Root about to root (newbie)

[bigbear6708]

Hey guys, just found this forum.

Have had my Evo 4g for about 12 months now and am bored. decided to try and root it. I have read the guides numerous times, and feel i have a grasp for it. a few quick questions though..

I accepted the previous OTA (4.67.651.3)

-once i unlock with htcdev, is it necessary to run captainthrowbacks guide? I understand it rids the watermark, etc and fully roots the phone

if I dont run that process and decide to just unlock hboot, will i still be able to remove bloatware, force apps to sd, etc, or must i have s-off for that?

if i do run the additional steps for s-off, will i be "outdated" as far as the software of the phone, since we are "throwing back" versions? also, what radios should I update to..in the guide there are a few links, i am unsure what ones i need.

anything else i should know? thanks

 

[ocnbrze]

Hey guys, just found this forum.

Have had my Evo 4g for about 12 months now and am bored. decided to try and root it. I have read the guides numerous times, and feel i have a grasp for it. a few quick questions though..

I accepted the previous OTA (4.67.651.3)

-once i unlock with htcdev, is it necessary to run captainthrowbacks guide? I understand it rids the watermark, etc and fully roots the phone

if I dont run that process and decide to just unlock hboot, will i still be able to remove bloatware, force apps to sd, etc, or must i have s-off for that?

if i do run the additional steps for s-off, will i be "outdated" as far as the software of the phone, since we are "throwing back" versions? also, what radios should I update to..in the guide there are a few links, i am unsure what ones i need.

anything else i should know? thanks

welcome to the forums!!!!!!!!!
1.you do not have to continue to the captain's guide if you do not want to. once you unlock your bootloader with HTCdev and get a recovery then you can proceed like any other rooted phone. the captain's guide is only if you want to be fully rooted and want the watermark removed.

2.yes you can remove bloatware but be careful on what you delete. i would use titanium backup to freeze the bloatware and see if your phone is stable then delete it, once you know your phone is ok. you can always unfreeze them otherwise.

but really i would suggest that you try a different rom. i would start out with mikg3.0. it is a waaaaaay better rom then stock. it has sense 2.1 and sense 3.0 built in and it is very fast and stable.

3.yes your software will be froyo but all you will need to do really is just flash a rom like mikg3.0 and you will be updated. (well sort of mikg has been updated to 4.54 but really the latest ota really did not bring anything to the table as mikg already had everything that the ota removed anyways. no need to update to it.)

hope that helps.

 

[bigbear6708]

Thanks that does help! I was lookinog at crypgen Rom,

Just to be clear since the new Rom should be updated, will I need to flash new radios in? Or is that step for if you dont update Rom?

Is there anything to really gain from using the captain. Why would i need s-off if i cam do basically the same stuff with the watermarked version?

 

[ocnbrze]

Thanks that does help! I was lookinog at crypgen Rom,

Just to be clear since the new Rom should be updated, will I need to flash new radios in? Or is that step for if you dont update Rom?

Is there anything to really gain from using the captain. Why would i need s-off if i cam do basically the same stuff with the watermarked version?

no you do not necessarily need to update your radios. with radios it will be YRMV. some report that there signal is better and that can result in better battery life. some have seen no change or worse, their reception is not as good as before. so that will be up to you if you want to upgrade it or not.

lets get you rooted first then we can talk about radios afterwards.

the main reason you might want to follow the captain's guide is to get rid of the watermark so that you can fully root with unrevoked. if you ever need to get your evo fixed then you can easily unroot your phone and bring it in. when you just unlock your bootloader, it will say unlocked at the top of the screen and that lets anyone know that you just voided your warranty and most places will not fix it.

so again that is up to you if you want to go further or not.

 

[CapThrowback]

Thanks that does help! I was lookinog at crypgen Rom,

Just to be clear since the new Rom should be updated, will I need to flash new radios in? Or is that step for if you dont update Rom?

Is there anything to really gain from using the captain. Why would i need s-off if i cam do basically the same stuff with the watermarked version?

If all you do is unlock your bootloader, you will be able to access root, which is all you really need. You won't need to worry about updating your radios, as you already have the latest versions. The only thing you gain by being fully NAND unlocked is the ability to flash unsigned firmware in bootloader/recovery. For someone inexperienced, that can be dangerous, so I recommend just starting with the unlocking process and custom recovery, and then flashing a custom ROM. That should be plenty to get rid of the boredom .

 

[bigbear6708]

You guys are the bomb! I have to trust someone who advises against his own methods, thanks capt. Can you explai the custom firmware thing? Also, if i need to have phone fixed later, can i still fully root with unrevoked then unroot? Last question with only unlocking. That will allow more space on internal memory, the. Only reason I want to root...lol, EVO and lack of space kills me. Will a custom Rom come with a2sd or is that an upload? Thanks again, I willstop being annoying now

 

[Rxpert83]

Your not being annoying at all.people with questions is what keeps this place going. Most Roms have a2sd baked in so if you have a partitioned SD card the apps will go to it automatically

 

[argedion]

Actually if the phone is a year old there is no warranty now so he will pay for the fix anyway and when you are paying they will fix it

 

[CapThrowback]

You guys are the bomb! I have to trust someone who advises against his own methods, thanks capt. Can you explai the custom firmware thing? Also, if i need to have phone fixed later, can i still fully root with unrevoked then unroot? Last question with only unlocking. That will allow more space on internal memory, the. Only reason I want to root...lol, EVO and lack of space kills me. Will a custom Rom come with a2sd or is that an upload? Thanks again, I willstop being annoying now

I didn't say "custom" firmware - I said "unsigned". When HTC puts out an OTA or ROM update, they sign the zip file with a specific signature unique to HTC. The bootloader recognizes this signature, and will only flash files that have it. It's a unique key - like your house key or car key. Only that key (or an identical copy of that key) will get you access to your car/house. In the same way, only HTC-signed zips will be allowed entry into the firmware partitions of your device.

With HTC's unlocker, they disable that protection on the boot, system, and recovery partitions of the device, essentially allowing you to write to those without having their unique signature "key". However, the radio partition, for example, is still protected. So in order to update to a new radio if a new OTA/ROM update is released, you would have to either flash stock recovery and take the OTA (which should still leave you unlocked), and then reflash your custom recovery, or flash the new ROM's full HTC-signed zip file, which would erase all of your data (though you could back up your data in custom recovery, and then restore it after updating - that might cause issues, though).

If you need to send the device for repairs, you don't need to fully root at all. You'd only have to complete the step of my process that re-locks the device (updating the misc partition by flashing the mtd-eng.img file), and then you could simply flash the PC36IMG file for the latest ROM in bootloader (signed by HTC) to restore you to stock. Your device would appear that it had never been unlocked.

Only unlocking will give you root access, which in turn will allow you to install Market apps that can uninstall system applications, thereby freeing up your precious space . Most custom ROMs will have plenty of space, though, and the thread for the ROM should tell you if a2sd is enabled by default.

Hope that answers your questions, and if you have any others, feel free to ask .

 

[bigbear6708]

thanks guys...was able to unlock the bootloader via htcdev.com, then i took it on,and was able to achieve s-off via capt throwback!!!, i am currently flashing in mikg3.0, so far, so good...can't thank y'all enough!!!

PS, if this guy with limited knowledge can do this..anyone can...great writeups by all!

with mikg3.0, will i need to update anything (radios, system,etc..or is all that baked in?)

 

[CapThrowback]

thanks guys...was able to unlock the bootloader via htcdev.com, then i took it on,and was able to achieve s-off via capt throwback!!!, i am currently flashing in mikg3.0, so far, so good...can't thank y'all enough!!!

PS, if this guy with limited knowledge can do this..anyone can...great writeups by all!

with mikg3.0, will i need to update anything (radios, system,etc..or is all that baked in?)

If you want the latest radios, you will need to upgrade them. I have a link to the thread with them at the bottom of my guide.

 

[Rxpert83]

Next step is custom kernels for better performance/battery life.


That and exploring all the amazing options that root gives you

 

[bigbear6708]

Thanks again for everything. One thing I sid notice ans forgot to ask about. During the root process when updating the pc36img file, the phone ran the update, now when i power on into bootloader it keepa asking to update again, shouls I...or disregard? If i have to update will it wipe my phone clean? That woukd be a major pain

 

[Rxpert83]

Thanks again for everything. One thing I sid notice ans forgot to ask about. During the root process when updating the pc36img file, the phone ran the update, now when i power on into bootloader it keepa asking to update again, shouls I...or disregard? If i have to update will it wipe my phone clean? That woukd be a major pain

You can either change the name or delete the old pc36img file. Once it's done its thing once theres no need to have it on there anymore

 

[bigbear6708]

great, again..cant thank everyone enough! so, just to make sure i have this right before deleting anything..once the pc36img updates, i can take it off the sd card, since everything in the phone is already updated? what about the mikg.zip files..can they go? (just covering all bases)..lastly, is there any reason to keep the rooting process files hanging around my computer..will they be of any use later on, at all? (sdk files, htc unlock file, android drivers, supersonic, superuser, chrome install, htc sync...etc)

 

[Rxpert83]

great, again..cant thank everyone enough! so, just to make sure i have this right before deleting anything..once the pc36img updates, i can take it off the sd card, since everything in the phone is already updated? what about the mikg.zip files..can they go? (just covering all bases)..lastly, is there any reason to keep the rooting process files hanging around my computer..will they be of any use later on, at all? (sdk files, htc unlock file, android drivers, supersonic, superuser, chrome install, htc sync...etc)

The MikG file I would keep on there. It doesnt take up too much space and can be useful if you need to re-flash the ROM. Remember to make a nandroid once you get it all set up how you life it.