I’ve previously praised the Palm PVG-100 as my favorite phone of all time.
It still is, but recently Google decided to end support for Android Auto for older phones (Android 8).
Android Auto is a personal requirement of mine, and I couldn’t find any way to stick to an old version.
So I embarked on the difficult journey of upgrading Android on this tiny phone from Android 8.1 to Android 11.
Thankful for EDL
Emergency Download Mode (EDL) is a special mode for Qualcomm devices where you can read and write to the flash, no OS required.
The only catch is that, to use EDL, you must provide the loader (sometimes called the “firehose”). This is a cryptographically signed binary that gets pushed to the phone in EDL mode, then runs, then you can send EDL commands to read and write.
But here is a question for you: Who should be able to use this mode for your phone that you purchased?
- Qualcomm (the manufacturer of the chipset inside)
- TCL (the manufacturer of this particular Palm Phone)
- Verizon (the carrier brand and distributor of the software)
- Me (the end user, who is holding this phone in their hand right now)
Well, I don’t know about the should, but I can tell you in practice the answer to this question is usually 1, 2, & 3. NOT 4!
I’m particularly lucky that the PVG-100 is included in this public collection of loaders. Releasing these loaders is essential to making sure these devices can continue to be used after their warranty period.
Whoever uploaded this file, thank you! You helped eliminate e-waste and give the PVG-100 years of more useful life.
Here is a video of the PVG-100 being put into EDL mode with a special EDL cable:
Before Flashing, Make Backups. After Flashing, Make Backups
The first thing you should do before doing phone surgery is make a backup.
This backup won’t have readable user data, that is encrypted.
But it will have readable system data, like the OS, modem configuration, kernel, etc.
If anything goes wrong, at least you can put it back into a working state.
Upgrade Your Phone
If you have ever installed a third-party Android ROM before, this will feel very familiar.
I’ve written up a Guide for upgrading a Palm PVG-100 to LineageOS 18.1 (Android 11).
Incredibly, everything works (now, with effort)! (phone, camera, gps, etc)
And once again I have a phone that can meet all my requirements, including Android Auto.
Breaking the Android 12 Barrier
Eventually I might get back into the game and work on upgrading to Android 12 (if the community doesn’t beat me to it).
With Android 12, the newer System As Root partition layout became the norm. This is going to require some repartitioning or initrd shenanigans.
Additionally, the 3.18.71 Linux kernel on this phone is going start getting in the way.
It can’t mount filesystems that use the newer space-saving shared_blocks feature.
Not to mention the old /vendor partition, linked to very old libraries and not compatible with the new vendor formats.
It won’t be easy to build!
Conclusion
Till then, I’m going to continue to use this phone as a daily driver and enjoy it once again!
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