[G2 and Desire Z General] demkantor:
How Do You Use Fastboot?

I should learn to stop assuming everything... i understand that not everyone has used fastboot or adb before and therefore may not know how, but on the same note neither is rocket science and even a novice can figure this out quickly. Instead of teaching people on a case by case basis i decide to add some helpful tips here, i will attempt to be through without being too boring.

what is fastboot?

fastboot is a protocol designed to flash unsigned partitions to android phones directly into the phones flash memory. if you are familiar with adb think of it in the same way. if youre not, just understand it is a tool designed to help flash images such as recoveries, bootloaders, kernels, etc. to your android phone. for the most part you can not use fastboot unless you are rooted and have an engineering spl (hboot/bootloader) this is not a tutorial to root your phone so i will not explain this. but everything you need to know is here

how do i get fastboot?

fastboot.exe can be downloaded to your computer from googles sdk found

HERE download the proper package depending on what system you are using.

also

you will need the proper DRIVERS unless you already have them then you can skip this

ok i got it, whats next?

after you downloaded the sdk package to your pc (for the purpose of this tutorial i will assume you are running window 7 but most everything is the same in other windows os, linux, and apple) it should be downloaded to your pc to somewhere like

of course put it where youd like, just know where fastboot.exe lies

although not necessary, but to make it easier i really suggest doing these steps:

left click the windows (start) button > right click on computer > choose properties > go to advanced system settings > advanced tab > environmental variables > in the first box (user variables for _____) click new > name it

> the value is the path from earlier

(yours may differ from this so double check it!) > in the second box (system variables) find a variable named

if one dosent exist make one > double click on it > at the very end of the variable value add the same line as before but with a ; in front of it. like this:

alright click ok and you are done!

why did i just do all that?

well this allows you to open a command line from anywhere on your computer without changing directories to use fastboot. pretty much we told your pc that when you type

or

into a command lined, where to find it. as you learn how useful fastboot and adb are this will help a lot.

so i still dont know what to do or how to do it!

all right lets start simple, click the windows button and in the search field type

you will notice a window pop up that looks suspiciously like dos. View attachment 1386065here you will see a blinking cursor after your directory, lets try this type

fastboot

a whole bunch of probably unfamiliar stuff should now pop up (for the most part this is a list of commands that can be used in fastboot) if you get something like

then we need to troubleshoot, but for now i will assume it worked.

now try typing

fastboot devices

and nothing will happen, why? because there isnt a device attached. make sure you have android debugging turned on in your phone, plug it into your computer and boot into fastboot mode. on the g2/desireZ hold volume down while powering on, if needed choose fastboot (not all phone do this the same way so if you dont know how, ask and i can help) again try typing

fastboot devices

this time you should have a list of attached devices, this is displayed as the serial number to each. being many commands will "do" things to your phone try typing

fastboot reboot

if your phone is now back and running your existing os, congratulations! you now at least have fastboot set up and working properly. now lets try a few things out and see why this can be so helpful!