Root Universal Eris Root for Dummies!

[beardad]

Thanks again! I'm not too concerned about changing the ROMs, nor having anything fancy or special. In truth, I'd be content with a 100% exactly like original 2.1 ROM.

My goals are simple: install Google Voice (this is the 21st century, after all; why should we pay for SMS when GV will do it via our data plan) and install a WIFI tethering app (for my Kindle Fire and my daughter's Ipod). Unfortunately, to reach these goals I need to both upgrade and root the phone's OS.

Again, thanks for your help. It's good to know this old thread is still being monitored.

Here goes ...

Edit: Did it, and everything worked like a charm. I've got Google Voice on there now, and I was able to send and receive texts via the data plan rather than SMS. The only disappointment so far is the wifi tethering; turns out the Kindle Fire doesn't look for ad-hoc wifi, and my main purpose for having wifi tethering was to open up my KF's connection abilities. I have read, however, that this can be resolved by rooting the KF; I just need to decide if I'm ready to do that.

 

[usf_tim]

I have an old Eris phone i wanted to give to my son to play games on. I did a factory reboot to get ride of all e-mail, txt, contacts, and pictures on the phone. Now it wants me to activate phone to get it to work. Is my best option to "root" the phone or is their and easier way to get around the activation?

Thanks

Tim

 

[doogald]

I have an old Eris phone i wanted to give to my son to play games on. I did a factory reboot to get ride of all e-mail, txt, contacts, and pictures on the phone. Now it wants me to activate phone to get it to work. Is my best option to "root" the phone or is their and easier way to get around the activation?

The easiest way to get past the activation is to allow the phone to try to activate; as soon as it starts dialing, disconnect by hitting the end call key. It will try two or three more times, then will show you a message that the activation failed and allow you to proceed through the setup using WiFi.

I do believe that there are rooted ROMs that disable the data network, though I never tried them myself. However, if simply proceeding past activation is not good enough, there are few ROMs that may work:

xda-developers - View Single Post - [ROM] TheROM V0.14 | TheMP3Rom V0.14 [FROYO] [SPEED] - this one has the cell radio disabled by default. Again, I never tried it, but it may be good enough for gaming.

This script by CondemnedSoul: [Script] WiFi Only (great for inactive devices) - xda-developers allows you to manually disable the cell radio after boot on a rooted phone. It may not be exactly what you want.

However, also note on the bottom the note with instructions about preventing the activation message from popping up after each boot. You can do this after you set up the ROM and before you potentially root the phone and install a custom ROM.

 

[ptothe2]

Hi all! Please bare with me, because I am COMPLETELY new to this. I did just get an Eris and was trying to get this to work. Here is where I'm at:

Prerequisites:

- Eris w/ any HTC/VZW release (including 1.5, all leaks V1-V3, & root-ROM)
- Install free Market app Gscript Lite (PinkVenture)
- Install free Market app EStrongs File Explorer
- Download Gscript.zip (MD5 92796a8c6e61e8f1ee36e315c0acae7d)

Done all of this. I tried both downloading the gscript in the phones browser, and downloading it on my mac, and then transferring it over. The latter method is the only way I can get it to show up in the File Explorer app. The issue is this: When I fire up the File Explorer, I don't have a "downloads" folder. I have the following folders: "android", "backups", and "LOST.DIR". Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks!

 

[nepbug]

Hi all! Please bare with me, because I am COMPLETELY new to this. I did just get an Eris and was trying to get this to work. Here is where I'm at:

Prerequisites:

- Eris w/ any HTC/VZW release (including 1.5, all leaks V1-V3, & root-ROM)
- Install free Market app Gscript Lite (PinkVenture)
- Install free Market app EStrongs File Explorer
- Download Gscript.zip (MD5 92796a8c6e61e8f1ee36e315c0acae7d)

Done all of this. I tried both downloading the gscript in the phones browser, and downloading it on my mac, and then transferring it over. The latter method is the only way I can get it to show up in the File Explorer app. The issue is this: When I fire up the File Explorer, I don't have a "downloads" folder. I have the following folders: "android", "backups", and "LOST.DIR". Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks!

It doesn't need to be in the download folder, just as long as it is somewhere. What you really need is to find it with the file explorer and extract it into the gscript folder as described. Where did you save the file to?

 

[ptothe2]

Hey, thanks for replying! Well you got me in the right direction. Looks like it's working so far! I didn't realize it didn't matter that there was no "downloads" folder.

 

[ptothe2]

Ah crap! Well I got all the way to the point where I'm supposed to do this:

"Amon_RA recovery will list every ZIP file it finds in the root of the SD card (Just because it is listed does not mean it works as an update! In particular - PB00IMG.ZIP files can not be installed as "updates").

Scroll Down and Choose the ROM (.zip) file that you transferred to the root folder of your SD card at the beginning of this process."

The only zip file that is showing is the gscript file, and not the ROM file. So I had to abort, and now when I turn the phone back on, it's going through all the setup steps it does when you first buy the phone. So, I have to figure out why the ROM isn't being shown. EDIT** Ok, so it looks like the file that I downloaded, (PLAIN_JANET2) is an .EXE file, and not a .zip. So that's why it's not being shown in the recovery.

 

[ptothe2]

Can anyone recommend the right ROM I should get? I just want to be able to get a newer version of Android on this phone. I don't even need the newest, just something better than the 1.5. I downloaded the plainjane file from this page: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=718092 but it's an .exe file.

 

[nepbug]

I use the GSB one listed here.
http://alchemistar.blogspot.com/2010/11/htc-droid-eris-custom-roms-list-110810.html?m=1
It's Cyanogen mod 7 ROM and is stable in my use so far.

 

[nepbug]

That one is not a sense ROM though, if you want Sense then try one of the others.

 

[ptothe2]

Awesome! Thank you sir! I used that one as well, and all is good so far! It's firing up now.

 

[doogald]

Can anyone recommend the right ROM I should get? I just want to be able to get a newer version of Android on this phone. I don't even need the newest, just something better than the 1.5. I downloaded the plainjane file from this page: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=718092 but it's an .exe file.

I use the GSB one listed here.
andrdcndy: (Legacy) HTC Droid Eris ROM List
It's Cyanogen mod 7 ROM and is stable in my use so far.

Awesome! Thank you sir! I used that one as well, and all is good so far! It's firing up now.

If GSB does not work out (though it should - it's a great ROM), you can run a close-to-stock ROM called xtrSENSE5.0.1. I have a download on my dropbox (as the original location no longer exists): https://www.dropbox.com/s/57hivjeuaulvqx5/xtrSENSE5.0.1.zip

 

[ptothe2]

Thank you guys! Right now, I'm still waiting for the cyanogen 7 ROM to fire up. It's been on the splash page with the great looking animated logo that says "Cyanogen7 Mod". It's been on that screen for over 30 minutes now. The logo is still animated, so I don't know how long I should let it sit for. If this doesn't work, I will try out your recommendation Doogald. Thanks again.

 

[doogald]

Thank you guys! Right now, I'm still waiting for the cyanogen 7 ROM to fire up. It's been on the splash page with the great looking animated logo that says "Cyanogen7 Mod". It's been on that screen for over 30 minutes now. The logo is still animated, so I don't know how long I should let it sit for. If this doesn't work, I will try out your recommendation Doogald. Thanks again.

Did you run the menu option to "wipe data/factory reset" before you restarted the phone? 30 minutes is way too long - it should take no longer than about 5 minutes to reach the setup screen (though I suggest letting the phone sit for about two more minutes before you proceed.)

Anyway, if you did not wipe data/factory reset, you can pull the battery, restart in Recovery by holding VolUp while powering on until you see the green text on black menu, then:

- go to the "Wipe" menu and "Wipe data/factory reset" option and select it,
- go back to the main menu
- reboot the phone

That should work.

 

[ptothe2]

That did it! You are awesome! I appreciate you guys helping me out. Now, I have to find my way around this new system.

 

[nepbug]

That did it! You are awesome! I appreciate you guys helping me out. Now, I have to find my way around this new system.

Glad you got it working. It'll be like having a whole new device.

 

[ptothe2]

The whole reason that I wanted to do this, was so that I can test my websites out on a newer version of Android. I was having issues with one site I'm building, and I was hoping that when I updated and checked in this newer version, things would be good, but no luck, haha! But at least I'm more up to date now.

 

[Bob Cat]

That did it! You are awesome! I appreciate you guys helping me out. Now, I have to find my way around this new system.

I wasn't able to be involved in helping you out but am sure glad you got it rooted and running a newer version.

How bout this old thread.

http://androidforums.com/eris-all-things-root/251019-my-little-eris.html

 

[theaufty]

I followed the instructions to a T... and I got to the end of the second root script and it says I was rooted. Then I went into recovery and followed the backup steps and so on but I got an error when I tried to install GSB (the custom ROM)...

it says "Verification failed..."

So I recovered the Nandroid backup and I don't know what to do to make it work now.

I thought I'd mention I bought this phone on ebay and the phone info says the software is 2.1

 

[scary alien]

I followed the instructions to a T... and I got to the end of the second root script and it says I was rooted. Then I went into recovery and followed the backup steps and so on but I got an error when I tried to install GSB (the custom ROM)...

it says "Verification failed..."

So I recovered the Nandroid backup and I don't know what to do to make it work now.

I thought I'd mention I bought this phone on ebay and the phone info says the software is 2.1

Sounds like you had / have a bad (partial) download of GSB... Try downloading again and/or verifying the MD5 checksum before flashing.

 

[theaufty]

Sounds like you had / have a bad (partial) download of GSB... Try downloading again and/or verifying the MD5 checksum before flashing.

This worked. Thank you. Breathed new life into an old phone. My sister will be pleased

 

[scary alien]

This worked. Thank you. Breathed new life into an old phone. My sister will be pleased

You are most welcome!

Now you know the genesis for my AFV (Android File Verifier) app--our beloved little Eris and the need to check MD5s before flashing. Kudos yet again to erisuser1 (this thread's author) for espousing that process and mentoring so many folks here.

And welcome to the AndroidForums! (apologies for not welcoming you earlier ).

Cheers!

 

[fettfan]

I wanted to set up my old Eris for my son to use (wifi only) and stumbled upon this write up. This was one of the best write ups I've ever seen and it was all so easy to perform that I'm scratching my head wondering why I never did this before.

Thank you so much!

EDIT: for posterity, I installed the CyanogenMod V7.1.0 without issue.

 

[WDJackson]

Welcome to the AndroidForums, pwong26, and very glad this awesome thread helped you out.

Cheers!

Hey I'm new to this forum and I was trying to use the "How to root a droid Eris for Dummies" today on a Droid Eris I just got. The instructions are simple easy and helpful. But, I'm stuck at a wall when I try to install the Rom(zip) onto the Eris. It's either not working or the Rom(zip) file is not there. Can you help me?

 

[doogald]

Hey I'm new to this forum and I was trying to use the "How to root a droid Eris for Dummies" today on a Droid Eris I just got. The instructions are simple easy and helpful. But, I'm stuck at a wall when I try to install the Rom(zip) onto the Eris. It's either not working or the Rom(zip) file is not there. Can you help me?

A good ROM to install is xtrSENSE. These are files that you need o download and copy to the micro SD card on the Eris.

XtrSENSE is no longer hosted by the developer, but I have a copy of the file on my dropbox here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3o0xxw3ijlpo8ad/xtrSENSE5.0.1.zip

So, download that file. Do not unzip it, but copy the zip file over to the phone's sd card. You should be able to see it when it comes one to flash the file.