[Blade General] sbpetrack:
the "Windows Drivers" issue explained and SOLVED

{Thanks to the XDA gods for letting me post this despite my noob status here. It took me MANY hours to figure this out; and I believe the information should be valid for anyone who wants /needs to use fastboot via WIndows. Acknowledgement: the core nugget that I explain here is step 34 (sic!) of http://www.teamandroid.com/2012/07/30/how-to-set-up-adb-fastboot-with-android-sdk/3/ . Thx to Haris Nadem (the author of that guide (with only 42 steps!! lol) for tellling me where the ^%*&(*-ing driver actually was hiding -- on my disk all that time).

If you are using Windows to root your Blade as discussed in this thread, it is likely that at one point or another you were stuck "waiting for any device" . You were told that "it's a driver problem" and to just get the right driver for your particular phone // OS etc. etc. Or to install the driver correctly, or set the permissions correctly, or just to do yourself a favor and run Linux. (not a bad idea, i admit). You might even have got past this driver issue, seen the fastboot prompt, and then ONCE AGAIN got stuck "waiting for device". Just when you thought you solved your driver problem, you learn that you didn't. Well, here is the reason:

It turns out that the "WIndows USB drivers which enables you to talk to your phone via adb" and the "Windows USB drivers which enables you to talk to your phone's boootloader via fastboot" are two DIFFERENT sets of drivers. This is because the phone and the phone bootloader are in fact two different devices. Your phone manufacturer typically will furnish the USB drivers that enable adb -- and links to that driver for the ZTE Blade are in several places in this thread.

The "fastboot device" is not like the phone hardware -- its Android which defines that device (I think) , and so that device is the same for every Android device. What this means is that you DON'T get the fastboot driver from your phone manufacturer -- you get it from Android. In fact, it's been sitting quietly all this time in the extras directory of your Android SDK!! The thing is, the Android folks didn't bother to make an installer for this driver; that would have allowed you to install the driver BEFORE you insert the device and have it just load at the right time. Instead, you need to install the driver by hand, making sure that it gets loaded for the fastboot device when you insert it. Of course, there is no fastboot device to 'insert'; but as far as WIndows is concerned, the fastboot device is inserted as a result of issuing the first 'adb reboot bootloader' command. At that point, you need to install this second "fastboot device driver". Here are the explicit steps:

I assume you are preparing exactly as the tutorial at the beginning of this thread says you must. In ADDITION, before you begin, find the 'extras' folder in your android sdk installation. On my machine, this is at C:\Users\scott\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\extras. In fact, what you need is the directory C:\Users\seth\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\extras\google\usb_driver directory, and the file android_winusb.inf in this directory contains that magical driver definition for the USB-fastboot device that you've been missing. Here's what/how/when to apply it:

As a final extra step, open a separate window and bring up the Device Manager of the control panel. As a result of installing the PHONE USB drivers, you will see a shiny new device in the device manager. Actually, depending on your phone and its capabilities, you might see several. If your installation is like mine, one of them will be the "Android Device==> ZTE Handset ADB Interface". It will be "working properly" -- this is the device that will get your first adb command.

Now follow the tutorial up to and including when you type the command

adb reboot bootloader

and stop to look back that the device manager again: amazing, eh? If you succesfully got into the bootloader in fastboot mode, you will see that the ADB device is GONE, and in its place is an "Android Device" --- with a horrible little yellow triangle which tells you something is wrong. If you right-click to look at Properties, you'll see that there is NO DRIVER installed. -- **this** is why you got that second "waiting for device" messages. The fastboot program on your PC was waiting for the device to respond, but the fastboot "device" in the phone was waiting for you to load the 'other' driver into Windows, so that it could do so. Yes: waiting for YOU. So:

You simply click on the "Update driver" button in the properties box of that Android Device. If you don't know how to install the driver yourself, just make the following choices at this point:

Choose:

Browse my computer for driver software

(Locate and install driver software manually)

then Choose:

Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer

(This list will show installed driver software compatible with the device...)

the Choose

Show All Devices

the "Have Disk" button will appear, and you choose that. you then browse to the usb_driver directory noted above, and select the file android_winusb.inf

MIraculously, you will then be able to choose the Android Bootloader Interface. Select it, hit next, and brace yourself for the HORRIFIC warning which is almost as long as this guide.

Just ignore it and install the driver,

And now, we return you to your regularly scheduled fastboot command. you may continue with the next step of the tutorial, which is to flash the recovery. Good luck!!

SO that's the trick -- there are TWO sets of drivers to install -- one for USB to the phone, and a different one layered on top of the first to talk to the bootloader device.

hope this helps.

scott

PS -- the usb driver directory in the SDK is 8MB (when 7z'ed). I thought ot attach it to this post, in case someone didn't want to get it from the SDK --but the 8MB attachment seemed large. If I should do it, though,just tell me.