yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] GoCkillaz:
Ok, so, before I begin--please don't flame me. Don't. I'm not in the mood and if all you have to say is an insult, say it to someone else. Thanks <3

Do any of you guys think that there will be an alternate method as to flashing this, aside from virtual machines and Live CDs? I am incredibly inexperienced at Linux commands. Do you guys think a one-click method or a method that DOESN'T require any external hardware/software will become available anytime soon?
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] ieftm:
Nope. This stuff is too dangerous to be doing under windows and deal with the USB driver bull****.

There's really no reason to say 'I'm too inexperienced'. Booting from a CD and following instructions can't be THAT hard, can it? Just do what the screen tells you. No need to type commands or anything.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] reukiodo:
Video

The message doesn't actually say to press POWER, it says to 'Press FASTBOOT on your phone NOW', and it usually only takes 2 or 3 seconds from when you press any key on your PC.

It's not the best of quality, but I put up a quick video on youtube to show the process:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Fe_Zvr9cwA

Best hints I've observed so far are:

Boot from the CD instead of using a virtual machine

Remove SIM and microSD cards

Wait a second or two after pressing a key on the computer then HOLD the POWER button on your phone before the 'Press FASTBOOT on your phone NOW' message shows up on the computer
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] dbzfanatic:
Well once I actually got the linux distro to load it worked fine. I also have a bit of a present for anyone who (like me) has no CDs/DVDs to spare an has horrid luck with booting linux from usb. Just extract to the empty fat32 drive of your choice and boot into it from the bios. Once at the main prompt just hit enter and wait for alpharev to load.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=P6BVLNAZ (too big for an attachment)

You could try this usb version, it's exactly the same and all you really need to do is press enter like 3 times, maybe 4. Just make sure your phone is plugged in and boot from your USB and let it do its thing, no need for linux experience.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] GoCkillaz:
1.) I have a mac

2.) all my blank CDs are at home.

I think I'm sorta afraid to try because I don't wanna brick this puppy.

The Live CD walks you through everything, right?

Could you hit me up on Gtalk? I'm incredibly afraid of breaking my phone.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] dbzfanatic:
See my post above yours, might help you out.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] GoCkillaz:
Hey, could you hit me up on Gtalk?
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] ChoboNiNjA37:
Success!

Just flashed it right now. :D

I was using VirtualBox. It was a pain, because I was wondering why it wasn't working before, but I kept forgetting to select the phone in the USB menu when it rebooted to bootloader.

So just a hint to whoever is using VirtualBox to install, remember to reselect it in the USB menu every time the phone restarts, then just use the "hold power" method to continue.

I personally waited 2 seconds after I pressed a key at the prompt because I noticed it took about 4 seconds for the message to actually show up, but I'm not really sure that matters much.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] dbzfanatic:
Sorry no gtalk :(. It's actually really easy. Just extract the files to a usb stick, boot from it, hit enter, wait for it to load, and follow the instructions (which mostly consists of hitting enter). All you need to do is press enter on your keyboard and power on the phone, that's it. The hardest part is getting it to boot into the linux kernel which is why i uploaded the usb version.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] ratchetrizzo:
I just did this to my old slide.

The key is to press power right BEFORE it tells you to enter fastboot.

It worked right off the bat that time.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] xenoletum:
VBox was giving me problems even though I probably just about had it, Live USB worked the first time.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] dbzfanatic:
Did you use the one i provided or did you make your own? If you made your own mind telling me how you specifically did it? If you used mine glad it worked.

Also I found that it doesn't matter too much when you press/hold power as long as it's before it freezes. I let it go through the lil search then hit enter counted to like 3 and held power, worked fine.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] kitila:
VM sucks cant get it to work have tryed like 10 times never wants to pick up the usb when it need too plz sum1 can sum1 explain it
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] dbzfanatic:
Go with livecd/live usb. Easier and works better.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] kelsec:
Anyone else having issues with the livecd booting to a screen showing a red to purple gradient over white blocks? i assume i'm having some kind of issue with my onboard video driver (GeForce 6150SE).
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] kitila:
how do i get lice usb to work i have rvrything on usb but wont load it on boot
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] dbzfanatic:
You have to setup your bios to boot from usb or get into the boot menu. Most systems load the boot menu if you spam F8 after boot, then just select your usb.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] kitila:
well did that and all i get is a black scheen with a dash in top left nothing more same with disk and usb
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] dbzfanatic:
Then you must not have extracted properly. That black - (or _ I'm not sure) means it's searching for a bootable media. Your usb should have only 3 visible files, 2 of them folders. ldlinux.sys, boot, and ISOLINUX should be the only things on your usb, and not in any subfolder.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] bodybombs:
somebody should probably update the OP
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] twiztidnutzzzzz:
ahhh its cool...

damn i hate asking but it sucks seeing others get it with "zero issues"

I have tried ubuntu livecd -- still figuring out it got ubuntu to load up fine not sure what to do from there or if i even need to be doing this.. doubt it but want to try ubuntu anyway

also tried burning alpharev.iso on cd/dvd and booting directing from that.. no luck just black screen with the _ flashing.. no suprise..

tried virtualbox as well but it wont find phone.

will continue to try different things... !!!! Ahhh this sux i feel so like a noob again..
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] dbzfanatic:
Try using the live USB, one guy got it on the first try and after I made it it worked first try for me too. Just make sure you can actually boot from usb (settings in your bios). Also you don't need to boot from any other livecd, just the one made from alpharev.iso so just keep trying to get it to work or like i said use the liveusb. Might want to check your bios settings to make sure that booting from usb is enabled and that your hdd is set to boot last in the sequence. I normally set it up so it goes USB, CD/DVD, Network, HDD. Doing that I have a lot of control over what boots and what doesn't.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] ChoboNiNjA37:
I had a post before about VirtualBox. I hope you know that you need to set the settings so the phone can actually get read in the Virtual Machine.

Open up VirtualBox, select one of your VMs, settings, USB, and use the "Add filter from device" button on the right to add the phone. I also booted into bootloader normally (adb reboot bootloader, if from cmd), and used the button to add that to the USB filters.

On my VirtualBox, the phone USB device filters normally booted shows up as "T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide [0100]" and the phone in bootloader shows up as "htc, Inc Android 1.0 [0100]"

Despite adding this, you also need to reselect the devices everytime the phone reboots to bootloader. So, go to the devices menu and select it in USB devices.

I was successful with a fresh install of VirtualBox with no extensions or whatever.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] sleepykit:
I can't speak for the before condition, either, but afterwards, I get the same results as reukiodo when running the dd command on mtdblock0 and mtdblock1. What exactly is supposed to live in those two locations?
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] HebrewToYou:
mtd0 = misc

mtd1 = recovery
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] kitila:
VM like u said u have to keep selecting so put it on cd go to bios and only boot from cd drive and it work falless but yea VM makes it to hard and like u said u have to slect the device everytime and well one u hit step three it kinda screws u haveing to slect the device so yea bure to disk or usb
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] sleepykit:
Well that can't be good then...

Well, at the very least, I can say this much: When the live CD asked, I agreed to have ClockworkMod Recovery installed as part of the S-OFF procedure. Testing now, I am able to get into recovery successfully and it does appear to be the CW one.

The Rom Manager also appears to still be functional. Testing the installation of a fresh ROM now (after a wipe and all).
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] slughappy1:
Worked perfectly the first time for me last night. May I suggest that the people who are having problems booting up/burning the image to a usb, use UNetbootin. I have had troubles extracting an iso to usb before, and UNetbootin works every time. Also while booting up I have to press F12 on the bios screen to get into the boot up menu.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] lckyluciano:
I had trouble running this through VMWare. It would get to the point of hitting the power button on the phone and the freeze and the phone would just boot into my normal mod.

Only once I actually burned it to a CD and booted directly from that, was able to get it to take - the first try too. I left my SIM and SDCard in the phone for what its worth.

Working great so far! Thanks Alpharev!
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] twiztidnutzzzzz:
wow ok.. am i the only left in this world having problems?

tried directly booting the alpharev.iso and no luck.. the _ just keeps blinking...

then reboots into windows...

in virtualbox i added the filter for my phone. it shows up to where i can select the usb mytouch slide but the after the first screen it wont do anything... Sits there waiting on device.. (Phone turned on, usb plugged in, but not connected to transfer) waited from 1-10 minutes and nothing.. sometimes at first it does the (thinking thing) but thats a split second...

I do not have a usb flash drive to play with =< Googled looking for answers but nada luck...

this slide method different then whats posted on alpharev site, i guess for brava phone? Because I am apparently missing something or have sh*tty luck...
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] izzy001:
Hey can someone help me... ok well i need help bad idk what to do im stuck on the part where you press power to enter fastboot i pressed power and well my phone is not responding... what do i do... i have done everything on a VM using windows as a host
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] HebrewToYou:
Yank the battery, restart the ISO install process, try again.

When you see the message to press power NOW, hold that power button down until you see the screen on your Slide switch from HBOOT to FASTBOOT.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] dbzfanatic:
Don't use VM if you can avoid it. If you must and i stress must, no other way, then setup the filters so it catches android 1.0 and t-mobile (you'll see those as names I'm not going to type them out). Once it's loaded if it gets stuck on "waiting for device" unplug your phone and plug it back in, then use the "press and hold power BEFORE starting fastboot sequence" trick to get it to take. It honestly works better from a usb or cd. I saw output on the liveUSB I made that I didn't see in the vm, and it was running exactly the same software. It does make a difference, and as it says on the site and in the software timing is key. Find a usb/cd to use if at all possible.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] izzy001:
are you sure it wont brick?
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] HebrewToYou:
The only chance to brick as far as I am aware is during step 3.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] izzy001:
ok im trying
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] thegreenfamily04:
S-Off is mine !! Muhahahahaha... It works !

Thank you Thank you Thank you !!!!
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] Shaquiel Harris:
im having the same problem.. i think when we press the power button we have to go back into the vm settings and enable our device again before it tells us to press power during the instructions.

EDIT: yes!!! it worked. you have to constantly make shure the device is connected. S-OFF for me :D:D:D:D::D:D:D:D:
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] Frank2009:
s-OFF is for me also :)
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] nbetcher:
To everyone: BURN THE ALPHAREV ISO TO A DISC AND BOOT FROM IT. STOP USING A VIRTUAL MACHINE.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] Digitaldreamer7:
To add to this, you need to format the device as fat16 or fat32 to be bootable.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] Digitaldreamer7:
Done this twice now, held the power for at least 60 seconds and still no response. anyone know how long it takes to switch??
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] televate:
Ive tried booting from the image on a CD-R, and I get to the step where it prompts me to do the power button from hboot to fastboot, but just seems to freeze the phone when the prompt happens. I will try to remove the sdcard and report back if I encounter the same problem.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] dbzfanatic:
It switches within about 10 seconds for me, or did when I did it anyway.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] nbetcher:
Apps2SD (non-Froyo style, e.g. EXT2/3/4 partitions) causes issues with the utility according to Orbit.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] Digitaldreamer7:
well i can get into fastboot before it tells me to hit the powerbutton, but, not after.. I have nothing in the phone (no sim, no SDcard) I'm gonna try doing fastboot before I start the process.

edit: doesnt work. still having "press power now" issues
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] JeezyMT3G:
So just flash the d/l ???

and i get s-off ??

or what needs to be done?
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] dbzfanatic:
Burn the iso to a cd or use a live USB method (mine posted or the program on the previous page) and follow the instructions.

@digitaldreamer if you're using a VM...don't. Switch to cd/usb and problems go away. If it still freezes press a bit sooner.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] Digitaldreamer7:
oh no man there's a lot to do, you need to read the instructions on his site
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] Digitaldreamer7:
not working for me, i get stuck at the "press power to fastboot now" part been pressing power for 3 mins now
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] dbzfanatic:
Are you using a vm or live solution? That makes a hell of a difference. Unplug it and plug it back in after you're in fastboot, it might get it to detect again. Once again, if you're using a VM DON'T.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] Digitaldreamer7:
I've been trying it off of a USB, I press it right after I start teh process and it locks up as well. im going to try rerooting the thing from step 1
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] dbzfanatic:
If it froze and you pulled the battery you must start from step one, there's no getting into fastboot and having it recognize properly if you try to start from the same place. If an error occurs you have to start over. Press enter to start the process and immediately press and hold power, you have 2 hands so use them. That's how I got it to work.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] Digitaldreamer7:
Ill try it that way, I have been starting over from the beginning each time, but, i have been waiting til it tells me to press power before doing so. ill try pressing power right after i press enter.

Edit: so i just did it again and it went right into sd checking esprdiag.zip with the loading bar on the right side. after that i was able to do the fastboot switch. right now im waiting for the fastboot option to come back again...

Edit 2 ok finished step 2 out of three and now it's frozen again after asking me to do fastboot again

Edit 3: after it froze on the above step, i pulled the batt and it tried to flash the Hboot and i got a soft failure, its wanting me to try again and it has a nice reminder saying my phone is not bricked lol.

Edit 4:Trying again.....

Edit 5: Ok I had to remove the SD card to get it to work and I HAD to PRESS POWER AS SOON AS I PRESSED ENTER. after this it was smooth as butter. Thank you all!!!!!!
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] dbzfanatic:
Wait for it to finish looking, then press enter,then press/hold power immediately. If you try to do it while it's checking it won't work. You do realize that it's supposed to check right?
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] twiztidnutzzzzz:
@dbzfanatic - thank you for sticking around trying to help us out...

But damn i burnt the alpharev.iso to cd-r and dvd-r rebooted comp changed bios to boot cd-rom first then disabled hard drive ... and the thing still sat the blinking looking for the disk...

i dont have a usb flash drive either so i cant do a liveusb more suggestions..

bout to call it a week and let the thing rest a bit... or throw it out the window... => or have a drink and celebrate new years early...
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] Digitaldreamer7:
You cant just put the .iso on a cd. burn it using a program like magic iso :)
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] acejoker25000:
what are you using to burn it to the cd and dvd? also may be a corrupted download that was my problem at first
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] twiztidnutzzzzz:
a lighter and glass pipe ! =>

power iso i think... imgburn and a few others ... i think
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] dbzfanatic:
Make sure that on the burned cd it has 2 files and a folder (don't know the names offhand) and not the actual .iso file. A lot of people goof that up. I originally couldn't get it to work either. There's always the option of using the liveUSB files i provided a couple pages back and burning those. Might work.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] MusicMan374:
Also, for the people with corrupted downloads, they give you an MD5 sum for a reason...

Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] twiztidnutzzzzz:
tried several different downloads
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] Digitaldreamer7:
www.magiciso.com get that and use it to burn a cd with. it will work

http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-make-bootable-cd.htm this is the tutorial on how to make a bootable cd/dvd using tha tprogram
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] twiztidnutzzzzz:
aight got that prog dled...

so i extract that iso? to get the files inside....

such as

isolinux folder

[boot] folder

ALPHA.GZ

BZIMAGE

now r they the right ones or em i freakin things up a bit? if so which 3

ur liveusb has boot and isolinux folders and idlinux.sys will those three burnt to a cd work?
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] dbzfanatic:
Well you don't need to extract from the iso to burn if you have magicISO and i forgot about the boot folder so those are the right files. The files I posted all need to be there to boot properly, it's extract and burn. Only extract rar or zip files (for now) do not extract ISO files if you have magicISO or anything like that installed,there's no need.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] corys00:
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

This allows someone to make a USB disk from a linux iso. Works great for me.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] Digitaldreamer7:
Edit: i'm a retard lol.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] twiztidnutzzzzz:
dont hit button hit your trackball thingy to enter.. =>ooops insert power before the first button... lol
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] Digitaldreamer7:
you get yours to boot?
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] alex3579:
I'm using the latest version of infrarecorder to burn the iso image and it will not work. I don't have or want to pay for magic iso. Do I have another option?
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] dbzfanatic:
Alcohol 120% is a good option, once again extracting/burning the files is another.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] Digitaldreamer7:
I've got mine working, now to change the spash screen and donate a beer to alpharev
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] dbzfanatic:
Post what you did to get it working so you can help others. Posts that say "I got mine working" after a problem just make people angry, especially when you offer no help in terms of how to fix a problem that's common.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] Digitaldreamer7:
My original post about 3 pages back is edited with my entire experience. I figured it would be more use to people in one single post then in a bunch of posts spread out over a few different pages
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] dbzfanatic:
It's usually a good idea to make a summary post in its own post instead of editing an existing one, easier to find if it's toward the end of the thread. For all looking here it is.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] televate:
Pretty much what he said. I had the SD card out the whole time for this process, and it worked great. Ran from a CD-R and followed the instructions just like it asks. Only difference is you push the power button just as you hit enter, and hold it down until you see the mytouch slide splash screen. Let it do its thing, and go from there. Should work just fine. Make sure you do the power + enter method for step 3 as well, and you should be S-OFF!

I have a question however. Since we have S-OFF, this means we can copy apps to the system/app folder just by using Root Explorer right? I tried to install that new Music app that's out there, and it gave me force closes every time.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] twiztidnutzzzzz:
Just wanted to drop ya an update...

It worked I just have to work on that lovely timing...

roughly 4-5 seconds on the first time to hit power button

then rought 8-9 seconds on the second time... <--havent perfected that one yet,,,

But thanks to those that helped...

Once to step 3... how crucial is it to get the timing right?
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] reukiodo:
IEF tells me this is normal with dd and the mtdpartitions.

For any others interested, he gave me this info

To list the (accessible) partitions:

cat /proc/mtd
dev: size erasesize name
mtd0: 000a0000 00020000 "misc"
mtd1: 00420000 00020000 "recovery"
mtd2: 002c0000 00020000 "boot"
mtd3: 0f000000 00020000 "system"
mtd4: 05000000 00020000 "cache"
mtd5: 09120000 00020000 "userdata"

To copy a partition:

dump_image misc /sdcard/misc.img
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] dbzfanatic:
Step 3 is the one where you can brick your phone I believe so timing there is the most important.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] reukiodo:
The always-free ImgBurn on Windows.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] twiztidnutzzzzz:
Aight then in that case it will wait to tomorrow night... as my battery is about dead... and well dont want it to go wacky and battery die during that step 3...

Once again ty and I will hopefully have s-off soon enough,,, No real rush though.....

And u have to pay for magic iso? Cuz i downloaded it and didnt ask for payment.. hmmm
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] zachenry:
Great news!!!!!!!!! Thanks to all involved.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] nbetcher:
Lordy... I cannot believe people have never burned an ISO before. I got a PM earlier where the dude didn't even know how to burn an ISO. If you can't burn an ISO then I don't think you have any need for S-OFF.

Since these posts will NEVER stop, Google "CDBurnerXP" - that is all you need to know.
[myTouch 3G Slide Android Development] PcFish:
I know right? Freaking Windows can even burn it for you.