Saturday, April 17, 2010

How to Install Android 2.1[Eclaire] on HTC Vogue [Telecom NZ Okta Touch]

Telecom NZ had shipped out HTC Vogue some years ago,rebadged as Okta Touch on its CDMA network . The original phone was shipped out with Windows Mobile 6.0 and after the release of Windows Mobile 6.1 by Microsoft, an update was posted by Telecom NZ, which allowed Okta Touch owners to move on to the new version [Tony Hughes has got a nice article with instructions on how to upgrade to WM6.1 http://www.geekzone.co.nz/tonyhughes/6309]

I have owned this fabulous phone for almost 6 months now. I resisted my urge to buy an iphone because of its locked down nature and was awaiting Android to gain market share and traction. Within the last year, there have been some really nice Android phones released in the market, eg. Droid from Motorolla, Google's Nexus One

Being ever so inquisitive, I started searching for ways of getting Android on to my HTC Vogue aka Okta Touch. From the articles that I read up, this process seemed very straight forward and so I gave it a try. Now that I have used it for a while, I am very impressed with Android 2.1 aka Eclair . I havent quite fully migrated onto Android since at the moment I am running it off my microSD card. Once I have tested it for a week, I will install it on the NAND chip of my HTC Vogue and have it as the primary operating system for my phone.

For those of you who would like to give Android a go on your Okta Touch, I have listed below the steps. The official site for Android on HTC is located at http://sourceforge.net/projects/androidhtc

Prepare your microSD card
1. Go to sourceforge and download haretinstall.zip . This package contains a linux bootloader that will be used to reboot your phone and run your Android image.

2. The haretinstall.zip archive is just a zip of a folder called andboot. Unzip the archive and place this folder on the root of your microSD card. MAKE SURE YOU TRANSFER EVERYTHING.

3. Download the Eclair image from http://sourceforge.net/projects/androidhtc/files/2010-03-25/mssmisoneclair7.rar/download. This archive is quite large and contains the archive androidinstall.rar [there is a gingerbread version out. I haven't tested this but if you do go ahead with this image, please post your results. It can be found at https://sourceforge.net/projects/androidhtc/files/latest ]

4. Copy the archive androidintall.rar into the folder andboot on the microSD card. DO NOT UNZIP THE FILE. JUST COPY IT

Boot Into Android
5. From Windows Mobile, start File Explorer and browse to your microSD card and then into your andboot folder. You will see a file called haret . Double tap it to run it. Once it starts, leave the defaults and tap Run . This will power down your phone and boot it up into Linux. Keep an eye on the progress since it will prompt you to press on the D Pad if you wish to Install or change any settings. When it does, press on the D Pad (the Enter button). This will take you into the Install menu.

6. Choose Install System . It will warn you that your system will be wiped. Click Yes to confirm. After that you will be prompted if you would like to flush out the data. Select Yes to this.

7. Once the install is finished, you will be returned to the Options. Select Quit. This will start Android.

THE FIRST BOOTUP IS VERY SLOW. DONT PANIC. JUST LET IT TAKE ITS TIME

Viola! You have Android running on your HTC Vogue aka Okta Touch.

Some tips on Android

# Volume controls volume
# Long Press camera is home
# Press and release camera is back
# Press and release top power button is menu
# Press and hold 1 second top power button for on screen keyboard
# Press and hold 2 seconds top power button for landscape (turn off auto rotate in settings)
# Press and hold end key for shutdown menu
# For best battery life, disable background data in Settings..Data Synchronization

FAQs
- Getting Internet Working
In the Menu, choose Settings and then Wireless & networks
Once here select Mobile networks
Click on Access Point Names. The default one listed is Android. Tap on it and fill in the username and password as per your carriers data network settings


I am just loving Android and even more so the concept of a Market Place for apps, or as iPhone coined it, the AppStore. I am just soo addicted.

Have fun and I will post soon how to get Android as your primary OS on your Okta Touch.

23 comments:

Unknown said...

I know this is a slightly old post, but i'm thinking about putting android on my TCNZ okta aswell, but a little weary. Does this process remove WM6.1 from the phone or will it still boot from wm6.1 if the microsd card is removed?
Thanks

Niv said...

Hi Chitvan.

The method I have listed does not remove WM6.1 from your Okta. To run Android, you first have to start your phone, which boots WM6.1. Then you have to access your microSD and click on the Android boot file. This in turn restarts your phone and loads Android in memory. So if you were to remove your microSD, it will not boot Android. If you are in Android, doing a hard reset will return you to WM6.1. The only time you delete your WM6.1 from the phone is when you flash it so that it starts Android natively.

Hope this helps.

Unknown said...

Thanks Niv, will give this a go now!

Jason said...

"Getting Internet Working
In the Menu, choose Settings and then Wireless & networks
Once here select Mobile networks
Click on Access Point Names. The default one listed is Android. Tap on it and fill in the username and password as per your carriers data network settings"

I hope your able to help me:
I've been runing on my okta touch, android 2.3(I think its called 'gingerbread') for the last week now and trying to get the data going, been into the APN section and a couple of times searched the net for username/password and data setting, but can't find anything from telecom. do you know what the settings etc are? or where I should look?, thanks!

Nivlesh Chandra said...

Hi im_jase. Have you tried APN: wap.telecom.co.nz and for username/password leave these blank?

Jason said...

Under the access point option I have many feilds to fill in where would I put wap.telecom.co.nz? Name, APN, Proxy, Port, username, password, server, MMSC, MMS Proxy, MMS Port, MCC, MNC, Authentication type,

Jason said...

Thanks for your quick reply and help!

Nivlesh Chandra said...

* APN: wap.telecom.co.nz
* Proxy: Not Set
* Port: Not Set
* Username: Not Set
* Password: Not Set
* Server: Not Set
* MMSC: http://lsmmsc.xtra.co.nz
* MMS Proxy: 210.55.11.73
* Auth: Not Set
* APN Type: Not Set
* MCC: 530
* MNC: 05

Got these from http://www.visser.com.au/blog/android-froyo-apn-details-for-mobile-internet-on-telecom-nz/

Am not sure if this will work with CDMA devices since it is XT but worth a try ;) I have moved off Telecom NZ as my provider so unable to test.

Nivlesh Chandra said...

Check this site out as well

http://www.androidmobile.co.nz/forum/8-technical/84-android-apn-settings-new-zealand

Unknown said...

Hi Niv.
Do you also have to copy the tgz file to the andboot folder?

Nivlesh Chandra said...

Hi Malik10

Sorry for the confusion on step 1. I have re-written the steps. Please let me know if you have any questions. Hope you enjoy Android on your HTC :)

Unknown said...

Hi Niv, thanks for the quick response. One more thing though. When I have done everything and ran the Haret.exe, and I clicked run, then it said failed to load Sd/android/zImage. What must I do?

Unknown said...

I mean StorageCard/andboot/zImage. Any ideas?

Nivlesh Chandra said...

Hi Malik10

Got the following from http://www.androidonhtc.com/old/troubleshooting

Receive error "Failed to load file \Storage Card\zImage"

When you run Harnet, if you get an error that says “Failed to load file \Storage Card\zImage” or something like that; you have one of two problems.

1. The file is not named correctly; this is commen when you use your phone to download a new file, like zImage. You phone may try and give it an extension, and zImage does not have one. To fix this (mainly for the zImage error), use Total Commander; it will display the entire file name and extension; I just downloaded one and when my phone downloaded and saved it, it was named “zImage.” not “zImage”; using total commander I deleted the period at the end and now it works.

or

2. The file is missing, or no located where the default.txt file says it is located. 1st; Check and make sure the file is on the root of your SD card and has a normal name (when you download the file it normally has a wierd name and needs to be renamed).

2nd; Make sure your default.txt says it is located normally. When I used to jump between different base files, I kept editing the default.txt file and left the file named wierd; well I forgot and for a while was never able to get harnet to run. Once I renamed the file to a normal name and set the default.txt to the normal name, it worked.

Unknown said...

Hi Niv.
Thank you for the advice. My problem was in number 1 of your solution. There is still one last problem... well I hope it is.. Anyways, When its supposed to boot up Android, then it says:
"Android [110.308589] init: Unable to open persistent property directory /data/property errno: 2". Any more wise ideas??

Nivlesh Chandra said...

Hi malik10

Can you please tell me the following
- model, version of your phone
- size of the sd card
- is there any other memory cards on your phone (minisd etc)
- version of the android image you are installing (is it eclair?)

Regards

Unknown said...

Finally... All I needed to do was reinstall the system (android)and now it works. Anyways thank you for all of your help during this installation and your quick responses. Your service is the best online help I've ever used. Thank you Niv.

Unknown said...

Hi Niv.
I tried the gingerbread image and it works well. Its a bit sluggish at first but its quite nice.

Nivlesh Chandra said...

Hi Malik

Am glad you got Android working on your phone. Well done. Also thanks for the update on gingerbread. Unfortunately I dont have a htc phone anymore so cant test it.

Take care

Anonymous said...

Hi Niv,

I just stumbled across your post while looking for info on using gps on the Okta Touch. I bought one in NZ a few weeks ago with WM6.1 on it and have had various flavours of Android running on it in the way you describe. However, although opinion seems to be that MW6.1 activated GPS in the Okta I have not been able to get it working. Have you? If so, how?

Nivlesh Chandra said...

Hi SleepyJohn

I do remember that with WM6.1, there was a utility (either native or something one had to install) that allowed one to access the GPS functionality. Unfortunately I do not have an Okta Touch anymore so cannot test. Try GPS Viewer (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=1520319). Hopefully it helps.

Unknown said...

it doestnt work it saysunable to open persitent proprty directory

AAA said...

hi niv! pls help,when i tried to 'run' it displayed "pls set start of ram(RAMADDR)" pls help me,how do i go about this?