I'm sure it's an omen but after the G300 I got a HTC desire (as my wife upgraded her phone this week) and as my Brother got his G300 working great he passed on his San Francisco (ZTE).
The Desire runs a (for me) a nice Android interface and has been a great workhorse so I just wanted to root it and put a bootloader.
The rooting needs the S-Off so I used Revolutionary which is available for Windows and linux - I also got myself the AmonRa image (recovery-RA_2.0.1.img)
Revolutionary requires a beta code (if you look on HTC developer site they do a similar unlock through a code), this was just a case of putting the phone in debug mode and running revolutionary from the linux terminal, put the code in and the S-OFF mode was immediate.
Put the phone in Hloader (hold Vol-down and power) and you see a new purple header for revolutionary.
Next step was to pop AmonRa on which needed you to select Fastboot from the recovery menu, it then shows "fastboot" - plug the USB cable in and this changes to say "fastboot USB", I used the fastboot files with the CWM and just executed the AmonRa manually from linux terminal "./fastboot-linux flash recovery recovery-RA_2.0.1.img"
This puts the recovery image on, you can test this by holding Vol-down and power to Hboot and then select "Recovery" the screen will pause 2 or 3 seconds but then the AmonRa loader will load.
I used AmonRa as I just prefer it, no other reason, CWM would probably have been just as good.
Finally I popped the root file "su-2.3.6.3-efgh-signed.zip" into the root of the SD card, then use the option to install from SD card and the HTC is rooted.
Time from start to finish, about 20 minutes tinkering.
I've not updated the Android itself but can now make a Nandroid backup, run root apps like Link2SD and so on, which is all I wanted.
The ZTE was already rooted and had CWM installed, with CM7 Android, the problem was the battery life was terrible so I looked for alternatives.
I located Swedish Snow and got that, with CWM this was just a case of putting the zip onto the SD card and installing from there.
Only time will tell if the battery life is better, the interface is fine though and works great, everything's there and I can't find any apps that don't work.
I rounded the afternoon off by replacing the left hand screen hinge in my brothers Laptop !
Saturday, 18 August 2012
Tuesday, 14 August 2012
Hauwei Ascend G300 ADB rules.d files for linux (Ubuntu 11.04)
Just in case anyone needs the rules.d files for the linux adb here are my android rules files.
They reside in /etc/udev/rules.d
I'm not sure which one actually activated recognition of the G300 but it doesn't seem to upset anything having both these in.
In the rules.d folder create a file called 99-android.rules (note the character after the 99 is the minus sign)
If you're in a terminal and in the folder /etc/udev/rules.d just type
sudo gedit 99-android.rules
Paste this into it
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="12d1", SYMLINK+="android_adb", MODE="0666" GROUP="plugdev"
#Google
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="18d1", MODE="0666"
#Acer
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0502", MODE="0666"
#Dell
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="413c", MODE="0666"
#Foxconn
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0489", MODE="0666"
#Garmin-Asus
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="091E", MODE="0666"
#HTC
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0666"
#Huawei
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="12d1", MODE="0666"
#Kyocera
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0482", MODE="0666"
#LG
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="1004", MODE="0666"
#Motorola
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="22b8", MODE="0666"
#Nvidia
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0955", MODE="0666"
#Pantech
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="10a9", MODE="0666"
#Samsung
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="04e8", MODE="0666"
#Sharp
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="04dd", MODE="0666"
#Sony Ericsson
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0fce", MODE="0666"
#ZTE
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="19d2", MODE="0666"
Save the file and if you ls-al you will see the file 99-android.rules there.
chmod the file so it's executable
sudo chmod +x 99-android.rules
ls -al will show the file and permissions as (in my example)
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1106 2012-08-12 15:49 99-android.rules
The file name in green is to highlight the fact it's executable.
At this point you could try rebooting and see if the phone is seen by adb devices, if not then try adding the next file.
in the same directory I also have 51-android.rules so make a file with that name and edit it as before, paste these lines in....
## SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="12d1",ATTRS{idProduct}==”1030”, MODE="0666"
## BUS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="18d1", ATTRS{idProduct}=="d00d", GROUP="plugdev", MODE="0660"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="618e", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="d00d", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="18d1", SYMLINK+="android_adb", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="d00d", SYMLINK+="android_adb", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="1004", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="22b8", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0502", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="413c", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0489", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="091E", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="12d1", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0482", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="1004", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0955", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="10A9", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="04e8", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="04dd", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0fce", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="19D2", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0451", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device",
ENV{PRODUCT}=="e79/*", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="e79", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0e79", MODE="0666"
Save the file, again make it executable by
sudo chmod +x 51-android.rules
ls -al should show the 2 files as...
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1576 2012-08-12 15:14 51-android.rules
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1106 2012-08-12 15:49 99-android.rules
The G300 identified itself to adb and that allowed me to run the bootloader unlock and the root file.
Hope this helps anyone searching for the adb files.
As I say I'm not 100% sure which file was needed (or both), one file was put in to recognize my pulse mini, different Ubuntu versions need these files differently i.e one might only use the 51-android.rules while another might need the 99-android.rules one.
But my system doesn't mind they are both there and for the 3 minutes it takes to make the files and paste the contents in it's hardly hard work.
You can restart the services for udev and adb but to ensure the files are read fully etc I just rebooted my server, I try not to reboot it too often and almost went a whole year without a reboot (although in linux terms a year without a reboot is hardly worth speaking about, I spoke to one customer who has genuinely not rebooted fully [power cycle boot] in 15 years and still runs the exact same system configuration, it's never been updated and he runs fine).
For info my brother got an unlock code for £2.99 and his G300 is now unlocked from Vodaphone and working perfect on Giff Gaff, he had to enter the service numbers manually for SMS etc but they only took a couple of minutes, the phone appears very nimble, has an excellent display and ICS looks great on it.
Don't forget by the way you need your phone in debug mode (in the android settings) so that it does not mount as a USB storage device but stays active as a phone - the G300 notifies you it is connecting as a debug device.
Then when you type "adb devices" you should get a response from whatever phone is connected and you can continue.
They reside in /etc/udev/rules.d
I'm not sure which one actually activated recognition of the G300 but it doesn't seem to upset anything having both these in.
In the rules.d folder create a file called 99-android.rules (note the character after the 99 is the minus sign)
If you're in a terminal and in the folder /etc/udev/rules.d just type
sudo gedit 99-android.rules
Paste this into it
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="12d1", SYMLINK+="android_adb", MODE="0666" GROUP="plugdev"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="18d1", MODE="0666"
#Acer
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0502", MODE="0666"
#Dell
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="413c", MODE="0666"
#Foxconn
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0489", MODE="0666"
#Garmin-Asus
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="091E", MODE="0666"
#HTC
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0666"
#Huawei
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="12d1", MODE="0666"
#Kyocera
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0482", MODE="0666"
#LG
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="1004", MODE="0666"
#Motorola
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="22b8", MODE="0666"
#Nvidia
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0955", MODE="0666"
#Pantech
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="10a9", MODE="0666"
#Samsung
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="04e8", MODE="0666"
#Sharp
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="04dd", MODE="0666"
#Sony Ericsson
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0fce", MODE="0666"
#ZTE
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="19d2", MODE="0666"
Save the file and if you ls-al you will see the file 99-android.rules there.
chmod the file so it's executable
sudo chmod +x 99-android.rules
ls -al will show the file and permissions as (in my example)
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1106 2012-08-12 15:49 99-android.rules
The file name in green is to highlight the fact it's executable.
At this point you could try rebooting and see if the phone is seen by adb devices, if not then try adding the next file.
in the same directory I also have 51-android.rules so make a file with that name and edit it as before, paste these lines in....
## SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="12d1",ATTRS{idProduct}==”1030”, MODE="0666"
## BUS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="18d1", ATTRS{idProduct}=="d00d", GROUP="plugdev", MODE="0660"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="618e", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="d00d", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="18d1", SYMLINK+="android_adb", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="d00d", SYMLINK+="android_adb", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="1004", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="22b8", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0502", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="413c", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0489", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="091E", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="12d1", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0482", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="1004", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0955", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="10A9", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="04e8", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="04dd", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0fce", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="19D2", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0451", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device",
ENV{PRODUCT}=="e79/*", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="e79", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0e79", MODE="0666"
Save the file, again make it executable by
sudo chmod +x 51-android.rules
ls -al should show the 2 files as...
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1576 2012-08-12 15:14 51-android.rules
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1106 2012-08-12 15:49 99-android.rules
The G300 identified itself to adb and that allowed me to run the bootloader unlock and the root file.
Hope this helps anyone searching for the adb files.
As I say I'm not 100% sure which file was needed (or both), one file was put in to recognize my pulse mini, different Ubuntu versions need these files differently i.e one might only use the 51-android.rules while another might need the 99-android.rules one.
But my system doesn't mind they are both there and for the 3 minutes it takes to make the files and paste the contents in it's hardly hard work.
You can restart the services for udev and adb but to ensure the files are read fully etc I just rebooted my server, I try not to reboot it too often and almost went a whole year without a reboot (although in linux terms a year without a reboot is hardly worth speaking about, I spoke to one customer who has genuinely not rebooted fully [power cycle boot] in 15 years and still runs the exact same system configuration, it's never been updated and he runs fine).
For info my brother got an unlock code for £2.99 and his G300 is now unlocked from Vodaphone and working perfect on Giff Gaff, he had to enter the service numbers manually for SMS etc but they only took a couple of minutes, the phone appears very nimble, has an excellent display and ICS looks great on it.
Don't forget by the way you need your phone in debug mode (in the android settings) so that it does not mount as a USB storage device but stays active as a phone - the G300 notifies you it is connecting as a debug device.
Then when you type "adb devices" you should get a response from whatever phone is connected and you can continue.
Sunday, 12 August 2012
Hauwei Ascend G300 bootloader B926 ICS Rom
My Brother bought one of these as there is an ICS update, the instructions on
http://www.modaco.com/topic/355583-guide-how-to-install-ics-403-b926/
are very good but we had one or two problems.
There have been one or two queries if you can unlock the bootloader with linux.
Although I have one PC in the house still running Windoze I had already done some updating on my pulse mini and installed Amon Ra so we had a go at putting CWM on and unlocking the phone more.
The modaco guide is pretty good, steps we took were...
We Rooted the phone using superrecovery, this is easy enough in linux and this link has Windows, Mac and linux versions.
Put the phone in the fastboot mode by holding DOWN and POWER, after a few seconds the phone vibrates and you get the hauwei screen, release power but hold down for a couple of seconds - we found if we didn't do this the phone carried on and booted.
If it stops with the Hauwei logo then plug in the USB cable and in a terminal run the superrecovery file.
This just involves making sure the shell file (.sh) is executable as with linux no files are automatically executable.
If you're sitting in the superrecovery directory type
sudo chmod +x ./install-superrecovery-linux.sh
then type
./install-superrecovery-linux.sh
In linux "./" means "here" - when you use DOS it effectively does the same thing but you don't need to type ./, linux is an implicit operating system so will do whatever you tell it.
Once done you get a message to restart the phone, I had an error but the first two lines said
sending 'recovery' (5074 KB)... OKAY
writing 'recovery'... OKAY
As long as they say OKAY then you're fine.
Remove the battery and USB cable, wait a couple of seconds, reinstall the battery, hold UP and Power this time to get into the recovery mode.
It should say "reboot phone", press the power button.
Once the phone has loaded, scroll through your app lists to see if SU (Super User) is there, if it is then it's rooted.
We followed step 1 to back up the IMEI as we found later this was important to get the loader screen back etc.
I got mine from here don't worry it says downgrade guide I just used the link to get the program APK (you don't need to copy the file structure to your SD card just the APK).
You also need the phone set to allow 3rd party applications to install (in the settings) or you cannot run the 5irom application.
To run the APK install something like Astro file manager, run it and locate the toobox5irom.APK when you select it you get the option to install it and then the root (SU) will pop up for you to grant SU permission, once you do you can back up the IMEI.
Once that was backed up we made a security copy of the 5imei folders onto NAS drive.
Next step was to download the ICS update, you notice if you unpack this that it has two directories, one says dload, the other Vendor, you do NOT need to apply the Vendor update, if you do the phone will switch to Chinese (you can if you're lucky change it to English which is what we did but it causes a big delay).
You apply the dload update by simply copying the dload folder to your SD card so you can see the dload folder itself.
Hold both the UP and DOWN keys, and Power, the phone responds very quickly to say it's applying an update and takes about 2 minutes to apply.
As long as you're not in Chinese mode now you let it boot into ICS, make sure USB debugging is on and we also turned off fastboot in the settings - this caused some problems with Link2SD for example as it starts the phone up without applying new mount points etc.
NOTE - Don't confuse "fastboot" with "fastboot" - the phone has a fastboot option in the Android settings, this is the one we turned off, it ensures SD card etc are scanned fully on boot up, the difference is only a few seconds. It's just a toggle, On or Off in the settings section (sorry no screenshot :-( )
The other Fastboot is holding Down and Power to get the Hauwei loading screen. It's a bit confusing but if you're this far I don't think you will have any problems.
The phone will boot into ICS as below.
By the way the pictures here are from Hauwei so not fully in English but they show pretty much what you will see.
Anyway at this point we are really neck and neck with Modaco instructions, the next step is to re-root it and unlock the boot loader.
The link to the unlock file keeps dropping or saying invalid link but I got a copy and I would say it fills me with dread seeing it run on a Windows system, it even shut the PC down so I might be looking at a reload on that machine.
Needless to say it failed to unlock the phone anyway despite everyone saying it was the "only" way to do it.
I downloaded bootloader from here
The file is b926-root-bl.zip.
Now I need to point out that I have adb (Android Debug Bridge) installed on my linux machine just in case anyone has problems etc.
Also to do this step you keep the phone in ICS i.e not in bootloader or recovery mode, just normal phone mode - plug in the USB cable and it says "USB installer mode" or similar on the top, the debug mode prevents the phone mounting as a USB memory device.
Don't mail me for help on this as I know literally nothing on ADB I just know it's installed and when I type
adb devices
in a terminal I see (the phone was in recovery mode at the time)
List of devices attached
C8D15E99DD97 recovery
If you see no devices it's important you make sure this works or you can't send the bootloader over.
You need to have the phone set to enter debug mode which is in the settings, if you didn't do this then test again.
Once you see your phone then you should be good to go.
In the bootloader folder you need to make the root and the bootloader shell files executable.
type
sudo chmod +x bootloader-linux.sh
sudo chmod +x root-linux.sh
And to run them just type (while you're in the directory)
./root-linux.sh
The terminal should show the file progress as below.
735 KB/s (10324 bytes in 0.013s)
451 KB/s (22364 bytes in 0.048s)
4453 KB/s (831313 bytes in 0.182s)
9 KB/s (386 bytes in 0.040s)
And the bootloader unlocker
./bootloader-linux.sh
Again the terminal shows the file progress.
3335 KB/s (4194304 bytes in 1.228s)
4839 KB/s (4194304 bytes in 0.846s)
8192+0 records in
8192+0 records out
4194304 bytes transferred in 2.169 secs (1933750 bytes/sec)
8192+0 records in
8192+0 records out
4194304 bytes transferred in 1.579 secs (2656303 bytes/sec)
At this point you have ICS, Root (check in the applications that it shows SU) and you have the bootloader unlocked.
Now to install CWM, you put the phone in the fastboot mode by holding DOWN and power (remember to unplug USB, remove battery, put battery in, hold the buttons and when it's stuck on the hauwei logo plug the USB cable in).
I downloaded CWM easy installer from here
As with most of these files they have Windows and linux version in the zip.
Again, you make the installer executable within linux.
Move to the cwm directory and type
sudo chmod +x install-cwm-recovery-linux.sh
and to run it
./install-cwm-recovery-linux.sh
You can see the two errors I kept getting but the main bit is the OKAY .
sending 'recovery' (5212 KB)... OKAY
writing 'recovery'... OKAY
./install-cwmrecovery-linux.sh: line 3: syntax error near unexpected token `('
./install-cwmrecovery-linux.sh: line 3: `echo Now reboot to recovery to root your device (pull battery, then hold volume up and press power).'
Now if you remove the USB cable and battery, install the battery and hold UP and Power you boot into CWM.
I then copied the google apps installer (zip file) into the SD card available here
Keep the file as a zip.
Boot into CWM, select install a zip file from sd card.
and locate the google file(gapps-ics-20120429-signed.zip), the center button on the G300 acts as "select" by the way.
CWM will show it installing the Google apps package.
Finally you press power to go back to the main CWM screen and select "wipe data/factory reset".
Once done I removed the battery and powered up to a fully working ICS with the Google sign in screen, a quick "about phone" will confirm ICS, you can check SU (we installed Link2SD which requires SU so the root worked fine), we also booted into CWM and made a full recovery backup.
A nice note, Hauwei also offer 16gb Cloud storage which pops up.
I hope this helps anyone in the same situation I have been in, after a few hours messing I found my issue was adb was not seeing the phone - I updated my rules.d files to include the google phone identity and rebooted my server, the phone was seen straight away.
The adb part is perhaps the most critical and it was interesting the phone was seen fine before we did the ICS update but no after - no idea why but these are all the steps I did to resolve it so I hope you enjoy this phone as well.
http://www.modaco.com/topic/355583-guide-how-to-install-ics-403-b926/
are very good but we had one or two problems.
There have been one or two queries if you can unlock the bootloader with linux.
Although I have one PC in the house still running Windoze I had already done some updating on my pulse mini and installed Amon Ra so we had a go at putting CWM on and unlocking the phone more.
The modaco guide is pretty good, steps we took were...
We Rooted the phone using superrecovery, this is easy enough in linux and this link has Windows, Mac and linux versions.
Put the phone in the fastboot mode by holding DOWN and POWER, after a few seconds the phone vibrates and you get the hauwei screen, release power but hold down for a couple of seconds - we found if we didn't do this the phone carried on and booted.
If it stops with the Hauwei logo then plug in the USB cable and in a terminal run the superrecovery file.
This just involves making sure the shell file (.sh) is executable as with linux no files are automatically executable.
If you're sitting in the superrecovery directory type
sudo chmod +x ./install-superrecovery-linux.sh
then type
./install-superrecovery-linux.sh
In linux "./" means "here" - when you use DOS it effectively does the same thing but you don't need to type ./, linux is an implicit operating system so will do whatever you tell it.
Once done you get a message to restart the phone, I had an error but the first two lines said
sending 'recovery' (5074 KB)... OKAY
writing 'recovery'... OKAY
As long as they say OKAY then you're fine.
Remove the battery and USB cable, wait a couple of seconds, reinstall the battery, hold UP and Power this time to get into the recovery mode.
It should say "reboot phone", press the power button.
Once the phone has loaded, scroll through your app lists to see if SU (Super User) is there, if it is then it's rooted.
We followed step 1 to back up the IMEI as we found later this was important to get the loader screen back etc.
I got mine from here don't worry it says downgrade guide I just used the link to get the program APK (you don't need to copy the file structure to your SD card just the APK).
You also need the phone set to allow 3rd party applications to install (in the settings) or you cannot run the 5irom application.
To run the APK install something like Astro file manager, run it and locate the toobox5irom.APK when you select it you get the option to install it and then the root (SU) will pop up for you to grant SU permission, once you do you can back up the IMEI.
Once that was backed up we made a security copy of the 5imei folders onto NAS drive.
Next step was to download the ICS update, you notice if you unpack this that it has two directories, one says dload, the other Vendor, you do NOT need to apply the Vendor update, if you do the phone will switch to Chinese (you can if you're lucky change it to English which is what we did but it causes a big delay).
You apply the dload update by simply copying the dload folder to your SD card so you can see the dload folder itself.
Hold both the UP and DOWN keys, and Power, the phone responds very quickly to say it's applying an update and takes about 2 minutes to apply.
As long as you're not in Chinese mode now you let it boot into ICS, make sure USB debugging is on and we also turned off fastboot in the settings - this caused some problems with Link2SD for example as it starts the phone up without applying new mount points etc.
NOTE - Don't confuse "fastboot" with "fastboot" - the phone has a fastboot option in the Android settings, this is the one we turned off, it ensures SD card etc are scanned fully on boot up, the difference is only a few seconds. It's just a toggle, On or Off in the settings section (sorry no screenshot :-( )
The other Fastboot is holding Down and Power to get the Hauwei loading screen. It's a bit confusing but if you're this far I don't think you will have any problems.
The phone will boot into ICS as below.
By the way the pictures here are from Hauwei so not fully in English but they show pretty much what you will see.
Anyway at this point we are really neck and neck with Modaco instructions, the next step is to re-root it and unlock the boot loader.
The link to the unlock file keeps dropping or saying invalid link but I got a copy and I would say it fills me with dread seeing it run on a Windows system, it even shut the PC down so I might be looking at a reload on that machine.
Needless to say it failed to unlock the phone anyway despite everyone saying it was the "only" way to do it.
I downloaded bootloader from here
The file is b926-root-bl.zip.
Now I need to point out that I have adb (Android Debug Bridge) installed on my linux machine just in case anyone has problems etc.
Also to do this step you keep the phone in ICS i.e not in bootloader or recovery mode, just normal phone mode - plug in the USB cable and it says "USB installer mode" or similar on the top, the debug mode prevents the phone mounting as a USB memory device.
Don't mail me for help on this as I know literally nothing on ADB I just know it's installed and when I type
adb devices
in a terminal I see (the phone was in recovery mode at the time)
List of devices attached
C8D15E99DD97 recovery
If you see no devices it's important you make sure this works or you can't send the bootloader over.
You need to have the phone set to enter debug mode which is in the settings, if you didn't do this then test again.
Once you see your phone then you should be good to go.
In the bootloader folder you need to make the root and the bootloader shell files executable.
type
sudo chmod +x bootloader-linux.sh
sudo chmod +x root-linux.sh
And to run them just type (while you're in the directory)
./root-linux.sh
The terminal should show the file progress as below.
735 KB/s (10324 bytes in 0.013s)
451 KB/s (22364 bytes in 0.048s)
4453 KB/s (831313 bytes in 0.182s)
9 KB/s (386 bytes in 0.040s)
And the bootloader unlocker
./bootloader-linux.sh
Again the terminal shows the file progress.
3335 KB/s (4194304 bytes in 1.228s)
4839 KB/s (4194304 bytes in 0.846s)
8192+0 records in
8192+0 records out
4194304 bytes transferred in 2.169 secs (1933750 bytes/sec)
8192+0 records in
8192+0 records out
4194304 bytes transferred in 1.579 secs (2656303 bytes/sec)
At this point you have ICS, Root (check in the applications that it shows SU) and you have the bootloader unlocked.
Now to install CWM, you put the phone in the fastboot mode by holding DOWN and power (remember to unplug USB, remove battery, put battery in, hold the buttons and when it's stuck on the hauwei logo plug the USB cable in).
I downloaded CWM easy installer from here
As with most of these files they have Windows and linux version in the zip.
Again, you make the installer executable within linux.
Move to the cwm directory and type
sudo chmod +x install-cwm-recovery-linux.sh
and to run it
./install-cwm-recovery-linux.sh
You can see the two errors I kept getting but the main bit is the OKAY .
sending 'recovery' (5212 KB)... OKAY
writing 'recovery'... OKAY
./install-cwmrecovery-linux.sh: line 3: syntax error near unexpected token `('
./install-cwmrecovery-linux.sh: line 3: `echo Now reboot to recovery to root your device (pull battery, then hold volume up and press power).'
Now if you remove the USB cable and battery, install the battery and hold UP and Power you boot into CWM.
I then copied the google apps installer (zip file) into the SD card available here
Keep the file as a zip.
Boot into CWM, select install a zip file from sd card.
and locate the google file(gapps-ics-20120429-signed.zip), the center button on the G300 acts as "select" by the way.
CWM will show it installing the Google apps package.
Finally you press power to go back to the main CWM screen and select "wipe data/factory reset".
Once done I removed the battery and powered up to a fully working ICS with the Google sign in screen, a quick "about phone" will confirm ICS, you can check SU (we installed Link2SD which requires SU so the root worked fine), we also booted into CWM and made a full recovery backup.
A nice note, Hauwei also offer 16gb Cloud storage which pops up.
I hope this helps anyone in the same situation I have been in, after a few hours messing I found my issue was adb was not seeing the phone - I updated my rules.d files to include the google phone identity and rebooted my server, the phone was seen straight away.
The adb part is perhaps the most critical and it was interesting the phone was seen fine before we did the ICS update but no after - no idea why but these are all the steps I did to resolve it so I hope you enjoy this phone as well.
Friday, 10 August 2012
The Promise of things to come....
The recipe was alluring and offered the taste of home cooked Macaroons quickly and easily.
Queue £5+ spent on ingredients by my enthusiastic wife.....
The harsh reality soon hit home ...
Thankfully I don't like Macaroons, I had a Vanilla slice instead...
And now you know why I do most of the cooking at home.
Queue £5+ spent on ingredients by my enthusiastic wife.....
The harsh reality soon hit home ...
Thankfully I don't like Macaroons, I had a Vanilla slice instead...
And now you know why I do most of the cooking at home.
Wednesday, 1 August 2012
Running Great
Had the 116 ED for a few weeks now and took it for a run to Telford 100 miles away, it just breezed there, almost felt like I'd only done 30 miles.
So I took it to the East coast a return trip of 196 miles, its a combination of many twists and turns, almost constant gear changes etc.
The Avensis would have used about 3/4 of it's tank on this run, the Insignia 1.6 SRI used almost an entire tank (about 8 gallons) so nearly £50 of fuel with the best I had being 21mpg, the Avensis climbed a little on it's run to almost 40mpg but both were very costly to pop to the beach and back.
The Passatt would have returned almost identical to the Avensis so they were about £35 in fuel (About 6 gallons I think)
The BMW did it in 1/4 of a tank of fuel, lets say it did it the trip on 4 gallons and the computer was advising me it still had over 300 miles left, almost enough to go there and back twice more.
This is pretty amazing considering the stop/start, accelerate/brake and challenge the journey gives, MPG suffered due to this, returning just over 51mpg but when your comparing it to the previous cars it's easy to see the clear winner.
The country roads didn't represent much of a challenge, in fact you could get to cruising speed very quickly with little effort compared to previous cars and the road holding showed itself in that you could go around corners at previously untried speeds.
So far it's great, I'm getting about 3 weeks out of a tank running to and from work instead of 2 weeks, even now after coming back from the beach I've pottered around for 4 days and it still says 300 miles left so it's returning economy and performance where normally you get one or the other.
The Insignia for example was badly under powered with it's 1.6 petrol engine, you had to rev rev rev to get anything out of it, a burst of activity at the top end then a gear change and drive it hard to get any speed.
With the twin turbo in this engine you get your Diesel torque and turbo push early, then as that one starts to fade in comes the big boy and you get lively and demanding acceleration, it's almost constant from start to red line.
With almost 3k on the clock now and 15k until service due it will be interesting how it goes over the coming months.
So I took it to the East coast a return trip of 196 miles, its a combination of many twists and turns, almost constant gear changes etc.
The Avensis would have used about 3/4 of it's tank on this run, the Insignia 1.6 SRI used almost an entire tank (about 8 gallons) so nearly £50 of fuel with the best I had being 21mpg, the Avensis climbed a little on it's run to almost 40mpg but both were very costly to pop to the beach and back.
The Passatt would have returned almost identical to the Avensis so they were about £35 in fuel (About 6 gallons I think)
The BMW did it in 1/4 of a tank of fuel, lets say it did it the trip on 4 gallons and the computer was advising me it still had over 300 miles left, almost enough to go there and back twice more.
This is pretty amazing considering the stop/start, accelerate/brake and challenge the journey gives, MPG suffered due to this, returning just over 51mpg but when your comparing it to the previous cars it's easy to see the clear winner.
The country roads didn't represent much of a challenge, in fact you could get to cruising speed very quickly with little effort compared to previous cars and the road holding showed itself in that you could go around corners at previously untried speeds.
So far it's great, I'm getting about 3 weeks out of a tank running to and from work instead of 2 weeks, even now after coming back from the beach I've pottered around for 4 days and it still says 300 miles left so it's returning economy and performance where normally you get one or the other.
The Insignia for example was badly under powered with it's 1.6 petrol engine, you had to rev rev rev to get anything out of it, a burst of activity at the top end then a gear change and drive it hard to get any speed.
With the twin turbo in this engine you get your Diesel torque and turbo push early, then as that one starts to fade in comes the big boy and you get lively and demanding acceleration, it's almost constant from start to red line.
With almost 3k on the clock now and 15k until service due it will be interesting how it goes over the coming months.
Friday, 22 June 2012
Raspberry Pi time
I've had my Pi about a month now but due to holidays etc not had much time to play with it.
They need a good power supply, so I got a HTC charger from at £3.96 from Day2Day accessories on Ebay, this was a genuine HTC charger with nice long cable so an excellent product at a good price. Delivery was really quick so I recommend them if you need a Pi power supply.
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Day-2-Day-Accessories?_trksid=p4340.l2563
Added to this I got an 8GB Kingston SD card and my first task was to get XBMC running as I'm keen to check out the Pi as a media system.
This turns out to be very easy thanks to the guys at http://www.raspbmc.com/
I don't think I can commend them enough for their work and installation is so simple it can be done by anyone.
You don't really need to visit their site to download and install the system but here's what I did.
1) Format the SD card as FAT 32 (I use Gparted which only takes a minute)
2) Locate the drive id (type "mount" in a terminal), my card was /dev/sde
3) in a terminal type three commands.
You are then asked for the device id for the SD card, in my case I just typed "sde".
This will install a 49mb loader, you're then prompted to remove the card, so unmount it and pop it out.
Install the card in the Pi and connect it to the internet with a network cable.
Power up and it will download and install the files.
On my 110mb Cable it took about 10 minutes to download and install the operating system and files.
Quick reboot and your running XBMC.
Everything works using a mouse which is great, the next step is to look at using a remote control or even perhaps the Wii remote, I had this working on Ubuntu in about 5 minutes and have a couple of bluetooth USB modules so this could be interesting.
XMBC has web control interface as well so all I might need to do is control it through my Android tablet.
Raspbmc have done an amazing job getting the installer to work flawless and the XBMC interface is great.
They need a good power supply, so I got a HTC charger from at £3.96 from Day2Day accessories on Ebay, this was a genuine HTC charger with nice long cable so an excellent product at a good price. Delivery was really quick so I recommend them if you need a Pi power supply.
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Day-2-Day-Accessories?_trksid=p4340.l2563
Added to this I got an 8GB Kingston SD card and my first task was to get XBMC running as I'm keen to check out the Pi as a media system.
This turns out to be very easy thanks to the guys at http://www.raspbmc.com/
I don't think I can commend them enough for their work and installation is so simple it can be done by anyone.
You don't really need to visit their site to download and install the system but here's what I did.
1) Format the SD card as FAT 32 (I use Gparted which only takes a minute)
2) Locate the drive id (type "mount" in a terminal), my card was /dev/sde
3) in a terminal type three commands.
- wget http://svn.stmlabs.com/svn/raspbmc/testing/installers/python/install.py
- chmod +x install.py
- sudo python install.py
You are then asked for the device id for the SD card, in my case I just typed "sde".
This will install a 49mb loader, you're then prompted to remove the card, so unmount it and pop it out.
Install the card in the Pi and connect it to the internet with a network cable.
Power up and it will download and install the files.
On my 110mb Cable it took about 10 minutes to download and install the operating system and files.
Quick reboot and your running XBMC.
Everything works using a mouse which is great, the next step is to look at using a remote control or even perhaps the Wii remote, I had this working on Ubuntu in about 5 minutes and have a couple of bluetooth USB modules so this could be interesting.
XMBC has web control interface as well so all I might need to do is control it through my Android tablet.
Raspbmc have done an amazing job getting the installer to work flawless and the XBMC interface is great.
Sunday, 3 June 2012
Avensis 2.0 D TR versus BMW 116 ED (Efficient Dynamics)
Having driven almost 6000 miles in the Avensis I believe that qualifies me to give a fair review on it.
The Avensis was on hire while I waited for my new company car, the model supplied was the 2.0D TR Saloon, previous to this I had a 2.0D Passat (Saloon) and 2.0D Avensis D-4D Saloon.
Compared to the last Avensis saloon the differences are noticeable, the boot lid for example seems considerably smaller, a trip to Ikea soon confirmed that, whilst I would easily slide wardrobe doors into my last Avensis and the Passat saloon (by dropping the double rear seat, on this model I couldn't unless I put the passenger seat fully forward and then moved the seat back until it was touching the dashboard.
The boot lid is not very high so although it has a big boot its not a tall boot and getting things in and out need you to stoop low and almost climb into the boot to reach items, the Passat boot was noticeably larger, you could slide long items and through to the folded rear seats with considerable ease.
Inside the Avensis is OK, you notice it appears smaller than the previous models, more towards Astra size than the other direction, you're not cramped but you do notice it's not a large cabin, rear passenger has a fold down center arm rest with 2 cup holders in, door pockets which soon fill up with sweet wrappers and junk.
Front passengers get a center storage compartment/arm rest.
Perhaps it's strongest features are the 6 inch touch screen radio, phone, sat-nav system and the auto climate control (which was the same as the climate control on the previous Avensis).
Bluetooth is standard and you can register plenty of phones but can only connect to one at a time.
Sat-nav is on memory card and was OK to use, some issues with the menu's not being intuitive, setting a destination for example you got to the point where you just needed to confirm the destination, instead of an "OK" icon you're faced with a "dot" symbol, canceling a destination required a combination of pure luck and witchcraft.
You soon realized although it looked snazzy to start with the display was just a phone, radio and sat-nav so nothing to write home about.
Handling on the Avensis was OK, you noticed it was a heavy car, it took quite a bit of effort to move it but it held the road fine with no great problems, perhaps the biggest and most important complaint was the fuel consumption.
Almost immediately the Avensis settled to 35mpg and stayed there for 6000 miles, my previous Avensis would do 36.6 on the run to work (1/2 town driving, 1/2 twisting B roads), the Passat would give 35.5 so the drop in consumption was noticeable on the rising fuel bill.
Even on motorway (where I normally expect Diesels to return the mpg) the Avensis barely budged on it's consumption, a trip to Blackpool returned almost 40mpg with careful driving, dropped straight away to 33.5 on arrival and cost a fortune in fuel.
With 4 people in and light hand luggage the car felt heavy, you could feel it on turns and bends, you also felt considerable resistance on acceleration.
Cruise control was needed to try and relieve the stress of driving what felt like a heavy lumbering car.
After covering almost 6000 miles I can't say I was sorry to see the car go, the only device I used on it and will miss was Bluetooth and I was getting fed up banging my head on the low, small boot lid.
So last week (24th May) I took delivery of a new BMW 1 series 116ED (Efficient Dynamics), I chose this as the choice of other cars was not inspiring to say the least and I thought to hell with it, I've been offered a BMW so might was well give one a go.
The car came with just 140 miles (delivery) on the clock, I was intrigued as the MPG already said more than 50mpg.
The car has i-drive on a 6.5" display which is clear to read, navigation by the i-drive controller near the gear lever, very easy to use and no problems with that.
No sat-nav on board but I've got one anyway so no issue plugging that in, the car has a center armrest with storage and a USB plus 3.5"" audio in jacks hidden in there which is a nice touch.
This model comes with Bluetooth so within a jiffy I had my phone connected which was nice, on the i-drive system the car has things such as a built in user handbook (the Avensis did as well but the BMW version is deployed in both an index and photo style so you can read it like a book or search for the picture of what you want to get info on), the first item I looked up, Gearbox, Manual, reverse gear.
The ED display can be enabled on the drivers console, it shows additional savings by using the ED technology, this appears to indicate that on it's first 140 mile drive 33.5 of these were gained by using the ED technology.
If this is correct then me and this car are due for some serious personal time together !
Now I had my gear located it was a case of getting some miles on the clock, I kept the car in ED mode, this controls air vents for example on the car front, closing them when not required, throttles the air conditioning to reduce fuel consumption, altering throttle response and invokes the Stop/Start technology (which can be turned off easily).
Start/Stop is simple enough, pull up to some lights and pop the hand brake on, the ED display (which recommends which gear you should be in) says "N", put the car in neutral and as soon as you lift your foot off the clutch the engine will turn off and sit in "Ready" mode. To restart the engine just press the clutch pedal.
Engine start is by push button, no key required other than to unlock the car, for the next 2 days I return 53mpg on country/urban driving, I make a mental note to get a lanyard for the key fob as I you only need to unlock the car, sit in and press Start.
Now it's off to Devon, we load the car up for 3 people, literally filling the car up - the boot (although smaller than the Avensis) is bigger than the previous year model and we easily got a large and medium suitcase in, 2 laptop cases, a large stacker box full of cooking stuff for the beach, and beach bags. With the Avensis I would have fitted the 2 beach chairs in the boot as well, I had to put these behind the drivers seat. Despite the 1 series being a compact car we were surprised how much we fitted in.
You do notice the car is smaller than the Avensis, the windscreen for example seems tiny but you soon adjust to it, on the reverse side of the coin it was nice to have a rear wiper for a change so you gain on one point and perhaps lose on another.
Inside it's roomy enough, you always have a tunnel through the car regardless of front or rear wheel drive so even on Avensis/Passat you have a limit to your left leg movement, the seats are simple but comfortable, rear passenger unfortunately doesn't have fold down arm rest in the middle.
Fill the car up an we scoot to Devon a mere 275 mile drive, despite being full of 3 people and luggage the car feels well balanced and surprisingly light, you notice the car is very nimble and the 1.6D feels far bigger in performance than it's size says it should be.
Even with the ED enabled the throttle is fine, zipping away at lights and reaching motorway speeds with considerable ease.
The car is considerably quieter than either the Passat or the Avensis and the 1.6 engine simply wants to accelerate until you can go no further, for the first 50% of our journey I didn't realize I had turned off some of the ED features so the car was not running as efficient as it could be, a quick twiddle of the i-drive and I had the ED system on full efficiency 4 hours later we arrive in Devon with an MPG reading of 57mpg, this is at a steady 74mph (Sat-nav says this is 71mph in actual speed).
This BMW does not have cruise control but has an LIM button on the steering wheel, this activates a speed limiter, you can adjust this whilst driving and I found it every bit as good as a cruise control, you set a speed, when you reach it the throttle relaxes and you can move your foot around the gas pedal considerably without the car changing it's speed.
If you need to accelerate you can dump your foot to the floor, the car will over ride the limiter and respond, unlike cruise control you can change gear, brake etc and just return to your preset speed.
I liked this and felt I had more control than a cruise control simply accelerating me to a speed, I could do what I needed below my limit then hold the car at a preset speed with no effort for 4 continuous hours.
We got out the car with no complaints about numb legs, sore bums etc, I was surprised how relaxed and fresh we were, the front seats are noticeable thinner than the Avensis and Passat (and almost any other car) but seem perfectly comfortable, the rear passenger never once complained about any comfort issues.
I notice as well the car has used (depends how accurate the fuel gauge is), that I had used 1/3 of a tank - the Avensis on a full tank would show a range of 297 miles so I would have expected the Avensis to be sucking on Vapour now - my calculations say the Avensis would have used about 8 gallons, the BMW less than 5, whilst I accept the Avensis would have climbed a little bit I see nothing to suggest the Avensis ever went close to it's quoted 63mpg, I believe it could only do this if you dropped it from the International Space Station and kept it in neutral.
At £1.38 a gallon, that works out at about £51.50 for the Avensis versus £30.27 for the BMW. After driving around for a while I topped the car up (I forgot to keep a note of how much it was but I think it was £40), this lasted the whole week, topping it up again before the run home.
It was interesting that despite driving 275 miles to our destination the BMW showed 291 miles remaining in the tank ,effectively showing double the range of the Avensis.
After unpacking the car I noticed even more how light and nimble the car was, with just 3 adults in the car delivered almost sports car handling, the steering was light enough to use finger tips, the response was immediate and urgent, this was going to be a fun car to drive.
Beside the gear lever you notice the Eco/Comfort/Sport button, tap this and the center console changes to indicate comfort mode, Sport (the i-drive display changes to red) or the Eco mode, unlike some cars i've driven you notice the change from one mode to the other.
Prodding the button into comfort mode gives a balanced drive, more throttle response, eco functions turned off and you have a good lively drive, enter sport mode and you notice Devon simple does not have roads long enough for sport mode, it's a very lively drive, delivers some giggle factor and it's great to see this in a car that can offer such amazing economy.
For the entire week I left the car almost 100% in Eco mode, once or twice prodding Sport mode when I noticed an enticing hill or section to release the horses.
Despite the twisting, stop/start and continuous throttle/gear changes required for Devon roads I returned a consistent 52-53mpg.
Considering the continuous work needed to drive these challenging routes the car performed above and beyond my expectations, handling superbly, never diving into a corner or scuttling out with the traditional "foot to the floor" front wheel drive strategy, instead you simply drove into a corner and exited with a quiet sense of purpose.
A slight press on the throttle and in many cases tail gaiters were left as a speck in the distance, the Eco mode is more than enough power for almost all of your day to day driving.
Considering the Avensis would return (at best) 33.5mpg on these roads (and I have seen the Avensis drop as low as 31.9mpg) it was nice to know this car was returning almost twice the mpg with better performance and handling.
One thing to bear in mind, most engines have fairly poor economy when they are new, they normally get better and better through age, an Insignia SRi for example drove pretty crappy until the speedo hit a magical 1000 mile marker, the engine then changed considerably but the fuel economy started shitty and remained dismal afterwards.
The Avensis came to me with 5000 miles on the clock so should have been run in fine, the mpg gauge only even counted down, I reset it numerous times, ensured I changed gear when the prompt appeared, tried driving the Avensis as carefully as possible (getting 33.6mpg for my troubles), driving it hard (and getting 33.4mpg) nothing seemed to make any difference.
Motorway driving was not much different so my conclusion was the current 2011/12 Avensis is not an improvement on the previous models.
Putting that to the back of my mind and after a week of superb and enjoyable driving we return home, again I set the limiter and I must admit to using the sport mode several times to dispense with tail gaiters (and just for a laugh), this dropped a few points on my mpg, I did beat 60mpg and this is at 70mph - that's sixty miles per gallon at a speed that would return nothing near this on the Avensis - in fact I think the only way to get any economy out of the Avensis would have been to drop to the industry standard 56mph which normally returns maximum economy.
I drove a steady 4 hours and the mpg simply climbed and climbed, i'm sitting in a car here where the mpg figure simply climbs and the only reason it stops is you run out of road, I'm used to seeing the figures go down and stay down.
On the return I did drop my mpg significantly as I could sense the home run, once you pick up your local radio stations and want a nice cup of tea your foot develops a certain amount of lead and finds the floor of the car.
I dropped out of the high 59mpg and 60mpg margin to what I consider a very respectable 58.7mpg overall 261 miles and 4hr 8 mins of driving.
The first 30 miles of the trip were country roads to join the main A38 but I feel the average speed shows this is an accurate reading. I still show 324 miles remaining so thats already 585 miles out a tank and this should increase as the engine runs in.
Taking £1.38 as the fuel price, this would give a return price of £27.89, let's put the Avensis as giving 40mpg on the return (as a gesture of goodwill) this would still have been £40.94.
So would I go for the Avensis with the larger (but difficult to access) boot and the on board sat-nav or the BMW 1 series 1.6ED - there's no choice, I've declared this car is great fun to drive, I love it and intend to investigate the Sports mode considerably.
All I know is I had an almost effortless drive to Devon, a week of fantastic cruising and perhaps my easiest and least stressful drive back and all for a fraction of the price I would have spent doing the same trip in the Avensis.
Distance covered was 916 miles, approx £97.90 cost, if I assume the Avensis would have given 40mpg on the motorway (which it never did so I'm being VERY generous here), and 33.5 on the country roads that makes a cost of £155.23, if I used the Avensis 33.5mpg average as I'm doing on the BMW here that would give a cost of (sit down first) ...... £171.54, a saving of £73.64.
Finally the ED, it shows savings i.e extra miles your gaining by using the ED, this seems to work out about 25%, on the 261 mile drive home this equated to 53miles extra.
If this is correct then i'm looking at saving 43% on the fuel costs.
Oh and finally (really) the BMW is road tax exempt as it emits 99g of CO2, London Congestion charge exempt and is only 13% company vehicle tax.
BMW - if you read this, it's a winner, it drives and feels much bigger than it is, has both excellent economy and fun factor performance, can cruise all day or just whiz around in city traffic, I've now covered exactly 1000 miles with an average 51.7mpg and have completely forgotten the car I had before .... erm ... Avalon ? Revensis ? nope it's gone.
The Avensis was on hire while I waited for my new company car, the model supplied was the 2.0D TR Saloon, previous to this I had a 2.0D Passat (Saloon) and 2.0D Avensis D-4D Saloon.
Compared to the last Avensis saloon the differences are noticeable, the boot lid for example seems considerably smaller, a trip to Ikea soon confirmed that, whilst I would easily slide wardrobe doors into my last Avensis and the Passat saloon (by dropping the double rear seat, on this model I couldn't unless I put the passenger seat fully forward and then moved the seat back until it was touching the dashboard.
The boot lid is not very high so although it has a big boot its not a tall boot and getting things in and out need you to stoop low and almost climb into the boot to reach items, the Passat boot was noticeably larger, you could slide long items and through to the folded rear seats with considerable ease.
Inside the Avensis is OK, you notice it appears smaller than the previous models, more towards Astra size than the other direction, you're not cramped but you do notice it's not a large cabin, rear passenger has a fold down center arm rest with 2 cup holders in, door pockets which soon fill up with sweet wrappers and junk.
Front passengers get a center storage compartment/arm rest.
Perhaps it's strongest features are the 6 inch touch screen radio, phone, sat-nav system and the auto climate control (which was the same as the climate control on the previous Avensis).
Bluetooth is standard and you can register plenty of phones but can only connect to one at a time.
Sat-nav is on memory card and was OK to use, some issues with the menu's not being intuitive, setting a destination for example you got to the point where you just needed to confirm the destination, instead of an "OK" icon you're faced with a "dot" symbol, canceling a destination required a combination of pure luck and witchcraft.
You soon realized although it looked snazzy to start with the display was just a phone, radio and sat-nav so nothing to write home about.
Handling on the Avensis was OK, you noticed it was a heavy car, it took quite a bit of effort to move it but it held the road fine with no great problems, perhaps the biggest and most important complaint was the fuel consumption.
Almost immediately the Avensis settled to 35mpg and stayed there for 6000 miles, my previous Avensis would do 36.6 on the run to work (1/2 town driving, 1/2 twisting B roads), the Passat would give 35.5 so the drop in consumption was noticeable on the rising fuel bill.
Even on motorway (where I normally expect Diesels to return the mpg) the Avensis barely budged on it's consumption, a trip to Blackpool returned almost 40mpg with careful driving, dropped straight away to 33.5 on arrival and cost a fortune in fuel.
With 4 people in and light hand luggage the car felt heavy, you could feel it on turns and bends, you also felt considerable resistance on acceleration.
Cruise control was needed to try and relieve the stress of driving what felt like a heavy lumbering car.
After covering almost 6000 miles I can't say I was sorry to see the car go, the only device I used on it and will miss was Bluetooth and I was getting fed up banging my head on the low, small boot lid.
So last week (24th May) I took delivery of a new BMW 1 series 116ED (Efficient Dynamics), I chose this as the choice of other cars was not inspiring to say the least and I thought to hell with it, I've been offered a BMW so might was well give one a go.
The car came with just 140 miles (delivery) on the clock, I was intrigued as the MPG already said more than 50mpg.
The car has i-drive on a 6.5" display which is clear to read, navigation by the i-drive controller near the gear lever, very easy to use and no problems with that.
No sat-nav on board but I've got one anyway so no issue plugging that in, the car has a center armrest with storage and a USB plus 3.5"" audio in jacks hidden in there which is a nice touch.
This model comes with Bluetooth so within a jiffy I had my phone connected which was nice, on the i-drive system the car has things such as a built in user handbook (the Avensis did as well but the BMW version is deployed in both an index and photo style so you can read it like a book or search for the picture of what you want to get info on), the first item I looked up, Gearbox, Manual, reverse gear.
The ED display can be enabled on the drivers console, it shows additional savings by using the ED technology, this appears to indicate that on it's first 140 mile drive 33.5 of these were gained by using the ED technology.
If this is correct then me and this car are due for some serious personal time together !
Now I had my gear located it was a case of getting some miles on the clock, I kept the car in ED mode, this controls air vents for example on the car front, closing them when not required, throttles the air conditioning to reduce fuel consumption, altering throttle response and invokes the Stop/Start technology (which can be turned off easily).
Start/Stop is simple enough, pull up to some lights and pop the hand brake on, the ED display (which recommends which gear you should be in) says "N", put the car in neutral and as soon as you lift your foot off the clutch the engine will turn off and sit in "Ready" mode. To restart the engine just press the clutch pedal.
Engine start is by push button, no key required other than to unlock the car, for the next 2 days I return 53mpg on country/urban driving, I make a mental note to get a lanyard for the key fob as I you only need to unlock the car, sit in and press Start.
Now it's off to Devon, we load the car up for 3 people, literally filling the car up - the boot (although smaller than the Avensis) is bigger than the previous year model and we easily got a large and medium suitcase in, 2 laptop cases, a large stacker box full of cooking stuff for the beach, and beach bags. With the Avensis I would have fitted the 2 beach chairs in the boot as well, I had to put these behind the drivers seat. Despite the 1 series being a compact car we were surprised how much we fitted in.
You do notice the car is smaller than the Avensis, the windscreen for example seems tiny but you soon adjust to it, on the reverse side of the coin it was nice to have a rear wiper for a change so you gain on one point and perhaps lose on another.
Inside it's roomy enough, you always have a tunnel through the car regardless of front or rear wheel drive so even on Avensis/Passat you have a limit to your left leg movement, the seats are simple but comfortable, rear passenger unfortunately doesn't have fold down arm rest in the middle.
Fill the car up an we scoot to Devon a mere 275 mile drive, despite being full of 3 people and luggage the car feels well balanced and surprisingly light, you notice the car is very nimble and the 1.6D feels far bigger in performance than it's size says it should be.
Even with the ED enabled the throttle is fine, zipping away at lights and reaching motorway speeds with considerable ease.
The car is considerably quieter than either the Passat or the Avensis and the 1.6 engine simply wants to accelerate until you can go no further, for the first 50% of our journey I didn't realize I had turned off some of the ED features so the car was not running as efficient as it could be, a quick twiddle of the i-drive and I had the ED system on full efficiency 4 hours later we arrive in Devon with an MPG reading of 57mpg, this is at a steady 74mph (Sat-nav says this is 71mph in actual speed).
This BMW does not have cruise control but has an LIM button on the steering wheel, this activates a speed limiter, you can adjust this whilst driving and I found it every bit as good as a cruise control, you set a speed, when you reach it the throttle relaxes and you can move your foot around the gas pedal considerably without the car changing it's speed.
If you need to accelerate you can dump your foot to the floor, the car will over ride the limiter and respond, unlike cruise control you can change gear, brake etc and just return to your preset speed.
I liked this and felt I had more control than a cruise control simply accelerating me to a speed, I could do what I needed below my limit then hold the car at a preset speed with no effort for 4 continuous hours.
We got out the car with no complaints about numb legs, sore bums etc, I was surprised how relaxed and fresh we were, the front seats are noticeable thinner than the Avensis and Passat (and almost any other car) but seem perfectly comfortable, the rear passenger never once complained about any comfort issues.
I notice as well the car has used (depends how accurate the fuel gauge is), that I had used 1/3 of a tank - the Avensis on a full tank would show a range of 297 miles so I would have expected the Avensis to be sucking on Vapour now - my calculations say the Avensis would have used about 8 gallons, the BMW less than 5, whilst I accept the Avensis would have climbed a little bit I see nothing to suggest the Avensis ever went close to it's quoted 63mpg, I believe it could only do this if you dropped it from the International Space Station and kept it in neutral.
At £1.38 a gallon, that works out at about £51.50 for the Avensis versus £30.27 for the BMW. After driving around for a while I topped the car up (I forgot to keep a note of how much it was but I think it was £40), this lasted the whole week, topping it up again before the run home.
It was interesting that despite driving 275 miles to our destination the BMW showed 291 miles remaining in the tank ,effectively showing double the range of the Avensis.
After unpacking the car I noticed even more how light and nimble the car was, with just 3 adults in the car delivered almost sports car handling, the steering was light enough to use finger tips, the response was immediate and urgent, this was going to be a fun car to drive.
Beside the gear lever you notice the Eco/Comfort/Sport button, tap this and the center console changes to indicate comfort mode, Sport (the i-drive display changes to red) or the Eco mode, unlike some cars i've driven you notice the change from one mode to the other.
Prodding the button into comfort mode gives a balanced drive, more throttle response, eco functions turned off and you have a good lively drive, enter sport mode and you notice Devon simple does not have roads long enough for sport mode, it's a very lively drive, delivers some giggle factor and it's great to see this in a car that can offer such amazing economy.
For the entire week I left the car almost 100% in Eco mode, once or twice prodding Sport mode when I noticed an enticing hill or section to release the horses.
Despite the twisting, stop/start and continuous throttle/gear changes required for Devon roads I returned a consistent 52-53mpg.
Considering the continuous work needed to drive these challenging routes the car performed above and beyond my expectations, handling superbly, never diving into a corner or scuttling out with the traditional "foot to the floor" front wheel drive strategy, instead you simply drove into a corner and exited with a quiet sense of purpose.
A slight press on the throttle and in many cases tail gaiters were left as a speck in the distance, the Eco mode is more than enough power for almost all of your day to day driving.
Considering the Avensis would return (at best) 33.5mpg on these roads (and I have seen the Avensis drop as low as 31.9mpg) it was nice to know this car was returning almost twice the mpg with better performance and handling.
One thing to bear in mind, most engines have fairly poor economy when they are new, they normally get better and better through age, an Insignia SRi for example drove pretty crappy until the speedo hit a magical 1000 mile marker, the engine then changed considerably but the fuel economy started shitty and remained dismal afterwards.
The Avensis came to me with 5000 miles on the clock so should have been run in fine, the mpg gauge only even counted down, I reset it numerous times, ensured I changed gear when the prompt appeared, tried driving the Avensis as carefully as possible (getting 33.6mpg for my troubles), driving it hard (and getting 33.4mpg) nothing seemed to make any difference.
Motorway driving was not much different so my conclusion was the current 2011/12 Avensis is not an improvement on the previous models.
Putting that to the back of my mind and after a week of superb and enjoyable driving we return home, again I set the limiter and I must admit to using the sport mode several times to dispense with tail gaiters (and just for a laugh), this dropped a few points on my mpg, I did beat 60mpg and this is at 70mph - that's sixty miles per gallon at a speed that would return nothing near this on the Avensis - in fact I think the only way to get any economy out of the Avensis would have been to drop to the industry standard 56mph which normally returns maximum economy.
I drove a steady 4 hours and the mpg simply climbed and climbed, i'm sitting in a car here where the mpg figure simply climbs and the only reason it stops is you run out of road, I'm used to seeing the figures go down and stay down.
On the return I did drop my mpg significantly as I could sense the home run, once you pick up your local radio stations and want a nice cup of tea your foot develops a certain amount of lead and finds the floor of the car.
I dropped out of the high 59mpg and 60mpg margin to what I consider a very respectable 58.7mpg overall 261 miles and 4hr 8 mins of driving.
The first 30 miles of the trip were country roads to join the main A38 but I feel the average speed shows this is an accurate reading. I still show 324 miles remaining so thats already 585 miles out a tank and this should increase as the engine runs in.
Taking £1.38 as the fuel price, this would give a return price of £27.89, let's put the Avensis as giving 40mpg on the return (as a gesture of goodwill) this would still have been £40.94.
So would I go for the Avensis with the larger (but difficult to access) boot and the on board sat-nav or the BMW 1 series 1.6ED - there's no choice, I've declared this car is great fun to drive, I love it and intend to investigate the Sports mode considerably.
All I know is I had an almost effortless drive to Devon, a week of fantastic cruising and perhaps my easiest and least stressful drive back and all for a fraction of the price I would have spent doing the same trip in the Avensis.
Distance covered was 916 miles, approx £97.90 cost, if I assume the Avensis would have given 40mpg on the motorway (which it never did so I'm being VERY generous here), and 33.5 on the country roads that makes a cost of £155.23, if I used the Avensis 33.5mpg average as I'm doing on the BMW here that would give a cost of (sit down first) ...... £171.54, a saving of £73.64.
Finally the ED, it shows savings i.e extra miles your gaining by using the ED, this seems to work out about 25%, on the 261 mile drive home this equated to 53miles extra.
If this is correct then i'm looking at saving 43% on the fuel costs.
Oh and finally (really) the BMW is road tax exempt as it emits 99g of CO2, London Congestion charge exempt and is only 13% company vehicle tax.
BMW - if you read this, it's a winner, it drives and feels much bigger than it is, has both excellent economy and fun factor performance, can cruise all day or just whiz around in city traffic, I've now covered exactly 1000 miles with an average 51.7mpg and have completely forgotten the car I had before .... erm ... Avalon ? Revensis ? nope it's gone.
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