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Root S-OFF, what's it worth?

8

808phone

Newbie
I understand what root and s-off does. In the case of rooting, I found it easily done. In fact, unlocking boot loader, installing TWRP, superSU was very easily done.

S-OFF OTOH not so much - rumrunner, firewater didn't work.
But beyond that - since I've been reading, there are so many problems associated with trying to install a ROM that is it worth it?

You don't need S-OFF to install a ROM but then you need to flash the boot.img. GREAT! That's the one that got me to a boot loop which cost me $40 to fix.

Then I thought - no problem if I had the original boot.img or an RUU right? No way, go look through all of the people that are having problems even with an RUU. Then there are a number of posts that suggest that after trying to flash a ROM that they get some kind of hardware problem as well.

Makes me wonder if any of this is worth it to try and get S-OFF. A bricked phone - software or hardware is a crappy feeling.
 
Hello and welcome to the forums. S-off is aka security. Now the correct ruu will fix the most of the problems. What phone do u have
 
Flashing the correct boot.IMG for your ROM or running the RUU will fix any issue caused by flashing a boot.IMG incorrectly.


For HTC devices- s-off is paradise :D. You no longer have to worry about boot.IMG.

There's always a brick chance with getting s-off, but that's part of the process I'm afraid
 
Thanks guys!
I have an HTC ONE S, S4 model. (S-ON right now with unlocked bootloader)
I do feel like I understand what S-OFF does. What I don't understand are the following:

1: I absolutely used the correct boot.img for the ROM I was trying to install at one point and yet I got into a boot loop (HTC logo with red text). That sucked and cost me $40. This leads me to believe that boot.img is a very fickle thing - i.e. trying to flash it.
2: I thought having an RUU was the end all- yet go online and see how many people are still having problems even after trying to go back to stock. This makes me wary of trying anything more.
3: Moonshine and firewater do not work on my device. Firewater crashes out of adb shell and moonshine just gets stuck with "..............." over and over.
4: I naively thought that having a NANDROID backup would save me - NOPE! Not from a boot loop which was caused by flashing boot.img.

But even with the above - taking a look at what it takes to install a ROM - it just seems so voodoo - like wipe cache - flash, if it doesn't work, try again. Do it two times etc....
The number of posts that are so vague - just leads me to believe at this point that it's more likely that problems will occur rather than success. Or am I only seeing the people with problems?? Maybe it all works smoothly.... not sure.
I really don't want to get that problem with the radio where they can only get 2G - that problem is not good.
 
Well if u are having problems I haven't seen much that the dev of a ROM wont help out to help repair I even seen the new HTC one that has many options now to root . maybe try a CyanogenMod for your HTC . haven't seen many radio or boot loader problems yet. But can I ask who is your carrier
 
I was trying to install CM11 when I had the boot loop. The last thing was to "fastboot flash boot boot.img (*=only if S-ON)"

So - it got stuck in the boot loop (HTC logo/red text) and I had no idea how to fix this. It never occurred to me to flash it again - the same "bad" boot.img. I didn't have the RUU either. NANDROID backup didn't work via TWRP.

BTW: I have tmobile USA, HTC ONE S S4

Thanks!
 
> You just pull the boot.IMG out of the ROM

Aha, but I know that now (never did it yet) but think about it. Where is this info on how to pull the boot.img out of ROM? It's not readily available as far as I know. (Don't worry, I am giving back by posting help info on the web). There's only 1 posting that I have found that really details how to pull the original boot.img out of the ROM, but then there are not that many posts on how to find the correct RUU (only THIS forum seems to have a great detailed post on it - THANKS!). It's a crazy cycle - but if you think about it. Just having to have all of these types of posts means that you can corrupt your phone easily.
Now in my case, I didn't have the RUU readily available so I couldn't get the boot.img. Then I was told I needed the exact RUU for my version on my phone which I couldn't find. etc... etc... Turns out I could have used a newer RUU - which the person I paid money did install on my phone.
 
I had a few extra questions - when I tried to install CM11 and got the boot loop after doing "fastboot flash boot boot.img" - at that point was I supposed to flash the original boot.img from my HTC ROM or try and flash the same CM11 boot.img??
What I mean by this - is at that point I had tried to install the ROM via a zip file. Now when the boot loop happens, do I try to flash the original RUU boot.img at that point?

My last question - why didn't the NANDROID backup work?
 
The kernel must match the ROM or you'll be in a bootloop.

You fastboot flash the boot.IMG that's packed into whatever ROM your flashing.

The reason the nandroid didn't work is because the recovery doesn't have access to the boot partition for s-on, which is why you need to do all of this in the first place.
 
Thank you for the reply. So in my case after I flashed the boot.img from CM11 and it got into a boot loop. Then at that point, what should I have done? I guess that's the part I am still confused about.
 
The process should be:
-make a.backup if you're on a working rom
-wipe data/factory reset
-flash rom
-boot to fastboot and flash rom your flashing boot image:
fastboot devices

fastboot erase cache

fastboot flash boot boot.img

If you have a bootloop after this process,make sure you have the correct boot image in your adb/fastboot directory. Double check the roms md5 and make sure you got a good download. Bad download and failure to wipe data are 2 common causes for bootloops.

If you just asked "whats an md5 sum?" Then you need to google that now. Then,instal an md5 sum checker on your pc and start using it. There are lots of free ones on the web :)
 
I bet somehow the erasing of the cache was the culprit but I won't know until I try again.
However this time I hope to be s-off and then won't have to flash the boot image.
Yep I know about checksums! Thanks!
 
Thanks. I think I am giving up. I tried over and over and cannot get s-off on this HTC One S. Even with an RUU and moonshine that worked for others, I get stuck on Try 3) waiting for fastboot (7/60) and a bunch of dots .........................

I don't understand why moonshine doesn't work when adb devices and fastboot devices commands are working and I can do everything else.

This phone cannot be s-off apparently.
 
808phone said:
Thanks. I think I am giving up. I tried over and over and cannot get s-off on this HTC One S. Even with an RUU and moonshine that worked for others, I get stuck on Try 3) waiting for fastboot (7/60) and a bunch of dots .........................

I don't understand why moonshine doesn't work when adb devices and fastboot devices commands are working and I can do everything else.

This phone cannot be s-off apparently.
Click to expand...


Are you using windows? In order to make it work,some have had to temporarily disable firewall and antivirus programs. I personally could get moonshine to work with windows on a droid DNA.

Windows relies on finicky drivers and is extremely vunerable to other programs that can interfere with device comunication. Best solution,IMO,is to create an ubuntu 12.04 live cd and run moonshine from that.

It's not likely that your phone is un-s-offable ;)
 
I did create a Live CD and ran moonshine. It rebooted the phone but got stuck on adb. Basically it said adb was not working and for me to fix it.

Now on the linux side - I didn't think I need to installed fastboot or adb. Please correct me if I am wrong.
 
Well after all of the pain, I am s-off.
I had to create a 32 bit ubuntu live USB to run on my Retina Macbook Pro.
The problem was that you need to CD to the Downloads folder. Then you need to execute sudo ./distiller.

If you don't cd to the Downloads and simply execute distiller it won't work.

Prior to that of course, I created a 32 bit live USB which somehow didn't work. So then I created a 64 bit - which I then found out really doesn't work with moonshine. So I went back to 32 bit and then I didn't cd to Downloads so that didn't work. Then I tried different machines - none of which could boot the live USB.

wow. Finally works. Now what to do with s-off. I guess I might not sell the phone now.
 
Scotty, am I correct in assuming all I need to do is install a custom recovery? Apparently moonshine installs "Superuser" which I assume gives me root.
Then all I need to do is wipe caches, then install the ROM (zip)? No need to flash the boot.img anymore since it is part of the ROM in the zip.....????
 
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