Root Evo 4G rooted but issues with recovery

[cymbiotica]

I have honestly been at this a couple days here and so I think I may have exhausted my options, but I am sure I likely missed something so someone will find a reason to be harsh.

I successfully rooted my Evo 4g using unREVoked 3 for Mac. I was also able to load many apps and am now still able to access clockworkmod 2.5.0.1 - this is the information from my recovery screen:

Supersonic EVT2-3 SHIP S-OFF
HBOOT-2.10.001
Microp-041f
RADIO-2.15.00.11.19

So as you can see I was also able to update the radios. I was running fine then tried to flash Cyanogen ROM - update-cm-6.1.2-Supersonic-signed.zip. This worked the second time and I was then able to reboot into Cyanogen Mod homescreen etc. I then tried to flash the gapps addon and that is when everything broke on me.

No matter what I do, facotry reset/cache wipe/davlik wipe flash anything(new recovery, rom, kernal, etc) I get the initial Evo 4G white loading screen. I read that there is an issue with clockworkmod version I am using, but I cannot seem to update it. I flash it, it shows as the 2.6 version but it doesn't seem to actually take.


I have no log files because right before I decided to ask for help I wiped everything to try to start again. If anyone could point me in the right direction I would be very appreciative.


Thanks in advance for your time and any assistance.

 

[frenchy714]

I have honestly been at this a couple days here and so I think I may have exhausted my options, but I am sure I likely missed something so someone will find a reason to be harsh.

I successfully rooted my Evo 4g using unREVoked 3 for Mac. I was also able to load many apps and am now still able to access clockworkmod 2.5.0.1 - this is the information from my recovery screen:

Supersonic EVT2-3 SHIP S-OFF
HBOOT-2.10.001
Microp-041f
RADIO-2.15.00.11.19

So as you can see I was also able to update the radios. I was running fine then tried to flash Cyanogen ROM - update-cm-6.1.2-Supersonic-signed.zip. This worked the second time and I was then able to reboot into Cyanogen Mod homescreen etc. I then tried to flash the gapps addon and that is when everything broke on me.

No matter what I do, facotry reset/cache wipe/davlik wipe flash anything(new recovery, rom, kernal, etc) I get the initial Evo 4G white loading screen. I read that there is an issue with clockworkmod version I am using, but I cannot seem to update it. I flash it, it shows as the 2.6 version but it doesn't seem to actually take.


I have no log files because right before I decided to ask for help I wiped everything to try to start again. If anyone could point me in the right direction I would be very appreciative.


Thanks in advance for your time and any assistance.

Have you tried flashing an alternate recovery, such as Amon RA?

 

[CzarMatt]

... but I am sure I likely missed something so someone will find a reason to be harsh.

Hey hey, there's no reason to be harsh - by the way, welcome to the forums!

Okay, let me get this straight.

You rooted your phone and flashed CM? Then you tried to flash Gapps and are now stuck at the boot screen?

Thanks for the clarification - I'm having a hard time pinpointing what the problem actually is.

 

[cymbiotica]

Ok sorry, to be clear...
As of this time I can access recovery, being clockwordmod 2.5.0.1. Whenever I try to flash anything, it just doesn't work. I read that there is an issue with this version of clockwork, so I have tried to flash a new recovery, namely clockworkmod 2.6.0.1 and it will seem to go through fine. But if I reboot, even just reboot recovery it reverts to 2.5.0.1 instead.


I did just read about naming the file PC36IMG.zip and it should auto-flash on reboot but htis doesn't seem to be happening either.


Thanks for the quick and speedy replies.

 

[An UrgeTo Dance]

Try flashing an Amon RA recovery it is more stable than Clockwork, after that tell us what happens.

EDIT: also make sure you aren't naming it PC36IMG.zip.zip although you are on a Mac so that shouldn't be your problem.

 

[frenchy714]

Ok sorry, to be clear...
As of this time I can access recovery, being clockwordmod 2.5.0.1. Whenever I try to flash anything, it just doesn't work. I read that there is an issue with this version of clockwork, so I have tried to flash a new recovery, namely clockworkmod 2.6.0.1 and it will seem to go through fine. But if I reboot, even just reboot recovery it reverts to 2.5.0.1 instead.


I did just read about naming the file PC36IMG.zip and it should auto-flash on reboot but htis doesn't seem to be happening either.


Thanks for the quick and speedy replies.

Give this a try:

[ROM] 01/26/11 | SPRINT LOVERS | 2.2 | 3.70.651.1 | Radio/Wimax/PRI All-In-One - xda-developers

-Copy the PC36IMG.zip to the root of your SD Card
-Power off your phone
-While holding the VOLUME DOWN button, power on your phone into bootloader
-The phone will scan for a PC36IMG.zip
-Once prompted, install the update and reboot

 

[akazabam]

Ok sorry, to be clear...
As of this time I can access recovery, being clockwordmod 2.5.0.1. Whenever I try to flash anything, it just doesn't work. I read that there is an issue with this version of clockwork, so I have tried to flash a new recovery, namely clockworkmod 2.6.0.1 and it will seem to go through fine. But if I reboot, even just reboot recovery it reverts to 2.5.0.1 instead.


I did just read about naming the file PC36IMG.zip and it should auto-flash on reboot but htis doesn't seem to be happening either.


Thanks for the quick and speedy replies.

1) How old is your phone? You mentioned updating radios, but you also have the latest hboot. Did it come with that hboot version or did you accept an OTA update at some point?
2) Do you know what hardware version you have?
3) How did you get Clockwork 2.5.0.1 in the first place?
4) How are you currently trying to flash 2.6.0.1, and where did you get it from? If it's a PC36IMG.zip file, it needs to be named that, exactly. If you downloaded it and unzipped it, it won't work. If you're on windows, and accidentally renamed it PC36IMG.zip.zip (windows hides extensions by default), it won't work.
5) What other ROMs have you tried to flash?
6) If you're phone is newer (not just because it has hboot 2.10), it has newer partition info, and must use Clockwork 2.6.0.1 or RA 2.1.1 or up. From the sound of it, you have CW 2.6.0.1, but I'm not sure what format, you've got. You can get what you need here:

http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-all-things-root/259446-clockwork-amon-ra-pc36img-files.html

Follow the instructions, exactly.

I think maybe you're confusing a hboot (bootloader) and recovery a little bit. Hboot is where you see that you have s-off. It's the white screen with menus. Recovery is the black screen with menus. Clockwork, for example, is recovery. When you flash a different recovery (CW 2.6.0.1), in this case you must flash a PC36IMG.zip, which must be flashed from hboot, not recovery. If you have any questions or trouble with these steps, let me know.

EDIT: What Frenchy suggested will help get you in a bootable state, but you'll want to do this as well to get what is (probably) the correct recovery. Please answer the above questions anyway.

 

[cymbiotica]

1) How old is your phone? You mentioned updating radios, but you also have the latest hboot. Did it come with that hboot version or did you accept an OTA update at some point?

I bought the phone this week. Rooted it the night I got it so it was on maybe an hour before root, did not manually update it.

2) Do you know what hardware version you have?

Unfortunately no I do not now.

3) How did you get Clockwork 2.5.0.1 in the first place?

I used unREVoked 3 for Mac that I downloaded the night I got the phone, maybe the 27th.

4) How are you currently trying to flash 2.6.0.1, and where did you get it from? If it's a PC36IMG.zip file, it needs to be named that, exactly. If you downloaded it and unzipped it, it won't work. If you're on windows, and accidentally renamed it PC36IMG.zip.zip (windows hides extensions by default), it won't work.

Well I am on Mac, so no the file name is correct. When I reboot after adding the PC36IMG.zip file to the "/" (root) directory on my SD card, after formatting and wiping all other data, the hboot (white screen) will see the IMG and say somehitng about reading maybe. The text is small and it moves quickly. Then it just sits at the hboot screen with the menu options for Fastboot, Recovery, Clear Storage, Simlock, Hboot.

5) What other ROMs have you tried to flash?

CyanogenMod 7 I think. That's it so far.

6) If you're phone is newer (not just because it has hboot 2.10), it has newer partition info, and must use Clockwork 2.6.0.1 or RA 2.1.1 or up. From the sound of it, you have CW 2.6.0.1, but I'm not sure what format, you've got. You can get what you need here:

http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-all-things-root/259446-clockwork-amon-ra-pc36img-files.html

Follow the instructions, exactly.

I think maybe you're confusing a hboot (bootloader) and recovery a little bit. Hboot is where you see that you have s-off. It's the white screen with menus. Recovery is the black screen with menus. Clockwork, for example, is recovery. When you flash a different recovery (CW 2.6.0.1), in this case you must flash a PC36IMG.zip, which must be flashed from hboot, not recovery. If you have any questions or trouble with these steps, let me know.

EDIT: What Frenchy suggested will help get you in a bootable state, but you'll want to do this as well to get what is (probably) the correct recovery. Please answer the above questions anyway.

Please let me know if there is anything else I can supply and once more thank you for the aid.

 

[akazabam]

Ok, so what it *should* be doing is scan for the PC36IMG.zip, detect it, then prompt you to flash it. It will basically ask you, yes or no. If it's not doing that, then you haven't actually been flashing recovery at all. I've heard that people with Macs can accidentally unzip the file automatically. Are you sure the file isn't automatically unzipping after it downloads? I can imagine you might not even notice if you're possible adding the zip on the end as a part of renaming it.

Also, are you using the stock sdcard or a different one? That can be a problem too.

One last thing - by root of the sdcard, we mean /sdcard (which is what you'd see on the phone). If you're connecting the phone to the computer, or just using a card reader, it simply means put the file at the top level of the card, not under any folders. If that's what you're already doing, great.

You'll need to get this cleared up since what Frenchy provided needs to be flashed the same way. Don't worry, we'll get it figured out .

 

[douglaslem88]

akazabam, you were nice to help me root my evo last week. My daughter talked me into switching phones so I took her Epic and she has my EVO. After Sprint did their thing and switched, the EVO somehow lost root. I tried to reinstall unrevoked but it wouldn't work. Any ideas?

 

[cymbiotica]

Give this a try:

[ROM] 01/26/11 | SPRINT LOVERS | 2.2 | 3.70.651.1 | Radio/Wimax/PRI All-In-One - xda-developers

-Copy the PC36IMG.zip to the root of your SD Card
-Power off your phone
-While holding the VOLUME DOWN button, power on your phone into bootloader
-The phone will scan for a PC36IMG.zip
-Once prompted, install the update and reboot

This got me booted! thanks, now to backup and install my stuff. Thanks so much all. I will still need to update my recovery though. Now that the PC36IMG.zip method seems to be functioning this should be easy --crosses fingers--

 

[cymbiotica]

Here is something else. I was unable to use my nand backups at all to restore. I had this same issue with my HTC Hero, the backups never work. Any ideas how this could happen. It seems like others have good luck with it all.

 

[frenchy714]

Here is something else. I was unable to use my nand backups at all to restore. I had this same issue with my HTC Hero, the backups never work. Any ideas how this could happen. It seems like others have good luck with it all.

You're still using CW, right? It's pretty much common knowledge that CW is buggy. I would flash Amon RA and stick with it moving forward, I've heard too many horror stories about CW recovery to put my faith in it, and have never encountered a problem using Amon RA.

 

[akazabam]

akazabam, you were nice to help me root my evo last week. My daughter talked me into switching phones so I took her Epic and she has my EVO. After Sprint did their thing and switched, the EVO somehow lost root. I tried to reinstall unrevoked but it wouldn't work. Any ideas?

Replied to your PM .

Here is something else. I was unable to use my nand backups at all to restore. I had this same issue with my HTC Hero, the backups never work. Any ideas how this could happen. It seems like others have good luck with it all.

You're still using CW, right? It's pretty much common knowledge that CW is buggy. I would flash Amon RA and stick with it moving forward, I've heard too many horror stories about CW recovery to put my faith in it, and have never encountered a problem using Amon RA.

If your phone is newer (it sounds like it) and you have 2.5.0.1 (still not sure exactly how that happened), then Clockwork 2.5.0.1 is going to give you major issues. I'm surprised you were able to flash anything at all. There's nothing wrong with using Clockwork, but you must use 2.6.0.1. I'm not surprised at all that nandroid restore didn't work. Go ahead and follow the instructions for flashing CW 2.6.0.1, OR now that you can boot up, install ROM manager, and flash it through there. Once that is done, I suggest you start from scratch with nandroid backups. Flashing ROMs and making/restoring backups should work from that point on, though. As frenchy said, RA is known to be less buggy, but CW, using the correct version, should work too.

One last thing - since you attempted to flashing things with CW 2.5.0.1, you should verify that nothing happened to your wimax RSA keys. Install the terminal emulator from the market if you don't have it, then type "su" without quotes, then enter. The prompt will change to #. Type grep RSA /dev/mtd/mtd0. You'll get several lines the output. If all is well, the last two lines will look like this:

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

If you get the other output, but don't get those two lines, you've lost your wimax RSA keys.

 

[cymbiotica]

bleh! OK so now I booted into hboot and the ROM that was working was still there as a PC36IMG.zip, it ran through the whole parsing of the file and I said no to running and no to rebooting. I then mounted usb storage to remove that version of PC36IMG and add the amon ra recovery supersonic2.2.1... it will not run the flash, it sees the image and then parses it, but then it just goes back to the hboot screen. If I try to reboot it loops to thr HTC Evo 4G white screen.

so do I sukk at this or what?

 

[akazabam]

bleh! OK so now I booted into hboot and the ROM that was working was still there as a PC36IMG.zip, it ran through the whole parsing of the file and I said no to running and no to rebooting. I then mounted usb storage to remove that version of PC36IMG and add the amon ra recovery supersonic2.2.1... it will not run the flash, it sees the image and then parses it, but then it just goes back to the hboot screen. If I try to reboot it loops to thr HTC Evo 4G white screen.

so do I sukk at this or what?

So you didn't flash anything, but you're now stuck at the splash screen again?

 

[cymbiotica]

I reflashed that sprintlovers rom, which is kinda cool because it seems exactly like stock, more or less. Anyway, I downloaded ROM Manager from market, update clockworkmod to 2.6.0.1 through that. I haven't rebooted into recovery yet though. I was going to flash AR2.2.2 instead, but ROM Mgr says I wont be able to use it if I do. Is this such a bad thing?

 

[akazabam]

I reflashed that sprintlovers rom, which is kinda cool because it seems exactly like stock, more or less. Anyway, I downloaded ROM Manager from market, update clockworkmod to 2.6.0.1 through that. I haven't rebooted into recovery yet though. I was going to flash AR2.2.2 instead, but ROM Mgr says I wont be able to use it if I do. Is this such a bad thing?

All that means is that you won't be able to use ROM manager to flash ROMs. I'd recommend you do things manually anyway. Go ahead and use ROM manager to reboot into recovery, and see if it works. If you'd like to use RA instead, flash that now.

As to the PC36IMG.zip not working, are you using the stock card or a different one? It seems odd that the bigger of the two PC36IMG.zip files would work. I know those recovery files work.

 

[cymbiotica]

All that means is that you won't be able to use ROM manager to flash ROMs. I'd recommend you do things manually anyway. Go ahead and use ROM manager to reboot into recovery, and see if it works. If you'd like to use RA instead, flash that now.

As to the PC36IMG.zip not working, are you using the stock card or a different one? It seems odd that the bigger of the two PC36IMG.zip files would work. I know those recovery files work.

Yes it is the stock card. I thought so as well. I mean I may not know a ton about android and all the ROM inner workings, but I have done my reading and this seems illogical at best.

am going to try the recovery and RA flash...

 

[akazabam]

Yes it is the stock card. I thought so as well. I mean I may not know a ton about android and all the ROM inner workings, but I have done my reading and this seems illogical at best.

am going to try the recovery and RA flash...

Were you specifically trying the PC36IMG.zip files from the thread I linked to? If so, I'll verify they all work tonight. I know people have been using them. I just want to make sure it's not a problem with them.

 

[cymbiotica]

Yes I tried those and the ones from the main sites for each...I did have to rename them though...is that the problem?

 

[akazabam]

Yes I tried those and the ones from the main sites for each...I did have to rename them though...is that the problem?

Well, they do need to be renamed to PC36IMG.zip, exactly. The Sprint lovers one you downloaded before probably already had that name. Are you sure you're renaming it exactly right? You can copy the way I've written it above and paste it when renaming just to make sure. I know some people have even gotten caught up when accidentally using a "1" instead of an "I".

 

[cymbiotica]

I am still running fine, but I am unable still to us PC36IMG.zip, except for that sprint lover ROM. It looks like it is going to do somehting then nothing. I have tried using those files you linked to, also tried to flash a new load screen using this method to no avail.

I am stumped, especially because when I check the file in recovery (2.6.0.1 clockwork right now) it shows up fine. In hboot it appears to see the file and tries to parse but then just goes back to hboot.

Anyways I was able to use ROM manager to get RA2.2.2 recovery, do a backup and then reloaded CW2.6.0.1 so that I could load CyanogenMod 6.1.2.

All is working but manual flash is not apparently working correctly.

 

[cymbiotica]

I also checked my RSA keys and they are good. thanks for that one. When I first rooted I had a different way to check that and it was still good then.

 

[akazabam]

Thanks for the update. So that's interesting. I've heard of that happening before, but it is usually:

1) Caused by a bad sdcard, or
2) Caused by a smaller sdcard, or
3) Caused by a full sdcard (low space), and
4) Won't work at all (the fact that one PC36IMG.zip worked is weird).