A man once told me that I could not have my Cupcake and eat it too. He was obviously dead wrong. Today’s big buzz on the Android front is that the official OTA install package for Android 1.5 (lovingly known around the internets as ‘Cupcake’ update) is now available for direct download and manual patching. For those of us who have waited patiently for the official patch but just can’t wait another day for it to come over-the-air, it is our day of rejoicing. At long last, we get to sink our teeth in to that green sugar-coated muffin, complete with video recording, on-screen keyboard, an expanding library of widgets, and stereo bluetooth support (to name a few additions).
Now, I know what you’re thinking, ‘Adam, how does one acquire this amazing software update?’ Well, you’re asking the right question. You can find this software on Google’s Android Code page HERE.
Please note that before you update manually (This will not ‘root’ your phone, don’t worry about that), that this method is not supported by T-Mobile. We’ve done this countless times as new updates have rolled in, and its worked flawlessly – but if your phone explodes, it’s not our fault.
So, follow these steps exactly and you’re going to have a nice, delicious cupcake too! (not a real cupcake, just a bad-ass update)
- Rename ’signed-kila-ota-xxxx.xxxx.zip’ to ‘update.zip’
- Transfer update.zip to the ROOT of your G1’s MicroSD card. (For some reason, I couldn’t transfer the file directly from my desktop to the phone, I had to manually take the chip out and transfer it that way. The issue was caused by an I/O discrepancy.)
- Make sure your phone is powered off completely
- Hold down the ‘Home’ and ‘Power’ buttons From here it will bring up the bootloader.
- Open your keyboard and press Alt+L to bring up the bootloader command terminal
- From here, press Alt+S to apply the patch and let that sucker install!
- When it’s finished you’ll net to press Home and Back to begin manual reboot (note- not the power-button)
If you see the chip, everything went kosher and the radio is being configured and updated.
So, there you have it, just be patient while it boots up, the first time around it takes anywhere from 2-4 minutes. And I noticed that it was EXTREMELY slow after it became operation, however it completely subsided after 2 minutes or so. After the fact the performance has been nothing short of outstanding. The entire process took about 20 minutes from start to finish, and I’m a proud owner of a newly updated Cupcake. Now, I’m off to make senseless movies about my cat with the new video camera app.
[Via Phandroid and XDA-Developers]
Odd. Can’t seem to get this to work. Updater keeps telling me “/sdcard/update.zip” isn’t found. Perhaps I’m misunderstanding what you mean by “root.” I had no problem transfer the update file to my SDCard via Google/USB connection.
Hrm, I mean root by not putting the update.zip in any folder on the SD card.
The print-out you’re getting is simply stating there is not update.zip in the folder. The file mus be renamed and make sure to verify that it fully transferred.
AWESOME GOT CUPCAKE FINALLY!
BEST SITE EVER!
u need to change the update.zip to just update..
I’ve said it before…it needs a cooler, tougher name than ‘Cupcake’.
Cupcake is, without a doubt, the most bad-ass name for any update.
thanks for update!!! installation process was a breeze… and this has some real cool features :)
Worked like a charm! I updated my US G1 this morning! Thanks!
i dont exactly know how to..
Transfer update.zip to the ROOT of your G1’s MicroSD card. (For some reason, I couldn’t transfer the file directly from my desktop to the phone, I had to manually take the chip out and transfer it that way. The issue was caused by an I/O discrepancy.)
help??
Thanks worked great! I was waiting for this because i didnt want to root mine. Took about 10 minutes total.
I tried doing this and it tells me:
E:No signature (413 files)
E:Verification failed
Installation aborted.
I surely hope you’re not extracting that zip folder.
It should just be the single file… during the update, everything will be extracted to the appropriate places.
Mine gives me the same thing, and it’s just the update.zip. I haven’t extracted any of the files and I know that the transfer is complete.
No I know what I’m doing, I’m a PC tech. I just don’t know much about the Android coding. I’ve tried with a few other firmware files, RC30, RC33, and the Cupcake but it gives the same error every time. I was able to get some modded version of RC30 to install but it won’t auto update to RC33.
Kazan,
I have the same error…
E:No signature (413 files)
E:Verification failed
Installation aborted.
How did you solve this?
The transfer of the update.zip directly to the phone (by mounting the phone’s storage card) worked just fine for me.
CUPCAKE IS AWESOME!!
Was able to install perfectly. Thanks to this post it took about 8 minutes in total. Much faster than T-Mobile ever will be!
The install on my unlocked G1 was a breeze. Thanks for the instructions Adam. I was able to transfer the update to my phone without an issue.
The new Music widget is nothing short of bad-ass, and they’ve added some features to Gmail that make the difference between – using the phone vs. using a computer – almost invisible.
Glad to be using my G1!
Will my G1’s warranty be affected by updating like this?
mine is saying same thing as chill
also how would Tmobile Know?
Hey guys can some one email me all of the instructions on what I need to do to get this update I don’t understand any of this,or do you guys think I should just wait for them to send the update to my phone because I really would not like to mess up my phone thanks.ericsoulchild@gmail.com
At first it wouldn’t work for me ’cause it couldn’t find ‘update.zip’. i then found out that when i changed the name to ‘update.zip’ it was saved on the phone as ‘update.zip.zip’ . so what i did was erase it off the phones micro sd chip and saved it again but this time i just changed the name to ‘update’ . It worked perfectly after this!!
btw. the interface is smoother, my pics now load almost instantly compared to the previous firmware.
Guys if your having this problem stop being a windows noob and have it show all your extensions. This will protect you from some viruses too that save themselves as say test.jpg.exe but all you will see is test.jpg and think its a picture! Its in folder options just check the box and be on your way.
I’m getting a message about it not being able to open the update.zip file it says there is no such file or directory
This could be two things:
As stated above, you’re adding a redundant ‘.zip’
If you’re running Windows, check to make sure it is not update.zip.zip. Try removing the zip extension, if windows warns you about ‘breaking’ the file, chances are it’s not that.
If that isn’t the case, make sure you’re putting the update directly in the root of the sd card.
where is the root of the sd card??!!!!!!! i dont know where it is!
Just open up Control Panel and copy the file directly into your SD Card. By placing it in the “Root” of your SD card, this means, simply, that the files is not in any other folders in your SD Card. Make sure when you copy it to your SD card it is by itself, outside of any and all folders.
works great. same like the other times no problem just a little longer wait as stated above. good work guys/girl
i did it. That was easy. A little scary that my phone would brick, but easy. Thanks for posting this. I could wait for t-mobile any longer.
The update worked a treat on my US G1.
I’m in the UK so doubt i would have received it OTA.
Thanks for the link & instructions!
So if we now have the cupcake cant we port it to a winmo phone???
too easy im enjoyin the new update, instructions were easy for me too thanks for making it easy
easy as cake to to install. thanks for the writeup
Just updated without a problem. Loving my cupcake so far!
OMG…!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank u sooooooo much ADAM, u dont kno how much this means to ya boy… I was listening to these dudes on you tube and downgraded my G1 to rc-29 and i didnt kno what to do, lol… I was callin t-mobile and everything…! This Update is awesome…! Thankz man…!
After your 1.5 update, what shows under the Model number of your G1?
I followed the youtube updates about 1 month ago and got “HTC Magic” on my Model number.
I’ve since reversed that update.
Thanks.
i took me a while to install it had to read through all the comments becuz it wasnt workin for me….but once i changed the file name then the updating began…im totally in love with everything it even comes on different now!!!
Will this update cause my G1 not to receive any further udpates (e.g., Android 2.0) OTA from TMobile in the future?
Thanks.
Also, will my unlocked G1 remail unlocked after this android 1.5 update?
Thanks again.
I just cupcaked and now gvdialer is broken. Uninstalled & reinstalled but no joy. Anybody else using gvdialer out there?
is gvdialer a third party app? If it is, it’s probably not cupcake/1.5-ready.
imeem and power manager recently sent (OTA) their 1.5 udpated versions to my Tmobile G1.
Yeah, 3rd party. http://www.gvdialer.com
I thought I was being smart using my google voice number as one of my tmo fave5s for free calling. I can still use it but dialing out is painful compared to using gvdialer.
Doh!
how do u transfer update zip to sd card with usb cord. drag to where?
when you plug in the g1 into a pc via the USB cable, drag down the notification bar and select the USB logo. Select the “Mount” option.
Windows will then recognize your g1 as a “removable disk” in the “Drives” list of Windows Explorer. Drag the newly renamed update.zip to the “removable disk”. You may have to either replace or rename any existing update.zip that is in the “removable drive”. After a successful copy, “eject” the G1 from the Windows Explorer, then unplug the USB cable from the G1.
Proceed with the next steps mentioned on top of this discussion board.
FYI.. If you have an issue with the update saying something couldn’t be found or some other issue, make sure you format your sd card before copying on the update.zip file.
I updated to 1.5 and my phone connects wirelessly using wifi but Edge will NOT work…..I try to open the android market and it says “a server err has occured. Retry or cancel and return to the previous screen”
Any suggestions?
THANKS A TON!
I heard there was a security issue with cupcake. Because I’m updating my frim manually when it my turn for the update from Tmob will it automatically correct any issues with this version of cupcake?
you know wat. im not gonna take the risk to ruin my g1 in anyway. even if its a tiny tiny error caused i dont want to brick my phone or screw up the codes. so patience can pay off
i dl the update and all i have to say is THANK YOU!!!!! im tired of the wait and the best part is it was simple to do. as long as you can follow directions you can do this. The hell with the ota just do it now!
Please help. I initially updated the phone then after about 2 days my g1 would not connect to the network through edge only wifi at work.
I’ve wiped several times, converted to fat32 and tried to flash back to rc29 and it was still not working properly.
This is what I’m getting on the android system recovery utility since I can’t even get to the OS to mount the phone I’ve used a minisd reader to transfer the files.
E: can’t open/cache/recovery/command
And when I tried to load the new radio
ota-radio-2_22_19_26I
after the 1.5 update
signed-kila-ota-148830.de6a94ca (are these two not compatible?)
and it says not verified (5 files)
What should I do?
Adam help i can’t get it installed.
Is anyone who has the update having trouble with charging the phone, is takng longer to charge?
So I downloaded it from my phone and its in downloads, I try to move it in astro but it keeps saying archive move error, how can I move this file without a computer
Ok so I manually updated about a week almost 2 weeks ago and I’ve notcied everyone talking about the chip with the arrow pointin down on it…I seen that when it was doing its thing it went away kinda quick tho was that suppose to happen?…I was wondering did something go wrong?and is something messed up?I can do everything I did before the update just fine,never had a buletooth I find no need for them because I’m always around my phone when it goes off.can someone let me know plz!!it would be greatly appreciated:-)THANX
WORKED PERFECTLY!!! SAVE AS “Update” NOT “Update.zip” ;)
What’s the diff btwn the two namea….update.zip. and update does it do anything different becuz I already did the update.zip so should I go back and do update??and will it have any different effects on my phone??just curious I’m new to the g1 and all this tech stuff for it lol.
I need help getting my cupcake please any1 help me. Please asap
I need my cupcake please asap any1 help me
I too had problems with the G1 not being able to mount the SD Card and having “E:” errors. To fix this, I used Disk Manager in Windows XP/Vista. I formatted the SD Card using the long format method (not “quick format”). Then I removed the drive letter by right clicking on the SD Card, selecting “Change Drive Letter” and then selecting “Remove”.
Reinserted the SD Card into the G1 and rebooted. It worked perfectly.
Thank for the info and good luck to those still struggling!
after the update what version does it show?
Im getting the error,
Installing from sdcard…
Finding update package…
Opening update package…
Verifying update package…
E:No signature (413 files)
E:Verification failed.
Installation aborted.
My phone is Rooted. Ive formated the sdcard into Fat32. The Update is the only file on my SD card, and there is nothing wrong with the sdcard. Ive downloaded the files twice now and renamed it “update” each time. Any ideas?
P.S. when I boot up using Home+Power, I dont go to the Console screen where im supposed to hit Alt+L….it goes straight to the Menu where im supposed to hit Alt+S….I still have the option to hit Alt+L but when I do it goes to some crazy black and white patterned screen where I cant do anything, heh.
Hi can i install cupcake in HTC Touch Diamond which is a win mobile…
Link not working??
http://www.filefactory.com/file/ahd7aeh/n/US_CUPCAKE_zip
that is where i found the cupcake update for the US since the link here isnt working