Root ROOTING For Dummies

[frenchy714]

First of all...THANK YOU!! I am a total newbie to androids and this guide rocks. Followed instructions to the T and bang- S-OFF.

Just a few questions (please forgive my ignorance):
How do i get the programs I saved to the SD card?
Is there a free way to freeze programs? I would rather not spend 5+ dollars on titanium backup...and would rather not delete the files per the awesome guide

thanks!!!

Yes, there are quite a few file manager apps out there. You can use Estrongs File Manager (my personal favorite), Astro, or Root Explorer. Once you have a file manager app downloaded, you'll be able to go to the root directory of your sd card and see what you've saved there.

As for an app to freeze programs, bloatware, etc., Titanium Backup is your best bet. So it's time to pony up $5 and freeze your apps the right way!

 

[evolover21]

Does anybody have an recommendations for custom ROMS. My main goal is to get rid of bloatware and I want to run the Collin_Ph battery tweak. I went to xda but there are so many and I have no idea what they all do/mean..
Thanks-
Also how do I DELETE the bloatware- not jsut freeze it.

 

[frenchy714]

Does anybody have an recommendations for custom ROMS. My main goal is to get rid of bloatware and I want to run the Collin_Ph battery tweak. I went to xda but there are so many and I have no idea what they all do/mean..
Thanks-
Also how do I DELETE the bloatware- not jsut freeze it.

There are a lot of great ROM's out there! Search these threads as well as XDA's and read people's experiences, comments, and feedback about the ROM you're researching. I recommend Myn's Warm (since you're running 3.70xxxx and the updated radio's/wimax/pri/nv I'm assuming, I'd wait for Myn's Warm RLS5 to be released, which should be in less than a week). It also comes with the collin_ph battery tweak (optional download when flashing his ROM). But you won't know which ROM you'll like best until you try a few! Just remember to make a nandroid backup before switching ROM's in case you don't like it.

Keep in mind that if you're going to use the collin_ph battery tweak, don't use it with a kernel with HAVS. They'll conflict with each other.

You can delete bloatware using those file manager apps I recommended above, however, I recommend just freezing them because your phone can react negatively by you deleting the wrong thing.

 

[evolover21]

Please help! I flashed my phone after rooting and now it is stuck in the boot cycle. I did a nano backup before I flashed it. How do I recover to the backup?
Thanks!

 

[frenchy714]

Please help! I flashed my phone after rooting and now it is stuck in the boot cycle. I did a nano backup before I flashed it. How do I recover to the backup?
Thanks!

Don't worry, you're not bricked. Do a battery pull, wait a few seconds, put battery back, power phone on while holding volume down (this will put you in the bootloader menu). From there navigate to recovery (using volume keys to navigate and power to select) and from there you can restore your nandroid backup.

 

[evolover21]

Don't worry, you're not bricked. Do a battery pull, wait a few seconds, put battery back, power phone on while holding volume down (this will put you in the bootloader menu). From there navigate to recovery (using volume keys to navigate and power to select) and from there you can restore your nandroid backup.

Frenchy-
Thanks again. I tried that but I flashed to amon after I did the backup. the backup is on my sd card but i cant access it. when I go to the backup menu in the amon screen it gets me to the backup I did after i flashed. I want to access the one from before the flash...but I don't know how.

 

[frenchy714]

Frenchy-
Thanks again. I tried that but I flashed to amon after I did the backup. the backup is on my sd card but i cant access it. when I go to the backup menu in the amon screen it gets me to the backup I did after i flashed. I want to access the one from before the flash...but I don't know how.

So you need to get back to Clockwork recovery to access the nand backup you want to restore, correct? Try this out, it should get you to where you need to go:

[ROM] 12/31/10 | 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

 

[evolover21]

So you need to get back to Clockwork recovery to access the nand backup you want to restore, correct? Try this out, it should get you to where you need to go:

[ROM] 12/31/10 | 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

OK, I'll give it a try and let you know. Whew starting to feel hopeful. I thought my evo was gonna be a paperweight. I swam out a little to deep for today......

 

[frenchy714]

OK, I'll give it a try and let you know. Whew starting to feel hopeful. I thought my evo was gonna be a paperweight. I swam out a little to deep for today......

Once you're in use ROM Manager to flash Clockwork recovery so you can access that nand backup.

 

[evolover21]

It didn't work. I followed the instructions (with the above file) and the one earlier on this forum in the guide sections. With both of them it said "no image" and didn't go into flash mode....Any other ideas?

 

[evolover21]

Let me be more specific. It says "can't open (then file name.zip) follwoed by (bad) and then Installation aborted

 

[akazabam]

evolover, what version of clockwork did you have before? Can you still get into RA recovery? What version of RA recovery is it? How old is you phone? If have a newer phone, and you have RA 1.8.0 (flashed from ROM manager), that'll definitely give you issues. Let me know, and we can take it from there.

 

[evolover21]

not sure what version it was. The phone is very new just got it about 2 weeks ago. I can get into recovery. I used rom manager to flash it.
thank you so much. i am pretty flipping out!

 

[evolover21]

I think the recovery is the AMon one if that is what you mean.

 

[akazabam]

1) Boot into recovery
2) You say you have RA, so select the option for USB-MS toggle with your phone connected to your computer via USB
3) Download and rename the following file to PC36IMG.zip:

Multiupload.com - upload your files to multiple file hosting sites!

Make sure you don't accidentally rename it to something like PC36IMG.zip.zip (window, by default, hides extensions).

4) Copy that file to the root of your sd card (you can browse your sd card on your computer at this point.

5) Close the USB-MS toggle mode in recovery, and unplug your phone.

6) Turn the phone off, then boot back into hboot, where it will prompt you flash the pc36img file.

7) Once that finishes, you should have a version of RA that will work for you. You can then flash whatever rom it was you were trying to before. Make sure to wipe data/dalvik/cache, of course.

8) Once you have a bootable rom, you can use ROM manager to reflash CW, if you like, and restore your nandroid backup. Before you do that, though, open a terminal emulator and type "cat /proc/mtd" without quotes. If your erase size is 40000, as I suspect, then that is most definitely why your current RA doesn't work. If you want CW back, do not flash 2.5.0.1 if this is the case.

9) If you want to keep RA, I suggest you flash RA 2.1.1 from ROM manager. Let me know if any of these steps don't work.

 

[evolover21]

1) Boot into recovery
2) You say you have RA, so select the option for USB-MS toggle with your phone connected to your computer via USB
3) Download and rename the following file to PC36IMG.zip:

Multiupload.com - upload your files to multiple file hosting sites!

Make sure you don't accidentally rename it to something like PC36IMG.zip.zip (window, by default, hides extensions).

4) Copy that file to the root of your sd card (you can browse your sd card on your computer at this point.

5) Close the USB-MS toggle mode in recovery, and unplug your phone.

6) Turn the phone off, then boot back into hboot, where it will prompt you flash the pc36img file.

7) Once that finishes, you should have a version of RA that will work for you. You can then flash whatever rom it was you were trying to before. Make sure to wipe data/dalvik/cache, of course.

8) Once you have a bootable rom, you can use ROM manager to reflash CW, if you like, and restore your nandroid backup. Before you do that, though, open a terminal emulator and type "cat /proc/mtd" without quotes. If your erase size is 40000, as I suspect, then that is most definitely why your current RA doesn't work. If you want CW back, do not flash 2.5.0.1 if this is the case.

9) If you want to keep RA, I suggest you flash RA 2.1.1 from ROM manager. Let me know if any of these steps don't work.

akazabam thank you so much but it did not work. It said installation aborted. I think the issue may be that in trying to fix it I used the s-off program- I was hoping to just unroot. So now I am really really stuck. I went through recovery to flash from zip then got installation aborted...

thanks again for your help! please keep trying. I am totally lost.

 

[akazabam]

Do you currently have S-ON or S-OFF?

 

[scottborasjr]

Ok, so I thought I had did it right, my S-off is correct but my hboot still says 2.10, so I am not rooted fully, correct? I have the superuser app available. Just curious if this is part of 3.3 or not.

 

[akazabam]

S-OFF is full root. Your hboot version isn't going to change. What state is your phone in now? I thought you said you couldn't boot up.

 

[evolover21]

S-OFF is full root. Your hboot version isn't going to change. What state is your phone in now? I thought you said you couldn't boot up.

It is s-ON. I can't boot up. It gets stuck on the HTC EVO 4G screen. I CAN get into HBOOT and recovery though.

 

[frenchy714]

It is s-ON. I can't boot up. It gets stuck on the HTC EVO 4G screen. I CAN get into HBOOT and recovery though.

Sounds like you have partial root, not full root.

 

[akazabam]

It is s-ON. I can't boot up. It gets stuck on the HTC EVO 4G screen. I CAN get into HBOOT and recovery though.

Ok, I misunderstood what you were saying before. The very first thing you need to do is flash unrevoked forever, which is a zip file you can download from the unrevoked site. After you do that, follow the rest of the instructions I gave you before.

EDIT: in case you're confused, you flash unrevoked forever from recovery, not hboot.

 

[scottborasjr]

I think you might have been mixing up a few responses Akazabam, so if I have s-off i'm in full root no matter what the Hboot says?

 

[akazabam]

I think you might have been mixing up a few responses Akazabam, so if I have s-off i'm in full root no matter what the Hboot says?

Haha, you have no idea. I apologize to anyone I may have given bad advice to. I'm involved with way too many threads right now...

Anyway, yes s-off is full root. The whole point of the latest unrevoked update was that you couldn't get s-off (the unrevoked way) with hboot 2.02 or 2.10. All unrevoked does it give you s-off. It doesn't change your hboot version.

 

[evolover21]

1) Boot into recovery
2) You say you have RA, so select the option for USB-MS toggle with your phone connected to your computer via USB
3) Download and rename the following file to PC36IMG.zip:

Multiupload.com - upload your files to multiple file hosting sites!

Make sure you don't accidentally rename it to something like PC36IMG.zip.zip (window, by default, hides extensions).

4) Copy that file to the root of your sd card (you can browse your sd card on your computer at this point.

5) Close the USB-MS toggle mode in recovery, and unplug your phone.

6) Turn the phone off, then boot back into hboot, where it will prompt you flash the pc36img file.

7) Once that finishes, you should have a version of RA that will work for you. You can then flash whatever rom it was you were trying to before. Make sure to wipe data/dalvik/cache, of course.

8) Once you have a bootable rom, you can use ROM manager to reflash CW, if you like, and restore your nandroid backup. Before you do that, though, open a terminal emulator and type "cat /proc/mtd" without quotes. If your erase size is 40000, as I suspect, then that is most definitely why your current RA doesn't work. If you want CW back, do not flash 2.5.0.1 if this is the case.

9) If you want to keep RA, I suggest you flash RA 2.1.1 from ROM manager. Let me know if any of these steps don't work.

OK i did everything until #7 and it seems to have worked. I am not sure which ROM I should use and how to do it. Before I did it with ROM manager but I dont have access to that yet. It still gets stuck on the HTC screen. How do I flash a ROM in recovery and which ROM should I use. I would like one that is closest to the stock- no more troubles.

I really appreciate your help. The Evo would have become my fanciest door stopper!