[GUIDE] Debranding Bell Desire Z

[Bumble-Bee]

Ok have just ran through this on irc and its confirmed working on a bell phone debranding to WWE

This will wipe your phone -- So backup all needed data

Although tested and really shouldn’t cause any damage I accept no responsibility for any damage caused by this. By doing this you are accepting all responsibility ​

What you will need

-- micro SD card reader
-- spare microSD or backup all data from your normal SD card
-- a WWE rom i,e THIS ROM
-- HeX editor
-- ADB shell set up and working


Part 1 GoldCard

1) Format the microSD card to FAT32 format (in card reader).
2) Put the microSD card in your device and boot it.
3) Open Up an ADB shell this doesnt need to be ran as root.
4) Enter 'adb shell cat /sys/class/mmc_host/mmc2/mmc2:*/cid' and press enter. You should get a very long number copy it.
5) Visit this page, paste in your number and reverse it.
6) Visit this page, enter your reversed number and create your goldcard image, which will be e-mailed to you.
7) Open the HxD hex editor. If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7, you must run the application as administrator.
8) Go to the 'Extra' menu and select 'Open Disk'. Under physical disk, select Removable Disk (your microSD card), uncheck 'Open as Readonly' and click OK. Note that you should select physical disk NOT the logical disk. This is important!
9) Go to the 'Extra' menu again and select 'Open Disk Image'. Open the goldcard image that you received by email.
10) You should now have two tabs - one is your removable disk, the other is your goldcard image. Press OK when prompted for 'Sector Size' (selecting 512 (Hard disks/Floppy disks)) and click OK.
11) Click on the goldcard image tab. Go to the 'Edit' menu, choose 'Select All' then select the 'Edit' menu again and select 'Copy'.
12) Click on the 'Removable Disk' tab. Highlight offset (line) 00000000 to offset (line) 00000170 (including the 00000170 line), then click on the 'Edit' menu and select 'Paste Write'.
12) Click on the 'File' menu and select 'Save', accepting the warning.


Part 2 Grabbing Rom From RUU

1) Start the exe and leave it to load
2) once loaded leave it
3) navigate to C:\Users\**username***\AppData\Local\Temp\
4) look for pne of the two newest folders and open
5) within that folder there will be another folder open that
6) find rom.zip and copy to the sdcard
7) rename PC10IMG.zip
8) Put MicroSD card back into phone and boot to android


Part 3 MISC edit to allow downgrade

this part is only needed if you are downgrading i.e from

1.34.666.5 to 1.34.405.5


1) open up "ADB shell" and type SU to get # symbol
2) run

dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p17 of=/sdcard/misc.img

3) copy misc.img from the root of the sdcard to your computer //Copy So as to preserv a backup of misc.img on the SD card//

4) open the misc.img in the HeX editor
5) now edit the version line from somthing like

1.34.666.5

This will be whatever the version you are on currently

to

1.34.405.5

This can/will be whatever the version of the rom you are trying to downgrade too

6) now save as miscnew.img

Here is what your minsc.img and miscnew.img should look like in HeX editor

7) copy miscnew.img to sdcard
8) unmount usb storage
9) in ADB shell run command

dd if=/sdcard/miscnew.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p17

Part 4 Flashing the rom

1) power off phone
2) boot into hboot by holding down vol-dwn + power
3) the phone should then scan the .zip file and ask to flash
4) after flash you will be debranded and running a WWE rom


Credits

The Goldcard Guide Was Adapted To Work On The New eMMC Devices From Here mmc0 to mmc2

 

[steviewevie]

So this changes a Bell-branded phone so that it can flash HTC ROMs, right ? Because even the "BellMobility" ROMs still seem to have "WWE" in their title.

What happens if you try to flash an HTC ROM to a Bell phone without this ? Would be useful to know, just for info.

 

[shubjero]

I can confirm that I was the test subject on IRC and this unbranding of my Bell Desire Z worked perfectly.

I now have things like HTC Locations, and Car Panel present on my phone, and things like non-uninstallable game demos of Ashphalt, Golf, Uno, Bell PVR, GPS Navigator, Kobo, Zoompass, Tunes & Apps, TV & Radio are all gone.

After unbranding, everything is working as expected.

Thanks a ton to the op for dedicating his time on helping me unbrand my phone!

 

[pixelwix]

Will this work on the G2?

 

[Bumble-Bee]

So this changes a Bell-branded phone so that it can flash HTC ROMs, right ? Because even the "BellMobility" ROMs still seem to have "WWE" in their title.

What happens if you try to flash an HTC ROM to a Bell phone without this ? Would be useful to know, just for info.

Humm never noticed the WWE in the bell mobility rom (could be to do with the Z being a WWE phone and the G2 not, but as they are moth the vision), but regardless you should be able to flash any Z to the HTC- WWE "debranded rom"

 

[Bumble-Bee]

Will this work on the G2?

What getting the Z rom on the G2 ?

if so we have tried and get "data too large" errors. but feel free to try (at your own risk as its never been done before)

i havent tried the 1.22.405.1 RUU


:-D

 

[CWolfCW]

Hm... so while I'm sorely tempted to try this, are there any downsides to debranding atm? Will it affect OTA updates in the future?

I'm assuming it'll void warranty, heh. The only real benefits are just to get rid of the Bell only stuff though I'm assuming?

Er, also wanted to ask something else: Where exactly are you guys finding the ROMs for the HTC Desire Z (NA)? All the ones I find are EU or AP.

 

[Bumble-Bee]

well any ota you should be able to flash :-D .... also u can always flash the bell RUU if u want or need it back as it shipped

 

[steviewevie]

Er, also wanted to ask something else: Where exactly are you guys finding the ROMs for the HTC Desire Z (NA)? All the ones I find are EU or AP.

There appears to be one on the first page of this forum, at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=815253

Given how long it's been there though, I'd be suprised if that's the ROM version that's shipping for Bell.

 

[seattleboi1982]

can't wait to get home and do this so i can get Locations and car panel

 

[CWolfCW]

I think I'm going to hold off until a more current official NAM version of the HTC Desire Z ROM is available as it seems like only the EU/AP versions are available (unless I'm misunderstanding).

Atm, by disabling packages, I can get close to 'debrand' without having to flash. Only thing is I won't be able to get access to HTC Locations and Car Panel afaik.

 

[FireGX]

Sorry, this may seem obvious, but does doing this require root? I'm pretty new to Android.

 

[gtrab]

Great news !!
Thanks for sharing

Let the fun begin

And regarding:

Er, also wanted to ask something else: Where exactly are you guys finding the ROMs for the HTC Desire Z (NA)? All the ones I find are EU or AP.

Where ?? from this same forum !!
User football posted some HTC RUU flashers some weeks ago:

[ROM]RUU_Vision_HTC_WWE_1.34.405.3_Radio_12.28b.60.140e _26.03.02.18_M2 (the debranded, world ROM flasher)

[ROM]RUU_Vision_BellMobility_WWE_1.34.666.1_Radio_12.28 b.60.140e_26.03.02.18_M2 (to flash back to Bell branded)

[ROM]RUU_Vision_HTC_WWE_1.22.405.1_Radio_12.26.60.1301_ 26.02.00.24_M2_release (a previous release)

.

 

[Stratrix]

i'm assuming this doesn't remove sense?

 

[gtrab]

i'm assuming this doesn't remove sense?

nope, you will even get MORE SENSE
(since Bell removed some HTC sense apps, and this firmware is the original, "purest" HTC Sense firmware)

but there's another thread you may be interested in:
"[GUIDE] How to remove sense (almost...)"
check it

 

[shubjero]

Sorry, this may seem obvious, but does doing this require root? I'm pretty new to Android.

Download VISIONary from the Android market. You will need this to 'temporarily' root your phone which is required for this process to work.

 

[gtrab]

Download VISIONary from the Android market. You will need this to 'temporarily' root your phone which is required for this process to work.

Rooting with VISIONary is now permanent

 

[arich]

Rooting with VISIONary is now permanent

not exactly, it will be tomorrow. there are some extra steps in conjunction w/ VISIONary that are required right now

 

[y2jdmbfan]

Great news !!

[ROM]RUU_Vision_BellMobility_WWE_1.34.666.1_Radio_12.28 b.60.140e_26.03.02.18_M2 [/URL] (to flash back to Bell branded)

.

Can anyone confirm that this is the same version that is shipping on the Bell Z? I am showing Build 1.34.666.5 on my Bell Z. I want to be able to get back to unrooted stock Bell firmware if I Desire. Will this unroot if I flash back to this ROM?

Thanks,

Y2J

 

[FireGX]

My Bell Desire Z is also 1.34.666.5. I don't think it's the same as the one posted...

And yea, now that VISIONary is perma-root, is there a way to unroot the device? Do I simply uninstall the program?