yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Hero, G2 Touch General] btdag:
Due to the increasing number of people receiving error messages which doing this process I'll be extending the process with a new element. This will include a section in which the user installs the correct driver in bootloader mode as well as normal mode.
[Hero, G2 Touch General] squeeish:
Where do you get news for the latest radio?
[Hero, G2 Touch General] btdag:
Personally I get news about it from VillainROM.co.uk, however there is information about it in my post as well as on rootmydroid.co.uk and probably many other sites, generally there is a new radio with every htc release.
[Hero, G2 Touch General] btdag:
Please test the updated goldcard procedure and post back results :)
[Hero, G2 Touch General] Fame123:
Hi

i have put my phone onto the orange rom that came out in FEB

this was beucase i need to unlock the phone 2 all networks

Now i have 2 re- root

Do i have to format the memory card?:confused:
[Hero, G2 Touch General] btdag:
The process doesn't change if you're re-rooting.
[Hero, G2 Touch General] AR2000Dwain:
Warning Triangle

Hi

Having managed to install a custom rom on my Hero I have made the foolish mistake of trying to do it on my wife's, and it is not going too well.

A have followed the goldcard method, gone back to step one and successfully followed that until starting in recovery mode

When I try to I get a warning triangle and no further. After staying up till 1am this morning I would value some help

Thanks

Andy
[Hero, G2 Touch General] btdag:
This means that the recovery image didn't install properly. You have two options, start from 1. Installing a Recovery Image and try again (look out for error messages).

Alternatively you could download "ROM Manager" from the market and install "ClockworkMod Recovery" using that. Though this may mean certain parts of the "2. Loading the Custom ROM" guide are slightly different.
[Hero, G2 Touch General] squeeish:
Ok, another silly question.

So lets say Amon-Ra comes out with a new recovery ROM. Will updating it require me to reflash the custom rom all over again?

What happens when I flash a new recovery ROM?
[Hero, G2 Touch General] btdag:
Nothing, you just put a new Recovery over the top of the old, very little changes. :)
[Hero, G2 Touch General] squeeish:
Thanks lots! 10 char
[Hero, G2 Touch General] cnewsgrp:
Amazing job and huge thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread specially the first post (btdag).

I followed instructions listed in the first post and was able to install custom ROM without issues.

Eagerly waiting for a stable 2.2 Froyo build to install.
[Hero, G2 Touch General] 536338958:
:) nice !!!!
[Hero, G2 Touch General] cnewsgrp:
I tested. The process worked for me without issues. I am first time user but I am from IT and am used to following these kind of instructions so this was not a problem for me.
[Hero, G2 Touch General] SchinTeth:
If you can live without the camera than I highly suggest Froyd Villain. I am running for a week now without any issues...smoth and cool
[Hero, G2 Touch General] jeetumg:
Hi..i Have tried the above procedure but I am stuck on the Android Recovery utility screen...while loading the custom rom it searches for the update.zip folder and stops after giving a message that the rom is not signed...plz help immediately if any one s there online...
[Hero, G2 Touch General] btdag:
What ROM are you trying to flash?
[Hero, G2 Touch General] Kaboosh:
Extra Windows BS and Confustion

Just to clarify and simplify 2 steps:

12. Click on the Goldcard.img tab and press Ctrl + A (select all) Then Ctrl + C (copy).

13. Click on the Removable Disk tab (Your SD Card) and select the complete lines from 00000000 to 00000170 then press Ctrl + V (paste).

This means copying the first 384 (0x0180 in Hex, 0x0000 to 0x017F counting from zero) bytes to the SD card. Since the Gold Card is only 384 bytes why "highlight from 00000000 to 00000170"? Anyways, those of us in Mac/Linux land can skip this HxD hex editor nonsense altogether and just open a root shell and type "dd if=/path/to/goldcard.img of=/dev/sdcarddevicename" or "dd if=/path/to/goldcard.img of=/dev/sdcarddevicename bs=384" if you want to be "safe" and only copy that many bytes. To find out what your sd device name is just type "dmesg" after plugging it in. Also - for all Mac/Linux/Windows - you probably shouldn't have the card mounted while you do this!
[Hero, G2 Touch General] btdag:
Highlight to make sure the correct blocks are overwritten. You'll be surprised how specific you need to make it for people ;)

Just to clarify you don't want to touch any data after line 00000170 :)
[Hero, G2 Touch General] dkelley:
Just to mention that 1click root apk works on heros. Then the superuser app in market needs to be installed. Then clockwork recovery or amon ra can be installed using free version of Rom Manager from market.

Then u can flash any rom you like.

Took me 15 minutes on wife's hero before I was booting into 2.1 rooted rom from xda.
[Hero, G2 Touch General] Kaboosh:
Top 3 Lessons

Well...my top 3 lessons in successfully doing the "GoldCard" method are:

1) GoldCard image is specific to your SD CARD since the MMC CID is specific to it. It is not based on your phone, not your settings, not your service provider!

2) Setting windows drivers to recognize "HTC Bootloader" as "My HTC" doesn't mean anything for "testing" a goldcard. The RUU upgrade does, however, complain about a USB connection error once it boots the phone into "RUU USB" mode if you don't perform this windows driver change! As a matter of fact that whole "testing goldcard" section can be scrapped and moved into the RUU actual upgrade process! Want to test your goldcard? Do an RUU ROM upgrade.

3) HTC Sync has to be installed and connected or else you get a USB connection error when the upgrade is "verifying information about your android phone".

This is still the most excellent guide out there on this process!
[Hero, G2 Touch General] btdag:
1. I figured that was obvious as you are modifying data on the sd card itself... - i might add this to the faq but it might be unnecessary if i change the guide

2. Hence why part of the Goldcard procedure gets you to install HTC Sync (which should in theory remove this problem, at least the latest version did for me). There is no "testing goldcard" section. The whole procedure is a "test" procedure as I have not personally verified that it works. The RRU ROM upgrade is included in the procedure.

3. You don't need to be connected to Sync, I have done it without. However, it may help some people.

4. (i know you didn't have one) this procedure is quite old now. As dkelley's post above explains there is a much simpler method. I plan on testing the new method pretty soon and writing up an updated guide but until then use his method or the villainrom.co.uk method.

Thanks for the praise all the same :)

Edit Updating the guide. Hopefully creating a video. Anyone know and good video editing software or a good website for creating a youtube video with overlaying text would be brilliant. I'm new to all that but it would be so useful for users.
[Hero, G2 Touch General] btdag:
Updated but it's almost 3.30 am and i'm tired. I'm going to leave the full write up for tomorrow. I have a video log which lasts about 1h 40m (1.5GB of ****ty quality webcam video) of the whole thing. I went from FroydVillain 1.4.3 all the way back to v1.5 android from orange, updated to the pre-2.1 orange release and then the full 2.1 orange release. From there i gained root access again and installed a recovery image, and the back to the FroydVillain Nandroid backup I made :). I don't think the video is usable due to the low quality. I need a better webcam (my camera decided this was a great time to break). But the new root process is so much simpler it is untrue. If people can't follow this process then they probably shouldn't be allowed root access. Sleep now... zzzzzzzz
[Hero, G2 Touch General] suender:
i rooted my hero with a video from youtube.

that's the easiest way for me to understand what to do.

just search for "HTC Hero rooting" and look for a video with links for rootingtools...
[Hero, G2 Touch General] btdag:
I can't find the guide described. The majority of guides on there are almost a year old and use the VERY lengthy process which my guide used to describe. It can now be done in about 10-15 minutes or less, instead of the hour or so it used to take. Hence why I am updating this.

Edit: Updated now with new information and copied back some of the old stuff. Hope this helps.
[Hero, G2 Touch General] wayferer:
Legend! Thanks btdag :)
[Hero, G2 Touch General] ziggy1001:
Can anyone explain this i bought a secondhand UK 3G branded Hero so had to downgrade the rom and use the gold card method no problem:cool: i am fairly computer literate and have unlocked phones, changed their OS many times in the past no problems

But with this phone i did a lot of reading up and tried God knows how many different recovery roms all to no avail. I then installed Titanium backup pressed the problem button to update Busybox then to my amazement the phone was rooted

Was this caused by updating Busybox or am i just going a bit doolally
[Hero, G2 Touch General] daweed3003:
At step 5 i get an error:

mtd: read error at 0x00000000 (Out of memory)

Please help :(
[Hero, G2 Touch General] btdag:
@daweed3003:

Reboot your phone and try again.

I don't know where you went wrong but you were using an old method (as of fairly recently). Busybox doesn't enable root AFAIK, it is required for Titanium backup though. You probably had root already (not sure how) and just enabled Titanium backup by installing the correct version of busybox. I'm not quite sure how this is relevant to this topic...
[Hero, G2 Touch General] bibowski:
I can run Terminal Emulator, but I get no keyboard, or any way of typing in anything.

If I roll the wheel, it just has garbage on the screen like '%5>'

Any ideas?
[Hero, G2 Touch General] bibowski:
Terminal Emulator does not work for me. What am I supposed to do instead? I can't exactly type anything in with no keyboard (physical OR virtual).
[Hero, G2 Touch General] ddotpatel:
Try holding the menu button for a few seconds
[Hero, G2 Touch General] almightywa:
Hi,

I can't find an app called 'Android Terminal Emulator' (will it work with 1.5?) so am using 'better terminal' instead. When I type the command

flash_image recovery /sdcard/recovery.img

I get the error 'error writing recovery: Permission denied

I have rooted as instructions, got w00t message and now have a 'superuser' program, but still get the access denied message. Rebooted a few times. I've double checked the name of the file

Thanks
[Hero, G2 Touch General] almightywa:
OK, I'm an idiot.

I missed the bit about typing 'su' first
[Hero, G2 Touch General] Empirey:
Man thanks for guide, thanks for helping.

All respect for you

Excellent working guide
[Hero, G2 Touch General] dvfk:
If you just want "your phone" back I think you should be able to find the official way of restoring it to default (even upgrade to HTC's android 2.1) here:

http://www.htc.com/europe/supportdownloadlist.aspx?p_id=283&act=sd&cat=all
[Hero, G2 Touch General] dvfk:
Oh if you get the green android robot and starts to ask you for google login etc you can click the four screen corners to go directly to Home. Like this:

23

14
[Hero, G2 Touch General] letmedanz:
Hi dvfk,

I tried a couple of ROMs from the HTC website (which u linked), but with every new install, the phone boots normally, asks first for language choice, then clicking on next, displays message saying "Insert sim card to make calls". there are no options here except "emergency call".

None of the buttons have any effect... and i don't get the green android robot :(
[Hero, G2 Touch General] dvfk:
Are you sure your sim card works? Have you tried it in another phone or another sim card?
[Hero, G2 Touch General] letmedanz:
Like i mentioned earlier, i do not have an Orange SIM card.

if i do insert local SIM cards(Vodafone), it does not recognise them.

And those do work on other phones...
[Hero, G2 Touch General] dvfk:
Oh - afaik Android wasn't built for use without a sim :( - I've wondered why too. It's complicated using it with no sim. Here's what I found on google:

http://e.ntangled.net/content/howto-set-android-dev-phone-without-sim-card
[Hero, G2 Touch General] letmedanz:
Just before i embarked on this process, i was using the phone!

Just not to make calls, i had some music stored on it, i could access market & the internet through wi-fi!

so it was happening before & not now :confused:
[Hero, G2 Touch General] dvfk:
Perhaps it's because it isn't activated (with your google login) and it was earlier with a sim card but now you can't because you have no working sim card :(

MP3 files

If you've installed a boot loader like Amon's RA Tool v1.7 (that starts instead of Android when you hold Home and Power/hang up-button 10 seconds at boot) it might give you access to the SD-memory card and your MP3s.
[Hero, G2 Touch General] letmedanz:
Hmmm.... i do not actually wanto access the phone to use it for music or anything else.

Present moment requirement is to get past this screen & probably install Amon-Ra or any other custom rom...

i am unable to install anything cos all the procedures requires me to perform some operation on the phone itself...
[Hero, G2 Touch General] dvfk:
I think The official HTC ROMs can only be installed (the official way) using USB and a flash-programming tool from HTC on your PC.

The Android SDK software - if I remember correctly - allows you to program the phone's recovering boot ROM (a small boot ROM - not the big phone/android OS) and once you've installed a new recovery boot ROM like Amon RA tool you can install any Android ROM directly from the SD card (ROMs in a zip file) without ever needing the PC again. You can even backup the entire phone ROM to the SD card using Amon RA tool's Nandroid backup feature and restore the ROM again if a new custom ROM is bad.
[Hero, G2 Touch General] letmedanz:
So you are telling me that I can install Amon Ra directly from the PC, without having any interaction with the Phone?

I have the SDK installed and a couple of ROMS ready...

do you think i would be able to install a new rom and probably get past this screen (and probably jailbreak the phone as well)??

if that is the case, it would be brilliant!!

Please do let me know, i will try it out immediately...

Btw Thanks so much for your patience dvfk
[Hero, G2 Touch General] dvfk:
> So you are telling me that I can install Amon Ra directly

> from the PC, without having any interaction with the Phone?

Yes, I think that's probably the ONLY way actually (for the recovery boot tool).

> do you think i would be able to install a new rom and

> probably get past this screen (and probably jailbreak the phone as well)??

Hmm I'm pretty sure that most custom ROMs (I can recommend a few for htc Hero GMS) let's you go directly past the startup procedure.

> btw Thanks so much for your patience dvfk

No problem.

Here's a test how to install the Amon tool using the USB command line/shell to the phone:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=561124

If you have htc Hero GSM the newest Amon RA tool is available there. Do you know about the ADB shell that comes with the SDK to control the phone over USB?
[Hero, G2 Touch General] btdag:
Thanks for hi-jacking my thread.

You can't install AmonRA without root permissions, you can't get root unless you get into android. My advise - downgrade to a different rom: ftp://xda:xda@ftp.xda-developers.co...WE_2.73.405.5_WWE_release_signed_NoDriver.exe

If that boots then you should be able to gain root using my guide (on topic....). If not why not install an orange rru exe from HTC support? That might work. Please keep this discussion elsewhere (another thread or personal messages as this thread is not the palce!).
[Hero, G2 Touch General] dvfk:
Sorry, mate. I must have misunderstood this thread!
[Hero, G2 Touch General] letmedanz:
@dvfk

I have been reading about ADB, not very sure about it however.

I could definitely give it a shot.

@btdag

apologies btdag, that wasn't the intention.

It was your thread & guide that got me interested in the whole process.

Thanks & apologies!

i will probably try a new thread if your kind suggestions do not work for me

peace
[Hero, G2 Touch General] btdag:
Hehe - its understandable (just a bit frustrating sometimes :) )

Hope all gets worked out in the end.
[Hero, G2 Touch General] HairyBones:
Aaargh, I tried to follow the instructions in the OP to do the UniversalAndroot but something's gone wrong, really hope someone can help...

I recently received my phone back from a HTC repair. I hadn't used it til today as I was waiting for froyd 1.5 to come out before rooting it and setting it up. Today I switched it on and it asked me if I wanted to update the software, I clicked no. Then I followed the steps in the OP but had problems in step 5 : everytime I typed anything (including "su") and hit enter I had a message saying "denied" or words to that effect, despite the UniversalAndroot program giving the "woot rooted" message.

This is the part where I might have done something stupid - I decided to let the phone update itself to the latest software, and then I was planning to run the UniversalAndroot again. I thought that maybe UA had been tested on the latest official HTC stuff but not whatever 2.1 but not fully updated version that mine had come back from repair with. It went to the update screen and the progress bar completed, it tried to reboot but just got stuck on the white boot screen with the green HTC logo. If I pull the battery out and start again it just hangs at the same screen. Eeek. Can anyone help me?
[Hero, G2 Touch General] btdag:
Your phone should be fine. My recommendation would be to download an official HTC release from HTC's support website which is specific to your provider. Install that when in bootloader mode (volume down + power). If you get any errors then you need a driver update which I can create a guide for if necessary. That should set you back to a 1.5 version of android - then go through the process again. As far as i'm aware the Universal Androot should work on all versions of Android from 1.5 - 2.2. I don't know what went wrong but post back if the "su" command leads to permission denied again.
[Hero, G2 Touch General] HairyBones:
Hi, thanks for your quick reply.

My phone is generic and so I have the 2.73.405.5 WWE RUU. I ran it in compatibility mode for win xp as it wouldn't start (I'm running win7) but it says "error[170] usb connection error". In fact I had this same error when I was trying to run it to unroot before I sent it to HTC - is this just a problem with my computer? What should I do? Many many thanks!
[Hero, G2 Touch General] HairyBones:
As a quick update, I also tried, unsuccessfuly, to do a factory reset (boot to red exclamation triangle screen then press home and power again, nothing happened).

Is there any way I could flash firmware, HTC official update or otherwise, straight from the SD card through hboot or fastboot? Sorry for asking such basic questions! Ty
[Hero, G2 Touch General] richiev4:
This looks like a really easy method.

One question.

I have a unbranded HTC Hero with all the latest updates and I already have the Universal Androot installed.

I therfore just need to install the recovery rom and decide which new ROM i want to use?

Is that correct

Thanks

Richard
[Hero, G2 Touch General] btdag:
Yep

10 char
[Hero, G2 Touch General] gavk-xda:
Is there a video guide to this - Might be useful for other newbies to see this process on youtube, just my 2 cents (or is that pence lol) :-)
[Hero, G2 Touch General] HairyBones:
Post moved to general hero discussion
[Hero, G2 Touch General] minn1009:
Got permission denied after enter reboot recovery in terminal emulator. Need to downgrade using goldcard method? Currently using stock OTA 2.1
[Hero, G2 Touch General] richiev4:
Another silly question, If I want to start from scratch then I don't need to worry about backing anything up?
[Hero, G2 Touch General] supermagma:
Hey there, im having trouble with this guide.

I have the HTC Hero but the T-Mobile branded version (G2 Touch)

I have the most up-to-date software that T-Mobile have released and my firmware version is 2.1-update1

I dont know anything about rooting so i just began to follow this guide exactly. I renamed the file to recovery.img and placed both on my sd card, everything went very good until step 4. When i type in reboot recovery it says 'not permitted'. I have DONE EVERYTHING the guide says with success up to that point.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thanks!

EDIT: If i hold the home and power button when i turn on the phone i can do a nandroid backup, i thought you could only do them when youve rooted.
[Hero, G2 Touch General] btdag:
Does it say "AmonRA Recovery 1.7.0.1" when you boot with Home + Power?

Correct.

Same as first post above - try booting into recovery. I'm going to remove that command from the guide.

No - the video I made is crap quality. I might try again sometime soon.
[Hero, G2 Touch General] supermagma:
WOOO! I have successfully put FroydVillain 1.5 onto my phone :)

Thanks SO much for this tutorial and all the help you gave me! I wouldnt have managed to do it otherwise.

Once i get internet back on my home computer i shall continue to see what this website has to offer and try to help other people out.

Thanks again!
[Hero, G2 Touch General] SikiN:
Hi

I put RA-hero-v1.7.0.1 with Better Terminal Emulator. When I turn off phone and press Home&Power I get a picture phone with a triangle.I have to take out the battery and start again and phone works normaly but i can't go in recovery mod :(. What I'm doing wrong?
[Hero, G2 Touch General] Ejen:
Hi I've been reading these forums for ages but only just signed up, I'm looking to root my hero (surprise) and complete newb. Basically current build/software is 3.32.405.1 so 2.1, followed the instructions exactly then rebooted holding home and power on buttons but it just boots straight into a red triangle with exclamation mark in the middle of it, how do I get the normal recovery screen because already have a villainrom on the sdcard.
[Hero, G2 Touch General] Thongs:
I can't get past where I have to use Terminal Emulator because the keyboard won't come out.
[Hero, G2 Touch General] btdag:
pulsar is working on it in another thread - i'll update the guide with any new information as and when its posted (just hold on in there).

Hold the Menu button. It will come up.
[Hero, G2 Touch General] Ejen:
Don't worry I posted it twice because realised it might get better responses in its own thread thanks anyway :)
[Hero, G2 Touch General] gavk-xda:
Is there a working & stable 2.2 ROM that works with the HTC Hero? Seems pointless me trying to put on 2.1 if 2.2 is out too with all its added benefits ;-)

Cheers
[Hero, G2 Touch General] EMiranda01:
The only issue i've had so far is trying to flash the recovery image. I've renamed it to recovery.img and placed it on the root of my SD. Terminal has superuser privileges and i ran the 'su' command before typing 'flash_image recovery /sdcard/recovery.img' but instead of just a blank line after hitting enter, i'm getting "error opening /sdcard/recovery.img: No such file or directory".

Maybe i'm just missing something here but i just can't figure out what it is. And my phone isn't plugged into my computer when i type the commands. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Nevermind found out what i was doing wrong. I renamed the file "recovery.img" but because it was already a image file, Terminal was reading it as 'recovery.img.img' Have you ever herped so much that you derped? This is one of those times for me
[Hero, G2 Touch General] Basil3:
No matter how long I hold down the Menu button in Terminal Emulator, I don't get a keyboard popping up. Am I missing something?
[Hero, G2 Touch General] ddotpatel:
In Terminal Emulator go to Menu --> Preferences --> Initial Command , and try to type it in there. Then restart the app.