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Root 4EXT equivalent to S-Off

A

aaronmfisher86

Lurker
So I'm new to the Evo V just came over from the Optimus V and I was glad to see that Harmonia is over here as well (first ROM I downloaded). So now that I'm getting more familiar with the ins and outs of the EVO V I've come across a couple questions that I was hoping you guys could help me out with.

1.) I bought 4EXT is that basically equivalent to having S-Off as far as installing ROMs are concerned? Will I be ok installing a ROM that says "Must be S-OFF" as long as I'm rooted and using 4EXT or do some ROMs truly need S-OFF and there's no way around it?

2.) This isn't totally related to rooting but I've had a real hard time finding any apps that utilize the 3D capabilities of this phone. I've come across a few threads that list 3D apps but when I download and open those apps they're not taking advantage of the 3D abilities, they're just rendered 3D things.

3.) With the Optimus V I was safe doing pretty much whatever I wanted to my phone as long as I made a backup first. I feel like things are a little more dangerous here. Can you permanently brick your phone by doing S-Off incorrectly/changing radios/etc? Or is that all resolvable by a restoring a backup?

Thanks for your help and I look forward to being part of the community!
 
4Ext IMO is only a workaround of S-OFF........ Most problems are reported from users with 4EXT that are S-ON


...........Really getting S-OFF is not hard and i beats worrying if your going to brick or bootloop everytime you flash a Rom or Kernel with "SmartFlash"
 
Mobstergunz said:
4Ext IMO is only a workaround of S-OFF........ Most problems are reported from users with 4EXT that are S-ON


...........Really getting S-OFF is not hard and i beats worrying if your going to brick or bootloop everytime you flash a Rom or Kernel with "SmartFlash"
Click to expand...
Huh?

Not sure why you would use the term "brick" in conjunction with SmartFlash. All it does is defer the flashing of the boot.img until the existing kernel is booted since S-ON users are not able to flash the boot partition in recovery. The bootloops are caused by trying to use that feature when there is no bootable kernel installed, in which case fastboot needs to be used to flash the boot partition instead.

An S-ON user is less likely to brick a phone since partition access is more restricted, but I do agree that being S-OFF makes flashing easier and less confusing as long as you are careful.

ramjet73
 
Well I think I found the big reason to go S-OFF. I want to be able to follow the "Fix everything by turning your phone into an Evo 3d thread" and that DOES require S-OFF no matter what I'm pretty sure.
 
ramjet73 said:
Huh?

Not sure why you would use the term "brick" in conjunction with SmartFlash. All it does is defer the flashing of the boot.img until the existing kernel is booted since S-ON users are not able to flash the boot partition in recovery. The bootloops are caused by trying to use that feature when there is no bootable kernel installed, in which case fastboot needs to be used to flash the boot partition instead.

An S-ON user is less likely to brick a phone since partition access is more restricted, but I do agree that being S-OFF makes flashing easier and less confusing as long as you are careful.

ramjet73
Click to expand...

In an case in a situation where the phone is bootlooping without end Restrictions will only complicate things especially for the noobs......... as Root Users we hate Restrictions and as an S-OFF user its a heck of alot easier to get out of a bootloop
 
Mobstergunz said:
In an case in a situation where the phone is bootlooping without end Restrictions will only complicate things especially for the noobs......... as Root Users we hate Restrictions and as an S-OFF user its a heck of alot easier to get out of a bootloop
Click to expand...
I totally agree that getting S-OFF is a good thing. Just didn't want users to get the impression that they will brick their phone if they decide to stay S-ON and use SmartFlash, fastboot and/or Flash Image GUI to flash the boot partition.

ramjet73
 
ramjet73 said:
I totally agree that getting S-OFF is a good thing. Just didn't want users to get the impression that they will brick their phone if they decide to stay S-ON and use SmartFlash, fastboot and/or Flash Image GUI to flash the boot partition.

ramjet73
Click to expand...

nah its impossible to brick aslong as you have the RUU............... IMO (at least for this phone) a brick is when the User is unable to fix their phone hence a "brick" I've seen lots of cases where the user themselves gave up on their device
 
While 4EXT is an excellent choice and my personal favorite it is in no way comparable to being s-offed nor is it intended to be, smartflash uses a clever hack to allow flashing kernels to an s-on phone, it is not perfect and if I was still s-on I would use ADB myself. Most people on this forum who have run into bootloops flashing kernels have been caused by the smartflash hack being used incorrectly. For the minimal amount of time and effort required to gain s-off weighed against the innumerable gains really leaves no rational reasons not to go for it. Both on this forum and others as well as Unlimited.IO'S IRC channel the only thing that I have found that is extremely rare but possible is the remote corruption of your sd card, using a spare 2 gig unit obviates any pain involved if this rarity where to occur during the process. Having gone through the effort to get root and then only partially unlocking your bootloader through htcdev is just leaving the job half done. You are not "shorting" your phone out. What actually occurs is that you are taking a pull down resistor low by grounding it to the sd card frame which then allows the bootloader to enter an engineering state. I'm still amazed at the ingenuity of the individuals involved, pure genius. Get out there and go for it people, you won't regret having full and complete control over your device with minimal effort involved.
 
Smartflash =/= S-OFF. S-OFF lets you flash different radios and even bootloaders. Without S-OFF, LeslieAnn's fix for the Radio problem isn't possible, and you can't downgrade your bootloader, so ANY AOSP based ROM is out of question (CM, AOKP, PA, etc).

Unless you plan to stick with Sense ROMs only, and risk the chance of Smartflash screwing up, I'd say S-OFF. Really easy, I did it within 15 minutes (with a few tries) and it's been good ever since. :D
 
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