Questions about my G1 and updating

A

Ampy

New member
I got a used G1 and I am trying to figure out how to make sure it is up to date, or at least revert it back to what it's supposed to be. I understand about updating firmware, and I know I can install RC versions. But, when trying to figure out exactly what the phone is running already, I run into problems. I got the phone from someone else and have no idea what they may have done as far as installing different OSs and firmware, but here is the info: model num: android dev phone 1 firmware: 1.6 baseband ver 62.50s.20.17h_2.22.19.26i kernel ver 2.6.29-00479-g3c7df37android-build@apa26 #19 build num dream_devphone-userdebug 1.6 drc8314721 test-keys I believe 1.6 is donut, and is the latest firmware version if I understand correctly. What I don't know is what RC number it is, or why it says "userdebug" and "test-keys." When I enter this info into google the only thing I find is chinese web pages. I also have to say I don't fully understand the terminology here. I'm not so good with Linux. I know what firmware is, but what is rc? What would we call the actual "operating system" of the phone? I mean.. it's android, right?.. but I hear a lot about other flavors like Cyanogen. I assume those are just different "flavors" of the android OS? How would I go about wiping, reformatting, downgrading, or basically just starting over on the phone to make sure it's clean and has nothing the previous guy might have messed up? I would very much like to use any of the numerous guides out there on how to install firmware 1.6 and rc 33 and hope for the best - but I am not sure what it would do with regards to the current software version it is running. I had a good bit of experience with a Blackberry, and with that I could just reinstall or upgrade the OS to the same version it already had - essentially reformatting and reinstalling windows for a pc and starting over. That's what I'm looking for here, but there seems to be no easy or clear-cut way to REFORMAT or UPGRADE or whatnot. There are many different branching versions and distributions of the android OS (which I understand is, in itself, a mobile distribution of Linux), and it is confusing. The options seem to be either wait and accept the OTA upgrades Tmobile gives you - and forget all about reformatting or this and that, or go through root permissions and risky procedures. I want to know that the version I have is the latest from Tmobile, or how I go about getting it to that. This whole thing, though, has sprung from the ATROCIOUS battery life the thing has - even with a new battery - and me wanting to remedy that after no other battery-saving tips have worked. There just simply has to be something wrong in this thing. The battery lasts mere hours.
 
ok...

"RC" stands for "release candidate." you're running 1.6, which is the latest version of android for the G1. you also have the latest radio for the G1 (that's the "2.22.19.26i" in the baseband version).

i don't know why it's listed as a dev phone. someone else may want to chime in here, but: the previous owner may have manually updated the firmware, or it may have been rooted...

do you have the terminal emulator app installed? can you open that, or install it & open it, and type "su" at the "$" prompt?
 
its listed as a dev phone either because its a dev phone on drc83(1.6 donut) or because the previous owner was trying to get cyanogenmod , messed up(rebooted to early), lost root, ended up as a dev phone, and sold it to you. i think its the second of the two.

now about rc, forget about rc. its the past, it will only confuse you. there is only one rc you need to know about, thats rc29. from now on it will be dreaimg.nbh to you. you need that file to root your phone. there is a link in my signature of this post to easily root your phone and install cyanogenmod. take a gander at it. good luck!
 
Well it wasn't my phone.. it was someone else's and I was asking as if it was mine for the sake of simplicity. She upped and sold it despite the effort I was making to fix it for her, so whatever. The problem resolved itself. She got it from craigslist and I warn her all the time that something like this can happen when buying junk from there. I was also thinking the same thing - someone messed up while trying to do something to the OS then sold it. Thanks for the help though. I might get my own G1 and the info was still helpful.
 
Oh, and since I might get one for myself - I'm still wondering if that's normal for her battery to be dieing after no more than 4-6 hours of casual use. I had her shut everything off we could and it still died, and she had a new battery, so I naturally went to making sure the software was up-to-date. I thought it could either be an older version - I read that G1's had serious battery problems with early software - or something wrong the previous owner did.
 
Back
Top