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Root Wanting to flash Fresh ROM. Need advice

HittingSmoke

Member
Jun 8, 2010
74
13
I've flashed my previous HTC WinMo phones dozens of times without batting an eye but my Evo being the delicate slender but still thick and curvaceous lady that she is, I'd like to be 100% sure I'm getting this right the first time.

It seems there's some... contradicting info out there about rooting and flashing. So here's my background.

I have a hardware rev 003 Evo which I just got four days ago. I rooted two days ago using the latest unrevoked at the time. I was looking into doing the latest officla OTA without breaking my phone (because I know not to install official updates on unlocked/rooted/etc phones).

After looking into it I decided the easiest way was going to be to flash a well supported custom ROM with the added benefit of not having to remove all the Sprint crap manually. I decided on Fresh.

After a bit of reading up I decided to go with the ROM Manager method and let it handle my flashing and updates. Unfortunately for whatever reason over half the ROMs available spit back "Error occurred while processing the ROM list!". Fresh being one of them.

After looking into doing it manually I'm seeing warnings like this on the XDA thread:

In order to flash this rom you need to be rooted (unrevoked method doesn't count as root) to flash this. How To: Root Your Sprint Evo with NAND unlocked.

Well according to the info on the latest unrevoked release it does unlock NAND and is a "full root".

So what's the deal here? So much conflicting information. How can I make sure I'm doing this right?
 
Yeah that was prior to Nand unlock. it took a few weeks to finally get the Nand to be unlocked. Now I believe that the new Unrevoked is Nand unlocked. Make sure that you have a custom recovery. Some use Clockwork or RA. I like RA myself. Create a backup then wipe all caches and data. Download this http://link.geekfor.me/freshevo3301mirror2 and put it to the root of your SD card. then you will want to flash zip from sd card and you should be golden. Flipz also says that Clockwork recovery doesnt play nice sometimes so use RA.
 
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Yeah that was prior to Nand unlock. it took a few weeks to finally get the Nand to be unlocked. Now I believe that the new Unrevoked is Nand unlocked. Make sure that you have a custom recovery. Some use Clockwork or RA. I like RA myself. Create a backup then wipe all caches and data. Download this http://link.geekfor.me/freshevo3301mirror2 and put it to the root of your SD card. then you will want to flash zip from sd card and you should be golden. Flipz also says that Clockwork recovery doesnt play nice sometimes so use RA.

I did "Backup Current ROM" in Rom Manager (Which I'm assuming used Clockwork because it asked to download it). Is that what you mean by a custom recovery?
 
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I'm pretty much at the same level you are. I just read all the tutorials from this link Modder***8217;s Column: The Hunt For The Best HTC EVO 4G ROM | Android News, Reviews, Applications, Games, Phones, Devices, Tips, Mods, Videos, Podcasts - Android Police and they helped a lot.

I have not tried it yet as I still have some unanswered questions.
After I flash a new ROM, do I lose all my apps and have to reinstall each of them? (Titanium, unrevoked3, BusyBox, Rom Manager Premium, and all the little non rooted ones I downloaded) Do I have to re-purchase the paid ones such as ROM Manager premium?
 
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Pretty much every time u flash a new rom u have to do a full wipe.... that means u do lose ur apps but if u have the paid version of titanium backup it should be a breeze to get em back. U do not have to pay again for purchased apps, that would be outrageous.
The newest version of umrevoked, 3.21, or sumtin like that does unlock NAND
 
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You do not have to repurchase, but you do have to redownload. Take screenshots so you can see your page settings, download and instll titanium backup, go to backup/restore run batch and restore apps only. then you can test restoring settings to see which cause fcs and which dont.

All user apps should be backed up with data... i mean it just makes sense, that way u have all their setting and stuff already in place when u restore
 
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I did "Backup Current ROM" in Rom Manager (Which I'm assuming used Clockwork because it asked to download it). Is that what you mean by a custom recovery?

In ROM Manager at the bottom there is an option to use alternate recovery which is Amon RA. Hit that and it will flash Amon RA as your recovery, reboot into recovery and then flash the rom zip file of your choice. Btw, Fresh is a great choice!
 
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Thanks for all the replies!

So last night I booted into recovery using Clockwork (which was default). I did a backup then flashed the latest version of Fresh linked at the top of the thread.

The flash went flawlessly other than two issues.

The first one isn't a real issue... but I was under the impression this would wipe my device. It didn't. All of my apps and settings were in tact with a newly skinned HTC Sense when I booted up. This was quite a surprise to me and I kind of wanted a fresh start with the new ROM as I've always had better luck that way in the past with WinMo devices.

The second is that 4G stopped working. I've read that 4G is supposed to work with Fresh but it seems that I'm not the only one who gets stuck at "Scanning" after flashing the latest version of this ROM.

Several of the flashing guides said I would need a new WiMax radio which should be included with the ROM but there was none. Is there a new WiMax radio I need to flash to get 4G working with Fresh?

Also, is there an easy way to wipe my device and install Fresh so it will behave as if it's the stock ROM during it's first boot? Reinstalling apps is no big deal for me and all of my important data is backed up to my Google account.
 
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Thanks for all the replies!

So last night I booted into recovery using Clockwork (which was default). I did a backup then flashed the latest version of Fresh linked at the top of the thread.

The flash went flawlessly other than two issues.

The first one isn't a real issue... but I was under the impression this would wipe my device. It didn't. All of my apps and settings were in tact with a newly skinned HTC Sense when I booted up. This was quite a surprise to me and I kind of wanted a fresh start with the new ROM as I've always had better luck that way in the past with WinMo devices.

The second is that 4G stopped working. I've read that 4G is supposed to work with Fresh but it seems that I'm not the only one who gets stuck at "Scanning" after flashing the latest version of this ROM.

Several of the flashing guides said I would need a new WiMax radio which should be included with the ROM but there was none. Is there a new WiMax radio I need to flash to get 4G working with Fresh?

Also, is there an easy way to wipe my device and install Fresh so it will behave as if it's the stock ROM during it's first boot? Reinstalling apps is no big deal for me and all of my important data is backed up to my Google account.

ok so here's the deal. you need to wipe android phones manually. fresh is a stock based rom and that is why it was able to load over your current rom, if you had used say cm6 rom you either get stuck in boot loops, no boot or have a bunch of issues. this may me why 4g isn't working, it may just be corrupted.

so reboot into recovery, you can do this through rom manager- reboot into recovery.

then select:
wipe data/factory reset
wipe cache partition
advanced - wipe dalvik cache

i recommend wiping each at least twice just to make sure things are all good.

now select: install zip from sd card - choose zip from sd card and install fresh and you are done.

radio's will be included in the factory ota updates but will need to be flashed separately on roms from xda. you can flash the new radio's before or after the rom you are going to install. radio's will not be wiped. radio's are flashed just like a rom.

fresh 3.3.01 direct from flipzmode's site - Download: Fresh Evo 3.3.0.1 (New OTA)

new radio's from flipz(this zip includes the radio and the new pri) - Download: Radio Baseband 2.15.00.09.01 and PRI 1.77

i'm not positive if the zip from flipz includes the new wimax or even if there was a new wimax radio during this update.

this thread includes all the radios for the evo - [ Radios ] All EVO Radio, WiMAX, PRI & NV versions - xda-developers

good luck and welcome to android!!
 
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ok so here's the deal. you need to wipe android phones manually. fresh is a stock based rom and that is why it was able to load over your current rom, if you had used say cm6 rom you either get stuck in boot loops, no boot or have a bunch of issues. this may me why 4g isn't working, it may just be corrupted.

so reboot into recovery, you can do this through rom manager- reboot into recovery.

then select:
wipe data/factory reset
wipe cache partition
advanced - wipe dalvik cache

i recommend wiping each at least twice just to make sure things are all good.

now select: install zip from sd card - choose zip from sd card and install fresh and you are done.

radio's will be included in the factory ota updates but will need to be flashed separately on roms from xda. you can flash the new radio's before or after the rom you are going to install. radio's will not be wiped. radio's are flashed just like a rom.

fresh 3.3.01 direct from flipzmode's site - Download: Fresh Evo 3.3.0.1 (New OTA)

new radio's from flipz(this zip includes the radio and the new pri) - Download: Radio Baseband 2.15.00.09.01 and PRI 1.77

i'm not positive if the zip from flipz includes the new wimax or even if there was a new wimax radio during this update.

this thread includes all the radios for the evo - [ Radios ] All EVO Radio, WiMAX, PRI & NV versions - xda-developers

good luck and welcome to android!!

Thank you!

Flashed RA as my recovery, wiped and installed Fresh again. It worked perfectly and booted up like a new phone. 4G is working as it was before as well.

Looks like there is a simple and quick way to root and flash after all. Would be nice to see some of the more "official" guides get updated info. Could save some people a lot of time and headaches.
 
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