Rooting a G1 phone – Part 1
In case you’re not familiar with Unix terminology, I’m not talking about some kind of sick techno-fetish. I’m talking about gaining full and unrestricted access to the software that powers your phone. Just like administrator on your Windows PC. You are free to do anything, including making it not go so good no more.
When you purchase a PC, you don’t expect the manufacturer to tell you what operating system or other software you can or can’t run on it. You’re free to do what ever the hardware supports. So what’s so different about phones? The main difference is that mobile phone technology has always been entirely proprietary. Even if you had the access, there is probably not a lot you could legally do that would be of any use to you. But that’s finally starting to change now that Google have provided us with an alternative via the G1. This phone is the first generation of handsets powered by the entirely open source Android OS.
I wasn’t looking for a phone when I decided to get this bad boy. If it was just a phone, there’s no way I’d have gotten anything this big. This is not a phone, this is the beginning of the revolution. A miniature PC that you can even make phone calls with if you like. The Android OS is basically a Linux distribution with it’s own custom Java virtual machine. Most Android developers use Java, but it is possible to compile other Linux packages.
Unfortunately, root access isn’t handed to you out of the box. Understandably the phone manufacturer doesn’t want to give you such power because it can cost them more money in support and returns. However, chatting with the Android development community is a very fast way to find out everything you need to know to unlock it. There are also packages in the Android Market which either rely on root access or have greater functionality once it’s available. I’ll go more into it in the subsequent parts. This part I’ll just cover my first impressions of the handset.
I’d been eyeing off the Eee PC and Eee Boxes for a while now, but it looks like I’ve missed the opportunity to get one from the shops with Linux on them in Australia, seems they just don’t stock them any more. The G1 had been out for about a month in Australia, only a few phone companies are selling them on plans. I decided to just buy the thing outright from an on line store based in Australia called MobiCity. I wanted fast delivery and a warranty, so I paid a little more than I probably should have.
When I got the email from the tracking company, it soon became apparent that the phone wasn’t coming from a warehouse in Australia, it was actually coming from Hong Kong. I thought perhaps it’s a good thing, it might get it faster. But no, it had to go through Sydney first so took the full 5 days to get delivered. I couldn’t really complain about this because they stated 1 to 5 days delivery time. Anyway, it was probably for the best since I was on a training session that week, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have taken much in.
Halfway through the training session I got news that the package had arrived. I collected it around lunch time. I even missed out on the free hot dogs being given out that day because I was tearing off packaging and trying to figure out how to get the thing going. Holding the thing, it was a little ugly, but actually not as bad as some people made out in the reviews I’d read. Also the weight was pretty good considering how powerful it is. I put the battery in and fired it up. The little android animation I’d seen in the emulator popped up. Bonus points for no boot music, something that always bugs me about Nokia.
The phone prompted me for my Google account, and then failed to connect using GPRS. The system refused to budge until I registered with a Google account, after some trial and error I found that the menu button brought up an option to configure APN settings. A quick Google and I found some settings posted on Whirlpool forums that worked like a charm. I was in.
Looking at the accessories, it was apparent that I’d bought a phone that originated in the US, was repackaged in Asia for the Asian market and then repackaged again for Australia. I had several power cords and adapters of different shapes and sizes, some inside the original box, and some outside. The box seal had been opened, though nothing had been touched in side the box, they had obviously just put an Asian power adapter in there. I was a bit bummed about it, considering part of the reason I didn’t mind paying a little extra was because I thought I was buying from a solely Australian distributor. At least I have the 12 month warranty, which is something that wasn’t offered by the Ebay dealers. I’m really a bit frustrated with the consumer electronics market here in Australia. If a product isn’t in the mainstream, you pretty much have to buy from overseas. My disappointment was very short lived once I started actually playing with it.
I was actually pleasantly surprised by the handset. The screen snaps up and down quite solidly. I wouldn’t exactly call it durable, but I don’t think you’d be buying one for the farm or a construction site. I didn’t buy it for looks, but I was concerned that it could be a complete monstrosity from some of the reviews I’d read. Many of the pictures I’d seen looked all right, but they were obviously showing off the handset’s best angles. The keyboard is quite comfortable to use with your thumbs. Anyone who expects to be able to touch type on such a tiny thing is tripping. The back cover is just a thin slither of black plastic hiding the battery, sim card, rear speaker and the camera lens. Like I said previously, the weight was very reasonable for what you get. It weighs about the same as my wallet when it has a little bit of shrapnel in it. I’m predicting this thing isn’t going to age gracefully, I’ve probably got about 24 months of being able to use it in public before it’s just too embarrassing.
The operating system is smooth, stable and very importantly it has a very light footprint. With just 192MB ram and a 528 MHz processor I guess you could try and compare it to an early pentium, except the size, OS and fancy hardware makes that a bit of a joke really, I don’t know why I’m mentioning it. Like most Linux distributions, it has a sort of package management interface where you can download bucket loads of software for free. This particular system is called Android Market, and it currently contains hundreds, if not thousands of free applications to download. I pretty much spent the rest of the first night trying out the apps and setting up this blog (Android browser support being most important).