Root **FAIL** calling upon the AF braintrust. Phone can't boot up despite wipes/restores

[cabbie]

ugh ive avoided unrevoked up to this point. but it seems like i might be able to use unrevoked forever to turn S-OFF, even though I didnt root using unrevoked3. is that accurate?

 

[wojosama]

I used unrevoked 3.21, i have s-OFF, and used this method to flash ra. As far as i know this version of unrevoked 3 incorporates forever into it. And if not, there hasn't been a rom or recovery that I've been unable to flash. After getting RA i flash all my ROMs through its recovery. Let me know how it goes. If you try it and it doesn't work you may want to try doing a dalvik and data/cache wipe.

 

[cabbie]

so i would need to do unrevoked3.21 and not just unrevokedforever? im very unfamiliar with how unrevoked works since i used simpleroot months ago

 

[wojosama]

yeah, i ran only unrevoked 3.21, there are some special hboot drivers for windows you need to use, cant use the androidsdk or htc as far as i know, so if those are installed just to manual update to unrevoked. i did not run unrevoked forever at all.

EDIT: i misunderstood your question i think, i'm not actually sure what the difference between 3 and forever is, i read and read and for the life of me could not figure it out. all i know is 3.21 worked to root and the above method i posted worked to swap recoveries. (you'll need to manually update the drivers back to the sdk ones after you use unrevoked btw)

 

[cabbie]

NEAR RESOLVED: Okay I basically have my phone back. Used unrevoked forever to turn S-off. Flashed RA, successfully made a nandroid. I still have the 0.97 hboot though. Do I even need the 0.96 hboot anymore? If I want it back, I'd need to find it in a PC136.img right?

hopefully this ordeal is about over

 

[wojosama]

As far as i know, you really only need the eng hboot if you want extended fastboot commands or if you plan on flashing cm6 (altho i read somewhere that may no longer be required for cm6.1, can't confirm that tho). Anyhow glad you got everything working. Did you end up using my method for flashing RA? I'm curious if it works for anyone other than myself.
Oh also, if you decide you want or need the engineering hboot, you can grab it from the OP here

 

[cabbie]

i used ROM manager to flash RA, so unfortunately I cant speak to your method.

the only time i ever used fastboot commands was to push a splash screen, but ive decided after this to leave the stock splash screen there in case something like this should happen again where it stays stuck on the splash and i take it into a sprint store. they will look at it and obviously know its rooted

 

[wojosama]

Yeah that's probably a good idea. Well, I'm glad you got it working regardless of how it was done. Sorry I couldn't be of more assistance. Also, yeah if you don't need fastboot or plan on installing cm6, then you don't need to worry about the eng hboot. I need to look into cm6.1 and see if I can figure out where i saw that no need to downgrade the hboot thing (not that it matters as i have the eng hboot), as i like to sponge up as much info as possible.

Anyhow, congrats on getting things in working order, and if you, or anyone else, needs any help with anything else, I'll see if I can drum up the appropriate info, even if it's not something I already know, I'll be more than happy to look into it. I'm trying to learn as much as I can as I'm looking to get into the dev side of android.

 

[cabbie]

Appreciate it, it feels good to be more or less back in business, back to enjoying the phone instead of stressing over it much more.

I read through the thread to XDA about getting the eng hboot back. The solution looked promising but then the OP edited it with the realities that its totally craptastic, most people go into bootloops and have to reflash their rom or another kernel to break cycle. It seems as if you have to go the PC136.img route and completely wipe the phone to get back to the eng boot.

Im wondering if whether I make a nand, do that process of wiping the phone and getting eng hboot back, then restoring the nand will bring me back to my current state in addition to having the eng hboot. From what I've seen, nand doesn't touch the hboot but I could be wrong on that.

 

[wojosama]

That's a very good question... I'm honestly not sure at all. I did a full wipe of data, cache, and dalvik before I put the eng hboot on my phone because I was going from fresh to cm6 so I had to do a full wipe anyhow. I honestly don't see why restoring a nand backup wouldn't work... although wouldn't that essentially be restoring all of the data you had just wiped (other than caches)?

Honestly if you don't need the extended fastboot commands i wouldn't even bother with the eng hboot. I saw this on cyanogen's twitter last night (first time I've ever looked at/or used twitter in any way, if it can even be called using it)
"You can use a nightly build of 6.1 with unrevoked."

So that leads me to believe you don't need the eng hboot with it. So since the first RC of 6.1 is planned for tuesday, and the feature freeze hit last night, then as far as i know, fastboot is the only reason you would need the eng hboot. I could very well be wrong about other uses for the eng hboot but cm6 and extended fastboot cmds are the only ones I've come across.

Hope this latest long winded rant helps you in your decision.

 

[cabbie]

good stuff. thanks for your posts along the way, wojo, its helped keep me from going crazy. I'm not going to worry about the eng hboot for now, I guess it is mostly my nerdy desire to have the phone totally optimized that makes me curious although from a practical standpoint I probably won't need it, unless I come across a need for fastboot outside of new splash screens.

MODS can we get a [RESOLVED] edit on the thread title?

 

[Zameus]

I came across this, as I was also having problems flashing Amon RA. Great thread! Thanks!