Is this something that a local phone shop could do? I looked into rooting my first Desire handset a couple of years ago and couldn’t make head nor tail of the process.

I’ve got the option to upgrade but before comitting wondered about having my current phone tinkered with. Issues include running low on memory and finding that some games on the play store are showing up as not compatible with the handset (games I know will work on a Desire)

I have no intention whatsoever of trying to do this myself though.

Ta.

Maybe a market store. Doubt your local phone shop would have the programs. Usually it’s a case of installing a bootloader and maybe finding a vanilla (or other) image so it’s not tied to your provider’s settings. I used to work for one of the big providers and our tech team didn’t know how to do it so a shop (a sales outlet really) will have no chance.

You might find someone who’ll take it home and do it.

Edit. Just read that you ain’t doing it yourself.

Rooting your phone? 😯

That takes love of technology to a whole new level 😆

Yeah, I rooted an N900, was worth it though, never having to wait for the network to check OTA updates and new firmware. End the end I got bored and installed Android on it.

That wasn’t worth it.

I got a geeky mate to do me desire. No more memory issues and some other neat features.

I’m running jelly bean, it’s stable enough but the camera chucks a wobbler now and again.

i found the easiest way was following the step by step instructions here on androidforums

if that really is too much, theres usually ickle phone shops in each town where a geeky bloke would do it. not sure why youd be too bothered tho if you were moving it on, dont think itd add much value to it…..

i did mine easily,there is a one click program that unlocked and rooted mine,will look it up this afternoon when i am home

ST posted on your fs thread

One click thing is called unrevoked also does s-off I think

I’ve done a few handsets using SuperOneClick, I’ve not done a Desire with it but it is supported. Really easy as the name suggests.

I have a friend with a Desire who was complaining about the same things you are, I told him to root and flash with Cyanogenmod, he did so and said it was like a different phone afterwards (in a very good way)

Cheers all. I’ve had another look at some of the forums including the one linked above and was reminded about how complicated it is if you’re not comfortable with computer trickery. I’ve no doubt that for someone with a bit of familiarity with ‘puters can work their way through it ok.

Anything is easy if you know how to do it!

Basically unless it can be done through Microsoft Office then it’s beyond my knowledge of computers.

Eff it, I’ll get an upgrade and avoid the stress ;o)

Cheers.

Chap at work has done his DesireHD. Running 4.1 & said but for a very slight lag its fine. I might have a go with my HD. This chap is a real tech / pc wizard though.

Two things,

1) there are two different procedures for two different revisions of bootloader. Unrevoked (above) only works for the older one (I think).

2) it looks complicated but if you take your time and go step by step it’s not that bad. It’s really quite difficult to brick an Android phone irreparably; it’s possible, but you have to really go out of your way by doing something you’re expressly told not to do.

If you’re thinking of getting a new one anyway, why not give it a go?

Basically unless it can be done through Microsoft Office then it’s beyond my knowledge of computers.

Follow the guide, no knowledge required.

Also look at revolutionary which was released after unrevoked, used that to get s-off and it was really easy.

Yeah, that’s right – but you have to match the correct app to the right version of bootloader.

Done a Desire HD rooted and unlocked, tried flashing it with a number of different builds from ICS (4.0) complete with late versions skinned with late versions of HTC Sense to JB (4.1) builds with no skins. The JB run a lot smoother and quicker.

The XDA forums have sections on various devices, with hotwo/reference posts and a multitude of various builds to try.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/

FWIW OP, i dont understand all the bootloader and s-off stuff really either. i can find my way round a pc tho. i just thought id try following the instructions, and sometimes read stuff thats recommended, so try that too, and seem to muddle my way through.
it works tho, and as has been said before, its pretty hard to brick a phone.
once its done, swapping roms about is the easy bit and its good fun trying different ones 😀

Amazingly* I manned up and rooted my Desire yesterday and installed the Cyanogen operating system, and now I am indeed able to install apps to the SD card. Pretty pleased with myself.

However… as suggested by an online guide I partitioned my 4Gb SD card so that it has half FAT32 and half ext4 (?) thinking that would mean I’d get 2Gb to put music on and 2Gb to install apps onto. But it appears that the same 2Gb is taking apps as is taking music so I’m wondering where my other 2Gb has gone to?? Anyone any ideas? Cheers…

*amazing that it worked and I didn’t brick it, I mean

It’s been about a year since I did this so things may have changed or I might be forgetting stuff, but after spending ages trying to follow step by step guides I eventually discovered SuperOneClick which basically did everything for me so would second that suggestion, and also as mentioned above the xda-developers forum can answer pretty much any question you have too.

munkster: Have you read up on “a2sd” yet? I had to download a terminal emulator app and type ‘a2sd install’ or something to get it to use the ext4 partition for apps. If you’re choosing the “move to SD” option in the apps list you’re doing it wrong I think. Also, the available space display didn’t work properly for me using a2sd, but I never seemed to run out of space no matter what it said, and running the command ‘df’ in the terminal app should show how much space is left on each partition. You might have already tried this or things might have changed since I did it but good luck 🙂

Aha, right, I *am* using “move to SD” in a2sd so that’s probably where I’m going wrong… Looks like a thread like this is what I’m looking for!!

Too scared to post on an Android forum, you get told off for not reading instructions 😮 (cheers)

Did it using something called “Simple2Ext” in the end… Instructions here. Woop!

Quick question, am I better off selling my Desire HD with 2.3.5 in its standard HTC form or with 4.0 / 4.1 ?
Can I get it back to 2.3.5 afterwards ?