Friday, March 11, 2016

HTC Desire Z upgrade to ICS

Well now that I've managed to downgrade and root my HTC Desire Z, I think its time to start pushing newer roms to check how the phone takes the upgrades. this is purely for testing purposes.

The write up for downgrade and rooting can be found at the following link.

So the first step is to find a ROM thats stable enough to test. After reading up different forums I thought to stick with Andromadus Mimicry rom.
* http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1714187

Here's the summary of the steps that I followed.

1. Download the relevant files (Rom and gaaps)
*http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1714187#post27494282

2. Move the downloaded files to the same place as the "adb" executable
*./adb push mimicry-1.5.0.zip /mnt/sdcard/
*./adb push gapps-ics-20120429-signed.zip /mnt/sdcard/

3. Make a nandroid backup for your current rom
* ./adb reboot recovery
* go to 'backup and restore' on the CWM menu
* select 'backup'

4. Clear cache and wipe all data
* from CWM screen choose 'wipe data/factory reset'
* once thats done select 'wipe cache partition'

5. Install the ROM and GAAPS
* from CWM menu select 'install zip from SD card'
* from CWM menu select 'choose zip from SD card'
* select the mimicry zip first
* follow the graphical installer steps and finish the installation (i didn't choose the wifi calling option for T-Mobile)
* once done choose gaaps zip file from CWM menu
* once both installations are done run './adb reboot recovery'
* and select 'reboot system now'
* have patience this will take some time :)

All good to go. Im going to test this Rom for few days before updating it to KitKat next.

Tuesday, March 08, 2016

Rooting and upgrading HTC desire Z (v2.3.3) using OS X

Found my old HTC Desire Z phone lying around and thought I'd learn how to root/upgrade the phone and get some usage out of it. I've never wanted to root this device before so all articles that Im reading now is seems to be somewhat outdated. Because of all the reading involved I'm documenting the steps I took for future reference. :)

Steps:
1. Read on installing ADB on your Mac. and all useful information on the reference sections.
http://htc-one.wonderhowto.com/how-to/install-adb-fastboot-mac-os-x-send-commands-your-htc-one-0151178/
*I didnt run the install script, instead i decided to use the executable within the folder it self. eg "./edb devices"

2. ADB for dummies
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=879701

3. Read on downgrading to stock rom.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1178912
*go to the last page of comments to find the latest links for stockimg download, as the links on the main article doesnt work any more.

4. As Im going to update it to CM based image, follow the CM guide for getting a permanent root on your desire Z. And once the rooting is done install CM7 and google apps for CM7.
https://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_vision#Rooting_the_Desire_Z
*get the missing files from the link below http://www.desire.tode.cz/how-to-root-htc-desire-z-g2-vision/

If you follow all the steps carefully this will be a breeze. It took me more time for me to find the old ROM than to run all the scripts accordingly.

This ROM is truly stable and a pleasure to work with. However I will try to upgrade it to ICS based rom and see how well that performs.