How To: Load a Custom ROM/Radio/Theme on the T-Mobile G1 (OBSOLETE)

PLEASE NOTE! This method is obsolete! Please refer to the newer Rooting/Loading Custom ROM methods on our site:
Unroot (G1) OR Unroot(MyTouch), then Root, then Load a Custom ROM, Apps2SD/Hero etc.

Please check out the “How To: Gain Root Access on the T-Mobile G1” before reading this post. You must have root access before loading a custom ROM. Click here to be taken to the video. After you have follow the steps in that post you can move on to this one.

Do each of these how to’s in order to get the most out of your G1!

I. HOW TO LOAD A ROM –

1. Find which ROM suits your needs.
Choose one of the following developers to see their latest free ROM:
JesusFreke –
Click Here for Latest ROM

(Find more ROMs at XDA-Developers.com)

2. Download their ROM (always a .Zip file) from their site above.

3. Copy the .Zip file from your computer to the root folder (top most folder) of you SD card in your G1.

4. Rename the .zip file to “Update” (minus the quotes).

5. Disconnect G1 from the computer and turn it off.

6. Turn on G1 by holding down the End key and the Home key AT THE SAME TIME.

7. Once the screen comes up, open the keyboard and hit the Alt key and the S key AT THE SAME TIME.

8. Once update is complete, hit the Home key and the Back key AT THE SAME TIME.

9. Phone reboots and then YOU SHOULD FOLLOW THE HOW TO LOAD A CUSTOM RADIO TUTORIAL BELOW to gain phone functions, bluetooth, and wifi!

II. HOW TO LOAD A CUSTOM RADIO (for better reception, bluetooth, wifi, and data).

1.  Download the latest radio update from HERE.

2. Save it to your computer.

3. Copy the .Zip file from your computer to the root folder (top most folder) of you SD card in your G1.

4. Rename the .zip file to “Update” (minus the quotes).

5. Disconnect G1 from the computer and turn it off.

6. Turn on G1 by holding down the End key and the Home key AT THE SAME TIME.

7. Once the screen comes up, open the keyboard and hit the Alt key and the S key AT THE SAME TIME.

8. Once update is complete, hit the Home key and the Back key AT THE SAME TIME.

9. Phone reboots and you are all done!

10 (Optional). If you want to load a new theme, follow the steps below.

III. HOW TO LOAD A THEME (You must load a ROM first, themes are made for each ROM in specific).

1. Click Here to visit XDA-Developers’ Theme section.

2. Choose a Theme based on the ROM you have (either JF for Jesus Freke or Dude for TheDudeOfLife). Download the .Zip file from the thread to your computer.

3. Copy the .Zip file from your computer to the root folder (top most folder) of you SD card in your G1.

4. Rename the .zip file to “Update” (minus the quotes).

5. Disconnect G1 from the computer and turn it off.

6. Turn on G1 by holding down the End key and the Home key AT THE SAME TIME.

7. Once the screen comes up, open the keyboard and hit the Alt key and the S key AT THE SAME TIME.

8. Once update is complete, hit the Home key and the Back key AT THE SAME TIME.

9. Phone reboots and you are all set!

Reported Issues

None reported…

166 thoughts on “How To: Load a Custom ROM/Radio/Theme on the T-Mobile G1 (OBSOLETE)”

  1. Hello Jason,

    Did you go through the Root process first and didn’t get any errors?
    If so, then it doesn’t really matter which ROM you use of theirs they are both good. They are both cupcake and both have similar added features (like dual touch in the browser, increased performance, etc).

  2. when i hold down home and end i can load the utility screen. (the one that says home+back – reboot system now) right under the top line it says:
    E:can’t open /cache/recovery/command

    1. Hey Jason,

      Yes, the SPL should have been loaded during the Root process (so if you have done that whole process in that video then you already have an spl loaded).
      So next comes a ROM (rename to update.zip, put on memory card, then alt s in the recovery tool).
      Then comes a Radio once that update is complete. (Again rename the radio to update.zip, delete the old one on the memory card and alt s in the recovery tool).
      That’s it, then comes a theme if you want (and, you guessed it, rename the theme to update.zip, delete the radio update.zip from the card, then alt s in the recovery tool).

  3. Do custom ROMs not include updated Radios? I’m assuming since you give directions for both that each need to be installed individually.

  4. hey david,
    i just uploaded the dudes rom and now my phone is booting up.
    its taking an awful long time.
    is it supposed to do that or did i mess up somewhere.

    thanks david

    1. Hello Rishi_Hacker,

      Sometimes it takes as while (just for the first boot). If it is getting a little unreasonable, just take out the battery and put it back in (don’t worry it won’t mess anything up so long as you are already on a boot screen).

      Good Luck! You are very welcome!

  5. david its still taking a long time its been 20 min and still hasnt come to the home screen.
    should i take out the microsd and put it into my computer and delete the update file.
    also i still haD the recovery image and the dreAMIMG FILE STILL IN MY SD CARD WHEN BEGAN THE UPDATE
    WILL THAT AFFECT ANYTHING???
    SORRY FOR ASKING SO MANY QUESTIONS, I AM NEW AT THIS

    THANKS DAVID!!!

  6. also could i reflash it by holding down the home and end keys or is there a way to unflashit and start all over

    p.s. i left my phone on all night and still had the boot scene when i woke up in the morning

    thanks david

  7. i tried the flash again and i think the problem is that it stops right before it finishes and automatically reboots??

    could you please help me

    1. Hello Jason,

      You don’t have to flash a new radio everytime. Once you have the lastest radio you won’t need to flash another (till a newer radio comes out, which is pretty rare).

  8. Hey what’s goin david how you doin ima curious guy that would like to get the cool new look you have on your phone but I don’t know how to go about it I’m a newbie to every thing about the g1 but I jus learned how to root from you haven’t done it yet but I will as soon as I learn how to get rosie a basic layout on how to you understand what I’m say you can hit me on my gmail

    1. Hey Jermaine,

      Do the root process and then follow the process in the How To Load a Custom ROM post. Once you are done with that you can start loading themes and customizing your G1.
      As far as Rosie (The User Interface from the Hero ROM), I kinda touched on it in another comment:

      Hey guys,

      The ROM I was using was a ROM based off of Haykuro’s ROM that Rishi mentioned (wasn’t his ROM but someone’s optimized version of it), BUT I was just testing it and actually ended up taking it off and going back to TheDude’s with a Hero theme instead.
      The Hero ROM (not theme, different) is not very stable on the G1 yet. XDA-Devs are working on it. It’s also a little tricky to get it to work and I would highly caution trying it (at least not until we get a better one working, I don’t think it’s worth the trouble). Soon as they come out with a better one, I’ll test it and then put up the how to
      I LOVE the Hero ROM, but it’s the HTC Widgets and such that make it so great and frankly as soon as you try to use them on the current Hero ROM the phone slows to molasses… like REALLY bad lol So just hold off for a bit is my recommendation.

      So basically, I’d root and load a custom ROM for now and play around with different themes. Wait for XDA-Developers to come out with a better Hero ROM and I’ll be happy to put the How To up on here once it is a stable ROM and we can all have some Rosie goodness 🙂

    1. Hey Iffer,

      No worries. Just delete it off your memory card. Then go back and get the ROM and put it on the memory card, rename it to update.zip and follow the rest of the process. (This is assuming you rooted your phone first, you did root your phone, right?)

  9. when i install the hero theme it doesn’t load like when i turn on the phone and after the g1 logo it says android it just stays there. help please

    1. Hey Fabian,

      That is most likely because you tried to install the Hero ROM and not the THEME. Big difference, the theme just gives the appearance of Hero whereas the ROM will alter the entire firmware of the phone (and if not done correctly will freeze up the phone on the Android logo).
      Aren’t you having a great time watching him pop up from behind the HTC? lol
      No worries, easy to fix (and this goes for anyone who gets stuck with any ROM).
      1. Take the MicroSD out and put it into your laptop/desktop (using a MicroSD to SD adapter that most likely came with the memory card). You can also use a MicroSD to USB dongle if you don’t have an SD slot.
      2. Then delete the upgrade.zip off of the memory card and replace it with the last ROM that actually worked for you (theDude’s or JesusFreke’s) and rename it to update.zip.
      3. Put the microSD back into the phone.
      4. Turn on the phone holding down the Home and End Key (keep holding till the recovery tool pops up).
      5. Hit Alt W to wipe the phone, once that is done hit Alt S to apply the ROM. And cross your fingers 🙂
      6. Should be back to usable!

      Hope this helps.

    1. Hey Noise,

      Its a lot easier to download them to your computer first since you have to unzip the one, but if you really wanted to you could download them directly to the G1.

  10. Hey Noise,

    Just take out the battery and put it back in.
    If that still doesn’t work then take out the SD card and put it into the SD adapter/USB adapter and connect it to your computer. Delete the update.zip and replace it with working ROM (one you have used before) and rename it to update.zip. Put it back into the phone and then turn it on by holding the End and Home key. Hit Alt W then Alt S and then hit Home and Back to reboot once it is done.
    Hope that helps.

  11. Hello Noise,

    No you do not need to re-root your phone after a wipe. You actually won’t have to re-root your phone unless you specifically unroot it (which is another process entirely). So wipe all you want lol

  12. hey david by any chance do you know if i have to wipe my phone if i want to go to the jf 1.51 US to the jf 1.51 ADP???

  13. Hey David,
    Thank you so much for all the info. I tried two other refrences before i found this site and neither of them worked. Again thank you.
    One question… Once you go through the update of lets say a rom and you want to put a theme on your sd card. Do you need to delete the previous file named update.
    Thanks for your help.

    1. Hello Casey,

      When you put the Theme onto the SD card you have to name it to update.zip to load it (so when you do that it will ask you if you want to replace the existing one). So yes, the old update.zip can’t be on the card, but it will be removed automatically anyway when you try to rename the theme.

  14. Dang i tried putting the htc hero theme (i am possitive it was the theme not the rom) and my phone is stuck at the android screen. Has this happened to anyone?

    1. Hello Casey,

      No it’s not because you put removed the old update.zip file (you have to do this to load anything else as update.zip, how can there be 2 update.zip’s in the same folder?).

      1. Turn the phone off then back on holding the End and Home keys to get to the Recovery utility. Hit Alt W (NOT S). Once it is done hit Home and Back to reboot and see if it works.
      2. If not, take out the memory card put it into an SD adapter/USB adapter and connect it to your computer. Erase the update.zip on it and put a working ROM on the SD card (rename it to update.zip) and then put the memory card back into the phone. Turn on the phone holding Home and End and then hit Alt W, then Alt S and wait for it to finish. Then hit Home and Back to reboot.

      Let me know if this gets you out of the loop.

  15. Hi David. I just rooted my G1 thanks to your video tutorial. I’m now ready to tryout a new ROM and theme. I’m was wondering if you could recommend a ROM. I want to use a Hero like them. Another question I have is,do have to partiton the sd card before I install a new rom? And do i need the app2sd?

  16. Thanks dude, hey you think you can give me that link where you got ur partition manager for the apps to sd process in your video? Because I downloaded a couple and couldn’t partition my card… 🙁

    1. Hello Gylmar,

      Welcome. Unfortunately, I can’t because of legal reasons (I’m sure you understand why)… just goto any Torrent site (like say, IsoHunt.com) and search for it.

  17. Is the radio and theme part of that download or is that in a separate file? I’m a compete noob,sorry. If it wasn’t for your no brainer tutorial,I wouldn’t have even trying to root my phone.

    1. Hello Dogma,

      The ROM has a theme built in but no radio, you don’t need a new radio to use the ROM though (the one you currently have that came with the phone should be fine). So just download the “current build” and then rename it to update.zip and load it according to the tutorial and you should be all set 🙂

  18. Ok,I downloaded the ROM from that link and tryed to install it. It looked like everything was going good. It was about 3 quarters of the way finished with the update and I closed the keyboard and it started to reboot on its own. Now the the flashy Android thing shows up,then the home page with the,press menu to unlock. Then dialogue box after dialogue box opens one on top of the other. messaging needs to force close,all kinds of stuff needs to force close. I can’t do anything but shut off the phone. Help me please.

    1. Hello Dogma,

      No worries. Turn off the phone, turn it back on holding down the end key and the home button till you get the the recovery menu. Type Alt W to wipe the phone, then type Alt S to apply the update (and set the phone down till it says complete and asks you to push home and back to reboot).

  19. Well,I tryed that and didn’t work at first time. Had to take the battery out. But it appears to be working now. All my apps seem to be ok. Thank you so much for your help! I noticed a com.htc.flash ,in the manage app.Does this ROM actually support flash? I’m kinda worried about trying it.

    1. Hello Dogma,

      The ROM is supposed to have flash, but I haven’t seen it work on any phone but the actual HERO device. You don’t click on that though, you just goto a website with Flash and see if you can see it.

  20. Oh alright I get you and thanks, what’s thr exact name for it? And do you think apps2sd works? I’m asking you all this cuz I already fried my 4gig trying to do this process and had to flash my phone.

    1. Hello Gylmar,

      I use Apps2SD just fine. It is a bit of a complicated procedure for sure though. So up to you, if you can live with the 70MBs the phone has for applications then no need to do Apps2SD.
      And the program is called Paragon Partition Manager 9…

  21. Hey man thanks for the help. I don’t really know what keeps happening but I’ve tried to put the hero theme on my phone and each time it messed up my phone so now I got the gloss theme on here and its working great. Hey is there a way to lose root access if so what are the ways? Also is there a way to tell if you still have root access? Thanks again.

    1. Hello Casey,

      Yes there is a way to reverse the Root access (although you wouldn’t ever really need to do this). You can find the procedure on XDA-Developers.com. I will eventually put it on here though if you can wait.
      If you have a theme on your device, you have root access 🙂

  22. As far as hero like themes,can you point me in the direction of a good one that will work with the ROM I installed?

  23. Gylmar Garcia

    Am i asking for too much if you can write me quick steps on how to do it on the app2sd method? because im having a hard time partitioning my card with the paragon program. and i know you can do it on the app2sdcard app…

  24. hey i have the lastest jesus freke rom… ok so my auto rotate isn’t working it only works when i go to super user app then when i exit that app it stops working. and when i try to apply the new radio update what does it mean to flash the radio first? i installed the radio like the steps said and i don’t see the little R over the bar i seen someone update their radio on you tube and that’s how it looked. how do i know if i have root access or not???

    1. Hello Ricky,

      First off don’t panic lol
      If you have the Jesus Freke ROM then you have root access (it doesn’t go away and it is required to load the Jesus Freke ROM in the first place).
      If you applied the radio update (same way you applied the JF ROM, renamed to update.zip, Alt S and then restarted after it said complete), then you have the new radio, nothing is going to show up on the top of your phone or anything like that (you will just notice better coverage, bluetooth connectivity, and wifi connectivity).
      As for the AutoRotate, goto Settings then Display then Orientation and check it to AutoRotate (the homescreen will generally not autorotate in most ROMs, but open any program and it should, i.e. Messaging).

      Hope this helps!

    1. Hello Ricky,

      I don’t know of any app that would autorotate the screen (if you find one, let me know).
      And the new Hero ROM is faster for sure, but no Wifi, no Bluetooth, and no SuperUser Access. Also by faster it is still not good enough for everyday use in my opinion. I’d give it a try if you are feeling adventurous, but you will most likely end up switching back to another ROM anyway so up to you.
      I’ll keep updating them as they come out, hopefully we will get an optimized version of the new one soon.

      Also keep in mind that the G1 is missing almost 100MBs of RAM compared to the Hero so this may be really tough for them to get the shortage of RAM to handle the RAM intensive UI… eh we’ll see.

  25. oh and u said there was a new hero update is it slow like the old one or does this one not take all the ram like the old one? also what is the best app for over clocking my g1 and is it reccommended?

  26. well i used to use the app droidsans tweak before the updates 1.5 version of cupcake it used to work fine it could autorotate anything even the home screen but now i guess it doesn’t seem to be compatible with cupcake 🙁 hopefully they update it.

  27. Since I flashed to The dudes latest build I have an issue. When I’m listening to my headphones and I recieve a text alert,I loose all sound until I reboot. Also,when I talk with someone on the phone,they tell me it sounds like I’m using my speaker phone.Is this because I didn’t flash the latest radio? If I do flash the newest radio,do I need to flash a new SPL as well?

    1. Hello Dogma,

      Just flash the latest Radio and you should be fine (no need to flash the SPL). Flash the latest radio by renaming it to update.zip and saving it to your topmost folder on your SD card then boot into recovery mode and Alt S to apply it.

  28. Another thing. Whenever I boot in recovery mode,I never see the screen like the one in the video. just a triangle with an exclamation point. So I thought if I held the end and home key longer it might show up. Now it’s froze on that screen. i tried alt w and alt s and i get nothing. any suggestions?

    1. Hey Dogma,

      Wait, so you have the Dude’s ROM on your phone but you get an exclamation point instead of the recovery screen with the yellow text? How did you load the Dude’s ROM in the first place? You must of had that yellow text screen before in order to load the ROM, no?

  29. **UPDATE**I waited a minute and did alt w and alt s again and it began loading. But got a call a minute later,same thing,speaker phone quality. AND I never have to hit home and the back key to reboot,my phone always does it on its own. Is this normal?

  30. When I get to the screen with the triangle and the exclamation point,I just did the alt s and it showed an image of a something pouring out of a box into the phone(updating). And like I said,my phone reboots itself. Don’t understand it. After I rooted the phone(RC29) I did the flash to The Dues build. It now reads. htc_dram-eng 1.5 cupcake eng benji.20090609 test-keys This is the dues build,right?

    1. Hey Dogma,

      Yea that is the Dude’s Build, I’m just a little stumped as to why you do not have the recovery program the rest of us have (the one with the yellow writing)… you followed the Root procedure exactly, right? You loaded the recovery.img file through terminal in that procedure etc right?

      Let’s see if anyone else has the same thing…

      HEY EVERYONE, DOES ANYONE ELSE HAVE THE EXCLAMATION POINT FOR THEIR RECOVERY SCREEN INSTEAD OF THE NEW JF RECOVERY SCREEN WITH THE YELLOW WRITING (the place where you hit Alt S to load the update.zip file)?

  31. I THINK I did it right. I did go in and did the flash_image recovery recovery.img(etc)To be honest,I can’t be sure i didn’t make a mistake. If I did make a mistake,is there a way to correct it,get a new recovery image?

  32. Hey, David I rooted my phone,
    and installed the TheDudeOfLife
    but when it was installing it automatically
    rebooted, and when it turned on the “T-Mobile G1”
    logo came up, then jumps to the “ANDROID” screen in green letters, but it just stays there with the white shadow going back and forth on top of the letters, and blink once in a while!
    Did i do something wrong?

  33. HEY DAVID I TRIED LOADING THE THEME YOU GOT ON THE VIDEO STEP BY STEP, I GOT THE TheDudeOfLife ROM,
    BUT WHEN I TURN IT BACK ON WITH THE HOME+POWER KEY
    I DON’T GET THOSE YELLOW LETTERS, I GET TRIANGLE WITH THIS “!” INSIDE OF IT WITHT THE PHONE ON THE SIDE…
    ^
    /!\
    —– DID I DO SOMETHING WRONG IN THE BEGINNING?

  34. I WAS READING AT UR CONVERSATION WITH “Dogma”
    I THINK WE HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM…
    I GET THE “!” EXCLAMATION INSTEAD OF THE
    RECOVERY PAGE!!
    WHERE DID I MESS UP,
    WAS IT ALL THE WAY FROM THE BEGINNING WITH
    THE ROOT ACCESS???

  35. “HEY EVERYONE, DOES ANYONE ELSE HAVE THE EXCLAMATION POINT FOR THEIR RECOVERY SCREEN INSTEAD OF THE NEW JF RECOVERY SCREEN WITH THE YELLOW WRITING (the place where you hit Alt S to load the update.zip file)?”

    Same here, just the normal Exclamation point! Also browser no longer works at all if I want to use WiFi, only will work with network. Had no problems with any of the instructions you provided either.

  36. ummm im having trouble putting themes on my g1 nd its already rooted if u can help me hit up my aim pleasse asap thankszz

    1. Hey Francisco,

      What exactly is the issue with loading the themes?
      Find a theme (make sure that the theme is compatible with the ROM you have first! It should say if it is or not in the posting). Then save it to your computer and rename it to update.zip on the topmost folder of your SD card, like you did for the rooting process. Then turn on the phone holding down the end and home key until the ! comes up. Then hit Alt S and when it’s done you should be all set.

  37. Is it possible to lose the new radio? I don’t want to but after me installing new roms a lot i was wondering if i might have lost the newest radio???
    Thanks

    1. Hello Casey,

      No once you have the new radio you wont lose it until you load another one (which you should never do by the way). So go ahead and load any ROMs you want.

    1. Hello Scooter,

      Go read the post where you got the Hero ROM from. Most do not support Bluetooth as of yet. You will have to wait until they update it to support it.

  38. Ok David,
    I loaded everything according to the videos with everything going well.

    Had Dude rom and updated the current radio, went well. Loaded latest spl (may be where is screwed up)

    Now when I Home/Pwr up i get
    E:can’t open /cache/recovery/command
    I wiped and reset. Stuck on G1 Tmobile screen.

    When I Camer/Pwr up i get rainbow with “Seria10” and nothing else. I tried to reload original spl and recovery but i get the above problems no matter.

    Please help Brother.

    Thanks,
    Jason

    1. Hey Jason Talley,

      Try the method of taking out the SD card putting it into an SD adapter and into your computer. Then put a custom ROM on their, rename it to update.zip and then put it back into the phone. Hold down Home and Back and when the ! comes up hit Alt and S.
      Let me know if this works.

      And if not, then try this same method but with a different ROM instead.

  39. One more note of interest,

    on rainbow screen the following is there.

    DREA100 PVT 32B
    HBOOT-0.95.0000
    CPLD-4
    RADIO-2.22.19.21I

  40. Great tutorial. If I flash a theme now and decide to change themes later (for example the Hero theme to Prodigal Sun theme), do I need to wipe my phone, flash the rom (cyanogen’s in this case), and then flash a new theme? Or, can I just put a new theme on the SDCARD titled update.zip and flash the new theme? Thanks a bunch!

    Travis

    1. Hey Travis,

      Thanks!
      Just put the new update.zip file on your SD card, and Alt S at the recovery screen.
      One thing though, I’d recommend flashing the original G1 theme (you can find it on XDA) in between flashing new themes otherwise if one theme alters a certain icon but the other doesn’t you’ll end up with all mixed up themes, make sense? But it’s not mandatory.

  41. Hey David,

    I havent uploaded ROM.zip yet but I have uploaded radio.zip awhile ago….what do you think I should do? Will it hurt anything if I upload ROM next…also what is ROM going to help with?

    Thanks for the help in advance.

    1. Hello Josh Duke,

      That would depend on which ROM? If you are going to a Hero based ROM then do NOT upload the ROM file next until you have uploaded the latest SPL (instructions in the Load Hero procedure). Otherwise, if it is any other ROM then you should be fine. Remember to rename it to update.zip before you try to load it 😉

  42. I flashed the jesus freke rom because i was having problems with thedudeoflife’s. i flashed the htc hero theme made for the jesus freke rom and when i reboot, it still looks the same, no change. how do i get this to work?

  43. Hello I just received the unlock code for the g1 from t-mobile’s customer service.

    My phone is already unrooted and I amd running on the cyanogenmod v3.6.5 and the newest radio.

    I was wondering is it ok to unlock my phone? Or what procedures do I need to follow before I unlock my phone?

  44. Hey David, I’m having a hard time putting the dudes rom on my phone. I had jf 1.5 and i wanted to try out the dudes. Is there anything different i need to do?

  45. Hey David whats up, i have this weird problem with my phone, it has nothing to do with anything on ur site. I just wanted to see if u can help me out here. The “p”, the “enter” and delete button, and such, on my keyboard acts strange, whenever i type, and by accident press one of them, random letters just start appearing and the back button also doesnt really work either. It cant be water or steam getting into the phone because i never exposed it to neither of them. actually the phone was working fine and then i took about a 2 hour nap and woke up and found out the problem i had with my phone. and before i fell asleep it was fine because i was texting and had no problem. i guess its a hardware problem, is there anything you know that i can do? and i dont have insurance on the phone so tmobile cant give me a replacement unless i pay for it, and i dont wanna do that. the virtual keyboard works fine, its just a couple keys on the actual keyboard and the back button dont work anymore. If you can please help with any tips you know of, or solutions to solve this problem, thanks alot.

    1. Hey Gylmar,

      This may sound like a weird question but I’ve seen it a few times before… Do you drool sometimes when you sleep?
      I have seen maybe 2 or 3 people have issues like this after taking a nap and it turned out that they actually drooled on the phone and this caused enough water damage to fry the phone lol
      But regardless, check under the battery and see if the white dot is pink/red at all. If not then call T-Mobile and ask them if you are still under warranty (so long as you got the phone less than a year ago you should be). Then tell them that the buttons aren’t working correctly (you might want to leave out the fact that you rooted and have a custom ROM as they will immediately, out of poor training, tell you that that is your issue etc.) and they will do a warranty replacement. Which is totally free by the way 🙂 And has nothing to do with whether you have insurance or not.
      Just remember to do the unroot procedure before you send it back to them lol

  46. I just talked to someone that works at the tmobile store and they said they to ask for a replacement phone and that it should be free because my phone is still under the 1 year warranty. so all i have to do is just unroot it and put it back to RC-29 factory settings. and send it back when i get the replacement. Am i correct? And i as you know, i have the apps2sd feature on my phone and really wanted to know if i get the new g1 and then root it, put back my sd card, will i then have the apps2sd feature again without having to do the whole process again??? and would it mess up my sd card? i realy really need to know this asap because this is the only thing holding me back to sending my phone for getting a replacement… thanks again david.

    1. Hello Gylmar,

      That is right, just do the unroot procedure on this site before you send it back.
      And you won’t have to redo the partitioning, but you will have to redo the terminal steps as well as re-rooting, and loading a custom ROM.

  47. Thanks alot david, i talked to tmobile and yes they are sending me a new g1 🙂 i told them my problem and they said they couldnt find andway to solve the problem, and they didnt want me to master reset the phone because since the keyboard isnt working correctly i might be locked out the hone. And as for the drooling, lol, i dont think it was that because my phone wasnt that near. but that is a pretty funny thing. Thanks alot once again, so all i have to is just go to the terminal log and type in the letters right? i dont have to make a folder inside a folder inside a folder in my sd card again right? lol.

    1. Hey Gylmar,

      Glad to hear 🙂
      And also glad to hear you aren’t a drooler lol I swear I’ve seen at least two phones with water damage that were caused by drool lol
      No you should just be able to load a ROM and do the terminal steps and be all set.

  48. lol thats some pretty crazy stuff if you ask me. haha… will my apps be back on my phone or do i have to download all of them again?

  49. Hey david I uploaded the htc hero everything is great the only thing I was not able to do was be able to get in to myspace it say httc error 400 what’s the deal?

  50. Hi David,
    !st of I want to say thanks for all your tutorial videos, they been of so much help.

    I have a few question, hoe you or anyone in here can help.
    I have rooted my phone, I have the Dudes ROM, Radio, but seem to have problems loading a Theme.
    I have tried the JF ROM also,
    my question is how do I delete a previous ROM? or do I just copy the ROM to my SD card, and unpate?
    or do I need to do something else?
    Is it the same for theme, just download the Theme, copy to SD, rename to update, and do the prosedure of turning of etc.
    or is there a way to first delete the previous ROM or Theme?

    I tried this Theme:
    http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=529121

    with the Dudes and JF ROM, you posted here…

    but no luck, what Rom van I use…???

  51. Hi David, Ive followed your wonderful guide to rooting and now im running on rooted firmware 1.0 and baseband version 62.33.20.08H_1.22.12.29.
    Previously i was running on stock Singapore firmware as mine is a Singapore HTC dream. I was wondering if i can flash the custom rom directly now, or do i need to update my radio since it is a Singapore phone ?
    Thanks alot ^^

    1. Hello Sy,

      You can load the ROM as is, you shouldn’t need a newer Radio for a Non Hero ROM (and with a Non Hero ROM you can just reload a radio after the fact if your phone isn’t functioning well with the Radio you have).

  52. hey david, not that im trying to do it, but just wondering how do you untheme a g1, like puting it back in the stock theme it came with, or is it even possible? oh and btw i did the terminal steps and everything went fine. i have the apps2sd again on my new replacement g1 🙂

    1. Hello Gylmar,

      Ha, no problem. You just need to find an original G1 theme and load that and you’ll be back to the original theme. You can find it by doing a quick search on XDA-Developers.com

  53. oh alright thanks because i think i might be tired after a while with any theme that i have on my phone and just wanted the heads up. thanks… you think you can give the the download link for the original g1 theme for a JF 1.51 ADP G1? i would really appreciate it, thanks.

  54. Hey David, I’m running the latest Cyanogen Rom. Do I need to load a different radio then the link you provided here?

  55. Hey David, are u gonna make a tutorial on the JacHeroski 2.7.3 hero ROM, because supposably thats the Hero rom but now much faster, is this true?

    1. Hey Gylmar,

      Just follow the How to Load Hero Tutorial and just use the JACHeroSki.zip file as the ROM file. Name it to update.zip and put it on the topmost folder of the SD Card and follow the rest of the Hero ROM tutorial as normal. *Make sure NOT to load the Radio or SPL if you ALREADY HAVE!

  56. you mean the tutorial you have on your sight? and it said that this ROM supposably has apps2sd built in, so since i already have a ext2 on my sd card, the ROM should do the process by itself right?

  57. so what are the differences in the dude’s and jesusfrek’s roms? and if i’m on either of those roms will i benifit from loading a radio? if so wich one should i load? thanks!

    1. Hello MrJoeyloke,

      You would have to visit the developer’s pages to find out exactly what the differences are.
      As far as loading a radio, if you loaded the newest radio already then do NOT ever load another one. If you haven’t then you could benefit from it, so I would maybe load it just to do it. Just don’t ever try to load a different one once you have the latest, downgrading or even loading the same radio twice can cause a serious headache.
      As far as there should only be one update.zip. That is correct. Truthfully, your computer won’t let you have two files in the same directory with the same name anyway…

  58. i load the rom first right? and each time i need to delete the old zip file named update? just one “update.zip” should be on the sd card at a time?

  59. thanks! one more thing? i’m not on 1.5 right now since i just got my phone today. i’m on 1.1 firmwear. do i need to be on cupcake before i root load the rom and radio? my girl is on the dudes rom… can i install the latest radio on hers? thanks again

    1. Hello MrJoeyLoke,

      No, you don’t have to be on cupcake. You can start as is.
      And yes you can load the radio on hers, just make sure you check her radio version first (just in case she already has the latest radio).

  60. hi guys! i just loaded the dudes rom last night… does anyone know this rom includes the lates radio? if it doesn’t, wich one do i load?

    1. Hello MrJoeyLoke,

      Use the steps in the Hero ROM tutorial to find out what radio you have.

      1. CHECK WHAT RADIO YOU HAVE! Power off the phone, power it back on holding the End key and the Camera button.
      IF YOU ALREADY HAVE Radio Version 2.22.19.26I then do NOT download the Radio listed here and SKIP STEPS 6 – 10 (If you load the same radio twice it can harm your device!).

  61. umm…i got a theme ..saved it..named it update…n like the other guy said…i installed it(alt+s) now when i go to reboot it stays st the tmobile G1 icon….im confused …should i wait ..should i wipe mem????

    please help…

    1. Hello Lou,

      Yes, boot into recovery mode and hit Alt W, then hit Alt S again to reload the theme (also check to make sure that the theme is for your specific ROM, it will say it on the developers page for the theme.

  62. can any one give me some info on overclocking? why would i do, it and if i do it, how much juice do i give it? i hack the overclock widget but dont know what the number represent… thanks!

  63. so i loaded the latest rom on to my phone but wasn’t able to do it on my girls phone… it would start the update, then stop, and tell me that it didn’t load… we are both on the dudes rom but i loaded hers about a month ago… any ideas?

  64. hey, im sorry to bother but i downloaded a rom and decided to download another 1 n the second one got downloaded on top of da 1st one n now i have like double apps. how can i fix that?

    thank u =)

  65. Help!
    I tried installing the HTC hero Rom, I installed and then hit restart and my screen resarted to a contant white flashing screen, please help. Im freaking out cause it wont even let me return back to the home screen to plug it back onto the computer.

    Thank you,
    Ryan

  66. Ok,
    well after freaking out, i decided to go ahead and try to restore it back to the original by loading it onto the SD through he computer. Luckily that worked! if you could let me know where i went wrong that would be awesome, it said something like, could not find cache? did i not unlock it properly?

    Thanks,
    Ryan

  67. Hey David, I’m hoping you can answer this for me please. I need help, I finished everything the rom and the radio files. Once I did this, i cant get past the boot screen. It will not sign onto my gmial account for me to access the phone. I was able to do this before. Do you know what could be the problem. Thanks

    Mike

  68. Hey David also can you answer another question. How do you update to the lastest firmware when tmobile pushes an update out once you have already modified the rom? Thanks David sorry for all the questions.

  69. Hey,

    well i was just wondering, i wanna try out the CyanogenModv3.6.8.1, but right now i have the JF 1.51 ADP with a custom theme, so if wanted to get the cyanogen mod all i have to do is the same thing if i were to put a rom in or do i have to revert back to somthing else before i load the cyanogen mod?

  70. I’m new to all this tech stuff so I wanna know wat can u do once you root ur g1 like wat r the features to it and wat does herp do to the phone also

  71. Hi, I rooted it, installed a rom, radio then i tryed to install a theme but it said the process com.android.phone has stopped unexpectedly…did i install the wrong theme?

    1. Hello Bryuliro,

      If it gets stuck, just take out the memory card, put it into the SD card adapter and put it into the computer and reload the ROM onto the sd card, then rename to update.zip and put it back into the phone and wipe then apply the update. If it still doesnt work then try a different ROM or start over.

  72. Thanks for all your instructions. May I ask that for the custom radio, it says it improves recption etc. does that mean the radiation levels from the phone increases as well?

  73. does anyone know of a website that has themes for the dude’s rom 1.3??? i tried a 1.2 and it got stuck on the g1 logo screen. thanks

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