T-Mobile G2 Users: Migrating to the DesireZ HBOOT

The first question people are going to ask is: why would we want to use the DesireZ HBOOT on our G2s?  The partitioning of your phone is controlled by HBOOT.  The G2 HBOOT has only 400MB allocated to /system and 1.3GB allocated to /data, whereas the DesireZ HBOOT allows for 535MB of /system and 1GB of data.

This is a problem for the newer, larger ROMs such as Virtuous Unity, which has the system apps directory placed on the data partition as a workaround.  As a side effect, Unity needs to be re-flashed every single time data is wiped.  Ultimately we want to eliminate this hack and the first step is to get G2 users over to the DZ HBOOT, since the other supported devices all have sufficiently sized system partitions.

Before You Start

DesireZ users, none of this applies to you unless you flashed the G2 HBOOT at some point, such as when you rooted.  While the process has been tested on my own device and several testers, there remains a small amount of risk of bricking your phone. I think it is unlikely but I will not be responsible if it happens; consider yourself warned.

If you are confused by the process, then just I advise against following through with any of this.  Using the DesireZ HBOOT will not impact your ability to use any ROMs such as Cyanogen, MIUI or otherwise.  Everything will work the same way, only you will have less space in /data and more in /system.

Migration Process

Carefully read and follow the steps below.  It looks a lot more complicated than it is because I am going to be excruciatingly specific.

  1. Flashing a new HBOOT will wipe the radio, recovery, system, cache, data partitions, etc.  This is expected and we will be creating a backup to deal with it.
  2. Make sure you have adb setup and working.  If you are not sure how to do this, then you should stop now.
  3. Download this PC10IMG.zip file, which contains the DesireZ Engineering HBOOT, Clockwork Recovery, the latest T-Mobile radio.
  4. Execute: adb push PC10IMG.zip /sdcard/
  5. Execute: adb shell md5sum /sdcard/PC10IMG.zip, which should return d5ebb7c9aa8e3cab714634a1a7d6f762.
  6. Execute: adb reboot recovery and create a Nandroid backup. Make sure the process completes successfully.
  7. Execute: adb reboot bootloader and select “bootloader” from the menu.
  8. You will see a progress bar on the right side of your screen as the image is validated, then you will be prompted to confirm via the volume up button. Go ahead and confirm.
  9. Flashing will begin. You will notice a reboot in the middle of the process, then another once it is complete.  Leave the phone alone for a few minutes.
  10. After the second reboot, the device will be sitting on the “HTC” screen doing nothing.  This is normal, do not panic.  It is because you have no ROM installed anymore.
  11. Execute: adb reboot recovery. You may have to run this command more than once.  If you cannot get into recovery, hop over to the #virtuousrom channel on Freenode.
  12. You should now be in Clockwork Recovery.  A few errors about failing to mount /cache will scroll by, this is normal.  Select “factory reset” to clear data/cache, as you would during a full wipe.
  13. Restore the Nandroid backup you created in step #6.

That is all, you are done.

Virtuous Unity v1.0.0 - Patch 1 Released

First, we have to thank you all for the good comments and the great welcome you did to this rom ! Thanks all !  We have now released a first patch for Virtuous Unity v1.0.0, to fix main critical issues.

Change Log

  • Fixed HTC_IME prediction issues, you can now use it with prediction and Trace !
  • HTC Calendar now shows Sunday.
  • G-Sensor calibration does not fail anymore.
  • For G2/DZ: Fixes market issues with paid apps.


No need to wipe anything before applying this patch.  You can download the patch in Downloads section.

Virtuous Unity Released

Virtuous Unity v1.0.0 has been released! It is the first custom Sense 3.0 ROM, scaled for WVGA screens, to be based on an official shipping release from HTC (Pyramid_HTC_Europe_1.28.401.1).

The entire ROM is brand new, taking no application or framework components from any prior Sense 3 releases. Unity is officially being released concurrently for two devices: HTC DesireZ/G2 and HTC Desire HD. Unity is the result of a collaborative, team effort by Flemmard, Diamondback, chrisch1974 and rmk.

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