Popular custom firmware JF has been updated with the new features to be found in the official G1 RC-33 upgrade. JFv1.41-RC33, the handiwork of JesusFreke and friends, adds multitouch, auto-rotate, and more straightforward access to the underlying Linux OS than the standard G1 has.
The custom firmware does not, though, include one of RC-33’s key features: the radio update. This is left as a separate update, so as to avoid multiple flashes of the radio every time the v1.41 update is run. While there’s no definite word from T-Mobile as to what exactly the RC-33 radio update addresses, it’s hoped that it will have a positive influence on battery life.
Remember, if you’ve got a question about JFv1.41-RC33 or any custom firmware, you can raise it in the Android Community forums. As ever, you can brick your cellphone if you make a mistake updating it, so it’s better to have all the details before rather than after.
Fixes:
Comcast fails to download more than 1 email
Symptom(s): No error message but it stays on “Load More Messages” without ever pulling another email.
“Messages” Stability Issue
Symptom(s): When trying to send a message or exit the “Messaging” application you receive a pop up message that reads “Sorry! Activity Messaging (in application Messaging) is not responding. Force Close Wait”
WiFi forcing a logout of IM
Symptom(s): While using the IM clients on the G1 if you turn on or off WiFi the sessions are terminated and you will need to sign back in.
No reminders for calendar items.
Symptom(s): Missing appointments due to the lack of a reminder.
G1 hanging at the G1 Screen
Symptom(s): A small number of G1 devices hanging at the G1 screen during the initial power up
New Features:Support “Check For Upgrades” (New feature to check for system upgrades)
Voice Search (New Google feature for searching)
Ability to save pictures recieved as MMS
Ability to report offensive comments in the Market as SPAM
[via WebNetta]
sorry not too tech savy!
Do they have "tethering" of any flavor on their timeline for feature add ons?
Love it.
Any theme that you had previously on your phone as the rc33 currently doesn't have any themes yet
So if you want to keep your custom theme on your rooted phone you might want to wait for the rc33 theme updates.
Do they have "tethering" of any flavor on their timeline for feature add ons?
Just download this file: https://android.clients.google.com/u...0.f06aa9b3.zip
Then copy it to your SD card's root directory. Rename it to "update" (if you see the .zip extension, make sure that you keep it so it'll say "update.zip"). Power your phone off, then hold the Home and Power buttons at the same time for a few seconds until you feel the vibrate and see the G1 text. Then press Alt+L to see the text. Then press Alt+S to update from the zip file. That'll allow you to manually update to RC33 on a stock phone.
I think youll want to do the above directions first - then repeat the update section for rc-33 and the radio update both available from the xda forums here on JF's official release post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=475381
If you are not rooted, you may want to just call tmobile and have them send you a new phone
I just flashed the radio update and have noticed massive improvements.
I do not know about battery life yet, but I do know that I work in a little to know coverage area where I cannot even normally get anything done except for text without wifi - and even text and calls are usually about 30% reliable..
I now have 2-3 bars of edge and am surfing the market, downloading at decent speed, surfing the web, etc.
Like night and day.
Overall the phone seems smoother with JF1.41 RC-33 + JF RC-33 Radio Update
I just updated from RC29 to JFv1.41-RC33. It's great. The multitouch browser is cool. Having root is great. Can't wait to try tethering.
Steps were basically:
Download the JF .zip file
Unzip. Inside is /data/recovery.img
Mount the phone. Copy recovery.img to the sdcard. Unmount.
Get root (type "telnetd" from anywhere).
Then use one of the telnet programs from the market to connect to localhost.
Use root to flash the recovery.img:
mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
cd /system
cat /sdcard/recovery.img > recovery.img
flash_image recovery recovery.img
Reboot by holding down home & power and verify recovery image is working.
Next, rename the original .zip I had downloaded to "update.zip" & mount/copy it to sdcard.
Now boot into recovery mode and reflash update.zip over RC29
reboot
Hey I have the new firmware!
Finally, update the radio. Copy the radio update file to sdcard and rename it update.zip
Boot into recovery mode--and tell it to update the file just as you did before.
It'll update the radio...
One last reboot and I'm done!
Many of the above steps could have been combined (ie, copy the recovery file at the same time I copy update.zip) but this is a more linear way of describing it.
More help is here and here and here. All those links basically tell you the same thing.
Good luck all,
W
Go into OEM browser, mash Menu > More > Settings > Click box "Enable Auto-Rotate" ... and you're good to go!
My Kernel Version is
62.33.20.08H_1.22.12.29
My Build number is
kila-usr 1.1 PLAT-RC33
the RC33 update is running but all the goodies don't work.. any help?
Correct me if I am wrong. All I have to do is download the file and rename it as update.zip and basically do exactly what I did when I rooted my G1 to get JF 1.31 with RC30.
As for the radio update, I don't exactly understand how to do that. Can someone explain?
Did anyone made a video yet on how to update it with JF 1.41 with RC33?
Also, I don't mind erasing the data on the phone since I was planing to do it anyway.
Thanks!
Correct me if I am wrong. All I have to do is download the file and rename it as update.zip and basically do exactly what I did when I rooted my G1 to get JF 1.31 with RC30.
As for the radio update, I don't exactly understand how to do that. Can someone explain?
Did anyone made a video yet on how to update it with JF 1.41 with RC33?
Also, I don't mind erasing the data on the phone since I was planing to do it anyway.
Thanks!
As for the radio update, I don't exactly understand how to do that. Can someone explain?
or you could risk it for a biscuit in the words of smalls
bad times
i don't think it'll work for you. I suspect you could still get around using the rc33 update, but i think you'd lose some functionality. there was a thread about the update for non u.s. the other day. I wonder how it got along.
The thing about the official firmware updates that come through is that they keep certain functions and features of your phone "off limits"-- they allow 3rd-party applications to run, for example, but only within "sandboxed" (ie, safe & secure) areas of the phone. But if you think about it-- the G1 is basically a mini-laptop with a built-in phone that can run all kinds of applications. The problem is that the firmware limits you to running only certain types of applications that are restricted by Google/T-Mobile.
So while Android is very powerful and allows developers to create all kinds of cool applications, the G1 won't let you run just any kind of program. (see below for examples of this)
T-Mobile's Android limits you for a few reasons-- security (they don't want you to run an application that can do any damage to data or other applications, or steal your information, or mess with their network, etc.), stability (limiting the functionality of phones means less likely things will go wrong), and support (keeping the phone fully "open" means poorly written 3rd party programs could go nuts, which could lead to more headaches to their support line).
Enter the custom firmware. Thanks to a flaw in the security of firmware release RC29, the G1 user is able to give themselves "root" access to the phone, which allows one to bypass all the built-in restrictions. One of the restrictions is the inability to install a new non-official firmware. Once the root exploit was discovered, it allowed anyone to re-flash their firmware with a custom version....
Any explanation of the official firmware vs. JF's version should probably mention the idea of "signed keys" -- the official firmware is designed to only allow itself to be replaced by another firmware that has been digitally "signed" with a key that is recognized to be from T-Mobile. In other words, your T-Mobile firmware was designed to update *only* T-Mobile firmware, and any attempt to update from T-Mobile firmware to another firmware, say one that didn't have all the restrictions the official one did, would fail. The root exploit in RC29 allowed this to be circumvented, so that you could install ANY firmware you want. JFv1.41-rc33, which you can think of as "RC33 Plus" because of its extra features, is such a replacement that is not officially from T-Mobile.
So JFv1.41-RC33 is basically the RC33 version PLUS a lot of extra stuff that ordinarily is not included in RC33. For one thing, a root shell is provided which allows you to add, delete, or modify files to do such things as add a unique theme to your phone, to "tether" your computer to your phone (and share your g3 wireless internet to say, a laptop), to remove unwanted applications (like that useless Amazon mp3), to run applications off your sdcard (which has significantly more room) instead of your phone's built-in storage, to turn on hidden functions like auto-rotate in the browser, to add new features like two-finger zooming in the browser, etc. etc. Basically you have full control over the phone.
The JF1.41 firmware also allows you to load and run 3rd party applications via the Android market that further enhance your phone in ways not intended/permitted by the regular system. You may have seen such applications in the market that say they "require root". Such programs may let you do things like toggle hidden settings or shut down other running applications to free up memory.
In fact, once you have root, you don't have to run Android on your phone. You can even run entire alternate operating systems such as debian linux. Having root is really the key to doing anything you want with your phone, so for technical geeks, this is a big deal- it's like having the ability to open the hood of your car so you can mess with the engine.
A JFv1.41 "recovery image" is also included with the firmware. JF's recovery image has to do with the "emergency mode" you can run by holding down the power and House key when you first start up. The custom version adds new features like being able to back up your entire phone (including applications, settings, and data) to your sdcard. So that's kind of a useful plus too.
As for the radio update-- this is an update to the radio part of the phone. The update may help with reception issues for some users- it may also have something to do with reducing battery consumption... who knows. The radio update is normally built-into the stock T-mobile rc33 firmware and is activated once when you update to RC33. Jesus Freke decided to break off the radio update into a separate file from the regular JFv1.41-RC33 firmware. Apparently, he did this so that if he decided to re-update the firmware, it wouldn't waste the time re-updating the radio every time. (Updating the radio is a one-time process. But maybe he was tweaking his firmware and needed to update several times until he made sure it was right. So he broke off the update to the radio so that he didn't have to keep re-updating that part, which takes some time).
Anyway, hope this is somewhat clear.
W
I hope that was a cut & paste
Very informative none the less
Cool!
I even learned a couple new things.
if you do it the easy way just remember the microsd card must be formatted to FAT32. Also, you may have to pull out the battery a couple times throughout the process but everything was pretty easy.
It was easier than I imagined. You guys are awesome with all your helpful comments. It made the transition that much easier. Thanks my fellow AC'ers!!
1. No it wasn't cut-and-paste... It was me typing in a frenzy at 3 in the morning. Rereading it, I coulda been clearer in parts, but the hey- the gist of it is basically right
2. You don't have to go RC29->RC30->RC33. You can jump straight from rc29 to jf's rc33. The first time you boot up w/the new firmware it will take a little while-- I'm assuming this is because it's updating settings files and stuff to the new version.
3. You can turn on a system-wide auto-rotate by going to the market and getting "DroidSans Tweak Tool" - the one that requires root. The "Lite" version is actually pretty cool too and lets you turn on some features that don't require you to have root.
4. This is probably obvious, but one thing I should have emphasized is that before you go around replacing your phone's firmware, you should be aware that it probably voids your phone's warranty, and if you do something wrong there is a possibility of "bricking" your phone-- e.g, rendering it in an unusable state. So this is a kind of "do at your own risk" thing.
W
2. You don't have to go RC29->RC30->RC33. You can jump straight from rc29 to jf's rc33. The first time you boot up w/the new firmware it will take a little while-- I'm assuming this is because it's updating settings files and stuff to the new version.
W
3. Now that you're in the exploit-y RC29 version, your phone will start responding to various Linux commands you type on the keyboard no matter what you happen to be doing in Android at the time. Fun! What you need to type to get root access is:
I had the same problem a few hours ago when I rooted.
Reboot and try again. If that doesn't work than reboot and try again. It didn't work for me til after my 3rd or 4th try/reboot.
Taken from the xda forums....
But you will know once you go to the next step...
I may do part of the process and do the rest later. It looks like it will take to long to do.
3. Now that you're in the exploit-y RC29 version, your phone will start responding to various Linux commands you type on the keyboard no matter what you happen to be doing in Android at the time. Fun! What you need to type to get root access is:
For those of you who have ever used a command line such as a linux shell or the OS X terminal... you type commands by hand, right?
Well basically, in Android RC29, there was a bug where the keyboard input typed not only into whatever program you happen to be using on-screen but ALSO to a "hidden" terminal running on the phone in the background... with full root privilages! So when you type stuff like "telnetd", you're typing it into the on-screen Android application AND simultaneously into the "hidden" terminal as root.
This was a total screw up in RC29 and I think was initially discovered when using remote shell programs like ConnectBot which connect you to a terminal/shell on another computer system over the Internet. People typing commands like "reboot" -- intended for the remote computer to execute-- were actually rebooting not the remote computer but their OWN phone!
Voila! Root access!
(by the way, if you have rc29, you can try this-- from any program, type return to get a "fresh" line, then "reboot", then return... you've just typed "reboot" into this invisible shell and your phone should reboot)
So.... when you type "telnetd" (case is important.. it's "telnetd" not "TELNETD" or "TelnetD" or anything else), you will need to be sure to type a return first to "clear the line" of any keys you may have pressed previously.. that's why I suggest you hit return a couple times, THEN type "telnetd" and THEN return again. That should do it (in most cases... it's possible if you had previously accidentally invoked a command and that your current input would be taken as input to that command.. but I digress)
Basically what I'm suggesting is to try hitting return before you run telnetd.
Telnetd by the way, is a "daemon" -- you can think of it as a server -- for telnet. Telnet is basically a method of giving terminal/shell access to a remote computer. (You can Wikipedia it) Generally speaking, telnet totally insecure and has been replaced by ssh (Secure SHell), so if you run telnetd, don't keep it running all the time. (Don't worry-- installing JF's firmware or just restarting the phone shuts it off...) Otherwise, anyone could just log into your phone and start issuing commands...
Again, remember, you're doing this at your own risk. good luck!
W
Thinking back now I remember accidentally touching either a button or my trackball in a direction and seeing something register on that screen and I eventually had to rebbot and try again.
Hopefully, anyone having similar problems will be able to find this thread.
I guess I should have been absolutely clear that the reason you're using telnet in the first place is so that you can actually see what you're typing. You start telnetd "blind", but once it's running you can use a telnet client to connect to it, and from then on you can see what you're typing as well as the phone's responses to it.
Without a telnet session going to show you your input, it would be easy to mistype something or not notice an important response/error.
W
i had jf 1.4 rc30 with dev bootloader
i wiped my phone in the recovery console and then i tried to install the jf1.4 rc33 update but it did not work
help
The updates tends not to come out as quickly for us Brits. Hang on, I doubt it will be too long
I want to root my G1, but I already have ALOT of stuff on here that I use daily. How and where do I backup everything that is on here now so that I can get it back when I root?
Thanks for any input on this matter
Thanks.
sorry no autorotate for you.
"no soup for you!"
...until you root your phone...
"no soup for you!"
...until you root your phone...
W
...if only i had a nickel for every time i typed that.
...if only i had a nickel for every time i typed that.
better yet, quarters for video games!
I'm getting a bit paranoid over the MyFavs app and was thinking of switching over once and for all, even though I won't be using command lines much
I'm getting a bit paranoid over the MyFavs app and was thinking of switching over once and for all, even though I won't be using command lines much
I just updated from RC29 to JFv1.41-RC33. It's great. The multitouch browser is cool. Having root is great. Can't wait to try tethering.
Steps were basically:
Download the JF .zip file
Unzip. Inside is /data/recovery.img
Mount the phone. Copy recovery.img to the sdcard. Unmount.
Get root (type "telnetd" from anywhere).
Then use one of the telnet programs from the market to connect to localhost.
Use root to flash the recovery.img:
mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
cd /system
cat /sdcard/recovery.img > recovery.img
flash_image recovery recovery.img
Reboot by holding down home & power and verify recovery image is working.
Next, rename the original .zip I had downloaded to "update.zip" & mount/copy it to sdcard.
Now boot into recovery mode and reflash update.zip over RC29
reboot
Hey I have the new firmware!
Finally, update the radio. Copy the radio update file to sdcard and rename it update.zip
Boot into recovery mode--and tell it to update the file just as you did before.
It'll update the radio...
One last reboot and I'm done!
Many of the above steps could have been combined (ie, copy the recovery file at the same time I copy update.zip) but this is a more linear way of describing it.
More help is here and here and here. All those links basically tell you the same thing.
Good luck all,
W
I now have all the goodies from RC33 AND Multitouch, Auto rotate, etc
I just got my G1 and already have the OTA RC33 update. I am really scared to root the phone, but I am a sucker to doing stuff like this. So, is there some sort of walkthrough for doing it with RC33 already on there? Also, I am on a Mac. This is a lot to ask for but I have been looking around for hours now and cannot seem to find much. Thanks.