Restoring data on rooted Rogers Dream phones

Recently, rogers issued a firmware upgrade to fix an ancient (and rather dangerous) 911 bug in the version shipping on the Rogers Dream and Magic. To encourage users to upgrade, Rogers cut off data services to the affected models of phones who aren’t running the new rogers firmware. Many, myself included, run custom firmwares on our android phones. Almost all of which, being based on android 1.6+, have had the 911 bug fixed. The Rogers update, as an unfortunate side effect, makes it harder to install custom firmwares. This oversight can be worked around by running the new radio firmware shipped with rogers phones.

Upgrade instructions for rooted HTC dream

DISCLAIMER: Don’t do this if you don’t understand it. It may break your phone permanently.

This information is taken from a post by ezterry at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=5440198 and from my experience following it.

These instructions will put your Dream into the following state:

• haykuro’s SPL (1.33.2005). You must already have this installed.
• Amon_RA’s recovery image version 1.5.2
• Cyanogenmod 4.2.14.1, with EBI1 port (i.e. the rogers-phone-compatible version)
• Rogers’ new radio version 3.22.26.17. This is the crucial component which will restore the data service.

Assumptions

• You must have a Rogers Dream. Not a Rogers Magic and not an unlocked dream on the rogers network.
• You must have a previously rooted android phone.
• You must have haykuro’s SPL, also known as the “danger” or “death” SPL
  • Version on this should be DREAM PVT 32B ENG S-OFF HBOOT-1.33.2005 (DREA21000)
  • Others SPLs may or may not work, try at your own risk.
• You probably want to back up anything you want to keep from your phone.
  • The thread suggests a nandroid backup. I disagree, especially if your existing install has the EBI0 radio. This update will change you to a EBI1 radio, which is better for rogers devices anyways.
• You must have working fastboot on your computer

Instructions

• Put the following files on the root of your SD card
  • DREAIMG.nbh - available from above thread. This is the rogers update with the SPL stripped out.
  • update-cm-4.2.14.1-signed.zip, the CyanogenMod update
  • bc-4.2.14.1-ebi1-signed.zip, the CyanogenMod “port” file from
• Have the following files available on your computer
  • system.img, extracted from htc_system_img_14721.zip
  • recovery-RA-dream-v1.5.2R.img
  • Working fastboot in same folder as these images.
• Reboot your phone into the SPL
  • With the phone off: Hold the camera button while starting the phone
  • With the phone on: Hold down the camera button, and press the send (phone), menu, and hang-up buttons at the same time.
• Start HBOOT mode by pressing the “send” button.
  • it will ask you to install “[1] RADIO_V2 [2] RECOVERY [3] BOOT [4] SYSTEM [5] USERDATA”
• Press the action key (trackball) to install the rogers firmware, minus the SPL.
• Wait until it is done. Do now power off your phone.
• When prompted to reboot hold camera while you press the action key.
  • You should be returned to the SPL in fastboot mode.
• Type the following on your computer, with phone attached, each time waiting for it to finish (requires working fastboot)
  • fastboot flash recovery recovery-RA-dream-v1.5.2R.img
  • fastboot erase system -w
  • fastboot flash system system.img
• Press Back to reset and immediately (before you see the Rogers logo again) press and hold the home key
  • The recovery image should start up.
• Select flash zip from SD card
  • Select update-cm-4.2.14.1-signed.zip
• Select flash zip from SD card again
  • Select bc-4.2.14.1-ebi1-signed.zip
• Reboot, and you’re in a fresh CyanogenMod install

Data wasn’t immediately restored, but about 5 hours after this install I rebooted my phone and my data came back online.