How to: Access 2.1 Apps in Market (on 2.0.1 ROM)

[banden]

This is only for Rooted Moto Droids.

If you are looking to access some of the 2.1 apps such as Google Earth or you want to add some of the extra Live Wallpapers on the market place you will need to tweak your ROM a bit.

Not: DroidMod's ROM already has this in place. But other roms like steve's or AdamZ's you may need to do this extra step.

1. You should have 'Root Explorer' and if you don't, now is the time to buy it from the market place. It's like Astro, only geared towards rooted android phones.

2. Open Root Explorer

3. Navigate to /system/

4. Tap the button at the top "Mount R/W"

5. Long press on the file "build.prop" then select "Open in Text Editor"

6. Using the DPad on the keyboard move the curse down a few rows to the row that say:

ro.build.version.sdk=6

And change it to say:

ro.build.version.sdk=7

7. Tap the menu button and select 'Save & Exit'

8. You should now be back in the system folder, tap the button 'Mount R/O'

9. You're done, but you should restart the phone for good measure.

Now you can download and user 2.1 goodies from the market! Have fun!

[nerdherd]

Thanks for the tip banden!

For those that don't have Root Explorer (and are cheap like me), you can also do this just using adb.

Plug your phone into the computer, make sure USB debugging is enabled, and DON'T mount the memory card. Open the command prompt and type the following (replace C:\somewhere with the folder you want to use):

adb shell
su
mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock4 /system
exit
exit
adb pull system/build.prop C:\somewhere

Go to the folder you chose above (C:\somewhere), open the build.prop file with notepad and change line 6 to:

ro.build.version.sdk=7

Save the file, then go back to your command prompt and do this (once again put in the actual directory after C:\):

adb push C:\something\build.prop system/          
adb shell
su
mount -o remount,ro -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock4 /system
exit
exit
adb reboot

That's it! I'm no linux or Android expert, but that worked for me!

[rolijen]

Originally Posted by nerdherd

Thanks for the tip banden!

For those that don't have Root Explorer (and are cheap like me), you can also do this just using adb.

Plug your phone into the computer, make sure USB debugging is enabled, and DON'T mount the memory card. Open the command prompt and type the following (replace C:\somewhere with the folder you want to use):

adb shell
su
mount -o remount,rw -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock4 /system
exit
exit
adb pull system/build.prop C:\somewhere

Go to the location you chose above, open the build.prop file with notepad and change line 6 to:

ro.build.version.sdk=7

Once that's done go back to your command prompt and do this (once again put in the actual directory after C:\):

adb push C:\something\build.prop system/          
adb shell
su
mount -o remount,ro -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock4 /system
exit
exit
adb reboot

That's it! I'm no linux or Android expert, but that worked for me!

Thanks nerdherd. The live wallpapers are pretty cool.

[tvandyck7]

I downloaded some more live WP's last night and they have the touch interaction working. The live earth wallpaper is pretty cool. It has realtime earth views (day/night) as well as every planet and the moon. You even have the option of showing the moon orbit around the earth which adds alot to it.

[nerdherd]

Or better yet, you can make it be the Death Star!

[Adrynalyne]

Keep in mind that this hack is neat but:

1. Will block certain apps from showing up in the market. One for example, would be DroidRootHelper. Pro shows up though.

2. The apps that are blocked on the market also will not work on your Droid, and will actually disappear from the app launcher drawer.

[banden]

Originally Posted by Adrynalyne

Keep in mind that this hack is neat but:

1. Will block certain apps from showing up in the market. One for example, would be DroidRootHelper. Pro shows up though.

2. The apps that are blocked on the market also will not work on your Droid, and will actually disappear from the app launcher drawer.

So then how does the DroidMod ROM get around that?

[Adrynalyne]

As far as I know, it doesn't.

[nerdherd]

Good info Adrynalyne. So would this basically just get rid of the apps aimed specifically at the Droid? All the apps that I use seem to be available fortunately.

[Adrynalyne]

Depends on how it was coded.