With all the hype about jailbreaking the iPhone, we figured we would give you a guide on “jailbreaking”(rooting) the G-1.  You will lose the ability to upgrade OTA (Over-The-Air) as it would kill your root, your phone is still upgradable, it just won’t do it on its own.  We are going to reflash the device, so please backup any data you may need such as your contacts!

This process should take the average user 15-30 minutes to do and will “void” your warranty, however it is possible to hide the evidence so you are still covered!(Details at the bottom)

Note: This guide is US Only, UK People please ask in the forums if you need a help with rooting your device.

What you gain:

1. Ability to alter system files, this means you can now do things like installing a new theme
2. Run special apps such as tether.
3. Backup your entire system
4. Relocate your applications/cache to your /sdcard

The Process

1. Downgrade to RC29
2. Obtain root
3. Upgrade to desired ROM

Downgrading to RC29

1. Download the RC29 NBH file.
2. Connect your Android G1 to your computer so we can write to your SDCard
3. Place this file on your sd card (it is best if you format the card to FAT32 before this step, if you run into errors try that).
4. Turn the device power off and make sure your sd card is inserted.
5. Hold down the camera button while you turn on your phone to enter bootloader.
6. Once in the bootloader press the camera button.
7. After it finishes, press the trackball and perform a soft reset by pressing “Call” + “Menu” + “End” to reboot.

Obtain Root

1. Once your phone boots to the desktop hit the <enter> key twice and then type “telnetd” and press <enter> again (Yes, it will start up a contact search, don’t worry. Just type it.)
2. On your phone download Android Telnet client run it and connect to “localhost”. If you are unable to connect, try steps 1 and 2 over again until you can. Also, you can try doing a factory wipe (alt+w in the recovery menu) and retrying if all else fails.

Upgrading ROM

1. Download CyanogenMod v3.4.6 ROM to /sdcard and rename it to update.zip (when you are done it should be “/sdcard/update.zip”).
2. Download the modified recovery and unzip it.
3. Place”cm-recovery-1.2.img” in /sdcard
4. We will now need to flash the modified recovery so go back to the “root-terminal” previously used and Enter the following commands:
   • mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
   • rm -f /system/recovery.img
   • flash_image recovery /sdcard/cm-recovery-1.2.img
5. Reboot your phone, but do not do a recovery yet.
6. Once fully rebooted, power off your phone (hold power and select “Power Off”),
7. Turn your device on and hold home until you enter the recovery console
8. When you enter the recovery console hit “alt+S” on your phone. This will flash the update.zip file that you downloaded and placed there. If you have any problems with this step you missed something above.

Back Out / Unroot

Incase you started this process or wish to restore it back in order to go back “in warranty” we have a guide here.

[via: Android Unleashed]

Related Posts

• Tether on your Rooted Android G1 (wifi)
• Unroot and Restore your Android G1 to Factory Settings

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 27th, 2009 at 12:01 AM and is filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.