By Many eager cupcakers have decided NOT to wait for the official update and have instead “rooted” their phones and installed the cupcake software themselves. A user on the T-Mobile Forums provided a 3-part Video Tutorial via Youtube, teaching How To Root Your Android Phone. T-Mobile added the following disclaimer above his post:
WARNING: T-Mobile does not support manual installations and will not assume responsibility for any device problems or failures that occur from following these instructions.
*NOTICE: Rooting your phone can be a risky procedure, and if you make a mistake and brick your phone: T-Mobile, these forums, authors of this post, or other subsequent posts, nor any party, company, corporate entity, individual, or estate; living or dead, associated or otherwise connected with the above shall not be held liable for any damage you do to your device, others devices, your person, other people/living things, or property belonging to you any other entity in the known universe should you attempt to root your phone. You take full responsibility and liability for any action you choose to take to attempt to gain root access to your phone. Rooting will prevent your phone from receiving automatic updates. Do this at your own risk.
Thanks for the info, androidhtc2009!
A few things I’d like to point out:
- That is a hilarious disclaimer. I particularly enjoyed the “any other entity in the known universe” bit.
- Props to T-Mobile for not only keeping the “How To Root Your Phone” post up, but also for thanking the poster! The disclaimer was necessary and I think many carriers would have just deleted the thread. This goes hand-in-hand with T-Mobile supporting customers using unlocked iPhones. T-Mobile rocks.
- Great tutorial.
In going along with #3, I’ve embedded the 3 tutorial videos below:
Thanks to Cameron for sending this in!
Not a problem at all. Saw it and thought Phandroid….
Yeah, that disclaimer is pretty ridiculous. “living or dead” and “in the universe” pretty much sums it up lol, great post thanks for sharing
WAIT! So does this mean if I am having issues and TMO finds out my phone was rooted are they like. “oh ok well your on your own”, or will they be ok with it…
By the way, these videos are what I used to root my phone. Incredibly helpful and very straight forward!!
CHECK THIS ISH OUT….curious I called TMO and the guy there didn’t even know what rooting is. after sitting on hold for a few minutes he came back and said as long as the actual rooting process does not damage the phone then you are ok, other wise if it does then you may be in a different boat. Essentially what he is saying is “no, rooting will not void warranty” Now, if you are going to call cause of some other issue it would behoove you to unroot however you will not void warrant.
I also asked about unlocking. Come to find out the have an I-Phone tech support knowing many iphone users jump aboard tmobile and will unlock your G1 if you have had service with them for 6 mos or more…and THAT will not void your warranty either.
See I alway thought unlocking your Iphone or whatever was not good and you would lose all tech support and warranty backing, but apparantly that’s not true. (sigh) there got it all out. I am so happy right now…
Jonno, actually the words “living or dead” are often used in real disclaimers.
if you have insurance for yor G1 which you should and or some reason need a new one just say you lost it or break it and send it in. the insurance covers theft
The odd lingo isn’t so odd, it’s standard disclaimer talk. Many disclaimers also include things like “Act of God(s)” and such. Just to cover all of their bases.
Will rooting the phone really keep you from getting automatic updates?
Why root your phone for the update when it can be applied without doing so?!
http://www.talkandroid.com/1029-android-cupcake-manual-update/
Or are you guys talking US only?
I was very hesitant about rooting my phone but wanted the many features rooting grants you.. So I watched all of these tutorials and the entire process was very very simple. For any of you G1’ers on the fence, I can say I was too a few hours ago and I’m glad I just did it.
I returned my phone because the trackball failed on me. Tmobile didn’t say anything. I also went to the store with a rooted phone they still didn’t say anything. So as long as I don’t fry my phone with a rooted app I’m ok.
So I had my phone rooted (http://www.droidproof.com) so I could manually install ‘Cupcake’. I ran the firmware 1.5 for a while, but I wanted the official T-Mobile ‘Cupcake’. I looked online at a bunch of different forums and a lot of threads said if you were basically set your phone back to firmware 1.0 that you would get the OTA update, but you will loose root access.
I followed the steps on droidproof on the ‘How to Root your phone’ and I followed all the steps to get me back to the original firmware version 1.0 on my phone, but didn’t finish the root process (Like using telnet).
I am just wondering if I will get the OTA, because I’m not actually on the v1.5 firmware.
I switched from AT&T about 6 months ago after being with them for over 5 years and I must say “T-Mobile” kicks ass! The operators are extremely polite and cheerful and are willing to walk on hot coals for you. Their service is excellent and their handsets are some of the best in the industry. Seeing this disclaimer and the tolerance of T-Mobile with regards to rooting has just given me an even better perception of this company. Kudos to you T-MO. One thing that really impressed me about their customer service was that the 2 ladies were nice enough to help me even “after” I had mentioned rooting my phone! They did say though that it will void my warranty. But they still said… “ok, let’s see what we can do”!
Thanks T-Mobile!
T-Mobile does kick ass. I was with At&t for 2 months and it was one of the worst experiences I have had. I didn’t even get signal in my house. I will never go back to them…even if they paid me. Since I have been with T-Mobile no drop calls…I feel like I am on Verizon which is solid.
Actually, they *can’t* void your warranty for “rooting” since it is against the law. You can make any changes you want to anything you want, and the warranty is intact as long as the change does not in any way contribute to the problem for which you are seeking warranty. I.e., you can’t send it in for software problems when it is your fault that the software doesn’t work since you broke it by doing something stupid and particularly for which they have specifically locked you out with a big ugly disclaimer.
I followed these instructions and rooted my G1. It was overall a pleasant experience. Don’t do it when you’re rushed. The only surprise for me was I went to the market to re-install some of the cool free apps and some of them aren’t free any more. Doh! There used to be a free MyBackup, WifiScan, and Ambient Light Sensor just off the top of my head. I know, I’m a cheap you-know-what. In retrospect, I should have gotten MyBackup Pro and backed up my apps before rooting. Like I say though, it was a pleasant experience and I’m glad I did it.
I watched the 3 video, got root, and upgraded to Cupcake 1.5, and got the radio update.
[http://phandroid.com/2009/05/13/rooting-your-phone-t-mobile-disclaimer/]
The phone is working great but I have some issues with the final outcome:
1)When you press and hold the power button I don’t see the (Vibration mode).
[see video 3 range 5:20 to 7:10]
2)I don’t see the (Voice search) option.
[http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/top-10-features-youll-love-about-android-15-2009058/]
(number 2)
What can I do to get these feature to work on my phone?
Phandroid thank you so much for all the great info. I noticed a lot of people asking questions about rooting and I would say that the best place to get answers is at the xda forums where you will find anything from themes to multiple different firmware versions of 1.5 “cupcake”. The key is taking your time and following directions carefully and don’t do anything you are not comfortable with. There are a lot of great people to help you with technical issues…. but make sure you try and find the answer via a search before you ask… the people there can be touchy about wasted thread space (and rightfully so) I have personally rooted my phone and tried many different versions and firmware upgrades as well as themes and often beta versions of new apps….. but my tech level is higher than average so be careful and most of all have fun :)
I notice the video shows the jailbreak process on a pc. Is it possible to jailbreak from a mac?
BobDole – Use the Jesus Freak 1.5 update it is the best. I have tried them all.
hello…..
actually I am an Indian,I have bought a g1(1.6)from US and would like to root but when i use flash recovery it does’nt even show custom recovery image..i have tried many ways but no use at all….
I have another doubt can we have a .nbh file for the 1.6 version….droidproof video is done on a 1.0 firmware version so……