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Root Is rooting really this simple

P

Paul8944

Well-Known Member
Hi all

I have been thinking about rooting my desire for a while now and having read the guides etc feel I have the knowledge required to do it, however, I am still rather nervous.

Seeing the steps in words in one thing but to see a video would be great so I went hunting you tube and found this
‪How to root HTC Hero, Desire, EVO 4G, Wildfire, Aria, Droid Incredible,‬‏ - YouTube

I have a couple of question.
is rooting really this easy and would this work with my o2 branded desire?
do i still need a gold card
and is there anything else i should be way of.

any advice and guidance would be great

Thanks
 
Yes, to root really is that simple. Unrevoked is one of the lucky privilages of the earlier android HTC range. But remember, rooting will give you more options. But its things like flashing custom roms, kernals etc which make the big differences and they are more complicated.
 
Hence all the guides and faqs in out root section. The most up to date for unrevoked. Read those then ask questions
 
Goldcards are recommended as a precaution - you may never need it, but better to have it and not need it than the other way round.

There may be other things you need to know. If your phone has erase size 40,000 you need to do one extra thing. Instructions for how to check this and what to do if so are in the rooting guide and faq - see the root forum sticky post "all about rooting", which is also the red link in my sig. But even that's a matter of downloading one file and changing one instruction - it is pretty straightforward.

Edit: Ah, back to being pipped at the post :)
 
Can either of you two explain what a gold card is.. without all the complex stuff and in a few sentences? I never made one, nor have I ever needed one and I have had a pretty good rooting life :P
 
Your phone has a carrier id. A unique number for the software version for o2, tmob, Voda branded phones.

RUUs must match the cid on the phone to be able to install. Gold card bypasses the check / spoofs the cid so they don't have to match
 
A ROM Update Utility checks the phone id to decide whether it's supposed to run on that particular phone. A goldcard spoofs this check, so that you can run an unbranded RUU on a branded handset, or (if you are so inclined) a branded RUU on an unbranded handset, as long as the goldcard is in the phone.

It's essential if there is no RUU for your network (Orange UK..), because if you are very unlucky or careless you may get your phone into a state where an RUU is the simplest way out of it. For other branded handsets it just gives you more options, if there's a problem with running the network RUU for any reason.

Unbranded RUUs have generally been available quite easily, so it's less important with unbranded handsets.

The recent Gingerbread RUU works on a wide number of network-branded phones, so can be used without a goldcard for many people. However, that's also currently unrootable.

Finally, if you are S-Off and using a current version alpharev hboot, you no longer need a goldcard. These not only spoof the id check, but the hboot itself is not replaced by the RUU so you are still S-Off afterwards, and so can easily flash a custom recovery and be back in business again.

Sorry, that was more than a few sentences...

...and too slow as a consequence.
 
haha thanks guys.

I knew before I rooted there was an eclair RUU and a froyo one for O2 I think, so that was why I never did it :)
 
Hadron said:
A ROM Update Utility checks the phone id to decide whether it's supposed to run on that particular phone. A goldcard spoofs this check, so that you can run an unbranded RUU on a branded handset, or (if you are so inclined) a branded RUU on an unbranded handset, as long as the goldcard is in the phone.

It's essential if there is no RUU for your network (Orange UK..), because if you are very unlucky or careless you may get your phone into a state where an RUU is the simplest way out of it. For other branded handsets it just gives you more options, if there's a problem with running the network RUU for any reason.

Unbranded RUUs have generally been available quite easily, so it's less important with unbranded handsets.

The recent Gingerbread RUU works on a wide number of network-branded phones, so can be used without a goldcard for many people. However, that's also currently unrootable.

Finally, if you are S-Off and using a current version alpharev hboot, you no longer need a goldcard. These not only spoof the id check, but the hboot itself is not replaced by the RUU so you are still S-Off afterwards, and so can easily flash a custom recovery and be back in business again.

Sorry, that was more than a few sentences...

...and too slow as a consequence.
Click to expand...


Hi, I am having trouble with this! I am S-OFF and want CM7 r2 Hboot but i get CID error! I tried with my goldcard also and then even fastboot commander but that fails. Any suggestions?
 
Hadron said:
Why would you get a cid error trying to flash the CM7r2 hboot? What exactly are you doing?
Click to expand...

I used AlphaRev Hboot reflash CD to become S-OFF. I wanted to change my NAND partition to install custom roms with more internal space. I decided on the CM7 R2 partion. To install in, you download it from AlphaRev 1.8 rename it to PB99IMG.zip then start the phone in HBOOT mode (VolDown+POWER) to flash the HBOOT without a PC.

But i get the CID error!
 
The PB99IMG.zips for alpharev often report CID error. Thats why fastboot flash is always better.

Without CM7 Hboot, you are on Stock hboot, which all roms fit into. no rom specifically needs a CM7 hboot. But if there are 2 versions available, chose the one for the hboot you have.
 
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