Help for Christmas!

[Guest David Roper]

I've bought my brother an orange San Francisco for Christmas! The family has entrusted me with unlocking it and rooting it for him before the big day. I have unlocked and rooted a tmobile pulse and the original San Francisco but this seems more difficult.I have a few questions:Do you unlock first and then root or the other way around?What's giffgaff like as a provider?What ROM should I shuve on it that requires little to no maintainance from him? (he's not good with computers)Anything anyone can suggest regards to not bricking it?

I know this makes me sound like a noob- but the last thing I want is to ruin Christmas!ThanksDavid

[Guest fr0do]

Which first - just pick a guide and follow it.

GiffGaff are cheap for web usage

Both ROMS in the guides are no maintenance

[Guest PsYcHoKiLLa]

OK David, Follow this and you should be ok, as for GiffGaff I can't comment as I've never used em...

1. Download and install the QPST tools using the instructions from here
2. Use the instructions to create a backup qcn file which will hold all the details for the phone including the wireless mac address which is an important part, cos if you lose the mac address you won't get wireless internet. For security I would make a physical note (write it down :) ) of the mac address as well, you can access this from the phone's settings.
3. Flash the TPT from this topic (I would recommend the one with the 40MB cache partition, this will make sure he can install most apps), so use this tpt, this will also install the clockwork mod which will allow you to then flash a custom rom to the phone. It also gives you much better spacing of the partitions than the stock rom. Once it's complete it will then reboot into the clockwork recovery mod. Go to the mounts and storage menu and choose the mount sd card at the bottom
4. I would recommend this custom rom, download the rom itself and the stock orange kernel, then transfer both to the sdcard, wipe all the caches (data, cache, dalvik and battery stats) and flash first the custom rom and then without restarting flash the stock orange kernel, this will make sure the keyboard works properly as the tracking is different between the t-mobile and orange models.
5. Reboot the phone
6. Go into settings and see if it has kept your wireless mac address, if not then use the QPST suite again to restore the default settings from the qcn file you saved previously.
7. Reboot the phone again

If you get stuck then I previously posted full instructions here, those did not include the new TPT partitions as those weren't release yet.

Edited December 19, 2011 by PsYcHoKiLLa

[Guest David Roper]

1324325354' post=1868533']

OK David, Follow this and you should be ok, as for GiffGaff I can't comment as I've never used em...

1. Download and install the QPST tools using the instructions from here
2. Use the instructions to create a backup qcn file which will hold all the details for the phone including the wireless mac address which is an important part, cos if you lose the mac address you won't get wireless internet. For security I would make a physical note (write it down :) ) of the mac address as well, you can access this from the phone's settings.
3. Flash the TPT from this topic (I would recommend the one with the 40MB cache partition, this will make sure he can install most apps), so use this tpt, this will also install the clockwork mod which will allow you to then flash a custom rom to the phone. It also gives you much better spacing of the partitions than the stock rom. Once it's complete it will then reboot into the clockwork recovery mod. Go to the mounts and storage menu and choose the mount sd card at the bottom
4. I would recommend this custom rom, download the rom itself and the stock orange kernel, then transfer both to the sdcard, wipe all the caches (data, cache, dalvik and battery stats) and flash first the custom rom and then without restarting flash the stock orange kernel, this will make sure the keyboard works properly as the tracking is different between the t-mobile and orange models.
5. Reboot the phone
6. Go into settings and see if it has kept your wireless mac address, if not then use the QPST suite again to restore the default settings from the qcn file you saved previously.
7. Reboot the phone again

If you get stuck then I previously posted full instructions here, those did not include the new TPT partitions as those weren't release yet.

Thanks for the help!Should I unlock it before or after that tutorial? :)

[Guest Liamness]

That (excellent) tutorial covers unlocking in parts 1 and 2. I've rooted mine but could do with unlocking and repartitioning it too, so cheers for the instructions. As for Giffgaff, I've only heard good things about them really. Will be switching over to them once I run out of credit on Orange.

[Guest unrandomsam]

Which first - just pick a guide and follow it.

GiffGaff are cheap for web usage

Both ROMS in the guides are no maintenance

Giff Gaff is not that cheap at least for my usage pattern and O2's network is pretty overloaded. (Maybe its better than 3 out in the sticks).

If they allowed tethering with the unlimited internet (That in reality has a 20G cap) be better.

(I just don't like the lies - They are owned by the same parent company as O2 - they can charge what they choose to (All the stuff like O2 says we need to do x, y, z is nonsense).

[Guest snowbord]

Repartitioning files and guide here, thanks to Amphoras. Works great.

[Guest David Roper]

Any idea how I gt 'clock work mod on this bad boy? And keeps telling me that no device was found?

Edited December 21, 2011 by David Roper

[Guest PsYcHoKiLLa]

As I've already said...

Follow this tutorial

Even if it gives you that message you can still transfer the Clockwork Mod and rom