Root [CDMA] Rooting newbie, almost ready! But first some final questions....

[K927A]

Well would that backup be useable if I go back to s-on?

 

[Brian706]

Well would that backup be useable if I go back to s-on?

Yes. If you were going to return to unrooted status, you would want to restore your backup first. Then get everything else back to stock. If you unroot first, you will not be able to restore your backup on the stock recovery.

 

[scotty85]

If you are able to root with revolutionary,you are very fortunate. It is a much easier process than juopunut bear.

Brian is correct that revolutionary does not change your firmware,or wipe any of your data. It does give you radio s off,wich is what you want for painless rooting and modding. I wish all roots were this easy.

You're worrying yourself a lil too much about the firmware. As Brian said,your nandroid will be of your current build,so you don't need to worry too much about finding an ruu for that. Just make sure you keep a copy of the nandroid safe on your pc,as well as your phones sd card,just in case

One of the great things about radio s off is this: in a worse case scenario,you can run any official release ruu to your phone working. You can leave the phone stock and it will OTA to current firmware. S off easily let's you reinstall a custom recovery and root access.

Hope that helps clear up some of your uncertainties

 

[K927A]

Yup I still have a release day 3vo. I kept it that way so I could have easy root, and glad I did.

So let me understand. I can restore and nandroid then go back to unrooted/s-on if I desired?

Also can you explain a bit more about radio s-off and OTAs

Honestly guys I've said it before and I'll say it again: It seems completely counter intuitive that these smartphones need more management from me than helping me manage anything lol.

I know I'll figure this out once I dabble it's just hard using my only device with all my data on it as the guinea pig!

 

[scotty85]

Yup I still have a release day 3vo. I kept it that way so I could have easy root, and glad I did.

So let me understand. I can restore and nandroid then go back to unrooted/s-on if I desired?

yes. at least if you are running a stock hboot. revolutionary will install a custom hboot that you must eliminate prior to turning s on. the safest way to s on is this:
-run most current ruu
-enter fastboot command to turn s-on

this will overwrite all partitions,and wipe your data,but the ONLY reason to ever do it is if you need to return the phone for warranty purposes. in this isutation you want the phone wiped clean anyway.

please understand that there is absolutely no advantage to staying s-on,or turning s on after you become s-off. you can have a 100% stock unrooted phone,and still be s off. you can still accept OTAs,run ruus,etc. everything just like when s on. being s off does not impair any other phone functionality. staying s off if you want to run stock is an excellent safety net becasue of the advantages it offers. you will never need to turn s-on.

Also can you explain a bit more about radio s-off and OTAs

what do you need explained? if you return the phone to stock,but leave s off,OTAs will happen just like they do now. s off will not prevent them from happening.

in order to accept an OTA you need:
-stock recovery
-all the stock bloat in some cases
-to be running a release version(leaks generally will NOT OTA)
-to be more or less stock(not modified the parts of the rom that check for OTAs)

when you are s off,there are no security checks being made,so you can easily re-install recovery and root at any time. after running an ruu,or after letting the phone OTA.

more info on s-off here:
http://androidforums.com/cdma-evo-3...s-off-cdma-evo-3d-all-hboots.html#post5137773

Honestly guys I've said it before and I'll say it again: It seems completely counter intuitive that these smartphones need more management from me than helping me manage anything lol.

I know I'll figure this out once I dabble it's just hard using my only device with all my data on it as the guinea pig!

you need to just run revolutionary and get it overwith

as we mentioned,revolutionary will NOT wipe any data,and you can immediately install a recovery and make a nandroid backup,thus securing all your data. you can make nandroids as frequently as you wish,so your chances of losing data are slim to none.

once youre rooted you can also use an app like titanium backup or my backup to back up all your user apps and associated app data. combined with making sure youre calanders and contacts are synced with google,its then fairly easy to get all your data back and set up if you wish to change roms. there are even apps to back up your sms and call logs,if those are important to you

 

[K927A]

Yes. If you were going to return to unrooted status, you would want to restore your backup first. Then get everything else back to stock. If you unroot first, you will not be able to restore your backup on the stock recovery.

I might ask you to explain that process in depth later. But I feel better knowing that I can use my nandroid to go back to unrooted stock.

I must have missed this post earlier. There is a big ad box under it so I must have scrolled right past it

An update on ruu's: I finally got an answer at xda. Simply there is no 1.11.651.3 ruu. It is .2 although I don't think anyone really ever had that firmware on their phones. According to the guy there, sprint must have made a minor tweak just before the release and bumped the version number up but never released a new ruu for it. Anyone wanting to read the proper explanation can see it here

 

[K927A]

this will overwrite all partitions,and wipe your data,but the ONLY reason to ever do it is if you need to return the phone for warranty purposes. in this isutation you want the phone wiped clean anyway.

Warranty is over so no reason I'd ever return it. That's why I waited to root, now I have "nothing to lose" i.e. no warranty to possibly void. I do have the insurance thing but I can save a nandroid, wipe old phone root new phone and restore if it came to that right?

what do you need explained? if you return the phone to stock,but leave s off,OTAs will happen just like they do now. s off will not prevent them from happening.

One of the great things about radio s off is this: in a worse case scenario,you can run any official release ruu to your phone working. You can leave the phone stock and it will OTA to current firmware. S off easily let's you reinstall a custom recovery and root access.

I was a little confused on this but I think I get it now. but...

staying s off if you want to run stock is an excellent safety net becasue of the advantages it offers.

What do you mean here, what advantages? As in not bricking, being able to flash whatever whenever?

you need to just run revolutionary and get it overwith

as we mentioned,revolutionary will NOT wipe any data,and you can immediately install a recovery and make a nandroid backup,thus securing all your data. you can make nandroids as frequently as you wish,so your chances of losing data are slim to none.

once youre rooted you can also use an app like titanium backup or my backup to back up all your user apps and associated app data. combined with making sure youre calanders and contacts are synced with google,its then fairly easy to get all your data back and set up if you wish to change roms. there are even apps to back up your sms and call logs,if those are important to you

I think I agree and I think I'm ready to. Just to be clear, revo gives me s-off and root and custom recovery right?

Nadroids are manual only right? Can't schedule them? Or is there an app for that?
I have MyBackup already and run it regularly. Of course I'll be adding root version and titanium as well for redundancy.

I guess whenever I get a good amount of free time I'm gonna sit down and do it! I'll let you guys know how it goes via this thread when I do. Wish me luck!

 

[scotty85]

this will overwrite all partitions,and wipe your data,but the ONLY reason to ever do it is if you need to return the phone for warranty purposes. in this isutation you want the phone wiped clean anyway.

Warranty is over so no reason I'd ever return it. That's why I waited to root, now I have "nothing to lose" i.e. no warranty to possibly void. I do have the insurance thing but I can save a nandroid, wipe old phone root new phone and restore if it came to that right?
correct

what do you need explained? if you return the phone to stock,but leave s off,OTAs will happen just like they do now. s off will not prevent them from happening.

One of the great things about radio s off is this: in a worse case scenario,you can run any official release ruu to your phone working. You can leave the phone stock and it will OTA to current firmware. S off easily let's you reinstall a custom recovery and root access.

I was a little confused on this but I think I get it now. but...

staying s off if you want to run stock is an excellent safety net becasue of the advantages it offers.

What do you mean here, what advantages? As in not bricking, being able to flash whatever whenever?
mostly being able to flash whatever you want. you can run any ruu without worrying about main version or other security checks,and the ability to install unsigned files is undescriblebly useful. you can easily install a recovery,an engineering hboot(wich has extra fastboot commands that can help in some situations) at any time. we have rescued a few s 0ff phones that would likely have stayed soft bricked if they were s on.

you need to just run revolutionary and get it overwith

as we mentioned,revolutionary will NOT wipe any data,and you can immediately install a recovery and make a nandroid backup,thus securing all your data. you can make nandroids as frequently as you wish,so your chances of losing data are slim to none.

once youre rooted you can also use an app like titanium backup or my backup to back up all your user apps and associated app data. combined with making sure youre calanders and contacts are synced with google,its then fairly easy to get all your data back and set up if you wish to change roms. there are even apps to back up your sms and call logs,if those are important to you

I think I agree and I think I'm ready to. Just to be clear, revo gives me s-off and root and custom recovery right?
no. revolutionary will give you s-off,and a custom recovery if you want it to. however,id prolly forgo letting revolutionary install recovery,and use ext 4 instead.

you can download ext 4 recovery from here:
PG86IMG-recovery_ext_4.zip

rename it to PG86IMG,put it on your sd card,boot to hboot,and allow it to flash. when the phone boots,immediately remove PG86IMG from the sd.

download superuser from this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1538053
its about in the middle of the post and labled CWM-SuperSU-v0.99.zip
if you want a backup of your currentl,unrooted setup,remember to make it prior to installing supeuser.

superuser you will simply flash in recovery.
Nadroids are manual only right? Can't schedule them? Or is there an app for that?
I have MyBackup already and run it regularly. Of course I'll be adding root version and titanium as well for redundancy.
there is not an app that i know of to automate nandroids,but i guess that doesnt mean that one does not exist

titanium backup you can set regular intervals to back up your apps and app data,and i would assume my backup will as well. technically you can backup/restore system data to the same rom,but my advice would be not to do that... it can casue issues such as laggy behavior,force closes,freezing,etc. safest thing is to only restore apps and app data.
I guess whenever I get a good amount of free time I'm gonna sit down and do it! I'll let you guys know how it goes via this thread when I do. Wish me luck!
good luck! just holler if you have questions.

 

[K927A]

Lol you've given me more questions already.

Warranty is over so no reason I'd ever return it. That's why I waited to root, now I have "nothing to lose" i.e. no warranty to possibly void. I do have the insurance thing but I can save a nandroid, wipe old phone root new phone and restore if it came to that right?
correct

Sweet. Lol.

What do you mean here, what advantages? As in not bricking, being able to flash whatever whenever?
mostly being able to flash whatever you want. you can run any ruu without worrying about main version or other security checks,and the ability to install unsigned files is undescriblebly useful. you can easily install a recovery,an engineering hboot(wich has extra fastboot commands that can help in some situations) at any time. we have rescued a few s 0ff phones that would likely have stayed soft bricked if they were s on.

I've heard about engineering hboot, what are the extra commands it gives, in a nutshell? I probably won't find much need for them at first, or maybe ever but it's sure good to know what you have under the hood even if you never use it.

I think I agree and I think I'm ready to. Just to be clear, revo gives me s-off and root and custom recovery right?
no. revolutionary will give you s-off,and a custom recovery if you want it to. however,id prolly forgo letting revolutionary install recovery,and use ext 4 instead.

you can download ext 4 recovery from here:
PG86IMG-recovery_ext_4.zip

So revo doesn't come with super user then. Good to know, I thought it did. And that's what grants root priveleges right? Whats the benefit of 4ext over the recovery that comes with revo?

rename it to PG86IMG,put it on your sd card,boot to hboot,and allow it to flash. when the phone boots,immediately remove PG86IMG from the sd.

So power and vol down to get to hboot and then it will automatically start installing? Still keep the .zip in the name right?

download superuser from this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1538053
its about in the middle of the post and labled CWM-SuperSU-v0.99.zip
if you want a backup of your currentl,unrooted setup,remember to make it prior to installing supeuser.

superuser you will simply flash in recovery.

Glad you mentioned the unrooted backup, that's something I wouldn't have thought of! You say simply flash in recovery but of course mr android moron here isn't sure what that means lol. I'm guessing I put the zip on SD and boot into hboot, go to recovery and the new recovery will give me an option to install? No renaming this time right?
I was playing around with hboot once when i first got the phone, out of curiosity, and hit recovery, nothing happened just say the android guy on a skateboard. thought I had wiped my phone but then it changed to a phone with an exclamation point, restarted and nothing was different. Gave myself a good scare lol.

technically you can backup/restore system data to the same rom,but my advice would be not to do that... it can casue issues such as laggy behavior,force closes,freezing,etc. safest thing is to only restore apps and app data.

The only thing I really back up is the personal data, like texts call logs system settings/prefs home screens etc. When you say system data what are you referring to?
Upon quick search I see apps that take nandroids without booting to recovery and allow restoration of parts of a nandroid rather than the whole thing. I'll bet theres one that allows scheduled backups

I see a lot of apps talking about needing busybox, is this something i'll need?

 

[Brian706]

Will do my best to answer these questions. I'm not always the greatest at explaining things on a technical level.

Lol you've given me more questions already.

Sweet. Lol.

I've heard about engineering hboot, what are the extra commands it gives, in a nutshell? I probably won't find much need for them at first, or maybe ever but it's sure good to know what you have under the hood even if you never use it.
This one I won't touch. I have not used one and I could not tell you what the extra commands are From what I have heard multiple times, the average root user will never use these extra commands, whether that be true or not...


So revo doesn't come with super user then. Good to know, I thought it did. And that's what grants root priveleges right? Whats the benefit of 4ext over the recovery that comes with revo?
Revolutionary just gives you s-off. Superuser is more on the software/rom side of things. It comes in most (if not all) custom roms. Or it is something you can flash independently on a stock rom. It is the program that allows your phone to grant root permissions to other apps.

S-off has more to do with permissions/securities as to what partitions you can write to and what kinds of files you can write to them.

4ext benefits s-on users a lot because it allows them to flash roms that would normally cause a bootloop. I am going to assume that revolutionary puts CWM (clockworkmod) on the phone. I have heard complaints about CWM bricking devices but have no experience with it myself. 4ext is just a great recovery. It has features that not all recoveries have, like mounting sd card, charging in recovery, probably more that I can't think of... It's touchscreen interface. Nice looking recovery with themes if you're into themes.


So power and vol down to get to hboot and then it will automatically start installing? Still keep the .zip in the name right?
It will prompt you automatically to update. You tell it yes with volume up, or no with volume down (as it will tell you on the screen).
You're probably understanding the file name correctly but to try and make it very clear the filename will be PG86IMG and the file extension will be .zip So don't name the file PG86IMG.zip and accidentally end up with PG86IMG.zip.zip - as that would not really cause a problem, it would just cause the bootloader not to recognize the file


Glad you mentioned the unrooted backup, that's something I wouldn't have thought of! You say simply flash in recovery but of course mr android moron here isn't sure what that means lol. I'm guessing I put the zip on SD and boot into hboot, go to recovery and the new recovery will give me an option to install? No renaming this time right?
I was playing around with hboot once when i first got the phone, out of curiosity, and hit recovery, nothing happened just say the android guy on a skateboard. thought I had wiped my phone but then it changed to a phone with an exclamation point, restarted and nothing was different. Gave myself a good scare lol.
You are exactly right. Your recovery will be different now as you will have flashed a custom one (4ext i assume). You will see the option in recovery to "install zip from sd card". No need to rename files flashed through recovery. A PG86IMG file is a special sort of file that flashes things through the bootloader and requires s-off. Gives you more options in cases of being soft-bricked! A PG86IMG.zip can't be flashed through recovery like a rom or an update.zip.


The only thing I really back up is the personal data, like texts call logs system settings/prefs home screens etc. When you say system data what are you referring to?
Upon quick search I see apps that take nandroids without booting to recovery and allow restoration of parts of a nandroid rather than the whole thing. I'll bet theres one that allows scheduled backups
System data would be rom specific things, such as your homescreen, system apps, basically anything baked into the rom or OS that you didn't put there yourself.


I see a lot of apps talking about needing busybox, is this something i'll need?
You will likely come across a root only app that requires it. It is included in almost every custom rom just like super user is. It sort of goes hand-in-hand with rooting. It's free on the playstore. It gives you extra linux/unix commands that some apps require that aren't included in android.

Did my best to answer them all!

 

[K927A]

I've heard about engineering hboot, what are the extra commands it gives, in a nutshell? I probably won't find much need for them at first, or maybe ever but it's sure good to know what you have under the hood even if you never use it.
This one I won't touch. I have not used one and I could not tell you what the extra commands are From what I have heard multiple times, the average root user will never use these extra commands, whether that be true or not...

OK, maybe I scotty can weigh in on this one or I can dig up other information myself. If it's really that much better I might go ahead and put that on there after I'm s-off.

Revolutionary just gives you s-off. Superuser is more on the software/rom side of things. It comes in most (if not all) custom roms. Or it is something you can flash independently on a stock rom. It is the program that allows your phone to grant root permissions to other apps.

There is only one superuser right? I've seen apps titled superuser in the market. Are those the same thing or are they apps that manage permissions after superuser is installed?

S-off has more to do with permissions/securities as to what partitions you can write to and what kinds of files you can write to them.

4ext benefits s-on users a lot because it allows them to flash roms that would normally cause a bootloop. I am going to assume that revolutionary puts CWM (clockworkmod) on the phone. I have heard complaints about CWM bricking devices but have no experience with it myself. 4ext is just a great recovery. It has features that not all recoveries have, like mounting sd card, charging in recovery, probably more that I can't think of... It's touchscreen interface. Nice looking recovery with themes if you're into themes.

Yes I think it is CWM that the revo site mentions. 4ext sounds much better for sure, I'll stick with that then!


It will prompt you automatically to update. You tell it yes with volume up, or no with volume down (as it will tell you on the screen).
You're probably understanding the file name correctly but to try and make it very clear the filename will be PG86IMG and the file extension will be .zip So don't name the file PG86IMG.zip and accidentally end up with PG86IMG.zip.zip - as that would not really cause a problem, it would just cause the bootloader not to recognize the file

I got it. Just making sure he didn't mean wiping out the extension altogether. I've had to rename files by extension before, i.e. rename to .jpg or something. I've noticed the trend of naming things PG86IMG to install them. Easy as pie lol.

You are exactly right. Your recovery will be different now as you will have flashed a custom one (4ext i assume). You will see the option in recovery to "install zip from sd card". No need to rename files flashed through recovery. A PG86IMG file is a special sort of file that flashes things through the bootloader and requires s-off. Gives you more options in cases of being soft-bricked! A PG86IMG.zip can't be flashed through recovery like a rom or an update.zip.

So I have to make sure it's the only .zip in the root dir of the card right? Or does it allow selecting a file?

System data would be rom specific things, such as your homescreen, system apps, basically anything baked into the rom or OS that you didn't put there yourself.

And as long as I'm not switching roms I don't have anything to worry about here right? As you know I'm going s-off, 4ext (thanks to advice here), and superuser. Root apps and nandroids, that's all i'm after for starters


You will likely come across a root only app that requires it. It is included in almost every custom rom just like super user is. It sort of goes hand-in-hand with rooting. It's free on the playstore. It gives you extra linux/unix commands that some apps require that aren't included in android.

Another thing I can research more on later looks like. :hmmmm:

 

[K927A]

Oh I just looked at the link to superuser and I see it's the same app I saw in the market. Can I just get it from there? Or is that different?

When it says requires rooted device, this refers to being s-off?

I also see 4ext is in the market, is that the same as the one in the link?

 

[Brian706]

I'm on my phone here so I'll do my best to answer.

I've heard about engineering hboot, what are the extra commands it gives, in a nutshell? I probably won't find much need for them at first, or maybe ever but it's sure good to know what you have under the hood even if you never use it.
This one I won't touch. I have not used one and I could not tell you what the extra commands are From what I have heard multiple times, the average root user will never use these extra commands, whether that be true or not...

OK, maybe I scotty can weigh in on this one or I can dig up other information myself. If it's really that much better I might go ahead and put that on there after I'm s-off.
Yes scotty knows this and will be able to answer this in great detail I'm sure


Revolutionary just gives you s-off. Superuser is more on the software/rom side of things. It comes in most (if not all) custom roms. Or it is something you can flash independently on a stock rom. It is the program that allows your phone to grant root permissions to other apps.

There is only one superuser right? I've seen apps titled superuser in the market. Are those the same thing or are they apps that manage permissions after superuser is installed?
There may be more, but the two major players are called "Super User" and "superSU". Those are in the market and are the same thing but I am almost 100% sure you have to have it installed beforehand by flashing it. Once it's on your phone you can update it normally through the play store.


S-off has more to do with permissions/securities as to what partitions you can write to and what kinds of files you can write to them.

4ext benefits s-on users a lot because it allows them to flash roms that would normally cause a bootloop. I am going to assume that revolutionary puts CWM (clockworkmod) on the phone. I have heard complaints about CWM bricking devices but have no experience with it myself. 4ext is just a great recovery. It has features that not all recoveries have, like mounting sd card, charging in recovery, probably more that I can't think of... It's touchscreen interface. Nice looking recovery with themes if you're into themes.

Yes I think it is CWM that the revo site mentions. 4ext sounds much better for sure, I'll stick with that then!


It will prompt you automatically to update. You tell it yes with volume up, or no with volume down (as it will tell you on the screen).
You're probably understanding the file name correctly but to try and make it very clear the filename will be PG86IMG and the file extension will be .zip So don't name the file PG86IMG.zip and accidentally end up with PG86IMG.zip.zip - as that would not really cause a problem, it would just cause the bootloader not to recognize the file

I got it. Just making sure he didn't mean wiping out the extension altogether. I've had to rename files by extension before, i.e. rename to .jpg or something. I've noticed the trend of naming things PG86IMG to install them. Easy as pie lol.

You are exactly right. Your recovery will be different now as you will have flashed a custom one (4ext i assume). You will see the option in recovery to "install zip from sd card". No need to rename files flashed through recovery. A PG86IMG file is a special sort of file that flashes things through the bootloader and requires s-off. Gives you more options in cases of being soft-bricked! A PG86IMG.zip can't be flashed through recovery like a rom or an update.zip.

So I have to make sure it's the only .zip in the root dir of the card right? Or does it allow selecting a file?

It let's you choose any zip file. And it doesn't have to be on the root of the sd card. That is just for PG86IMG files. When you choose to install a zip you will see it let's you browse the entire sd card.

System data would be rom specific things, such as your homescreen, system apps, basically anything baked into the rom or OS that you didn't put there yourself.

And as long as I'm not switching roms I don't have anything to worry about here right? As you know I'm going s-off, 4ext (thanks to advice here), and superuser. Root apps and nandroids, that's all i'm after for starters
Right. You can backup and restore system data on the same rom. But when switching roms its advised to only restore user data.

You will likely come across a root only app that requires it. It is included in almost every custom rom just like super user is. It sort of goes hand-in-hand with rooting. It's free on the playstore. It gives you extra linux/unix commands that some apps require that aren't included in android.

Another thing I can research more on later looks like. :hmmmm:

Indeed! It's nothing that will hurt ya though. Simply gives you more.

 

[scotty85]

Oh I just looked at the link to superuser and I see it's the same app I saw in the market. Can I just get it from there? Or is that different?

When it says requires rooted device, this refers to being s-off?

I also see 4ext is in the market, is that the same as the one in the link?

no. you need to download it from the link i provided. all that you see in the market is the app itself,and you need a matching binary in /system/xbin in order for it to work.

download from the link i provided,and falsh in recovery,and it will install the binary,the app,and set them up to work together

i can make a few comments later about the eng hboot. in a nutshell you do not need it. right now im late for work

 

[K927A]

Lmao I'm not sure I should even ask what a binary is.... Which version of 4ext is in your link? I noticed there's a paid and free version, not sure how dated that info is.

I have no doubt that eng hboot is way over my head but of course I'm still curious

Hope you didn't get busted for being late!

Brian, superuser and superSU are the ones I was referring to, is any one better than the other? I see superSU maybe being recommended more.

 

[scotty85]

Lmao I'm not sure I should even ask what a binary is.... Which version of 4ext is in your link? I noticed there's a paid and free version, not sure how dated that info is.

I have no doubt that eng hboot is way over my head but of course I'm still curious

Hope you didn't get busted for being late!

Brian, superuser and superSU are the ones I was referring to, is any one better than the other? I see superSU maybe being recommended more.

lol,the binary is just the part inside system that actually gives root acces. the super user or superSU app is just an interface,basically. again,flashing the zuperSU zip in recovery is all you need to do to get root access working.

i actually forget which version of ext 4 is in the .zip. its the newest,or may be one older if a new one has come out since. it doesnt really matter alot,it will work fine to install superuser. the image has nothing to do with the paid and free apps in the market. after you are rooted,you can use one or the other of the market apps to check on,and update ext 4 recovery. but you do not need either in order to become rooted inthe first place

IMO superSU is the better superuser. i have used it to root many,many stock roms.