sadevil.org

Note: This is at your own risk. If you fry your phone, your problem, not mine.

I recently got an HTC Hero. Great phone, I’m loving the Android platform. Pity that you don’t have full access to it, and I actually wanted to merge my old phone (Nokia E65)’s SMS database into this one, so I needed full access.

(Un)fortunately, these days the HTC Hero comes with the latest firmware, 2.73.1100.5, which on the one hand makes rooting harder (fixes several bugs and fastboot no longer works) but on the other hand makes the phone respond a lot better.

After some twiddling and reading on the XDA Developers Forum, I came up with this recipe:

Downloads needed:

• asroot2.zip (current root exploid for Android, works on HTC Hero): http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=244212&d=1257621154
• Superuser.zip (for the su binary and the Superuser.apk): http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=211569&d=1249225060
• Android SDK (for the HTC Hero, it’s the 1.5 platform): http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-1.5.html

Howto:

• Download the Android SDK, and install/extract it somewhere. I’m using Linux and put it under /home/<user>/android/
• Download asroot2.zip, superuser.zip, and extract them in a directory of your choice. For instance, /tmp.
• Change to the Android SDK directory and in that one /tools (here: /home/<user>/android-sdk-linux_86/tools/
• Start adb (Android Debug Bridge): ./abd wait-for-device
• Put your phone in HTC Sync mode: drag the notification bar down and activate HTC Sync

After a while adb should return to the prompt. Should mean your phone has been found.

• Copy asroot2 and su on the phone in /data/local:
  ./adb push /tmp/asroot2 /data/local/
./adb push /tmp/su /data/local/
• Open a shell to the device: ./adb shell
• Make asroot2 executable, and launch it:
  chmod 0755 /data/local/asroot2
/data/local/asroot2 /system/bin/sh

Your phone should greet you with:

[+] Using newer pipe_inode_info layout
Opening: /proc/564/fd/3
SUCCESS: Enjoy the shell.
#

At this point, remount your /system filesystem read-write.
Before remounting, executing the mount command should return a line containing:

/dev/block/mtdblock3 /system yaffs2 ro 0 0

Now, remount the fs:
mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
(this returns no output)

And now executing mount should return a line like:

/dev/block/mtdblock3 /system yaffs2 rw 0 0

and copy the su binary into /system/bin:
dd if=/data/local/su of=/system/bin/su
and make it executable with root permissions:
chmod 4755 /system/bin/su

Next, copy the Supseruser.apk to the SD card and install it.
Then, reboot your phone (power off and on).

Restart your abd shell, and execute su in your adb shell: su, and on the phone it should come ask if you want to allow root permissions:

Tap “Allow”, et voila, you now have a rooted phone.

As I detailed in my previous post on how to get this phone working with Leopard, upgrading to Mac OS X 10.6 aka Snow Leopard broke things again.

Easy fix though: follow the steps in my previous post, and attached to this post you can find the ‘fixed’ MetaClasses.plist file.

All I actually did was copy this block in the existing MetaClasses.plist:

<key>com.nokia.3109</key>
<dict>
<key>Identification</key>
<dict>
<key>com.apple.cgmi+cgmm</key>
<string>Nokia+Nokia 3109</string>
<key>com.apple.gmi+gmm</key>
<string>Nokia+Nokia 3109</string>
<key>com.apple.usb.vendorid-modelid</key>
<string>0x0421/0x045A</string>
</dict>
<key>InheritsFrom</key>
<array>
<string>family.com.nokia.series40.3rdEd.bus.usb-bt</string>
</array>
<key>Services</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>ServiceName</key>
<string>com.apple.model</string>
<key>ServiceProperties</key>
<dict>
<key>ModelIcon</key>
<string>NOK3109.tiff</string>
<key>ModelName</key>
<string>3109</string>
</dict>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>ServiceName</key>
<string>com.apple.synchro</string>
<key>ServiceProperties</key>
<dict>
<key>MaxCityLength</key>
<integer>50</integer>
<key>MaxEMailLength</key>
<integer>60</integer>
<key>MaxEventLocationLength</key>
<integer>150</integer>
<key>MaxPhoneNumberLength</key>
<integer>48</integer>
<key>MaxPostalCodeLength</key>
<integer>50</integer>
<key>MaxStateLength</key>
<integer>50</integer>
<key>MaxStreetLength</key>
<integer>50</integer>
<key>MaxURLLength</key>
<integer>60</integer>
</dict>
</dict>
</array>
</dict>

Since WP keeps on braking my indentation, just download it here: MetaClasses.plist

I got a company phone, a Nokia 3109 Classic, which is nothing less nothing more than a standard company phone. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles I’d like to have, but it works.

What didn’t work, was iSync on this phone. Real bummer, since I was hoping to sync everything between iCal/Address Book and this phone…

Google to the rescue, and i stumbled over this blog posting by James Lloyd, detailing how to get it to work.

Summary:

1. Download the script here
2. Right click iSync from the Applications folder in Finder and choose “Show Package Contents”
3. Navigate to: Contents\Plugins\ApplePhoneConduit.syncdevice\Contents\Plugins\Nokia-6131.phoneplugin and choose “Show Package Contents” again.
4. Navigate to \Contents\Resources
5. Replace the content of the MetaClasses.plist file with the content of the script downloaded in step 1
6. (Re-)Setup your phone with your Mac

Done!

(Yeah, I sold my Palm TX – Didn’t use it anymore since I got the E65…)

From Symbianworld:

Changes made from v2.0633.65.01 to v3.0633.69.00

SB-036/17.04.08

Messaging

• Reading of SMS time stamp information unified between regions
• SMS sending from SIM Toolkit – Profile 07 improved
• Unicode Handling with Turkish characters corrected
• Correction to fetching email from freemail server
• Intellisync: Searching a contact for the first time improved

SIM

• After the startup, the phone recognizes the language to use from the SIM card
• SMSC is re-read from SIM after switch on

VOIP

• Improvement of co-operation of Gizmo VoIP client and Internet voice mailbox
• SIP Proxy Authentication corrected in outgoing call if two SIP profiles with same realm and user name

WAP

• Correction of Chinese word corruption with WAP browser
• Searching in hebrew from portal corrected
• Wap GET/POST forms corrected when using Greek characters
• Reset during WAP browsing and MT calls corrected

Other changes

• Start-up settings updated
• Settings Wizard updated
• Start-up date changed to 1.1.2008
• Correction of NITZObserver with negative time zone values
• Localization improvements

Needed equipment for software update:

• Phoenix Service Software version 2007.44.4.31162 or later
• Product Data Package v6.0
• PKD-1/PK-1 Dongle & Flash Prommer FPS-10 or CA-53 USB Cable
• Product specific service tools

Mostly because I keep forgetting…

Type in the following codes to find out:

• WLAN MAC address: *#62209526#
• Bluetooth MAC address: *#2820#
• Software version and release number of the device: *#0000#
• EMEI: *#06#

To do a hard reset (full erase + reset to factory settings); type *#7370# (look in your manual for the default access code)

I’ve recently discovered a new python based blogging client for Symbian S60 3rd edition based phones.

It’s still very beta, but it works nicely!

Check it out at http://scribe.na.nu/

There’s a Nokia E65 software update available, updating the mobile to version 2.0633.65.01.

I just finished doing the update and reinstalling my programs. All is well in Nokia land sofar.

I’ve just updated my list of applications I use on my Nokia E65. Go take a peek!

;)

Really. What’s up with iPhone owners these days? They buy an overpriced piece of equipment, knowing:

• it’s SIM-locked
• it’s a closed platform, no 3rd party apps
• it’s SIM-locked
• you can’t change the battery yourself
• did I say it’s SIM-locked?
• Apple tells them they might void their warranty when modifying the iPhone
• it’s still SIM-locked. To AT&T.

So, looks like they’ve been warned. But they don’t care, go ahead, and after a while the necessary unlock programs were created (kudos to the devteams who did this, it’s a nice feat of engineering), and iPhones where unlocked, new 3rd party applications were created, the works. Nice.

Next up, Apple comes with a firmware update. Tells people that this might brick their hacked iPhones. Do people heed the warning given by Apple? Nope, they flash anyway, and then loudly complain that their iPhone has become a very expensive paperweight (this can luckely and easily be remedied, it seems).

And then they want to go ahead and sue Apple over it. Really. Get a grip! You bought the piece of hardware which was locked, in more than one way, and you yourself decided to crack it wide open. Though luck than if it breaks – you get to keep all the pieces!

If you wanted to tinker with it, buy a phone with a platform that is open.

EDIT: I’ve stumbled over this blog entry which makes the point nicely.