[How-To] Root and un-root the T-Mobile myTouch 3G

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Amon_RA

Retired Senior Recognized Developer
Jan 2, 2009
1,295
400
After a lot of trial and error we finally did it! Many thanks to Jrbourque for being a tester with balls (he could have bricked his phone) :) and Haykuro for all the tips and tricks :p. Please give them credit where credit is due ;)

Proceed on your own risk, you might brick your phone!!!
This method is written for the original MT3G back in 2009, DONT USE IT on the Fender/MT3G 1.2!!!

CREATE and PREPARE your GOLDCARD
Please start a new thread in the general section if you have issues creating a goldcard, this how-to assumes that you have a working Goldcard.
- Create a Goldcard according to this tutorial (Sandisk SD-cards might not work, I used a Kingston 2GB SD and it worked fine).
- Copy sappimg.zip to your goldcard.

PREPARE your spare SD
- Format a spare SD FAT32 (not your Goldcard! :D)
- Download the 1.33.2005 hboot, rename it to update.zip and copy it to the root of your spare SD.

FLASH your T-Mobile myTouch 3G
Make sure are using fastboot from the latest SDK (release 3) !
- Power-off your device
- Insert the goldcard
- Power on while holding volume down (of fastboot your device and then press volume down)
- It should pick up the sappimg.zip and you should be able to flash it.
- Once the flashing is FULLY finished power off your device.
- Remove the goldcard and insert the SD (with update.zip)
- Power on while holding back (=fastboot) and connect the USB cable
- Download my RAv1.2.0H recovery and fastboot it :
Code:
fastboot boot recovery-RAv1.2.0H.img
- Once the recovery is booted wait a while
- Apply the update.zip (you are now flashing the 1.33.2005 SPL)
- Once the SPL is flashed you have to power off your device and boot it again in fastboot mode.
- The SPL should now read 1.33.2005.
- Power off your device and pull out the SD-card
- erase the update.zip on your SD-card (via cardreader)
- Download my RAv1.1.0H 32A based ROM and rename it to update.zip and copy it to the root of your SD-card (via cardreader)
- Insert the SD into your device.
- Power on while holding back (=fastboot) and connect the USB cable
Code:
fastboot boot recovery-RAv1.2.0H.img
- Apply the update.zip located on your SD-card

Revert to 32B Radio and ROM :
- Download your favorite 32B ROM and copy it to your sdcard
- Download the Ion radio image from the HTC site.
- Extract radio.img from ota-radio-2_22_19_26I.zip using your favorite rar/zip program.
- Download my 32B RAv1.2.0G recovery.
- Fastboot your mobile and connect it via USB :
Code:
fastboot flash radio radio.img
fastboot erase system -w
fastboot erase boot
fastboot erase recovery
fastboot flash recovery recovery-RAv1.2.0G.img
- press MENU to power off! (do not reboot)
- hold HOME and POWER to boot into recovery mode
- apply update

Original T-Mobile MyTouch 3G Splash Image (Thanks Haykuro)
Download it here
Code:
fastboot flash splash1 splash.nb

Un-Root your T-mobile MyTouch 3G (and receive back those OTA updates)
- Download this nbh and rename it to sappimg.nbh (MD5 33D958062CC02BB2CEC157F68621D2FF)
- Copy sappimg.nbh to your goldcard (a normal SD might also work if you are using an engineerings SPL, give it a try and let us know :D ).
- Power-off your device
- Insert the goldcard (or SD)
- Power on while holding volume down (of fastboot your device and then press volume down)
- It should pick up the sappimg.zip and you should be able to flash it.
- Once the flashing is FULLY finished reboot your phone.
 
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fearlless

New member
Jul 25, 2009
4
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www.twitter.com
i'll do this when a how-to-video comes out.
these steps are FOREVER!!!

i tried to just do it, and it was taking forever.

is there another way to root WITHOUT having a goldcard?
 

Mi|enko

Senior Member
Jul 15, 2006
1,558
171
Hey Amon, and I'm not trying to derail your topic by any means, what you said about the radio makes complete sense. As we have 32B devices, do we run the risk of roms for 32A boards running slower, because they're anticipating the additional Ram?

We should just move everyone to either the A or B platform that way people wouldn't have to worry about bricking because of a rom being for the wrong radio/board version.

Additionally, am I correct in assuming that the below instructions from Haykuro were to get back to a 32B environment?

14. at this stage you are now at 1.33.2005 and you should be connected via fastboot, extract the contents of givemeroot.zip (radio and recovery image) type this:
Code:

fastboot flash radio radio.img
fastboot erase system -w
fastboot erase boot
fastboot erase recovery
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
 
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lesjaw

Senior Member
Jun 3, 2008
665
183
AmonRa, your tutor need 2 sd card, one is setup as gold card, and others just a normal card..then we put SAPPIMG.zip to goldcard, so magic will do flash on it..

my question is..how if i just put SAPPI<G.ZIP and update.zip in the goldcard? is that will do?
 

Amon_RA

Retired Senior Recognized Developer
Jan 2, 2009
1,295
400
Hey Amon, and I'm not trying to derail your topic by any means, what you said about the radio makes complete sense. As we have 32B devices, do we run the risk of roms for 32A boards running slower, because they're anticipating the additional Ram?

Yes this could be the case, that's why I suggest (see Daredevil-part to update to a 32B radio (and after a 32B recovery) after the flashing of the SPL, just like Haykuro posted :)

I'm a bit afraid of flashing the radio at the moment, I don't want people to have a bricked MyTouch 3G.
I would appreciate it if someone could try to flash a 32B radio (preferably the ION radio) and use a 32B recovery to flash an 32B ROM after. If this goes ok I can update this thread. :cool:
 

Amon_RA

Retired Senior Recognized Developer
Jan 2, 2009
1,295
400
fastboot boot recovery-RAv1.2.0H.img says waiting for device?

Waiting for device means that fastboot can't find your device over USB... It could be that you need to reinstall your drivers because your PC will find a new board 32A instead of 32B.
 

_illmatic_

Senior Member
Feb 6, 2008
74
3
Baton Rouge, LA
When trying to create Gold Card I downloaded the Terminal Emulator and I cannot create a Gold Card.

After inputing:

cat /sys/class/mmc_host/mmc1/mmc1:*/cid

I get:

cat /sys/class/mmc_host/mmc1/mmc1:*/cid: not found

What am I doing wrong?:mad:
 
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lesjaw

Senior Member
Jun 3, 2008
665
183
have tried create a goldcard and put SAPPIMG.zip and update.zip in it, after i HBOOT it saw SAPPIMG.zip and upload it..then HBOOT check it, but suddenly it just stop (take only <1 minute), no message at all..it just back to HBOOT screen..then i go to fasboot mode..trying recovery, but still got remote not alowed...

how do we know that we have succes created a goldcard?
 

Amon_RA

Retired Senior Recognized Developer
Jan 2, 2009
1,295
400
When trying to create Gold Card I downloaded the Terminal Emulator, but it doesn't give me the option for a virtual keyboard so I used Better Terminal Emulator Magic.

After inputing:

cat /sys/class/mmc_host/mmc1/mmc1:*/cid

I get:

cat /sys/class/mmc_host/mmc1/mmc1:*/cid: not found

What am I doing wrong?:mad:

I think you should try to use adb shell instead...
Make sure the SDcard you're trying to make is a plain SD (without partitions), and formatted FAT32.