Root Rooting an HTC EVO Shift for Dummies! (Last Updated 3/24/2010)

[crump]

This is where it falls down for me. After selecting "temproot now", it starts the root process, sits there for a minute, then I get the Sprint 4G screen (the phone reboots). I don't see here in step 6 that this is supposed to happen. can someone confirm if this is failing for me, or if it is working as intended?

If the phone is rebooting after clicking temp root, it's not catching root. It may take a few tries to actually get temp root. If you continue having problems, uninstall Visionary and super user, reboot and reinstall Visionary. You'll know if you get temp root if it goes back to the menu in Visionary after you click temp root.

 

[tdischino]

If the phone is rebooting after clicking temp root, it's not catching root. It may take a few tries to actually get temp root. If you continue having problems, uninstall Visionary and super user, reboot and reinstall Visionary. You'll know if you get temp root if it goes back to the menu in Visionary after you click temp root.

Will try more, but you mention uninstalling super user... what do you mean by that? No mention of super user up through step 6 in the guide. Thx.

 

[crump]

Will try more, but you mention uninstalling super user... what do you mean by that? No mention of super user up through step 6 in the guide. Thx.

When you install Visionary it also installs the super user .apk. This is needed in order to grant permissions in root apps. It should be listed in your applications

 

[tdischino]

When you install Visionary it also installs the super user .apk. This is needed in order to grant permissions in root apps. It should be listed in your applications

OK, well, I am consistently getting the same results. after some googling, I see that others have experienced this, but I havent found a solution yet.

I've only had the phone a month, but have installed several apps, perhaps something causing the conflict? Would it help to reset it to factory default settings, then retry this?

 

[crump]

OK, well, I am consistently getting the same results. after some googling, I see that others have experienced this, but I havent found a solution yet.

I've only had the phone a month, but have installed several apps, perhaps something causing the conflict? Would it help to reset it to factory default settings, then retry this?

Does your phone reboot every time you try to temp root? If you click temp root then goes to the black screen and back to the Visionary menu then you have temp root. If you absolutely cannot get it to work you may want to try using Z4root. It also has the option of giving you temp root to allow you to continue the rooting process. You can download it here [APP] z4root - xda-developers

 

[330D]

I have helped a couple people root this phone, and every time, it has been a battle getting temp root. You need to be tenacious, and patient. Read the instructions again and make sure you aren't missing anything either...

 

[tdischino]

Does your phone reboot every time you try to temp root? If you click temp root then goes to the black screen and back to the Visionary menu then you have temp root. If you absolutely cannot get it to work you may want to try using Z4root. It also has the option of giving you temp root to allow you to continue the rooting process. You can download it here [APP] z4root - xda-developers

To be clear, it tries to root for a bout a minute, then goes to the Sprint 4G boot screen. After it boots, it is slow as molasses (the first time I thought it was rooted because of this), but it doesn't let me get back to VISIONary, there is no shortcut to the app any where, and if I go into ES or ASTRO to the file list on the SDRoot and select VISONary, the only option is to uninstall it. I can't get to the app to select Temproot after Boot.

I'll give Z4root a try. is it just a matter of substituting Z4root for VISIONary in the steps above? or is that a whole different process?

I have helped a couple people root this phone, and every time, it has been a battle getting temp root. You need to be tenacious, and patient. Read the instructions again and make sure you aren't missing anything either...

I started second guessing myself last night, so I kept redoing step 6 over and over again (unistalling, redownloading, and reinstalling VISIONary several times). I re-examined steps 1 through 5 and came up with a question:

What is the significance of having the SDK and Sense installed on the computer before I get to step 6 (or even step 8 for that matter)? since the phone is connected as charge only (or disconnected altogether as i've read ealsewhere) during the temproot attempt, it doesnt make a difference if it is installed on the PC at until step 8, correct? I do have them installed, but didnt see what significance they had that early in the process.

thanks a lot for the feedback and suggestions so far.

 

[crump]

I'll give Z4root a try. is it just a matter of substituting Z4root for VISIONary in the steps above? or is that a whole different process?

Same process just use Z4root to get temporary root instead of Visionary.

What is the significance of having the SDK and Sense installed on the computer before I get to step 6 (or even step 8 for that matter)? since the phone is connected as charge only (or disconnected altogether as i've read ealsewhere) during the temproot attempt, it doesnt make a difference if it is installed on the PC at until step 8, correct? I do have them installed, but didnt see what significance they had that early in the process.

thanks a lot for the feedback and suggestions so far.

Technically it doesn't need to be installed for the first few steps. But if you go ahead and install it first then it's there and ready to be used when you need it.

 

[tdischino]

Same results with Z4. I think i am going to try resetting the phone to factory settings, and then try again.

 

[tdischino]

OK, some progress... after googling some more, found edp's post about not even trying temproot and just selectign temproot after boot with airplane mode turned on. That seems to have worked, as I am able to run su in connectbot as well as in adb shell. However, When I try to verify the checksums of

/sdcard/Shift/hboot_orig.bin

and

/sdcard/Shift/hboot_eng.nb0

I get:

md5sum: can't open '/sdcard/Shift/hboot_orig.bin' : No such file or directory.

If I look at the folder path in windows explorer, I see the files at those paths.

When I type 'ls' at the adb shell prompt I get the directory list from the C:\AndroidSDK\platform-tools, not from the sdcard.

am I missing something?

 

[330D]

OK, some progress... after googling some more, found edp's post about not even trying temproot and just selectign temproot after boot with airplane mode turned on. That seems to have worked, as I am able to run su in connectbot as well as in adb shell. However, When I try to verify the checksums of

/sdcard/Shift/hboot_orig.bin

and

/sdcard/Shift/hboot_eng.nb0

I get:

md5sum: can't open '/sdcard/Shift/hboot_orig.bin' : No such file or directory.

If I look at the folder path in windows explorer, I see the files at those paths.

When I type 'ls' at the adb shell prompt I get the directory list from the C:\AndroidSDK\platform-tools, not from the sdcard.

am I missing something?

Type the commands like this, with busybox added, and do it for both, not just the one I copy and pasted for you...

busybox md5sum /sdcard/Shift/hboot_eng.nb0

 

[tdischino]

I actually got it to work without the busybox part (just md5sum ...), after exiting and restarting adb shell several times. Not sure why, but that seems to be the theme of rooting this phone, try and try again. I think I am almost there (crosses fingers).

 

[simply_sme]

I have helped a couple people root this phone, and every time, it has been a battle getting temp root. You need to be tenacious, and patient. Read the instructions again and make sure you aren't missing anything either...

I am sooooo glad I kept reading!! I was stuck on this step and almost called it quits. I'll keep going now and see if I can finish the process before I hit the hay!

Yippee!!!

 

[simply_sme]

Excellent instructions. Very helpful. Two places I got stuck fwiw:

At the end of Step 8 -- Superuser was not automatically installed so I did not get any "Allow" prompt on my phone. I had to separately download Superuser from the market and then proceed.

I would mention around Step 13 to uncheck the box previously checked in the Step 6 advice to "Go back into VISIONary and put a check next to the box that says "temp root on boot"." It seemed to cause me problems finishing the rooting process until I unchecked the box.

Thanks again --

I'm stuck here too now (I've tried the "unchecking" thing)...we'll see if it helps.

 

[tdischino]

Just just as an update to my experience.... I was not ever able to get temproot to work. I went with temproot after reboot, which seemed to work, and then tried perm-rooting, which I thought worked, as I had SU access after several reboots, but once I uninstalled Superuser, it went away. This guide that was put together is a good effort, but doesn't seem to be iron-clad, at least from my experience. I'm curious why root works for some people on this phone but not others.

I'll wait for unrevoked3 or future simplified developments here. Thanks for the help.

 

[MizikeTSK]

Does the shift have to be rooted to be able to use "wireless tether". I'm assuming this is a work around to not have to pay for the extra service to use the shift as a hotspot.

 

[crump]

Does the shift have to be rooted to be able to use "wireless tether". I'm assuming this is a work around to not have to pay for the extra service to use the shift as a hotspot.

You'll need either temp root or perma root in order to use wireless tether, it requires super user permissions. You can use an app like pdanet for wired tether that doesn't require root.

 

[Jedman67]

Not to just root. You have to wipe to flash certain roms.

and how do i save and backup my data, apps and messages if i want to wipe and flash?

 

[crump]

and how do i save and backup my data, apps and messages if i want to wipe and flash?

You can backup your apps/data with an app like "Titanium Backup" or "Mybackup Root"

Make sure before you do any flashing you make a nandroid backup. To do this go into recovery and select Backup/Restore and select backup. It can also be done through ROM manager. This is vital to have in case something should happen.

 

[Abird!]

Ok wow this is going to sound lame but I can't even get started to root because I don't have the right Java installed on my laptop and when I try to DL the JDK version it freezes everytime...fail

Then I tried to go the one click root route and ran into another wall...after I downloaded ShiftRR it reads it as a fricken mp3 file...epic fail maybe my laptop just sucks!

 

[Abird!]

Scratch that I'm rooted

 

[330D]

Good to hear! I didn't have time earlier to help when I saw your post, and just checked back in to see where you were at. What ended up being the issue? Post up so others may know your fix....

 

[Abird!]

Oh no worries. I didn't actually resolve the issue on my laptop, I went down the street to my friends house and used his computer, haha...It did however take a few tries to get rooted using the one-click but after persisting (I was ready to give up, he was determined) it finally successfully rooted. I'm assuming the problem on my laptop is that it's just really old pretty much on it's death bed.

But so far so good, now I'm onto reading up on the different ROM's and what not before I dabble into that

 

[toddpedersen]

Would this be the most logical thread to subscribe to for updates on the developers providing Rooting ONLY, (meaning no interest in customer ROM's right now) instructions for my GB 2.3 Shift, or is there a better thread to subscribe to?

Thanks in advance.

 

[330D]

This is the one...