This tutorial will teach you how to change the normal G1 Splash screen into a custom splash screen.

Prerequisites:

- Have ADB setup and working properly: ADB 4 Dummies
- Rooted G1 - Root and Upgrade your G1
- You’ll also need Fastboot. It doesn’t come with the android SDK. get it from The Downloads Section and place it in your <androidsdk>/tools folder.
- Mac/Linux/Unix Users: Must have ImageMagick installed and setup correctly. http://www.imagemagick.org

Instructions for Windows:

You have it made the easiest as there’s program that will do this automatically for you!

Download: CreateG1Splash (97)

Find an image you want to use as a Splash. (320 x 480 PNG for best results)

Extract CreateG1Splash.zip to your desktop

Run CreateG1Splash.exe and choose the image file you want to use.

Click Convert – this will turn your image into the following file: mysplash.rgb565

Grab that mysplash.rgb565 file and place it on your desktop.

Turn off your phone.

Reboot your phone into bootloader (camera+power) (Make sure the phone says Fastboot, if not, hit the back button on the phone and it should say fastboot.)

Connect your phone to computer though USB

Open a CMD Window (Start -> Run -> type: cmd and hit OK)

Type the Following Lines:

Fastboot Devices
(make sure your device is listed, if not, please update your phones USB drivers, drivers can be found in the Android SDK folder)

cd desktop

type the following 3 lines below:

fastboot flash splash1 mysplash.rgb565
fastboot flash splash2 mysplash.rgb565
fastboot reboot

You’re Done.

Repeat the process if you want to change the image.

In the ZIP file you’ll notice a .bat file. It’s an automated script that will run the last few lines for you. I always prefer manual over automatic though so if there’s an error you’ll know what step the error happened and you’ll have a better idea of how to fix it. Plus it’s good to know these things. Makes you comprehend how things work a little better.

Instructions for Mac/Linux/Unix:

Make sure you have ImageMagick installed and setup correctly. http://www.imagemagick.org

You need to manually convert the image file. Find an image you want to use as a splash screen. Preferably 320×480 PNG.

Place the image file on your desktop

Turn off your phone

Reboot your phone into bootloader (camera+power) (Make sure the phone says Fastboot, if not, hit the back button on the phone and it should say fastboot.)

Connect phone to computer through USB

Open a terminal / command window

type: cd desktop

type: ls and make sure you’re in the desktop and the image is listed.

type the following lines (the ones with # are comments, don’t type those) and wait a few seconds in between lines.

$ convert -depth 8 splash.png rgb:splash.raw
# Make sure it is 460800 bytes long!

$ rgb2565 < splash.raw > splash.raw565
# Triple-check size before flashing! 307200 bytes

$ fastboot flash splash1 splash.raw565
$ fastboot flash splash2 splash.raw565
$ fastboot reboot

You’re Done.

Related posts:

  1. Root & Upgrade G1
  2. Install Android 2.1 on G1 / Dream

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