Root Free wifi tether? Oh yes.. here's how

I also tried to launch the tethering app for the Evo. Got an error message when I went to activate the router function. Will try later. Hopefully this doesn't automatically trigger the $20/month billing.

same story. trying to do USB tethering gives a vision error and drops 3G. lame.

n/m

which version of wifi tether did you guys install?

taiguy said:

same story. trying to do USB tethering gives a vision error and drops 3G. lame.

Click to expand...

same here too - any ideas?

Downloads - android-wifi-tether - Project Hosting on Google Code

people apparently have gotten the lastest pre-release working with the EVO. Downloaded it after using the Unrevoked root patch last night; haven't had time to muck around with it yet though.

Installed it - but it won't acquire an IP address - keeps reverting to the autoconfiguration IP address - any ideas? (or do I have to manually set the IP address?)

Thanks!

I'm working on the WiFi tether issue right now, I think Sprint/HTC has done some jerryrigging to make it especially difficult for us developers.

This is probably related to why their mobile hotspot app took so long to develop, it wasn't because they were busy working every ounce of cool customer-experience into it they could think of, they were busy trying to break other free wifi tethers.

See here: Issue 362 - android-wifi-tether - Wireless Tethering for HTC EVO - Project Hosting on Google Code

The workaround is simple enough if you just want to make your laptop work with it, however I want something more substantial so there is no setup involved on the host PC.

ab500 said:

I'm working on the WiFi tether issue right now, I think Sprint/HTC has done some jerryrigging to make it especially difficult for us developers.

This is probably related to why their mobile hotspot app took so long to develop, it wasn't because they were busy working every ounce of cool customer-experience into it they could think of, they were busy trying to break other free wifi tethers.

See here: Issue 362 - android-wifi-tether - Wireless Tethering for HTC EVO - Project Hosting on Google Code

The workaround is simple enough if you just want to make your laptop work with it, however I want something more substantial so there is no setup involved on the host PC.

Click to expand...

awesome - thanks!

Also, the reason why USB tethering is not working is because the EVO has multiple apns, which are like authentication details for the network.

When you turn on connection sharing it calls up one called netshare, which, unless you have tethering on your Sprint account, will not be setup with the carrier and results in failed authentication.

Reminds me of the good ol' days with dumb-phones and tethering.

The solution is to either not use HTC's utilities or find a work around.

Fortunately wifi tethering with the wifi-tether app will work around this fine. The issue is they have added (intentionally?) some obstructing code that only enables AP mode when you use their official application. There is a new class in android.net.hotspot among others that enable this functionality.

I revoked my Evo but I can't get either barnacle or WiFi tether working, I really hope that it will get fixed soon so that i can tether my iPad with 4G.

CRPercodani said:

For PDAnet you do not need root but you do need to use either Bluetooth or a USB cable to share the data connection, Barnacle you do need root but not a modified kernel. WiFi Tethering is the app that requires root and a modified kernel and it is what most people are talking about when they say free tethering with root. As far as ethics go I'm not going to pass any judgment but just beware that they can sniff out packets and if they see something suspicious like a software update for your computer OS then they might monitor your usage. This probably wouldn't happen if you only use it for emergencies and whatnot.

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Tired to use Barnacle but I get an error.

-Failed to sep AP_SCAN
-Process Stopped unexpectedly

Click to expand...

Any ideas?

xbox4414 said:

Tired to use Barnacle but I get an error.

-Failed to sep AP_SCAN
-Process Stopped unexpectedly

Click to expand...

Any ideas?

Click to expand...

Same error here.

Happy to report that tethering is now working using android-wifi-tether!

It requires you to do the following:

adb shell
mkdir /sdcard/android.tether
cat /system/etc/firmware/fw_bcm4329_ap.bin > /sdcard/android.tether/fw_bcm4329.bin

Then start tethering!

Shamelessly taken from comment #59 on the android-wifi-tether buglist.

Issue 362 - android-wifi-tether - Wireless Tethering for HTC EVO - Project Hosting on Google Code

gammons said:

Happy to report that tethering is now working using android-wifi-tether!

It requires you to do the following:

adb shell
mkdir /sdcard/android.tether
cat /system/etc/firmware/fw_bcm4329_ap.bin > /sdcard/android.tether/fw_bcm4329.bin

Then start tethering!

Shamelessly taken from comment #59 on the android-wifi-tether buglist.

Issue 362 - android-wifi-tether - Wireless Tethering for HTC EVO - Project Hosting on Google Code

Click to expand...

I just copy and pasted using Astro file manager - but still no go on the DHCP or internet connectivity....anyone else have better success?

mbressman said:

I just copy and pasted using Astro file manager - but still no go on the DHCP or internet connectivity....anyone else have better success?

Click to expand...

Nevermind, it does work - i just didn't rename the file from fw_bcm4329_ap.bin to fw_bcm4329.bin

Any downside to doing this - i'd think this would be a resolution but the "issue" on Google code is still open and people are apparently still working on it...

Hello,

This fix does indeed work! I have been working with Harald today to get this working and was the guy who found our lovely _ap.bin firmware file.

I was working under the false impression that it wasn't working, but sure enough it works!

No side effects.

I posted quick steps here:
FIXED: Tethering in Stock 2.1 w/ Root - xda-developers

mx7 said:

For those who are completely new to the Android platform, is that as simple as getting root and typing the following commands in adb?

Or are there any files involved which need to be downloaded firstm like fw_bcm4329_ap.bin?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Its very easy. Just open a command prompt and copy and paste each line. Worked like a charm

mx7 said:

Can this method be used after applying the OTA update?
Which root method did you use? Toast or unrevoked?
Thanks

Click to expand...

I used unrevoked's root. I'm unsure if it works after the OTA update, reports have been sketchy so far, I haven't confirmed one way or another. I'm ~80% sure it will.

The method for fixing the app doesn't require root at all, only the tether app.

And to answer the questions, no, no extra files are needed. HTC gave us the tools needed already in the form of a generous firmware file for their broadcom chip.

mx7 said:

Does it work with 4G as well?
I'm guess you didn't install the OTA update. Notice any issues with with the stock OS?

Click to expand...

As Harald has said it doesn't touch the mobile interface so it should work, although I don't live in a 4G area to test.

Here's what I did to get WiFi tethering to work for me, even after the #$!& sales guy did the 6-4-10 OTA update.

1. Downloaded: PC36IMG.zip
2. Connected my phone to the comp, selected USB: "Disk Drive"
3. Copied PC36IMG.zip to the root of the SD Card.
4. Powered off my phone
5. Held volume+power button until the screen was white
6. It took about 1 min before it started to check PC36IMG.zip (blue progress bar on upper right of screen)
7. Listed all the images, asked to flash, I said YES!
8a. When it was done it asked to reboot, I said yes
8b. After reboot I deleted the PC36IMG.zip file from my SD card so it wouldnt keep trying to install from recovery mode.
9. Downloaded evorecovery
10. Downloaded AndroidSDK (for windows)
11. Made a folder on the root of my hard drive called: "c:\android"
12. Extracted the AndroidSDK to this folder and Extracted evorecovery
Folder structure looked like this:
c:\android
c:\android\tools
c:\android\evo-recovery
etc., the ones above are the only ones needed
13. Put my EVO into USB debugging mode
14. Downloaded a/the stock ROM WITH root access, no other changes. Downloaded here. (note: people have reported 4g issues with this rom. I don't live in a 4G area and Sprint says it won't be here before Sept so this is a moot point to me at the moment)
15. Copied the "stock" ROM, from step 14, to the root of my SD Card
16. I am running Windows 7 so I launced a cmd.exe window with Admin priv, apparently WinXP is exempt from having to do this.
17. Switched to the directory with adb.exe by typing cd c:\android\tools
18. Typed "adb reboot recovery"
19. The EVO rebooted and had a screen with a red triangle
20. Back to the computer... in the cmd.exe (if you have the same directory structure as above) window "cd .." then "cd evo-recovery" (Just go to the directory where evo-recovery was extracted)
21. Trigger recovery mode on the phone by typing "recovery-windows.bat" (note: if the phone doesn't go into recovery mode at this point and you're running Vista/7 then your cmd.exe window is not running with admin priv's)
22. The first thing I did, and recommend that everyone do, was create a droid backup
23. After the backup completed I returned to the main menu
24. It's scary, but this next step is where a lot of people seem to make a mistake, and end up with their EVO in a self-rebooting loop.....so as scary as it may seem: DO IT. Wipe the phone by selecting: "data/factory reset" and "Dalvik-cache"
25. Back to the main menu
26. Selected update from SD Card
27. Selected the file we downloaded earlier with Root Access
28. At this point I got the message that the Install from sdcard complete
29. Rebooted, it's the first reboot after install so it takes longer than normal and in my case the phone auto-rebooted once
30. Downloaded the newest android-wifi-tether to the root of my sdcard
31. Went to the market and downloaded an installer
32. Launched the installer, selected the .apk file I downloaded to my sdcard
33. Android gave a warning about installing unsigned blah blah .apk's, so I disabled the warning and it installed without a hitch
34. Fired it up and even without configuring anything tried to tether to wifi... I got a message asking if I wanted to allow root to access wifi-tether, of course I said HELL YES!
35. Checked my laptop I had a unsecured wifi network and I could ping yahoo.com
26. SUCCESS.


I tried to note ALL the steps, so to those who know what they are doing this post will be rather annoying. For those who are new this may become a good starting point. I do not take any responsibility for anything that goes wrong on your phone from doing this. Sprint says that rooting your phone voids the warranty...insurance, etc. blah blah blah. These directions worked for me. My main reason for posting is that I am new from WindowsMobile (where I created my own roms, etc.) and I am trying to get into the swing of things for android. The above instructions are a compilation of about 10-15 different sites that I read through while trying to get it working. Best of luck to everyone.