Thursday, January 1, 2009

Getting Root Back: Unlocking the T-Mobile G1 with RC30


T-Mobile issued the infamous RC30 update blocking root access on the G1 quite a while ago, preventing users from doing things such as flashing custom builds of Android to the phone and turning the phone into a developers' edition. Now, you can now get back root ("jailbreak") your T-Mobile G1 by following these steps:

You need this ZIP to root your G1. Many thanks to chavonbravo from the XDA developers forum for this: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=31K3JS3S

Make sure the phone is plugged in and fully charged before beginning! If your phone turns off during the upgrade process, it WILL be bricked.

WARNING: You will lose all your data prior to this! Please back it all up somewhere. You will also need a SIM card with a data plan to re-activate the phone.

Steps:

1. Format a MicroSD SD card to FAT32
2. Copy the NBH file to the SD card and rename it to DREAIMG.NBH (all capitals)
3. Turn the phone's power off and insert the MicroSD card
4. Turn the phone on holding the Power and Camera buttons
5. Wait for the phone to load the update, and press the power button to start
6. After the update finishes, press the trackball, then press Call+Menu+Power at the same time to reset the phone

Congratulations! You are now on RC29, with full root privileges. You can now flash an engineering bootloader, your own custom build of Android, and more.

T-Mobile G1 Official RC30 "Jailbreak!"