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Root I rooted this thing before...

random255

random255

Newbie
So my Evo and I are sitting here, staring at one another. I rooted the Evo before, but later decided to unroot it (or go back to stock ROM or whatever you call it).

Now I want to root the thing again. I notice if I hold up on the volume when powering it on, I get a bootloader screen. Is that something any Evo will do, or is it just the ones that have been rooted before? I'm thinking I can just use that menu to select a ROM and load it, but I could be wrong. Does that sound right to you guys?
 
if you went back to completely stock, then you likely dont have a recovery method as of yet. If your unrEVOking your device, it comes with clockwork, but youll find that almost everyone in here agrees that Amon_Ra is the better choice. Anyways, if it says s-off, you can go into recovery(provided its thereLoL) and flash away. In your flashes, get amon... its just better lol
 
Really, this all depends on what you did before to root, and what you did to unroot. Here is what you need to do:

1) Turn the phone off, then turn it back on while pressing and holding volume down. This is basically what you've already done. That is the bootloader (i.e. hboot). It is part of the boot process. By pressing and holding volume down, you're basically interacting with the phone before it gets past the bootloader portion of the boot process. In doing so, you can give the phone some instructions before it continues to boot up, basically. That's the simple explanation. Basically, this is the same for any Evo, rooted or not. In there, towards the top, you will see either S-ON or S-OFF. S-ON means that nand is locked, and you cannot make permanent changes to certain internal partitions or firmware unless changes are signed and unmodified (e.g. HTC updates). With S-OFF, you can make all the changes you want. That is full root. If you currently have S-ON, you don't have full root. If you do, then you're good.

2) Just having S-OFF is not enough. That is not how you flash ROMs. You need a custom recovery. Recovery is basically it's own, much smaller, single-purpose OS. It is used for making changes to the Android system while it isn't booted up. If you select recovery from hboot, and you see either Clockwork recovery or Amon RA recovery, then you can proceed.

3) I'm going to guess you don't have a rooted ROM, as you say you've unrooted. I trust that means, at the very least, that you no longer have super user permissions within your ROM.

4) In the event that you are fully unrooted (S-ON, no custom recovery, no rooted ROM), you need to root via unrevoked. See the rooting for Dummies guide for instructions on how to do so, along with how to flash a ROM and some best practices. If you are partially rooted still, let us know, and we can guide you through a process to get where you need to be.
 
akazabam, you should write a book about this... oh, wait... i think you may already have a couple times lol do you have this stuff on a clipboard that you copy n paste from? jk you rule this place man!!!
 
My phone shows S-ON, so it looks like I've got a bit of catching up to do. I am planning on using unrEVOked, but it won't be until I get home (stupid proxy at work is blocking all the pages I need to get to). I've been reading over the guide, and now at least I know I should start from the begining. I'll definatly do some searching on Amon_Ra to see what all the accolades are about. :)

Much love guys!
 
youdoofus said:
akazabam, you should write a book about this... oh, wait... i think you may already have a couple times lol do you have this stuff on a clipboard that you copy n paste from? jk you rule this place man!!!
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Lol, no. I do write down some things here and there if they are important, just so I won't forget. Otherwise, you just memorize stuff after a while ;).

random255 said:
My phone shows S-ON, so it looks like I've got a bit of catching up to do. I am planning on using unrEVOked, but it won't be until I get home (stupid proxy at work is blocking all the pages I need to get to). I've been reading over the guide, and now at least I know I should start from the begining. I'll definatly do some searching on Amon_Ra to see what all the accolades are about. :)

Much love guys!
Click to expand...

Good luck! If you run into any problems or have any questions, feel free to ask.
 
Well, I used Unrevoked 3, and it did manage to get the S-Off flag set. However, my actual OS didn't look any different, and I still didn't have the rights to uninstall Blockbuster (How I loath apps that Sprint puts on my phone for profit).

Next I went about getting the latest Amon Ra files. I renamed the file PC36IMG.zip, and put it on the root of my stock SD card. After rebooting into the white screen, my phone asked if I wanted to update. I assuemed this was because the img file was on the root, and I said yes.

Again, however, my OS looks the same. I cannot uninstall Blockbuster. I installed Titanium Backup and Busy Box, but I get "Error Sorry, I could not aquire root privileges." so it sounds like something hasn't actually worked at this point.
 
random255 said:
Well, I used Unrevoked 3, and it did manage to get the S-Off flag set. However, my actual OS didn't look any different, and I still didn't have the rights to uninstall Blockbuster (How I loath apps that Sprint puts on my phone for profit).

Next I went about getting the latest Amon Ra files. I renamed the file PC36IMG.zip, and put it on the root of my stock SD card. After rebooting into the white screen, my phone asked if I wanted to update. I assuemed this was because the img file was on the root, and I said yes.

Again, however, my OS looks the same. I cannot uninstall Blockbuster. I installed Titanium Backup and Busy Box, but I get "Error Sorry, I could not aquire root privileges." so it sounds like something hasn't actually worked at this point.
Click to expand...

1) Unrevoked gives you S-OFF, a custom recovery (Clockwork), and roots your ROM (noticeable only by the ability to run apps as root, and the automatic installation of the superuser app). Other than that, you wouldn't really notice anything different.

2) Flashing Amon RA just gave you a different recovery image. That still won't change anything in Android. Did you actually go to recovery from hboot? You'll see the difference there. That is where you can make nandroid backups and flash ROMs/kernels/mods.

3) Okay, so:

a) Install the terminal emulator from the market. Open it, and type "su" without quotes. If the prompt changes from $ to #, you're in good shape. If it gives you a permission denied error, unrevoked failed to root your ROM.
b) Check in your app drawer for the superuser app.
c) Assuming the above passes, open TB, and tap on the problems button. That will resolve any other issues you might have.

4) How were you trying to remove Blockbuster (or any system app/bloatware)? You can't just uninstall it, unfortunately. Your options are:

a) Freeze it with TB
b) Remove it with TB (dangerous, as once it's gone, it's gone for good, that way)
c) Remove/rename/move with the terminal emulator or root explorer.

No matter what you do, make a nandroid backup, first, if you haven't yet. If you remove something you shouldn't have, make it easy on yourself, and have a backup to go back to.
 
Unrevoked 3 does 3 basic things, one it turns s-off (unlocks nand), two it roots your current rom, and 3 it flashes a custom recovery. It would sound as though it only completed part one, you completed step 3 yourself, but part 2 may not be completed. Do you have the super user app in your app drawer? If you download terminal emulator and type su does the $ change to # ? We may just have to root your rom with z4 if you want to keep it or, flash a rooted rom. Up to you.

FYI the OS wont look any different just yet, it will still look stock as can be just with a new su app and ability to use root apps. You will flash a different rom to change the "look" of the OS.
 
a) Install the terminal emulator from the market. Open it, and type "su" without quotes. If the prompt changes from $ to #, you're in good shape.
Click to expand...


I'm in good shape. Super user does give me # Sudo make me a sandwich!


c) Assuming the above passes, open TB, and tap on the problems button. That will resolve any other issues you might have.
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Yes it did, I must have had a BusyBox version it didn't like - it downloaded its own copy of this program and now it's rocking and rolling.

make a nandroid backup, first, if you haven't yet.
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I'm making a nandroid backup right now!

Excellent, then it appears I've got this puppy rooted! I'm going to start freezing some of those annoying apps like Block Buster, and maybe even buy the full version of Titanium to remove them. Super lame that a user has to root his phone to avoid bloatware from the phone company. Super awesome that there is a whole community of people who help others out.
 
MizzouBrent said:
Why did you unroot in the first place? I could never go back. Only if I had to take it into Sprint for something.
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I unrooted because there was an OTA update and I decided that I wanted to get it. Also, I didn't want to be left behind each time there was an OTA, and I didn't want to have to take extra steps to keep up (by installing new firmware).

So then I went back to a stock ROM and updated... and for my loyalty I was rewarded with a keyboard I didn't use, Blockbuster, and Nova. I don't think I'll be unrooting again...ever. :P
 
Ha, well at least you learned your lesson :)

When I first rooted, I was paranoid about keeping my stock backup for any OTA's, but I quickly learned that the community mods and updates are better and much quicker to get, so I don't see myself ever going back.
 
Yeah, next time we have an update, you'd be better off updating manually. Since the next update will *presumably* be a big one, there is no way of knowing how long it will take to get root back if you just accept the OTA update.

As for TB and busybox, where did you get the original version you installed? TB can be picky, as it installs its own version of busybox in a different location (not immediately accessible from the command line), but it *should* work with any full version.
 
akazabam said:
Yeah, next time we have an update, you'd be better off updating manually. Since the next update will *presumably* be a big one, there is no way of knowing how long it will take to get root back if you just accept the OTA update.

As for TB and busybox, where did you get the original version you installed? TB can be picky, as it installs its own version of busybox in a different location (not immediately accessible from the command line), but it *should* work with any full version.
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rumor on AC is 2.3 in june...
 
So if I understand this correctly, Amon Ra isn't an actual O/S ROM, per se, it's more like a backup program?

Also, do any of the ROMs available fix the annoying issue where you select a text message thread to reply to and the wrong thread comes up? That's a major issue for me, and I've had the problem in the stock ROM since day 1.
 
random255 said:
So if I understand this correctly, Amon Ra isn't an actual O/S ROM, per se, it's more like a backup program?

Also, do any of the ROMs available fix the annoying issue where you select a text message thread to reply to and the wrong thread comes up? That's a major issue for me, and I've had the problem in the stock ROM since day 1.
Click to expand...

Amon RA is a replacement (custom) recovery. Basically, the phone comes with internal memory broken down into several partitions. Most of them are used for Android and data, but some of them are used for other things. One such partition is for recovery. Think of recovery as a separate operating system, in itself. When you boot up, you can basically stop the boot process, and tell the phone where to boot to (by going to hboot, which is the bootloader). You can tell it to boot up normally (by going to your boot.img and using the /system partition) or you can tell it to boot up recovery. Recovery is nothing more than a single-purpose OS. You'll never use it for making phone calls or running apps. It's sole purpose is to have full modification ability over the Android system while it is not running. This is necessary so that you can change mass system files without crashing the system. When the phone is stock, it comes with the stock recovery, which is used for OTA updates. When you root, you can replace this recovery with something a little more functional. In this case RA is just one of few different custom recovery options out there. It can be used to backup/restore the entire or portions of the system, or replace it with something else. Don't think of recovery as just an application. It's an actual OS with a few specific functions. It is not, however, part of Android, per se.
 
You guys are super helpful. I think this may be my last question for awhile:

I just installed myn's Warm TwoPointTwo (RLS 4). It's my first custom rom! Woot!

Before installing the ROM, I deleted the items I read I should delete (factory wipe and something else). This erased my contacts and such. Of course, before that, I did a nandroid backup and I also used Titanium to backup my entire everything (kitchen sink included).

What's going to be the easiest way for me to recover my contacts? Install Titanium from the market?

EDIT: Oh, and ROM Manager - I can't use that to install other ROMs, because I'm using Amon Ra instead of Clockwork... is that correct?

Double Edit: Contacts came back on their own.
 
Dude rls5 is sweeter and if you made a back up of your stock rom here's what you should do, my evo seriously blows out everyones phone that I know. Go to your back up and restore that. Then download myns twopointtwo rls5 just flash it from clockwork mod it works fine for the initial rom flash. Then when it boots up go to rom manager and at the bottom of the main menu you can flash back amon RA and there's an app for warm updater where you can flash all your custom kernals boot screens lock screens and such. But here's why the rom is really sweet once again from rom manager go to download roms and at the third from the bottom there should be radios and stock for evo. Downgrade your pri NV to 1.77 and your radio version to whatever the version is before the newest one at the time of this post. This will save tons of battery life and offer great signal for you. I get signal in my basement and all over in usual dead spots. These guys really hooked it up with the custom rom stufff. These are the exact ways I flashed everything. And by the way rom manager will only work with clockwork mod as your recovery so use it to download what you need then flash them with amon ra, its easy enough to swap the recoveries on the fly. Happy flashing, sent from my evo 4g with myn's twopointtwo netarchy toastmod and just about everyother goodie out there that I could find!!!!!!
 
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