HOWTO: Flash TMO-TM506 to CB-TM506

[waldog]

Wirelessly posted (HP 211 and SE Z780: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.7))

I'll make a better one, just give me time

Thanks. I think I have actually got it done now.

But a better one would be great for others.

[kiron_r]

Despite the tutorial that is in perpetual Beta, mad props to you guys who transformed my hmm-yeah-SE phone into an awesome SE phone. Good job Scottish, Danska, jet, Romeo, luv2code...

Cheers

[jet1000]

Does anyone know how to turn off the vibration in the flash menus?

[kiron_r]

setting vibrating alert to "on if in Silent" or "off" turns off vibration in the flash menu ( for me at least)

[ekmegsm]

Despite the tutorial that is in perpetual Beta, mad props to you guys who transformed my hmm-yeah-SE phone into an awesome SE phone. Good job Scottish, Danska, jet, Romeo, luv2code...

Cheers

I fully agree with you.
It has been a lot of time and testing dedicated to sort the debranding issue of this phone. As said, not the easiest thread to follow, and encourage you to do it. But once you dare to go ahead...man, you feel so happy. For sure T-Mob makes very strange FW arrangements, killing the beauty of many phones. Can you imagine the face of a SW developer that has burned his eye brows to make all these nice features available, and then one crazy "marketing freak" decides to slash everything from it? I come from Ericsson, and Marketing, so I know about this. I also know how difficult it is to please everybody, but I still believe SE phones, are great in their conception, and once they manage to have them working...they rock!!! The TM506 is a living example" a simple, none expensive device, packed with great features. In the past I never worried about debranding, just had my phone flashed at HQ in Sweden, to the latest unbranded FW, now I have to do it myself. Looking FW for the X1, or the I dou.

Thank you all members that have contributed with their time and tips. Hope to be able to give back something in the future.

[S.D.]

This has got to be one of the hardest tutorials I have ever seen. The people have to go back in pages to actually figure out how to do this. It's to complicated for users.

Thanks for the info so far. But the tutorial is ****.

I made this real quick to save people money instead of using davinci lol. I knew we needed a new customize.xml among other things, but the firmware was still being explored when i wrote the tutorial. I can't go back and edit the first post because howardforums has a time limit on editing....

A new tutorial would be good. I think we should get a consensus on what should be included or stripped out though to make sure nothing is missed.

I originally wanted to make this tutorial using FBN/MBN firmware image files(so you don't have to use SEUS), but I couldn't figure out how to make or obtain them.

[waldog]

I made this real quick to save people money instead of using davinci lol. I knew we needed a new customize.xml among other things, but the firmware was still being explored when i wrote the tutorial. I can't go back and edit the first post because howardforums has a time limit on editing....

A new tutorial would be good. I think we should get a consensus on what should be included or stripped out though to make sure nothing is missed.

I originally wanted to make this tutorial using FBN/MBN firmware image files(so you don't have to use SEUS), but I couldn't figure out how to make or obtain them.

I fully understand man. I'm grateful 1000 times over for this thread made my beast a beauty.

I was just stating the tutorial was very hard to follow. Even for myself.

For the tutorial. I think it all just needs to be summed up to 1 post. Scottish Skyeandce said he was gonna make one tonight. So I guess we'll see how his is.

[RichMo]

Great job to all contributors! Funny, I'm actually pretty tech saavy, but having never flashed a phone before I found myself feeling like a 60 year going onto the internet for the first time. Discouraged would be a gross understatement of my true feelings. Having botched the initial install, I searched online for the original firmware and even called TMO to see if they could help get my phone back to it's original operating state. Well, needless to say that was 10 minutes of my life that I will never get back. I finally just removed the customize.xml file and performed SEUS to get back to the OE firmware (only took about a day to figure that one out). Now, moving forward with what I have learned, I feel a great sense of accomplishment for learning something new. For that, I am truly grateful to those who unselfishly took the time to help and share their knowledge with others. This is indeed a fine example of the original intention behind the creation of the internet. Not to make money from others, but to help!

[Scottish Skyedance]

I fully understand man. I'm grateful 1000 times over for this thread made my beast a beauty.

I was just stating the tutorial was very hard to follow. Even for myself.

For the tutorial. I think it all just needs to be summed up to 1 post. Scottish Skyeandce said he was gonna make one tonight. So I guess we'll see how his is.

I finally made the thread with 2 posts
mod can put it on sticky
and give a try

[corys00]

If I try to download Google Maps, I get "Invalid Application" and cannot download it, this also happened when I tried to download the Gmail application. Anyone else getting this error?

[Scottish Skyedance]

If I try to download Google Maps, I get "Invalid Application" and cannot download it, this also happened when I tried to download the Gmail application. Anyone else getting this error?

somehow the phone doesn't accept it
get it from getjar.com (or wap.getjar.com on you phone)
however, if you flash it to CB version (or TMO version with LBS_HOOK.itm removed), you should be able to use GPS Google Maps
the reception is not great, but it's good for quickie outdoors

[jet1000]

If I try to download Google Maps, I get "Invalid Application" and cannot download it, this also happened when I tried to download the Gmail application. Anyone else getting this error?

As Scottish said, the only google maps that works with the phone's GPS is the one that is included in the phone's firmware when debranded.

Get jar has the latest version of Google Maps, 2.3.1, it has things like Street View features, but it will only find your location with cell towers.

Post #3 in this thread has a link that will download gmail to the phone:

http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...ighlight=gmail

[visualist]

Thanks to all who have put so much work into this. You've done such a great job!

I'm having a little problem with my phone after the flashing procedure. Normally, with the phone closed, the side buttons (used for volume or phone status) will cause the outside display to turn on so you can read the clock. It now does not work. Did I forget to do something? Is there a custom_upgrade.xml that I can add to get this to work again?
Thanks!

[ekmegsm]

I'm having a little problem with my phone after the flashing procedure. Normally, with the phone closed, the side buttons (used for volume or phone status) will cause the outside display to turn on so you can read the clock. It now does not work. Did I forget to do something? Is there a custom_upgrade.xml that I can add to get this to work again?
Thanks!

I have had the same problem even before debranding. Found that when you turn on the phone with the charger connected, this strange behavior happens. If you turn the phone off and on again (with out charger) it will get back to normal. Now “normal” is also to be able to see phone status when flip opened using the side volume switch, as it used to be in most SE phones. The T-Mob version, changed the Ring volume, something that annoyed me, because my wife somehow always turned down the ring vol. and could never hear her phone. T-Mob, has done the same silly mistake in Samsung phones.

[Antenna]

After Nokia billed my credit card incorrectly for the 5800 (i cancelled my order), and combined with the fact that I travel enough into 3G zones now, I decided to go for a red SE tm506 instead. I will try to debrand here soon (big shout out to Scottish and SD for this helpful information)