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Root a little advice...

gmenfan83

gmenfan83

Android Expert
hey guys,,, ,im waiting on a bolt to come soon and i have a few questions,i am very knowledgeable on the flash rom process,theme ,root etc,,some of you may know me from the droid x section,i have a few questions about some terms i see that are new to me and would just like some clarification while i wait on my bolt,
first off what is s-off and how does this integrate into the process?
what is RUU?
and is the process similar to the x as to where once installing a rom i go through clockwork per the devs instructions (i assume so)or through rom manager(which i dont use anyway)?
i would have just referenced a sticky but see none made yet,thanks in advance to anyone who can help me!:)
 
RUU stands for Rom Upgrade Utility, I believe it's similar to an sbf like Moto uses except that it can flash similar to roms but instead of using recovery it uses the bootloader.

For flashing roms you will use Clockwork recovery similar to the X.
 
I can answer the RUU part. Coming from a Moto product (I had the OG Droid), I'm sure you are familiar with SBF files. Those are the files that you have to flash by using RSDLite. An RUU is basicaly the same thing only HTC flashes it via the bootloader (no need for RSDLite... WIN!). I'm sure there is a much more in depth technical definition, but that is pretty much what they are in a nut shell.

So when you use the root process for the TB you are downgrading the firmware (RUU) and then flashing a newer version of the firmware (RUU) that has S-off.

Now from my understanding S-Off is simply saying that you have complete root access to the phone, instead of a temp root that would disapeer everytime you reboot. I'm entirely sure on that as we never used the term when rooting the OG Droid.
 
ska.t73 said:
Now from my understanding S-Off is simply saying that you have complete root access to the phone, instead of a temp root that would disapeer everytime you reboot. I'm entirely sure on that as we never used the term when rooting the OG Droid.
Click to expand...

S-on means secured bootloader as opposed to S-off, which is not to be confused with an encrypted bootloader like on Moto devices. I'm not sure the differences between the bootloaders on the Eris as compared to the TB but the Eris did not necessarily stop you from rooting and romming with an S-on bootloader. I believe by having an S-off bootloader it allows more flexibilty in flashing RUUs.
 
cool thanks guys ,,,so if im understanding correctly s-off is like super user (on droids) and i obviously gain that during the root process and while i am rooting i actually downgrade the RUU(sbf in droid) in exchange for a Ruu that has s-off therefor obtaining root,,and unlocking my device with the ability to rom,,correct?
 
gmenfan83 said:
cool thanks guys ,,,so if im understanding correctly s-off is like super user (on droids) and i obviously gain that during the root process and while i am rooting i actually downgrade the RUU(sbf in droid) in exchange for a Ruu that has s-off therefor obtaining root,,and unlocking my device with the ability to rom,,correct?
Click to expand...

That is it in a nutshell yes :)

Also the RUU that you will install to get s-off is newer then the one that ships, so the downgrade is only to get the exploit to allow the other RUU to be installed.
 
bjanow said:
I don't think you can flash another kernel with s-on. not sure
Click to expand...

From my understanding this is correct. That is why you can not flash any kernels with the Droid X and Milestone. They had to create an actuall app to overclock those devices (the Milestone OC App).
 
Papadroid said:
S-on means secured bootloader as opposed to S-off, which is not to be confused with an encrypted bootloader like on Moto devices. I'm not sure the differences between the bootloaders on the Eris as compared to the TB but the Eris did not necessarily stop you from rooting and romming with an S-on bootloader. I believe by having an S-off bootloader it allows more flexibilty in flashing RUUs.
Click to expand...

That is correct. Both of my rooted eris's were s-on but I have s-off on them now.
 
gmenfan83 said:
cool thanks guys ,,,so if im understanding correctly s-off is like super user (on droids) and i obviously gain that during the root process and while i am rooting i actually downgrade the RUU(sbf in droid) in exchange for a Ruu that has s-off therefor obtaining root,,and unlocking my device with the ability to rom,,correct?
Click to expand...

im thinking the RUU is kinda like the maderstock.zip we had on the X... like an sbf that can be flashed in CWR
 
Papadroid said:
It's actually not flashed in CWR, it's flashed via the bootloader. Which is why having an s-off bootloader is important.;)
Click to expand...

ohhhhhhhh ok.
so maybe its more like when we first flashed the "update.zip" file in our stock recovery when the initial 2.2 leak came out
(sorry if im being redundant, im just trying to compare what we did on the X to whats going on on the bolt...)
 
ECFfighter7232 said:
ohhhhhhhh ok.
so maybe its more like when we first flashed the "update.zip" file in our stock recovery when the initial 2.2 leak came out
(sorry if im being redundant, im just trying to compare what we did on the X to whats going on on the bolt...)
Click to expand...


It's to my understanding that its equivalent to our sbf and its flashed on the computer via bootloader mode without the need of rsd
 
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