Incredible Update to Froyo

Since I finally rooted my Incredible to resolve the mysterious “Low on space: Phone storage space is getting low.” error, I decided it was time to update to Froyo (Android 2.2) as well. This proved to be fairly straightforward following the instructions in the relevant thread on XDA-Developers, though I had a few surprises on the way. I’ll share a few discoveries and clarifications:

  • The PB31IMG.zip “stock” file linked in the XDA-Developers thread is an unrooted Android 2.1+Sense image.
  • When you install the stock image, the phone will turn off, reboot, and then restart the loading process without any warning. This does not mean that the install has gone awry and that you’re about to have a $200 brick. Keep coolie-cool, boy.
  • When you boot into the stock recovery image, what looks like an error screen will come up (an Incredible with a red exclamation point and triangle). That’s normal; you just need to hit Power+Volume Up to get to the menu. (This was a surprise to me, since I’d only seen the ClockworkMod recovery installed by unrevoked3 which boots straight into the menu.)

Also, when you start up using Froyo, you’ll notice that many applications have disappeared from the Market. This is because Market apps, both free and paid, can be marked as “protected”, which means that you have to be using a recognized version of the OS (whether this is app-specific or store-wide, I’m not sure) for the app to show up, and the fingerprint in /system/build.prop in the Incredible Froyo image isn’t recognized. To fix this, update ro.build.fingerprint to verizon/voles/sholes/sholes:2.1-update1/ESE81/29593:user/release-keys in /system/build.prop. (See this post on Android Forums if you need detailed instructions on how to update the fingerprint.) This will make your phone appear to be a Droid running Android 2.1-update 1 to the Market (I’m guessing this eliminates 2.2-specific apps; I haven’t looked yet). Go to the dialer, and enter *#*#CHECKIN#*#* to force a checkin so that your changes will take effect. (h/t Geniusdog254 on XDA-Developers for pointing out how to force a checkin.)

Finally, I re-rooted the Incredible using unrevoked3, and disabled CityID (not going to pay for it), Verizon Navigator (why would I pay for this when Google navigation is free, even if I did need voice navigation?), and the 3G Mobile Hotspot (not going to pay $20 a month to use the data plan that I already pay for, thanks!). The last phone project is getting Wireless Tether running, but that’s for another day.

P.S.: if you want to see if you like vanilla (“Senseless” 😉 ) Android 2.2 on your Incredible, check out SkyRaider’s images. I actually installed this before going to the leaked 2.2+Sense image, and it was very snappy. I ultimately decided to go with the Sense image, because I figure that it’s gone through more testing, but if you don’t want to put up with the Sense bloat, this might be an option for you as well.

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