Root root,s-off,simunlock,superCID htc merge

[shawnyahoocom]

so i have adb in my device manager on my hboot w\usb debug. when i do a regular boot to home menu and plug in my usb with debug,windows installs htc drivers over the adb. so instead of having ADB in device manager it shows up as MY HTC. weird thing is adb still detects my serial number and i can write commands through adb. its really weird becuase i had a problem installing the android_winusb inf file. kept giving me the 64x error even though i have re4. adb still works....im so help please.

edit: well everything seems to be going ok in the rooting process. im to the part were i load into fastboot usb and the phone does the check for the file PD42IMG.zip. am i suppose to extract the winrar or just rename the winrar to .zip? because im stuck at this point.phone wont load either. and im positive on my gold card working. thanks

 

[scotty85]

so i have adb in my device manager on my hboot w\usb debug. when i do a regular boot to home menu and plug in my usb with debug,windows installs htc drivers over the adb. so instead of having ADB in device manager it shows up as MY HTC. weird thing is adb still detects my serial number and i can write commands through adb. its really weird becuase i had a problem installing the android_winusb inf file. kept giving me the 64x error even though i have re4. adb still works....im so help please.

edit: well everything seems to be going ok in the rooting process. im to the part were i load into fastboot usb and the phone does the check for the file PD42IMG.zip. am i suppose to extract the winrar or just rename the winrar to .zip? because im stuck at this point.phone wont load either. and im positive on my gold card working. thanks

im confused what you are doing... what winrar are you refering to?? the downloads i provided allready were .zips

are you using linux or something other than windows?

 

[scotty85]

yeah i just finished loading the USC gingerbread. so far seems to work well. i would like it to show the VZW animations. do you think you can coach me on how to change those? or do you feel comfortable rebuilding for me with VZW feel? either way it's not a major issue and one i can easily learn to ignore if it proves too risky or difficult to work with

i won myself a merge on ebay,so it wont be too long before i can test things again. hooray

changing the boot animations is easy. just use root explorer,or an equivalent root file manager to navigate to system/customize/resources. scroll down to you find the boot animation(i think i was called vzw_bootanimation.zip). with root explorer,long press on it,then copy. now navigate to your sd card and tap the paste button that appeared after you touched "copy". thus should paste that file onto your sd where you can find it. obviously youll have to be on the vzw software to do this,so youll need to restore a vzw backup,or run the vzw ruu again. if i can find that file on my old merge's sd card,ill upload it for you.

now restore the usc gingerbread rom. using root explorer again,navigate to the the system/customize/resource folder again and look for the boot animation file(usc_bootanimation.zip,iirc) and make a copy of it. again navigate to the sd card and paste it. now find the vzw boot animation,copy,navigate to system/customize/resource and paste the vzw boot animation. now rename it to the same thing the usc boot animation was named(long press,rename)

reboot and make sure it works

if you have an error about being read only,there is a button onthe top right to change the file to r/w (read/write)

changin the boot animation is a pretty safe operation,theres not much you could do to make your phone unbootable. its a fun thing to do to mod your phone,give it a shot

 

[stevgunt]

Scotty, FYI I was never able to get my merge working again with 3g due to flashing the radio during the root process. I ended up at the ntelos store and they re-flashed it with the ruu and still had no 3g connection. They ended up swapping my phone out so I am back to no root. I am wondering if it is even worth it for me to have s-off but i would like to have a perm root. its really weird how the data would never work again after the flash to the leaked verizon rom. I wonder if you leave out the radio flash during fast boot flash.

 

[shawnyahoocom]

thanks scotty for your guide! its a very good one i finally got my uscc merge rooted today! your the best man !

like my title says sorry about the confusion about the last post. i was tired and confused LOL. i stayed up wayyy to late to try and solve this and it got nowhere, till today lol. i use winrar to open zip files.with me being tired as was i just assumed it was a rar file.

come to find out TODAY that the tool i was using for my goldcard gave me the wrong cid! i went through 3 different tools till i found the right one! i used the goldcard maker on the google play market. best tool ever. i had to use the mmc2 though. all this hold up is because of the different processes of the goldcard LOL but i recommend the app for the market!

in conclusion thanks for everything! i am ready to start exploring my options in the root world. i might come back just to see if anyone needs help time to time lol well maybe on second thought i think you got it

 

[korrdite]

only one issue i've found using the USC ruu, i can't send mms messages, i can recieve them, but i cannot send them. ideas?

 

[shawnyahoocom]

sorry man i wish i could help you. best thing you could do is check out xda as far as i know. im trying to find stuff on this uscc merge. cant find anything or videos on clockworkmod or cyanongen for my merge. bleh

 

[scotty85]

only one issue i've found using the USC ruu, i can't send mms messages, i can recieve them, but i cannot send them. ideas?

i actually had the same thing happen to me. i tried restoring my stock misc image,tried "backup APNs" app from the market,and a couple other things. what finally fixed it,was i used handcent(3rd party mms) to send a few picture messages,wich worked fine. then the stock mms started working

 

[scotty85]

Scotty, FYI I was never able to get my merge working again with 3g due to flashing the radio during the root process. I ended up at the ntelos store and they re-flashed it with the ruu and still had no 3g connection. They ended up swapping my phone out so I am back to no root. I am wondering if it is even worth it for me to have s-off but i would like to have a perm root. its really weird how the data would never work again after the flash to the leaked verizon rom. I wonder if you leave out the radio flash during fast boot flash.

im sorry your 3g didnt work after. the vzw radio was not what killed it however. im not sure exactly what happened,but my best guess at this point is that our upgrade RUU didnt restore the APNs that you needed in order to have data.it might work to use APN backup and restore from the market to back up your APNs prior to rooting,then restore them after flashing the upgrade RUU.

the process itself does not do anything to any hardware that should prevent 3g from working. if you had some sort of hardware failure,its a remarkable coincidence

unfortunately,there is no way to flash the downgrade firmware without the radio,as altering it breaks the htc siginture wich is required for the s-on hboot to allow the flash. we can trick hboot into downgrading(rewrite misc image) and into flashing a difference carrier RUU(goldcard) but no way around needing signed files with s-on

what did the store do for you,exactly? did they have an official .exe file that they tried to run? or what did they "rerun" for you?

IMO,the advantages of being s-on are well worth it. but if youre leery to try the process again,its understandable. you might try the htc supertool to install permanent root with no custom recovery.

i do have a merge on its way to me,so ill be able to falsh the ruu i uploaded for you and explore this a lil further

 

[scotty85]

in conclusion thanks for everything! i am ready to start exploring my options in the root world. i might come back just to see if anyone needs help time to time lol well maybe on second thought i think you got it

awsome! glad it worked out for you. ive got threads in several forums,and limited time so by all means feel free to stop by and help out

 

[stevgunt]

Yea NP Scotty thanks for you help to begin with. When i was at the store they ran the stock GB RUU.exe file as I watched them do it. It flashed everything back to stock supposedly but the 3g still did not work. I do however have a flashable .zip file i used on my Hero and Desire that changed all the carrier settings and I think APN stuff too I never did try that but anyways....I will try the super tool, All I want is root so I can use free Tether

 

[stevgunt]

ok, now i have got perm root and unlocked boot loader with s-on I know i resorted to using the htc dev for boot loader unlock and then htc super tool for perm root. I now just need to somehow get a custom recovery installed.. Any Ideas?

 

[scotty85]

You can use fastboot. Some specifications details later(im at work ATM)

 

[stevgunt]

ok cool. I tried fastboot with a amon recovery zip file and it seems to be working but gets stuck on parsing file , I do still have s-on BTW thanks for the reply and let me know what you think later on after work

 

[stevgunt]

I now have got the following

1. perm root
2. unlocked bootloader
3. Team win recovery
4. nandroid backup of stock rooted

Now I just need some roms to play with

 

[korrdite]

i actually had the same thing happen to me. i tried restoring my stock misc image,tried "backup APNs" app from the market,and a couple other things. what finally fixed it,was i used handcent(3rd party mms) to send a few picture messages,wich worked fine. then the stock mms started working

I can see the issue in that the address information for outbound mms is set to a USCC address, I'll give hand cent a try
Edit: have tried to send a few using handcent, none were successful :-( looks like I'll need to figure out how to change the mmsc address

Now, any idea why market hasn't updated for me? Running on 48 hours with no update, still has the OLD market format (lots of green lol) think I just need to get the newer apk and manually update?

 

[eigokyoukan]

For those looking for customs ROMs for the Merge go here: Roms

Slim pickings at the moment. This seems to be the only person making ROMs for merge right now. He is working on a CM7 port though.

Anybody with dev skills could certainly help out because 2fast seems to be the lone rider on this device.

 

[scotty85]

ok cool. I tried fastboot with a amon recovery zip file and it seems to be working but gets stuck on parsing file , I do still have s-on BTW thanks for the reply and let me know what you think later on after work

first,a couple things on htcdev. it is NOT a factory s-off. all htcdev does is allow access to boot,system,and recovery. while the htcdev hboot does allow some additional fastboot commands,the radio is still s-on,and as such is doing security checks to make sure you dont change anything other than boot,system,or recovery,or go backwards in fimrware version.

youll find it is a royal PITA to install PD42IMG files in hboot,as now the text on the stupid android_info.txt document is important. among other things,it will not let you install images that are of a lower main version than that on the phone(even "unlocked" partitions-boot,system,recovery) and you will also find that you can no longer change kernels from a permanent recovery,as the boot image is not writeable from the recovery partion,only from fastboot.

that means if you want to falsh a rom that has a new kernel you will have to:
-boot to recovery
-flash rom in recovery
-boot to fastboot
-flash the boot image that contains your new kernel from fastboot(or as a PD42IMG in hboot if you feel like re-writing your misc image,or dealing with those stupid android info.text documents)

these basic steps must also be taken to restore a nandroid that contains a different kernel,from a permanent recovery.

if the seperate kernel flashing doesnt sound like fun,your only option to avoid it is to launch recovery from fastboot every time you need it

heres how you can use fastboot to flash a kernel or recovery:
-put the image into your mini-adb_merge folder
-open a cmd window,change to mini adb-merge directory:
cd c:\mimi-adb_merge

*to flash a kernel(boot image):
fastboot flash boot <bootimagename>.img

*to flash recovery:
fastboot flash recovery <recoveryname>.img

*to launch recovery from fastboot(does not have to be permanently installed):
fastboot boot <recoveryname>.img

"fastboot boot" ing your recovery from fastboot will let you flash roms and restore backups normally. the only disadvantage is that you need your PC to launch recovery.

htcdev is the only option for my rezound,and IMO,it royally sucks

glad everything else is workin out for you

where did you find team win recovery?

I can see the issue in that the address information for outbound mms is set to a USCC address, I'll give hand cent a try
Edit: have tried to send a few using handcent, none were successful :-( looks like I'll need to figure out how to change the mmsc address

Now, any idea why market hasn't updated for me? Running on 48 hours with no update, still has the OLD market format (lots of green lol) think I just need to get the newer apk and manually update?

hmm,thats odd. it worked right away for me. of course,i had done some other stuff first

try this:
-make a backup of your current GB.
-run the vzw 1.49 current firmware RUU. verify that mms is working.
-backup your apns.
-restore GB backup
-try handcent again. if it still fails:
-restore apns. restore stock misc image. try handcent again.

 

[eigokyoukan]

It won't bring back your warrenty, but you can re-lock the bootloader then go through with the tutorial here.

fastboot oem lock This will relock what HTVdev did.

It will always say "relocked" after that, but it will allow you to use the tutorials for the Merge since they are all made for S-off'ed phone and not for HTVdev bootloader unlock.

The user I helped S-off and root had unlocked their bootloader. We relocked it, walked them through this and it was smooth sailing after that. Now she is on custom ROM

 

[stevgunt]

Wow, Thanks Scotty I now realize how bad the htc dev is but it really dont sound too bad to flash the roms using the fast boot method. I am using the TWRP recovery now and it will flash the rom but it keeps my original kernel which has some advantges as well. Only downside is right now when i flash the 2fastroms fuzion, my wifi craps out everything else works PERFECT. If I could some how replace the wifi drivers and such from my original kernel i think I would be golden...

 

[scotty85]

Wow, Thanks Scotty I now realize how bad the htc dev is but it really dont sound too bad to flash the roms using the fast boot method. I am using the TWRP recovery now and it will flash the rom but it keeps my original kernel which has some advantges as well. Only downside is right now when i flash the 2fastroms fuzion, my wifi craps out everything else works PERFECT. If I could some how replace the wifi drivers and such from my original kernel i think I would be golden...

why dont you just launch TWRP from fastboot and then flash the rom? this will allow the kernel to flash as well,and should fix the module/kernel mismatch that keeps it from working with your stock kernel.

just put your twrp image into your folder with adb/fastboot and fastboot boot it into memory

again,where did you find TWRP for the merge?

 

[stevgunt]

why dont you just launch TWRP from fastboot and then flash the rom? this will allow the kernel to flash as well,and should fix the module/kernel mismatch that keeps it from working with your stock kernel.

just put your twrp image into your folder with adb/fastboot and fastboot boot it into memory

again,where did you find TWRP for the merge?

Oh Sorry, I got it from the TWRP site it is V2 , I can post it up if you like...

 

[scotty85]

The user I helped S-off and root had unlocked their bootloader. We relocked it, walked them through this and it was smooth sailing after that. Now she is on custom ROM

thanks for this,this is great info. i have downgraded a couple mtd devices away from htcdev hboot,but i was afraid emmc devices may act a lil differently

newer devices like the rezound,amaze,evo3d,etc. are doing such extensive checks for signitures between the bootloader,radio,and software that it is literally impossible to downgrade without bricking the phone.

it was quite possible that installing an unlock-compatible hboot with an s-on hboot,could have ended in a person being stuck with it forever! great to know the process still worked.

i guess i should maybe make up a complete "fre3vo" guide for the folks that zerg rush wont work on?

last and not least,once you are s-off,the htcdev hboot is actually nice to use,as it does give you the aforementioned fastboot boot and fastboot flash commands. using it in conjunction with s-off makes it sort of like an "engineering" hboot,wich we do not have for the merge. i actually use htcdev hboots on my incredible 1,and my merge,since an eng hboot is not available for either

 

[scotty85]

Oh Sorry, I got it from the TWRP site it is V2 , I can post it up if you like...

for those interested: TeamWin Projects - TWRP 2.0 | TeamWin

ill add it to the OP as well.
i used twrp 1.1.1 exclusively on my thunderbolt,but have never been a fan of 2.0

i personally prefer amon recovery on all my devices,and run that when available,but i may give 2.0 a shot on the merge

 

[stevgunt]

Now this is wierd, I use fastboot to boot into a recovery then proceed to flash a rom etc.. then reboot and load up the rom as normal, then reboot bootloader and the boot loader says locked and I have to unlock it again using the bin file from htcdev....I also tried to flash rom boot.img from fastboot and it did the same thing