“If it works, don’t touch it”. That’s what they say, and that’s what “good” users will do. Me? Not so much. I preffer to use the latest version of “everything” – on my computer and on my other devices, including the phone. I don’t have much time for development (F4A already takes enough of my time), so I don’t run unstable/development versions, but I do want to use the latest stable.

I was using ROM Manager (an excelent program for any Android tweaker) to check if there are any updates for my ROM (CyanogenMod) and recovery (ClockworkMod). This is what ROM Manager says about the recovery:

Current Recovery: ClockworkMod 2.5.0.7
Latest Recovery: ClockworkMod 2.5.0.7

Computers, just like people, can lie. In this case, ROM Manager lies about the ClockworkMod version – I found out from this thread on XDA-Developers that the latest version is 3.0.0.5. And since ROM Manager is not playing nice with me, I decided to update it manually, using fastboot. Here goes:

Prerequisites:

1. Rooted and S-OFF HTC Desire. You can use Freedom 4 Android to do this. Just download, burn to a CD/write to a USB stick and follow the on-screen wizard.
2. The recovery image. I downloaded it from the XDA-Developers thread. Make sure you check the MD5/SHA1 sum after download or you might brick your device!
3. Fastboot. You can read my previous post about installing fastboot. F4A already has fastboot installed.

And now, updating the recovery in 5 easy steps:

Step 1. Reboot your phone in fastboot mode. Just shut it down and then start it by pressing Power while holding Back.

Step 2. Connect the USB cable to your computer. At this stage, the phone screen should say “FASTBOOT USB” on the 5th line.

Step 3. Check that fastboot recognizes your phone:

# fastboot devices
HT09RPL00912 fastboot

Step 4. Write the new recovery image:

# fastboot flash recovery recovery-clockwork-3.0.0.5-bravo.img

Step 5. Reboot and enjoy:

# fastboot reboot

You can keep the Volume down button pressed to boot directly into your shiny new recovery image.

***

The funny thing is that ROM Manager still insists that I run recovery version 2.5.0.7 . Did I say that computers lie?

Note that these steps will work for any other Android device – just make sure you download the correct recovery image.

Enjoy!

Image credit: laihiuyeung ryanne.

Related posts:

1. How to change the boot splash image on HTC Desire
2. How to get shell on your Android phone in Ubuntu – SDK Tools r8 and fastboot update
3. How to use a raw disk image file in VirtualBox
4. How to change files in a initrd image
5. How to get shell on your Android phone from Ubuntu