May 9, 2011

My dellvice recovered, back to 2.2

So I finally manage to recover my crashed dellvice, after flashing some recovery image and stock update ROM, but it's not that easy. I spent days of googling and reading various websites, and performed repetitive tasks, to no avail. With great help from my friend, Emil Juni, everything went smooth as expected.

Flashing, basic steps

Below is the basic steps (but intetionally lacks of some details) that I believe works across devices, across Android versions, and across platform (Windows/Linux/MacOS) from which the flashing is executed. But still, your mileage may vary. See the section on Other useful links below for more information.

Determine the update version you wish to install that suite your device then obtain an appropriate ROM. Copy the ROM file to SD card of your device and rename it Update.pkg.
Prepare the recovery tools that suit your workstation platform from which you are going to execute the flashing. The tools consist of an application called FastBoot, a recovery image to flash that matches the update ROM, and a cable data that should by standard come with your device.
Remove the battery and replace it back (the first part of repetitive tasks, if needs to be retried).
Boot your device into fastboot mode then connect it with your workstation using the data cable.
Execute the FastBoot application from your workstation.
Again, remove the battery and replace it back.
Turn the device on to apply Update.pkg and let it do its job. (this is last part of repetitive task, things can end happily here, or you need to start all over again).
After some reboot processing, you have your Android device with ROM of your choice.

DISLCAIMER: above is not a tutorial or how to per se, so do not consider it as one.

What I did

After some trial and error attempts, I decided to go back to Froyo 2.2 using stock ROM from Dell. Mine was ROM 315 build 12332 and downloaded it from here. I used MultiRecoveryFlash version 0.5 that has nice interactive menu and already includes FastBoot application along with various recovery images to choose.

After removing and replacing the battery, I went into fastboot mode by holding the camera button while turning my dellvice on. I connected the dellvice to my computer, and executed the command below.

woodrack:MultiRecoveryFlasher.v.0.5 hasant$ sudo ./MultiRecoveryFlasher.sh

Password:

This is a script to select and flash a recovery image for the Dell Streak.

Use at your own risk. This script will probably do the right thing, but

could brick your phone or drunk dial your boss at 3:00AM. You have been warned.

Pick an image to flash:

1) ClockworkMod-Recovery 6) Dell-Recovery319

2) Dell-Recovery111    7) Dell-Recovery340

3) Dell-Recovery309    8) Dell-Recovery345

4) Dell-Recovery315    9) Dell-Recovery351

5) Dell-Recovery318    10) StreakMod-Recovery

Pick the number for the image you want to flash: 4

This is your selection: Dell-Recovery315

Do you want to continue? y/n y

Flashing Image...

Running command:

./fastboot-mac -i 0x413c flash recovery Dell-Recovery315/recovery.img

ERROR: could not get pipe properties

sending 'recovery' (3436 KB)... OKAY

writing 'recovery'... OKAY

Do you want to reboot your phone now? y/n n

I chose number 4 (Dell-Recovery315) to match the ROM 315 as I wanted. I then applied the update for ROM 315 with these steps: removing and replacing the battery, turning dellvice on while holding the buttons volume up and volumen down, picked menu 2 (apply update from Update.pkg), and pressed the camera button. It then took about 10-15 minutes before it finally showed the standard screen of newly Froyo 2.2 of Dell Streak with Dell Stage UI. So my dellvice recovered.

After setting the date and time and various basic configuration including Google account, I saw a notification update in the status bar. The same notification I received before upgrading to Froyo 2.2.2. Knowing not much changes in 2.2.2 I ignore the notification, until later I decide to upgrade.

Things can go wrong

If you are on Windows, you need to install Google USB Driver so your computer is able to communicate with the connected device.
If you are on Linux or MacOS, make sure to execute the fastboot command with superuser privilege. In my case I used sudo ./MultiRecoveryFlasher.sh. Otherwise, the flashing does not work and will just hanging there and telling us that it is,

< waiting for device >

You really need to use the right combination of recovery image and update ROM, otherwise you may get error message on your device similiar to below message.