Guide Should be 50% Complete but Proceed with caution and Read Disclaimer and Continue. Will Add Pictures to help out in coming days.
Disclaimer
I take no responsibility whatsoever if you brick your phone, kill its warranty, or damage any components to your computer / phone /self . I have entered the sequence I used to Root a HTC Magic 32A phone purchased from India which was being distributed or given out by Airtel. None of this information was my own work. I merely put everything together so that any person intimidated by technology could get a quick idea of the process without going through the trouble that I did. If you find anything that needs to be changed please let me know.
Ok so I got some time to write up a small and simple guide for folks who got stuck with the htc Magic phone in India. Please note the following procedure assumes you are using a htc Magic in India (Distributed by Airtel).
Summary
We are going to Root the phone so we can bypass all limitations posed by the OEM ROM distributed in the phones. The Phone being Discussed here is the htc Magic Distributed by Airtel in India. You will find the Airtel Log on the box. It might work for other 32a Phones but I can't say how it will go .
Step 1. Determine what you have.
First of all, You need to find the version of firmware you are running on your phone. You can do this by Holding the Power button down and the Back button. I'll display a sample of the output you should be seeing. This is from my phone which is an htc Magic from Airtel distributed in India.
Code:
SAPPHIRE PVT 32A SHIP S-ON H
HBOOT-1.33.0010 (SAP10000)
CPLD-12
RADIO-3.22.20.17
Jun 2 2009, 17:28:28
Here the key feature to note is the Motherboard version which is the Number right after PVT which says 32A . This number is very important so right it on your monitor for all I care because if its wrong you are just about to brick the phone. The second number you can see which is 1.33.0010 refers to a SPL (Secondary program Loader). It this this component that helps boot Android up and perform certain diagnostic activities as well. Well for now lets just assume that the above sums SPL well
. Furthermore if I understand right S-ON here means that security is ON and in other words mean you can't directly write to the nand (your phones internal memory).
Anyway ,lets continue on. There are a few ways to Root your device based on what you are using.
1. One Click Root
2. Gold Card method/url]
Now, the One Click method only works if your phones firmware was written probably before August. The reason for this is clearly explained in the following link which can be found here. In the above example, you can see the date which I assume the firmware was written which is Jun 2 2009, 17:28:28. If you happen to have a firmware which was patched for this then you need not despair because the second method should work. The details about this can be found [url=*forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=572683]here and I won't be explaining it either because I haven't used it so I can't explain it. The following shows how I followed the One Click Root Method to get the above done.
Step 2. Prepare Yourself
Lets download some stuff and get our hands dirty. You will need to download the following stuff.
1. Flash Recovery Tool
2. A Recovery ROM ( For this I will be using Amon Ra's Recovery ROM)
3. You can download this now if you want. But we won't be using it till later. A ROM (And any of its pre-requisites). This is no way a completed list I believe there are more out there which aren't in the list but I'll leave that task to you. My Recommendation is waiting till later tog et a ROM so you understand what tog et better.
4.Android SDK
Step 3. Mission Rooting!
First , of all you need to install the Android SDK. Here's documentation from the Android Documentation itself. Do the following procedure Word by Word and make sure that if you type the following commands you see something like this.
Code:
C:\android-sdk-windows\tools> adb devices
List of devices attached
HT56WKF23456 device
If you do all is well . Else you need to go back and do the guide until you start seeing this output when you have the phone connected to your PC.
Now if you do get the output then its time to install a File Explorer on your phone which is amazingly moronic on htc's side to not have in the first place. Yes, I know you don't have Android Market so read on. Go to Slideme.org and download some kind of File Explorer. I downloaded Andexplorer which was rather small and didn't seem intimidating. Make sure you save it to your Tools folder of your Android SDK. With that out of the way lets get the application installed. To Install a Non-Market Application you need to first enable certain options on your phone so do the following.
Code:
Go to Your Applications Group on your phone > Settings > Applications Settings> Unknown Sources and enable it.
Then Go to Applications Group on your phone > Settings > Applications Settings> Development > Enable USB Debugging and enable it
Now you can go back to your home screen on your phone and then type the following command from a command prompt while you are in your tools folder of your Android SDK
Here file name stands for the File Explorers apk file you downloaded from slideme.org. This should install the application to the phone and you can confirm that it is there by checking your Application group. Now what you want to do is copy the Flash recovery apk file you downloaded and the Recovery ROM image you downloaded and put it in the root folder of your sd card of the phone. Do not move it to any other folder. Using the file explorer you just installed you can browse to the root folder of the sd card and then click the Flash recovery apk file and install it. Once this tool is installed open the tool and then you can enter the path in the text box.
Code:
/sdcard/recovery-RA-sapphire-v1.5.2H.img
MAKE SURE YOU ENTER THE NAME OF THE RECOVERY ROM YOU DOWNLOADED. I used this so I have that entered. If you downloaded something else which you are sure would work for your phone then you should be entering that recovery ROM's name. If this isn't clear make sure you confirm with someone on xda or unlockr before you continue. After you have entered the correct Recovery ROM Name you want to click on Flash Recovery ROM. Now you should see a progress bar of it working and should tell you when it has completed. Turn off your phone and turn it back on by going into recovery Mode which can be done by pressing the Power button and the Home Key. As long as you see a recovery Screen ( Black background with green or white text) you should be fine.
With that out of the way it's time we start flashing us a New ROM. I used Amon RA's ROM for my phone, its stable and very fast. If you are looking for eye candy and something with the "bling" factor then you should check up on other ROM's and try them out. But make sure you Download the ROM for your Motherboard Version which better be 32A if you reached this far.
Do NOT install a 32B ROM on a 32A Phone.
Now you should be at the Recovery Screen with various options. What you want to do first is Click on Wipe Data/Factory Reset. Then Partition your SD Card. Don't worry about choosing the partitions cause it does it for you. On clicking Partition SD it should prompt you for the Size for Swap , Ext2 and Fat32. I used the default sizes provided to me since there has been an equal bunch of theories stating that having a large/small swap improves the performance of the phone. But please note if the ROM you are about to install requires a certain amount of space make sure you enter it. Amon RA's ROM or the one I installed at least had no requisites so I stuck with the defaults. Once this is done you can take out the battery from the phone.
You should already have a ROM Downloaded from somewhere but if you don't I recommend getting the Amon Ra ROM which is linked above. Next you want to get that ROM on your SD Card but make sure that you do two things.
1. Place the ROM in your Root Folder of your SD Card.
2. Rename the File so that it is update.zip .
You can either use a Memory card reader for this and just put the card into it and write to it. Or you can use the phone to mount the SD Card and then copy it to the root folder itself. I used the memory card reader method since I had one lying around. Unplug the phone if it is plugged and Power your phone off. Go back into recovery Mode by holding the Home and Power buttons together. Select Wipe from the menu again, then apply update.zip .
Step 4. Give Respect where it is Due
None of this was cooked up in my head. Some people have devoted a large amount of their time to help out folks to gain the best out of their devices. If you would like to send them a beer or throw a word of appreciation please do so.
References
xda-forums
Unlock'rs Guide to the One Root Click Method
Unlockr's How to Load a Custom ROM on Your Phone Link
Android Developer Documentation
How to Install Non-Market Applications to Android
How to Create a Gold Card in case you can't use the One Click Root Method
Android USB Driver Installation for Windows
From where did you get Milestone...Congratulations...We need a review for heaven's sake