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Root Yet another HTC Desire Root thread..

P

PullingMyHair

Newbie
Hi, I appologise in advance if you are sick of reading these types of threads. But I'm at my wits end trying to find out what I'm doing wrong.

I have a HTC Desire locked to T-Mobile, running hboot0-93.0001, and running software version 2.2.2

I've tried using the UnRevoke, but it when I plug the USB cable in, windows "found new hardware" pops up asking for drivers.

USB Debugging mode is on, and I've followed the guides to the letter.

I don't understand why I keep getting the pop up asking for the drivers?
 
so have you installed the drivers? Install htc sync, then uninstall just leaving the driver. Does android devices show up in device manager?
 
Yes I've installed HTC Sync then uninstalled. I ran revolutionary-0.4pre4 and it said I have managed S-OFF, I then ran unreEVOked and it goes through the motions to say towards the end:

Error: Failed to get root. Is your firmware too new?
 
if you have managed to s-off with revolutionary, you can just fastboot flash a custom recovery and the root zip from their site.
 
There is guide to rooting with Revolutionary linked in the All Things Root Guide sticky post. Just follow that (and you've done half of it already :)). You use Revolutionary or Unrevoked, not both. I'd say that Revolutionary is better anyway - slightly more steps, but you get more capabilities at the end.

The remaining steps are just those Shauny says, but the guide will spell out the details and provide links.
 
shauny13 said:
if you have managed to s-off with revolutionary, you can just fastboot flash a custom recovery and the root zip from their site.
Click to expand...

I appreciate the reply, but that makes absolutly no sense to me! I've had a read of the Stickied thread, but a lot of it is just links to other tutorials which link to other tutorials.

There isn't one definitive guide that doesn't link to other threads on other forums or that explains it in laymans terms.

Sorry if it feels like you are spoon feeding me, but this stuff really doesn't come easy to me.

Thank you for your valuable time.
 
Like Hadron has said, if you read the guides (red link in my signature) it will explain all this. Just read, read read. It wont make much sense until you are actually doing it, then you'll see it falls into place. Believe me, people on here vastly more experienced than me took a lot of time writing these guides and they are the best/easiest out there. If you have more problems then come back to us.
 
shauny13 said:
Like Hadron has said, if you read the guides (red link in my signature) it will explain all this. Just read, read read. It wont make much sense until you are actually doing it, then you'll see it falls into place. Believe me, people on here vastly more experienced than me took a lot of time writing these guides and they are the best/easiest out there. If you have more problems then come back to us.
Click to expand...

You don't have a signature.

And I've read just about all I can read, yet still have no answers.
 
a) Find out your PVT version: Boot into HBoot (from off, hold vol-down and press power), make note of HBoot version. If PTV4, follow (b) to (d). If not, go to (e)
b) Download Terminal Emulator from the market and open it
c) Type "Cat/proc/mtd" and press enter. It will return results of either 20000 or 40000
d) If 40,000 - download Amon-Ra 2.0.1 Recovery (see below section (e)) and store it in a easy to find and access place on your PC (ie C:/ )
e) if 20000 or not ptv4, download your choice of recovery below, either will work.
Amon-Ra 2.0.1 or ClockWorkMod 2.5.0.7


Well, downloaded the emulator thing as told, typed in the command and it says not found.
 
shauny13 said:
i do, it just shows in my first post. if you really cant get your head around it goole for unrevocked 3.21, most people have success with that version. Also have you got the fastboot drivers installed as in revolutionary page?

public:revolutionary [RootWiki]
Click to expand...

Already used that program, at the end it just gives me an error saying that my firmware must be too new then quits.

Going to avoid rooting it, doesn't seem worth it really. Non of the guides are easy to follow. For example.

ADDING CUSTOM RECOVERY

6) it's time to install your recovery file.

a) Boot into fastboot mode (from off, volume-up and power or volume-down and power then cycle to fastboot option)
b) Connect phone to PC through USB. You should see "FASTBOOT USB" on your phones screen.
c) Open CMD (Start > Run > type "cmd" and press enter)
d) Type "fastboot flash recovery c:\your recovery file name" where c:\your recovery file name is the exact location and name of the recovery file you downloaded.

You should now have a S-OFF phone with a custom recovery

- Booted into fastboot, connected phone to USB and fastboot usb showed.

Started a CMD screen and typed in what was asked, and it just hangs saying "waiting for device"
 
Somehow managed to get it to boot into the recovery section, downloaded the first Desire ROM I could find, put it onto the SD card, installed it and I'm currently sat with it saying Android, how long will this take? Or has it gone horribly wrong?
 
I guess you've found it by now, but the link in the ATR Guide sticky was this one: http://androidforums.com/desire-all...ff-root-htc-desire-revolutionary-updated.html.

"Cat/proc/mtd" was a typo. I've fixed that - now reads "cat /proc/mtd". Thanks for pointing out.

If you've managed to flash a ROM, but it won't boot, then did you wipe the phone (factory reset) first? Did you take a backup from recovery (nandroid) before trying this? And which ROM was it, because some ROMs have particular requirements?

The basic steps for flashing a ROM are described in this part of the rooting faq. However, any ROM that uses a newer version of Sense than comes with the Desire needs more space than the Desire actually has, so requires an extra partition on the sd card in order to store the "overflow". So if you've picked one of those you need some extra preparation before you can flash it. As a general rule it's important to read the first couple of posts of a ROM's thread to find out whether it has any special requirements before flashing it.

So, what to do? If you took a backup from recovery, then just restore that.

If you didn't take a backup, then the options depend on what ROM you tried to flash. If it isn't one that requires an ext partition on the sd card then if you factory reset the phone it will probably boot - but you lose your data. If it does require a partition then you'll need a different ROM anyway.

The hard part is if you didn't take any backups and want to try to rescue your data. This can sometimes be done, but no promises.

If you can describe what you did then we should be able to work out a solution.
 
Hadron said:
I guess you've found it by now, but the link in the ATR Guide sticky was this one: http://androidforums.com/desire-all...ff-root-htc-desire-revolutionary-updated.html.

"Cat/proc/mtd" was a typo. I've fixed that - now reads "cat /proc/mtd". Thanks for pointing out.

If you've managed to flash a ROM, but it won't boot, then did you wipe the phone (factory reset) first? Did you take a backup from recovery (nandroid) before trying this? And which ROM was it, because some ROMs have particular requirements?

The basic steps for flashing a ROM are described in this part of the rooting faq. However, any ROM that uses a newer version of Sense than comes with the Desire needs more space than the Desire actually has, so requires an extra partition on the sd card in order to store the "overflow". So if you've picked one of those you need some extra preparation before you can flash it. As a general rule it's important to read the first couple of posts of a ROM's thread to find out whether it has any special requirements before flashing it.

So, what to do? If you took a backup from recovery, then just restore that.

If you didn't take a backup, then the options depend on what ROM you tried to flash. If it isn't one that requires an ext partition on the sd card then if you factory reset the phone it will probably boot - but you lose your data. If it does require a partition then you'll need a different ROM anyway.

The hard part is if you didn't take any backups and want to try to rescue your data. This can sometimes be done, but no promises.

If you can describe what you did then we should be able to work out a solution.
Click to expand...

Not done a factory reset, should I have? I didn't take anything? Did you mean make? If so, then no.
I'll try and describe what I've done thus far.
Used the revolutionary to S-off, copied a ROM to the sd card, and installed. Currently tried installing: COS-Bravo-Gb-23052012-signed and COS-Bravo-ICS-09062012.
Neiter worked, so I downloaded RUU_Bravo_TMO_UK_1.15.110.11_Radio_32.30.00.28U_4.05.00.11_release_122755 to try and flash it back to stock.
That didn't work and it loads/stalls on the purple pink circle arrow thing.
Not currently sure what I can do, if anything.
 
OK, those ROMs would probably have worked if you'd done a factory reset. The thing is that system data are usually incompatible between different ROMs, so before you change ROMs you need to do a factory reset. Usually it won't boot unless you do.

Anyway, that's by the by. You've run that android 2.1 RUU, so ROM and custom recovery are both gone (as are your data - RUUs wipe the phone). It's also flashed old radio firmware which is incompatible with android 2.2 or later, so you're going to want to flash a new one. On the plus side, you don't have to use a T-Mobile one any more. You should still have the Revolutionary hboot, which means you are still S-Off (and don't need to run Revolutionary again), but also means that you can run any RUU, not just T-Mobile ones. I'd suggest trying RUU_Bravo_Froyo_HTC_WWE_2.29.405.5_Radio_32.49.00.32U_5.11.05.27_release_159811_signed.exe, or the 2.3 upgrade. Don't try running an RUU with a low battery though, and I would recommend checking the md5 code of the downloaded file to check it downloaded ok.

Once that's done, you can re-install a custom recovery, then either flash the patch from revolutionary to root the ROM or else flash a custom ROM, as described in the rooting FAQ.
 
Hadron said:
OK, those ROMs would probably have worked if you'd done a factory reset. The thing is that system data are usually incompatible between different ROMs, so before you change ROMs you need to do a factory reset. Usually it won't boot unless you do.

Anyway, that's by the by. You've run that android 2.1 RUU, so ROM and custom recovery are both gone (as are your data - RUUs wipe the phone). It's also flashed old radio firmware which is incompatible with android 2.2 or later, so you're going to want to flash a new one. On the plus side, you don't have to use a T-Mobile one any more. You should still have the Revolutionary hboot, which means you are still S-Off (and don't need to run Revolutionary again), but also means that you can run any RUU, not just T-Mobile ones. I'd suggest trying RUU_Bravo_Froyo_HTC_WWE_2.29.405.5_Radio_32.49.00.32U_5.11.05.27_release_159811_signed.exe, or the 2.3 upgrade. Don't try running an RUU with a low battery though, and I would recommend checking the md5 code of the downloaded file to check it downloaded ok.

Once that's done, you can re-install a custom recovery, then either flash the patch from revolutionary to root the ROM or else flash a custom ROM, as described in the rooting FAQ.
Click to expand...

Downloading your first suggestion now. Thank you for your time. I'll report back shortly.

These sites are a life saver sometimes. Seriously hope I've not bricked the phone, as it's not mine!

I can still boot into the Revolutionary hboot thing, so I assume that's good? Or at least a sign that I've not totally borked it?
 
I ran the program and it says "Error 170: Connection error"

I assume it's because when I turn it on, it's stuck at the pink circle thing you see breifly when you turn the phone on.
 
Revolutionary hboot is a good sign.

Most things are recoverable. The only ones that really can't be fixed are a corrupt radio or hboot - these would require sending back to HTC.
 
You can run the RUU without being able to boot into Android. Shut the phone down, then boot it while pressing the "back" button. This will take you to the "fastboot" screen (you can also get to this by selecting fastboot from the bootloader menu). Then connect to the computer and try the RUU again.
 
Hadron said:
You can run the RUU without being able to boot into Android. Shut the phone down, then boot it while pressing the "back" button. This will take you to the "fastboot" screen (you can also get to this by selecting fastboot from the bootloader menu). Then connect to the computer and try the RUU again.
Click to expand...

Booted it how you said into fastboot, ran the RUU again and it ran and re-installed. And I'm back to whatever version that RUU is.

I cannot thank you enough! I don't think I'll be playing around trying to root anything in the future!

Thank you for being so patient with me!
 
It's not a problem - glad it worked. :)

You are still S-Off, so you can flash a custom recovery and root, or flash a custom ROM, any time you like. In fact once you have a custom recovery you can also take a full system backup, so any further flashing problem can be fixed by going back into recovery and restoring the backup.

The thing with this stuff is that it's straightforward when you've done it a few times, but it's a lot to take in in one go. The trick is to take it all step by step.

If you used the first of those RUUs then you're currently running the most recent stock, unbranded, HTC android 2.2 ROM.
 
Seeing as though you are the resident guru, I'm sure holding the power button and pressing the middle button took a screenshot?

What is the combo for taking a screenshot? Thanks in advance.
 
Ah, you've found a hole in my knowledge there!

I can do it by holding the power button and selecting it from the menu, but that's because it's built into the custom ROM I'm using. I didn't think there was an option in a stock ROM.

There are apps that can take screenshots. Most require root, but this thread includes at least one that doesn't.
 
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