New Droid Mini on PagePlus

[salimoneus]

Hey all, Android noob here. I will be receiving a brand new never activated red Mini, manufacturer date 08/14. Not exactly sure which version of the OS it will have, perhaps 4.4?

Being able to use phone as a hotspot is a requirement for me. I would like to know what the easiest way to achieve this is. I understand that if I allow the phone to update itself to the latest 4.4.4 I will pretty much be SOL, so I assume that I will need to intervene immediately to prevent this. I understand that I wont be able to use the stock hotspot app regardless of what I do.

I have experience flashing older Palm phones and running UNIX type commands from a dev tool, etc.

Ideally I would also like to take an image of the factory install and be able to revert back to that at any time before mucking with things too much if possible.

Any assistance in getting pointed in the right direction would be much appreciated.

 

[Rukbat]

I understand that if I allow the phone to update itself to the latest 4.4.4 I will pretty much be SOL, so I assume that I will need to intervene immediately to prevent this. I understand that I wont be able to use the stock hotspot app regardless of what I do.

That's a carrier thing. If PagePlus doesn't allow tethering, then you can't. Period. (And they may cancel your account if you do - Straight Talk used to do that. One day your phojne wouldn't work, and when you called customer service, you were told that your account was cancelled for tethering. If that happened on day 2, you lost 28 days of service, and the possibility of ever getting a Straight Talk account.)

Ideally I would also like to take an image of the factory install and be able to revert back to that at any time before mucking with things too much if possible.

Install CWM or TWRP (if they're both available for that phone, I prefer TWRP, but that's a personal choice.) You can back up the system and data partitions. (The cache partition too, but why bother?) Restore just the system partition and you still (should) have your apps and data intact.

(You could also use dd, of course, through adb, using the computer's drive as "of", but that's kind of Rube Goldberg if there's a recovery that does it for you.)

 

[salimoneus]

That's a carrier thing. If PagePlus doesn't allow tethering, then you can't. Period. (And they may cancel your account if you do - Straight Talk used to do that. One day your phojne wouldn't work, and when you called customer service, you were told that your account was cancelled for tethering. If that happened on day 2, you lost 28 days of service, and the possibility of ever getting a Straight Talk account.)

I've been tethering on PagePlus for over 3 years with zero issues, and I have read no reports of others having problems. Not really a concern for me at this time. I'm mostly trying to find out which version of the Android OS I need to keep my phone at in order to be able to use a third party tethering/hotspot app. It hasn't been entirely clear through my research.

Install CWM or TWRP (if they're both available for that phone, I prefer TWRP, but that's a personal choice.) You can back up the system and data partitions. (The cache partition too, but why bother?) Restore just the system partition and you still (should) have your apps and data intact.

(You could also use dd, of course, through adb, using the computer's drive as "of", but that's kind of Rube Goldberg if there's a recovery that does it for you.)

Should I do this right off the bat, before even activating the phone? Or should I activate first and then disable data so the phone doesn't self-update, and then try to take an image?

 

[salimoneus]

Ahh bummer, just got the phone and it's already got 4.4.4. I've read that there isn't much I can do in the way of rooting or any kind of hotspot app, at least I haven't been able to find any info on doing such things?