Some of you may be intimidated by the new 2.2 rooting instructions. Here's an explanation of what the steps do and why you're doing them. Hopefully, armed with this info, you'll be more confident in proceeding with rooting your phone. See this thread for reference:
xda-developers - View Single Post - [GUIDE] How to root Android 2.2 on the EVO 4G
Steps 1-3:
In order to execute the root exploit, you need a tool called "adb." This stands for Android Debugging Bridge, and it is bundled with the Android SDK. The SDK is a package that allows you to write applications for Android, but the only reason we're downloading the SDK is for the adb tool, which is located in a /Tools subfolder in the SDK. The latest HTC Sync is needed because it contains the drivers that allow adb to interface between your PC and your phone. I believe the version of Sync specified will work with windows 7 64-bit. Mac users, scroll down to post 18 in this thread. EarlyMon has the procedure for you.
Step 4:
You need to turn on USB debugging on your phone in order for adb to work. You will be using adb to copy files to your phone and execute linux commands. More on this later.
Step 5:
It is important that your phone is in charge only. If it is in disk drive mode, your phone pretty much locks your sdcard from being written by adb. Make sure you're in charge mode.
Step 6:
Now you have to copy files onto your phone via adb. The "adb push" command basically takes a file on your PC and pushes it to your phone. If you needed a file copied off your phone onto your PC, you'd use adb pull. Easy, right? Let's look at the first copy command:
After all files are copied, the instructions specify to chmod the files. chmod is a standard linux command to change permissions of a file. the 0755 specifies a certain permissions configuration that will allow you to execute the files needed to root your computer. Make sure you get the 0755 number right. For those of you interested in what the numbers mean, google chmod.
Also, I should mention that before you did the chmod, the instructions told you to run "adb shell." This is the coolest feature of adb, as it gives you a linux shell to totally manage the linux filesystem of your phone. If you've never used linux in all its command-line glory, you can think of the shell as the equivalent of cmd.exe on your windows box, or the terminal on your Mac. It's a place where you can issue commands like chmod directly to your phone.
next substep is to run these commands:
If you are successful, your adb shell prompt will become a #. In most linux shells, the # indicates you are root. The $ indicates you are just a scrub.
If you get the # prompt, you are temporarily rooted! Now, while you have root, you can flash the engineering bootloader with these commands:
Once the flash is complete, you reboot the bootloader. The bootloader is programmed to look for a PC36IMG.ZIP file automatically, and if you properly executed the adb push command for that file, you'll have no trouble with the procedure picking up the file and installing 2.1 on your phone.
Congrats, if you made it here, your phone has been downgraded to 2.1. Now, any of the old 2.1 rooting methods are at your disposal. You can continue to follow the procedure, which asks you to run unrevoked3 and unrevoked4ever, or you can run Simpleroot, in my sig. There are tons of old threads detailing these root methods. I recommend Simpleroot because it's so darn easy. 2 button clicks and you're done. Note that once you have Simpleroot opened, you need to have it update itself.
I'll also point you to a general rooting explanation guide (also stickied in this subforum):
http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-all...ooting-get-your-bearings-before-plunging.html
Mac users, if some of these windows/dos-specific commands don't apply to you, check this out:
http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-4g/118052-mac-root-all-evo.html#post1099333
That's it. If the procedures on the xda change, I'll update this post. Hope this has been helpful for people new to rooting and linux.
xda-developers - View Single Post - [GUIDE] How to root Android 2.2 on the EVO 4G
Steps 1-3:
In order to execute the root exploit, you need a tool called "adb." This stands for Android Debugging Bridge, and it is bundled with the Android SDK. The SDK is a package that allows you to write applications for Android, but the only reason we're downloading the SDK is for the adb tool, which is located in a /Tools subfolder in the SDK. The latest HTC Sync is needed because it contains the drivers that allow adb to interface between your PC and your phone. I believe the version of Sync specified will work with windows 7 64-bit. Mac users, scroll down to post 18 in this thread. EarlyMon has the procedure for you.
Step 4:
You need to turn on USB debugging on your phone in order for adb to work. You will be using adb to copy files to your phone and execute linux commands. More on this later.
Step 5:
It is important that your phone is in charge only. If it is in disk drive mode, your phone pretty much locks your sdcard from being written by adb. Make sure you're in charge mode.
Step 6:
Now you have to copy files onto your phone via adb. The "adb push" command basically takes a file on your PC and pushes it to your phone. If you needed a file copied off your phone onto your PC, you'd use adb pull. Easy, right? Let's look at the first copy command:
this tells adb to copy the file unrevoked-forever.zip to your phone's /sdcard directory.
After all files are copied, the instructions specify to chmod the files. chmod is a standard linux command to change permissions of a file. the 0755 specifies a certain permissions configuration that will allow you to execute the files needed to root your computer. Make sure you get the 0755 number right. For those of you interested in what the numbers mean, google chmod.
Also, I should mention that before you did the chmod, the instructions told you to run "adb shell." This is the coolest feature of adb, as it gives you a linux shell to totally manage the linux filesystem of your phone. If you've never used linux in all its command-line glory, you can think of the shell as the equivalent of cmd.exe on your windows box, or the terminal on your Mac. It's a place where you can issue commands like chmod directly to your phone.
next substep is to run these commands:
cd is the standard linux command to "change directory." it's the same as DOS/windows. Only difference is linux requires normal slashes, while windows require backslashes. The ./rageagainstthegage-arm5.bin command simply executes that file. Note that you put this file in this directory earlier with the
command. Right after you execute that file, you need to toggle airplane mode on your phone. Apparently the exploit requires this, and since the toggle period is short, you might miss it. So you have to try this step over and over until the root exploit gets what it needs.
If you are successful, your adb shell prompt will become a #. In most linux shells, the # indicates you are root. The $ indicates you are just a scrub.
If you get the # prompt, you are temporarily rooted! Now, while you have root, you can flash the engineering bootloader with these commands:
The engineering bootloader is one that is placed on the phone while the phone is still in development/pre-release. It is set to lower NAND security (what is commonly referred to as NAND unlocked) so that you can flash unsigned ROMs. Note that at this stage of the rooting process, root and NAND unlock are both TEMPORARY. If you reboot your phone now, you won't have a rooted phone.
Once the flash is complete, you reboot the bootloader. The bootloader is programmed to look for a PC36IMG.ZIP file automatically, and if you properly executed the adb push command for that file, you'll have no trouble with the procedure picking up the file and installing 2.1 on your phone.
Congrats, if you made it here, your phone has been downgraded to 2.1. Now, any of the old 2.1 rooting methods are at your disposal. You can continue to follow the procedure, which asks you to run unrevoked3 and unrevoked4ever, or you can run Simpleroot, in my sig. There are tons of old threads detailing these root methods. I recommend Simpleroot because it's so darn easy. 2 button clicks and you're done. Note that once you have Simpleroot opened, you need to have it update itself.
I'll also point you to a general rooting explanation guide (also stickied in this subforum):
http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-all...ooting-get-your-bearings-before-plunging.html
Mac users, if some of these windows/dos-specific commands don't apply to you, check this out:
http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-4g/118052-mac-root-all-evo.html#post1099333
That's it. If the procedures on the xda change, I'll update this post. Hope this has been helpful for people new to rooting and linux.
