HTC Tattoo - Goldcard, Rooting & Flashing ROM

My HTC Tattoo is getting slow and old. All I want it to do is tether with my Motorola Xoom. Well it looks like I need to bite the bullet and get myself some root access and find myself some quicker versions of Android 1.6. I first thought about getting an Android 2.x ROM but it seems those out there are not fully working.

1. Goldcard

A Goldcard is needed to gain root access. It is just a sdcard that has been specially manipulated to allow the phone to be rooted. I used these instructions successfully.

http://theunlockr.com/2010/03/10/how-to-create-a-goldcard/

This procedure requires you to set up ADB for the phone.

http://theunlockr.com/2009/10/06/how-to-set-up-adb-usb-drivers-for-android-devices/

2. Rooting Procedure

This worked fine. Just follow everything carefully.

http://theunlockr.com/2010/03/16/how-to-root-the-htc-tattoo/

3. Loading Custom ROM

I found this excellent ROM. Version 2.0 worked fine but was fully Orange branded. But I then installed version 1.7 for the built in tethering application. It looks fantastic.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=676319

And installed it using this method.

http://theunlockr.com/2010/03/30/how-to-load-a-custom-rom-on-the-htc-tattoo/