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Root advantages/disadvantages of different recoveries

sabresfan

sabresfan

Member
my phone should come pretty soon so im just researching rooting and such for this phone. this is my first foray into the land of HTC so i know its harder for anything root on HTC. everyone talks about TWRP and 4EXT. what are the advantages? disadvantages? this isnt like the triumph, ov, etc where you could easily just get CWM and do it all from there. is there any recovery where you dont need a computer (4EXT right?).
 
4EXT is something you pay for, but it pretty much eliminates the need to obtain S-OFF since it can flash to the boot partition itself. S-ON is how your phone comes standard, it means Security-ON to my knowledge. This prevents you from flashing things like kernels entirely unless you boot from the bootloader using the command line command "fastboot boot recovery.img". I personally use TWRP with S-ON. TWRP is similar to CWM, actually, except that it's better in my opinion and has more options and a better layout. There is also a touch version of TWRP available as well, so we essentially have 3 main recoveries for this phone. All you really need to do is follow the All Things Root sticky that tells you how to root the phone. It's a lot easier than it looks, trust me. I too came from the OV like many members on here and it's a bit different for sure, but it's really not all that bad with HTC. Feel free to respond and/or PM me if you need help during the process.
 
4eEXT and TWRP2 have touch capability. I had TWRP briefly (followed the aforementioned guide to the letter) and its CWM++ but touch menus in your recovery is really nice.

There is a free version of 4eXT (4eXT updater IIRC); I assume it works as well but without the ability to issue commands from the OS. For 291 pennies, I'm not going to gripe.

I've never tried TWRP2. I'd be curious as to a side-by-side comparison between the two.
 
TWRP2 is actually pretty nice. Touch-based and easy to navigate. Very convenient, but nandroids from TWRP1 won't work on it to my knowledge. Also I'm not sure if people have tested their ROMs very much on TWRP2 so suffice it to say I don't 100% trust it, whereas I haven't had one problem yet with TWRP1.1.1
 
The 4EXT recovery itself is free, you just have to download and install it manually. There is an app that will install it and allow you to control it, that is what costs $4.


Here is my take on the recoveries...
There are two you should be concerned with... 4EXT and TWRP2, both are touch screen and both and an app to install and control them (at least to some extent). I have heard it said that 4ext does a better job flashing, I have yet to see anything amiss, and there has been an update recently that may have balanced it, IF there ever was any difference.

On Goomanager, use the menu button, then settings, install opensource recovery, that will install TWRP2.

If you plan to go S-off
I would recommend TWRP2 and GooManager to install and control it. Several roms (JMZ, Midnight, Harmonia) all use GooManager to handle updates, and this really makes things simple for users and devs. GooManager users running Harmonia get updates about 15-20 minutes before everyone else (I.E. they can download before the rush).

Yes, you can use GooManager to download the updates and then flash with 4EXT, but to me, that just means another app taking up space. And some people who use Harmonia simply remove Goo Manager and just handle updates themselves and soe roms have no update system or a custom one. So it's up to you amd how your rom works as to how you want to do this.


If you are not S-off
The above still works, since many roms still use the stock kernel (or work fine with it), so it not flashing with the rom is not a big deal. If you want to use anything other than a stock kernel (*Harmonia uses both modded and unmodded), then you will need 4EXT's kernel flashing ability.

*Harmonia comes with Mobsterguns' kernel, but if it doesn't flash, you will only miss out on a small boost in percentage, it's more of a bonus. If you leave the stock kernel, everything will still work fine. The same applies to any rom using his kernel. This backwards compatibility was one of the very reasons I decided to use it.

And yes, I use GooManager and TWRP2. It works well and has greatly simplified my rom updating.
 
Are backups from 4ext compatible with twrp2? Have liked 4ext but if the rom builders like twrp2 it might be worth looking at.
 
wigginst said:
Are backups from 4ext compatible with twrp2? Have liked 4ext but if the rom builders like twrp2 it might be worth looking at.
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To my knowledge backups between any of the recoveries are not compatible including switching between TWRP 1.1 and version 2.
 
I have a couple questions that I hope someone could answer. When I first rooted my phone I had twrp1.1.1, then I upgraded to 1.2. Around the same time I had done a stock backup using one of these recoveries. I am currently using 4ext recovery. I am trying to revert back to my stock backup but it will not backup using 4ext, which is understandable since I used twrp. My question is, how can I get back to the twrp recovery?? When I use goo manager, it takes me into 4ext recovery again. I need to get back into twrp recovery. Thank you for any and all help.
 
jreink01 said:
I have a couple questions that I hope someone could answer. When I first rooted my phone I had twrp1.1.1, then I upgraded to 1.2. Around the same time I had done a stock backup using one of these recoveries. I am currently using 4ext recovery. I am trying to revert back to my stock backup but it will not backup using 4ext, which is understandable since I used twrp. My question is, how can I get back to the twrp recovery?? When I use goo manager, it takes me into 4ext recovery again. I need to get back into twrp recovery. Thank you for any and all help.
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From goomanager, did you re-install TWRP before trying to boot into recovery? You will need to do that. I think the menu option is something like "install open recovery script."
 
I got into goo manager, clicked on menu, settings, but there is no option for install open recovery script. Somehow, it seems like I installed the team 2.2.2 one, I just restored my stock backup, now, another question, how do I get back to 4et recovery after Im done trying to get s-off??
 
jreink01 said:
I got into goo manager, clicked on menu, settings, but there is no option for install open recovery script. Somehow, it seems like I installed the team 2.2.2 one, I just restored my stock backup, now, another question, how do I get back to 4et recovery after Im done trying to get s-off??
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You don't have to go into settings- "install open recovery script" should be one of the options as soon as you hit the menu button. If you purchasedthe 4ext Recovery Control app, you can install 4-ext recovery from there. Otherwise just follow the same steps you did to install 4ext in the first place.
 
I have tried TWRP 1.1, TWRP 2.1, and 4EXT pd ver.
For me 4EXT Recovery_Touch_v1.0.0.5_RC5 (paid) won hands down. Now I have S-OFF and both the TWRP Recoverys ALWAYS found something they didn't like and would abort installation.
But 4EXT Flashed everything. Only one time it didn't like something and that was my fault. I had Downgraded the Hboot and 4EXT warned me I needed to wipe cache and dalvik cache before continuing.
 
Ok, I reinstalled the paid version of 4ext. I was currently using teamwin twrp2.2. But when I use 4ext and when it boots into recovery, it boots into twrp. How do I get it to boot into the 4ext recovery??
 
jreink01 said:
Ok, I reinstalled the paid version of 4ext. I was currently using teamwin twrp2.2. But when I use 4ext and when it boots into recovery, it boots into twrp. How do I get it to boot into the 4ext recovery??
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Man, I don't mean to be rude but some of these questions you could figure out yourself really easily (and much faster) if you took a look before posting. The very first option in 4ext Recovery Control says "Online install" and the sub-text says "Flash recovery." You need to install it from there. Then when you boot into recovery, you will be in 4ext (regardless of which method you use to boot into recovery).
 
crafty35a said:
Man, I don't mean to be rude but some of these questions you could figure out yourself really easily (and much faster) if you took a look before posting. The very first option in 4ext Recovery Control says "Online install" and the sub-text says "Flash recovery." You need to install it from there. Then when you boot into recovery, you will be in 4ext (regardless of which method you use to boot into recovery).
Click to expand...


Thank you for your help, btw, I did search these forums for over two hours and did not find my answer, thats why I posted. Thanks
 
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