July 27, 2010 at 14:09Palm Pre Activation Window Bypass
If you are not embarrassed by some of the initial difficulties in using Palm Pre in our latitudes, and you still decide to purchase it for yourself, you may encounter another problem (it concerns the purchase of a new device) - activation.
All Palm Pre must be activated before use (you need to create or enter data from your existing Palm Profile at www.palm.com ). Without this action, the device will give you only the opportunity to make an emergency call (though to any number :).
It would seem, “what’s the problem?”, And the problem is that initially the activation operation is possible only through the mobile network (GPRS / EDGE / 3G), i.e. this cannot be done via Wi-Fi, as the device does not start up in the menu, and it is not possible to turn on and configure Wi-Fi.
But the most important thing, as you know, Palm Pre does not know about the settings of mobile Internet from Russian / Belarusian / Ukrainian / and many other operators. Yes, and replace the settings file (as was done in the previous article ) will not work, because You cannot enable Dev Mode either (the device does not respond to any actions except filling in the profile fields). Therefore, you will not be able to advance beyond the activation screen.
There are two ways out of this situation:
- if you buy the device on ebay, then you can try to ask the seller to activate the phone before selling using the "native" for the SIM card;
- but if you purchased an unactivated Palm Pre here, and you can’t activate it, the process will be a bit more complicated.
In the second case, briefly with your own hands, the procedure will be as follows:
- you need to download a fresh firmware file (thus, at the same time, update it on the phone to the latest);
- modify it with special software (disable startup of the First Use application at startup , which asks you to activate the phone and does not allow you to go further in the menu, and also enable Dev Mode in the default firmware);
- In recovery mode, flash this modified firmware into the phone.
Another nuance will be the fact that the program for changing firmware exists so far only under Linux and Mac OS, so you have to install / find them, or look for an already modified firmware, but it seems more reliable to fix it yourself.
I installed Ubuntu 10.04 on the virtual machine and performed all the manipulations in it.
Further, in fact, the translation of the English-language instructions from the creators of MetaDoctor with my comments, with the help of which we will make changes to the firmware.
Launch MetaDoctor:
The updated firmware version will appear in the folder “meta-doctor / build / webosdoctorp100ueu-wr-1.4.5 / webosdoctorp100ueu-wr-1.4.5.jar”. Since we did everything on a virtual machine, it would be better to transfer the finished firmware file to Windows and continue flashing there. If you did everything in the “normal” Ubunt, you can immediately run this .jar file.
We start the updated webosdoctorp100ueu-wr-1.4.5.jar (Java is also needed under Windows), select the language, agree with the conditions.
It is necessary to turn off the phone, connect it to the PC, hold down the Volume Up key and simultaneously press the phone’s power button. A USB connection icon will appear on the device’s screen and the phone will enter recovery mode. Next, follow the instructions on the PC screen (at the end, the Next button should be activated if the program recognized your phone). Click Next and the device will begin to flash (the image of the microcircuit will appear on the screen).
After 10 minutes, the phone will reboot and will please you with an empty desktop.
Now you can go to Wi-Fi settings, for example, and connect to the network, launch the First Use application (which will hang in the menu until the first launch), and calmly activate the phone. If you don’t have Wi-Fi in the district, then you can try to set up a mobile Internet (either from here or directly on the phone: Phone -> Preferences -> Manual Settings, however, it’s not a fact that the device will save them - it’s also a known bug )
PS these manipulations only remove the activation window, but do not unlock locked devices.
PS You make all changes to the firmware at your own risk.
All Palm Pre must be activated before use (you need to create or enter data from your existing Palm Profile at www.palm.com ). Without this action, the device will give you only the opportunity to make an emergency call (though to any number :).
It would seem, “what’s the problem?”, And the problem is that initially the activation operation is possible only through the mobile network (GPRS / EDGE / 3G), i.e. this cannot be done via Wi-Fi, as the device does not start up in the menu, and it is not possible to turn on and configure Wi-Fi.
But the most important thing, as you know, Palm Pre does not know about the settings of mobile Internet from Russian / Belarusian / Ukrainian / and many other operators. Yes, and replace the settings file (as was done in the previous article ) will not work, because You cannot enable Dev Mode either (the device does not respond to any actions except filling in the profile fields). Therefore, you will not be able to advance beyond the activation screen.
There are two ways out of this situation:
- if you buy the device on ebay, then you can try to ask the seller to activate the phone before selling using the "native" for the SIM card;
- but if you purchased an unactivated Palm Pre here, and you can’t activate it, the process will be a bit more complicated.
In the second case, briefly with your own hands, the procedure will be as follows:
- you need to download a fresh firmware file (thus, at the same time, update it on the phone to the latest);
- modify it with special software (disable startup of the First Use application at startup , which asks you to activate the phone and does not allow you to go further in the menu, and also enable Dev Mode in the default firmware);
- In recovery mode, flash this modified firmware into the phone.
Another nuance will be the fact that the program for changing firmware exists so far only under Linux and Mac OS, so you have to install / find them, or look for an already modified firmware, but it seems more reliable to fix it yourself.
I installed Ubuntu 10.04 on the virtual machine and performed all the manipulations in it.
Further, in fact, the translation of the English-language instructions from the creators of MetaDoctor with my comments, with the help of which we will make changes to the firmware.
- open the terminal;
- install git (if it is not):
sudo apt-get install git-core - put MetaDoctor:
git clone git://git.webos-internals.org/tools/meta-doctor.git - put patch:
sudo apt-get install patch - install, if not, Java 6 runtime (Applications> Ubuntu Software Center);
- Download and install the Palm Novacom driver;
- go to the folder with MetaDoctor installed:
cd meta-doctor - we check if there is a folder with the name "downloads". If it is not, create:
mkdir downloads - Download the latest firmware version for Palm Pre from here (we need the version for operators O2 Germany, UK and Ireland / Movistar Spain, at the time of writing this note the latest version 1.4.5) and put it in the “downloads” folder:
cd downloads
wget palm.cdnetworks.net/rom/pre/p145r0d06302010/eudep145rod/webosdoctorp100ueu-wr.jar - rename the downloaded file so that it contains the version number:
mv webosdoctorp100ueu-wr.jar webosdoctorp100ueu-wr-1.4.5.jar
Launch MetaDoctor:
- in the terminal, go to the folder with the metadactor;
- open the file with the script responsible for making changes to the firmware
gedit Makefile
and uncomment the options we need and save. In this case, BYPASS_FIRST_USE_APP and ENABLE_DEVELOPER_MODE (lines 144, 145):
- then we rebuild the firmware, the process will take a maximum of 10 minutes (it took me 5-6 minutes):
make DEVICE=pre all-wr
The updated firmware version will appear in the folder “meta-doctor / build / webosdoctorp100ueu-wr-1.4.5 / webosdoctorp100ueu-wr-1.4.5.jar”. Since we did everything on a virtual machine, it would be better to transfer the finished firmware file to Windows and continue flashing there. If you did everything in the “normal” Ubunt, you can immediately run this .jar file.
We start the updated webosdoctorp100ueu-wr-1.4.5.jar (Java is also needed under Windows), select the language, agree with the conditions.
It is necessary to turn off the phone, connect it to the PC, hold down the Volume Up key and simultaneously press the phone’s power button. A USB connection icon will appear on the device’s screen and the phone will enter recovery mode. Next, follow the instructions on the PC screen (at the end, the Next button should be activated if the program recognized your phone). Click Next and the device will begin to flash (the image of the microcircuit will appear on the screen).
After 10 minutes, the phone will reboot and will please you with an empty desktop.
Now you can go to Wi-Fi settings, for example, and connect to the network, launch the First Use application (which will hang in the menu until the first launch), and calmly activate the phone. If you don’t have Wi-Fi in the district, then you can try to set up a mobile Internet (either from here or directly on the phone: Phone -> Preferences -> Manual Settings, however, it’s not a fact that the device will save them - it’s also a known bug )
PS these manipulations only remove the activation window, but do not unlock locked devices.
PS You make all changes to the firmware at your own risk.