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Just a quick list of some common tasks in fastboot. Please feel free to add more in the comments. I’ll keep this up to date as I go.

This assumes you have an engineering bootloader installed – ADP users have one already, everyone else can get one here: SPL Bootloader (1353)

Getting Started:

Getting FASTBOOT mode:

The first and most important bit of advice. :) Simply boot with ‘camera’ held down and when you see the Androids on skateboards image (it will probably say “SERIAL0“) plug in the usb and hit the ‘back’ button. It will think for a second and change to “FASTBOOT“. Now it is ready for the commands! (I have had success doing this with usb plugged in the whole time, but others haven’t. If you have trouble, try it w/ usb unplugged until you see the skateboards screen.)

Leaving FASTBOOT:

To get out, either run

fastboot reboot

or, if you don’t have the client, hit MENU+SEND+END all at once.

Getting a FASTBOOT Client:

You can build it – it is built as part of the Android source and will be left in out/host/{os}_{arch}/bin/fastboot. Alternately, HTC provides binaries on their dream update page for most architectures.

General/Simple Tasks:<

Flash All Partitions:

This looks for image files in the current directory, or in the appropriate out/target/* directory and it even reboots the phone automatically. This is what you want if you just did a full build of AOSP and have all the supporting files, etc.

$ fastboot flashall

Flash a Partition:

It is reported that it checks size, although I wouldn’t count on it if I didn’t have to. Here is how you flash a single partition:

$ fastboot flash {partition} {file.img}

Erase a Partition:

You can do this before flashing, or to blank it out – its not generally needed except for boot (to force recovery boot or do kernel work) or to wipe userdata for a factory reset:

$ fastboot erase {partition}

Flash a New Boot Splash Image:

If you want to replace the white “T-Mobile G1″ or initial “Android” logo:

$ fastboot flash splash1 {file.rgb565}

Note that you need a properly formatted file for this – check out this article for info.

Partitions:

splash1: 300k (320×480x2), used for the “T-mobile G1″ image. See here to customize it.
boot: (size?) Holds boot.img (the kernel and initrd.) If you don’t already have a boot.img prepared, you can do it the easy way:

fastboot flash:raw boot {kernel} {initrd}

recovery: (size?) Holds recovery.img (a kernel and initrd) used for rebuilding/updating the system.
system: 70 megs, holds the Android platform. Mounted read-only under normal use.
userdata: 76 megs, Holds all the user applications and data. Reset the phone to factory by erasing it. (Sometimes referred to as ‘data’)
cache: 70 megs, supposed to be temporary storage (/cache) but actually never used except by T-mobile OTA updates.

Common Scenarios:

Kernel Development:

(Suggested/used by swetland, a googler of highest cool.)

$ fastboot erase boot
$ fastboot erase recovery

Now your phone will stop at the color bars (or skateboard, in this case) every time. Bad for production, but good for development. To test a kernel, simply run

fastboot boot {kernel} {ramdisk}

Once you have a kernel/ramdisk you like, use [code]fastboot flash:raw boot {kernel} {ramdisk}
[/code] and it will save you a trip to mkbootimg. (It does it magically.)

Flashing A Set of Yaffs Images:

(EG a nandroid backup, or a master image.)

$ fastboot flash system system.img
$ fastboot flash boot boot.img
$ fastboot flash userdata userdata.img

(You can add “-w” to one of those to erase userdata if you want. This will wipe out all your data though..)

The Full Usage Doc:

usage: fastboot [ <option> ] <command>

commands:
update <filename>                        reflash device from update.zip
flashall                                 'flash boot' + 'flash system'
flash <partition> [ <filename> ]         write a file to a flash partition
erase <partition>                        erase a flash partition
getvar <variable>                        display a bootloader variable
boot <kernel> [ <ramdisk> ]              download and boot kernel
flash:raw boot <kernel> [ <ramdisk> ]    create bootimage and flash it
devices                                  list all connected devices
reboot                                   reboot device normally
reboot-bootloader                        reboot device into bootloader

options:
-w                                       erase userdata and cache
-s <serial number>                       specify device serial number
-p <product>                             specify product name
-c <cmdline>                             override kernel commandline
-i <vendor id>                           specify a custom USB vendor id

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