Root Simple unrEVOked 3 rooting for stock Incredible or Evo on 2.2

[Bob Denny]

After spending many hours online helping people get their Incredible and Evo phones rooted with the unrEVOked 3.21 Reflash tool, I've learned a lot. I rooted my Incredible which has the OTA 2.2 update as well, so I have personal experience. UnrEVOked 3.21 is a 1-click rooting program. When it's done, you'll have a fully rooted phone with S-OFF and Superuser installed.

This guide is for people with the Incredible or Evo running "stock" Android 2.2. The phone can have been shipped with Android 2.2 or received the "Over The Air" update. In either case, again, we're talking about a stock phone running 2.2.

Preparation - Windows:

1. You must install the HBOOT-Capable Universal Drivers. Read and follow the article to the letter. There is a ton of bad advice floating around on the IRC channel and in forums!.
2. Re-read Step 1. The #1 problem for people is not having the right drivers installed. Try to get past your A.D.D. and do Step 1 all the way to seeing the Device Manager as shown at the bottom of that article.
3. Unplug USB.
4. Shut down the phone.

Rooting the Phone:

1. Get the Reflash.exe program for Android 2.2 Incredible/Evo. Pick the one for your OS (Mac, Windows, or Linux). This program runs on your computer, not on the phone!
2. Verify that you have an SD Card installed with at least 2Gb free space. If the SD is smaller than 4Gb, make sure it is FAT32 formatted. Look at it on your PC or Mac to be sure.
3. Boot the phone normally.
4. Enable USB Debugging (Settings, Applications, Development).
5. Enable Unknown Sources (Settings, Applications at the top).
6. Enable USB "Ask Me" mode (Settings, Connect to PC).
7. Plug in the USB cable and choose Charge Only on the phone. On the Mac you may get an error about not being able to mount, click Ignore.
8. On Windows (only), open the Device Manager and verify that you see the Android listed for ADB as shown in the pix at the bottom of the article linked-to in Preparation-Windows above.
9. Run Reflash on the PC/Max/Linux system.

If you did everything right, and if your phone is a stock 2.2 Incredible or Evo, Reflash will come up and start the rooting process.

Be patient! The process involves several (4) reboots and some long periods of apparent inactivity. Let it go. Wait for at least 5 minutes before deciding it has become stuck.

How to know it worked:
Once the Reflash process completes (5 or so minutes), unplug USB and reboot the phone. It will look normal. Open the App tray and look for the Superuser app. If you open Superuser it will be blank, that's normal. For final confirmation, reboot the phone into HBOOT and see if it says S-OFF at the top. If so, you're rooted!

Backing up the phone:
Now that you're rooted and in HBOOT, it's time to do a complete backup of the phone (a.k.a. Nandroid backup). DO THIS NOW!

1. In HBOOT, using the volume buttons move to RECOVERY and press the Power button. The phone will appear to reboot but it will end up in the ClockWorkMod recovery screen. From now on use the trackball on the Incredible (click to select), and the volume up/down on the Evo (power to select).
2. Move to Backup and Recovery, then select. This will show the Backup and Recovery menu. NOTE: You might have to select Nandroid first (info from IRC user, I didn't).
3. Move to Backup
4. Select to start the backup.
5. When the backup completes (several minutes), press the power button to return to the main ClockWorkMod menu
6. Select Reboot System, go.

When the phone boots to its normal mode, you're done! Now you can enjoy the benefits of root. I'll leave all of that to other sources on the net.

Problems?
If the above is followed to the letter, your chances of problems are slim to none. If you have A.D.D. and can't follow the directions, you probably shouldn't be rooting anyway Here are some things to try if it dodn't work:

• Before deciding it failed, boot the phone and look for the Superuser app. It might have actually worked!
• Try running Reflash again with the phone in the correct state as instructed above.
• Go back and really follow the directions for installing the drivers. Some people just don't get it.
• If the phone seems to be bricked, do a battery pull reboot. In 5 days of working with the RC on the IRC channel, there were no bricks.

 

[icrazy2u]

LOL, a day late for me, but all of that worked for me and i'm now rooted. Just figuring everything out now. Nice instructions.

 

[hasbrobot]

sticky...!

 

[i486Girl]

I can verify that thsi process works for an EVO that WAS rooted under 2.1, then updated to 2.2 OTA.

 

[Bob Denny]

Thanks for the report! I saw you helping others on #unrevokedtest. Good work!!

 

[Terabethia]

Just to let you know, you might want to remove this part from your post:
"The phone, must not have ever been rooted and reverted in the past."

The phone being rooted in the past doesn't matter. All that matters for your instructions is that you have 2.2 and that you are not currently rooted. If you rooted months ago and then unrooted yesterday, this method will still work just fine.

 

[InTheCreek]

Finally!

Somebody who knows how write concise instructions, spell, and include links.

Could you do the same for going back to stock 2.2 just in case we ever need to? - I sure would appreciate it!

 

[welbinator]

so the new unrevoked roots, flashes new recover, AND turns security off? so we don't have to do unrevoked3 and then unrevoked forever? it's just one step now?

 

[Bob Denny]

It does it all. Like I said, there's so much outdated info out there... One click and you've got S-OFF and Superuser installed on your phone!

 

[Bob Denny]

Just to let you know, you might want to remove this part from your post:
"The phone, must not have ever been rooted and reverted in the past."

The phone being rooted in the past doesn't matter. All that matters for your instructions is that you have 2.2 and that you are not currently rooted. If you rooted months ago and then unrooted yesterday, this method will still work just fine.

Thanks for letting me know, several others pointed it out on #unrevokedtest also.

Wll edit now!

 

[wayrad]

Thank you. This was desperately needed!

I've seen in other places that HTCSync needs to be uninstalled first. Is this no longer true?
Edited to add: Never mind, I see in the linked post that it is not necessary.

 

[ACD168]

Great tutorial bro.

 

[makewayhomer]

great stuff, the SD card bit is what tripped me up for a couple hours

 

[Bob Denny]

I've seen in other places that HTCSync needs to be uninstalled first. Is this no longer true?
Edited to add: Never mind, I see in the linked post that it is not necessary.

Yes, that's one of the most prevalent ones. The problem: The Android SDK has drivers, but they don't have the interfaces needed for the HTC phones. Enter HTC Sync, which has the same drivers but with the additional interfaces in their .INF files for Incredible and Supersonic (aka Evo). So you have people telling you to install HTC Sync to get those drivers, then uninstall HTC Sync (leaving the drivers) so it doesn't get in the way of the rooting process by binding to the phone when it's plugged into USB.

 

[dibs ODDJOB]

Fantastic tutorial. Will use it when I root soon.

Question, my main reason to root is extend battery life, should I do a factory reset before I root, to start fresh? Or root, then reset?

 

[Casbah]

Thanks Bob. I know that will help out a lot of peeps get their phones rooted!
I just have an addition for the preparation part because not everyone is on a Windoze PC.

For Mac:
No USB driver install needed.
OSX doesn't give you the option to format in FAT32 so that's best done elsewhere if you need to format your sdcard.

I answered some ?'s when the last unrevoked released for 2.1 from Mac peeps so I figured it would come up again.

 

[d_mon1]

Thanks for the simple tutorial, I just rooted my Dinc following your instructions. Now to uninstall all the annoying bloatware................

 

[NYC Coyote]

I didn't think it need to be said until I was in the IRC channel and a few people ran into this problem.....

MAKE SURE YOU DON'T HAVE AN UPDATE.ZIP IN THE ROOT OF THE SD CARD

This can be remedied later... but is a pain in the arse when you are in the middle of rooting and it just stops cause it found one.

 

[Casbah]

I didn't think it need to be said until I was in the IRC channel and a few people ran into this problem.....

MAKE SURE YOU DON'T HAVE AN UPDATE.ZIP IN THE ROOT OF THE SD CARD

This can be remedied later... but is a pain in the arse when you are in the middle of rooting and it just stops cause it found one.

Yup. Have been there and done dat! haha

 

[desperado]

Thanks Bob, great job I think I am ready to go for root with these well written instructions. I want to be sure I can unroot if I do root. Do you have the experience to write such a complete unroot guide. The guides I have found are all video guides which I don't like because people have a tendency to be incomplete in video guides they are so much harder to follow.

 

[Nucco]

Great tutorial and easy to follow (as are most tutorials, people just don't understand to read EVERYTHING).

Feels good to be rooted again, I've missed it these past couple weeks.

 

[desperado]

Bob, Just rooted....your instructions are perfect.

Mahalo!!

 

[Bob Denny]

Desperado, thanks. I'm posting the shortlink to this over and over on #unrevokedtest

 

[Terabethia]

Thanks for letting me know, several others pointed it out on #unrevokedtest also.

Wll edit now!

Merci

And BTW, awesome write up! When I rooted I just kind of peiced together instructions from 4 or 5 different sites because some things no longer applied in one guide while another guide would be incomplete. Kind of a pain. Thankfully I understood what I was reading but I imagine most people don't and get VERY confused

 

[desperado]

Desperado, thanks. I'm posting the shortlink to this over and over on #unrevokedtest

They should just add this to the links in the header of the chat session. That would let them focus on real issues instead of helping with the known issues.