Amon RA and I have collaborated to make his excellent recovery image available for the T-Mobile Pulse, and it's now ready!

This is a custom recovery image based on Cyanogen's v1.4 recovery. The purpose of this recovery is to avoid using adb by accessing all features directly from the menu.

Features include:

• full ADB access in recovery mode
• Busybox v1.15.2
• Extended menu
  • Reboot system now :: reboot your phone
  • Go to console :: bring up the console
  • USB-MS Toggle :: enable/disable USB mass storage (use when the phone is connected to your PC)
  • Backup/Restore (recovery partition not included!)
    • Nand backup :: Make a Nand backup
    • Nand + ext backup :: Make a Nand + ext backup
    • Nand restore :: Restore a Nand backup
    • BART backup :: Make a BART backup (Nand + ext)
    • BART restore :: Restore latest BART backup
  • Flash zip from sdcard :: Flash a zip update file from your sdcard
  • Wipe
    • Wipe data/factory reset :: Wipe /data and /cache
    • Wipe Dalvik-cache :: Wipe Dalvik-cache both on /data and ext
    • Wipe SD:ext partition : Wipe the ext partition on your sdcard
    • Wipe battery stats : Wipe the battery stats in /data
    • Wipe rotate settings : Wipe the sensor settings in /data
    • Partition sdcard
    • Partition SD :: Interactive SD partitioning
    • Repair SD:ext :: Repair the ext partition
    • SD:ext2 to ext3 :: Convert ext2 to ext3
    • SD:ext3 to ext4 :: Convert ext3 to ext4
  • Other
    • Fix apk uid mismatches :: Does extacly that
    • Move apps+dalv to SD :: Moves all apps and Dalvik-cache to sdcard (This will NOT enable apps2sd!)
    • Move recovery.log to SD :: Moves the recovery log file to your sdcard. (Use when you want more detailed recovery log information)
• Scripts available from console :
  • Nandroid v2.2.1 : enter "nandroid-mobile.sh" to start.
  • BART v1.0.1 (Backup and Restore Tool) : enter "utility" to start.
  • switchrom.sh V1.1 : enter "switchrom" or "u" to start.
  • sdparted v0.6 : enter "sdparted" to start.

This very much opens the door to custom ROMs for the Pulse!

How to install - Mac, Linux and OSX

- Download the recovery zip file and extract to a directory
- Put your device in bootloader mode - turn if off, then tap the powerbutton while holding the 'Volume Down' and 'End (Red)' keys
- WINDOWS - double click 'install-recovery-windows.bat'
- MAC - Open a terminal window to the directory containing the files, and type 'chmod +x install-recovery-mac.sh' followed by './install-recovery-mac.sh'
- LINUX - Open a terminal window to the directory containing the files, and type 'chmod +x install-recovery-linux.sh' followed by './install-recovery-linux.sh'

That's it, job done! Enjoy!

We haven't yet found the key combination for starting recovery mode from power-off on the device, so you have to enter recovery by doing either 'adb reboot recovery' or by installing 'Quick Boot' from the market (which is also included in my superboot solution).

P

After reading the threads in this Pulse forum I have some questions I'm hoping someone can answer:
1. Is there are difference between recovery and boot mode (and is there also a recovery mode for this device out of the box)?
2. Is it possible to backup the current ROM, boot (and recovery if any) out of the box (without actually changing/installing anything to the phone)?
3. Does a recovery mode mean there is also somewhere a recovery partition on the device with a recovery/restore image? And then the next question if there is: can we free this part of the device memory to gain swap/cache memory?
4. Adb devices does not return my device while fastboot devices does, if in bootloader mode. How can I get adb to work (i've read some things with vendor codes but in this thread 'avoid using adb' is mentioned)?

Thanks!

1. Boot mode is for booting the OS, recovery is for recovery. There is an out of the box recovery, but it's not that useful. Plus, we haven't yet found how to access it via a key combo.
2. Flash recovery and do a nandroid backup.
3. There is no recovery image on the device.
4. You need to add the USB ID to ~/.android/adb_usb.ini - i'll create a seperate post about it when I have a minute!

P

Thanks Paul for the quick reply!

I'll try them all tonight!

Can this be changed to Partition SD-card : 500MB Ext2, remaining Fat32 so the MCR can be installed.

I keep reading

I am really struggling to put the ext2 partition on my SD.

Can someone explain what the Swap partition is for?

Thanks,

Simon, the swap partition is used to help your system run faster. When your system runs out of physical RAM during operations, it uses the swap partition as RAM and writes little bits of stuff that is currently in RAM, but not needed, to the swap partition. This allows you to run more programs at once.



Paul,

As the current modaco rom doesnt like swap partitions, any chance of adding another partition option to create just ext2 and fat32 partitions?

Thanks
Anthony

Hi now that we have the kernel source efforts are being made to make linux swap work, so i doubt that this request would be filled.

well i think thats the way they would play it! lol

Same question here, would it be possible to make a partition option as to make it work well with the Modaco rom & use the A2SD proper, say 1,5GB fat32 and 0,5GB ext2?

Hi,

how can I reverse the process and uninstall the recovery image?

Did you ever find out this, gotta return my to the shop and if they do a data clear this will give the game away :-)


Kev

Hi,

New Pulse owner here I'm trying to do do a Nandroid backup but when i start the install-recovery-windows.bat i pops up a terminal window and says "waiting for device" forever :S I'm using Win7 :/ also i haven't rooted my phone (not sure if it's necessary)

Ur phone is in bootloader (blue screen)?

Yup :S

I solved my exact same issue

http://android.modaco.com/content/t-mobile...7/#entry1117727

I also need to backup to stock , Paul or someone help please !!!

I followed the instructions (having first copied AdbWinApi.dll into the 1.1-pulse-superboot folder created by the zip file).

I had to disconnect the USB cable before I could start the machine in bootloader mode, because it seemd to boot by itself before I could press the requisite keys if the cable was connected.

It started into a screen which said USB FastBoot: V0.5, so I reconnected the USB cable and started the Windows batch file.

Very quickly it seemed to finish. The phone said "writing 'boot' (1990656 bytes) - OKAY

I then took the battery out and put it back in again (is this the only way to get it out of USB FastBoot?).

I then went into Quick Boot (which seemed to have been installed), and pressed the Recovery button.

I got a page which said "/system/bin/sh Wants to run:/system/bin/sh as root:root" - I pressed the "Allow" button.

The phone started booting, and a message "can't access /cache/" <something - couldn't read it> flashed up.

The phone seemed to boot normally then. Is this working as designed?
If so, how do I get into this recovery mode to do a nandroid backup?
If not, what do I do now?

BTW, I repeated the whole process again from the start, just to make sure, and it made no difference.

I know nothing but what I have read in the 3 topics about custom ROMs and this recovery mode.

Am I right to say that I need to partition the SD card to reap the benefits of the custom ROM I have just installed (apps2sd), and I would be able to do that using the recovery image, but for the fact that it puts a swap partition as well?

So is there a simple way of partitioning my SD card without using alternative OS on my laptop to my xp (or vista on my other one if needs be)

Your going to have to use something like gparted. Download the live cd from here burn it and pop it in ur pc and restart, then partition ur card through that. It is a hassle but it is fairly easy to use.

Hi all and thanks for all the info on customising my Pulse! First Android phone for me, got it for £137 at the weekend. I just did my nandroid backup in order to start investigating whether or not the radio rom is in there and whether or not a simlock workaround can be done, not very hopefuly tbh because of little time and motivation but who knows. Just thought I'd mention that rather than install the modified recover image (thereby updating my pulse) I used the boot option

fastboot-windows.exe boot recovery-RA-pulse-v1.2.3.img

This seemed to download the patched recovery image and booted it ok but I assume didn't actually flash the recovery image so the original is still there. I will be waiting for the newer versions of Android to be made available before I change anything.

Hi,

Are there any plans to update the recovery image? Amon-RA recovery is now up to version 1.5 with the Dream, it has some great new features in it that would be great to have.

See here!

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=566669

Thanks,

J