FAQ: Getting Started with Android + Pulse

[Guest Josh04]

Phew. Got my Pulse for Christmas, and spent the last few days touring the internet trying to figure out exactly what you can and can't do, and the lack of documentation on *anything* Android-related is such a pain in the arse, so I thought I'd write up some beginner's notes:

1. What is Android?

Android is the operating system running on your Pulse. It was released by Google about two or so years ago, and it's a crazy mash-up of the Linux kernel and some new front-end stuff.

2. Ah, so it's like Ubuntu then?

No! It uses the Linux kernel, but none of the associated stuff, nothing that you'd recognise as Linux-y until you hit the command line, and even then everything is slightly different. Unless you're a kernel developer, the fact that it runs Linux is not useful.

3. Oh man, I thought having an open-source phone would be awesome for modding!

Don't worry, this is still the case. Modding your Pulse is very simple, very flexible and lots of fun. For starters, you can download applications from the marketplace to your heart's content. There are lots of useful applications, but the list I started off with is here: http://goondroid.wikidot.com/useful-apps . There are replacement keyboards, ringtone managers, new 'Home' screens, pretty much everything you could ask for.

4. That's kinda cool, but what's all this I hear about ROMs, kernels and rooting?

Okay, this is where it all starts to get a bit foggy. Let's start with rooting: One of the few places being Linux-based pokes through is that there is a superuser on Android; think of it like sudo in Ubuntu or UAC in Windows. By default, phone providers don't let you access it, but fortunately it's really really easy to fix this, especially on the Pulse.

You simply turn your phone off, then turn it on with Volume Down and Red pressed. You'll get an annoying blue screen which you'll need to take the battery out to get rid of, but in this mode you are running as root. This wouldn't be much help, but you can plug the phone into your computer and use tools like this: http://android.modaco.com/content/t-mobile...t-a-custom-rom/ to make yourself able to access root in the rest of the OS.

5. But why would I want to root? What can I do?

You can run things as admin from the 'adb' command line utility on your PC. That's about it. Most of the other stuff is development related, and you won't need to interact with.

It has, however, lead to the creation of ROMs such as this: http://android.modaco.com/content/t-mobile...t-mobile-style/

6. What is this?

It's a custom ROM for your phone! What is that? It's speed enhancements, minor features and other stuff. It works by replacing the userland and the kernel of your phone with edited versions.

7. Wait what's a userland? And a kernel?

The userland is the set of default programs which run on the phone. For instance, if you install from the previous link, you'll get a tiny icon when your wifi has disconnected. The kernel is the Linux-y bit, and a custom one can have features like automatically compressing your RAM to provide more total memory.

7.5. I went to that page; before I install the ROM it tells me to download a recovery image. What's that?

The recovery image is very very helpful. When you've installed the December update (Official minor upgrade from the T-Mobile site), you can access it by holding Home and Red when you turn your phone on. It's a short menu with some backup options which you can use in case you horrible mess up installing a ROM. Installing the custom recovery image is as simple as plugging it in, rebooting into blue screen mode (Boot mode) and running the program on your PC (N.B: On some Windows computers, you may need to manually install the drivers for the phone with the Device Manager. They come with the terrible 'PC Suite' on the disk that came with). Once it's installed, you should reboot into it and choose backup, then 'Nandroid backup', which will write a backup of your current Android install to your SD card. If you mess up, simply enter recovery mode and run 'Nandroid restore', and your phone will be all better!

8. Okay, I get what a ROM is. What's this I keep hearing about 1.6 and donuts? Will a custom ROM give me that?

Eventually, but not yet. T-Mobile and Huawai haven't released an official 1.6 Android for the Pulse, and might drag their heels with doing it too, while the rest of the world moves on to 2.0 and 2.1. Fortunately, they've released the source code for their modifications to the kernel to make it run on the Pulse. Unfortunately, they haven't released the source to many of the drivers, and the source for Android is of unparalleled complexity when it comes to building it into something runnable. A few devs are working on it though, and apparently the code is based on this branch: https://www.codeaurora.org/gitweb/quic/la/ rather than the official Android branch, which only adds to the confusion.

Unfortunately also, programs are starting to creep in which rely on 1.6; for instance, Google Goggles will not work on 1.5 like the Pulse uses.

Well, that's my impressions on the Android and Pulse after a few days, hope someone finds it useful.

Things I'm prepared to take a beating correction over:

Is root really as useless as it seems?

Is there a better name for 'userland' than I've used?

Edited December 27, 2009 by Josh04

[Guest h3dshot]

very helpful for complete noobs like myself thanks alot

[Guest le_lutin]

Thanks so much for the FAQ.

[Guest tombren]

Phew. Got my Pulse for Christmas, and spent the last few days touring the internet trying to figure out exactly what you can and can't do, and the lack of documentation on *anything* Android-related is such a pain in the arse, so I thought I'd write up some beginner's notes:

1. What is Android?

Android is the operating system running on your Pulse. It was released by Google about two or so years ago, and it's a crazy mash-up of the Linux kernel and some new front-end stuff.

2. Ah, so it's like Ubuntu then?

No! It uses the Linux kernel, but none of the associated stuff, nothing that you'd recognise as Linux-y until you hit the command line, and even then everything is slightly different. Unless you're a kernel developer, the fact that it runs Linux is not useful.

3. Oh man, I thought having an open-source phone would be awesome for modding!

Don't worry, this is still the case. Modding your Pulse is very simple, very flexible and lots of fun. For starters, you can download applications from the marketplace to your heart's content. There are lots of useful applications, but the list I started off with is here: http://goondroid.wikidot.com/useful-apps . There are replacement keyboards, ringtone managers, new 'Home' screens, pretty much everything you could ask for.

4. That's kinda cool, but what's all this I hear about ROMs, kernels and rooting?

Okay, this is where it all starts to get a bit foggy. Let's start with rooting: One of the few places being Linux-based pokes through is that there is a superuser on Android; think of it like sudo in Ubuntu or UAC in Windows. By default, phone providers don't let you access it, but fortunately it's really really easy to fix this, especially on the Pulse.

You simply turn your phone off, then turn it on with Volume Down and Red pressed. You'll get an annoying blue screen which you'll need to take the battery out to get rid of, but in this mode you are running as root. This wouldn't be much help, but you can plug the phone into your computer and use tools like this: http://android.modaco.com/content/t-mobile...t-a-custom-rom/ to make yourself able to access root in the rest of the OS.

5. But why would I want to root? What can I do?

You can run things as admin from the 'adb' command line utility on your PC. That's about it. Most of the other stuff is development related, and you won't need to interact with.

It has, however, lead to the creation of ROMs such as this: http://android.modaco.com/content/t-mobile...t-mobile-style/

6. What is this?

It's a custom ROM for your phone! What is that? It's speed enhancements, minor features and other stuff. It works by replacing the userland and the kernel of your phone with edited versions.

7. Wait what's a userland? And a kernel?

The userland is the set of default programs which run on the phone. For instance, if you install from the previous link, you'll get a tiny icon when your wifi has disconnected. The kernel is the Linux-y bit, and a custom one can have features like automatically compressing your RAM to provide more total memory.

7.5. I went to that page; before I install the ROM it tells me to download a recovery image. What's that?

The recovery image is very very helpful. When you've installed the December update (Official minor upgrade from the T-Mobile site), you can access it by holding Home and Red when you turn your phone on. It's a short menu with some backup options which you can use in case you horrible mess up installing a ROM. Installing the custom recovery image is as simple as plugging it in, rebooting into blue screen mode (Boot mode) and running the program on your PC (N.B: On some Windows computers, you may need to manually install the drivers for the phone with the Device Manager. They come with the terrible 'PC Suite' on the disk that came with). Once it's installed, you should reboot into it and choose backup, then 'Nandroid backup', which will write a backup of your current Android install to your SD card. If you mess up, simply enter recovery mode and run 'Nandroid restore', and your phone will be all better!

8. Okay, I get what a ROM is. What's this I keep hearing about 1.6 and donuts? Will a custom ROM give me that?

Eventually, but not yet. T-Mobile and Huawai haven't released an official 1.6 Android for the Pulse, and might drag their heels with doing it too, while the rest of the world moves on to 2.0 and 2.1. Fortunately, they've released the source code for their modifications to the kernel to make it run on the Pulse. Unfortunately, they haven't released the source to many of the drivers, and the source for Android is of unparalleled complexity when it comes to building it into something runnable. A few devs are working on it though, and apparently the code is based on this branch: https://www.codeaurora.org/gitweb/quic/la/ rather than the official Android branch, which only adds to the confusion.

Unfortunately also, programs are starting to creep in which rely on 1.6; for instance, Google Goggles will not work on 1.5 like the Pulse uses.

Well, that's my impressions on the Android and Pulse after a few days, hope someone finds it useful.

Things I'm prepared to take a beating correction over:

Is root really as useless as it seems?

Is there a better name for 'userland' than I've used?

That is a very interesting post,especially for for us tecno illiterates.Would it be possible to give a step by step guide to adding the custom rom,including what needs doing to sd card.Pauls guide assumes we know more than some of us actually do.thanks confused .com. :)

[Guest David Horvath]

That is a very interesting post,especially for for us tecno illiterates.Would it be possible to give a step by step guide to adding the custom rom,including what needs doing to sd card.Pauls guide assumes we know more than some of us actually do.thanks confused .com. :)

Check out the wiki. There is a howto.

[Guest tombren]

Check out the wiki. There is a howto.

The wiki is ok for those who already understand howto,but not for those of us who are not as clued up.

[Guest bencoder]

The wiki is ok for those who already understand howto,but not for those of us who are not as clued up.

My friend posted a pretty good tutorial on his blog: http://www.stealthcopter.com/blog/2009/12/...e-pulse-huawei/

It's what I worked from, I just followed the steps one by one. Note however that this was from before the december update, so that is an extra step that you will probably have to figure out from elsewhere (unless you want to install the 1.1 MCR). Apart from that it's a good guide.

[Guest Josh04]

That is a very interesting post,especially for for us tecno illiterates.Would it be possible to give a step by step guide to adding the custom rom,including what needs doing to sd card.Pauls guide assumes we know more than some of us actually do.thanks confused .com. :)

I'll see what I can do, but I won't have time for a day or so. I agree that as a beginner it's crazy how much you're expected to just 'know'.

[Guest Spook Tooth]

Very good post Josh04, even I could understand pretty much all of what you were on about and couldn't be bothered to research myself due to being totally in the dark with all this developer lark.

Thanks a lot for going to the trouble in writing this handy (and entertaining) beginner's guide.

I think the only thing to point out is the T-Mobile drivers are only available once you've installed the rubbish PC Suite software and then gone to the installation directory (eg, C:\Program Files\PC Suite\driver). I had to manually install the drivers for both an XP (32bit) and Windows 7 (64bit) install (I've archived the driver folder so I can leave all that PC Suite pap off my computer).

Cheers for the link, bencoder. I'll be sure to look it up and if I'm feeling brave I may even try some of those suggestions for accessing root/blue screen thing. I'd like to get more involved with the inner workings of the Pulse but am too afraid to try, especially now they are no longer so readily available on PAYG.

[Guest tombren]

I'll see what I can do, but I won't have time for a day or so. I agree that as a beginner it's crazy how much you're expected to just 'know'.

Thanks for your understanding of the problems of the less technical,I have copied a for instance from Pauls post." You must NOT have a swap partition on your SD, or it will refuse to mount." What people like me need is an explanation of what that means and how we will know, or at least a link to an explanation.And any statements like that need explanations.Again thanks in advance of enlightment.