmobile branded dream (mistake),
2) rooted that and probably installed some older radio image (or left original radio),
At this point, though you wasted time and risked screwing it up, you were probably still OK. The fact that you would even attempt the previous steps says something though...
3) reversed the sdcards and accidentally installed SPL before radio upgrade.
Its bricked and nothing you can do for now. Most likely this will require a physical disassembly and reprogramming to repair.
Honestly, anybody who could make a bonehead move like rooting a prerooted device by installing a root-locked firmware shouldn't be messing with SPLs. In other words, you deserve what you got. Particularly since you DONT NEED the modified SPL for what you were attempting! There's a system/apps to SD approach to fitting it with the standard disk layout.... which you could have stepped to *directly* from a stock ADP1 without ANY risk of bricking.

lbcoder said:
ADP's certainly do provide root out of the box, so no need to go to the trouble.
@Truculent:
Sounds like this is what happened;
1) installed rc29 for tmobile branded dream (mistake),
2) rooted that and probably installed some older radio image (or left original radio),
At this point, though you wasted time and risked screwing it up, you were probably still OK. The fact that you would even attempt the previous steps says something though...
3) reversed the sdcards and accidentally installed SPL before radio upgrade.
Its bricked and nothing you can do for now. Most likely this will require a physical disassembly and reprogramming to repair.
Honestly, anybody who could make a bonehead move like rooting a prerooted device by installing a root-locked firmware shouldn't be messing with SPLs. In other words, you deserve what you got. Particularly since you DONT NEED the modified SPL for what you were attempting! There's a system/apps to SD approach to fitting it with the standard disk layout.... which you could have stepped to *directly* from a stock ADP1 without ANY risk of bricking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought it was rooted when I bought it, but I was not able to install programs that needed root. They told me I needed root. I'm kicking myself right now. But yes, that sounds like what I did. This is my first time of doing anything with cell phones, I'm trying to learn. I didn't see anything regarding the ADP's so I figured the T-mobile G-1's were the same, my fault. I spent hours reading this forum and the wiki and didn't see anything concerning this kind of thing.
Is there any way I can do the disassembly and reprogramming? I did DD-WRT stuff on my routers, is there a way to JTAG or something similar to these phones? Oh, and this is a PVT phone.

Root is hidden from programs for security reasons (keep programs from going nuts and messing up your system), but a little bit of "adb shell" would show it to you.
I really doubt that PVT or DVT matters. The distinction was guessed at by trying to follow the pattern of bricking BEFORE it was determined that the radio version was the common factor. Even then, there was really no conclusive info showing that DVT boards were more prone to bricking, I think there was a sample of about 14 devices bricked back then, of them 6 were PVT and 8 were DVT.... you see how weak the evidence is? It would make a statistician cringe. See this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/poll.php?do=showresults&pollid=1523 - only the number of PVT bricks has increased because everyone got scared of trying to write the bootloader to DVTs, but you can see that there are some DVTs that flashed fine. 2 at least.
As for hooking up a jtag... there was someone looking into that, but I haven't heard of any repair procedures yet. Note that though it hasn't been done yet, there is no question that it is possible since the chips must have been programmed by some means initially.

Need clarifications about radio/SPL/ROMs on 32A

Hi,
I've posted pretty much the same yesterday in the development section in Amon_RA recovery thread, but figured it wasn't the best thing to do, so I'm moving my questions here, where they have probably belonged all along...(and I'll edit my post there)
I'm not exactly noob when it comes to PC, Linux, phones and stuff, but I've been trying to make some sense of this SPL and radio stuff for days for the fear of bricking my phone (it's rather expensive, after all) and the more I read, the more confused I in fact become. It seems to me there's a lot of contradicting info available here in the forums.
First, I've got the 32A european HTC branded Magic:
PVT 32A SHIP S-ON H
HBOOT-1.33.0009 (SAPP10000)
CPLD-12
RADIO-3.22.20.17
May 8 2009, 21:02:32
Now, on the thread about Amon_RA recovery, it says in big red letters "Make sure your phone is rooted and that you are using an engineerings SPL". Also, a few pages into the very same thread, there's this:
skittleguy said:
If you can confirm it works through fastboot, then you can also do this:
Code:
fastboot flash recovery recovery-RAv1.1(G or H, depending on your version).img
This will flash it to your phone. Note that you'll need an engineering SPL for this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
However, when I rooted my phone a few weeks back, I used Amon_RA recovery 1.2.0 - the latest at the time - without flashing it permanently to make nandroid backup of the unrooted phone and then to apply the necessary patches to root my phone succesfuly. Then I flashed the Amon_RA recovery without any problems directly into the phone and been using it since, even did some nandroid backups and restores without any problems at all. Should this even be possible without the engineering SPL (which I figure I don't have, it being .0009 and S-ON)? If I understood the SPL info correctly, it shouldn't, but I was still able to do it...So how come?
Also, can I perhaps try to flash some custom ROM for 32A without the risk of bricking the device? Am I right in my understanding that pretty much the only way to brick the phone is to start messing with radio and SPL? So is there any risk involved in just downloading a ROM, wiping the phone, flashing the update to see if it works without tampering with radio/SPL?
As for the Hero ROMs, once again, do I need to update radio and/or SPL to make them work or can I just try? And if I DO update them (I gather the .2005 SPL should work in my Magic, not really sure about radios, though) and I want to go back to my original ROM for some reason (given that I have nandroid backup available), will I be required to downgrade radio/SPL back as well (therefore be once again exposed to the risk of bricking the phone)?
Thanks for any clarifications on these. If someone can direct me to some clear info on the issues, I'll gladly take that, but as I've said, most of the informations I've dug out the past few days (and weeks, actually) only deepen my confusion. I'm quite sure my questions have probably been answered a lot of times before, but this forum is so packed with information it's becoming hard to actually find exactly what you're looking for, even if you try to do so. Thanks again.

Downgrading from DangerSPL?

Now that Firerat has figured out how to easily fit stuff on G1 and T-mobile MT3G phones without DangerSPL, I'm thinking of downgrading to the base engineering SPL. I have a few questions though, since I don't feel like bricking my phone.
First off, fastboot info:
SAPPHIRE PVT 32B
HBOOT - 1.33.2005 (Danger, I believe)
Radio - 2.22.23.02
First off, where would I find a non-danger engineering SPL? Are the SPL's in this thread the ones I should be looking for? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=529019
Also, are there any benefits of sticking with Danger SPL (other than extra 30 megs system) and since it's now easier to fit this stuff on non Danger, will there be more benefits in reverting back to the original Engineer SPL?
In addition, if I DO decide to flash back to a non-danger SPL, would I have to use recovery or fastboot? I'm assuming they'd be a match, but I'd like to do whichever way is more safe.
Edit: Oh crap, just noticed I posted this in the wrong section. I own a MT3G, but I installed danger way back when they first rooted it when following a tutorial. Should I be looking at a different engineering spl?
Sorry for all of the stupid questions.

DangerSPL is not required for the MT3G in the first place, so I'm not sure why you installed it in the first place.
From what I know, there is no downside to being on Danger, so I don see why downgrading to an engineering spl is necessary
If you do decide to do it, do it through recovery not fastboot

PurpleFries said:
DangerSPL is not required for the MT3G in the first place, so I'm not sure why you installed it in the first place.
From what I know, there is no downside to being on Danger, so I don see why downgrading to an engineering spl is necessary
If you do decide to do it, do it through recovery not fastboot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You got it the wrong way bud.
Read the Brick confirmation thread by lbcoder.
flashing radios and recoveries (incompatible ones) through recovery is how bricks happen.

cal3thousand said:
You got it the wrong way bud.
Read the Brick confirmation thread by lbcoder.
flashing radios and recoveries (incompatible ones) through recovery is how bricks happen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably, but I've never had a bad experience flashing an SPL through recovery. Never once used fastboot. I very rarely actually can. Also, you run the risk of a brick ANY TIME you flash one. As for OP, just flash a new Engineering SPL. There's no real brick with those. I mean, yes you CAN, but just make sure it's not corrupted when you download it new SPL. Check MD5 Sum. There's no radio-spl brick with those. (As far as I know.) And, yes, those are the SPLs you want if you have a myTouch.

PurpleFries said:
DangerSPL is not required for the MT3G in the first place, so I'm not sure why you installed it in the first place.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know. I followed the tutorial word by word when it was first figured out how to root the MT3G. I literally had that handset for a week before anyone had done anything with it.
Thanks for the responses.
Edit: Bit the bullet and did it. No problems. Made sure to check the MD5 every time I moved the file, used fastboot. Couldn't have been easier and everything is working perfectly.

spl makes me confused and insecure.

Hi I'm new here and I'm new at rooting my phone and such.
I've been reading a lot about rooting and creating goldcards and installing roms and I've Finally managed to actually root and install a rom on my phone.
now I started out from a situation were I had what I think was called a perfect spl I had the 1.33.0010 on my phone. now I have a 1.76.0008. personally I'm annoyed tried the android 2.2 and couldn't make it work then tried another one android 2.1 with UISense and it worked now I don't mind having UISense but I'd rather have 2.2 I read somewhere that changing the spl could make some roms work but haven't been able to change the spl at all. and I don't really like one of the ways I read cause it involved some thing were you erased the through fastboot.
However a friend of mine have the 1.33.0009 and we can't change that at all We have tried to may things to say by now and we have been able to put another rom on his phone.
Now my question is what advantages does it give to actually change the spl I understood it was something about which roms can be used or am I totally wrong here ?
And the second question How do I proceed if the reasons for changing the spl is overwhelming.
And preferable explained in a way that makes me comfortable with trying it. I don't like doing dangerous things if I have Any questions about how or were with it.
and please do ask if there is information I didn't give that is needed to answer my questions.
I've used some time today because I was annoyed I couldn't change my spl.
keep in mind I allready have a custom 2.1 rom with UISense in my phone.
and my information of my current spl is:
SAPPHIRE PVT 32A SHIP S-ON H
HBOOT-1.76.0008(SAPP10000)
CPLD-12
radio-6.35.08.29
and my current recovery is :
recovery-RA-hero-v1.6.2.img
so what I did was this:
Download update-hboot-1.76.2007-signed.zip, rename it to update.zip and copy to my sdcard.
Turn Off the phone.
- Restart the phone with press HOME+POWER go to recovery page.
- Choose Flash zip from sdcard option, choose “update.zip“, use trackball to select , press HOME to confirm
what am I doing wrong. =?
last I would like to apologizes if my question is a often asked question but as far as I've read now the answers often change or there are several answers on same issues and that makes me uncomfortable.

I am not sure if flashing an update.zip from recovery works for the SPL. I think the instructions are to flash from fastboot.
Have you tried flashing it in fastboot as per Cursor's post?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=605239
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=594504

From what I can read there I must say I have not tried it Since I've been warned so many places that changing the spl through fastboot have a higher risk of giving me a brick phone.
And all the places I've been through so far claims that it is posible to do through the recovery mode and much safer. however for me it so far doesn't seem to work either because I'm doing something wrong.
another thing is I don't want to do risky things when I don't completely understand what is happening.
I know that the fastboot(also called bootloader) is the most risky thing to change.
I also understand why it's so risky. I've read through a lot of post. here and other places because I wanted to be sure before I started and it did went well with one exception I have now a 2.1 android on my phone with root access. but I'd like to change the spl in to a engineering spl since I've heard it enables me to try a wider variety of roms.
have I really misunderstood those post and blogs so much that it can't be done to change the spl without useing fastboot ?
my Great place of comfort was the wiki of this site but it have been down for some time. whenever I needed to know things I mostly went there to learn them.

The only possible way to change a SPL of a phone from stock to engineering is to flash it from a recovery in form of an update.zip . The name of the actual .zip does not matter.
Fastboot flashing is the most secure, if you heard otherwise your sources were wrong.
Also fastboot, bootloader, hboot and SPL are the same thing. (fastboot and bootloader being the interface visible on the phone)
Another false thing that you heard was that an engineering SPL will allow you to use a wider variety of ROMs. That is only true for the G1 and its Danger SPL. With your current SPL you can flash and use ANY new radio ROM.
P.S where you are standing now you cannot flash anything from fastboot - your S-ON SPL disables that option.

problem is if you flash an SPL via recovery, it will often try to boot back into recovery, which can be a problem since the new spl may be incompatible with your old recovery image, for instance some SPL images will flash a new radio, etc.
if you can manage a goldcard the best way to get out of a perfected SPL is detailed here
from there you will have an engineerings spl with which you can use fastboot and flash any other spl your heart desires.

Are you kidding me? An SPL will flash another radio?
You are right about one thing - it does involve risk to flash SPL from the recovery.

I see well thanks for clearing that up for me
so from what I understand I can use any rom with my current spl ?
which would mean I don't need to flash any other spl on to it correct ?
then I don't understand why the CM6 - FroyoRedux Mod v1.2 rom doesn't work on mine.
the S-ON thing means security on but what does that exactly mean.
Does it mean that I can't do anything in fastboot ?
Because I thought that it just made it impossible to downgrade the spl ?

okay I've been reading up on the wiki site now and I think I've answered my own questions.
just to be clear ! that I havn't missunderstood anything I'm gonna make a few statemens here please correct me if I'm wrong in any of them.
1. Spl is not needed to be changed to install any android system rom's once I've got a recovery ROM like for instance Amon_RA's recovery roms.
2 As I understand the recovery rom in my phone have to be capable of running on my specific spl
I tried magic specific recovery roms and ended up with a hero specific recovery rom because it was the only one that worked.
3. Now if I want any android system roms they have to be combatible with that recovery rom or am I still missunderstanding something here ?

Exactly which recovery image did you flash? The ROM's are specific to the SPL stuff (bootloader, radio, mainboard, etc.) not the recovery.

Radios
Ok, I understand also. But it still does not clear up if the MT3G 1.2 can use any other SPL/Radio combonation. Can this be done yet with this device?

Looking at your fastboot info, you don't have the MT3G 1.2, that's the one with the 3.5mm jack. You need to find a ROM specific to your radio. If you look through the ROM bible in the Devlopment Section, there's plenty of ROM's in there that are for the 32A board and 6.35 radio.

DonJuan692006 said:
Exactly which recovery image did you flash? The ROM's are specific to the SPL stuff (bootloader, radio, mainboard, etc.) not the recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well at the moment I'm using recovery-RA-hero-v1.6.2.img because it's the only one that seems stable with my current spl.
and it seems I have some troubles with flashing a eng spl but it seems that what I understand I should just find a rom that works on my phone instead of thinking it's the spl that is a problem. I have found 2 roms that works but one is slow and the other is unstable so I'm still searching.
But I want to say thanks to everyone who have helped making me understand this just a bit more.