[Guide] [Android] Debranding and Installing Froyo (Android 2.2) on any HTC Desire/Bravo

Around the beginning of this month, Froyo (Android 2.2) was released for the HTC Desire, which I bought in HK a few months back. Unfortunately, this update was sent through the carriers in the EU and some other countries around the world. This did not include North America and quite a few countries around the world. So I decided to do some digging to figure out if it was possible to get the update without going to the UK. Fortunately I found a way to do it and thought it would be a good idea to share this. Personally, I do not take credit for any of this information; I just managed to piece a lot of information together to get it to work for me in Canada.

So first off, let's just list some of the cool new features of Froyo and then we can get into the actual flashing of the phone. Some new features to Froyo include:

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8 items in task switcher/last used apps

WiFi Hotspot app via. phone data (Tethering via. WiFi)

720p video recording

Ability to sync with iTunes

FM radio widget

Installing applications to SD cards

New Volume settings

Included PIN and alphanumeric lock

Flash 10.1 support

Automatic Market Updates

And a lot more…

*WARNING*
Now for the usual warning, in no way will I be responsible for any damage to your device. As with all flashing and modding, this may cause damage to your phone or even ‘brick’ it. This did not happen to be, but it is a possibility so keep that in mind when following the rest of the guide. There also many other problems that may occur after the update to Froyo as well, keep all this in mind. If you do PART 2 of this guide, you will lose all your data, be sure to back up important files. If you want to keep all your stuff, it might be a good idea to just wait for the Froyo build for your version of the phone from your carrier or from HTC to do patching via. exe files that does not wipe all the data on the phone.

PART 1
So, the first thing we will need to do is create a goldcard, there are two ways to do it, the manual way or using the simple application way. The goldcard is used for flashing files onto our phone; this is used for debranding and to install custom or even some official roms. We will touch upon the second way; this one does require email access in order to get the custom file.
Go to this site to download it: http://android.modac...n-goldcardtool/
Instructions to install this tool is as follows:

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Format the microSD card to FAT32 format.
Put the microSD card in your device and boot it.
Launch GoldCard Tool (Right Click and run as Admin if needed)
Connect Android device to USB (USB Debugging must be enabled on the device)
Click 'Get CID' (If MMC1 fails try MMC0)
Click the link to open revskills.de, enter the CID number from Goldcard Tool and create your goldcard image, which will be e-mailed to you.
Enable USB Mass Storage on the device.
Click 'Refresh' and select your microSD card in the drop down menu.
Click 'Load GoldCard.img' and open the .img file you got by email.
Click 'Patch MMC'

PART 2

Next up we will flash our rom up to the latest version before Froyo and that version is 1.21.405.2, if you already have this version, skip to PART 3. A word of warning again, you will lose all data if you do this step, so get ready for that to happen, the best way is to sync all your data and back up all the necessary files. Before downloading the rom, make sure you have the latest version of HTC Sync to get the drivers for the HTC Desire. You can download HTC Sync from here: http://www.htc.com/w...act=sd&cat=all. If not this part takes some work, first download this rom here:
http://shipped-roms....6984_signed.exe
Before you can install this rom, make sure to enable some things first.

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Settings -> Applications -> Development and tick “USB Debugging” and “stay awake when charging” and finally in
Settings -> Applications tick “Unknown Sources”

After all of this is done, connect the Desire and choose HTC Sync for the connection mode. Then run the above exe file and flash to 1.21.405.2, from there we will then install Froyo on top. If the updater gets stuck on waiting for bootloader, wait for it to time out and give a connection error. After this error, just unplug the phone and plug it back in leaving it at the HTC screen, then run the installer again and it should flash. After this flash, get ready to flash again, this is where the goldcard comes in.

PART 3
Last up we will install Froyo to the device, first download the update file from HTC: http://liveimage.htc...bcrut4wrv30.zip
When you have this file, rename it to update.zip and put it in the root directory of the MicroSD card. Then follow this set of instructions to flash to this image:

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Power down your Desire.
Hold down the “Volume Down” button as you power the phone back on.
A screen should appear showing your phone’s system searching for various files. Scroll down to “recovery” and press the “Power” button.
When you see the triangle with an exclamation point symbol, press the “Power” and “Volume Up” buttons at the same time.
From the menu that appears, select “Apply sdcard:update.zip.”
When the screen displays “Install from sdcard complete” select “reboot system now” and wait for the phone to power back up

After all this work, you should have a working Froyo build, I’ll post up some pictures for the final product soon, more update to come in this thread soon. Also, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to post here and I am sure our community or I will be glad to help.

This post has been edited by shc-boomer: 16 August 2010 - 06:45 AM

Ahhh, smartphone modding. *sniff sniff* I love me the smell of a freshly-flashed phone in the morning!

Haha in all seriousness, when I had a Windows Mobile Phone (i-mate JasJam)... let's just say that the xda-developers forum was by far the most common website in my browser history. :lol:

I loved modding my phone and installing all the custom, stripped-down ROMs. Towards the end (a little while before it died), I got tired of all the modding and kept the same ROM on it, but I still tweaked every possible registry setting and tried out all sorts of stuff on it.

The point of my little nostalgic reminisce up there ^? Reading this thread has made me wish I had an iPhone/Android/WinMo phone to be able to mod to my heart's content.