Monday, January 18, 2010

Installing a Hero ROM on your HTC Magic

Official HTC update for the Magic has been released, use that instead if possible!
Go here to read about it.
Or continue reading if you wish to install a custom ROM.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first post might as well be something relevant and fun (I recently followed this guide myself, to install the latest MyHero rom).

One of the best parts of having an Android phone is that the platform is open (to a certain degree) and it is possible for developers to create a customized rom and use that instead of the one that came with their phone.
The HTC Hero introduced the HTC Sense UI to the Android platform, but HTC has been reluctant to release a rom for the Magic with Sense (some countries have gotten an update, but most haven't).
Luckily a large number of developers (you can find them here on xda-developers.com) have been working on creating Magic compatible roms with HTC Sense after the release of the Hero and the 'Magic with Sense' roms for some countries.

The best guide to update your phone I've found is located here - written by KarrdeNZ.
Following that guide will allow you to install custom Hero-based roms on your Magic.
I installed the MyHero rom which, imo, is one of the best.
You'll also need a recovery image (the guide explains why) and I would suggest Amon_Ra's (my Danish Magic uses the 32A/.H image).


You'll need the Android SDK to perform these operations (explained in the guide), but if you are using Windows 7, the required drivers might not be installed.
Follow this guide to solve that issue. After you've done that, you might need to uninstall HTC Sync (and the driver it installed) in order to get it to recognise your phone.


Have fun upgrading your phone (don't forget to backup as the guide explains), and enjoy your new, improved, HTC Magic :)

0 comments: