Update your Rogers HTC Dream from Ubuntu

As with everybody else who owns an HTC dream/magic from Rogers, I recently started to get pestered to apply a software update to my phone so that I could safely call 911 and still be able to use my data plan. Most times I'm a pretty lazy person, and so I only got around to doing this AFTER Rogers took my data connection away from my phone. When I looked into it at first, it looked like the phone update could only be done using Windows software. Well that's a big problem for me because, as you know, I only use Ubuntu Linux on my computer!

I ended up speaking with a Rogers representative on the phone and asked her what Mac users are doing about this software update, thinking that the solution for them might be good for me too. It turns out it was, and now my phone is updated and back to full functionality. Of course all the programs I previously downloaded to the phone from the Market are gone, but I don't care much. Here is what you need to do to update your phone without HTC's annoying Windows software:

1. First you have to download a zip file containing the update (just a single file really, click here for the file).

2. Connect the HTC dream to your linux machine via USB, pull down the notification area, press your finger on the USB connected notification, and press Mount.

3. Now you'll see a notification that you've connected a media device on Ubuntu (or whatever other graphical form of linux you use). Tell your computer to open up the folder of the connected device.

4. Extract the contents of the zip file you downloaded in step 1 to the root of your HTC dream's microSD card.

5. Now turn off your HTC dream.

6. Once your HTC dream is off, press and hold 2 buttons together: the Camera button and the Power button.

7. After a few moments your HTC dream's screen should show something similar to the picture below. When you see that on your screen, press the trackball (Action) button.



8. When the HTC dream tells you that it's finished, it will ask you to press the Action button to reboot. Press the trackball when that happens and you're done!