Zac's Pad

This one is based off the Korean KH5200 V10T.

It's an Android 1.6 image for the GW620. Apperently, the difference between the previous V10R and this V10T is mainly fixes around the keyboard and battery life. Personally, I didn't have any problem with the battery life in the last image - it was a big improvement compared to 1.5 but others were having major issues.

Get the image here.

I've added the excellent ADW Launcher as well as the previous TagLauncher, and made a few other small refinements, but nothing major. Mainly small stuff.
e.g. Included Anycut to make it easy to set your APN back up...

Same features and issues as the last firmware.
e.g. Google Goggles is still broken, it's still Korean (by default) and English, it still requires manual APN setup, SMS is still limited, and Call Display is still b0rked.

LG has released the source code for the KH5200 (the Korean version of the GW620.)  The source has the 2.6.29 kernel sources included, so hopefully we can get a newer android of Android running soon!  We're targetting 2.1 to start, but may try to get 2.2 going if 2.1 isn't too tough.  

You can find the source code here.

Here's the source for the version of ADB that works in Linux. I don't think I made any major changes to it - I was trying to make it work properly in OSX when I still thought the problem detailed here was an issue with ADB. It turned out to have more to do with LG, but I'd fumbled around a little in the ADB code trying to make it work initially, and this version seems to work in Linux with the new firmware. I suspect that what's actually going on is that the version of ADB distributed in the SDK is older than the one distributed with the AOSP, and the AOSP version just works, but here's the source regardless. :)

Update: Something seems to have gone horribly wrong with the first image. Give this one a try instead. A few people have confirmed that it works.  It's a slightly smaller repack of the same image

ADB mysteriously stopped working in Linux for the 1.6 version of Android on the LG Eve. Here's an adb that should work on the new image. As always, let me know if you have any problems!

Update: Don't use this unless you really have to - the new Korean 1.6 image is WAY more stable. This one crashes, apps don't work, and it basically sucks.

Ok, here's a quick and dirty root of the Rogers beta 1.6 rom.

3g will not work unless you do a factory reset.

The ABI problem is fixed, so NDK code will install. (e.g. Dosbox, Google Goggles, etc)

I've been running this for a week, and it's fairly stable. Outside of having to factory-reset to get 3g working, everything has been smooth with it.

I'll work on an Apps2SD version once I have a final version from Rogers in my hands.

Enjoy - and let me know if you have any issues. :)

There are a few issues now - this is definitely early Beta... Don't install unless you can handle a little instability.

Fixed! I can now use ADB to talk to the phone in OSX! Turns out that it's a problem with the way that LG designed the phone's composite device vs the way that OSX recognizes composite devices. USB devices all present a class and a subclass to the OS when they're plugged in. For composite devices the class is 0 and the subclass can be 0 (legacy) or 16(current.) Linux plays a little fast and loose, and assumes that anything with a class of 0 is a composite device, but OSX is a little more stringent. It looks for the subclass to be proper. LG made the subclass on the GW620 a 2. Not 0 or 16 like the USB spec says, but 2. Totally non-standard. So, I modified the Info.plist for OSX's composite device driver so that it would also accept 2. Problem solved.

CyrilLD over at XDA found the serial console header on the GW620! It's the 5 contacts in a row underneath the SIM card. The center one is the TX pin. This is a 3.3v serial port, so you'll need a level converter of some sort to connect it directly to a PC's serial port, but most USB-Serial adapters already operate at 3.3v so they should work fine.

I'm now trying to build a kernel (based on the default LG sources) that will output to that port during boot. If I can get boot messages on that serial port, then I should be able to duplicate the settings on the 2.6.29 kernel and hopefully get enough info to figure out where it's crashing. Finger's crossed!

LG Just gave us access to the GW620’s open source code!

We should now be able to compile a more recent kernel for it, and hopefully get Android 2.0 working!  Wooohooo!

 

I’ve uploaded the source code here.  It’s open source, so I don’t think LG will mind.

Update:

Tolemac has made an Apps2SD image based on 1.0g that is way better than mine.  I highly recommend that anyone looking for an update check out his image at

http://www.jros.org/tolemac/?page_id=130&lang_view=en

Cheers!

 

Features:

Nandroid for the LG Eve GW620. Modified by Zacpod (www.zacpod.com) from Nandroid 2.0 I've modified Nandroid and the CM Recovery image to (Mostly) work on the Eve. So, we can now take backups of our devices. Yay! Unfortunately this will not work from Windows - you need to use MacOS or Linux. Windows just doesn't have the tools required to make it work. It might work in Cygwin under windows, but I've not tested it. Here's the tool! Disclaimer: This software is provided as is. I take absolutely no resposibility for anything that may break while it is in use. All I can say is that it works well for me. Your mileage may vary. Instuctions for use: Backup:

1. Boot the device in to Fastboot mode. (e.g.
   Read more

A few of us over at XDA have been trying to root the Eve for a few weeks now, and we've finally done it! W00t!

This guide assumes you already have ADB access to your device. If you don't you need to google for the android SDK and get yourself connected.

Let me know how this works for you all, or if anything is unclear. :)

After playing with this phone for almost a week now, I can say that I am very impressed. Not since the first time I played with a Palm Pro have I been so enamoured of a handheld computer. This little beauty is amazing! I know it's not as slick as the Droid, but it fills a sweet spot in the market that I am smack dab in the middle of. It's a tiny, powerful, android based smartphone with a full slide out querty keyboard - and it's actually smaller than any other handheld I've ever owned. Plus, with a 3 year contract it only cost me $50 Canadian! Bonus!

To be fair, there are a few things I don't like about it:

The short version: This laptop rocks. End of story. ;)

The longer version: This is my first ever Mac, and I have to say I'm impressed. As a long-time PC geek, I'm finding it very easy to adapt to the Mac way of doing things. There are still a few things I need windows or Linux for, most notably Outlook and Xen Center, but for the most part I've been able to find OSX apps that suit all my needs. For the rest, VMWare Fusion fills the gap by letting me run my needed apps on my OSX desktop.

I bought the higher end 13.3" MacBook at 2.4 ghz with the backlit keyboard, and it is totally worth the extra cash. The keyboard was a huge point of contention for me. Though the Mac keyboard is growing on me, I still miss the keyboard from my old Dell. The feel of the Apple KB is nice, but it's keys are spaced far apart and it's missing a few important keys as a result. No page up, no page down, no insert and no delete - it's killing me right now, but I expect I'll get used to it. The backlight is just plain sexy. It makes the machine a treat to use in bed.

Pixy and I have been playing a lot of Test Drive Unlimited recently, so we created this spreadsheet to help us make car buying decisions.  Enjoy!

The short version:  If you can afford it, go get this wheel right now!

The long version: This wheel is simply amazing.  The whole driving game experience is completely enhanced by it, to the point where my fiance has become totally hooked on Test Drive Unlimited.  (I'm writing this to the sounds of her brand new Ferrari screaming down the highway)

Overview:

The box contains the wheel, the pedals, the shifter, and the power supply.  The quality is simply amazing, with a very solid feel.  I should also mention the smell.  The wheel and shifter smell like new leather seats.  It's a little distracting initially; I keep finding myself leaning forward to smell the wheel at the end of each race...

Getting everything hooked up was a snap, and the software installed easily.  I did have a small problem with it detecting the wheel initially, but it was solved simply by unplugging and re-plugging the wheel at the "Detected Game Controllers" screen, at which point the wheel appeared and allowed me to test/configure it.

There are a few reasons you might want a serial port on your router. Maybe you're a firmware hacker, or maybe you're running a bleeding edge version of OpenWRT, or maybe you just want to watch the beastie boot up. Regardless of your reasons, here's how you do it.