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Load a Nexus One with the HTC Desire ROM

February 23rd, 2010 in Tutorials by Adam Parker
8

I put this blog entry together because I could not find a complete guide on how to install the HTC Desire ROM on a Nexus One, instead I actually had to piece it together from different blogs. I hope this saves you guys a lot of time and a lot of searching.

Prerequisites

First of all, you’ll need a few things to get started. You’ll need the Android SDK (link), Nexus One USB Drivers (link), and to put your phone in debug mode (Settings > Applications > Development > USB debugging).

After your device is in USB debugging mode, extract the USB drivers and then point the “Add New Hardware Wizard” to the directory of where you extracted it.

Next you’ll need to install the Android SDK.

Also, you’ll need to know how to put your device in “bootloader mode”, which is simple. To do it, turn your phone off. Once it is fully off press and hold the track ball down and then press the power button. This will put you in “bootloader mode”.

Now that the prerequisites are done, we can get to business.

Step 1

First up, you will have to unlock the bootloader, and then root your Nexus One for full file system access on Android 2.1

Step 1a (Unlocking the bootloader)
To unlock the bootloader, open up a command prompt, and go to the tools directory of the android SDK. Type in “fastboot oem unlock” (without the quotes) and press enter. Now your bootloader is unlocked, however, if it continues to say “waiting for device” then you have not installed the drivers correctly or you do not have USB debugging turned on.

Step 1b (Root your Nexus One)
Download and extract Superboot (link – you may need to register before this link works), put your device in “bootloader mode”, and run install-superboot-windows.bat, that’s it!

Step 2
Download the patched recovery-RA-nexus-v1.5.3.img recovery image (link), move it to the same folder as fastboot.exe, and then flash it by running the following command via Command Prompt.

fastboot flash recovery recovery-RA-nexus-v1.5.3.img

Step 3
Download the HTC Desire ROM (link) and copy it to over to the root of the SD card on the phone.

Step 4
Now power off the phone and enter the recovery image by powering on while pressing the ‘Home’ trackball.
select the following:
“BOOTLOADER” -> “RECOVERY”

Step 5
Now you will be rebooted into custom RA recovery mode. Select ‘Backup/Restore’ from the menu to do a Nandroid backup.

Step 6
After you have backed up your device, select the following:
“WIPE” -> “WIPE DATA/FACTORY RESET”

This is necessary, if you do not do a factory reset your ROM will not install properly and it will get stuck on the loading screen.
After you do a factory reset, you’ll need to go back and select the following:
“FLASH ZIP FROM SDCARD”

Select the ROM from the list (should be only one) and install!

Step 7
After it has installed you can now reboot your phone and enjoy HTC Sense on Nexus One!

If you have problems
If you get stuck on the white HTC loading screen, then you probably didn’t do something correctly. First, make sure you followed step #6 exactly as it was written. If you are sure you have, then you may want to try this fix:
  1. Download boot.alpha2.img (link) and place it in your tools directory of the Android SDK
  2. Startup in “bootloader mode”
  3. Select “BOOTLOADER” -> “FASTBOOT”
  4. Now repeat the steps in step 1a, except this time you’re going to type: “fastboot flash boot boot.alpha2.img” (without the quotes)
As always, if you have any problems or comments, please post them in the comments and myself (or one of my readers) will be able to help you.

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Author: Adam Parker

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8 Comments

Richard Truong

February 27th, 2010

Hi,
I'm a newbie and need some help with my rooted phone.
I have followed all the instructions until step 3
When you say:
"Step 3… copy it to over to the root of the SD card on the phone."
How do I do this?
Thanks in advance!

adamkparker

February 27th, 2010

You have to mount your phone's SD card to your computer. This is something built into your phone and instructions are in your owner's manual.

Eric B

March 26th, 2010

Doing this voids your warranty right? So I was wondering if there is a way to get it back to factory settings if you have an issue with ur phone sometime in the future? Also how long can I expect this to take to complete. And also thanks for posting this to make it easy to do with all the info in 1 place.

Brian Ouellette

April 2nd, 2010

Is there a way to undo this if i end up not liking it or its to buggy?

Brian Ouellette

April 2nd, 2010

Also, is there a chance that you can make a video of you doing this on another Nexus One to help out anyone including myself that might come across a snag?

gary

April 4th, 2010

hi mate, this is a brilliant tutorial. thank you so much! from new zealand

pcash

April 15th, 2010

This is awesome. Thanks for putting this together. One quick question….on step 3 do I put the put the zip file as is or unzip it and put it in the root folder of the SD card?

adamkparker

April 15th, 2010

Put the whole zip file in there.

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