Vodafone UK + HTC Desire + Android 2.2 FroYo = Fail.

Well, it looks like Vodafone UK royally messed up the timing of the HTC Desire OTA Update yesterday.  While most owners were eagerly expecting the announced Android 2.2 (FroYo) update that HTC have been pushing out, Vodafone decided to push out a 2.1-update1 which only provides Vodafone branding, apps, a few bugs, and even a couple of “adult” related bookmarks to everyone – and leaving them on Android 2.1 (Eclair).

Needless to say – Users are not happy at all. *Vodafone appears to have moved the thread here. [2010/08/06] Moved again to here (is Vodafone trying to hide the complaints?).

In work, we (coworkers and I) now have a total of 8 HTC Desires (out of 16 people) – even two iPhone users have converted! A few have been espousing the wonders of FroYo on their phone (some had rooted, and did it themselves, others had bought unbranded phones and got the stock HTC FroYo upgrade). I was jealous(ish) and wanted it myself.

Given Vodafone’s actions yesterday, it was likely that the FroYo update from Vodafone was minimum several weeks away, if not 3 months (as was intimated on the Vodafone forum – end of October) – it was also noted that the Vodafone FroYo update would include the Vodafone 360 branding and software.

Thus, last night it was time to embark on the adventure of flashing my HTC Desire to a stock image direct from HTC. I reasoned that my goal should be to flash HTC’s Android 2.1 (Eclair) image to the phone, and once there, the normal software update process should take me to 2.2.

And so it began…

I knew that I needed to create a gold card because the Vodafone image doesn’t let you install non-Vodafone images. This I discovered as I tried to simply apply a stock 2.2 download and using boot recovery update.zip – all attempts met with a complaint of a “Fingerprint error”.

I ended up at this page:
  [TUT]Complete upgrading guide(root, unroot, flashing ROM & updates)

and followed Post #3 which details a) How to make a Gold Card* . Ignore the rest of #3
and then Post #4 – the “unrooting” guide.

You then need to find a download of the correct stock HTC Bravo WWE image ROM – I chose the second WWE ROM from this link (140MB download):
  [ROM] Official HTC Desire RUU ROMS and OTA Update URLs
  RUU_Bravo_HTC_WWE_1.21.405.2_Radio_32.36.00.28U_4.06.00.02_2_release_126984_signed.exe

Proceed through the rest of Post #4 “How to Flash ROM” with the Goldcard inside your Desire, and plugged into your PC.

The phone will take 5-10 minutes to complete upgrading (or downgrading) to HTC Stock 2.1 image. When it reboots you will have to go through all the original setup sequences you did when you first unboxed your phone.

You can then perform a Software Update Check and you should find you have a Android 2.2 FroYo update (90Mb) waiting for you.  Proceed and let it do its thing.

Once done, welcome to FroYo.

All future updates will come direct from HTC – not from Vodafone, and you won’t ever have the Vodafone 360 branding rubbish foisted upon you.

* My GoldCard creation had a bit of a hiccup, in that it turns out that the 4GB Samsung card which came with my Desire does not work as a Goldcard despite formatting and following the instructions to the letter.  Trying an old 1GB Sandisk I had resulted in a good goldcard.

Aside from the goldcard hiccup – this all went surprisingly smoothly and painlessly.

Good luck.

Disclaimer: If you try any of the above – it is all your responsibility. I take no responsibility should you brick or damage your phone.