Root Need advice and recommendations

[varaonaid]

Hello,

I'm new to the HTC Rezound...been patiently waiting for a sale and picked it up at 3am just a couple of hours after the sale began. I've been enjoying setting it up the past few days but was disappointed that the ICS update didn't come out today.

I'm coming from the OG Droid X which I rooted & flashed numerous ROMS, SBF'd back to the original stock Froyo or GB as needed to restart the process cleanly. I've read the entire stickied thread that goes through rooting for newbies for the Rezound and read through several others learning that if I use the non-root leaked ICS, I can't go back to stock but must wait for the OTA in order to move on (or root it, I gather).

This reading leaves me with a few questions and looking for advice as to how to proceed, or if, in fact, I should...

If I decide to root my phone, can I ever get it back to stock state again? With HTC taking the serial of every phone that has its bootloader unlocked, what does that mean in the long run? Can I not get warranty service on the phone if there are problems? Does VZW check into that at all? What does HTC do with the info taken from your phone when you root it? Do they pass that info to VZW or is that way to organized for what actually happens? I just want to be clear before I take steps to root and go ahead that I fully understand what differences it makes because it clearly isn't the same as my previous phone (not that it's a bad thing ). I use root for things like TiBu and if I rooted, I would definitely flash an ICS ROM so I could use Chrome browser, hopefully Google catalogs (I'm hoping it's available on ICS phone as it is on ICS tab). But I can probably live without it. I like some things about Sense but coming from a heavily customized Go Launcher, ADW Launcher, etc, I quickly found the inability to change the number of icons, dock, etc far too constraining. I'd love to slim down some of the VZW bloatware to make the phone as fast as reasonably possible losing unneeded apps.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and advice as to what you would do, what you've done, what you *wish* you'd done with your phone and ramifications, ability to get back to stock, etc. Thanks so much for all the work everyone has put in passing along knowledge and help to those of us knew to the Rezound. Awesome community.

 

[scotty85]

one thing to keep in mind is that "stock" is relative. right now "stock" would be gingerbread,build number 2.01.605.11,and as long as you dont install the leaked RUU, you can easily return to that,as simply as restoring a backup of your unrooted stock rom,or in a worse case,you can run an "RUU" (Rom Updater Utility) to replace all of your phones images with the factory ones(very similar to SBFing).

htcdev,tho unlocked,is not 100% unlocked and open. it is still s-on,or security on,and thus doing several checks to make sure that no unsigned images are installed,nor that you are replacing the bootloader,radio,or other firmware.

while it makes the phone very safe,and nearly impossible to brick,it does prevent you from installing older versions of its stock software/firmware. so installing any leaked software is a big risk,as if its bad,youre stuck with it until new builds are released. there is hopefully an s-off exploit in the works that would change this,but we shouldnt count chickens before theyve hatched plus the benefits/disadvantages of s-off are a whole nother topic

slimming down the phone with htcdev is possible,and very efective. leaving the stock recovery in place lets you be sure you will recieve OTAs,if thats important.

as for what htc does with the info it gets from your identifier token,and what could happen with vzw warranty claims,its not really well known. im sure htc could easily look back at its "unlock records" and refuse to warranty any device they get from vzw thats been unlocked,they do make you e-sign a waiver that you understood that "parts or all of your warranty are now void" when you unlock. wether or not they will,who knows. an obvious hardware prollem(buttons,etc) *should* be honored. anything that *could* be the result of messing with your phones OS(no data,etc) could be denied. anything denied to vzw,will be passed along. you could send in a phone for warranty replacement,ans several weeks later have the retail cost of that phone appear you your bill.

vzw has admitted they dont check the devices very well,with rooted thunderbolts running custom roms even being sent back out as replacements but again,theres no way any of us can gaurantee you wont have prollems.

one thing to keep in mind: at this time your bootloader will never say locked again if you unlock it. if you put your phone back to stock,it will say relocked,so there is a pretty obvious physical indicator that youve messed with it for folks that know how to check it,and care about doing so.

my advice is to take vzw up on their insurance program,wich covers the phone no matter what,even if lost,stolen,smashed with a happer,whatever. being rooted doesnt matter to the insurance co as long as you pay the premiums,and the deductible if you need to make a claim.

i personally do not have any regrets. my rezound is used,so i had no factory warranty anyway. first thing i did when i got home was unlock it. i have updated my phone to the leak firmware and it works well,but its not something i reccomend everyone do- as i said,you cant undo it. as long as you are htcdev s-on,you need to be very cautious about flashing any leaked updates.

hope that helps

 

[varaonaid]

Awesome! Thanks so much for all the info...I really appreciate it.

A lot of new and very helpful info...however it leaves me with a few other new questions. You talked about the RUU being similar to SBF'ing (thanks so much for explaining that, I couldn't figure out what RUU meant!) but I'm unclear as to what circumstances I could and couldn't use that to reflash the back up of my original stock ROM. Obviously, not in the case of the leaked ICS...but what about some of the ICS based ROMS? Can I RUU back from that? Or is that a higher software number that the s-on won't allow be to go back from?

In terms of the warranty, that's a really interesting idea...leaving me with yet more questions. First of all, which level of insurance do I have to go for...will the $1.99/mo work? Or do I have to go to one of the higher levels for protection against whatever it is I need protecting from. Secondly, is it only insurance through VZW or would Squaretrade be an option? I don't know how they work for issues like rooting gone wrong or more likely, data issues that would be blamed on rooting/dev even though it likely wouldn't be.

Last new questions (I think), when you said that using htcdev could be used to remove bloatware and speed up the phone...I'm assuming that htcdev is the rooting/unlocking procedure? Sorry, just wanting to learn and not act before I've thought it all through and end up really sorry.

Thanks again for all the information and everything you've contributed to the Rezound community! You've added an incredible amount of knowledge and patience to teach all of us the tricks!

 

[scotty85]

Awesome! Thanks so much for all the info...I really appreciate it.

A lot of new and very helpful info...however it leaves me with a few other new questions. You talked about the RUU being similar to SBF'ing (thanks so much for explaining that, I couldn't figure out what RUU meant!) but I'm unclear as to what circumstances I could and couldn't use that to reflash the back up of my original stock ROM. Obviously, not in the case of the leaked ICS...but what about some of the ICS based ROMS? Can I RUU back from that? Or is that a higher software number that the s-on won't allow be to go back from?

i would really only relock and run the RUU if i had no other option. you dont really ever need to just to get back from stock software.

if you take a nandroid backup immediately after unlocking,and before flashing the superuser root files,restoring that backup is a perfectly fine way to get back to "unrooted stock"

you can also flash my "mini-ruu" if you need to restore a stock boot,system and recovery,without relocking. htcdev only unlocks and allows access to those 3 partitions,so they are really all you need to flash in order to get back to stock.

in a nutshell,you can relock and run a full,signed by HTC RUU as long as it is your current firmware or newer. s-on hboots will not let you flash older firmware,period. wihtout making explanations too long or complex, the hboot,radios,and who knows what elseeek are doing all sorts of checks. one of them is in the software,and is the "main version" of the software.the main version is the build number(2.01.605.11 for the current). the other checks are of the hboot,radios,etc.

so if you change the hboot,radios,etc(aka "firmware") to newer,you can only restore an RUU that contains that same firmware,or something newer.

example,if you have hboot 2.10,you can only restore its matching ruu,or you can run an ruu that is newer,say the current version,wich would brin you to hboot 2.11.

we can change the main version,so the firmware is really the determining factor on what RUUs you can run.

to more directly answer your question, as long as you dont run the leak ruu,wich will put you on hboot 2.21 and other ics firmware,you can run the 2.01.605.11 RUU to restore if you need to. there are a few ICS roms that do not require you to be on the leak ruu firmware.

In terms of the warranty, that's a really interesting idea...leaving me with yet more questions. First of all, which level of insurance do I have to go for...will the $1.99/mo work? Or do I have to go to one of the higher levels for protection against whatever it is I need protecting from. Secondly, is it only insurance through VZW or would Squaretrade be an option? I don't know how they work for issues like rooting gone wrong or more likely, data issues that would be blamed on rooting/dev even though it likely wouldn't be.

id hate to steer you wrong here... best bet is just to ask a vzw rep what they offer,and what it covers. mine is thru vzws 3rd party insurance(asurion) and costs me 6.99/month,i believe.

Last new questions (I think), when you said that using htcdev could be used to remove bloatware and speed up the phone...I'm assuming that htcdev is the rooting/unlocking procedure? Sorry, just wanting to learn and not act before I've thought it all through and end up really sorry.

correct,i should have been a lil more clear on that. htcdev is HTCs factory "unlock".

Thanks again for all the information and everything you've contributed to the Rezound community! You've added an incredible amount of knowledge and patience to teach all of us the tricks!

youre quite welcome. glad to help

its alot to consider,so dont feel any pressure to rush into it. you will ALWAYS be able to unlock via htcdev,so it will be there when youre ready. plus,there may be a method soon(fingers crossed ) that will give you full s-off without htc knowing,so you wont have to give your serial number to htc and sign the waiver that you have just voided "all or parts of your warranty"

 

[mtbhk44]

So I have a question. I am also coming from an X and jumped on this when the price dropped. I want to flash CleanROM Pro 4.3 but I'm afraid I will not be able to install my nandroid stock backup I made after I rooted if something happens during the install process. I see that you can run this ROM off of the old (original) firmware. Is this true? I don't ever want to be stuck where I can't return the phone to it's stock state in the event of a catastrophe. I had to SBF my X all the time, and knowing that I could do that I never feared flashing anything and screwing up the device in the process.

I'm unlocked and perm rooted. Can anyone help?

 

[scotty85]

as long as you dont flash the leaked ruu,you can always revert back to gingerbread. there should be a patch you can flash in recovery to make cleanrom work with your current gingerbread firmware

 

[mtbhk44]

as long as you dont flash the leaked ruu,you can always revert back to gingerbread. there should be a patch you can flash in recovery to make cleanrom work with your current gingerbread firmware

Kind of annoyed with myself. I followed all of the steps to make sure I didn't flash the new firmware (which I believe to be 3.11.605.22 - correct?) and somehow it ended up on my damn device anyway. I probably should have just left well enough alone and waited for the OTA.

I pretty much know the answer to this - but is there any way to flash the old firmware or since I am somehow on the leak, am I now done and at the mercy of HTC/Verizon to release the keys to the car? If I want to dial back to my stock nandroid, can I or am I stuck on these ICS Roms?

My issue is battery life - it's just terrible. I can literally watch the life drain away when the screen is on. Even off it's not great, but on it's really bad. Boooo

On a good note, ICS is great on this phone - amazing. So much better than on my X. THIS is why I got this dual core monster!

 

[scotty85]

Sorry... If you flashed the ruu you're stuck there until new releases come out.

May want to try Scott's dev edition cleanrom and minimize syncs. My battery life is no worse than its ever been.

 

[mtbhk44]

Sorry... If you flashed the ruu you're stuck there until new releases come out.

May want to try Scott's dev edition cleanrom and minimize syncs. My battery life is no worse than its ever been.

I'm typically near power all day long (aside from today of course, I forgot my charger at home) so it's not a catastrophe and I bought an extra battery when I bought the phone b/c I know battery life is not great to begin with, but I just hate to be pigeon holed into this firmware. I have no idea how this happened.

Is there a way to overclock/underclock this kernel?

 

[thornev]

Is there a way to overclock/underclock this kernel?

Yesiree. Go check out all the overclock kernels here (note I said "kernels" not ROMs):
REZOUND ROM LIST / MODS / Kernel / Recovery / Tool / Utility - xda-developers

Scroll down to "Kernel" and make sure you select one that is for the ROM you have installed. If you don't, you will get reboots and all sorts of potential misfits because your kernel and your ROM are mismatched.

I should add that overclocking and underclocking is a tricky business on the Rezound. Clock too low and you may get boot loops. Clock too high and your phone may overheat. Alter your CPU clock frequencies carefully and monitor your phone's behavior.

You'll also need a CPU clock speed adjustment app such as SetCPU. There are several in the Play Store.